Starsector - Onslaught vs Ziggurat

I use thumpers and devastators in this video. I was also able to beat it with Mjolnirs

[@xzardas541]

Tricking AI by using weapons taged as PD and shrapnel so AI does not even use phase cloak thinking it is not a danger. Good job.

[@CoffTheBirb]

This is insane, I never managed to kill Zigg without losing half of my fleet :D

[@LowSettings]

No problem, just take Hull Restoration 😁

[@WalrusJones185]

I find zig can't handle truly absurd numbers of fighters. I just had extreme range, converted hanger manticores swarming it with gauss rifles, pilums, and claw wings. Poor thing didn't really get to fight back.

[@Rav0n_VII]

This could be impossible with the old phase cloak system, it would phase everytime and a good amount of shots would be missed. But still, great battle!

[@jamesmortimer4016]

"Nice argument zigurat, unfortunately I consist of 80% flak"

[@likeablekiwi6265]

Nah... I'll never use this if the AI ain't good with it, especially the 75 deployment cost... a paragon for tanking and a radiant for attacking work better with AI hands albeit the reckless radiant.

[@aierce]

I get it now. Thumper doesn't lose dps vs phase ship due to regening ammo

[@ThinBear4]

First time fighting a Ziggurat, I've expected a massive pain of a fight. I've brought 2 Paragons with quad tachyon lances, a Doom, an Astral loaded with fighters, and some other things. Ziggurat got instakilled by the first salvo of tachyon lances the moment it dropped its cloak...

[@LowSettings]

I'm not actually sure if it's tricked but it can't really fire while phased so the Zigg has no choice but to unphase and take hits and since he does not have shields..

[@ahmataevo]

Pretty good build for fighting the zig. Less so against phase fleets in general, AI is not completely incompetent with phase mines and will hit my fleets' engines, this made them really dangerous in the first 0.95 versions but the phase speed nerf made even ai-controlled doom fleets a joke.

[@aierce]

Mines got nerfed, AI knows how to deal with mines now.

[@ahmataevo]

@@aierce - AI is definitely more intelligent about them now both using and defending against, but if the damage got nerfed, they're still great at taking out engines and fighters.

[@ahmataevo]

XIV Legion battlecarrier is pretty good at killing radiants if you're piloting a harbinger, especially if you time the MIRV's, bombers and your own AMB's to hit all at once right after you use the system disruption. It takes several waves of this but it works.

[@Aereto]

Piranhas are theoretically where they shine most with a Harbinger for Anti-Phase Warfare, even though they crumple quick like talons. Those bombs would be slow, but with mobility nerfs to phase ships in this version, it's a large enough target at high flux that a well timed disruption would force the Ziggurat to surface in the middle of a wave of bombs, which have a very high spike damage en masse if those motes did not collide with either the bomb or the bomber.

[@qwe-80085]

I've never seen it behave like this before..hmm

[@Aereto]

Instead of hardened shields, would shield shunts make a bigger difference? That does mean not taking hard flux to power the Polarized Armor skill, but still... Feels like an AI exploit when it knows the Onslaught only has frag and HE Flak weapons mounted and not take TPCs into account.

[@LowSettings]

I think that would be better for the AI, not so much for the player. With shield shunt maybe you can outfit two Onslaughts to wreck the Zigg maybe

[@Aereto]

@@LowSettings That does sound like something for the Support Doctrine to give XIV Onslaughts and Dominators beyond tanky fodder in fleet settings. Normally I don't give Shield Shunts to any ship unless I want to squeeze every bit of armor it has and not expected to be recovered. Right now, I am in no position to test my experiment when I have a few saves focused on sniffing out the effects of gameplay changes.

[@ahowl7mx]

Damn Solo

[@potatoman6556]

What the hell? The first thing this melodic nightmare fuel does is go into phase (and flank me) anytime I fight it. Why is it letting you bombard it uningerrupted? I don't have the time to learn the most op comboes and layouts, but I still don't understand why do the enemy ships in these videos act so much stupider

[@_Uzer]

No "weapons" - only pd => AI thinks it completely safe for him and just facetank all damage

[@compwiz13]

I love how Thumpers aren't complete garbage anymore.

[@Aereto]

Thumpers are finisher weapons against ships with poor armor. Very specific use case, I know, but if it can down a Ziggurat and other phase ships in a 1v1, that's an argument I won't contest. Those... Tesseracts, on the other hand...

[@ahmataevo]

@@Aereto - Tesseract fighters are what kills my fleets more so than the undamaged initial tesseract. Most PD don't do anything to them and they take hits like a high-shield destroyer. Fleet AI doesn't want to target them with the main guns. Doom's phase mines in player hands is best way I've found to fight them so far.

[@LowSettings]

@@ahmataevo An officer with point defense with locust is now my preferred way of dealing with those fighters dude

[@compwiz13]

@@Aereto Just meant that you can actually hit stuff with thumpers now. In previous versions the shells would act more like flak and explode before reaching max range. Was tough to hit anything with them unless you were point blank, otherwise most of your shots would never even reach the target. They worked okay as point defense if aimed manually but they're tagged as normal guns so they don't automatically try taking out missiles on their own.