Okay, I (mis)used order of magnitude. Fine, Odyssey is on a different tier or level, and not in a good way. While Paragon may be on top tier, and the other four are roughly mid-tier, Odyssey is low-tier.
Odyssey cannot solo capitals except maybe with Tachyon Lances (or Plasma Cannon and Claws). If reliably killing capitals with Odyssey is not an option, then that means attacking fleets with smaller ships, which cruisers can do too. One cruiser may be enough, but if it is not, I can chain-flagship both (i.e., deploy one ship, leave, deploy another flagship), or I can deploy both and have the AI-controlled second cruiser double team enemy ships with me.
Aurora is expensive, hard to outfit, and has terrible shot range. I rarely use Aurora. I use Falcons, Eagles, Dominators, and especially Herons (occasionally Mora too). Heron is probably the most powerful cruiser in the game to solo things with.
I don’t understand how you think the Odyssey is so bad when you yourself claim that the primarily limiter is Tachyon Lances. Yet you want 4 rare tachyon lances for your Paragon as opposed to only two for your Odyssey. You get to bring two Odyssesy for every Paragon you can field. You can fit a single Odyssey twice as easily as you can fit a Paragon!
Because if I try to use anything else, Odyssey cannot kite-and-snipe effectively, which leaves brawling as the only option, and it loses in a slugging match against any other capital (even against weaker ones like Conquest), and I can thank the shield nerf (plus energy weapons' overall inferiority) for that. Odyssey was not that great at slugging matches in previous version, but it lasted a bit longer with better shields, and Conquest (and Astral) was not as powerful back then. (Astral was laughably weak until 0.8.) What is more, the one weapon which gives Odyssey a chance, Tachyon Lance, is extremely rare, and there is no substitute for Odyssey. Even if Odyssey can use Tachyon Lance, it cannot brawl with other weapons like it used to (unless it guts its entire loadout) thanks to the shield nerf and low OP. All it can do is kite-and-snipe.
If I want Tachyon Lances for Odyssey, I want three for all three heavy mounts, so I can use all three at roughly the same time when I need them. (I would use Advanced Optics, 3 Tachyon Lance, 10 or so LR PD Laser, and at least one (probably two) Longbows so Odyssey can safely kite-and-snipe while Longbows bombard enemies) Also, while I want four for Paragon, it can use HILs (and Ion Beams) as a (sniping) substitute (or other weapons for more brawling power) until more lances are found. If I only have two lances, I put those two in the turrets while Paragon uses HILs (or whatever) in the hardpoints. Eventually, I want four because Tachyon Lance is better than HIL.
Paragon can use inferior weapons and still have a chance. Paragon can use almost anything, maul whatever it is fighting. I can use all-beam Paragon, all pulse laser Paragon, all blaster Paragon, combo Paragon, or whatever, and it kills things and wins battles. But with Tachyon Lances and HVDs, Paragon can do the one thing no other ship aside from a carrier with fighters can do, snipe and kill things across a screen or two. Until battlestations got automatic Gunnery Implants 3, it was possible for Paragon with the right skills to (mostly) outrange a full-powered battlestation, and pick off modules one-by-one without getting shot back by its HILs and Squalls.
Thanks to the buffs Conquest received (and the weaker skills that knocked Onslaught off its throne), as long as it has one or two Gauss Cannons (common thanks to pirate Mudskippers dropping them) somewhere to counter Paragon, it can be somewhat flexible on loadout and have a decent chance of killing any capital and other ships. Not auto-win, but a reasonable chance of victory.
P.S. As for burn speed, thanks to Sustained Burn, burn speeds of ships are mostly irrelevant. Also, by the time I am ready to use capitals in my fleet, it includes an Atlas and/or Prometheus, which are slower than every other ship.
