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. 

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.

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.

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 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. 

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.

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

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.