A very convincing argument.

Puts me in favor of increasing the cooldown

Ive tested and found 2 lvl3 skirantras can maintain 18 squads in battle. And no you don't have to go microphasing aura. You can go scramble bombers and repair cloud and simply switch if you want to build an sb or support your fleet. Like any cap ship you cant do both at the same time because of the Am consumption until you get to higher levels and Am upgrades. That doesnt mean you have to go solely dps or solely fleet support. They can be used for what you need them for. You need to kill enemy cap ships, turn repair cloud off and scramble bombers on. You need to repair your fleet or build an sb in enemy territory, switch bombers off and repair cloud on. That simple.

Saying that its not Overpowered because it doesnt allow you to use its other abilities at the same time is ridiculous. Thats like saying that the old Missile barrage wasnt overpowered because you cant move or do anything else while its casting. The am consumption is nowhere in my OP above, but if you want I can point out that according to the spreadsheet in the strategy section, skirantras restore AM at a rate of .85  and add .1 to that per level (this may be different in the current build). Which confirms that once the initial AM runs out, Skirantras can still cast the ability at least twice before its duration expires. 

I take the most issue with the ability at lvl 3. its strong as hell at 1 and 5, but level 3 is where its just ridiculous. Level 1 is somewhat manageable by other carrier caps, level 5 you should have some carriers and/or flak to deal with it, but level 3 is the in between where its just too strong too fast. Maybe start cooldown high, and lower it per level

Halcyons suffer build penalties and build time for their extra 1 squad per level, and telepush costs an exorbitant amount of AM. Sovas missile batteries are stationary and do not phase jump with the sova. The current skirantra can beat both these ships 1v1 or 2v2 with minimal damage taken by simply kiting and letting the bombers do all the work.

Missile barrage was nerfed by expanding the time under which its damage was dealt. A level 3 shield restore will save most of your ships under fire from missile barrage, and you can now simply move them out of range.

I think you'll all change your mind when you've got no cap ships because 12 bomber squads that you can't keep down showed up killed them, and there was nothing you could do. I think I'll just go double Skirantras until people get the point. Like I said, I get that Vasari were the underdog for so long, but I don't want them to turn into "the only race that can win" like Advent was for so long. Its called balance, and we should strive for it. I've already seen a huge increase in Vasari players in matches in both Diplomacy and Entrenchment, and guess what caps ships I always see em use in the rush. They were always meant to be an early game powerhouse, but they shouldnt be unstoppable. Its only a matter of time before people start saying "wait a second.. how the hell do I fight that?". I'd rather not have people forced to build a very specific fleet just to combat this, and still probably lose.

Today I used double skirantras and 15 assailants to kill a marza and an akkan. My opponent had 26 Javs focus firing on one of my skirantras, and i killed both cap ships AND got my skirantra to safety before they killed it.

I would love to see a replay of the supposedly overbuffed scramble bombers at work. Personally I have a hard time believing that it makes that much of a difference in practice. Maybe it should cost more antimatter and/or longer recharge time at lvls 1 and 2, but it is hardly the most pressing thing they need to change right now. I'd rather have the battleships get buffed instead this ability getting "fixed".

As you saw, I came out against messing with the skirantra for now (I reserve the right to change my mind!), but I do think it makes a difference.  I played a game online a week or so after the patch came out, and some dude had 30 bombers out of two high level skirantras.  At first I couldn't believe it, but it was true.  That's a lot of bombers out of two ships, and it made a difference.

Thing is though, I think its hard to argue for nerfing it when you have the Marza that has been left as is for so long.  If you nerf it (which I'm sure the devs will do - they love nerfing vasari), vasari can always say "why did skirantra get the nerf while marza has been left alone?"

I'm for more buffs to caps, so at the moment I have to say I'm for leaving it alone.  Even when Halcyon seemed OP. I never argued for nerfing it, rather I argued for buffs to other caps to compensate.

Not sure why you would assume the skirantras would be alone. Scramble bombers would easily snipe a single carrier cap, assailants would murder any lfs.

This evening I played a 5v5. My immediate enemy was tec. I built my 2 skirantras and rushed with an SB and less than 10 assailants. Poor fella went a civics start, and I got my Sb under construction before his civics labs finished scuttleing for military. I had him in the noose until his nearest ally came with 3 Skirantras and destroyed my Sb and one of my skirantras with 19+ bomber squads. Bummer. At least I took out all of the TEC players buildings and 95% of his fleet before I had to run for it.

The problem isn't so much the carrier caps being too good, it's that the other caps haven't been brought up to the same level.  For years colonzier caps and the Marza were the only cap types worth looking at, and only recently have the carrier finally been made worthwhile as well.  I mean, how is the poor Kol, Antorak, or Rapture supposed to compete these days?

Carrier caps have once again made caps the centerpiece of a fleet as they should be.  Nerf them and it's back to coloziners who must flee at the sight of enemy LRF.

There has never been a veriety, at least in early game. One could argue that there will never be because there any change to either nerf carriers to buff another cap would just shift the spammed capitalship to another type. More than likely back to Advent/Vasari colonizer and TEC Marza. I agree with Kharma, they should buff the less used capitalships (especially the Kol and Kortul's jam weapons, as it might help the supposed Skinantra spam as well). Improving flak against bombers a bit might be another, better way to deal with this than seriously nerf scramble bombers.

Just up the AM cost, then the cooldown will be useless in the early game because you quickly run out of AM, while in the late game when AM is plentiful, the skill works as intended.

People are not creative.  That is the problem.  Agent set up a post where we came up with multiple ways to beat a dual Halo rush.  Now, if necessary, I'll be glad to do it again against the vasari's Skirantra.  Honestly though, I think its fine.  Yes, it is powerful, we all agree there, but I don't think that it is invincible.  Maybe chance the CD to 45, but I wouldn't go any higher than that.  The Vasari are supposed to be good early and late game.  

I see no critical problem with it.  Just devise counters to it.  Just like any other large buff, people will complain about it being OP until counters are devised and then you will stop seeing it.  People will rush with whatever they know is most likely to work.  Once people start learning counters to it, it will fade from view.  Just give it time.  If this problem is not resolved within a couple months or so and you can convince a large portion of the community to jump on board, sure.  But for now, let's see what happens.

We're talking about same game, I smurfed and so did you (Belial IIRC). Im pretty sure he had 2 sovas, 1 was damaged and pulled out, but nevermind.

I use double skirantras all the time, it's not nearly as powerful as you say it is. It is good, but far from OP. Double halcyons+lf spam was good example of OP.. it forced you to spam lf or sb up (if you're vasa). Now in theory double skirantra with scram bombers may sound really good, but in reality as vasari you're most likely to be fighting

a)another vasari

b)tec- usually using a mix of hoshis, flak, lrm and probably at least 1 sova. While flak won't kill bombers it will keep them constantly weak, not able to do any serious damage with hoshis and fighters from sova around.

c) no one plays advent these days (hell has frozen), so i'll skip that

Now completely different matter is emerging skirantra spam;). 4 skirantras are mean, but it can only work if you already have econ advantage. Crew upgrades cost fortune at those levels, and just 20 kanraks can melt skirantra pretty fast.

Bottom line, I think scramble bombers is very good but also situational. It is devastating if your opponent is unprepared... just like ogrovs. Actually, I treat scram bombers as kind of vasa SB buster.

ps: double skirantras were popular long before scram bombers buff

(Balor then? Something demonic starting with B;))

IMO TEC is more popular than vasa atm. Early game skilled TEC fleets are a pain for vasa, especially on maps where TEC can econ up at start. Late game belongs to vasa, as usual. Funny enough, advent is underdog now.

There's more variety in cap starts now than at least in 8 months (since i started playing). Dual carriers at least take a little more skill than old and boring 1 colony cap+lrf. You can't expect every cap to be viable start, some should be pure support.

I used skirantra spam only once so far, but it looks like it works only vs much less skilled opponent or when you have a lot of time/money. Otherwise, poor things will just get FFed.