It's a good all-around ship. I'm surprised at how much armor it has, which is a common failure of most of the old dropship classes. Coupled with decent speed. It's firepower is kinda weak for a dropship of its sheer size.
Because its a spheroid, and its firepower is spread around on different arcs, its going to be better at anti-fighter work than at ship-to-ship combat, where something like an Achilles could tear it up. But it's not without potential. If it keeps rolling and presenting fresh armor, it might outlast an opponent. Which I think is what it was designed to do, hold off an attack.
It's got enough firepower to splash a small attack dropship or two. Think Avengers, original Lung Wang, especially something with less armor than it has. Assuming it can keep presenting fresh armor and outlast the opponent. Which is actually viable considering its speed. If it runs into something heavier than that, Achilles on up, it's odds go down quite a bit.
It's tough enough to give an opponent pause. But in the Jihad and post-Jihad eras, it suffers from lacking any kind of point defense weaponry. The easiest way to deal with one is to throw some missiles at it.
It might be the ultimate pirate ship. Attack weakly defended colonies and convoys. It's got the armor, speed and just enough firepower to deal with minor opposition, and it can bring the pirate gang to the party with all that troop capacity. It's got the universal docking setup which is useful in many situations.
It would definitely make a good troop transport, but with its scarcity and that universal docking, fleet support really is its jam. If I was designing a naval taskforce, assault dropships, carriers, troop transports etc. I'd tack on one of these for tug support and logistical support. But would be willing to put it in the line of fire because of its armor and speed. I'd treat the troops it can carry as a supporting force. Some marines and other units specialized in zero-G and hostile environment work. Or maybe a unit specialized in landing zone security. Kinda like the ground units attached to the Medusans mercenary unit, which they carried on things like Fortress and Intruder-class dropships.
One of the awesome potential roles of the Elephant is the ability to take one that is empty, dock with a crippled troop transport floating around in space. Transfer over the troops and equipment, and have the Elephant pull Gs to stabilize the crippled vessel so that another rescue vessel can get to it (or give the crew a chance to restore their vessel). While the Elephant can potentially serve as the replacement troop transport in the interim.