I am close to Lt.comm 8. Won't be long till commander! I bought an escort and ugh i do not like them at all. I am sticking to cruisers, being tactical relates most;y to ground action, your BO's are what effect ship stuff. Oh btw the new profile pic is the real me head on superman body with a "G" (super G my name is George and super G is a version of me like superman in a photomanip/3-d old comic i did last year with friends as characters and a current school project).
I did not like the tier 2 escort either, however, the tier 3 is another story. I really like the Akira. If fitted right and you have the right BOff skills in place, you can rip just about anything apart.
My Akira has the following in place:
My character:Class: Engineer
Abilities: Rotate Shield Frequencies
Evasive Maneuvers
Brace for Impact
EPS Power Transfer
My BOffs:Tactical (LtCdr Slot):Torpedo: Spread
Cannon: Scatter Volley
Cannon: Rapid Fire
Tactical (Ens Slot):Torpedo: High Yield
Engineer (Lt Slot):Emergency Power to Shields
Extend Shields
Science (Lt Slot):Science Team
Tyken's Rift
Ship Weapons:Forward:Dual Heavy Plasma Cannons x2
Photon Torpedo x1
Aft:Plasma Array x1
Photon Torpedo x1
Basically what I do is at about 13km out I prep my Cannon: Scatter Volley, Torpedo: Spread and my EPS Power Transfer, that way the cooldown timer has gone down a bit before I start a battle so I can use it again sooner in the middle of the fight.
Once I am in range I hit them with a Tyken's Rift and unleash the scatter volley and torpedo spread. If needed, I activate Science Team and or Rotate Shield Frequencies depending on how bad my shields are at the time. I continue to fire my cannons and when the global cooldown on my Rapid Fire is done I hit the baddies with that. I have my Aft plasma array set to auto fire so when I pass them up it fires immediately and by that time the cooldown on the Torpedo: Spread ability is finished so I will either use that or use Torpedo: High Yield.
After that initial strike I usually keep looping around for more alpha strikes while hitting them every now and then with another Tyken's Rift, all the while keeping up on my shields. Being an engineer with a tactical escort ship has it benefits too as I have the extra abilities of Rotate Shield Frequencies and EPS Power Transfer giving me a total of five shield booting abilities (when you count Shield Batteries) which enables me to stay in a fight much longer than the typical escort ship.
Another ship I suggest people try is the tier 2 science ship, this is another ship where if you equip it just right, you will have no equal. I would have gone for the tier 3 science ship but I never liked the Daedalus/Olympic look.