Dunov/Kol

The KOL should be a mini titan able to take on 3x caps.

Don't have Sins 2 currently but the huge twin turrets and shearing off of the front of the original KOL is a design mess.

Still don't understand the lack of mines,or the removal of one type of frigate and cap ship for each race.

I used to like the cielo. 

I don't bother with those two ships for that exact reason, definitely feels like they were made irrelevant

To be honest, I am not in the same camp about the KOL. That thing is a beast compared to the Marz in my opinion.

1. Having the Gauss cannons on turrets means the cap doesn't need to change its facing to hit with with them. The Marza has to turn to face the target head on. In that time the KOL will drop two to three shots from the turrets.
2. If you level its DR ability, coupled with the ult, KOL can stand toe to toe with a starbase. Throw a Dunov for the antimatter feed and it can tank for a long time.

I agree the shield restore on the Dunov is lackluster, but that is only part of the ability. Plus with the current burst shield mechanic, if that ability fed too much shields, caps and starbases could become problematic.

I agree. The KOL is very powerful when used correctly. It needs escorts, especially early on when dealing with missile ships, but once you have escorts it can plow through most opponents in an equal battle. The Gauss guns (especially when upgraded) punch right through armor and have good range. The beam cannon is great for sieging star bases, and the shield damage reduction ability is great for reducing damage. 

KOL is a tank.

Kol is barely more tanky than the Marza but does SIGNIFICANTLY less damage. I dont see a reason to ever pick a Kol over Marza. Marza + escorts > Kol + escorts. 

The defense ability is not enough to pick a Kol over a Marza currently. No point in even attacking a kol since it doesnt do enough damage to be relevant and has no effect on the battlefield. Very easy to ignore. Normally if you have a unit/hero/cap ship that is hard to kill but does little damage it affects the battlefield in other ways, a taunt, damage reduction, anti strike craft something.

Currrently, Kol is a brick, with minor damage reduction that can easily be ignored.

Not sure how you guys are applying your caps, but in my experience, Kol is very good and continues to grow during the game. In early game I clear local systems easy and fast with minimal support. I don't touch the experimental beam though, its too costly if you want to use other abilities. In late game, if you have correct upgrades and have like 6 of those together you will tear through things pretty fast. Its almost too good IMO but sure it does not have much support vs craft or missiles, but luckily that's very easy and cheap to cover with its options.

As for the combination, its a downer. I don't build Dunov unless I srs need a cap out there asap and don't have the exotics for the others.

I find the Kol to be the best as well. As i was saying in another post:

"The Kol can dish out damage much faster and scales much better with levels, the type of upgrades that are available and abilities like Akkan's Inspiring Broadcast and Dunov's Energy Transfer.

The Kol has 2 primary sources of damage:

1. it's weapons which benefit from
   • Fusillade, it's second ability, reload speed
   • Rapid Auto-loader item, reload speed
   • Heavy Gauss slugs item, damage
   • Akkan's Inspiring Broadcast, reload speed
   • Finest Hour ability, splash damage, anti-matter regeneration and ability cool down
   • Targeting Array item, weapon range
2. Experimental beam which benefits from
   • Dunov's Energy Transfer
   • Antimatter engine item, max Antimatter and battery
   • Finest Hour ability, anti-matter regeneration and ability cool down

On top of that, Finest Hour also restores the hull ..."

I did an experiment and tried each capital as a starter (same map save right at the start and then reload and pick each) and attacked the first planet. The Kol was the fastest to do it.

I never level it's 3 as it doesn't need it. I make 2 in early and 4 towards mid game, with each fleet, so i can quickly snipe an enemy capital.

I also ways go for the flack burst upgrade also, which is why I take the antimatter engi with it. By its self is not awesome but when you have 4 of them covering between CD's its pretty good and cheap. If you group up a lot of PD vessels though, then certainly don't need it just I don't have to resources to spare till late.

I typically go with:

Flak Burst, Rapid autoloader, anti-matter engine and heavy gauss slugs. Might take reactive armor vs slugs. Like I said, I don't take the experimental beam, rather I take Fusillade and adaptive shielding.

I do level the 3 (adaptive shield) cause some times I encounter an AI early or take on a dessert planet with a lot of ships so its more of a endurance sort of thing. but ya, Fusillade is always top pick, it just gets better throughout the game with research and future options.

I typically go with anti-matter engine, heavy gauss slugs, rapid auto loader and then usually planetary bombardment. Not sure why the missile firepower upgrade is an option on the ship as it doesn't even have any missile launchers and having the aura isn't worth it as that can be covered by putting the upgrade on another ship that has missiles. 

Yep same. And i keep nearby an Akkan with Inspiring Broadcast, Targeting Array and Volatile speed thing.

If i'm in a reasonably protected position, besides scouts i sometimes build only 3 light ships, to help the first Kol get even faster at clearing the initial planets, and then only capital ships and upgrades for them. I finish games without loosing one capital ship.

For the Kol,
Rapid Autoloader, Targeting Array & Heavy Gauss are my usuals. If I can get the Aluxian Military Observers that's my ideal 4th. As for abilities, I pretty much avoid using Experimental Beam.

I don't use the Dunov much; I don't really know what to use it for.

What do you use Kol's shield for?
The experimental beam does a 100/150/200/250 dps for 4 seconds. With Finest Hour it has a 7 seconds CD. It's a massive damage spike. Why use shields when nobody is alive to attack? Also synergises beautifully with the Antimatter regen from Finest Hour, the increased Antimatter and regen from Antimatter engine and Antimatter and shield restore from... drum roll ... the Dunov.

I level Experimental Beam to max. It. Melts. I run out of enemies before Antimatter.

Also if you have Targeting Array on the Kol it will increase its range to the point that other ships will be tanking the enemies damage. What good are the shields then? One Targeting Array is enough for the entire fleet, why not have it on a ship that should sit back? a ship that can, of itself, save your entire fleet? but that is squishy like..the Akkan.

Now the Dunov ... you get the Dunov to prepare for Titans or close call situations, or for catching the enemy fleet off guard. But it's no slacker in terms of damage:

• It has half of the squadron capacity of the Sova if both have Reserve Squadron Hanger.
• Has 4 Medium Autocannons, matching the Kol there.
• It has a Medium Missile, like the Marza but with lower damage.

I configure it with Antimatter Engine, Reserve Squadron Hanger, Rapid Auto-loader (flexible) and Flak (flexible). Energy Transfer gets you another chance while Magnetic Singularity, which not only slows down but also prevents from using abilities. That's your Titan Blocker right there.

For me, the Kols always seem inclined to go charging in way ahead of the rest of the fleet and aggro everything unto them the second I look away & I like the shield effect too. The experimental beam just isn't that impressive to me damage wise, plus with it being an ability it doesn't get improved by the beam research or by any of the weapon stat boosts. The gauss turrets have the same pierce, better range, get improved by some ship components/research and don't need antimatter.

For the Dunov, it's one of the last capitals I get, so maybe I should grab them earlier in the game. By the time I've gotten them in the past, denying abilities doesn't really have a useful feel as most ships/structures don't have any (nor has it seemed to any obvious impact on the battle). Aside from trying to use them to slow down the Ragnorak rail gun abilities (which I'd need probably 3 to chain-lock? - I have to review the cooldowns/costs), I may need to get them earlier in the game to make use of ability stall - once I reach the maxed out fleet vs fleet the weapons are more impactful.

Does the Dunov's ability denial also affect the ship component's active abilities?
~Last I checked the Vasari colony cap's 'gravity ability' doesn't interrupt phase jumps that are in-progress, it only prevents them from initiating their phase jumps.
~I've been under the assumption that the same is true for the Dunov's ability interrupt - it can't stop something that's already started which means I'd need to micro the ability blocks to be used before the effect wears off - this assumes that each new instance resets the timer, which isn't something I've checked yet.

In the next update I'll go ahead and play some TEC with a Dunov/Kol start to give it a chance though

Dunov has some "ok" firepower, but it's abilities are lackluster. Especially the EMP, which sounds better than it actually is. If you are attacking opponents with no shields (like, TEC) then it does nothing but uses quite a bit of energy yourself. The energy drain portion of it doesn't make up for it's downfalls either. Maybe if they added a slow or armor debuff to it then it would have more use.

Yeah, but how are they doing that when you have Target Array on them? Don't they stop advancing before other ships because they are in range sooner? Leaving other ships to tank.

Looking at a save, for a level 8 Loyalist Kol, the 2 Gauss Cannons do 136.5 DPS with Finest Hour 1, Fusillade 3, Rapid Autoloader 2, and Inspiring Broadcast 4. With these abilities on CD it would do 63.5 DPS. All research maxed.

The Experimental Beam at level 4 does 142 DPS with Finest hour active. With abilities on CD it would do 125 DPS. Research doesn't matter.

You should try the experimental beam more.

It slows down the ships you are chasing and it blocks abilities for 30 seconds, in an area. Never had an enemy Vorastra jump in the middle of your fleet? Never had enemy Akkans denying you your kills? There are multiple abilities you want to stop. I mean how good are capital ships without abilities?

Not sure. It does not interrupt, as far as i could tell.