or all the Newbs, for all the Vets looking for a trick, I'm opening up the vault that is my mind. I say that not to be cocky, but because there's probably only a few guys playing this game that have been playing longer (Emphasis on longer, not more) than I have.
I'm going down the list folks. I love the game, play it plenty.
I'm tired of all these "So which is best..." Everything, no matter how much you don't like a unit, has a purpose in this game, and I'm putting down as much as I can here folks. So here goes....
Forgive me if there are grammatical mistakes in this post. I'm doing my best avoid them.
6/10/09 - Completed Fourth Edit
27/8/09 - Completed Third Edit
2/7/09 - Completed Second Edit/Now includes Assault cruisers
30/5/09 - Completed Support/Seige/ First Complete Version of Unit Guide
17/5/09 - Completed Colonizer Capital Ships
10/5/09 - Completed Carrier Capital Ships
4/5/09 - Completed Update for time lost
18/8/08 - Completed Battleships
17/8/08 - Started Capital Ships
7/8/08 - Completed Cruisers
6/8/08 - Completed Support Cruisers
5/8/08 - Completed Strikecraft and Carrier Cruisers
4/8/08 - Completed Frigate Section
2/8/08 - Completed Scouts, Seige Frigates, and Basic Assault Frigates
1/8/08 - Started writing FAQ
Rating System for Frigates/Cruisers
Cost: 1 (Cheapest) - 5 (Most Expensive)
Health: 1 (Least) - 5 (Most)
Shields: 1 (Least) – 5 (Most)
DPS*: 1 (Least) – 5 (Most)
USS**: 1 (Least) – 5 (Most)
Speed: 1 (Slowest) – 5 (Fastest)
Range: 1 (Least) – 5 (Most)
Damage Type: Ship Specific
*Damage Per Second
**Used Ship Slots
The Frigates
Scout Frigates
- Scouts hold a very unique role in this game. They are an odd ship, for the game says "strong against none". This is because they are meant to scout ( a duh statement yes). I recommend three mandatory in the beginning always set on auto-explore. I use four personally, 6 if I'm Vasari. If you can remember to go back and direct them yourself all the better.
- The scout, believe it or not, does hold combat value. Although incredibably weak, they're also cheap and take up the fewest ship slots in the game per unit. They are a viable long range frigate counter.
- The new feature in Entrenchment is that the scout detects mines, but be careful. They only detect them. You need something else to destroy them (Scouts just don't do that much damage even against a target with 30 hp)
- Please see https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/314399. I explain and touch on a lot about the scout there.
- The Counter: Fighters counter scouts extremely effectively. Really, anything with medium armor or stronger will do the job, but fighters do it the best, as they are the only ship in the game that can actually chase down Scouts. Oddly, scouts can counter themselves, if you think you can win that battle that is.
TEC Arcova Scout Frigate
Cost:*
Health: *
Shields:*
DPS: *
USS: *
Speed: *****
Range: *
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-light
- You can tech a bomb ability for the scout and it's actually quite lethal. I consider it one of the best strategic abilities in the game. Against structures, this ability will do 1200 damage. It'll take 4-8 scouts to destroy a structure, but it still works. You have to wait fifteen minutes to try the ability again so choose your targets wisely. Optimal targets are weapons labs and frigate factories. You stop enemy ship production when you target those.
- This scout is a very good fighter when used against a long range frigate spam. It's the only ship that outside of HC's and Seekers will do more damage to Illums than Illums do to it. It will do the job, but you shouldn't rely on it. Masses of scouts are laughable because of how easy it is to counter them. Eventually, you should be teching heavy cruisers or fighters to counter long range frigates if your opponent is still making them.
Vasari Jikara Navigator
Cost: *
Health: *
Shields: *
DPS: *
USS: *
Speed: *****
Range: *
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-light
-To make it simple, Vasari scouts really shouldn't be used in combat. Besides scouting, Vasari scouts are meant for getting neutral mines, plain and simple. I suggest buying an additional 3 to help take your asteorid and then send them off to get mines (you'd have 6 scouts total then).
-The Vasari Scout doesn't compare combat wise to Seekers or TEC Scouts. I can understand that this is to offset the ability on the Vasari scout, but it's a shame this isn't an option against Illums considering TEC and Advent scouts work.
-Vasari scouts are useful though if someone sneak attacks you with siege frigates. Quickly constructuing two of these for each one is an effective counter.
Advent Seeker Vessel
Cost: *
Health: *
Shields: **
DPS: *
USS: *
Speed: *****
Range: *
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-light
- This ship is actually an impressive scout. Granted, it's special "martyr" ability is rather weak. It's not listed anywhere, but the martyr ability does 250 damage, but that has to go through mitigation shields so it's actually quite weak. You can also get an ability that lets you see in a grav well when a seeker is destroyed there, but it doesn't last too long and I find it to be a waste to tech that reserach. The ship itself, however, is a great meatshield, as it has the same health and shield stats as a Disciple. For such a cheap ship, this unit is suprisingally tough. Its laser attack isn't too strong against most ships, but still a very lethal ship when up against a long range frigate spam.
Basic Assault Frigates
-The light frig tears support cruisers apart and is the only thing that was designed to counter the actual carrier. The ship is fast and can thankfully outrun anything it can't handle a fight with.
-It got buffed in Entrenchment 1.04. Thank God. It needed it.
-This is also the best anti-heavy damage dealer in the game. This means light frigates are great against carrier cruisers, flak, and any support cruiser in the game.
-The Basic Assault frigate is the only ship besides the scout available for no research cost. It's great for helping with pirate flak and in general making a few of these makes early expansion move much quicker.
- There's a problem with this ship. Everyone, and I mean everyone, who plays this game goes straight to long range frigates in multiplayer. LRF's counter LF's hard. Hardest counter in the game. So you never see LF spam. It's just the victim of circumstance. Entrenchment 1.04 seems to have cured some of these ills, but time will tell.
-Beware. Long range frigates tear these ships to shreds.
-The Counter: Long Range Frigates do it best. Heavy cruisers do it well enough too.
TEC Cobalt Light Frigate
Cost: *
Health: **
Shields: **
DPS: **
USS: **
Speed: ****
Range: *
Armor Type: Medium
Damage Type: Anti-heavy
-The Cobalt recieves a unique ability: Sabatoge Reactor. This ability disables enemy ship abilities and actually deals 100 damage to the ship that attempted to use its ability. It doesn't work on capital ships. It works on support cruisers. The only problem is keeping it alive to do so.
Vasari Ravastra Skirmisher
Cost: **
Health: **
Shields: **
DPS: **
USS: **
Speed: ****
Range: *
Armor Type: Medium
Damage Type: Anti-heavy
-The Skirmisher recieves a unique ability as well. Although the name of the ability escapes me, the effect is quite strong. It doubles opponent antimatter costs and cooldown times.
-The Skirmisher also has a techable tier 2 ability that will allow it to shut down mid battle and heal itself. Quite useful really.
Advent Disciple Vessel
Cost: *
Health: *
Shields: **
DPS: **
USS: *
Speed: ****
Range: *
Armor Type: Medium
Damage Type: Anti-heavy
-The Disciple has technically two abilities. The first is what you buy to tech, "Steal Antimatter". What it does is implied in the name, but then the second ability is it will transfer that stolen antimatter to a friendly ship. This is lethal on a player who's fleet has a bunch of hoshikos.
Long Range Frigates
-Long Range Frigates are an amazing ship type. One thing I've neglected to mention thus far is damage multipliers. Every damage type in the game has certain damage multipliers against each type of armor. Please see this post by Zyrxil*. He elequently wrote out everything and shows the damage multipliers. I say look at this because LRF's have the best damage multipliers for an early game ship and are actually very strong, fairly cheap, and high in DPS. This makes them the early game unit of choice.
* https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/177682 *
-Understand, I said early game unit of choice, but I did not say spam only lrf's. That will cost you the game. When you make only one type of unit, you make countering what you did simple. I can just make the counter to your fleet and wipe the floor.
-Each long range frigate is different enough that I recommend reading about each one. They really are that different.
-The Counter: This is a tough answer. Heavy Cruisers will tear them to shread, late game, but in early game it's not so simple. Since it has such good damage multipliers, nothing is really "great" against it, but it is entirely counterable. Fighters and scouts each do +100% damage against long range frigates. Scouts, fighters, and long range frigates, in some sort of mix, will do the job and are what I use. The simplest answer is a fighter swarm, thanks to the balancing of the game.
TEC Javelis LRM Frigate
Cost: **
Health: *
Shields: **
DPS: ***
USS: *
Speed: *
Range: ****
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-medium
- The LRM is IMO the worst long range frigate in the game. It just doesn't have the same bonuses that Vasari and Advent have. LRMS have to go through shields and health, and the missiles take forever to get there. I personally don't like the ship, but if you are going to get it, make sure you get the health and armor upgrades in your weapon tech tree.
- One of the few perks is it's better than Assailants in early game and is produced earlier and faster than the Illuminator
-You need numbers with this ship. For every two lrf's Advent and Vasari make, TEC needs 3.
Vasari Kanrak Assailant
Cost: **
Health: **
Shields: **
DPS: ***
USS: **
Speed: *
Range: *****
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-medium
- This Long range frigate starts out as the weakest ship in the class, BUT it's the first one to be produced and it needs only a Tier 1 Weapons tech. It's the worst because it's missiles take so long to get there and they're relatively expensive early.
- This ship becomes one of the best ships late game however. Vasari health upgrades are cheap. The armor upgrades are monstrous, though expensive, and the shield upgrades aren't worthless either.
-The best thing is the phase missiles. Bypassing shield mitigation means a mass of these will absolutely annihilate capital ships and any unit with low health but high shields (I.E. Most Advent units)
-The Assailant starts out the worst of all the long range frigates, but becomes IMO the best late game. It's armor gets upgraded by 6 total. It's shields get upgraded 20%. It's health gets upgraded 30%. It's damage gets upgraded 50%. It's lethal against capital ships. I just love it.
Advent Illuminator Vessel
Cost: **
Health: **
Shields: ***
DPS: ****
USS: **
Speed: *
Range: ***
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-medium
- Ah this ship has so many advantages. The beams are instant hit, as opposed to taking forever to get there like missiles do. It fires in three directions at once, meaning 3 targes are destroyed at one moment as opposed to 1 with long range missiles.
- The only problem is it's a very expensive unit to tech, meaning you are at a disadvantage early. Getting these out quick and early means your economy will suffer. The others can be brought out whenever you want. This one? I'd say wait 20 minutes if you can to bring these about.
- Fully upgrades these will take down Heavy Cruisers. Seriously. With guardians, a mothership, a halcyon, and fully upgraded health/shields/beams,they will. Even without bombers.
Seige Frigates
-Seige Frigates hold a very small role in this game. This is the only ship besides capital ships that can seige a planet. It sounds like it would be useful, but the unit is very expensive and extremely weak. It holds no ship to ship combat value and frankly I avoid building these. For the cost of three of them you can get a capital ship.
-In coop games, however, when you and an ally have combined fleets, one of you can mix in a few. The problem is if you're on your own, so many of your ship slots (12 total, yeesh, for one frigate) are gobbled up by one unit.
-Seige frigates are really what you should use if you have an opponent on the ropes and need to put that last nail in the coffin.
-Just because my opinion of them is low doesn't mean they're useless. There are two very good uses of them. The first is to build 2-3 to help siege once you have defeated an opponent, as in his fleet is gone. This will stop him from rebuilding his fleet and lessen him giving resources to allies. The other is to send these and a few defense ships one way and the bulk of your fleet in the other. The computer/AI is the classic model for this tactic. You really can catch people offguard when you do this.
-The Counter: These are easy to counter. Fighters do it best. Scouts are also great because they're fast enough to get to a "sneak attack" from a seige frigate and stop it from knocking out a lightly defended planet. Anything will tear these apart. Even a stray colony frigate can help. They're that frail.
TEC Krosov Seige Frigate
Cost: ****
Health: *
Shields: *
DPS Weapon: *
DPS Seige Gun: *****
USS: *****
Speed: *
Range: *
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-heavy
-I personally never build this. If you need to seige, I recommend a Marza Dreadnaught with lvl 1 Raze planet.
Vasari Karrastra Destructor
Cost: ****
Health: *
Shields: *
DPS Weapon: *
DPS Seige Gun: *****
USS: *****
Speed: *
Range: *
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-heavy
-I prefer a Desolator (Vasari Seige Cap) over this. Desolator does more DPS in seige than a marza in the long run, so it' s a better investment.
Advent Purge Vessel
Cost: ****
Health: *
Shields: *
DPS Weapon: *
DPS Seige Gun: *****
USS: *****
Speed: *
Range: *
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-heavy
-Same story. Crappy.
-Advent have difficulty seiging. The only capital to get a bonus against plantes is the Revalation, and it doesn't get a good seige ability until level 6, so the question is, what is one to do? I say get like 2-3 to help out, but no more. You lose so many ship slots to for a ship that's so damn weak and can only seige.
Flak Frigates
- Flak have the highest DPS in the game, and are absolutely detrimental to fighters, and to a lesser extent are useful against bombers. They will take down bombers slowly and surely, but bombers have light armor, and flak do anti-very light damage. The bombers will die, emphasis on will, but it takes a lot longer with flak.
- Don't be decived by the high amounts of damage that flak do. Flak all have multiple guns, and the damage is divided amongst the multiple guns. Yes, the ship still does a net total of whatever it's listed as, but overall the damage the ship does is actually kinda weak. Being split amongst many guns pointing in different directions doesn't help, but this ship has the worst damage multipliers in the game. 50% against most targets.
- The defining characteristic of Flak is it's a very meaty ship. It's health is very high, and shields aren't too shabby. It's armor is also very high too. It's a very very tough ship. It doesn't deal too much damage, but can take a huge beating. Flak can potentially be used effectively to counter long range frigate spams, however, I do not advise this tactic. You do little damage to many targets, however placing flak in the middle of the lrf fray will be quite lethal.
- I do recommend that you not build flak alone if you're fighting fighters. Flak destory fighters yes, but fighters only. You need something better to take down the actual carrier.
-The Counter: The Basic Assault frigate is the best option. Long Range Frigates can do it too, somewhat.
TEC Garda Flak Frigate
Cost: **
Health: ***
Shields: **
DPS: ****
USS: *
Speed: ***
Range: **
Armor Type: Heavy
Damage Type: Anti-very light
- Nothing really special about this. Since flak use the same type of weapon (autocannon i think) as Heavy Cruisers, it's not a bad idea to make a fleet of mostly HC's with some flak or fighters. This way the fighters and flak take out anything else that the HC can't handle.
Vasari Junsurak Sentinel
Cost: **
Health: ***
Shields: ***
DPS: ****
USS: **
Speed: ***
Range: **
Armor Type: Heavy
Damage Type: Anti-very light
-It uses phase missiles which is kinda nice. It's worth noting this flak can be especially detrimental to fighters. It has a tech that makes their missiles have an area of effect. It really helps take down the fighters quickly.
Advent Defense Vessel
Cost: **
Health: **
Shields: ***
DPS: *****
USS: *
Speed: ***
Range: **
Armor Type: Heavy
Damage Type: Anti-very light
-I don't see advent players building this ship, unless someone's buildng flak to defend their Illums from fighters. . The Illuminator is so favored that no one uses it most of the time. It just lacks the punch that the Illuminator has. It has the highest base DPS of any frigate in the game, but it's ironically one of the weakest against most ships.
Colonizing Frigate
-The Colonizing frigate has three uses. It can colonize planets (as implied by the name), but it can also capture neutral mines. Neutral mines tend to be scattered all over random maps, so be ready to build one of these early. Maybe two. The more mines you get earlier the better.
-In general, the ships are extremly weak and hold no combat value. One of the few advantages, however, is that one colonizing frigate will kill 1 Vasari scout. It's nice because your Vasari opponents can't come in with much to your mines and kill off your colonizer. It will lose to two Vasari scouts though. Keep that in mind.
-I have a hard time seeing a case to have more than 2 of these at any point in the game. Maybe 3 because the antimatter regeneration rate on this ship is god awful. .5 antimatter/sec regenerated. This is why my first cap is almost always a colonizing capital ship. Higher antimatter regeneration rate. You expand quicker and aren't impeded by the colonizing frigate's bad antimatter regen rate.
-There is of course a new third use for the vasari ship. It's their starbase. YAY!
- The Counter: Scouts or Fighters are the best option, as they'll kill it before it can jump out of system. Almost anything can destroy this ship.
TEC Protev Colony Frigate
Cost: ***
Health: *****
Shields: *
DPS: *
USS: **
Speed: *
Range: *
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-light
- Very high health. Very expensive though. Can hold it's own against 2 Vasari scouts, but that's about it. When I say it can hold it's own, I mean 2 scouts vs. 1 colonizer is a close match, but you should react to your opponent. ESPECIALLY if he's going to run around and get the mines and in the mean time kill off your colonizer. Bottom line, with this and the Advent colonizer, don't leave your colonizer alone with more than 1 Vasari scout. It's not a favorable battle for you to do that.
Vasari Jarun Migrator
Cost: ***
Health: ****
Shields: *
DPS: **
USS: **
Speed: *
Range: *
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-light
- Very weak ship. It also is the only colony frigate not to have the capture neutral mine ability. That ability can be found on the Vasari Scout. You should only build this if you're getting something besides the Space Egg as your first capital ship or plan to starbase rush.
Advent Missionary Vessel
Cost: ***
Health: **
Shields: ***
DPS: **
USS: **
Speed: *
Range: *
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-light
-Same story as the others. Very expensive. Very weak. It doesn't hold it's own very well against Vasari scouts. 1 it can handle. 2 it will lose. You're going to need to build your own scouts to assist your Missionary Vessel if you want to maintain a hold over neutral mines.
Strikecraft
*Note: when I take stats into consideration for strikecraft, I'm talking about a full squad*
Fighters
- Fighters are actually pretty weak for overall damage done. The overall damage of a full squadron is roughly 10 DPS. Against light aromor....however, that doubles. They are great against early game targets that have light armor. Colony frigates, scouts, bombers, and long range frigates are highly vulnerable to fighters. Fighters also do fairly well against other fighters.
- They are also regenerated freely for only the cost of antimatter from a carrier OR for free at no cost from a capital ship.
- The drawback is their individual health is very low and every fighter is highly vulnerable to flak. They also have no form of shields, mitigation or normal. Another problem is that it also has horrible damage multipliers. 25% against most targets. Still, it's lethal in early stages of the game when you see mosly lightly armored targets.
- I make an exception in the 
system I've been using so far. These things are veeery fast. Scouts are listed as 1000 as speed. Fighters are listed at 2700. Bombers are 2000. Since most frigates/cruisers have a speed of 500-1000, I decided not to include strikecraft in that rating.
-The Counter: Flak destroy fighters. Simple answer. If you wanna kill the actual carrier, you can chase it down with your long range frigates, light frigs, or HC's.
- The advent get a great ability with the disciple. It's called steal antimatter. Try it on enemy carriers. It's fun! You litterally steal their antimatter so they can't make fighters!
TEC Fighter Strikecraft
Cost: N/A
Health: *
Shields: N/A
DPS: **
USS: N/A
Speed: ***************
Range: *
Armor Type: Very Light
Damage Type: Anti-light
- Probably the worst of the bunch. Not by much though. Since Kodiak Heavy Cruisers and Fighters use the same weapon type, it's not a bad idea to make both. Fighters counter the bombers after the HC's and HC's counter everything else.
- This squadron is the middle man. Middle number of fighters (6), middle amount of DPS (1.6 per ship), and middle amount of health per fighter (60).
Vasari Fighter Strikecraft
Cost: N/A
Health: *
Shields: N/A
DPS: **
USS: N/A
Speed: ***************
Range: *
Armor Type: Very Light
Damage Type: Anti-light
- The big strength of this unit is that it uses phase missiles. This means after you make a lump of assailants, you bring out fighters and both use the same weapon type. This means upgrading the damage of your entire fleet is actually fairly inexpensive.
- Vasari fighters are tough little bastards. They have the most health(85) and do the most damage per ship (2.6). The drawback is this squadron has the fewest number of ships per squadron (4). The Vasari Carrier has a health cloud that will heal fighters mid battle. Very useful for keeping these tough little guys alive.
- These fighters are the most lethal when it comes to non-strikecraft targets because of phase missiles. Unlike their counterparts, these ships can have their DPS upgraded a whopping 50% (30% phase missile, 20% damage).
Advent Fighter Strikecraft
Cost: N/A
Health: *
Shields: N/A
DPS: **
USS: N/A
Speed: ***************
Range: *
Armor Type: Very Light
Damage Type: Anti-light
- The victor of fighter vs. fighter, advent fighters rely on numbers. They have the most per squadron(9), but do the lowest dps per fighter (1.3), and have the lowest health(40).
Bombers
- Bombers are the only unit in the game that does Anti-very heavy damage. They do their best amounts of damage against only two targets: Heavy Cruisers and buildings (including starbases). They're not useful in the early stages of the game, and I mean that. Don't build these early on.
- Build these when you're ready to go on the offensive and attack enemy planets ( a 1 to 1 ratio would probably be best, use your own judgement though).
- Build these also when your opponent is building Heavy Cruisers. Don't rely on just bombers though. The Heavy Cruiser can chase down the carrier and destroy it.
-The Counter: Fighters. Fighters. Fighters. If you don't have fighters, flak can do the job, but it'll take a whole lot longer. Also, killing the source of the bombers works too.
TEC Bomber Strikecraft
Cost: N/A
Health: *
Shields: N/A
DPS: ***
USS: N/A
Speed: **********
Range: *
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-very heavy
- Again, not the most impressive of the strikecraft. They use missiles like long range frigates.
- This squadron is the middle man. Middle number of bomber (5), middle amount of DPS (3.3 per ship), and middle amount of health per bomber (100).
Vasari Bomber Strikecraft
Cost: N/A
Health: *
Shields: N/A
DPS: ***
USS: N/A
Speed: ***************
Range: *
Armor Type: Very Light
Damage Type: Anti-light
- The big strength of this unit, like with the fighters, is that it uses phase missiles. This means after you make a lump of assailants and fighters, you bring out bombers and all use the same weapon type. This means upgrading the damage of your entire fleet is again fairly inexpensive.
- Vasari bombers are the toughest strikecraft. They have the most health(140) and do the most damage per ship (5.7). The drawback is this squadron has the fewest number of ships per squadron (3). The Vasari Carrier has a health cloud that will heal bombers mid battle. Very useful for keeping these tough little guys alive.
- These bombers are the most lethal bomber at destorying enemy heavy cruisers because of phase missiles. Unlike their counterparts, these ships can have their DPS upgraded a whopping 50% (30% phase missile, 20% damage).
Advent Bomber Strikecraft
Cost: N/A
Health: *
Shields: N/A
DPS: ***
USS: N/A
Speed: **********
Range: *
Armor Type:Light
Damage Type: Anti-light
- They're good and standard bombers. They use beams like the Illuminator. They have the most per squadron(7), but do the lowest dps per bomber (2.5), and have the lowest health(75).
The Cruisers
Carrier Cruiser
- The Carrier itself has no attack ability. It has no guns, but fields two/three squadrons of fighters or bombers. There's really not too much to say about the ship itself because the strikecraft are really what matter.
- One very popular tactic is to send a bunch of carriers in, have them run in circles, and then have your strikecraft pick off enemy targets. It works, sorta, until the carriers get caught. Once the carrier is dead, the fighters will all go down by about 1% health per second until they're dead.
- Thankfully carriers can outrun long range frigates, so fighters are a viable option against long range frigates. Bombers are not a sufficient stand alone ship because heavy cruisers can chase down and kill carriers.
Counter: Light Frigates do it best
TEC Percheron Light Carrier
Cost: *****
Health: ****
Shields: ***
DPS: N/A
USS: ***
Speed: *
Range: N/A
Armor Type: Heavy
Damage Type: N/A
- Not much to say. Tough ship. Fields 2 squads of TEC Fighters or Bombers.
Vasari Lansurak Transporter
Cost: *****
Health: ****
Shields: ***
DPS: N/A
USS: ***
Speed: *
Range: N/A
Armor Type: Heavy
Damage Type: N/A
- Same story as TEC.
Advent Aeria Drone Host
Cost: ******
Health: ******
Shields: ****
DPS: N/A
USS: ***
Speed: *
Range: N/A
Armor Type: Heavy
Damage Type: N/A
-Same story as the others, except fields 3 squads, but takes up 50% more ship slots to balance out.
Support Cruiser #1: Disable/Repair
- Every support cruiser in this category is very unique. Making a general encompassing statement is rather difficult. All I can really say is each one is very unique.
- The Counter: Light frigs are the textbook answer, as they came with the ability to disable opposing ship abilities, anti-heavy damage, and they can chase down support cruisers. Domina's can kinda be left alone. Subverters should be #1 on your list of targets, otherwise ur fleet will be shut down. Hoshikos should be up there too, otherwise they negate all the damage you do to a ship.
TEC Hoshiko Robotics Cruiser
Cost: **
Health: ***
Shields: **
DPS: *
USS: *
Speed: *
Range: **
Armor Type: Heavy
Damage Type: Anti-Heavy
- Affordable, tough, and just an overall good supporting unit. The ship's healing ability is its first. Repair bots will be unleashed and will repair 20 hull per second. A unit that gets this repair bonus probably won't die and will be saved.
- I have this to say about Repair bots. The targeting system of this ability on autocast has shining moments of idiocy. Units that need to be healed tend to go unhealed. What makes it more effective is to have fewer targets. Hoshikos won't help too much with healing LRMS, but with fleets that have meatier and fewer targets, such as the Heavy Cruiser or Flak, you'll start seeing results where the Hoshiko truely is prolonging the lives of your ships. Yes, they help lrms, but not as much as you'd think.
- The disable ability on this ship is ok. Demolition bots disables the ship it hits, deals 250 damange, and reduces its speed and acceleration by half. I just find it to be expensive.
Vasari Stilakus Subverter
Cost: ***
Health: **
Shields: **
DPS: *
USS: **
Speed: *
Range: **
Armor Type: Heavy
Damage Type: Anti-heavy
- The ship has no repair ability, but damn, it doesn't need one. The first ability is enough to sell me. The first ability that you don't have to tech increased phase missile penetration and lowers shield mitigation on a target. Great against Guardians.
- The reserachable ability, distortion field, however, is what most people use. It's an area of effect disabling ability that will freeze non-capital ships for a period of time. They're helpless and you're free to shoot. Just ungodly powerful. It's common to see people make huge fleets of assailants accompanied by these. Watch for a Vasari opponent who makes 6 weapons labs early in a game. That's a dead give away that he's teching subverters.
Advent Domina Subjugator
Cost: ***
Health: **
Shields: **
DPS: *
USS: **
Speed: *
Range: **
Armor Type: Heavy
Damage Type: Anti-heavy
-I rarely see humans use this, and there's a sense of logic behind it. The ship is very expensive to tech, and of the three cruisers in this class, this is probably the worst one, but it's by no means a bad ship. Once you buy the ship, it comes with the ability to disable enemy frigates only for 40 seconds. Ideally, you want to target enemy support cruisers with this ability. Subverters make great targets. So do opposing Guardians.
-The second ability is neat. It stops midbattle and will heal any unit in ur fleet for over a minute, giving it 45 hps. Something like that. Rare to see though, because it's a tier 6 ability.
Support Cruiser #2: "Manipulator"
- Same story as Support the previously mentioned. I call them manipulator's cause they really do manipulate the battlefield. They change the physical setting of the battlefield and really set a different tone for how a battle will be fought.
- These ships come mid to late game. Bringing them out early will get you killed.
- The Counter: The Overseer is simple to kill. Just hit it with anything and it will die. The Cielo is the same story. Guardians are the hardest because of repulse. The good news is that repulse means the guardian isn't going to move (unless the user's an idiot which is good news for you). Light frigs counter all three the best.
TEC Cielo Command Cruiser
Cost: **
Health: ***
Shields: **
DPS: *
USS: **
Speed: *
Range: **
Armor Type: Heavy
Damage Type: Anti-Heavy
- Bring out and have hoshiko's in decent numbers before you consider bringing this unit out. In terms of value of support, Hoshiko's hold greater value in the earlier stages of the game. This unit should be at best coming out after an hour has passed.
- Very good, and very underappreciated unit. The first ability of this unit is ok. It's a slight buff to shields and is useful, but that's not the big strength of this ship.
- The big strength is it's second ability. Designate Target. It's a tier 6 tech. Very expensive, and the reason I say you need to wait until later stages of the game to bring this out. This ability will target enemy ships and give you +40% damage against ANY target. No enemy cap is safe. No enemy ship for that matter is safe. I'd say have a group of around 30 Heavy Cruisers or 40 long range frigates before you even consider bringing this out. About 10-20 of these is all you should ever need. Remember, this is a support unit, not the unit that fights the battle itself for you.
Vasari Severun Overseer
Cost: ****
Health: **
Shields: **
DPS: *
USS: **
Speed: *
Range: **
Armor Type: Heavy
Damage Type: Anti-Heavy
- Like Dominators, you won't see this unit often. It's abilities are rather lackluster.
- The first ability, the ability it comes with, is probably the better of the two. It gives 250 health for a period of time to an allied target and can be stacked indefinitely. It has one VERY KEY use. It can stop the loss of capital ships. Very useful when playing against humans who are known for going straight after enemy caps.
- I don't like the second ability, mainly cause you're paying a lot for it, but it does hold very large strategic promise. It slows the phase jump travel speed of enemy ships jumping into a system by 50% AND tells you when enemy ships are jumping into a planet that your Overseer is at. Very useful for raiding. Combine this with a Marauder Capital ship that makes ships travel faster, well, you get the idea.
Advent Iconus Guardian
Cost: ****
Health: **
Shields: **********
DPS: *
USS: **
Speed: *
Range: **
Armor Type: Heavy
Damage Type: Anti-Heavy
- Best Support cruiser in the game hands down. You could argue 7 of them is more useful than getting a second capital ship. No matter what your oppinion of them, they're absolute beasts.
- The Shield bubble is absolutely amazing. 33% of the damage inflicted to allied units in the range of the bubble will be transfered to the Guardian.
- The amount of shield on this unit is absolutely gigantic. Twice that of the next closest unit with high shields. This ability alone makes the Guardians mandatory to any Advent fleet. Combine it with shield regeneration from a Mothership and the shieild bubble? Well, you get the idea.
- It's also VERY vulnerable to phase missiles. Be careful around Vasari opponents.
- The second ability is called Repulse, and it repells any unit within the radius of the area of effect. I don't mean just repulses, I mean gives a bitch slap of doom and sends them flying. Capital ships will be sent flying across grav wells in some cases. The antimatter cost is very low, but the antimatter firing cost is high. Light frigs, long range frigs, and strikecraft have the best shot at destroying them.
- There is a drawback to repulse. When you do this, you are pushing units out of the range of your fleet. If you're pushing away Assailants or LRM's, you actually just gave your opponent an advantage. He's shooting you and you're not shooting him. Be very careful.
- Repulse is useful for you can push 1/2 of the fleet away to deal with it later. It also allows you to micro capital ships into a part of the gravity well so you can destroy it. This ability just has so many strategic options. Send it into enemy defenses and push them away from their defensive structures. Stall an entire enemy fleet until your fleet can get there. I love it.
Heavy Assault
- The big daddy of all the frigates/cruisers. Their health is high. Their shields are huge. They have the most armor besides what's found on capital ships. They do good damage against anything. They're quick, and they do a lot of damage.
- It's possible to have these out in decent numbers by about 30 minutes into the game. You're economy will suck, but it's managable.
- The Counter: Bombers do the job. Oddly Heavy Cruisers can counter themselves. After that, long range frigates with support cruisers is your best bet.
TEC Kodiak Heavy Cruiser
Cost: *****
Health: *****
Shields: ***
DPS: ****
USS: ****
Speed: **
Range: *
Armor Type: Very Heavy
Damage Type: Composite
- Best heavy cruiser in the game. One of the few strengths the TEC have really. All HC's are beasts, but this one's the beastiest. If you have a game where you can skip lrms and go straight to these, do.
- This ship's ability is actually very useful. It gives a massive speed and acceleration boost to the kodiak, allowing it to close in on enemy targets very quickly. Great for getting to long range frigates or helping negate repulse (somewhat). I recommend micromanaging and no setting this to autocast. Manually trigger it yourself when at all possible.
Vasari Skavoras Enforcer
Cost: *****
Health: *****
Shields: ***
DPS: ****
USS: ****
Speed: **
Range: *
Armor Type: Very Heavy
Damage Type: Composite
- I actually really don't like this heavy cruiser. It's the most expensive heavy cruiser, and it takes up 12 ship slots as opposed to 10 for the TEC and Advent. It's a beast. Very tough and best damage per second, but unlike Advent and TEC, upgrading this ship is a bitch. It's first weapon upgrade is a tier 4 tech as opposed to tier 2 for TEC and Advent.
- This ship, however, has something to counter balance that disadvatage. Two abilites as opposed to just one. The first is the tier 6 ability. It will slow down enemy ships making them better targets for aperiod of time.
-. The other abilty is a tier two tech. the ship will shut itself down midbattle and heal 720 some health points in 20 seconds. Very useful ability.
Advent Destra Crusader
Cost: *****
Health: *****
Shields: ***
DPS: ****
USS: ****
Speed: **
Range: *
Armor Type: Very Heavy
Damage Type: Composite
- I actually like this cruiser, and I'd call it only slightly weaker than the TEC Kodiak, it's just that I prefer Illuminators over this ship. It's the only frigate/cruiser in the Advent fleet besides the segie frigate that uses plasma as it's weapon. Still, verey strong ship, great against any ship.
- It's tier 6 ability is designed to be coupled with Malice. Every ship witihin a certain radius from the heavy cruiser will take 1.5 damager per second. Coupled that with Malice which propogates shared damage, and then it becomes very useful.
Assault Cruisers
- This class really makes non sense. I personally find them to be useless. Why? Bombers do this job better, and bombers aren't limited to attacking just buildings. Don't build these. Ever. They need to be rebalanced. Both are countered by fighters. Both are frail. The bombers are just overall better.
Counter: Fighters. They kill them so easily. Anything really does the job well honestly.
TEC Assault Cruiser
Cost: *****
Health: ***
Shields: ***
DPS: ****
USS: ****
Speed: **
Range: *
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-building
-I like using this one more than the Advent one. This is the only true anti-starbase unit in the game.
Advent Assault Cruiser (AKA the Starfish)
Cost: *****
Health: *****
Shields: ***
DPS: ****
USS: *****
Speed: **
Range: *
Armor Type: Light
Damage Type: Anti-building
I really can't think of a time when to use this as the game is currently set-up. The only time I've EVER seen this be useful is against a human who is down to 1 planet and is holding up with a starbase and an assortment of defensive structures.
Capital Ships
- Evaluating the capital ships is very difficult. Every single capital ship in this game can be used for some sort of tactic or technique. Every cap is useful, but what's different is when they should be emerging in the game.
- To evaluate these, cost doesn't enter the equation. They're all identical in cost. What's key is that the presense each brings is unique.
- I will summarize each ability. I'm not necessarilly going to use the proper name of the ability, but give it a name so you get the idea of what it is. Take from my summary what you will to understand its use.
Capital Battleships
Advent Radiance Battleship
Ability 1: Detonate Antimatter
- Very nice ability for taking other capital ships out of the picture. Does damage to a ship, and depletes antimatter. Abilities on the target are disabled. Best counter Advent has for Missile Barrage.
Ability 2: Animosity
- Forces ships within a certain range to target this ship. Very good when coupled with Ability 3 and Vengeance on the support capitalship. Stops enemy from attacking ur actual fleet. Quite lethal really, but has a target limit (24 affected ships).
Ability 3: Energy Absorbing Armor (Passive)
- The capital ship increases its armor and a percentage of the damage the ship takes is converted into antimatter.
Lvl 6 Ability: Cleansing Brilliance
- Ship does 250 damage per second for 8 seconds. Anything touched by the beam takes this damage.
The Radiance is a nice ship, but I see too many people that think this ship can stand alone. Yes, antimatter bomb is amazing. It disables an enemy capital ship from using abilities (ideally). Animosity and the passive armor buff gel well together, yes. Cleansing Brilliance is nice yes, but there is a theme among Advent Capital ships.
They synergize. What do I mean?
Well, antimatter bomb doesn't really synergize. That ability is what can make this your second capital ship so you can disable your opponent who's leaning heavily on a capital ability (say Vasari with the Egg using the nanite bomb).
The second and third ability kinda go hand in hand. The third ability is self explanatory, and I like the ability personally. Animosity is nice because it can be coupled with an ability on the Rapture Battlecruiser, called Vengeance. I explain in the Rapture part what the ability does.
Cleansing brilliance is best coupled with malice on the Mothership. You want the massive amounts of damage to be shared amongst all enemy targets. Be careful with timing, as you want ideally all the damage done during one malice shot.
TEC Kol Battleship
Ability 1: Railgun
- Does X amount of damage to one target. X increases with level. I don't like it, as I see it as a waste of antimatter. You only do 300,500,800 damage. Goes through mitigation, so I just think it's lackluster. However it does become great when coupled with Flux Field on the Dunov.
Ability 2: Flak Burst
- The only ship in the game that has a better anti-strikecraft ability is the Halcyon Carrier. Flak burst does X damage to all fighters/bombers within a certain area. X increases with levels. Time this ability carefully. Ideally, you should manually fire it when most targets are in range, as autocast will fire when one squadron is in range.
Ability 3: Adaptive Forcefields
- Negates phase missile penetration and lowers damage taken. An incredible buff. Great against a Vasari player.
Lvl 6 Ability: Finest Hour
- Increases antimatter regen rate and self healing rate. A nice combat buff.
The Kol overall is a great ship. The ship in and of itself is a rock in the fleet. The abilities it has are ok IMO. Railgun is a waste of antimatter, but flak burst decimates strikecraft. Adaptive Forcefields takes a ship that is already the toughest cap at level 1 and makes it better. Finest Hour adds to that.
Great as anti-Vasari. Not so great against Advent though. There are better capital ship choices against Advent.
Vasari Kortul Devestator
Ability 1: Power Surge
- Increases shield regen and firing rate. Effects felt only by this ship.
Ability 2: Jam Weapons
- This ability could use a fix. I don't really find it useful at all. It only disables enemy strikecraft weapons in a certain area. Very bleh. Also, it doesn't work in 1.09. Strikecraft still fire in the aura that's created.
Ability 3: Disruptive strikes (Passive)
- When the Devestator hits an enemy, there's a chance the enemy ship will have increased cooldowns and lose some antimatter.
Lvl 6 Ability: Volatile nanites.
- Ships affected take more damage, and when they die they do damage to ships around. You can get a chian reaction if you do it right.
- Overall, I find this ship to be lackluster. It's not the rock that a Kol is, nor does it bring the abilities that a Radiance does. Power Surge is nice, disruptive strikes doesn't really do that much, though it is being buffed in 1.1. Volatile nanites is a great ability however. If you know how to set it up, you can definitely be lethal with that.
This is the weakest battleship btw, though more of the guns can target towards the front so this will win in 1 v 1 agaisnt other battleships. I find there are other better choices to add to your fleet before this capital ship.
Capital Carriers
Advent Halcyon Carrier
Ability 1: Telekinetic Push (a.k.a. Fighter Bitch Slap of Doom)
- Advent easily have the best counter in the game to a fighter spam. A single halcyon can screw you if you have massed fighters/bombers. This ability damages and sends strikecraft flying. If you see your opponent with a highly upgraded version of this, you better not be making strikecraft. You'll go down damn quick.
Ability 2: Adept Drone Anima
- The worst of the four abilities on this ship. If you are at X level, your squads will have X additional stirkecraft to the standard amount in them. This is only for squads on this ship, so save this for if your carrier somehow gets up to level 8.
Ability 3: Amplify Energy Aura
- This ability is amazing. It ups the fire rate of your ships close to your halcyon by a percentace (up to 22%). Really quite lethal. You should be upping ability 1 or 3 first.
Lvl 6 Ability: Anima Tempest (a.k.a. Fighter Swarm)
- I've never seen this ability have a huge effect to be honest. The Halcyon will temporarily have more strikecraft in its squadrons. 15 additional fighters in one squad and 15 additional Bombers in one other. It doesn't last long enough for me to really consider it worth the anti-matter. I like the first ability better.
The Halcyon is a great ship. The first and third abilities make this a lethal support/counter capital ship. The firing aura is lethal with Illuminators, and the first ability absolutely owns strikecraft. Two of these will destroy any amount of strikecraft with ease.
TEC Sova Carrier
Ability 1: Missile Batteries
- This ability is ok. It's a nice support ability, and the second abiliity I put the level ups into.
Ability 2: Embargo
- This is the selling point of the Sova. This is the ability the ship leans on for the Sova Rush. You steal a certain amount of income from a planet, meaning the more income the planet has, the better the ability serves you. You want to aim for an opponents homeworld ideally with this ability.
Ability 3: Heavy Fighters
- If this ship somehow makes it to level 8, sure, put your level ups into this ability. The only thing affected by this ability is the strikecraft with the Sova. I don't recommend putting your upgrades in this ability. Plus, once you're at level 8, you probably have 6 squads from the sova so it's finally worth the upgrade.
Lvl 6 Ability: Rapid Manufacturing
- Interesting ability. Strikecraft are instantly replaced on the Sova, and any frigate factories in the grav well will produce ships faster. It's a good ability. I've just never used it that much.
The Sova is a lethal ship. Embargo is the best ability. At level three it steals 100% of the income from a planet. Stealing an opponent's homeworld is just fun fun fun! The missile turret is a good support ability,and rapid manufacturing is a good support ability. I dislike the third ability. I don't think it does enough compared to the other abilities.
Vasari Skinantra Carrier
Ability 1: Repair Cloud
- This is my favorite ability on this ship. It's like shield regen except for health. The only bad thing about this is it will only heal a unit who's shields are gone, but still, add in the fact that this heals strikecraft too, and this ability becomes amazing.
Ability 2: Scramble Bombers
- I don't like this ability. It only gives you an additional squad of bombers. Isn't that great tbh.
Ability 3: Microphasing Aura
- I like this ability. It gives your strikecraft the opportunity to stay alive by having a percentage chance of moving closer to their targets. Zryxil lists the percentages, but take my word for it and have this be the second ability you're leveling up.
Lvl 6 Ability: Replicate Forces
- I like this ability, but it has a big drawback. First it creates 3 clones of your ships, which sounds great, but it only lasts for 150 seconds. That makes this ability a little....eh.
This thing is actually overall pretty weak. This ship brings one thing to the table: it's the best support ship possible if you're making a ton of fighters/bombers. Other than that though, there are better uses for the fifty ship slots this thing takes up.
Capital Colonizers
I have this to say about the Colonizers. In my opinion, the colonizer capital ship is the best capital ship for 99% of the games you'll play as your first cap. The fact is you expand so much quicker with these capital ships early game. Each offers a completely different assortment of abilities, but the colonize ability on each one is what sells me.
Advent Progenitor Mothership (A.K.A. The Space Slug)
Ability 1: Colonize
- This is arguably the best ability in the game, and yes, I mean that. Here's why. With each level, you pay 20% less for planet upgrades in creds and minerals. At level three you pay 60% LESS for planet upgrades. That's just ridiculous and is the reason that Advent economies early on do not suffer. Advent doesn't have a good credit source (No upgrades to their trade unlike Vas and TEC), and no good mineral source (Their tradeports can be turned into mineral facilities that give an extra percentage on the planet they're on, not very good). Get this ability first always. It's so valuable.
Ability 2: Malice
- This ability used to be ridiculous, but it's now just sorta meh. The ability selects 8,12,16 enemy ships as it levels up. For 10 seconds, malice is in effect. Now, what happens is after ten seconds, 30% of the damage done to these ships is distributed. What's unclear is if 70% is done and then 30% distributed, or 100% done and then 30% distributed. I believe it's the latter. If you can time this with Cleansing Brilliance on the Radiance (1200 damage in 8 secs), this abilitiy is lethal. I say up Shield Regen and Colonize first.
Ability 3: Shield Regeneration
- I love this ability. The mothership is already a powerful ship with it's first two abilities, but the third ability is just ridiculous. For 10 seconds the mothership stops and regenerated 37.5,50, and then 62.5 Shield Per Second in a certain area of effect. This is so powerful when you're going up against a fleet of anything. Your opponent is trying to kill you off, and you just.....heal your ships which now have high shields and mitigation shields as well. (Mitigation and Regular shields are two separate things. Mitigation always applies and increases as the target is taking damage. Regular shields can be worn away and will regenerate slowly)
Lvl 6 Ability: Resurrection
- This ability transfers experience from capital ships that you've lost to capital ships that you own excluding this mothership. This is great for if you lose a high level cap and want the experience back. This ship HAS to go to where the experience was lost. It then can transfer the experience to your other cap anywhere. There's a bit of a delay from the time you do the ability to when it kicks in, but it does work. It really frustrates opponents when he kills off a high level cap only to have it come back.
The mothership is the best capital ship in the game. That's my opinion, not everyone's. Every ability on this ship can be lethal. The problem it has is that it's slow as hell. Anything in this game, including Long range frigates, can catch it. Be careful with this thing in battle. If your opponent is targeting it, get it out of there. I mean right at the moment he goes after it. Watch for Vasari players doing that. Phase missiles are so adept at doing it.
TEC Akkan Battlecruiser
Ability 1: Colonize
- Colonize is a powerful ability, but unlike Advent, the bonus here sucks. As you level it up, you get 0,1,2 extractors made free of charge. TEC has arguably the best reason to not be building the colonizer first. The abilities this ship brings to the table aren't for everyone's taste, so picking it just for Colonize is a hard argument to make especially with Missile Barrage as strong as it is for the Marza.
Ability 2: Ion Bolt
- I like this ability, but it's only good in specific situations. Ion bolt will disable ships for 3,5,7 seconds. And I mean completely. It only disables one at a time. The reason it's good is because if you have an opponent on the run, you can fire this at his capital ship as it's trying to run. He can't do anything about it. Also, you can fire it an opponent ship doing something lethal, like say a Mothership doing shield regen, or perhaps a Marza firing off missile barrage. You should be firing this ability manually.
Ability 3: Targeting Uplink
- This ability rarely has its uses. Don't put upgrades into this. I just don't see the point. You get extra range +6% per level and +5% targeting chance to hit per level. That sounds great, but range isn't everything, and Targeting only helps flak (Only ship with less than 100% hit rate...they have something like 65% hit rate against strikecraft). This also helps if you're in an asteorid belt. You get 20% less hit rate in there. It also helps if an Advent player is using a Dominator capital ships with Vertigo. That ability lowers your hit rate by 10% per level.
Lvl 6 Ability: Armistice
- This is easily one of the strongest strategic abilities in the game. I say that because Armisitce will stop every ship from firing in a certain AOE for one minutes. It has a three minute cooldown time (I.E. 120 seconds between uses). The reason this is lethal is because you can split your fleet and not have to worry about losing the one that has the Akkan. This opens up a lot of options when you can split your fleet without worry.
The Akkan isn't for everyone. You may not like it, but others will swear by it. I like it personally. You just gotta use it right.
Vasari Jarassul Evacuator (A.K.A. The Space Egg)
Ability 1: Colonize
- I don't have much to add after explaining colonize in the TEC and Advent section. I will say it's o much better to have a capital ship regenerating the antimatter you need for coloinze than a colonizer. The regen rate is quicker so you colonize and expand quicker, which means a better eco early. The bonus you get here is you will build buildings 20% faster for some amount of time. I'm not bothering to look up how long because it's worthless. I don't like this bonus at all.
Ability 2: Gravity Bomb
- This is a better version of Ion Bolt. This ability stops enemy ships from jumping and slows them down. That's just lethal when you've got an opponent on the run. You stop him from jumping his most prized ships (Starting cap is best) and you then kill it before it can jump. Just so friggin lethal.
Ability 3: Nanite Disassembler
- This is great with massed Assailants. This ability allows you to fire a bomb that does 30 dps to a ship regardless of level, but it also lowers its armor by -2,-4,-6 as it progresses. Armor gives a multiplier against damage against the hull, so this really does help phase missiles.
Lvl 6 Ability: Drain Planet
- This does a lot. At level 6 this cap will go up to any planet and over the course of 20 seconds, do 1000 damage to it, and give you around 500 metal and 500 crystal. So much fun to do that.
The Egg is powerful all around. There's only one problem. It's slow as hell. Illuminators and LRMs will tear this thing apart if you let them. Watch this ship if you're investing in it. It's too easy to lose it if you don't.
Capital Support "Manipulators"
I have this to say about the support capital ships. These ships are naaaaasty. They bring the most unique abilities to the game, and most of them if not all are great.
Advent Rapture Battlecruiser
Ability 1: Vertigo
- Great ability. It effectively lowers enemy damage by 20% per level. I don't know the limit on the number of ships, but I know it's large. First it lowers the enemy hit rate by 10% per level and increased the time between shots by 10%. That's fun to watch against long range frigates.
Ability 2: Vengeance
- Synergizable. This ability will take whatever damage done to it, and give it back to the ship attacking it. The percentages are 65, 130, and 200. Mix this in with animosity on the Radiance battleship. Animosity forces targets to attack it, meaning Vengeance will be best utilized here.
Ability 3: Concentration Aura
- Great if you have north of 4-5 carriers. This ability will up the damage of your strikecraft by 10%,20%,30%, but your carriers MUST be relatively close to the capital ship to feel the effects. The radius of the AOE is huge, though, so just keep the carriers near your mothership if your opponent is attacking them. Use shield regen to help them out.
Lvl 6 Ability: Domination
- This ability kicks so much ass. You literally steal a frigate from your opponent. This includes carriers. That's just ridiculous. Aim it at ships worth getting, like enemy support ships.
This ship is great as a support ship. You can make it your second to fifth capital ship. I do not recommend you ever pick it to start though. It's meant to be used with a fleet, not on its own.
TEC Dunov Battlecruiser
Ability 1: Shield Restore
- Pretty straight forward. As you upgrade it, this ability will restore more shields. The best targets are your own capital ships. Two Dunovs is fun, because they'll never die.
Ability 2: EMP Charge
- One of the most underutilized abilities in the game. This ability has a huge area of affect and will do damage and deplete antimatter. This is great against a group of carriers or even Guardians (the range is pretty long). If there's an ability out there that's kicking your butt, this ship will help stop your opponent from using it, if not completely stop him from using it.
Ability 3: Magnetize
- Now here's an interesting ability. A ship/building's abilities are disabled AND 8/12/16 strikecraft within the area of affect will crash into the magnetized object. Additionally, each crashed strikecraft does 25 damage to the said target. That's just funny.
Lvl 6 Ability: Flux Field
- An ability I wish the Advent had. This ability LOWERS the cost of antimatter by 300% for friendlies (I'm pretty sure it's really you pay -75% ish). That's just fun. Lethal. Deadly. Help your marza out, help your akkan out. Mix this with an Advent ally? Wow. Pure pwn-age.
I love this cap. If you can afford it, get it.
Vasari Antorak Marauder
Ability 1: Phase Out Hull
- This actually kinda lackluster. The ability will completely phase out a ship (including enemy caps), so it can be used to stop an ability like say missle barrage from playing itself out. The problem is it doesn't last long. It can also be used on itself and allied ships, if you're trying to save it. Overall though, I wish it lasted longer.
Ability 2: Distory Gravity
- Now THIS ability I like. Your ships are WAY faster, and at level two you IGNORE phase jump inhibitors. Huge AOE. This ability will give your opponent fits because it makes everything in your fleet in the AOE 100% faster. He'll never catch you if you have this ability.
Ability 3: Subversion
- Increases enemy building/ship build time by +50% per level. That's great for attacking that annoying opponent with 5 frig facs at one planet.
Lvl 6 Ability: Stabilize Phase Node
- This is great. This ship can sneak into your opponents backyard, and you can jump your entire fleet to his HOMEWORLD. This let's you play god with the map. Try it. It's fun.
The only drawback to this ship is that it doesn't bring much to the table combat-wise. Yes, it's ok at it, but this isn't its strong suit.
Capital Seige
Advent Revalation Battlecruiser
Ability 1: Reverie
- You freeze one ship for a long time, but if you attackc it, it wakes up. This is good for taking a capital ship out of the picture, or say stopping a marza from doing missile barrage.
Ability 2: Guidance
- Lowers time between ability activation time for a ship. Use it on other capital ships. Ideally use it on a Mothership with malice.
Ability 3: Clairvoyance
- You can see onto other planets without having a ship there. Kinda an iffy ability. use it to see what ur opponent is up to at times. Comes in handy if you catch him offguard.
Lvl 6 Ability: Provoke Hysteria
- This ability kicks so much ass. This is the best seiging ability in the game. Better than the Marza. Better than the Desolator. Problem is it's a level 6 ability. You have to wait for ages to use it. If you're actually going to try to get this ability this either has to be your first or second capital ship. It does it's damge for 45 seconds I believe. Each second it kills 1% of the health and 1% of the population. Great for taking down planets with 6000 health or above 200 population. Also, best....animation....ever......funny to watch.
TEC Marza Dreadnought
Ability 1: Radiation bomb
- Does X damage when it hits and deals Y damage per second after it hits. Both grow with the levels. Little weak for my taste (X=300 ish, Y = 7 ish)
Ability 2: Raze Planet
- Absolutely Levels Planets. What else is there to say?
Ability 3: Incendiary Shells
- A little weak. Does X damage (ball park 5 dps) to a target it hits. It's a passive ability. To be honest I've never seen it have that big an effect on the battlefield.
Lvl 6 Ability: Missile Barrage
- Beware of a Marza with level 6. If you're on the recieving end of a cMarza using this, you're screwed. This ability will level entire fleets. If you're the one using it, what you do is get it in the midle of his fleet and just let it loose. He'll go down lightning quick. Just so OP.
I love this cap. If you can afford it, get it.
Vasari Vulkoras Desolator
Ability 1: Phase Missle Swarm
- I've never seen this have that big an effect on the battle. Nice ability, sure, but I'd rather get the other abilities first. The name says it all for what this ability does.
Ability 2: Deploy Seige Platform
- Nice ability. You can leave the platform to seige and go attack with your cap for a while. I just leave it seige. You can upwards of three going at the same time at higher levels. Great for knocking out planets. Rivals Raze planet for overall power.
Ability 3: Assault Specialization.
- Does more damge to buildings and does 2X the damage to plnaets. It's ok. I like the second ability more for seiging, but it definitely helps.
Lvl 6 Ability: Disintigration
- Very fun ability. It will pull 1600 health from other ships and heal itself with 1500 of it. This is only for health/hull, not shields. Use it on a ship that has low enough hull that it will die, like say, a Guardian.
Really really wierd ship. Takes up 18 ship slots. Will attack multiple buildings at one time. useful for taking out a huddle group of buildings, ut other than that, little iffy. I prefer bombers for taking down sb with as Adve
