Quoting MayallCommunion, reply 26Not at all if you want to kill capital ships, the Halcyon does it better with the 4 bombers from the beginning. Corvettes also, and LRFs melt capitals.
Alright, two more questions:
1- Surely Detonate Antimatter, which can pretty much entirely shut down an enemy cap's abilities, has some value, depending on what cap the enemy has? ( It wouldn't do much against a Halcyon )
Detonate anitmatter is amazing. The problem is that DA is pretty much all the radiance has going for it. it's ult is OK(but pathetic compared to the marza dreadnaut ult), but it's other 2 basic abilities aren't very good:
Animosity lags behind mainly because anything that is really dangerous for your other capitalships is just as deadly to radiance. By contrast other capitalship abilities like the Rapture's Vertigo cana ctually make enemies less dangerous rather then just changing which capitalship is in grave danger.
Energy Absorption Armor Just doesn't fit IMO. It only mitigates damage to hull(and as we all know the advent is all about shields). By the time an advent ship is taking hull damage they are already losing the fight probably. This ability increases the radiance's chance of running away in time a bit, but doesn't help it stay in the fight much longer(as by the time an advent cap ship is taking hull damage it should be running). All in all it just doesn't add the boost to survivability it would need to actually the the "tank" capitalship it's abilities imply it is meant to be.
The biggest problem is that radiance like all battleships and carriers is deigned to be a "Pure combat" ship rather then a supporter, or utility ship(such as colony ships), which puts it in direct competition with Carriers. And frankly it doesn't have anywhere near the early firepower of a carrier. This in essence is the problem with battleships in general: their base weapon system damage doesn't compensate for the 3-5 less squads of strikecraft they have as compared to a carrier cap-ship.
To be fair the Vasari battleship is good, but it's the exception that proves the rule.
2- For the Halcyon, I've got four great abilities for a total of 14 levels but only 10 points, which abilities are best to put the points in?
This one is abit flexible. Because bombers are great in general, always get at least first rank of TK push. If the enenies are actually using a lot of strikecraft max TK push(I generally max it on at least one Halcyon regardless so I'm prepared for a bomber spam).
That said, usually the level 1 point goes into an extra strikecraft squad(having 4 squads at level 1 helps). if you use a lot of combat frigates, make sure one halcyon maxes the Aura. Often you'll have more then one halcyons, but only one needs to max the Aura(though for the others it's good to pick up one rank oft he aura as back up for when the other halcyon isn't around).
Any "extra" points beyond those goals go into extra drone anima for additional firepower. Early in the game Extra drone anima may even be given a higher priority as an extra squad or two of strikecraft can make a big difference early.
That's how I do it anyway.