Nimble and equipped with a low-grade shield generator, the Claw is primarily a support fighter. The EMP damage it deals is temporarily crippling to poorly-shielded targets, but it's incapable of dealing much permanent damage on its own.
–In-Game Description
Notes[]
As stipulated in its flavor text, the Claw acts as a hard-counter to many Low Tech vessels which lack shield coverage to protect themselves from the masses of Ion Cannons from all angles. This can lead to highly beneficial flameouts on enemy engines, or disable problematic weapon mounts- in either case crippling the enemy vessel so that your main fleet can engage it in (relative) safety. Claws are quite agile, and this allows them to evade many kinds of point defence. Noticeably, they don't inflict much in the way of hull damage whatsoever, which necessitates support from vessels which are capable of inflicting the necessary damage to punch through armour. As such, Claws work excellently when paired with a fleet which is able to capitalize on the openings they provide; however their purpose remains situational and requires far more forethought than, say, just throwing more Broadswords at an enemy until their shields overflux.
