Best way to use Black Arks?

[Zav]

I really don't know how to use these efficiently, anyone got any idea? I know they got improved a while back?

[Maschinengewehr]

Most of their benefit is on the campaign map as a reinforcement and light recruitment hub. As far as the bombardments go, I just dump them all in one go on an engaged blob of enemy units.

[Blah...]

Whenever I have used them they have been pretty useless besides reinforcements, abilities seem weak with very little impact and if you decide to leave the starting area and go to fight say the empire, it becomes a pain in the ass to get the support working in my experience. I think in most cases you are better off using a regular army over a black arc imo, maybe one black arc just because of the ability to reinforce without pulling back to a main city etc.

[Darth Wadewilson]

They enable replenishment which for dark elves is difficult, since they don't have the relevant stance.

[JODEGAFUN]

Use them together with Malekith for sacking, i use Malekith right special skilltree always ( start with -10% factionwide upkeep, and gives massive buffs for battle and sack income), with full upgraded black arch you can sack lv 5 cities for over 100k gold, small lv 3 with 30k+.
And you can replenish some kind of troops even in enemie provices.
The black arch also increase amount of slaves taken if upgraded, so it buff your slave pool and income with it.

[vacrovic]

Another great, although risky, use for them is grabbing treasure on the seas. On higher difficulties, a Lord traveling the seas will make all of your armies more expensive but Black Arks don't have that problem anymore.

[Salty Nobody]

At first I was skeptical of Black Arks as well but once I had some upgraded ones I was actually impressed. They do quite alot without increasing the upkeep of all your armies like a normal force.

They are a dedicated naval force that you don't mind taking huge losses in those pesky auto resolve battles. Several at once are a serious deterrent for enemy sea attacks.

They allow recruitment far from recruitment centers, boost replenishment, and the bombartment abilities hurt when used well. They are also instant reinforcements if one of your armies loses some units and needs more, or if you raise a new army and need it to be a full stack immediately.

[Notoko]

They take a long long time to level up, far too easy to destroy at sea and very expensive to be just setting around. There are mods that improve them.

[zefyris]

Just saying, recruiting a lord with a black ark gives soemthing like +12 level to the lord, on top of any faction wide level bonus you can get. This is quite a ridiculous buff. On top of this, black ark don't count as a lord for the increase of upkeep, so you can "store" units there, recuit only the lord when you need him, he'll get far more level than normal, and then you'll give him units from the ark right away, and next turn he's ready to do whatever you need him for. Sicne they don't count for upkeep, they're also pretty usefull to have around simply to get the treasure at sea without requiring a dedicated lord for that. They can also be kept near the shores of your own provinces with units, ready to recruit a lord and do what I said above whenever there's a danger approaching that place, which means that you don't need to keep a lord around to protect the area, once again helping with the whole upkeep increase.

but tbh, just the ability to recruit a Lord right next to the enemy with a +12 level is already ridiculous enough to use them. you easily have a 25+ level lord rigth away after a while during your campaign, and very late game it can even recruit level 40 lords directly. Right next to the place you need them.

btw while recruiting lords there is what you should always be doing (to the point that if as a DE player you're recruiting them anywhere else than in a black ark, you're playing DE wrong ) recruiting heroes with black arks is quite bad so except if you really need that hero right now right here, don't bother, as he'll be lower level than if recruited in your normal settlements.

[Maschinengewehr]

Also, get one out asap. It will save you time levelling it up, which you will need right away when the time comes.