Trendy posted yesterday the updated stats for the three ‘new’ T6 Battlecruiser updates for the Federation Arbiter, Klingon Kurak and Romulan Morrigu (aka The Morrigan).

These Tier 6 Battlecruisers will be made available soon. These starships have fleet and non-fleet variants, and the non-fleet versions are available in two ways:

• Individually (2500 ZEN each for this weekend only!)
• Bundle of all three non-fleet ships (5000 ZEN for this weekend only!)

The usual buying restrictions apply – buying them piecemeal will mean you cannot buy the sets later on.  I plan to pick this set up, primarily due to the nasty loadouts below.

First – some thoughts on the T6 Ships in general.

When Delta Rising was introduced, one of the issues active and part-time players had difficulty accepting was the introduction of a new class of ships.  For many of us a new ship with new abilities is part of the game.  For an equal number, playing with your favorite ship design was more important than the scale of your dps.

Compounding this change was the impression was that all of your elite gear and your favorite ships suddenly became 2nd class.  T5-U ships – marginally upgraded versions of your favorite ships – helped defer that impression.  But to make matters more complex, most of the first generation of new ships also came with a new game mechanic ‘ship mastery’ and a new specialization types that were not available to T5 and T5-U ships.  T5-U ships did gain 4 ranks of ship mastery, but the real value – the T5 Ship Mastery Skill trait which can be carried with you – was a T6-only option.

Throughout all of this we were told that our T5-U ships would be viable in the new difficulty paradigm.  In concert with upgrades to weapons and gear, T5-U’s remained competitive, and in the case of the Scimidar, still reigned supreme as a platform for all-out carnage.

While the game will continue to release new T5/T5-U ships as the ‘low end’ offering in lock-boxes, or as lobi store items, it’s clear that with the release of revamped versions of existing fan-favorite ships as T6 + specializations vessels, the era of the T5 ship being a true end-game vessel is coming to an end.  Greater stats, better seating, new specialization abilities and ship mastery have effectively made T6 ships the only game in town.

This is not say that all T5-U ships are not viable, but as even lock box classics are being reissued, the T5-U’s have a diminishing value for the average player.   It’s misleading to a new player to assume his recently purchased T5 will have value as a long term player.

It’s time to lower the prices on T5 ships in the game.  As new T6 variants are introduced, the company should role back the Zen pricing for older T5 variants.  Drop the prices by 20%, and you’ll pick up a few sales from those of use who collect the ships as well.

More T6 variants are on the way.  And you know the accountants at Cryptic are already talking about a T6 Scimidar(I have no evidence of this).

[T6] – Battlecruiser / Heavy Warbird Comparison Chart

Hopefully I got the numbers right on the first try. *waits for the twitter comments*

The boys over at The SHOW had some interesting insights into these new ships, ranging from ‘a new paradigm’ to the Fed version of the Sheshar.  Reddit was the most active talking about the capabilities of these new damage-dealers.  But everyone agrees until we see how Emergency Weapons Cycle actually works, we just don’t know.

What stands out for me are the advantages of having 2 Lt. Commander seats for tactical use with the Fed and KDF options.  These ships will be nasty damage-dealers.  After a closer inspection of the Romulan options – I can’t wait to try out the builds with the consoles, and without.