Thinking about it, I'd have to vote for the Spawn Phase Stabilizer ability on the VL titan as well.
Vasari are the master of phase space:
-their SBs can be upgraded to be a phase-stabilizer, VR SBs even phase jump
-their marauder-class capships can double as a stabilizer
-their superweapon effectively launches a stabilizer thru space at an enemy planet
-the VL titan itself mocks gravity by skipping around a planet like a giddy schoolgirl at recess
Why then does their titan have to build itself a phase stabilizer? Could it not just copy the SB's or marauder's ability? And even if building the stabilizer was the best option, the insane CD on it makes it next to useless.
Don't get me wrong, I always drop 1 point into it. It is a nice ohshi button to help either retreat your titan or get it reinforcements quickly, but that is it. Kinda lackluster.
I've been tinkering with an idea: make the VL truly independent of planets. Replace the spawn phase node with the ability to let the titan double as a frigate factory.
Eh, you know the VLs are basically independent of planets because of the Dark Fleet Beacon research combined with exactly this particular ability already? The phasegate itself can summon reinforcements and not just the ones you build from shipyards somewhere...
Anyway, to be honest, i was bit dissapointed with how the VL Titan´s ability has been implemented at first - i was hoping for the Titan itself to work as fleet beacon to summon new ships, not just some stationary structure it is capable to deploy. Additionally to that, i was obviously hoping for the ship summoning to be available to you anytime you need it, no cooldowns etc...
But the devs decided to implement it the way they did in the end, most likely because of lack of buttons on the interface, and i kinda got used to it. It has its upside in the fact the phase stabiliser structure gives the titan the strategic mobility i was not thinking about, when i imagined how the whole process of summoning might work originally (before the game was out).
I still think its a great ability, regardless of all the other alternatives to get space stabilised somewhere you need it. Its certainly more convenient than build and lvl Antorak to lvl 6, or build and upgrade Orky or research and build Kostura.
Agreed about 3 cooldowns per 20 minutes not that great, especially for competitive multiplayer. Once again i was hoping for this not to be limited this way originally. Just saying if you as VL player manage to flee to some remote location of map and survive there those 20 critical minutes, while say your teammates keep your enemies busy, thus preventing them from finishing you off, those 3 gates you drop in this timeframe are good enough to rebuild quite a huge amount of ships instantly after that - thus you are back in business (granted under assumption you have money for that). So technically, hypothetically, the ability in its current form can be more than useful, it is just highly situational. Whether a situation like this is likely to happen in competitive multiplayer, i would not know, perhaps not, due to the way the game is played at that level - but how many things are not viable in that environment, this is certainly not only one. Not to mention i could already see the outcry of the competitive multiplayer community, how imba the VLs/Vorastra are, if this particular ability got hypothetically buffed...
