The Dewans represent an enigmatic species who died out as a people during the early history of the galaxy and now all that remains of them are ruins and discarded technology. They were a colonized species of the Iconian empire and although they persisted after the Iconian’s vanished from the galaxy, they eventually went extinct.
In Star Trek Online, learning about the Dewans takes place by visiting New Romulus and learning the tragedy of Dewa III – the origin system and homeworld of the Dewans. Now, with the Allied Pilot Escort Bundles, player captains can own living relics of this once fledgling civilization and fly their ships.
There are a total of three Dewan pilot escorts, each with its own technical focus. Captains can buy them individually or as part of a bundle. These are the Tactical-focused Vandros-class, Science-focused Ikkabar-class, and Engineering-focused Dynnasia-class.
These are Pilot ships and thus support a Pilot bridge officer hybrid seat and also Pilot maneuvers – the ability to “dodge” in space using thrusters to rapidly change position and receive brief invulnerability. This puts these ships into a special class in STO as there are very few ships that have received this particular capability.
The Dewan pilot escorts are Romulan legacy starships and they are some of the more alien-looking that exist in STO. That alone should give them at least a passing glance. Keep reading to get a dissection of what to expect and an analysis of how they fit into the state of the game.
For more information regarding the Dewans, go to New Romulus in game, or read up on them in the Star Trek Online wiki – it’s worth the time to see where this lost civilization falls into the legacy of Star Trek and the Romulan empire.
Acquisition
There are three different Dewan pilot escorts and all of them are available in the C-Store for 3,000 Zen each or all three for 6,000 Zen as part of the Allied Pilot Escort Romulan Legacy Bundle [T6]. They are also part of the gigantic 12,000 Zen nine ship Allied Pilot Escort Mega Bundle [T6].
Without using any discounts, this would mean that a single ship would cost approximately $30, the bundle of three $60, and all nine together $120. Zen does cost less when purchasing it in larger amounts and the C-Store often has discounts on individual ships and bundles periodically, so these prices can be brought down for interested captains. It is also possible to transform the freemium currency, dilithium, into the Zen premium currency by playing the game.
These ships are available to captains from any faction. It is also a tier 6 scaling vessel, which means that captains can requisition it from the C-Store at any level and it will advance with them. The hull, shields, equipment, and weapons will scale proportionally until level 65.
Aesthetics
The Dewan pilot escorts appear suitably alien compared to many other ships in the Star Trek Online universe and their aesthetic is somewhat marine or fish-like. Each one consists of a main engineering hull that contains the bridge – or sensor section – which appears to be up-front and a streamlined hull that is swept back with fins and protuberances and terminates in a rotating “comb-like” conical drive section.
When in motion, the drive section, which is a conical region with a “comb” of smaller plumes, spins. As the drive section spins it emits a cloud of pinpoint glowing particles that trail the ship instead of standard solid engine trails common to other Star Trek spacecraft.
Each variant has its own subtle style differences that set it apart from the others, but all Dewan pilot escorts follow a similar “body plan” in basic design.
The Dynnasia-class features a prominent dorsal fin that sweeps more vertical than horizontal and an equally prominent, tooth-like ventral fin; the craft also has two lateral fins in a pectoral position along the underside.
The Ikkabar-class features the sleekest appearance with a more robust, foreshortened dorsal fin and an equally robust underslung ventral fin. Textures along the front segment of the craft also create the appearance of fish gills.
The Vandros-class features a long, swept-back and spine-like dorsal fin with a smaller ventral fin underneath as well as long, spine-like extensions near the rear of the craft. It also features a warp-drive comb with spirally oriented plumes.
Handling
The Dewan pilot escorts are a C-Store ship and they appear in bundles where they are built, not to be unique stand-outs of their own class, but part of a larger choose-your-experience by picking the variant that fits the captain’s desired playstyle.
At its core, every Dewan pilot escort is a solid escort. It supports extra engine power and the Escort starship mastery package alongside a reasonable inertia and turn radius that gives it all the oomph it needs to get into a fight and back out again with little trouble.
All of the Dewan pilot escorts support a heavy +15 to weapons and +5 to engine power, meaning that captains can expect this vessel to give them tremendous firepower for its five forward guns and two aft guns. This layout makes it viable for numerous purposes as it can support both beam and cannon builds depending on playstyle needs.
These are pilot ships, which means that they come with Pilot Maneuvers, which provide the ability to get some invulnerability frames and a little bit of distance from danger when needed. The pilot jumps also allow highly skilled captains to get into interesting positions to leap past enemy craft turning shields away or attempting to escape.
The Dewan escorts all also support a Commander Tactical/Pilot hybrid bridge officer seat that allows players to select Pilot abilities. Pilot abilities have a huge array of offensive and defensive capabilities, some of which work better than comparable Tactical abilities, which means that captains may want to lean heavily into Pilot to get the best experience out of their escort.
Each craft in the bundle provides its own console and trait, each of which has a lot of punch all on its own. As an escort, the Dewan craft depends heavily on its defensive capabilities as much as it does offensive firepower.
Hull Strength: 1.02 (30,600 at Level 40, 35,190 at Level 50, 40,800 at Level 60)
Shield Modifier: 1.1
Fore Weapons: 5
Aft Weapons: 2
Device Slots: 2
Dynnasia-class:
1 Commander Tactical/Pilot, 1 Lieutenant Commander Engineering, 1 Lieutenant Universal, 1 Lieutenant Commander Universal, and 1 Ensign Engineering
5 Tactical, 4 Engineering, 2 Science
Console – Universal – Wing Torpedo Platforms
Ikkabar-class:
1 Commander Tactical/Pilot, 1 Lieutenant Commander Science, 1 Lieutenant Universal, 1 Lieutenant Commander Universal, and 1 Ensign Engineering
5 Tactical, 2 Engineering, 4 Science
Console – Universal – Gateway Trap Spawner
Vandros-class:
1 Commander Tactical/Pilot, 1 Lieutenant Commander Tactical, 1 Lieutenant Universal, 1 Lieutenant Commander Universal, and 1 Ensign Engineering
5 Tactical, 3 Engineering, 3 Science
Console – Universal – Neurophasic Disruption Field
Base Turn Rate: 16
Impulse Modifier: 0.2
Inertia: 70
+15 to Weapons and +5 to Engines
Experimental Weapon Slot: “Alliance Hypercannon”
Starship Mastery Package: Escort
From the get-go, the Dewan pilot escorts feel like a very solid escort and they look great in motion as well. The shield and hull on this ship also make it a little bit less fragile than ships of similar role, such as the 1.1 shield modifier means it can survive heavy fire a little longer than most. This may give captains more confidence when joining the fray.
One interesting thing about these ships is that their 3-set of consoles combines with the D.O.M.I.N.O. console (see below) from the Bajoran Denorios-class Interceptor (a free ship released as part of the STO 8th Anniversary event). This console delivers a buff that delivers weapon haste and bonus damage with a 10-second duration extended by kills. As a result, captains with the 4-set are encouraged to line up kills and burn them as quickly as possible.
The 5/2 layout gives this vessel a solidly offensive profile, which fits well with the needs of captains who want to use a lot of dual-cannons to deliver withering firepower in the forward arc. Adding on the Pilot ability with “Lock Trajectory,” this means that enough weapon power and weapon abilities, combined with a fly-by can deliver devastation.
Overall, it’s clear that this bundle provides a lot of versatility for how captains want to fly them. Although the Commander (Tac/Plt) seat is always the same, and there are always 5 Tactical consoles, this means that it’s always an escort – but each of the variants leans towards a particular specialization.
This means that a captain who is interesting in dealing with more control and science powers can take the Ikkabar-class, which can run with Gravity Well II (in fact all variants can) alongside the Gateway Trap from its console. The Ikkabar-class in particular supports a deep enough science bay to provide a lot of extra control expertise and exotic consoles to provide plenty of support for science powers. The same can be said about the engineering bay and officer seats on the Dynnasia-class.
With a total of 11 consoles, the Dewan escorts also have a lot of room to fit a lot of different loadouts. It also means that it’s possible to run with the full 4-console set for these ships as well as any number of other leanings as the captain desires. It also means that numerous damage-enhancing consoles can be slotted into the Tactical bay – to upkeep massive damage output – without needing to worry about sacrificing too much armor, control, or defense.
In the end, it’s clear that the role and disposition of the Dewan escort handing will be up to the captain’s desires and it fits easily into a lot of different playstyles.
Build Advice
There are three different Dewan pilot escort craft, each with its own particular focus. As a result, this review section will be different than the type we normally do. To best serve readers, we will try to break down the best-in-class console choices up front (especially for free-to-play captains) and then examine potential roles for each Dewan variant.
“These ship’s weapon, boff, and console layouts offer a wide variety of build opportunities, making it suitable for most playstyles,” said Cynicman. “Your main choices will be firing mode (FAW, BO, THY, TS, CSV, CRF) and energy type or torpedoes; the other aspects of the build will be informed by that choice.”
As an escort-class starship, the Dewan pilot escorts will excel when their builds are coupled with a set that enhances speed and maneuverability. As a result, we suggest starting with the [Prevailing Impulse Engines] from the Competitive reputation. These engines come with an Overcharge trait that greatly enhances speed, turn rate, and defense upon the activation of certain bridge officer abilities. The most common we expect to see is the Tactical variant, “Innervated,” which kicks in when activating Firing Modes.
As there is a Dewan pilot escort variant for each career focus, we will now explore what kind of builds will work well for each different ship in brief.
The 5/2+1 weapon layout is a solid layout for any setup that the captain wants between heavy narrow-arc cannon builds or a straight beam-heavy. This is as broad a layout for heavy DPS as there is to offer and this will depend heavily on captain preference.
If a captain intends to run all four consoles (including the DOMINO console) it will probably narrow builds down to needing to focus into one of the three energy types: Phaser, Disruptor, and Plasma. This still opens up a lot of opportunities, especially with the various reputation weapons available.
In all potential builds, at least one torpedo is suggested, especially any build that makes use of the [Universal – Wing Torpedo Platforms] as it would waste this console if there are no torpedo firing modes to trigger.
Captains who are running free-to-play and don’t have a lot of energy credits to throw around can look into consoles taken from various episodes.
Starting out, the [Engineering – Trellium-D Plating] from the “Ragnarok” mission — it boosts all defensive traits, including resistances, armor, and shields – this is a great one for anyone who intends to run at least one armor console. Two other potential Engineering consoles include [Engineering – House Martok Defensive Configuration] and [Engineering – Reinforced Armaments]. The House Martok console comes from the “Brushfire” mission and does a little bit of everything (its set bonuses can also come in handy) and the Reinforced Armaments console from “Beyond the Nexus” makes for a replacement for an EPS console, which also provides defensive capabilities.
Captains should also look into the [Engineering – Conductive RCS Accelerator], a crafted console from the Engineering R&D school, that can come with a large number of possible suffixes. It also provides shield resist and turn rate buffs when the ship is healed.
Science consoles will be a little bit more informed by captain role choices. The obvious big one is the [Science – Exotic Particle Field Exciter] from the R&D Science school for captains running and gunning with exotic damage. The [Science – Temporal Disentanglement Suite] from “Butterfly” mission provides a lot of critical chance and severity based on Auxiliary power setting. Also, a standalone potential console is [Science – Temporally Shielded Datacore] from “Temporal Reckoning” in the Future Proof episode arc.
For captains going with a disruptor build, the [Science – Nausicaan Siphon Capacitor] from the “Echoes of Light” mission delivers a solid +20% disruptor damage along with extra drain, and the Entoiled Technology Set is also very solid for bonuses.
For the Tactical bay, it’s best not to ignore the Exploiters and Locators in the Fleet Spire consoles, these can be expensive, but they’re the best-in-slot for end-game players to keep their guns primed. Then there’s [Tactical – Lorca’s Custom Fire Controls] from Discovery reputation, which boosts critical chance, weapon power setting, and shield penetration – this couples nicely with the [Dark Matter Quantum Torpedo Launcher] that adds a set bonus with a stacking critical severity buff.
“The Lorca console is about as close to an auto-include on any build as you get in this game,” said Cynicman. “Crit is one of the best bonuses to get in the game and the shield penetration is a large enough bonus to really matter. With a 2 piece set bonus granting Crit Severity, pairing this with the Dark Matter torpedo (as your one torpedo) is easy for any standard energy weapon build.”
For captains willing to lean into polaron weaponry, the Morphogenic Armaments set from the “Home” mission provide a considerable amount of firepower with its 3-piece set (which includes a console, a torpedo, and a turret). This can be especially good for torpedo builds, due to the 2-piece 15% recharge reduction on all weapon firing modes.
Finally, the [Tactical – Chronometric Capacitor] console is a great Tactical console for Science captains because it has a +30 boost to particle generators for exotic damage. It also fits well on ships aligned for torpedo fire because of its +20% torpedo damage.
Next, we’ll take a look at the overall builds that will fit best for the different variants and what kind of roles they will serve best. All of these builds work pretty well on any of these, because of the highly open nature of the Universal seats.
The Dynnasia-class (Engineering variant) will do well with an exotic build method such as Aux2Batt (see this guide), this will still leave open space for Emergency Power to X and maybe an Engineering Team. In the Science slots, there might be space for a shield heal and [Hazard Emitters].
With the availability of Pilot abilities, some captains may want to run with [Hold Together], which can fill a similar role to Hazard Emitters. The options for the Lt. Cmdr. Universal opens up more potential Tactical seating for allowing more Pilot abilities. As usual, Tactical seating will probably be based on the role the captain wants to play (and their weapon layout).
The Ikkabar-class (Science variant) will most likely be running [Gravity Well] with its Lt. Cmdr. Science and it’s certainly capable of running an exotic damage build. It would work well with a polaron build and lean heavily into control using its extra Science bay slots (see the polaron-focused consoles mentioned above).
The Improved Gravity Well trait (see below), which comes with the Ikkabar-class, also comes in extremely handy for these purposes.
Captain’s trying to make use of their Auxiliary will want to slot [Photonic Officer] to assist with their cooldowns and bring Science powers back up again. Due to only having Ens. Engineering, captains will most likely want to change the Lt. Universal into an Engineering slot to add three Engineering powers for Engineering Team and one or two Emergency Power to X (Weapons and Auxiliary most likely).
This ship does not come with a Secondary Deflector, so it’ll probably be best to build around weapon damage with exotic damage (and control) as its secondary role.
The Vandros-class (Tactical variant) can lean more heavily into the Pilot abilities because the Universal seats can be more easily turned toward Tactical without losing out on role needs. It also has more balanced Science and Engineering bays, meaning this one is an all-around variant for general customization.
For Pilot bridge officer abilities captains could make use of [Hold Together] (see above), [Form Up], [Pilot Team], and [Reinforcements Squadron]. Form Up can be useful for tight quarters team fights, but it takes advanced piloting to take good advantage of it. Pilot Team would work out well in the Ens. slot, as it provides a nice escape from movement debuffs.
Curiously, Reinforcements Squadron is affected by particle generators, so it could be a possible extra damage boost for Science focused captains.
Equipment
Buckle in, captains, this section will be a long ride. Even just the Dewan pilot escort bundle is only three ships, each ship comes with its own console, own trait, and a new experimental weapon.
The experimental weapon equipped on the Dewan pilot escorts is the [Alliance Hypercannon], a radiation damage emitter that fires three beams at once consisting of phaser, disruptor, and plasma energy. As a result, the Hypercannon applies the procs of all three energy types on impact with a 10% for each proc: 10% chance of a random subsystem offline for 4 seconds, 10% chance of plasma damage over 15 seconds, and a 10% chance of a damage resistance debuff for 15 seconds. The weapon has a fire rate of 3.5 seconds.
Vandros-class Neurophasic Disruption Field, [Console – Universal – Neurophasic Disruption Field], produces a targeted AOE that strikes up to 10 foes within 5km that inflicts electrical damage, confusion for one second, and a 20% chance to disable for one second over 10 seconds. The console passively adds +8% flight speed and +100 resist vs. speed and turn debuffs.
The trait of this class is Promise of Ferocity: upon activating a Tactical or Pilot officer receive a +4% bonus damage with starship weapons (max 5 stacks, one stack per 4 seconds) that lasts until the end of combat.
Ikkabar-class Gateway Trap, [Console – Universal – Gateway Trap Spawner], produces at targeted AOE gravity hazard a lot like a Gravity Well that lasts 10 seconds, it also inflicts kinetic damage, reduces flight speed and turn rate of targets and pulls them in. Should a target get pulled into the trap, they are expelled from an “exit” location and have all subsystems disabled for 4.5 seconds. The console passively adds +5.3 control expertise and +50 scientific readiness.
The trait of this class is Improved Gravity Well: the duration of Gravity Well is increased by 20 seconds and recharge time is reduced by 20 seconds, the primary target also takes additional kinetic damage.
Dynnasia-class Wing Torpedo Platforms, [Console – Universal – Wing Torpedo Platforms], launches a pair of torpedo platforms that periodically fire torpedoes at the current target dealing high kinetic damage. When activating any rank of Torpedo Spread or High Yield, the platforms then activate rank one of that ability for themselves.
The trait of this class is Painful Memories: foes affected by Engineering bridge officer abilities will be afflicted with -50% flight speed and 6.1 electrical damage per second for 10 seconds.
The final console, the [Universal – D.O.M.I.N.O.] comes from the Denorios-class Bajoran interceptor, which is the 8th-anniversary ship – that same ship also comes with the [Voice of the Prophets] experimental weapon, which is considered extremely powerful. In itself, this console is nice because it has a clickable power that gives weapon cycle haste and damage bonus that is extended by kills.
“The D.O.M.I.N.O. console may initially look like it’s purely for phaser builds, but the bonuses granted by its clicky make it useful for any build,” added Cynicman.
Conclusion
Taking the Dewan pilot escort ships from the top down, they’re clearly versatile escort-class starships designed to provide as much adaptability as possible for captains willing to pay premium prices. As C-Store ships, they come with more useful consoles and traits than questionable.
Many captains will want to buy the three-ship bundle and not just one – as this locks out the purchase of any bundle that includes that ship – and the Dewan ships can be flown by any faction, whereas the other two are locked to a specific faction. This is because having access to all the traits and consoles (and the traits/consoles are copied across each three-ship bundle) and having them available to all factions as cheaply as possible could be a good call. However, some captains may be interested in the specific aesthetic of the Federation or KDF faction ships.
The Dewan pilot escorts do not feel like the best-in-class for the game when it comes to stats in the ships themselves and their roles are done better by other ships, but there are not that many ships with pilot maneuvers in the game currently. The ship’s high versatility, however, also means that any captain who already wants an escort-class ship will probably be able to easily tune to them to their own personal specifications.
“With their broad layouts these ships make an excellent testing platform for builds, allowing you to easily swap between firing modes and weapons to see what suits your playstyle best,” said Cynicman.
Taking into consideration the cost and the commentary above, these ships come across as an extremely reasonable addition to the fleet of any Star Trek Online captain. They are priced exactly the same as other bundles in the C-Store and bring a lot of tools to the table for gameplay purposes.
To the captains who choose a Dewan pilot escort ship or the entire bundle, we say, “Enjoy the engines, the particle effects are perhaps the most alien and most unique special effect on a ship in STO to date! Just try not to sneeze.”
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