Best and Worst Caps 2.0

Most I will agree with expect the Kol, personally I find it to be of great use when paired with a Dunov and even with out a Dunov I have found it to be the toughest (in taking damage) around, add in a Dunov (at level six or higher) and a repair bay or two and it is practical invincible with the highest armor rating and the ability to recieve the highest repair rate in the game with Finest Hour ( 40 from repair bay + 20 from Hosikos + 15 from Starbase Supply Depot + 10 from Finest Hour = 85 dps repaired)

I disagree with you on the kol as well. The kol has the highest damage of all tec cap ships, the best survivability, and finest hour makes the kol so splash damage.....think about that for a second. the kol doing all its damage to a large area. Its very powerful, and multiple level 6 kols makes this even better. You likely never been on the recieving end of multiple high level kols. They are the only things in the game that have no real counter.

Disagree 100% with the Kol - especially when paired with the Dunov.  Sure, the Kol won't win a 1v1 fight against another capship, but that's what Dreadnoughts (i.e. Marza) are for.  The Kol is supposed to fly into the middle of the enemy fleet and soak up and dish out damage to everthing around it.  Flak burst shreds fighters and bombers (especially weak Advent fighters, which is vital, considering they are as numerous as rabbits) and GRG isn't that bad.  Forcefield is good when you run out of shield and Finest Hour is just that.

When paired with the Dunov...it's not good, it's god.  The Kol absorbs the fire thanks to Finest Hour and well placed use of Shield Restore, Flux Field + GRG shreds anything of significance, Flak Burst is super deadly with afformentioned Flux Field, and coupled with the Dunov's magnetise (and ability which I find hilarious when all the enemy strikecraft take-off only to got "Weeeee *crunch*" against their own carrier) keeps the skies (space?) clear.  Finally, EMP bomb prevents the enemy pulling anything funny; where are your abilities now Mr Advent?  The only thing that doesn't stand out is Adaptive Forcefield, but its still useful as it can be kept constantly "On".

Simply put; the Kol is awsome.  Perhaps the Dunov is awsomer due to its abilities, but the Kol is still very much on par with the Kortul/Radiance.

Hehe, was about to stick up for the Kol, but people beat me to it.

Honestly, I wouldn't go as far as Swordsalmon, but he's right: the Kol is now a weak capital ship.  That said, I totally disagree with Swordsalmon regarding Finest Hour; once it hits level 6 the Kol becomes absolutely awesome thanks to this ability.  My opinion is that both the Dunov and the Kol suffer the same problem; they're totally awesome once they start to hit the higher levels, but they're among the weakest capital ships in the game at lower levels.  In a tight match, you just can't take the gamble that they'll be able to reach those high levels.

I'm not sure what needs to happen to the Kol and Dunov.  They certainly do need help, as they remain highly underused and don't really mature until they gain several levels, but on the other hand it would be very easy to overbuff them and have wicked late-game monsters on our hands.  The devs are treading a fine line, but I'd like to see these caps get into the sweet spot.  Other than these two, the TEC capital ships are pretty much perfect.

As for Advent, I think the Halcyon's telekinetic push is in need of a mild nerf.  It's not a huge problem if there's only one Halcyon, but if the Advent player gets two or three it can be virtually impossible to even use strike craft against him, and that's a problem.  I think the Revelation needs a buff to clairvoyance and guidance; in fact, I think guidance needs to be completely reworked because as it stands it's just not useful in any realistic scenario.  The Radiance's animosity ability also needs either a strong buff or a complete rework.

Vasari need a little something on every capital ship.  The Jerrasul needs stronger colonization ability.  The Skirantra could use a buff to scramble bombers, microphasing aura, and replicate forces.  The Kortul needs a buff to jam weapons, because it's really not any better than it was in 1.03.  The Vulkoras needs a buff to phase missile swarm.  The Antorak... needs its own discussion thread, it's got severe issues that need sorting through...

Am I missing some patch?  I can't make Akkan do squat, except colonize.  How is it improving DPS?  Are you consciously picking fights in asteroid belts?  It's just theneutral asteroid belts where it helps, right?  I can see it countering a Guardian push, and it plays good D (especially a lvl 6), I just don't see how it improves DPS.   ...does it improve the to-hit of strike craft??

I disagree about Revelation.  Okay, so it's still not very good.  But Clairvoyance is the reason I get it.  It's instantaneous recon, anywhere you want.  It only takes 1 point, right out of the factory.  And if you're ever in a position where you get to choose which cap ship dies, this is the one.  It's like, cast Vengeance on your progen, they re-target your Rev.  Not the end of the world--buy another and get your Clairvoyance back.

Basically, all the caps serve a purpose. You can't exactly diss them because they do not fit your style of play. Some are weaker than others, but they all have a specific role to play in each faction's fleet. I personally try to get all of them when I can.

The problem is that both the Kol and Dunov need to be level 6 in order to get this combination. With Flux Field, the Kol's GRG is actually quite poweful. The problem is though, that doing this takes extremely long and likely deprives the player of a better game early on with an Akkan, for example.

Wheras with the Kortul and Radiance, they can be useful from level one, with Detonate Antimatter and Power Surge. The Kol never really gets to being good until far too late in the game.

My problem with Finest Hour is that is just doesn't do enough; it's pretty much just a super-heal and being able to use Flak Burs a second time. It is good when comboed with Flux Field, but it just happens too late in a game to be viable.

If GRG negated shield migitation, that alone would make the Kol a much stronger ship. Laying a flat 975 damage every six seconds would be incredibly powerful, and make the ability stronger. I also think Finest Hour could be better if the Kol's weapon cooldown was also decreased.

Completely agree every where else. I do think that the Antorak just needs boosts all-around, but it really is just an incredibly situational ship that is likely not to be used in most circumstances.

The important thing about finest hour is that it allows you to spam flak burst in rapid succession.  Short cooldowns are what make the Kol's abilities so utterly devastating, and even a tiny amount of antimatter can have a massive boost of performance.

Targetting Uplink's range boost is essentially a DPS boost for your units. Also, it does affect Flak's hit rate on SC, but I don't believe it affects SC directly.

That's all it really is being used for; clearing out SC. So Finest Hour is reall just allowing Flak Burst to kill out SC, and that's about it. Killing them off is really good, but having to get a level 6 Kol just to clear out SC real efficiently seems very weak.

I think all of the caps are pretty good now situationally.  Everyone has a preference to their playstyle.  Of course, some, like the upgraded Halcyon are just EXTRA good.  It doesn't mean the others are bad.

The power of being able to clear out strikecraft is directly proportional to how dependent the enemy fleet is on strikecraft.  If the other fleet isn't using any, it is worthless.  If the other fleet has tons, it is powerful.  Of course, people aren't using strikecraft as much these days.  The Kol was a damn good ship in 1.10.   

The other thing everyone seems to be glossing over is the Kol is tough enough to actually risk it in late game combat whereas you can lose some of the other caps pretty fast, even with Hoshiko support.  While this is not a grand strategic ability, it is useful.

I like the post. I'm surprised how much people are sticking up for the Kol though.

Look at the multiplayer scene from the grand scheme. There is agreement that the Kol isn't all that useful until level 6, and you know what? I don't find it useful unless linked with a level 6 dunov. The dunov is awful as a starting cap for so many reasons in it's own right. Getting the Kol/Dunov nine times out of ten will get you killed online. Ok....will get you killed provided you're playing a competent player. They bring too little impact early on.

Also, how often are you ever going to have a high level kol/dunov together? It's so rare, and while I agree about the Kol being a decent anti-strikecraft cap, ever noticed how friggin small the aoe is? That's not all that hard to work around folks. Not to mention 100 antimatter  per flak burts is damn expensive and almost requires either multiple Kols or a level 6 dunov. Again, I'm stressing that getting a Dunov and Kol to higher levels is rare and not a good early game strategy.

Don't sneeze at the Revalation. Provoke Hysteria is the best seiging ability in the game in my opinion, because the tougher the target that it needs to seige is, the more damage it does. I realize getting a Revalation to level 6 is rare, so I'm going to lump my opinion of the Revlation in with the Kol/Dunov. Effective....in longer games.

For the record I think the Advent caps fall in the order of Progen, you can argue whatever the hell you want in the middle three, the Revalation. Personally, I find the Halcyon, Radiance, and Rapture all to be great caps. I put the Radiance at number two however. Antimatter bomb is frankly one of the best abilities in the game. For a level 1 cap to come out at any point of the game and instantly be able to disable and deplete antimatter stores of a level 6 ability (say armistice, missile barrage, planet drain) is powerful. Oh so powerful.

My only complaints are minor tweaks in your explainations. Ion Bolt is THE BEST cap disabling ability in the game. why? its cheap, doesnt break when the unit is attacked, and has a short recast, all the supplies you need to make a dead cap-ship pie

from stats alone the sova has low DPS, but 3 SC + missile batteries (without crunching numbers) I would have to say gives it the most DPS of all TEC caps....least early and mid-game.

I would put the marza as 2 just because its outrageously good late game, and put dunov as last (though it pains me to say that) aside from it being extemely both under used and valued, its not very tough, doesnt have high DPS, and since it cant colonize you'd be essentially taking it over any of the other ships that cant colonize like a marza or a sova.....sacrilege.

The Kols ult is actually pretty damn good, from observations the range on splash damage is pretty insane. Overall, how its guns are spread makes its DPS lackluster and i agree with amish about flak cannon (also, since it does a set amount of damage, early levels only really make it OK verse fighters - it would take at least 2 good shots at lvl 2 to kill bombers, thats without factoring in hull regen). In most situations I would get rail gun over flak cannon cuz of its slowing effect (which is kind of funny cuz thats still better than what vasari gets in the way of cap disables - and only slightly worse than reverie...on top of that TEC already has ionbolt lol).

I would also put revelation as 3rd and rapture as 5th. I think clairvoyance is extremely undervalued and reverie is the only hard counter to something like MB. Does deplete antimatter actually disable abilities? I thought that was a presumed effect from not having AM. On the assumption that it does not disable I would call it a soft counter and definitely not the best (lvl 1 is like 100 antimatter? an akkan or egg has like 400+ antimatter...meh), the dunov has something like that too and its AOE! and youd see him at 5 on my list

~Krath

Yeah, it always has been an interrupt (but its called detonate antimatter).  Also see here.

Also, Krath, I think you underestimate the Dunov's Flux Field.  (Or maybe haven't used it properly)?

My ratings there (at the link) generally agree with this discussion.

TEC: Marza 5 stars, all other TEC Caps 4 stars. 
Advent:  Progen & Halcyon 5 stars.  Radiance 4.  Rapture & Revelation 3.
Vasari:  Evacuator/Egg 5 stars.  Kortul, Skirantra & Vulkoras 4.  Marauder 3. 

The Marza is no longer people's first choice, but I still think it deserves the highest TEC rating.  Yes, now the Sova with Missile Batteries is the most lethal early cap.  But the Akkan's colonize is too good to pass up. So I usually do a 2 Cap start with TEC.  Unfortunately its too expensive to buy more caps, and then even more difficult to level them up.  You rarely see lvl 6 anymore.  (I still think we should have a second tech to allow purchasing level 5, then 6 might be achievable)!

You see lots of Carrier caps now (hooray for diversity).  You rarely see the Vulkoras, even tho I still think is a 4 star ship, especially if you can get it to level 6.

Personally, I think the Halcyon should be nerfed.  It has only 1 ability that uses AM: the bitch slap of doom!   And Advent Illums, scouts, & Disciples are all overpowered.  The race is definitely unbalanced with the current patch.   

Agreed

Fluxfield is.....MEH! unless you like to play multi-star FFAs or something. I dont even have to look up exactly what it does to tell you why its not that great It reduces AM cost and cooldown time for abilities aye?....so what. that is really only relevent for the other cap ships you have. so a kol with FF can shoot all his marginal abilities all day long....WOOT????...?? I dont personally see how a kol firing 3 rail guns in the time it would normally only shoot 1 or 2 railguns demonstrates the value of a lvl 6 ultimate thats supposedly so good it makes the Dunov not suck. Obviously its value increases as your fleet of ability oriented cap-ships increases. But I think advent is the only race that can actually make FF - OMGWTFBBQPWND. guardians + progens.

someone should make a mod where any race can build any cap ship. I want to see my TEC fleet with a progen and skirantra >

If used repeatedly, GRG level 3 deals 200 dps to its target.  At first glance, that's pretty power; even after mitigation this is easily triple what nanos is doing.  The problem is, by the time this ability comes on to the field (if at all) you can potentially have so much damage from frigates that this isn't a big deal anymore.  If anything Ion Bolt is by far the better cap killer by this point in the game.

That said, I do think Flux Field is a fine ultimate.  If you just look at the GRG combo, of course it's going to seem mediocre, but the thing is that this ability affects your entire fleet, including hoshikos and your other capital ships.  If everything is applying that bonus, it does add up to something meaningful.

well thats what making TEC builds up its dps to match the advents and vas. the flux field makes spamming skills like crazy = burst damage .

Haha, after reading that, I'll admit the Kol isn't quite as great as I first said, that and I play too much single player where Lv 6 caps are common.  However, to those remarking that the Kol's DPS is dodgy because of where the guns are positioned, let me remind you that the Kol is a battleship; fly it into the heart of the enemy fleet and let rip with every cannon available, that's what it was built for (and FH proves it).  If you want to fight head on, and only head on, get a Dreadnought, just don't be suprised when it withers to FF.