If you ever want to see how well Jam weapons/Flak Burst works, either a) arrange a duel with a friend to determine the total damage output/damage not taken by self, OR fight an Advent AI on a large map.  they like their strikecraftses. 

Phase out hull: I don't use it.  to micro-intense.  however, I find that the other three abilities are very useful.  or, at the very least, I'll put one point in it, set off autocast, and use it on Marza MB'ing

Subversion: This is fun because I'll get a pair of Marauders and run them around the enemy's territory subverting planets.  it kills their production and let's me know if I'm being chased.  a pair of marauders because by the time you've crossed a well, it's recharged, so you have to switch which ship you're using to get the quickest effect.  This also makes all ships within the radius immune to phase jump disruption (phase disruptor building) so it is extremely useful if used right.

Distort Gravity: makes you fleet much faster when either fleeing, or running down the little chickenshit that keeps jumping his fleet away.  good to get to a grav well edge b4 they leave, so you can use Gravity Warhead to destroy their fleet

Stabilize Phase space: here's what you do.  get a marauder to lvl6.  pair it with another one.  set distorot gravity to autocast.  jump them as far behind enemy lines as possible, while still staying in-system.  now, quickly bring your fleet (which was already at the edge of a phase stabilizer noded grav well) to the appropriate side of the well.  use Stabilize phase space.  immediately jump your fleet in.  once they're all in phase, you can move your ship.
now, enjoy the destruction you reap on the the enemy's flank. (go for their homeworld!)

be warned, though.  a careful enemy will do everything possible to stop that lvl6 marauder at the edge of their territory.  I generally send 10 Jansurak Sentinels and 10 Ravustra Skirmishers with it, as well as a Kortul or two.  (once even sent a Skirantra Carrier and two Kortuls with them.  as well as the 20 frigates mentioned above)

Maybe I'm just doing it wrong then, cause I don't know that I've ever managed to kill anything with Barrage that wasn't also getting shot by the rest of my fleet at the same time.  But then again I mostly use Marzas as the antiplanet caboose for the Kol train.

Easy.  Cast Reverie and then Detonate AM.  Rinse repeat.  Did I mention Detonate AM damages hull directly?

There is a lot of good stuff here, and I haven't read all of it.

One thing strikes me about cap ship abilities, though: Too often, cap ships will waste all their AM casting anything on autocast when even the wimpiest trade ship shows up. Then be out of AM when the real fight shows up. (This is with 1.15.) This really sucks, and these abilities would be MUCH MORE COOL if you could put limits on Autocast, like, "only fire Kol's Flak Burst when there are X strike craft in range", or whatever. (It'd also be cool to have limits on Auto Attack, so your humongous fleet is not out of position for an enemy fleet of 50+ ships because they were tracking down a scout.)

The bottom line is that what we currently have amounts to micromanagement. I generally turn off everything except the most essential (like Shield Restore), and then ALWAYS find myself kicking myself for forgetting to turn something back on.

One other thing that might have been missed (I didn't read everything): The place where phase inhibitors really shine (Ion Bolt, Reverie) is when you've got enemies caught by your own system Phase Inhibitors. Then, they are right and truly %^&$ed. And the race that can do an area of effect Inhibition ability (is it Advent or Vasari? playing TEC atm) is so damn much fun!

My 2 cents - RK

"what the tool tip doesn't tell you" is exactly what I'm finding frustrating. True the info is right there if you're willing to dig into galaxy forge. But the tool tips also leaves out the subtle differences like "this weapon does 200% damage to this but only 25% to that." Which is why reading about an ability like Reverie was so different than the actual results. But in thinking about it, if it worked like I thought, it would be too powerful of an ability.

phase out is sweet.  It is an interupt ability, not disable ability, and it it a good perservatino abiltiy, since you can use it on your own ships!  It can interupt phase jumping, which is the best way to use it on enemy ships.

Magnetize is first ability I get on Dunnov mso tof hte time.  This is because when I get Dunnovs it's usually after I already have a Marza, and I get em to interupt enemy missile barrage or prevent reverie/disable of my marza while I missile barrage.  It does those thigns as good as Akkans, but has added bonus of shield restor to keep the crown jewel of my fleet alive.  Akkans too can keep it alive, but only ocne it gets to lvl 6.

What i've gotten out of this post so far is,

that we have to turn off all auto-casting and do all of the abilites by hand,

I find that kind of a daunting tast,

example:

There's a HUGE enemy fleet coming in,

i've got 3 lvl 6+ marzas (MB)

3 kol's with lvl 3 flak

2 dunov's with magnetize

and an opponent that I want to show whos boss

my plan is:

get his fleet in range, fire all three marza's MB's, and all of kol's and dunov's anti-strikecraft stuff, within 10-15 secs.

I would, have to make sure that the MB's are positioned correctly, and the marzas have evrything else turned off,

The enemies SC are withing range of ALL 5 other ship abilities, and that the magnetise targets are also in range.

IDK about you but i think my hands would hurt...

What i've gotten out of this post so far is,

that we have to turn off all auto-casting and do all of the abilites by hand,

I find that kind of a daunting tast,

example:

There's a HUGE enemy fleet coming in,

i've got 3 lvl 6+ marzas (MB)

3 kol's with lvl 3 flak

2 dunov's with magnetize

and an opponent that I want to show whos boss

my plan is:

get his fleet in range, fire all three marza's MB's, and all of kol's and dunov's anti-strikecraft stuff, within 10-15 secs.

I would, have to make sure that the MB's are positioned correctly, and the marzas have evrything else turned off,

The enemies SC are withing range of ALL 5 other ship abilities, and that the magnetise targets are also in range.

IDK about you but i think my hands would hurt...

i definitely use Dunov's differently than you do Astax.

i consider EMP bomb to be the primary ability of that ship, and magnetize a good situational backup ability. i basically never get shield restore (unless i end up with a very high level Dunov, level 7+). 

the EMP is a high damage unlimited target AoE ability that wrecks shields. it can be one of the highest damaging abilities available to any ship at the beginning of combat, while ships still have their shields. the other thing about it thats extremely nice is that it doesn't actually count as damage so it will wipe out alot of shielding without raising the mitigation, which is an effective boost to your other damage. wiping out anti-matter is also extremely good. it really wrecks support cruisers this way. 

Magnetize is very versatile. it can destroy some fighters (not as many as you'd think, i think the limit is 24 fighters at level 3) but is generally not quite as good as Flak Burst or just bringing some Flak Frigates. the fact that it also disables abilities is great though and makes it really a great counter-measure against Motherships, Eggs, Marzas, Skirantas, and other Dunovs. 

the shield restore thing i could care less about. its just a head's up to get your opponent to kill the Dunov first. if he's got enough firepower to kill a Marza fast enough to avoid getting owned by a Missile Barrage then he can probably kill the Dunov first and then kill the Marza just as easily. this is usually what happens against an opponent with a very big fleet of bombers. you gotta be able to screen out enemy squadrons with something else in the first place. i think you get better protection from Flak Burst then you do from Shield Restore. if its a mass of LRMs or Heavy Cruisers threatening your Marza its not really an issue since the Missile Barrage should be able to just frag all of those anyway. 

and on those rare occasions when the Dunov makes it to level 6 i love me some Flux Field. you can do totally nutty out of control damage with a Kol and Flux Field. basically unlimited spamming of Flak Bursts and Rail Gun shots, its totally insane. good combo with Ion Bolt on an Akkan, and the Dunov's own abilities. 

That would be the Egg's Gravity Warhead ability - Vasari.  if you pair two egg's, you can keep an entire fleet in-well and f*cked until your AM runs out(if you micro right)

or one with a phase inhibitor