Now iv been seeing that alot of players are very against taking enemy planets, and though it is something that has inherit risks. It has some incredible rewards to counteract those risks.

I think though that one of the main reasons so many players is against it is because they have little to no experience with the subject. So I off you guys my experience on the subject, and trust me I know about this. 21 out of my 40 owned planets, have been captured from other players.

Read the entire guide before you try to follow it, and prepare the artifacts before you need them. Invading is 30% choosing your battles 50% Preparing and 20% the strength of your ship. Remember this guide is just the general guidelines, be crafty and stealthy.

So....
Step 1: Find the best planets you have scanned that you dont already own. Ignore every aspect other then its size and resource availability.

Step 2: Go through each planet and find out the rank of the players that own them. (remember if they're under rank 20 you may not be able to take it)

Step 3: Check out the defenses on the planets, and prepare artifacts for each obstacle. i.e. If the planet has lots of defense you a defense reducing artifact on it.
If you dont have either enough artifacts, or the right ones to be make the planet vulnerable to your attacks (you can get more then 7 damage out per attack).
Unless the planet has more then 500 Attack more Defense then you have dont worry about the damage you take. You can repair and there are hull replenishing artifacts you can use.

Step 4: Attack the planet once, notice how much damage you do. Use this to estimate how much energy it will take to take the planet. (NOTICE: The planet damage cap is 20, if the planet has no defenses and you have over 100 attack, damage cap is almost guaranteed) Also use this to see if the owner will come to defend the planet. Remember they cant find out who attacked it unless you spring a trap. Once they defend you can put on some scanners and see their equipment and judge their strength.

Step 5:
(If you have a Planet Flux) When you have your artifacts ready, and you have the estimated energy+about 40 extra (things can easily go wrong), attack as fast as possible, invade and if you take planet flux immediately. Hopefully you can do this before the owner can come to defend making this much easier.
(If you dont have a Planet Flux) Get your artifacts and energy (but come in with more of each then if you had a planet flux), try to take it before the owner can defend. And then guard the planet.

Step 6: Now will most likely be under fire for the next two days. To survive this and keep your planet, immediately after taking the planet gaurd the planet and use these artifacts if you have them...(IN THIS ORDER)Longevity Serum, Cloning Pods, Sentry Guards, Shield Sentries, Ion Repulsor Charge, Alarm Sentry, Grav-Whip Trap, and finally Planet Vortex Deflector. THe Planet Vortex Deflector is possibly the most important artifact to have when defending a planet due to it making artifacts useless against the planet.

Feel free to PM me on how to deal with your specific situation.

or you can just use 15 crimson cluster missiles, 5 quantum-bio-vaporizers and 10 unstable warp gates.

Wow! Now I really feel miniscule! LOL!

Other than the sentry guards, alarms sentries, and unstable warp gates... I never even knew the rest of those existed... I want a new artifact planet! mine sucks! I think I got somebodies old trash bin...

Longevity serum increases planet pop by 50%, lonign pods increases pop recharge time, Ion rpulsor increases planet defense by 30%, grav whip trap does 400 damage to anyone who attacks the planet(not a big deal to me), crimson cluster missles destroy a building but can only be gotten from NPC's, quantum bio vaporizers decreases pop by 50% I think its from a mission.
EDIT: Oh, and planet vortex deflector keep artifacts from being used on a planet(including beneficial, your own, and allies)

Now I have something to aspire other than being the god of level 10 zolazin ships

i have invaded 11 planets and helped with the invasions of many more. i DONT pre-fire on the planet and wait for the ship to show up and defend. the only time i have ever done this is because we were at WAR with a player and hacked a few planet locations. one of which was his, but not worth taking(was ok, but not up to my standards). i thought it would be funny to hit the planet and see if he valued it enough to guard. if he guarded, i would send an invade order and let a legion mate take it. but if he didn't guard, i would save my alert for another ship in the fight.

i just go in quick and take it asap. no waiting around testing damage. be set before you shoot. have as much energy as possible. i have seen planets turn from wide open to heavily fortified in less than a minute after the 1st shot. artifacts are a waist unless its heavily guarded. arts are best used in defense. use the cloning pods b4 the vortex deflectors... seen the opposite so many times.

This what I usually do too, it just that alot of these guys are afraid of their own shadow in this game. Thought I would tell em to take it slow so they dont have a heart attack from taking damage, and god forbid get disabled "Oh Noes!".

I usually have my planet capacity full or I don't enough credits to invade one. The only one I have impatiently poached has caused me vast grief (thanks). I haven't left myself the opportunity in a long time in terms of planet capacity. There have been many shared lately that are GD juicy too. Something about the mechanics of planet sharing should be on the FAQ in terms of 'reserved' and whatnot. I'm going to unfriend everyone that shares something for defense that has never been attacked. Usually I unfriend people that are just low level and not advancing... to stay around a 100-sized legion. Even those run out though. The people that share crap planets also share good ones though and I'm guessing they are the more helpful/peaceful people in the game. I have better things to complain about than spam.

I have gone about invasion like a wuss really. I never have enough planet fluxes (or probes) so I kind of assumed that was the case with everyone else and usually waited a while, for a wide variety of reasons, before I actually invade a planet. I sort of have a queue. It's the only reasonable way to go about it unless you actually plan on poaching someone's shares and/or being a #*&$. I haven't scanned in GD forever though. Having people hate you can be beneficial in some weird ways. Planets can find you when you get hacked enough. You can lose your crap planets to someone through sheer hatred. That is a good thing! I am probably the only person this will ever happen to though.

Only defend the ones above your median, especially when you find yourself overwhelmed with nice planets. I've lost one planet over my median. Yes, DOO, it was Manda. I haven't actually undertaken an invasion that wasn't already maxed out for success (90%). I've invaded 11 planets and my worst settled planet overall is massive/V abundant. I wasted a flux on it just to be a #*&$ and then I lost my fourth best planet (Manda). Save your planet fluxes!!!!!! Flux probe any planet above your median whenever you can (in order) and hold on to your actual planet fluxes until they are absolutely required. Imagine every opportunity you may have had, IF you had an extra planet flux.

Invasion involves artifacts. Collect many, be patient, and take them.

An excellent guide, coth! I also haven't 'tested the waters' before invading, and it hasn't been an issue. But like you said, some people need the reassurance and the knowledge that it'll work.

I'm reminded of my first invasion. It was to get a planet back from Cothordin, who swooped down like a great eagle and scooped up my Very Massive/Very Rich Research planet. I stocked up my artifacts, got lucky and pulled a planet vortex from an arti shipment, warped the guard (coth himself) away, and retook the planet. In retrospect, I didn't need to use the planetary aegis on it as well, since I had just fluxed it, but I was a paranoid newb.

ha, I'd save the aegis. I used mine to save a 5x mega rich from somebody 200 levels higher than me (and all of DOO). I'm a thorn in their side for merely defending myself and my planets. That merits massive hatred apparently. Thankfully the game has changed in a way that a sole person cannot be constantly hounded by 200 people with 200-sized legions. I could feasibly measure effort wasted on destroying me in terms of actual money.