Illuminators- how do u use them corectly?

Its hard to actually use them in multiplayer because of Corvettes, but they didnt suffer as badly as the other ones. The best way to use them is when in a group throw them in the middle of the enemy forces. All there banks will fire upon the enemy fleet giving huge AoE damage.

So would you go crusader ships with guardians mid to late game to support carriers and a titan?

Crusaders are better at focus firing than Illuminators, so they are easier to use and probably do more damage. That said you can get Illuminators earlier, and if you really micro them to get into positions to fire all of its banks they probably do close to as much damage as Crusaders. Also if you're Advent Rebels, their illusion ships they can spawn have the extra advantage that you can use them for the Eradica's purification ability, so you can basically heal it for free that way.

Also when using Crusaders they are more vulnerable to bombers, so if your enemy builds a lot of them to deal with your titan or starbases most of your fleet will be taking a lot of damage.

Illuminators are most vulnerable to corvettes (which get obliterated by titan AoE's) and fighters.  Every fighter squadron used by your enemy is one less bomber squad going after your titan and capitals, not to mention they have less health and get shredded by flak.

Basically, late game fleet composition for any faction is either bombers+LRFs+flak or fighters+HCs...personally, I'd go with the fighters and destras for Advent, but illuminators definitely have their place....

Illums are the best lrm against corvettes, i don't know what you guys are smoking but atleast when the corvettes bank around the illums will hit 270degrees rather than 100ish.

Also i'd say illums are a great choice due to the upgrade path for their weapons... though same can be said for other factions, but what i'm getting at is.. and i consider advent to be my specialist race.. i rarely upgrade plasma until late game, due to illums/bombers and most cap ships using beams.

Also, ultra late, t8 with maxed beam damage and then range, coupled with repulse you can keep the enemy out of range but still within your own. HCs imo cost too much, they have their place in the fleet, but only 10-20 with ruthlessness for the 1.5/s aoe damage.. it all adds up.. against 50 ships, that's just an extra 75/s.

Anyway Placing your illums without the enemy fleet and keeping them moving is always a good option depending on whats happening, a good opponent won't let you sit in the middle and will move his fleet according.. against vasari it actually gimps them due to such a low turn speed and fire arcs. 

People mentioning corvettes.. When you're t3 advent.. corvettes really shouldnt be an issue now.. you keep your illums and flak together, let your discs go forward. Corvettes aren't an issue. You can even build your own to snipe his lrms. From personal experience illums have the better offence to corvettes when trying to snipe them in fleet battles, because the illums have a better time hitting corvs. Sure i'm repeating myself but it's just to make sure you guys are still reading. <3

It does help, but corvettes aren't spammed as bad as they used to be, and corvettes still hit Illums hard, Illums just can fight back for effectively than the other races.

First of all, ruthlessness does not stack (or at least not very much). If it did they would be by far the most damaging non phase missile ship. Second keep in mind maxed out plasma research gets the same +30% damage output beams get, but with an extra 10% rate of fire bonus as well. Beam gets a range bonus, but in terms of raw damage output it keeps HCs easily ahead. That said, beam research will also affect bombers, it does not seem to be an accident that every race's long range frigate shares the same damage type as bombers.

Illums are the best addition to a fleet after corvettes and flak. They allow you to tear enemy shields down with there point accuracy beams and lock on to enemy corvettes easily. Late game the repulsion combo is further strengthened by illums range to fire behind the barrier and there is no doubt in my mind that illums will always have a place in an advent fleet. 

I think you missed the point i was making with beams range over the plasma itself, in terms of fleet effectiveness it makes sense to go beam research first.

Secondly if you look at what i was saying, i'm aware the 1.5ruthless doesn't stack. I just said if you put 1 Destra in with 50 enemy ships.. theres your 75/s but i said 10-20 so they aren't sniped off too quickly to make ruthlessness useless or wasted.

AND does no one read? Riddle that is exactly what i said?

They are better, but corvettes still hit them very hard.

I think when you have flak and illums together, corvettes are even more obsolete than just with flak. 20-30flak& 20-30 illums would still decimate 100 corvettes

Equal fleet supply of Flak will be more efficient at kill Corvettes than that same fleet supply with both Flak and Illums.

yes but a good mix due to a quick counter via lfs.. hence why a pre mix works better so you aren't playing rock paper scissors.. also illums are better against structures ect..

[Delete This Post Zeus]

A discord's fracture is all that you need to destroy corvettes with flak and illums.. There armor is 0 during fracture and that for the high dps defense vessel can be insane dps on top of beams with point accuracy lockons. Manual casting scream during malice turns it into a turkey shoot.