It's actually not too hard to assault a pirate base if you've got the right fleet composition. A couple of Dunovs with Shield Restore and a couple of Kols will make short work of them. Even if you're not TEC, the point still stands; Progenitors and Radiances or Skirantras and Kortuls.

Hell, a level 6 Kol alone stands a good chance at winning by itself. Those ships are beasts.

this is all you gotta do really bring in a  fleet that is heavy on the bombers and just park it on the outside of the well (gives you easy jump to escape if you can't take out the pirate ships)  after the ships are gone just wait a bit for the bombers to take out the platforms

It happens occasionally on random maps.  You have two options: kill the pirates, or bypass them.  The easiest solution is just to bypass them.  You can literally run through the pirate base with your fleet and come out intact on the other side.  If you do it right, you won't lose any units either.  Of course, a haphazard retreat then becomes exceedingly dangerous.

In order to bypass the pirate base, first warp in a scout.  This is your "wild goose".  All the pirates will chase after the scout.  Have it run to the far side of the gravity well to make all the pirates fall out of their position.  Now, while the pirates are still distracted, warp in your fleet and start running through the pirate base.  You should be out of there before your scout dies (in fact, you can probably get the scout out of there too!).

To defeat a pirate base, your best course of action are lots of bombers.  The pirate base does not deploy any fighters or light frigates, so they'll have a very hard time killing carriers or bombers.  On the other hand, most of their damage output comes from heavy cruisers, which are weak to bombers.  Use a tough capital ship like Kol or Kortul to absorb the damage and you're good to go.  Other ways to clear the pirate base involve building a starbase while distracting them with units, or to set up a minefield while distracting them with units.

The turret farm is irrelevent; once you kill the cruisers you're free to pass through.  The turrets don't cover the entire gravity well.

Stick a trade port there and you get a 200% bonus

Its not as though they make reinforcements to replace the defending pirate ships you have destroyed. So really a single low rank capital ship should have little trouble wiping out the entire pirate fleet by simply phasing in and destroying as many as you can and then retreating to heal up and repeat till they are all gone. No doubt you could take a ship or two out before they have even all ganged up on you since they are evenly spread through out the gravity well when you first enter.

Who cares, after the second or third raid their strike fleet maxes out in power and can be killed by a choke point with sufficient repair bays.  Use mines or a starbase if you're having problems, but really I want to be attacked by pirates at this point in the game since it's a great way to level up capital ships, and the raids aren't really dangerous anymore, just mildly annoying.

It's once every fifteen minutes, it's not like it's happening sporadically.  You know when the pirates deploy and you probably don't need to take a second look if you have repair bays there. 

Because bombing a 6000 hp world isn't quick.  It's actually extraordinarily slow and time consuming.

Well, clearly it's oranges

Anyways, it's just coincidence we seem to be at each other today.  It's nothing personal, it's just we're on opposite sides of the fence on these issues.

But that implies you're getting nothing out of it; you will get a substantial amount of experience out of a late-game pirate raid, enough to take a level 1 capital ship to level 5.  That's nothing to scoff at; it's massive advantage and well worth the "distraction". 

Distraction isn't even the right word, since the pirate fleets lack support cruisers, carriers, and capital ships.  If you have enough repair bays to tank their heavy cruisers, there's not all that much they can do against you.  Just set your capital ship to local area targeting near repair bays, maybe put up a few turrets or mines if you're worried, and forget about it.  If you have a starbase, you don't even need to look, it's a forgone conclusion that the pirates will die.

Short-term, yes, you do have to invest a bit in terms of defenses and of course that capital ship, but long-term you arrive in the next battle with an high level capital ship.  Just the other day after absorbing two pirate raids I had two level 5 capital ships to my enemy's one level 3 capital ship.  I easily repulsed the incursion he made while I was "distracted" due to this advantage.  As I said, the first two or three raids are the dangerous ones, but after that you should be stable enough that you can invest in a proper defense to absorb the pirate attacks with ease.

So in one breath you say it's too much investment to leave a capital ship behind to fight off pirates, and in the next you suggest that I leave essentially a capital ship's value in weak siege frigates (which require a rearguard to protect them) to quickly bombard the planet?

The whole point of bypassing the pirate base is to allow your fleet to launch a quick attack without wasting time.  If you want to clear the pirate units, that can be done quickly with the right technique and will give you a lot of experience (plus it then leaves an open route for retreat), but leaving your capital ships behind to bombard the planet is unnacceptably slow.  Even four minutes is a ridiculously long time to twiddle your thumbs, especially if the enemy notices your fleet isn't at its normal defensive post.

Oh, so you're talking exclusively about vs computer.  Well, we may as well just pack in the discussion then because if you're strong enough to clear a pirate base (presuming you know what you're doing) the AI has already lost and your victory is just a matter of time.  You can do pretty much whatever you like and you won't lose. 

A player, on the other hand, won't suicide his fleet like that.  Quite the contrary, he'll attack ruthlessly and have no problems knocking down starbases without taking many losses.  Any experience you get is either earned by attacking an intelligent and dangerous opponent, or else fighting pirates/militia.  The latter is basically a freebee by comparison.

No, that's not my point.  My point is that you say it's too much of a sacrifice to leave one capital ship behind to defend against pirates, but it's not too much of a sacrifice to leave one capital ship (or an equal value in siege frigates) behind to bombard the pirate base.

Five minutes isn't much time in terms of building an empire or fleet, but in terms of fighting and moving with a fleet  it's a big deal.  Five minutes is enough time for a major fleet battle to finish.  It's enough time for an enemy to relocate his forces and get in position for a major offensive of his own.  Pressure is exceedingly important; when I say a fleet is your best defense, it's not just because the fleet can move to any planet that's under attack, it's because the fleet can counter-attack.  This means that the enemy cannot move his own fleet far away from his front lines, for fear of exposing them.  If your fleet is busy for five or six minutes, it's a huge opportunity to an observant foe.

That totally depends on the situation.  I believe I already said that if you want to clear a retreat path that clearing the frigates is necessary.  However, if launching an immediate attack was important (for instance, to take pressure off an ally) then this is a necessary evil.  If you've already cleared the frigates, however, moving around the turrets isn't difficult. 

Contradiction in terms much?  Eight capitals is definitely an uber fleet, and frankly if you're talking about a fighting force that strong I really have to question why you didn't kill the pirate base sooner.

Bypassing the pirates is something you do when you need to attack now and don't have time to clear out the pirate base, or else when you're too weak to do so (or to do so easily).  If you have the time and opportunity, sure you can kill it.  There are lots of great techniques to do so, but you won't always have that luxury.  I've already stated that I do not regard the pirates as a serious threat by this point in the game (if you're strong enough to kill their base, their raids aren't going to be more than gift-wrapped experience for your capital ships). 

A perfect example of when to bypass in the situation where the pirate base is a choke point is if your side of the solar system got the shaft in terms of number of planets.  Getting a colony capital ship to the other side (along with some units) to establish a forward base is important to ensure your enemy doesn't procure a long-term economic edge.  You can continue to expand on your side with impunity while keeping the enemy pinned down on the other side.

Didn't I already respond to that?  If your fleet is that big then this is a moot discussion.  Crushing the pirate base is child's play and could have been done a long time ago anyways.

Capturing the pirate base is obviously the right choice if you have the time to do it.  If there is a time-sensative goal you must achieve (and setting up a fleet that is large enough to leap-frog is just off the charts in terms of time requirements) then bypassing is a great course of action.