Vengeance

Ability User:	Rapture Battlecruiser
Ability Type:	Active
Target:	Targets friendly capital ships, frigates and structures.
Antimatter Cost:	70
Cooldown Time:	30 -> 37 -> 45 -> 52
Duration:	N/A
Range:	6000
Effect(s):	Damage Retaliation: 65% -> 120% -> 175% -> 230%

Note: Values in table are current as of Patch 1.90.

Whenever this ship is dealt damage, the attacker suffers a multiple of that damage in return. -Extracted from the game

Tactics

In Combos

This ability is probably best used in synergy with the Radiance Battleship's Animosity, which makes a limited number of affected ships switch targets to the Radiance. Vengeance is then cast on the Radiance, where Animosity ensures the retaliation effect is not wasted. This combo is reminiscent of RPG games (e.g. World of Warcraft, etc.), as Animosity is essentially the common RPG "Taunt" skill, and damage-reflecting skills and auras are also an RPG mainstay (e.g. "Thorns Aura" in the Diablo franchise). Here, the Radiance Battleship fills the role of the "tank". It should be noted that a human opponent can override Animosity's target-switching effect by re-issuing orders manually, relegating the combo mainly to use against the AI (which cannot negate Animosity this way).

Historically, this combo was also combined with a Progenitor Mothership's Malice and Shield Regeneration skills, where Malice's damage propagation further amplified the damage sourced from Vengeance, and Shield Regeneration "healed the tank", i.e., kept the Radiance from being destroyed due to the focus-fire from Animosity. This RPG-like tactic was called the "Holy Trinity" (in reference to relying on the synergy of three ships / primary abilities, plus the Advent's general spiritualist flavor), but fell out of favor when Malice was nerfed to no longer affect an unlimited number of enemies. The combination can still be done, but its reduced effectiveness is no longer considered sufficient to justify the cost of sending three capital ships and then micromanaging the large number of required abilities.

Players should note that Vengeance only reflects damage dealt, i.e., damage after reductions from shield mitigation and possibly armor. As with virtually all ability-based damage, the reflected damage will then have to go through mitigation and armor again when dealt to the enemy ship. Thus, despite the large values shown for the % returned, the actual damage output is usually not particularly stellar. (This was why the original, uncapped Malice was essential in the Holy Trinity - Vengeance itself could reliably generate some damage, but without the propagation effect of Malice, the effective DPS was rather low. Now, Malice can still be used to "enhance" Vengeance, but with the target cap, the total damage generated against large fleets is too limited to be worth the complex combo.)

Alone

Outside of the Holy Trinity or similar combos, Vengeance can be used alone if the enemy is focus-firing one of your high-health structures or ships (i.e., probably either a capital ship or a starbase, as titans are not affected by Vengeance). It is particularly nasty against a Ragnarov titan that is Sniping your defensive positions: Snipe is too long-ranged for you to retaliate without leaving the protection of your fixed fortifications, but Vengeance does not have a range limitation on the damage reflection itself, and reflecting the massive single-hit damage might make the opponent reconsider their approach.

This is particularly true because in the typical Snipe situation, neither the ship / structure hit nor the Ragnarov have very high shield mitigation. Ragnarovs are not particularly tough as titans go, and getting ~200% of a high-level, possibly Overcharged Snipe back in its teeth at low mitigation might make a solid dent in the titan's health pool. A human can, of course, switch targets for their next Snipe, but the AI tends to pick a unit (usually a capital ship; if none are present, then either the starbase or a Hangar Defense) and then Snipe it single-mindedly, even following retreating units (even if that means running into range of your other defenses...).

Similarly, against a strike craft swarm on focus-fire runs, Vengeance essentially replicates the effect of point defense. Also, strike craft have no shields and thus no mitigation; while the source damage for the reflection will still be reduced by the mitigation and armor on the ship / structure that is being focus-fired, at least the second "pass" will be through armor only (and low armor at that, as most strike craft are only minimally armored).

Summary

Regardless of whether you're using it alone or in a combination, it is probably clear from the above that Vengeance requires some micromanagement to get good results out of it. If you do not wish to deal with this, you might be better off investing points into the Rapture's other abilities, particularly as the ship does have a strong suite of other abilities to choose from.

Development

Patch 1.1 changed the damage dealt from 40/80/120% to 65/130/200% at respective levels. In addition, it also reduced its antimatter cost from 75 to 70.

Rebellion added the fourth level and rebalanced the others, as part of the general capital ship ability leveling overhaul.