Belle Poule or Frigate?

[AncientRaig]

I've just reached Master Commandant on the PVE server and have been looking to upgrade to a new ship from my Cerberus. I've had some leanings towards the Frigate for a while, but I've heard that many players think that the Belle Poule is an outright better ship, so I'm a bit split on what to do. Does anyone have any suggestions on which way I should go?

[Sir Texas Sir]

SURPRISE?    I would ask what type of player are you?  If you like getting in there and brawling the Frigate prob be the one you like.   I haven't sailed the Belle Poule, but to me it seems some where between the Surpise and the Frigate.   My play style is more the Suprise so it's the path I went.

[Illusive Tabby]

If you do alot of NPC raiding, that is just sailing solo and fighting NPCs, I would suggest Surprise...if you enjoy boarding combat. Surprise is manouverable enough that she can rake, rake, rake, board, win. Took down a Trinco doing such ^.^

 

But if you lean more towards fighting, (which surprise can do quite well) I would suggest Belle Poule over Frigate due to same crew size, but 12lb guns, which makes crewing the ship alot easier.

[Captain Kibble]

Agree with Texas, Surprise is a great ship, and you can fully crew it at that level, unlike the two heavier frigates. 2nd place would be Belle Poule, imho. The Frigate is a pretty hefty ship to get used to if you're just getting into the heavier frigates - it's not as forgiving as the Belle when it comes to sailing errors.

[ironhammer500]

Yea the Surprise is a God amoung the light frigate tier, shes got it all speed, guns, agillity. But does lack some armour compared to the Belle.

 

The Belle is better then a Frig the 18ibs are hard to aim due to sitting so low in the water, they also miss at close range, so if you only want those 2, the Belle is better.

[Sinbad]

You can smash all those other ships to kindling with the frigate,but thats just my playstyle.

[ZenTex]

Since you're on the PvE server and will obviously want the best performance against AI. I'd say Live oak belle Poule hands down.

take her on a mission against frigate or below and they'll fail to penetrate your armour at almost any range and distance. Sail her along a frigate and exchange broadsides (with carronades) and you'll end up sinking her while you'll have lost 2 notches in your armour at most.

It's really funny to see a frigate hitting you over and over from 10 meters away and watch the balls bounce off harmlessly.

 

The only downside whern compared to the frigate is the smaller guns, but again, when using carronades this is not an issue at all. Used mine with 24 pounders on both decks for full broadsides.

[Lord Vicious]

Liveoak bellepoule caronades is superior, the tank is absurd for its class, and hull shape helps a lot to bounce.

 

dps is also good with caronades. afterall you just brawl the npc

[Ned Loe]

If you can find Pirate Frigate go for it. 

[VonVolks]

I love the Belle Poule, but I have to try out the Frigate a bit really to know the comparison. 

As someone above said the renom is a nice upgrade from the Cerb, fast and maneuverable, with rounded sides for bounces with angling....

[Mirones]

Essex  it has the same boardside gun count as Surprise and you can adjust the gunsize to your Rank so you dont have to buy a new ship with each rank up.

and in the end it has the same maingundeck count as the Trincomalee yet better sailing performance and handling. on PvE the lack of newbchasers should not be an issue for you.

[The MetaBaron]

They are all great boats, and can shoot above their weight with the right captain. At your point in the game you are still going to shift opinion quite a bit as you learn the game. Just go with what seems nice to you looking at the specs, and experiment with the others. Belle and Surprise are both fantastic in my opinion, and Frigate is great as well. Really you can't go wrong as long as you learn the strengths by playing each of them and experimenting.