project_mercy wrote:You would normally assume that your starting ship, The Kestrel, was average or cruddy, and the ships you unlock are great. But it's pretty much the other way around. Most of the extra ships and variants you unlock are pretty terrible. Some are really really terrible.
I wouldn't exactly use the word terrible. The Kestrel is nice because it adapts well to most playstyle and situations, and its starting weapons are awesome. The "terribe" ships tend to be more specific in their strenghts and weaknesses, in what they can and can't handle, but they also bring interesting things to the table. With the right techniques, pretty much every ship can be made to work. Some (Bulwark, Stormwalker) are more RNG-dependend than others, but the only real outlier is the Vortex, which pretty much forces you to replace almost your entire kit.
BattleHawk wrote:Honestly I don't like the engi cruiser type a it is really hard for me to play with because I don't like drones an ion weaponry
That's a rather big part of the game you're excluding there. Making do with whatever you get is pretty much at the core of the game, and sometimes your only way to do damage will be drones, which have great DPS by the way. A pre-installed drone system also opens up many other options, letting you use Defense Drones, Overchargers and others right away, and sometimes you even get schematics for free. There are a few ways the game can ruin your day (Anti-Drones, no Drone Parts in drops, no Weapons in shops), but the AE content, especially Hack and MC, helps ease the RNG pain.
Ions are a fantastic way to disable shields and systems, and next to the Ion Bomb the Mk II is the best of the bunch. If you're having trouble, simply set it to autofire at shields, and when they are down have your drone tear them a new one. Even without support weaponry, the Ion II is usually enough to take down any number of shields, barring too many misses. An experienced gunner helps on that front.
The Torus is really quite good, give it another shot and it may surprise you.