Early game it can provide some free firepower that does not need fleet supply, but you are right, not an I win button.

Yes, it's a joke, I hope it will get changed to be a real level6 ability..

I only choose this when I have nothing better, still more useful than the marauder for me though..

It is true but diversity makes the game a bit fun when you have a bunch of capital ships, it is better to have more types than only one or two. But I must agree, I never use this ship for it's strength..

If it was up to me, I'd change the Rankulas as follows (of course things could change with balancing):

1. Combat nanite swarm
cost - 30 AM
duration - 120/140/160/180 seconds
cooldown - 25/20/15/10 seconds
nanite swarms increase effectiveness with with cap ship level only, not the level of this ability.

The end result should be that a Rankulas with CNS at level 4 is theoretically able to field up to 18 combat swarms (if it is willing to dump all antimatter in this ability alone - note the drain!). Those swarms should eventually (cap level 10) have about ~50-70% of a Vasari LF's durability each and have a damage output of about a light frigate each if draining the AM pool on this ability is to be worth it, considering how one AOE damage source can erase all of the nanites at once.

2. Support nanite swarm
cost - 40 AM
duration - 60/80/100/120 seconds
cooldown - 25/20/15/10 seconds

Each nanite swarm has a healing ability that heals for a flat amount of 100 HP every 10 seconds and applies a buff giving 1 armor for 10 seconds, stackable up to 4 times. Each nanite swarm has about half the durability of a vasari LF or a little less.

The end result here would be that a Rankulas that goes heavily into this swarm type is able to (at max level) field 12 healing swarms that can do a total of 120 heal per second to a single target and keep it at +4 armor (or spread the heal to keep up to 3 targets at +4 armor). This is significantly better than right now, but if you look at the Overseer, you will note that it's still not overpowered. It would be an effective healing per second on the level of about 2 overseers and the extra points of armor at the cost of constant 4 AM per second, 4 points in a single ability and the risk of having all of the nanites blown up by some AOE.

3. Assault nanite swarm
cost - 40 AM
duration - 30/40/50/60 seconds
cooldown - 25/20/15/10 seconds

Each nanite swarm has a durability of a light frigate but a 300% damage reduction from structures' attacks and abilities (meaning, in Soase terms, it takes 25% damage from structure attacks, making it about as tough as a lvl1 cap against those foes).
Each nanite swarm has no attack, but a castable single target ability:

Structural Decomposition
targets structures and starbases only
no cost
duration - 10 seconds
cooldown - 10 seconds
stacks up to 10 times

Each active stack of the ability on the target applies the following effects:
- -3% to weapon cooldown (stacks)
- 10 damage per second to target's hull (stacks)
- 10 damage per second to target's shields (if there are any) (stacks)
- 20% of damage dealt by this ability to target's hull is restored to each friendly frigate in 3000 radius from the nanite swarm (including itself) as hull points (does not stack, i.e. at 10 stacks and 100 DPS to hull, 20 healing is done in AOE)

This ability allows the Vasari fleet to better engage starbases without the need for anti-structure cruisers. Such cruisers defeat starbases by outranging them; this ability makes them less threatening, so that the fleet itself can take them on. It provides:
- a mild debuff to weapon cooldowns (stacks up to -18%, which translates to ~15% reduced weapon damage output of the target structure); this, as all the other effects, is meant to "soften up" the starbase and make it manageable for your fleet of smaller ships that would otherwise be wiped out in seconds.
- a steady DPS to the enemy starbase (up to 60 DPS to hull and shields each, 120 DPS total if there is one rankulas and up to 100+100 DPS if there are two working together); while not truly terrifying, it reduces the effectiveness of passive regeneration and heals, allowing you to slowly and surely work your way through the target's hit points with your fleet; remember that this damage part is going to get highly mitigated by the target's armor and shield mitigation
- a steady heal to friendly ships (stacks up to 12 hull points per second if one rankulas is chaining this ability and up to 20 heal per second max); again, this is not truly outstanding when you take into consideration that the nanites can be easily destroyed by anything OTHER than the starbase, but it further reduces the threat level of the starbase, making it manageable for your fleet in a straight up fight. This heal applies to frigates and cruisers only, because they have less armor/mitigation than caps, titans and orkulus and will be taking much more damage from the starbase; besides, the whole idea here is to make the starbase a manageable target for your fleet which normally dies in seconds. Also remember you need two Rankulas caps with both of them at 4 points in this ability in order to hit the stack cap!

4. Reassemble

cost - 100 AM
duration - 120 seconds
cooldown - 100/60 seconds
range - 7000

All nanite swarms owned by this ship (anywhere) and all other nanite swarms owned by the player within the ability's range (!) are combined into a single Greater Nanite Swarm. This GNS has a base durability of a level 2-3 capital ship, receives +100 HP for every swarm assimilated, has no weapon and has a passive ability with the following effects:
- all enemy targets in 3000/4500 radius are dealt 1 point of damage per second for every nanite swarm assimilated, stacks up to 50 times
- all friendly targets in 3000/4500 radius are healed for 0,5 hull point per second for every nanite swarm assimilated, stacks up to 50 times
- all enemy attacks have a 5%/10% chance to miss friendly targets within 3000/4500 radius, does not stack
- highest bonuses apply if two or more GNSs are present; auras do not stack.

Now, before you think "hmm... permanent 50 DPS to everything in a large radius and 25 heal per second at the same time?? OP!!", please note what it takes to use that this ability in the first place:
- a TON of AM spent on nanite swarms,
- enemy must not wipe them out with something AOE or drain the cap of antimatter, which will prevent it from building up the swarm numbers,
- finally it sacrifices all of those nanites (their DPS and utility ends immediately).
- it will take more than one Rankulas to hit the stack cap of 50 assimilated swarms
What you should receive after all this hassle, AM spent and sacrifice done is a monster to behold. That's why it has the potential to be so good.

TLDR:
Of course, all of it would be subject to balancing, but the general idea I would put behind this capital ship is:

-> lots of weak nanites. Lots. High risk (individually weak, prone to AOE), high reward (massive DPS/Healing if left unbothered)
-> ability to field massive fleet of swarms of a single type OR field lots of different swarms, depending on player's leveling choices. The strength of a single swarm remains roughly the same through ability levels, it's the numerical composition of the swarm hordes you can field that you're choosing between with the use of ability points.
-> ultimate ability taking a form of a single, solid, persistent buff/debuff; something that would make this ship in any way useful against massive AOE damage sources
-> unique ultimate that allows you to neatly use numerous Rankulas ships to a great effect

I'm inclined to agree with N3rull's assessment that the current Rankulas is somewhat... underwhelming. The situation is further exasperated by the fact that it is fairly easy to exhaust a Rankulas' antimatter reserves by a combination of phase jumping and casting all three abilities on full tilt (the trick is to use them sparingly).

That said, I have a few nitpicks:

• On the subject of the Marauder, this thing is actually pretty useful to me -- Phase Out Hull can be used to cancel focus fire on a single friendly unit -- it is effectively the opposite of a taunt, because it breaks target lock. Likewise, Distort Gravity essentially allows your fleet to chase the enemy fleet WITHOUT a space egg. I find the Marauder to be a very useful second capital ship despite its poor health and lack of firepower.
• The Rankulas does much better in small-scale engagements than large-scale engagements -- you really feel the difference those extra units make in small-scale battles. This is actually an argument for making them spawn in groups at higher levels
• Their Assault Swarm is, actually, REALLY good. You have to be careful of over-buffing this one. I actually prefer these guys over bombers -- they chew through structures obscenely fast, particularly if you research improved pulse beams, and they don't suffer from attrition the way bombers do
• Aside from the long cooldown on its heal ability, the Support Swarm's primary weakness is its unfortunate tendency to target other swarms for healing. A heal spent on a swarm is a heal that is not spent on a unit that costs money. I would like to see Support Swarms target other swarms ONLY when there are no undamaged real-money units in range. That said...
• The strength of the Support Swarm over Nanite Cloud is precision. The best way to demonstrate this is by example:
• Example 1: I have a Skirantra with a fleet of twelve or so Ravastra Skirmishers against a small fleet full of LRFs (let's say Javelis frigates, just to keep things simple). My opponent, naturally, focuses fire on one Skirmisher at the time. After the targeted Skirmisher has blown its Reintegration cooldown, I have two choices: let it die; or use Nanite Cloud. But why should I use Nanite Cloud to save one unit? Nanite Cloud can heal a whole fleet! Why waste the antimatter to spare a single frigate?
• Example 2: I have a Rankulas with a fleet of twelve or so Ravastra Skirmishers against a small fleet of Javelis frigates. This time, when they focus-fire on my Ravastra Skirmishers, I use Support Swarm. If the Javelis frigates focus down the Skirmishers one at a time, the Support Swarm heals them -- that's 200 more health with high shield mitigation! If the frigates focus down the Swarm, on the other hand, that's damage that is NOT being dealt to my frigates.

In the second example, the Rankulas trumps the Skirantra, because you can actually use your ability. Naturally, the Skirantra is the better choice against AoE abilities, but that's the point: it is a MEANINGFUL CHOICE! Do you want to do better against focus-fire? Pick a Rankulas. Do you want to do better against AoE? Pick a Skirantra.

That said, I feel this guy needs a few changes. Building on your suggestions above, here are the changes I propose:

1. Combat Swarm:
• Increased ability ranks spawn more swarms (1->2->3->4)
• Combat Swarms no longer gain health and damage with improved ability ranks
• Combat Swarms retain the damage bonuses based on the Rankulas' level
• Combat Swarms now gain increased health based on the Rankulas' level
2. Support Swarm: I actually have three suggestions; pick one
• Suggestion 1: More frequent heals (same HPS); more frequent swarms
• Spawn Support Swarm cooldown reduced as ability ranks increase (15->12->9->6 second cooldown)
• Support Swarm Heal ability: heal amount reduced to 1/3 at all ranks
• Current: 150->200->250->300
• Proposed: 50->66->83->100
• Support Swarm heal ability: cooldown reduced to 1/3 (from 15 seconds to 5)
• Support Swarm heal ability: now prioritizes permanent units over temporary units
• Suggestion 2: More frequent heals (improved HPS); swarm frequency remains the same
• Support Swarm Heal ability: heal amount reduced to 1/3 at all ranks
• Current: 150->200->250->300
• Proposed: 50->66->83->100
• Support Swarm heal ability: cooldown reduced to 1/3 (from 15 seconds to 5)
• Support Swarm heal ability: cooldown reduced as ability ranks improve (5->4->3->2)
• Support Swarm heal ability: cooldown reduced to 1/3 (from 15 seconds to 5)
• Suggestion 3: Static heal amount; more frequent heals
• Support Swarm heal ability: heals for 200 at all ability ranks
• Support Swarm heal ability: cooldown reduced; increased ability ranks further reduce the cooldown (5->4->3->2 seconds)
• Support Swarm heal ability: provides 2->4->6->8 bonus armor
• Support Swarm heal ability: now prioritizes permanent units over temporary units
3. Assault Swarm:
• Current values for damage remain the same
• Cooldown to spawn Assault Swarms reduced as ability ranks increase (90->70->50->30 seconds)

That should do it.

Discuss?

They may be better than a few bombers but as frigates, they are worse than both the TEC and Advent anti-module cruisers because they have less or only slightly more DPS per single target (21-27 versus 22.5 for both) and their range is also less, and just outside the range of most defenses (9000 versus 12000). Their only saving point is that they have module armour, which is more resistant to fighters and corvettes, and slightly more vulnerable to bombers, but you can't field more than 2, so against a significant fleet, they won't last long.

You should note that the Skirantra has 18% more antimatter regeneration than the Rankulas, so Nanite cloud is about 15% less expensive in AM to cast on a comparative basis. Also, nanite cloud always repairs faster than a single swarm so you either need to have 2 swarms present or you could still lose the frigate before you can create the second and the swarms have the chance to heal it. Furthermore, the Skirantra also has more strikecraft, so you could also make fighters to help take out the Javelis.

True, but then, it's not exactly a free choice because when you are actually picking the cap ship, how do you know whether you're going to need a heal over time versus a focused heal? Once you pick, you can't change your mind, and as N3Rull implies, it's XP that could have been used on another cap ship that you can't get back. I would have thought a bunch of Overseers providing a focused heal with a Skirantra in tow to keep them alive would be far more effective than a Rankulas with an adjusted-equivalent number of Overseers.

I prefer this one; It's more consistent with most of the suggestions and mitigates against loss of said swarms although perhaps the cooldown should be less dramatically different (e.g. 60/40/30/22.5= Max 3/4.5/6/8). I would still keep the armor buff, though, since it can't be removed by damage, in contrast to the Overseer.

Heh, 90/70/50/30 = Max 2/2.57/3.6/6, which is a bit non-linear. Perhaps 90/60/45/30 = Max 2/3/4/6 might be better.
In addition, the range should be increased (either with level or as a fixed value) and the armor reduction also target starbases.

Thank you guys for contributing to the thread in such a serious and constructive manner. It's nice not to have to deal with trolls within two posts from the OP at least this once. 

@ Agaricus (first post) - you analyzed my suggestions thoroughly and gave constructive opinions, for this you have my thanks. However, please remember that my suggestions are just drafts, the main point of the message being to make Rankulas truly associable with the words "nanite" and "swarm". In my mind, Rankulas should be able to spawn dozens of small and weak units that work along the "strength in numbers" philosophy, which is so alien to the Vasari who generally have fewer but stronger ships. I believe that was Egosoft's Ironclad's plan from the start, just the implementation of the idea is.... underdeveloped. 

Rankulas is currently stuck somewhere between the regular Vasari design (few but tough) and the target "swarm" design (individually weak but many). I believe it should be pushed towards the latter and I'd love to see it done all the way. Basically, it's a wonderful opportunity to give Vasari a completely unique spin and the opportunity is currently being wasted on something "in between" that not only doesn't feel right, but doesn't work either.

@ Frostflare - thanks for your post as well. It actually looks like Yarlen's change logs!

> I will have to take a better look at the assault swarm, if you say it's that good. 

> Good idea about the support swarm prioritization.

> About your argument why Rankulas heal is better than repair cloud in some situations, I agree with your arguments per se. HOWEVER, there is one very important aspect that makes such a comparison completely moot.

It's called the Overseer.

Vasari are already in possession of The Best Single Target Healing Capability In The Bloody Game®. What Vasari are hands down weakest at is AOE healing and your only source of that is the Skirantra (or Kultorask to an extent).

So, putting things in this perspective, the choice is not between
- "doing better against focus-fire" or
- "doing better against AoE".

The choice is actually between
- "having any sensible counter to AOE" or
- "wasting a cap slot on one additional, albeit oversized and overpriced, overseer"

If Vasari didn't have the Overseer, the choice would be valid. With the overseer available and so strong at what it does, it's like trucking sand to the desert... when you could've brought water.

> Having said the above, your suggestions would turn the "Rankulas Battleship" into "Sir Spawn-a-Lot", which is the direction I completely agree with and support.

----------------------------------------------------------

EDIT. 

as I finished the above, Teun-A-Roonius was the last poster

@ Agaricus (second post) - you pretty much speak my mind, so there's nothing to argue about in here for me

@ Turchany - mostly agreed;

I also agree that AOE effect on the Rankulas, particularly my suggestion for the GNS, might be hard to balance out. However, I'd like to explain my reasoning behind this idea.

You see, I suggested an AOE effect for the GNS to push it to the very limit of the "swarm" ideology. 

Think what kind of design would you put as the absolutely most "swarmy" unit design. More numerous and individually weaker than frigates and corvettes. Something even smaller than strike craft, so numerous that it can be hardly seen as individual units anymore. A true swarm, a cloud that consists of ridiculous amounts of tiny objects, a shapeless and formless mist that no longer "targets" but simply "engulfs".

That is exactly what I would put as the very pinnacle of nanite swarm technology. And my idea intended to reflect just that.

Of course it needn't be uncapped AOE. It can be a target-capped persistent AOE (think of autospammed, weak Phase Missile Swarms from the Vulkoras) or simply a starbase-like design, with 4 banks of standard guns and numerous targets per bank to give it that "I swarm u" feeling. Only that no gun models would be visible, making it feel as if the targets were taking damage from being "consumed" by the big swarm.

As an added bonus I would make the GNS hit box very small and give it a huge, transparent model - think about a combat nanite swarm that has a the same hit box size, but the model is half the size of the Iconus Guardian's bubble. Now THAT would be awesome. 

Really some very nice discussion and observations here. Certainly most of everything said is on target, and nobody can make the case that the Rankulus is a great capital ship.

Nevertheless, I will submit that it is one of Vasari's best options for first 10 to 20 min of the game. You make that ship and get those heal nanites going, and you will lose no ships in early game. You can crush a big neutral planet for XP (of course you can do that in other ways with scouts, colonizers, and cannons...) or you can engage an enemy early and wrench a planet from him. The early fleet of Rankulus + 15 corvettes beats enemies. The problem is after 10 to 20 min.... Enemy takes everything back from you and then some.   

Heh. I went into detail because I could see the potential in your "draft"; I hadn't really thought about the Rankulas much beyond choosing it in SP because it looks good, but the fact that it isn't exactly a good choice in many MP situations indicates that it ought to be buffed/balanced. With some of the other replies, I am now preferring the idea of increasing the number of spawned units rather than decreasing cooldown: it "spring-loads" multiple spawns into the start of the activation period, rather than requiring multiple over-time actions, thus you get higher peak DPS and heal, and it also defers problems due to AM drain, disablement or destruction.

The only caution would be balancing the max (effective) fleet supply increase with other races.
AL can capture up up to 0.15*8 enemy units about every 7s via Subjugation and AR gets 20% extra fleet supply using Return of the Fallen and 20% of enemy losses via Reanimation, with Domination also allowing for 1 capture every 60s.
TEC can produce up to 5.14 missile turrets per Sova (= about 14.4 Javelis, supply 57.7) and at best capture 1 every 60s with Boarding Party.
Currently, the Rankulas can produce 6 combat swarms (= about 9 Ravastra, supply 63) 3 support swarms (= about 4.8 Overseers, supply 33.6) and 2 assault swarms (= 2 Ogrovs, supply 24), total about 120 supply (adjusted for 15% Phasic Transmission boost to 104 supply). The Skirantra can produce up to 10 bomber squads (= 5 Lasuraks, supply 70) and clone up to 4.4 frigates, total about 130 supply (adjusted to 113).

You're not missing out, I can assure you. They eat structures, but no more so than an Ogrov, and there is a bug where they won't apply their full armor reduction if you reload a game while a swarm is already spawned.

Egh. Not really to both assertions. The Iconus Guardian only shares the damage, so you are just transferring it elsewhere and not actually negating it (Iconuses do not have increased mitigation or damage reduction or self-heal and the ability halts when out of shields), and Iconuses also suicide themselves if the shared damage bypasses shields  (https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/448817/page/1/#3405796).

Shield Restoration is more expensive and has a longer cooldown than Repair Cloud, and in fact on a numbers basis, loses comparable effectiveness by level 4. Also Shield Restoration is channelled, while Repair Cloud is not:

Repair Cloud
Cost - 100/90/80/70 AM
Cooldown: 12; Duration 10/12/14/16
Repair: 200/300/420/560 Hull [All Units in Range 2500]
Repair Rate: 20/25/30/35

Shield Restoration
Cost - 100 AM
Cooldown: 20; Duration 8
Repair: 300/391.6/483.4/575.0 Shield [All Units in Range 3000/3533/4067/4600]
Repair Rate: 37.5/48.95/60.42/71.88

Remember that hull repair is affected by armor, so repair cloud increases in effectiveness even more on armored units and +25% (VL) or 40% (VR) with research, while Shield Restore does not improve except with better mitigation.

I think there is even a case to be made to buff the shield restore duration to keep it restoring 50% more shields than Repair Cloud restores hull (e.g. 8/9/10/12 = repair 300/441/604/863)

Heh. It was funny, though, if the reviews about X: Rebirth are to be believed.

Can't say no to a free ogrov. As I said, will take a look when I get the chance.

You miss out a few very important things (skip to TLDR if you want):

1. Shields are the first line of defense that always works (except against highly upgraded PMs) ; hull is the last line of defense that must not fail.

Every point of damage taken will be absorbed by shields if there are any, while a lot of damage may not hit the hull. As such, a Progenitor can start using the shield regeneration as soon as any of his allies are hit and will always actively counteract any damage taken. Before any hull damage is done, a lot of damage taken may already be reverted if shields are actively restored. Repairing hull, although more effective point for point, has to be initiated only AFTER your ships have already taken noticeable damage and lost all of their shields. This means that, despite applying a stronger heal, you are:
- FORCED to start healing LATER, when you have FEWER total hit points (as in: hull+shields=total HP) left before the ship blows up. You have a smaller window of opportunity to prevent the loss of the ship.
- your heal will only restore hull and will therefore stop working as soon as hull is at max. While it sounds all fine that hull is on max, the healed ship is still at 70-80% durability at this point because it's missing the shields. So you not only have to start healing the ship once it's noticeably weakened, you also leave the ship noticeably weakened after the heal.

Think of a car with a driver inside. Even if the car has no ABS, the driver is most often capable of noticing danger ahead of time and stopping the car safely.
Now give the car ABS so it can brake stronger, but replace the driver with one who has a significant vision defect. He may be able to brake harder, but he can't see shit beyond 30 meters ahead, will react later and will have a significantly smaller room for error.

Whether it's better to be in the first situation or the latter is not as obvious as you seem to think.

2. By distributing damage among themselves, Iconus Guardians allow more ships to regenerate lost points.

This multiplies not only the effectiveness of SR, but also the passive regeneration of shield points!

1 + 2 = 3. Iconus guardian's Shield Projection multiplies the effectiveness of Shield Regeneration.

Quick example. Progenitor regenerates 70 shields per second (approx.).
A destra crusader takes 560 points of damage to the shields. Progenitor should need 8 seconds to restore all the shield points, which is the full duration of the ability...

BUT

Three Iconus guardians are in the vincinity and spread half (or some such amount) of those 560 points between themselves, so now it's about 280+93+93+93 damage taken. ALL of those ships restore 70 shields per second, so ALL of those ships are at 100% within 4 seconds. The efficiency of the Shield Regeneration ability is effectively doubled in this scenario. Even more so, because guardians are at 100% within less than 1,5 seconds and can start soaking damage from other sources.

In fact, there could be 4 Destras instead of one and it would still take 4 seconds instead of 8 seconds to get all 7 ships to 100% shape.

Adding it all together:

Repair Cloud 
+ benefits from Armor, effectively restoring more durability per point
+ synergizes OK with Overseer (by slowing down the loss of hit points among all ships, this ability buys time for overseers to apply their strong heals to all affected targets one by one)
- starts working when the ship is already weakened
- will always leave the ship weakened (if you had to use the heal, the shields are already down and will stay down)
- one effect heals one target
- can't use two Skirantras to increase effectiveness of healing, so either you keep only one and risk getting it drained/disabled and losing your only AOE heal OR you keep two and risk watching your ships die to heavy damage while not being able to use the other skirantra's heal at all (because the first skirantra was using it all the time, it just wasn't enough)
- Vasari are not the most hull-centric race; TEC is 

Advent mechanic (SR+SP)
- heals less per point because armor is not taken into account
- doesn't last for the whole cooldown
- can get trolled hard by phase missiles in later game
+ can start repairing immediately, reducing damage before hull even takes a scratch
+ has the potential to keep a ship at 100% durability 
+ thanks to SP, damage is distributed among several ships and ALL of them regenerate the lost shields, multiplying the effectiveness of the ability well beyond "71.88 shields/sec" 
+ can use two Progenitors to chain SRs for redonkulous sustain if not interrupted (remember, it's yet another thing the opponent has to take care of if he wants to deal any damage at all)
+ Advent is the most shield-heavy race, boasting a truckload of bonuses to shields' effectiveness

TLDR: 
As with many things, it is not as simple as "hull points are more valuable because of armor". Advent has several mechanisms that make Shield Regeneration much more effective than it seems at first glance.

I, for one, am not so sure if it's really easier to break through SR+SP rather than a Skirantra's Repair Cloud.

MY POINT TO ALL THIS SEEMINGLY OFFTOPIC EXPLANATION:

> Despite only spreading damage around, SP lets more ships regenerate damage taken (passively in the worst case) and this counters damage
> Advent's "AOE healing" is in no way worse than Skirantra's if you take all factors into consideration
> Vasari need the Skirantra, Vasari need the Overseer; Vasari don't need the Rankulas' support nanites 

@ Frostflare

If you look through the forums, there are at least 3 posts where I explain shield mitigation to newcomers in full detail and get karma for it. Trust me, I did not forget about it.

Ad. 1. You claim that hull is more valuable, because you are getting your hull damaged with maxed shield mitigation, while your shields go down faster because the ship is only building up mitigation when the shields get hit.

The facts you present are true, but the claim is false.

After the first couple hundred damage, your shield mitigation is going to be at maximum and will stay there if you're getting damaged. From this point onward, shield mitigation applies at peak efficiency to every point of damage taken, whether it blows shields or hull.

It does not matter whether you restore shield or hull, every restored point will benefit from maximum shield mitigation once that hits the cap.

Of course, armor still makes hull more valuable and is a factor; but shield mitigation is not.

Ad 2. This point really caught me speechless. You speak openly that it does not matter how many hit points you have as long as the ship is alive and the only difference is how much damage you can take in rapid succession.

In my humble opinion, this is the most important drawback of restoring hull only and ignoring the shields.

It matters, it matters a whole fucking load. Damage in this game, except for damage-over-time effects, is not dealt at a completely constant rate. Whatever ships are shooting at you, there will be seconds when only 20% of them are actually just now loosing a volley and there will be seconds when 80% of them fire together.

It makes a whole load whether you can take a spike of 1000 (raw, unmitigated) damage and heal it up afterwards when the enemy's weapons are on cooldown or whether you die in flames to that.

This is not quite right either (unless it was changed in some patch I forgot about). If you have two guardians with shield projection active at once, it is true your ships will still only have a third of their damage absorbed by guardians. However, the second guardian will absorb a third of the damage taken by the first one, including the damage the first one is absorbing. So that of the 33% of damage the guardians are taking, the first one is taking 66% (or 22% of total damage) of it and the second one is taking 33% (or 11% of total fleet damage). In this way multiple guardians can absorb more damage and make shield projection last longer, but the damage shared is still a third.