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[PraiseTheSun]

I'm a somewhat new player, and I've mostly stuck with low tech ships as I was playing with the Hegemony and lovin thicc boy onslaught but I plan on trying out more high tech ships soon. What is your favorite tech level and why?

[mvp7]

My favorite capitals are the low-tech Onslaught and XIV Legion. I like the flux efficient weapons and armour that can actually takes some serious hits: Together these make damage output and damage mitigation more separated than in ships that rely purely on shields for defense. Even mobility isn't an issue as Burn Drive gives them sufficient long range mobility. Midline and High-tech capitals just feel too fragile and flux sensitive to serve as ship-of-the-line.

For cruisers I use Midline to High-tech ships the most. Midlines (Falcon, Eagle and Heron) are economical and usually have decent mobility. Aurora is my favourite combat cruiser because of its all-around great performance. Apogee is technically high-tech but it feels more like a sturdy midline with great utility. I especially like the good shields on high-tech cruisers.

For destroyers I prefer Midline (Hammerhead, Sunder and Drover for carrier). They can mount a good mix of flux efficient firepower and that's pretty much it. Destroyers are very much in a fire support role in my fleets being too fragile and expensive compared to cruisers, and too expensive and slow to replace frigates as the multi-purpose small ships of the fleet. Low-tech destroyers lack general mobility (and as result survivability), while high tech is too maintenance heavy and finicky.

Anything goes when it comes to frigates. I tend to use Midline frigates most in normal battles (Centurion). High tech can be good for special roles (Omen for electronic warfare, Wolf for pursuit battles). Low-tech Lashers were the mainstay of my early fleet, being good general purpose ships but too fragile for late-game.

If I was forced to choose just one Tech-level to use I guess it would be Midline. Unsurprisingly they are well balanced and efficient ships.

edit. My use of high-tech ships is further limited by the prominence of Phase Field ships which I don't like.

[sotanaht]

High tech all the way.  Strong shields, better speed, more flux.  It's not a real fleet unless it has a paragon to lead it.

[Igncom1]

Mid line for me as I believe it has the best selection of ships available for almost any kind of operation. With a good mix of ballistic, missile, and energy weapons slots you can equip and use just about every weapon ever invented.

Big guns? Conquests, Griffins and Sunders have you covered on all accounts.

Carriers? Herons for your bombers and Drovers for your fighters and interceptors.

Escorts? Hammerheads and Monitors. The best in the business.

Your shields are not the best, but not the worst either. Same with speed, and armour, and just about everything really.

[Tackywheat1]

High tech best tech with the exception of the XIV Legion

Paragon and Astral will utterly annihilate anything except mass Radiants. Odyssey is a great harasser and is reasonably durable(has destroyer speed on a capital with skills)

Apogee is just an insanely good cruiser.

Destroyers are the only ship size tier where I prefer midline such as Sunder or Hammerhead and drover

Tempest and Omen...

[Eji1700]

Mostly low tech because I love the mora.

[sotanaht]

High tech best tech with the exception of the XIV Legion

Paragon and Astral will utterly annihilate anything except mass Radiants. Odyssey is a great harasser and is reasonably durable(has destroyer speed on a capital with skills)

Apogee is just an insanely good cruiser.

Destroyers are the only ship size tier where I prefer midline such as Sunder or Hammerhead and drover

Tempest and Omen...

Medusa seems to perform well for some people.  I personally never use vanilla cruisers or destroyers at all, so I'm not missing anything in that high tech bracket.  Drovers are OP of course but only in a fleet dedicated to them, which mine is not.

Mostly low tech because I love the mora.

Why?  It's overpriced and/or undersized, and it doesn't really bring the firepower to make up for lacking in fighter power.  Its ship system only helps to delay the inevitable slightly, but with the mora's slow speed if it ever has to use that system it's pretty much toast.

[mvp7]

Does anyone use Dominators and Enforcers as their main destroyers/cruisers? I never really gave those ships a try because they have such slow top speed and burn drive is only good for getting into fight.

[Igncom1]

Dominators are great! Packing two large ballistic mounts they can easily murder anything of a similar level or size that is in front of it. But only so long as they can keep stuff in front of them, as otherwise they are fairly easy to kill, even with their heavy armour. They can struggle to win a 1 on 1 without large ballistics and a good targeting unit, but otherwise for a slow brick they still kick ass. Better to use these on a defensive posture, defending a rally point with carrier support then a fast attacking one like an eagle can.

Enforcers are not the best destroyer, but a good attempt and bristling with small missiles mounts and medium ballistics they can be set up to do just about anything, but never very well. They can easily bring a lot of flak to the detriment of their ability to fight. Big artillery which can leave them in trouble when fluxed out near the enemy. Or just stick them with missiles and small ballistics to have a fairly underwhelming gunboat that isn't doing too much more then a lasher frigate anyway. It's ok and relatively cheap to maintain. Easy to kill in all honesty.

[SCC]

Midline for AI, high-tech for me (sometimes). Midline offers a lot of flexibility in tactics and loadouts, is decently fast while having ballistic weapons, and has a decent offensive focus. High-tech most often has better playerbait ships, though.
By ship type, high-tech rules the frigate wolfpacks (no surprise, seeing how frigates fit high-tech doctrine well), but destroyers and cruisers belong to the midline school of design. I don't typically get the capital ships I want, not before I "win" the game anyway, so I don't have a set preference. Legion, Conquest and Paragon are all good.

[gunbusterxl]

All my favorite ships (wolf, apogee, oddessy, astral) are high tech, so that's the bulk of my fleet. Every tech is viable, though.

[Eji1700]

High tech best tech with the exception of the XIV Legion

Paragon and Astral will utterly annihilate anything except mass Radiants. Odyssey is a great harasser and is reasonably durable(has destroyer speed on a capital with skills)

Apogee is just an insanely good cruiser.

Destroyers are the only ship size tier where I prefer midline such as Sunder or Hammerhead and drover

Tempest and Omen...

Medusa seems to perform well for some people.  I personally never use vanilla cruisers or destroyers at all, so I'm not missing anything in that high tech bracket.  Drovers are OP of course but only in a fleet dedicated to them, which mine is not.

Mostly low tech because I love the mora.

Why?  It's overpriced and/or undersized, and it doesn't really bring the firepower to make up for lacking in fighter power.  Its ship system only helps to delay the inevitable slightly, but with the mora's slow speed if it ever has to use that system it's pretty much toast.

You're doing something wrong then.  It's got 3 hanger bays and is built like a tank.  It's no slower than most of the viable capitals and can actually brawl on the frontlines. It's a decent player ship for shielding fragile targets and in AI hands its damn near immortal with a variety of builds.

[sotanaht]

High tech best tech with the exception of the XIV Legion

Paragon and Astral will utterly annihilate anything except mass Radiants. Odyssey is a great harasser and is reasonably durable(has destroyer speed on a capital with skills)

Apogee is just an insanely good cruiser.

Destroyers are the only ship size tier where I prefer midline such as Sunder or Hammerhead and drover

Tempest and Omen...

Medusa seems to perform well for some people.  I personally never use vanilla cruisers or destroyers at all, so I'm not missing anything in that high tech bracket.  Drovers are OP of course but only in a fleet dedicated to them, which mine is not.

Mostly low tech because I love the mora.

Why?  It's overpriced and/or undersized, and it doesn't really bring the firepower to make up for lacking in fighter power.  Its ship system only helps to delay the inevitable slightly, but with the mora's slow speed if it ever has to use that system it's pretty much toast.

You're doing something wrong then.  It's got 3 hanger bays and is built like a tank.  It's no slower than most of the viable capitals and can actually brawl on the frontlines. It's a decent player ship for shielding fragile targets and in AI hands its damn near immortal with a variety of builds.

In AI hands the Mora is the first, and often only, ship to die in any fleet. It's tough, but it's incapable of fighting back.  It's flux stats are pathetic at only 4000, making its shields weaker than any destroyer class warship (hammerhead has 4200, Shrike has 5200, Medusa has 6000, Sunder has 7200).  All it can do is armor tank until it dies, even a frigate is a serious threat to a Mora

20 DP for 3 fighter slots and nothing else is massively overpriced.  A Heron is 20 DP with the ability to actually support its fighters (targeting feed), better shields, better speed, and a weapon that can actually fight back a little bit against small ships (medium universal ballistic).  Drovers are OP of course, but at 12 DP, better speed, only slightly weaker shields, and that OP ship system there's really no comparison.

[Thaago]

If your Mora's are dying first, then something is wrong with your build. They can absorb a LOT of damage, even if the fight is going badly. They can mount decent kinetic firepower and missile finishers, so while it can't catch frigates itself because its slow, they are not close to being a threat to it. With a decent build it can brawl with destroyers, even without its wings. If its given interceptors, it can kill frigates at extreme range while being invulnerable to their level of damage output.

Its weird that you say the Heron has the ability to fight back - it has significantly less firepower than a decently built Mora: small ballistics are actually useful as opposed to small energy, and medium missiles are top tier.

[TruKave]

Although XIV armour is really nice, nothing beats speed and maneuverability for me, especially when combined with high tech's shield tanking meaning that they are incredibly hard to punish properly (and the big flagship being basically immune to anti-shield weapons with fortress shield) high tech is just too useful to really be worse.