It sounds like you're talking about the Iconus Guardian's AoE shield buff. It's not really a battle-winner, in my experience; it's a nice buff but not overpowered. Plus I've never seen the AI use it, actually. Are you talking about SP or MP games? I don't know much about MP, but yeah in SP, just focus fire on the Iconii if they're giving you too much trouble. They're the ones that look like stubby Cylon Raiders. They do have a knockback too, so getting a fix on them can be troublesome.

You ever start a reply and balloons into something much longer than intended? This is one of those...

No doubt that's the Advent Iconus Guardian you're watching. This is what the little buggers look like.

Iconus Guardian Top
Iconus Guardian Profile
Iconus Guardian Front
Iconus Guardian Diagonal
Iconus Guardian on the Empire Tree
Destra, Guardian, Disciple, Seeker (Left to Right)

The Guardian is a fairly price Support Cruiser (10 more Metal, 30 more Crystal, and same Credit cost as a Destra Heavy Cruiser). They show up with a minimum of 3 Temples of Hostilities, but require three points toward Shield Research before they can even be researched. They're not very big and can be hard to miss, except when they use their Shield Projection Ability, which absorbs about a third of all the damage to the surrounding ships in a large area.

A single Guardian doing this isn't that big a deal. Single Guardian using Shield Projection. It's a very light, ethereal type effect, easy on the eyes, not too intrusive.

It's when groups of them get together that you have trouble seeing, which is what you're probably experiencing. Here's what it looks like when ten Guardians get together and use their abilities. Ten Guardians using Shield Projection. Quite a lot meaner, and difficult to see, and ultimately gives it that 'crystal ball' type look.

Guardians have very good shields, out of the box they have 1725 shield points, but they only have 675 hull points, as well as just 2 Armor points, low even for an Advent unit. They do very little damage, so a their threat as a combat unit is minimal. They have a lot of Antimatter, 350, each use of their Shield Projection uses 100 Antimatter, and lasts for 30 seconds, the kicker is the cool down timer for the ability is just 20 seconds, so the Guardian can do it a good four times without breaking pretty easily.

At T5, the Guardian has one more trick up it's sleeve though, Repel. The Guardian doing this is usually not easy to spot, it's a very subtle looking ability. Guardian using Repel. But this ability can really throw you for a loop. Currently TEC LRM's outrange this ability, but all other ships can really be thrown off by this ability, as it forces all enemy ships outside of a set range (greater than the shield projection range, so quite a bit). Guardians protecting Carriers like this can be a real pain, and against Heavy Cruisers who need to close this ability can be pretty amazing.

Guardians get more effective as Advent Shields and Antimatter abilities increase, but they're still very vulnerable to focus firing from enemies and Vasari Phase Missiles which can get right through to their vulnerable hulls. TEC Javelis LRMs and fighters/bombers can counteract their Repel Ability, and focus firing tends to kill them fast. Stealing their Antimatter or stunning them are good ways to remove them from the fight.

I think that touches on all the significant points of the Guardian.

The TEC Javelis LRM Frigate and Vasari Kanrak Assailant can outrange Repulsion, and Fighters and Bombers are not affected. So the Guardians can be slugged out by Javelis Cluster Warhead missiles and Assailant Phase Missiles, or bombed by Bombers. Vasari Bombers also have Phase Missiles, so they stand a better chance at cracking them. Fighters and Bombers however, would be better off taking on the actual damage-dealing targets first before going after the support.

Light Frigates, with Sabotage Reactor(TEC), Interference(Vasari) and Steal Antimatter(Advent) may work to hamper Guardians, but things like the Subverter's Distortion Field can't get within range, so I'm not sure if the later-game LF abilities will work either.

Thank you everyone for your rsponces.

Redmaw, I don't believe that they were using Shield Projection. As described in your picture, it looks different to what i saw. I am also playing SP, mind you. Anyways, the aura-like ball is very distinct. You can actually trace the ball's outer edges unlike the picture that you posted, it doesn't really look like a ball but like a haze with edges that go out and come in towards the center. What I saw were a bunch of, actually, crystal balls indicating that there were at least 4 of them going on at the same time.

To reiterate, they actually look like balls / orbs with distinct circular and smooth shapes. If you zoomed-in very close you could pick out targets but it is VERY bright inside and from what I can remember there are strands of whisps of color as well as crystal-like shining going on inside these orbs that makes it difficult to see. If any of your ship are inside these orbs as you zoom out, you can't even tell visually what ships you have inside are.

None-the-less, I think you guys may at least be right as to what ship is responcible so I will try to target them as soon as I see them. Unfortunately, the way I have the game saved now is that where they are positioned, I jump right smack dab in the middle of their fleet and the FIRST thing they do is throw up these orbs of confusion.

Does anyone know if the orbs move along with the ships? One tactic I thought is to get outside of these orbs and start firing from long range and have their fleet move outside of these orbs (again, only if once the orbs are on-line, they are stationary and can't move)

Thank again for your responces but any further help would be GREATLY appreciated.

I used just the dark black background for my images so the Guardian could be seen best, but that also makes it difficult to see the "orb". But here are three more screenshots with differing backgrounds (check out the last two, in particular).

Ten Guardians with Deep Space
Ten Guardians with Dark Background
Ten Guardians with Light Background

The more light there is the more amplified the appearance is, with a dark background it's barely noticeable (aside from the ring where no stars appear through the effect).

The AI will use Guardians (I've seen up to thirty), and the Shield Projection is an Autocast ability and will just happen when ships start taking damage (I've never seen the AI use Repulsion though, I imagine it would likely hurt it more than help it in many instances).

I play Advent almost exclusively, the Guardian really is the only unit with such an effect (the second most noticeable is probably the Mothership's Malice which simply makes a number of enemy units glow in an area) or Provoke Hysteria (which in no way looks like an orb...and doesn't appear in fleet battles). If this doesn't fit the bill, I'm clean out of ideas.

This is one of the graphical effects that I really dont care for. Makes it very hard to see the units within the bubble and it lags my machine. Quite annoying.