A spire is only effective in sniping matches. If you had a gunner on your medium, a engineer camping hull, then it's either loose the top gun or loose your buffineer, which is pretty much the only way I stay alive. As a captain of a spire, I will hop off the helm if I need to, but I will keep the captains tools.
Actually, if you as an engineer took, say moonshine, and your friend the buffineer took hydrogen or something, hypothetically you could match Zill's effectiveness on a spire. Or at least his tools. Nerf Zill.