Venator-class Star Destroyer

The Venator-Class star destroyer is a republic era capital ship.

It can be built by any of the factions in the game, in skirmish at space docks, and in galactic conquest at planets that can build Republic Era ships

In game, the ship serves as a carrier - cruiser hybrid, armed with turbolasers, proton torpedoes, and a SPHAT cannon on the bottom, along with a large compliment of fighter.

Weapons, Loadout, and Survivability
The Venator, for its size, is quite lightly armed. Carrying 4 dual turbolaser batteries on each side of the superstructure, an additional pair on the front, and a proton torpedo launcher in the nose, the Venator typically will not win a fight with a similarly sized cruiser alone due to its lack of Ion weaponry to mitigate shields. However, once the shields of it's target are disabled, the Venator can do quite a decent amount of damage at point blank range, due to its SPHAT cannon and boost firepower ability.

What the Venator lacks in firepower for its size, though, it makes up for in fighter compliment. Having a 2 (4) fighter and 2 (4) bomber layout, it carries quite a sizeable fighter and strike force, comparable to two Gladiator-Class frigates, or a little less than a Ton Falk class escort carrier.

Lastly, having 15,000 shields and 15,000 hull strength, the venator is somewhat tanky for its size, having 5,000 more shields than a Victory-Class, but won't stand up well to the firepower of larger capital ships in a straight up fight.

Usage in Battle
The Venator is quite a versatile ship. Being a relatively light capital ship, the Venator can be used as a frontline cruiser against true capital ships in a pinch, but this should be a last resort. Instead, the Venator should be a second line support ship, hopefully launching it's entire fighter compliment over the course of a fight. It can also clean up fights quite well after the opponent's shields are down, due to it's SPHAT cannon, and decent turbolaser firepower.

Having a massive fighter garrison is extremely powerful. Having such a fighter compliment on a smaller capital ship lets it screen larger ships quite well, and if the largest ship in the fleet, doesn't need the fighter escort that a Prosecutor- Class pocket star destroyer would need. This makes the Venator an extremely versatile ship, able to fit into any fleet composition imaginable. It's even possible to make entire fleets of Venators and have them be somewhat competitive.

Trivia

 * The previous version of this page said "the venator is like the best ship ever made in the galaxy fuck everything else." Seeing as it is insanely versatile and can compose entire fleets with some level of competitiveness, I'd say this description is warranted
 * The Venator's colors change when the imperial variant is built, versus the older Red and Grey variant.
 * The Liberation in game is a Venator, modified with ISD-1 primaries in place of the older dual turbolasers