The carrier capital ship is generally the ship of choice in terms of pure firepower, and is often the only capital ship some players build in cramped multiplayer games like 5v5. But in more spacious maps like 1v1 and 2v2, the colony cap (which every race has) is a much better choice, especially if you know how to use it well.

Many competitive players almost completely ignore the other capital ships, although some of the others can be useful in certain niche situations. Example: an expert TEC players will often get a Kol or two with Flak Burst late-game to deal with massed bomber squads (there's no other decent way to deal with tons of bombers at that point in the game). Or, when fighting a Vasari player who's focusing on starbases and Overseers, a TEC player may get a Dunov for antimatter disruption, or for interrupting a dangerous level 6 ability of an enemy cap.

If the cap is lining up to jump, Ion Bolt will only be used once before the cap can get away. (As the duration of Ion Bolt increases, the cooldown also increases; a cap already lined up will be able to jump out before the next Ion Bolt hits)

TK push does a fair amount of damage and disrupts bombing runs...I'd argue it is better than flak burst, even if you include double taps of the abilities, but that's just my opinion....

In general, the carriers and colony caps are the best, with all six of them fielding very powerful abilities (like malice) or abilities with high utility (like ion bolt)...good rush players may start with a marza or vulkoras to hit an enemy HW early, but that is a big risk that may or may not pay off...

As Wrath said, sometimes marginalized capital ships can serve a purpose late game...flak burst becomes an enticing reason to build Kol's late game due to the number of bombers; detonate AM is one of the most useful abilities in the game and can justify the construction of a Radiance...

Two capital ships I would also seriously consider are the Kortul and Rapture....I'd argue these are the two best caps other than the carriers and colonizers...Kortul has 3 very solid abilities, and the vertigo/concentration aura is a good combo on the rapture (do not underestimate these two abilities)....

Revelations, Marauders, and Dunov's are probably ships to avoid until later on in the game....it's not that they don't have their uses, but they only fill very specific roles....

Completely Agree. I have often had to argue the superiority of TK Push over Flak burst with people. Comparing both at L3, TK Push still delivers 2/3 of the damage of Flak burst but also reduces the speed of attack as well as the ability to evade fighters & flak frigs by 75% all at a 17% increased range.

Last but not least it provides great cover for your fleet, after all a bomber that is no where near my fleet is not a bomber I am afraid of. For Flak Burst to truly compete, you have to have a large critical mass of bombers attacking right where both Kols can hit them at once. Only in that very particular circumstance does Flak Burst outshine TK Push since in those circumstances, it will kill large swaths of bombers all at once. However, any halfway competent player fielding a heavy bomber fleet will direct his bombers manually to make multiple attack runs at different angles at different times to negate the fearful double Kol Flak Burst defense.

As a general ability, TK push provides SO many more benefits to simply being able to SOMETIMES kill large #'s of Bombers. If I have to choose between killing alot of bombers some of the time or the ability to make alot of bombers mostly irrelevant and fighter bait nearly all of the time, TK push will get my vote everytime.