aaaaand I stumbled upon a somewhat frightening build with it. Two storm needlers, built in expanded mags, a hellbore, two flak cannons and...two thumpers. God, now I just feel unclean.
But holy *** though...the needlers and thumpers just PUREE fighter swarms, grind frigates and destroyers to paste with unending streams of fire and almost INSTANTLY shut down the guns of any ship that dares to raise shields while the hellbore helps crack the harder armor belts. It's not nice on its own flux bar and it's shorter range than mjolnirs but anything smaller than a capital ship simply cannot approach it without getting fluxed out and shaved to death.
Interestingly enough, minus the hellbore shots, the needlers and thumpers don't seem to trigger the same defensive responses in enemy AI. Phase ships, for example, don't see the needles as enough of a threat to phase away from. They just sit there and take needles until their meager armor is peeled back and the thumpers eviscerate them, making this a rather curious anti-phase setup.
Another thing the retribution is frighteningly good at? Punting. With the system charges up and a shield raised I can just flat out eject an offending vessel from the battle line or kick the annoying wreckage (which ALWAYS drifts right into my firing arcs right when I don't need it to) sending it flying into the enemy fleet for some free damage or at least out of the damn way. Even wrecked STATIONS can be kicked across the map! Insanity!
Gods, this thing is a monster...
