Versant was my go to flagship for a long time, and the new Versant is absurdly powerful, especially in groups. I think its a bit too common in markets imo..but thats another topic
For your question, you shouldn't ever send AI versant directly to the front battle line, exception being as escort of tankier ship, because they will eat missiles and other projectiles in high speed mode instead of defending with shields and eventually die. Instead, you should send them with other ships (preferably other versant or fast ship) for flanking manuevre.
I use escort versants loadout for the most part with hardened shields + burst fire mode, medium universal being a longer range weapon helps to make them change modes faster instead of killing themselves
you should be using arbitrator for general fighter duty, especially on carriers that dont have wanzer gantries. For a specific wanzer to fill that role, I guess Strifes or Valiants would be the -best-, and frosts can do it decently.