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The Ragnarov Titan is the TEC Rebel's Titan added in the Rebellion stand-alone expansion. The Ragnarov is bristling with weaponry, including Scattershot, Explosive Shot, Snipe, and an Overcharge ability that makes these specials even more potent. It also includes individual upgrades to improve its hull, weapons, and anti-matter regeneration.
Due to the design of the ship, most of the weapons are meant to be fired when facing forward. While its actual weapon coverage spans all around it, the damage output is greatly diminished. Most consider the design of the ship (described laconically as "a giant gun with more guns added to it") to be agreeable with an aggressive rebel approach.
Tactics[]
As the exact opposite of the Ankylon Titan, The Ragnarov's abilities are best utilized in long range combat and by this nature makes its skills as the preferred opening moves in any battle. The exceptionally high AOE damage of Scattershot and Explosive Shot are very effective against stationary groups of ships, forcing the enemy to break formation or risk losing the fleet. Snipe can pot shot capital ships with just a few hits, especially if magnified by Overcharge and Magnetic Containment. Advent capital ships are particularly vulnerable, as the first 1-2 hits may knock out shields, and an overcharged Snipe can potentially guarantee an instant kill, due to their poor armor.
Snipe should generally be your opening move, provided you have the benefit of range. Because of its long range, it means that it is extremely unlikely any other ships will be firing on the Ragnarov's target. This allows Snipe to avoid most of the shield mitigation that is present in a pitched, close range battle, allowing it to deal far more damage than any other single ability (with the possible exception of the Argonev's Last Resort). When combined with Overcharge, this ability can even inflict serious damage to enemy Titans, particularly if used from long range before combat starts.
Explosive Shot is more of a mid range ability, similar to that of other Titan AoEs, and is useful for destroying large groups of frigates, and those that are not destroyed will be thrown violently away from the impact point, temporarily disrupting enemy fleet cohesion. This ability is particularly useful when combined with Scattershot, as the armor reduction will allow it to deal more damage.
Scattershot is a very close range ability, and can best be thought of as a shotgun blast. One important thing to note about Scattershot is that it will fire at the enemy you tell it to, regardless of whether they are actually in range. The scattershot projectiles will only hit targets within an arc in front of the Ragnarov, and within the ability radius marker, thus the circle shape is deceptive, and implies range constraints rather than the area affected.
Even with its abilities aside, the Ragnarov easily outguns any other ship, including enemy Titans. Its main weapon, the rail gun, is very powerful, though somewhat slow to fire, and can often destroy non cruiser frigates with a single shot. The Ragnarov's real punch however comes from its large number of Gauss cannon weapons. It is important to note that the upgrades to the Gauss Defense Platforms in the Defense tree will also affect these, when fully maxed out they rival the railgun for damage (note that they do NOT gain the Meson Bolt Cannon/ Burst Rocket abilites, just the stat upgrades). Further, it also has banks of powerful autocannons on either side, which are used to attack targets that are just out of the arc of fire of the forward facing Gauss and Railgun weapons. Additionally, it also has an impressive number of missile banks near the rear of the ship, which are usually not fired on targets in front of the Ragnarov. Finally, as if all that weren't enough, the Ragnarov also has some token Flak cannons, which can achieve a respectable level of damage with upgrades to the Titan's overall damage output.
A Ragnarov in the heat of battle with all of its weapons firing is truly a sight to behold, and while its abilities are still the most important thing to worry about, as with all Titans, its more conventional weapons should not be discounted, as they are still capable of inflicting enormous damage to fleets engaging them. All told, with full research upgrades, at level 10, with maxed out firepower upgrades (which should be your priority when upgrading, after abilities and Magnetic Containment, of course), the Ragnarov can put around 1000 damage per second even without abilites, before shield mitigation and armor (though not all of it can be focused on one target at once). This is roughly triple the passive damage compared to all other titans at all levels.
Since the Ragnarov is most commonly referred to as a "giant gun" or "cannon", basic principle dictates that the best tactic against such, is to stay away from the front of it. And with that, one must immediately close the distance and do his best to always keep his fleet to the side or behind the Ragnarov's line of fire.
If playing as the Loyalist Vasari, you can use your Vorastra titan to make quick work of the enemy Ragnarov. Simply Micro Phase Jump behind it and keep pounding and Micro-phasing behind it until it's dead.
Another thing to note is that the Ragnarov is the least durable out of the Titans. While it is still much tougher than any conventional Capital Ship, it should not be thought of as an invulnerable juggernaut like some other Titans. The Ragnarov's primary role in combat is to levy its massive firepower to destroy the enemy before they can destroy it, and it should be used as such, micromanaging to destroy key ships in the enemy fleet, allowing other ships in your fleet to press the advantage.
Make sure your Ragnarov faces forward, as all of its abilities and main weapons are in front, and turning takes up some amount of time, making the Ragnarov more vulnerable.
Against Starbases[]
The Ragnarov is superb at taking apart fixed fortifications -- not necessarily because of its high damage alone (as some fortifications can absorb a lot of incoming DPS), but mainly because Snipe outranges starbase abilities. This is particularly true against Advent starbases, which can take apart more or less any frigate or capital fleet with a combination of Mass Disorientation (range 12,000) and Meteor Storm (range 15,000), and are dangerous even to close-range enemy titans (as Mass Disorientation can stop them well out of their range). However, a Ragnarov can stay at range 18,000 and Snipe away until the starbase is destroyed (which does not take all that long, particularly against the armor-skimpy Transcencia). The titan can then destroy the rest of the defenses more or less at leisure. The difference compared to using anti-structure cruisers is that the titan is too tough for anything but a large fleet to destroy in time.
Conversely, if the enemy is somehow dumb enough to advance a Ragnarov within range of Mass Disorientation (a common showing from the AI), the ship is pretty much a bulk resource loss waiting to happen. While it can technically still fire and use abilities unimpeded, Snipe needs perfect alignment with the target -- but Mass Disorientation sets the ship "adrift", causing it to randomly rotate in place, making said alignment impossible. Damage-dealing ships (ideally strike craft) can then take their time to destroy the Ragnarov. As the ability is channeled, it will "catch" the ship as soon as it enters range if already active.
Against TEC starbases, a Ragnarov can still be used, but other titans fare better here than against Advent, as Last Resort can only be used once and any titan can withstand it, making the Ragnarov less singularly advantaged. It can still destroy the starbase without taking damage, however, which other titans generally cannot do. Against the Vasari Orkulus, the Ragnarov is of more limited utility, as the mobile Orkulus can deploy Frontal Deflector Shield and advance on the Ragnarov, a combination which effectively de-fangs Snipe.
Statistics[]
Role: Long-Range Assault
Shield Power: Very High
Hull Points: Extreme
Armor Level: Very High (Type - Titan)
Weapons (Fore): Rail Gun / 8 x Gauss Cannons / 2 x Flak Cannons / Ship-to-Surface Torpedoes
Weapons (Side): 5 x Heavy Autocannons (Port) / 5 x Missile Launcher Banks (Port) /
5 x Heavy Autocannons (Starboard) / 5 x Missile Launcher Banks (Starboard)
Weapons (Aft): 4 x Gauss Cannons / 2 x Flak Cannons
Squadrons Supported: 2 (upgradeable to 4)
Special Abilities: Scattershot / Snipe / Explosive Shot / Overcharge
Crew Complement: 3,500
Trivia[]
• "Ragnarov" refers to "Ragnarok", which means "Doomsday" in Norse.