Please understand that this is my opionion only, okie? But i play the Advent alot, and to my mind the Vasari are very very tough to beat because of their phase technology, they can phase out and not be hurt, they can jump from planet to planet without using the phase lane, they have pretty high hull and shields and their weapons are pretty heavy. The Tec have alot of numbers, they flood into a grav well and simply dominate with a large large fleet. Not always of course or in every situation, but the Tec use large fleets closer to their HomeWorld that you come.

By the Advent having the Domination power that you describe of taking over a ship from another race, it gives a somewhat closer balance to dealing with stronger vasari fleets, or with large large tec fleets. This is just my opinion, and i believe it was the opinion of the devs as well because i believe that is why they included it in the game. But it can be disconcerting yes, if you are Tec or Vasari and have to face that. I modded a game and gave the Vasari and the Tec the Domination ability and then found my self facing my own fleet when i got to one of their closer worlds! THey had converted part of my own fleet against me!!  Well, quick way to deal with that was for me to retreat and build up a larger fleet and attack again, but it took a while for me to take out my "own" converted ships, before i even started on the Tec ships that had converted mine. I took heavy losses and had to micro manage the fire against the Dominators first, to get them from continuing to "convert" my ships. I believe it took me two retreats and three assaults with a lot of ships before i did indeed get that one little planet and then i had to look at going on into 3 or 4 of their remaining planets to win the game, haha, it was intense for a long while, and i thought i was going to lose several times, but it was also fun!!    Anyway, that is my take, and hope i havent offended, but i like the domination ability, even when i dont really like it when its used on me, haha.

It just takes me alot of effort to try to overcome when they do that to me, 

-Take care,

-Teal

Hmmm.... well you are entitled to your opinion, you think the advent has the strongest fleet? Interesting, I have not found that to be correct, and as for domination as crap? Well.... I dont think i need to answer that. Are you basing your opinion on your experiences? Or your emotions? If you could elaborate in a "rational" manner, then perhaps i would consider what you have to say much more readily? Simply spouting opinions as facts doesnt help.

-Teal

but still i got 14 frigates every time i used it 

Tunabreath thank you for the interesting and nice post. I have been under a misassumption then all these months, well, 4 months now that i have played the game, and mostly as Advent, i think i have played Tec twice and Vasari once. But i have always thought the Vasari, at least in playing against them AI, that they had a fairly superior position over the Tec and Advent. And I also assumed that the Tec strength was their ability to build quickly and cheaply, so as to counter in numbers what their strength lacked. As for Advent, hmmm.... i have played them alot, but have always thought they were mostly reliant on their shields, where they lacked the same numbers as the tec, or the technical superiority of the vasari. but i am not an expert who has tons of experience. When the poster above mentioned that the domination ability was over powering, I thought ... well, i dont believe it is. I thought it had a function that allowed it some balance against the vasari and the tec. But as you say, and it does seem reasonable to believe that late game the 60 cooldown is just too long to get to many conversions, and therefor is perhaps best used early game with small confrontations.

Anyway, thank you for the post and the interesting insight.  

Take care,

-Teal

Most of the time when my Rapture uses domination the guy I turn goes with the rest of the fleat that is fleaing and died =\