Wiki source for TankingPrinciples
======**A Guide to Tanking or "The Plate, the Booster, and the Relay"**======
A guide by ""Aroc SyllinBeh""
To start from the beginning, I have to say every combat ship is stretched between two poles, damage(gank) and survivability(tank). The equilibrium between those two is a matter of taste and need.
In this article, we'll take a look at the tank part.
===**__0. Foreword:__**===
I personally consider it a must to have a propulsion mod on EVERY ship, by that I mean an afterburner or a microwarpdrive. Which means you have to dedicate a mid slot to it. Besides, any solo PVP ship needs at last a warp scambler/disruptor to prevent your enemy from warping away while you kick his ass.
Please keep in mind this article isn't about PVP or PVE, it's just a general discussion about tanking.
===__**1. The suspects:**__===
As you probably all know, there are 4 tank types, shield active, armor active, shield passive and speed.
By active, it is generally meant that the HP restoration is needing capacity, not that the hardeners are needing capacity. for example, a passive tanked Drake with active hardeners is still a passive tank.
I won't go into speed tanking for this article as it is much more complex and usually related to high level ships like HACs, command ships, assault frigates or interceptors, which are all quite beyond our current scope.
===__**2. OMG! But what to choose?**__===
a. Active shield tanking modules are mid-slots
b. Armor tanking modules are low-slots
c. Passive shield tanking modules are both mid and low slots AND kills your cap regeneration.
So if your ship has more mid than low slots, go for shield tanking, if it has more lows than mids go for armor tanking.
Passive shield tanking works on most cruisers, battlecruisers and some battleships. The big drawback being the low cap regen. This tank type particularly shines for angel PVE. (more on that in the passive shield section)
Some ships have bonuses to some tanking type, think twice (and more) before deciding you want to go with another tank type on those ships. (example: myrmidon: armor, maelstrom: shield active, ...)
===__**3. The principles of tanking:**__===
Tanking is two fold, it involves restoring your lost HPs and being resistant to damage.
Its no use being very resistant to damage if you cant restore lost HPs and its no use having two shield boosters if you have very low resistances.
Usually you should avoid mixing two tank types, exception to that is the damage control mod, which tanks shield, armor and hull and which is always a good idea for that last low slot.
==__3.1 Hardening:__==
Hardening modules work by subtracting their % from your "weakness" %. __Example:__ I have a 10% explosive resist and I put a 50% explosive hardener on. My weakness is 90% (100-10), the hardener subtracts 50% from it, which is 45%. My new weakness is thus 45%, my new resist is 55%. And not 50%+10% as everyone seems to think. If my original resist was 70%, my weakness would be 30%, the hardener subtracts 50% of 30%, which is 15%, my new weakness is 15%, my new resist 85%. So it's easy to see, the more you are resistant to a damage type, the less effective the hardeners are.
Hardening for PVE is easy, look at their dmg type and harden that. For pvp however its a bit more complex as you can't possibly foresee the dmg type that'll be applied to you, so the best bet is to be a bit less but evenly resistant, which is called an omni tank.
To achieve an omni tank, the plan is to harden your hole first, then go for the next less resist, and so on, until all resists are covered. That tactic should be balanced with going for multiple omni hardeners. The problem of omni hardeners being they harden less than specific hardeners. Concrete examples are given in the tank type sections.
A last note on those shiney compensation skills which raise the effectiveness of PASSIVE hardeners. So first, yes, they affect only passive resists. And second, they add their % to the passive module's %, not to the global resist. Example: you have a 10% resist module and a lvl3 (15%) skill for the corresponding compensation skill. The final effectiveness of the module will become 10+(15% of 10), thus 11.5%. The same situation with a lvl5 (25%) skill would give a final 12.5% resist for the module. Keep in mind thats the module's effect, not the ship resist, the same as in the above paragraph applies to it, so for a 10% passive module, your lvl5 skill will at the very best do 2.5% of added resist (0% original resist) and much less for higher original resists.
The only case in which it seems these skills become interesting is if you use 3 omni passive modules (eanm, ...), as the skills applies 3 times to each resists. Even then, with all lvl4 skills it would be inferior to 3*active hardeners by just a bit.
Faction passive modules might benefit more from the compensation skills as their base resist are significantly higher than standard modules.
==__3.2 HP restoration:__==
For active tanks, restoring HPs uses capacity, so your tank will only last until you have capacity. Once you hear the nice lady say "your capacitor is empty" you're about to die very soon. To somewhat compensate that, people use hardening, which uses a lot less capacity than HP restoration. The plan is to have high enough resistances that you can skip running the HP restoration continuously but rather pulse it when needed.
There is also a solution to capacity restoration and it's called capacitor boosters. It's a mid slot module which uses charges to inject capacity into your ship. The problem is that those charges take a lot of cargo space so you can't haul a ton with you. For example, I can fit 14 big charges (800cap) in my hurricane's hold (they have a volume of 32).
An interesting alternative to capacitor boosters is the combined use of cap rechargers, cap relays and heavy skills. That can sometimes allow to run your tank indefinitely, an example of that in the active shield section.
For passive tanks, HP restoration happens by itself so you don't eat capacity to regenerate HP and you can potentially regenerate forever. The problem is passive tanking uses both mid and low slots, so it means no damage/tracking/whatever modules on the ship, which in turn means passive tanks usually have low DPS.
==__3.3 Stacking:__==
In eve, most module effects are stacked, which means if you use more than one module affecting the same characteristic, each module after the first will become less effective.
It is indicated in the module info by the following: "Using more than one type of this module or similar modules that affect the same attribute on the ship will be penalized."
Eve being eve, its quite possible some modules don't have that sentence but are still stacked and vice-versa, I don't have a list...
The module's effect is multiplicated by the following:
first: 1
second: 0.87
third: 0.57
fourth: 0.28
fifth: 0.10
after fifth, it becomes abysmal (<0.03)
So it's usually a bad idea to have more than 3 modules affecting the same characteristic.
__Example:__
A gyrostabilizer multiplies your gun's damage by 1.5.
The second same gyro you add will do *(1.5*0.87) = 1.305, for a total of 1.5*1.305 = 1.975 times your gun's damage mod.
==__3.4 Calculating the equivalent HPs:__==
If you have a 65% resist to EM and someone does 100 EM damage to you, you will lose 35 HP.
That is calculated like this:
HP = Damage * ((100-Resist)/100)
which is the same as:
Damage = HP / ((100-Resist)/100)
So, if you replace HP by your, let's say shield, HPs and resist by your EM resistance, you'll know how much EM damage it would take to kill your shields.
When you've done that for your four resistances, you'll have an idea of how much damage you can tank.
==__3.5 Hardening vs more HP:__==
If you add an armor plate/shield extender, its usefulness is enhanced by your resistances, according to the equivalent HP formula.
So it may at first seems better to swap an hardener for an HP extender.
The catch is that hardening also betters your HP restoration.
__Example:__ If your armor repairer restores 30 HP/s, a 30% hardening difference makes it tank 13 extra dps, it seems few but its a lot.
==__3.6 Tank characteristics:__==
From the above, we can deduce 3 characteristics that define a tank.
- Equivalent HPs
- Dps absorption
- Full tank duration
__Calcul example:__
**Rifter**
200mm AutoCannon I
200mm AutoCannon I
200mm AutoCannon I
'Malkuth' Rocket Launcher I
1MN Afterburner I
Stasis Webifier I
Warp Disruptor I
Small Armor Repairer I
Damage Control I
Adaptive Nano Plating I
430 shield, 2.15/s, E/T/K/Ex=7/25/44/62
421 armor, E/T/K/Ex=75/46/38/26
287.5 cap, +4.42/s, -14.4/s
833.0 m/s
With my skills, the repairer restores 12.5 hp/s
__Eq armor HP:__
EM: 421/0.25 = 1684
EX: 421/0.74 = 569
TH: 421/0.54 = 780
KIN: 421/0.62 = 679
__Dps absorb:__
EM: 12.5/0.25 = 50
EX: 12.5/0.74 = 17
TH: 12.5/0.54 = 23
KIN: 12.5/0.62 = 20
__Tank duration:__
50s with the repairer and DCU only
27s with the warp disruptor running too
The Eq HP and dps absorbed are calculated using my excel sheet, the Tank duration, using quickfit's cap simulation.
To really know if you're better with another hardener, of which type, or maybe with a plate/extender or another booster/repairer, you have to calculate the tank characteristics of each setup and evaluate which one appeals to you most. It's very difficult, for me at last, to tell the concrete effect of tank modules without comparing the final numbers, not the resists or raw regen rate for example.
=====**__4 Active shield tanking:__**=====
==__4.1 Modules:__==
An active shield tank revolves around a shield booster. The modules you'd want to consider are these:
- Shield booster (aim for the biggest you can fit, cruiser: medium/large, bc: large, bs: x-large)
- Shield boost amplifier (raises the shield boosters effectiveness)
- Shield hardeners (active)
- Shield resistance amplifiers (passive)
Hear me out now, if you put a shield booster on your ship, don't put any other shield mods than the above, no shield rechargers, no shield relays or shield flux coils, clear enough? In all cases you're better with more hardeners/dmg mods/utilities than with rechargers for an active tank.
==__4.2 Skills:__==
The skills involved in active shield tanks are the following:
Shield management (more shield HP, use of boost amplifiers t1=1 t2=5)
Shield operation (shield regen rate, use of shield boosters t1=1-3 t2=3-5 depending on booster size)
Tactical shield manipulation (use of active shield hardeners t1=1 t2=4)
Shield upgrades (use of passive shield hardeners, t1=1 t2=4)
Other skills useful for active shield tanks are the following (related to cap usage):
Energy management (more capacitor HP)
Energy system operations (capacitor regen rate)
Shield compensation (less cap used for shield boosters)
==__4.3 Hardening:__==
I see no reason to use passive hardeners other than not enough skills for actives OR not enough power/cpu to fit actives.
For shield, your resists in least to best order are: em, therm, kin, expl. So the plan is to first put an EM hardener then a Thermal, and so on. I believe it's best for shield tanks to use up to two omnis before adding more specific hardeners beyond the original EM one.
If you have only one slot for hardening, put an omni, if you have 2 slots, go for em first, then omni. For 3 slots, EM, omni, omni. For 4 slots, EM, Thermal, omni, omni, etc.
Be aware that stacking applies if you use multiple omnis.
__Pros:__
- Shield boosters have a lower cycle time than armor repairers, so they react faster AND restore HP faster.
- Shield boosters restore more HP/s than similar sized armor repairers.
- The shield regen by itself.
- If your tank is broken, you still have armor and hull to try to go away, warp out or kill the enemy.
__Cons:__
- Active shield tanks use mid slots and pvp usually requires a propulsion mod, a warp scrambler and possibly a capacitor booster and a stasis webifier, which also use mid slots.
- Shield boosters are less cap effective than armor repairers. (less HP restored per cap used)
- Shield base resists have a 0% hole (EM) while armor base resists have a 10% hole (Expl).
- There's no omni passive shield hardener (like eanm for armor)
__Examples:__
**Cyclone**
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
'Anointed' I EM Ward Reinforcement
Ditrigonal Thermal Barrier Crystallization I
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
10MN Afterburner I
Counterbalanced Weapon Mounts I
Fourier Transform I Tracking Program
Capacitor Flux Coil I
Capacitor Flux Coil I
4834 shield, 12.09/s, E/T/K/Ex=60/68/54/69
1817.5 cap, +15.97/s, -58.4/s
410.0 m/s
This fit has 'ok' shield resists and with my skills, the booster restores 73 raw HP/s.
Its least resist dps absorption is 160 dps.
Its tank duration is only 45s though with the booster running continuously
**Cyclone 2**
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
10MN Afterburner I
Medium F-RX Prototype I Capacitor Boost [1xCap Booster 800]
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
'Anointed' I EM Ward Reinforcement
Counterbalanced Weapon Mounts I
Fourier Transform I Tracking Program
Reactor Control Unit I
Counterbalanced Weapon Mounts I
4834 shield, 12.09/s, E/T/K/Ex=60/39/54/69
4687 armor, E/T/K/Ex=69/35/25/10
2515.625 cap, +12.43/s, -56.733/s
410.0 m/s
This fit has still 'ok' resists.
Its least resist dps absorption is 120 dps.
Its tank duration is 267s though with the booster running continuously, and that's thanks to the cap booster module.
Before the cap runs out, it uses 12 cap 800 charges
These two examples are symptomatic of how you should balance your tanks. None is better than the other, they just fit different roles.
**Cyclone 3**
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
10MN Afterburner I
Medium F-RX Prototype I Capacitor Boost [1xCap Booster 800]
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
Counterbalanced Weapon Mounts I
Fourier Transform I Tracking Program
Reactor Control Unit I
Counterbalanced Weapon Mounts I
4834 shield, 12.09/s, E/T/K/Ex=41/53/64/76
4687 armor, E/T/K/Ex=69/35/25/10
2515.625 cap, +12.43/s, -58.4/s
410.0 m/s
Its least resist dps absorption is 123 dps which is a tiny bit better and the other resists are 10% or so better than the previous fit. However it's weakest resist is EM and that is very bad, because people will know a Cyclone is probably shield tanking and there is a good chance they go for EM damage when facing it.
Its tank duration is the same as the previous fit.
The 3 examples above are for PVE or fleet PVP, meaning you don't have any warp scrambler nor stasis webifier, so you need someone to tackle for you in a PVP situation.
**Maelstrom**
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
'Copasetic' I Particle Field Acceleration
'Copasetic' I Particle Field Acceleration
X-Large Shield Booster II
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
Cap Recharger II
Damage Control II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Power Diagnostic System II
Rigs : Capacitor Control Circuit I \ Capacitor Control Circuit I \ Capacitor Control Circuit I \
9659 shield, 14.08/s, E/T/K/Ex=48/58/69/79
9000 armor, E/T/K/Ex=74/44/36/23
4836.234562329941 cap, +81.97/s, -83.5/s
132.0 m/s
This above setup is particular, it is totally oriented to have enough cap regen to keep the X-Large booster and the hardeners running permanently. In order to achieve that, it needs to sacrifice damage (no gyro in lows), it needs 3 cap rigs and it needs both cap skills at 5. (energy management, energy systems operation)
With battleship 3, the booster restores 241 hp/s.
__Dps absorb:__
EM: 241/0.52 = 463
EX: 241/0.21 = 1148
TH: 241/0.42 = 574
KIN: 241/0.31 = 777
Impressive numbers and it can run nearly permanently. Of course the absence of a propulsion mod puts it at risk.
Still an interesting concept.
===__**5. Active armor tanking:**__===
==__5.1 Skills:__==
Hull upgrades (more armor HP, allow the use of armor plates t1=1-3 t2=3-5, allows the use of resistance platings t1=1 t2=4, allows the use of energized platings t1=1-3 t2=5, allows the use of armor hardeners t1=4 t2=5, allows the use of damage controls t1=1 t2=4)
Repair systems (armor repairer cycle time reduction, allow the use of repair systems t1=1 t2=3-5)
Mechanic (more hull HP, allow the use of repair systems t1=1-3 t2=3-5)
Energy management
Energy systems operation
==__5.2 Modules:__==
Armor repairers (HP restoration)
Armor hardeners (Active hardeners)
Energized platings (High passive hardeners)
Resistance platings (Low passive hardeners)
Armor plates (More armor HP)
Damage controls (Shield, armor and hull hardeners)
The level of hardening raises in the following order: resistance plating, energized plating, armor hardener. The advantage of resistance plating is that it doesn't use any CPU, only 1 POWER, so its usually good if you have a low slot left but no more energy/cpu to fit anything else.
The 'refuge' adaptive nano plating is also the best passive module (15.36% omni hardening) until you can use energized adaptive nano membranes II (20% omni hardening).
==__5.3 Hardening:__==
Armor has the following base resists: EM 70%/EX 10%/KIN 25%/THERM 35%
The hardening principle is similar to that of shield tanks, fill your hole first then add specific hardeners, then omni hardeners. The difference with shield tanks is that there is no real active omni hardener for armor (as there is no real passive omni shield hardener). So when shield uses two omnis, armor is better with one specific and one omni.
So if you have one slot go for a DCU or an EANM, two slots: explosive hardener, EANM, 3 slots: explosive, kinetic hardeners, EANM, etc.
Also note that DCU II has the same armor hardening as an EANM I and adds 60% omni resists to your hull. DCU are active but their capacity need is well under 1 cap/s, which any ship can support. Having your hull 60% hardened can buy you that extra time which could be needed.
__Examples:__
**Rifter**
200mm AutoCannon I
200mm AutoCannon I
200mm AutoCannon I
Small 'Knave' I Energy Drain
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
Small F-RX Prototype I Capacitor Boost
Small Armor Repairer I
Damage Control I
Energized Reactive Membrane I
430 shield, 2.15/s, E/T/K/Ex=7/25/44/62
421 armor, E/T/K/Ex=72/41/32/47
287.5 cap, +4.42/s, -10.15/s
895.0 m/s
This fit uses the standard 1 repairer/1 capacitor booster setup.
Its hardening is quite good for a t1 frigate.
It can tank 18.4 equivalent dps in its lowest resist.
The tank can run for 52s without the nos or cap booster
The tank can run for 120s with the nos only
With the cap booster, the tank can run until you have no more charges
**Typhoon**
XT-9000 Cruise Launcher
XT-9000 Cruise Launcher
XT-9000 Cruise Launcher
XT-9000 Cruise Launcher
1200mm Heavy 'Scout' Artillery I
1200mm Heavy 'Scout' Artillery I
720mm 'Scout' Artillery I
Drone Link Augmentor I
LiF Fueled I Booster Rockets
Omnidirectional Tracking Link I
Medium F-RX Prototype I Capacitor Boost
'Orion' Tracking CPU I
N-Type Explosive Hardener I
N-Type Kinetic Hardener I
N-Type Thermic Hardener I
Damage Control II
Large 'Accommodation' Vestment Reconstructer I
Large 'Accommodation' Vestment Reconstructer I
Capacitor Power Relay II
Rigs : Auxiliary Nano Pump I \ Anti-Explosive Pump I \ Capacitor Control Circuit I \
7142 shield, 9.52/s, E/T/K/Ex=12/29/47/64
6562 armor, E/T/K/Ex=74/72/68/71
6250.0 cap, +29.06/s, -75.21/s
390.0 m/s
This setup uses two large armor repairers and a combination of cap regen/cap boosting.
With my skills, the repairers restore 138 hp/s.
__Dps absorb:__
EM: 138/0.26 = 531
EX: 138/0.29 = 476
TH: 138/0.28 = 493
KIN: 138/0.32 = 431
This is a good example of a 'low' repair / 'high' resist setup, which tanks a bit less, but similarly to the Maelstrom active shield tank setup shown above.
Tanks either are specific or omnis, with specific tanks being, in my opinion, for PVE only. While omni tanks being for both PVE/PVP. Still in my opinion, an omni tank is roughly worth its lowest resist.
Thus, an omni tank with 500 dps absorption in all resists but one, where it has 1000 dps absorption is not really better than a omni tank with 500 dps absorption in all resists.
The modules can all run until you're out of cap booster charges.
=====**__6. Passive shield tanking:__**=====
==__6.1 Principles:__==
In eve some parameters of your ship regen by themselves, they are the shield and cap. The following shield principles somewhat also applies to cap.
If you can get your shield to regen so fast it is restoring HP at a rate similar to that of a shield booster, then you have achieved a passive tank.
The shield base regen rate is calculated like this:
Base regen = Shield HP/Shield recharge duration
From the above, we can deduce there are two ways of raising your regen rate, either augment the HP amount, either reduce the recharge duration.
An important note here, the shield regen rate isn't linear, which means it changes over time, or more precisely, it changes according to your current shield HP amount. Without going into mathematical details, it has been empirically measured that the shield regen curve reaches a peak when the shield HP is around 30%. And at that time, the regen is roughly 2.4 times the base regen:
Peak regen = 2.4 * Base regen
The ragen rate raises from less than Base regen to that 2.4 peak and then reduces again to less than Base regen. Which means if you're passive shield tanked and your shield HP is under 30%, the tank is permanently broken until your shield HP regen above 30% again.
One of the modules used in passive shield tanks is reducing the cap regen. So usually, passive shield tanks have near 0 cap regen rate, barely enough to run the hardeners. That poses a problem to use most mid slot utilities.
==__6.2 Modules:__==
- Shield extenders (gives more shield HP, aim for the biggest you can fit)
- Shield hardeners (active)
- Shield resistance amplifiers (passive)
- Shield power relays (increase the shield regen but reduce the cap regen)
An important note about shield rechargers and shield flux coils:
There are two reasons for using shield extenders over shield rechargers, first the extender helps the regen rate more if it represents more than 11% of your total shield HP (t1 recharger) or more than 16% (t2 recharger). Second, extenders add more HP, so your damage buffer is better AND the more HP you got, the longer the peak effect will last. So in some cases it *might* be better to use shield rechargers but usually it is not.
For shield flux coils, they increase the regen rate at the cost of shield HP, which in turn reduces the regen rate. So flux coils are NEVER better than power relays.
==__6.3 Skills:__==
The skills involved in passive shield tanks are the following:
Shield management (more shield HP)
Shield operation (more shield regen rate)
Tactical shield manipulation (use of active shield hardeners t1=1 t2=4)
Shield upgrades (use of shield extenders, use of passive shield hardeners, t1=1 t2=4)
Energy grid upgrades (use of shield power relays, t1=2 t2=4)
Other skills useful for passive shield tanks are the following (related to cap usage):
Energy management (more capacitor HP)
Energy system operations (capacitor regen rate)
==__6.4 Hardening:__==
Hardening is similar for active or passive shield tanks, use active hardeners if your cap can support it.
For shield, your resists in least to best order are: em, therm, kin, expl. So the plan is to first put an EM hardener then a Thermal, and so on. Once you've put 3 specific hardeners and you still have hardening slots left, you should put omnis.
If you have only one slot for hardening, put an omni, if you have 2 slots, go for em first, then omni. For 3 slots, EM, Thermal, omni, etc.
Be aware that stacking applies if you use multiple omnis.
__Example:__
Drake
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay [35xScourge Heavy Missile]
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay [35xScourge Heavy Missile]
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay [35xScourge Heavy Missile]
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay [35xScourge Heavy Missile]
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay [35xScourge Heavy Missile]
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay [35xScourge Heavy Missile]
SV-2000 Assault Missile Bay [69xBloodclaw Light Missile]
Drone Link Augmentor I
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
'Anointed' I EM Ward Reinforcement
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
Shield Power Relay I
Shield Power Relay I
Shield Power Relay I
Shield Power Relay I
13440 shield, 409s, 82.04/s, E/T/K/Ex=71/60/70/80
4687 armor, E/T/K/Ex=59/44/25/10
3234.375 cap, +3.74/s, -8.333/s
175.0 m/s
Base regen = 13440 / 409 = 32.86 HP/s
Peak regen = 32.86 * 2.4 = 79 HP/s
You can see that quickfit gives the Peak regen and not the Base regen (the slight difference comes from rounding)
__Eq shield HP:__
EM: 13440/0.29 = 46345
EX: 13440/0.2 = 67200
TH: 13440/0.4 = 33600
KIN: 13440/0.3 = 44800
__Dps (peak) absorb:__
EM: 79/0.29 = 272
EX: 79/0.2 = 395
TH: 79/0.4 = 197
KIN: 79/0.3 = 263
__Tank duration:__
530s during which the ship can sustain the hardeners, after that it is out of cap but the shield regen is still the same, just not hardened.
That's with the following skills:
Shield management 2
Shield operation 4
Energy management 3
Energy system operations 3
If we take the same ship but with higher skills we have the following:
Shield management 4
Shield operation 4
Energy management 4
Energy system operations 4
14662 shield, 409s, 89.49/s, E/T/K/Ex=71/60/70/80
3375.0 cap, +4.15/s, -8.333/s
Base regen = 14662 / 409 = 35.85 HP/s
Peak regen = 35.85 * 2.4 = 86 HP/s
__Eq shield HP:__
EM: 14662/0.29 = 50558
EX: 14662/0.2 = 73310
TH: 14662/0.4 = 36655
KIN: 14662/0.3 = 48873
__Dps (peak) absorb:__
EM: 86/0.29 = 296
EX: 86/0.2 = 430
TH: 86/0.4 = 215
KIN: 86/0.3 = 287
__Tank duration:__
550s
So just raising two levels of the shield management skill gave roughly 9% more dps absorption.
Two last notes on passive shield tanks:
1. The Drake is particularly well suited for that kind of tank. And that's for 3 reasons, it has 6 mid slots, it has bonus to resistances which means less hardeners needed AND, mainly, it has a low shield recharge time for its shield HP amount. (5469hp/1250s, base regen = 4.37)
If we compare it to its big brother, the Raven, we see 6 mid slots and 7500hp/2500s, base regen = 3. That difference being even furthered because the Drake uses the biggest shield extenders already, taking even more advantage of its low regen time.
No other ship, from cruiser to battleship has the same combination of elements.
2. Passive shield tanks use both mid and low slots, which in turn basically gimps anything else than the tank on those ships. No utility mods (target painters, warp scramblers, webifiers, afterburners, ...) and no damage mods (BCU/Gyros).
3. If you use rigs, mostly all ships can be passive tanked. The reason behind this is that all the modules used in passive tanking directly affect the same characteristic. So, the more you add, the more you got out of the module (as they're giving a % bonus).
__Example:__
**Typhoon**
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Rigs : Core Defence Field Purger I \ Core Defence Field Purger I \ Core Defence Field Purger I \
12607 shield, 210.16/s, E/T/K/Ex=48/58/68/79
6562 armor, E/T/K/Ex=69/35/25/10
5750.0 cap, +1.98/s, -6.4/s
188.0 m/s
__Dps (peak) absorb:__
EM: 210/0.52 = 403
EX: 210/0.21 = 1000
TH: 210/0.42 = 500
KIN: 210/0.32 = 656
That's a pretty nice passive shield tank, considering this is an armor tanking ship...
To have an idea of the evolution, here are the peak regens according to the number of modules:
1 extender: 12.5
2 extender: 15.8
2ex+1relay: 20.7
2ex+2relay: 27.3
2ex+3relay: 35.9
2ex+4relay: 47.2
2ex+5relay: 62.2
2ex+6relay: 81.8
2ex+7relay: 107.6
same+1rig: 134.5
same+2rig: 168.1
same+3rig: 210.2
The first relay adds 7hp/s, the last rig adds 42hp/s (relays are +24%, rigs +20%)
That's central to passive setups, its usually worthless to go half passive because it's when you add those last modules that you reach amazing regen levels...
Well, this concludes the article. Don't hesitate to ask questions and/or point errors to me.
A guide by ""Aroc SyllinBeh""
To start from the beginning, I have to say every combat ship is stretched between two poles, damage(gank) and survivability(tank). The equilibrium between those two is a matter of taste and need.
In this article, we'll take a look at the tank part.
===**__0. Foreword:__**===
I personally consider it a must to have a propulsion mod on EVERY ship, by that I mean an afterburner or a microwarpdrive. Which means you have to dedicate a mid slot to it. Besides, any solo PVP ship needs at last a warp scambler/disruptor to prevent your enemy from warping away while you kick his ass.
Please keep in mind this article isn't about PVP or PVE, it's just a general discussion about tanking.
===__**1. The suspects:**__===
As you probably all know, there are 4 tank types, shield active, armor active, shield passive and speed.
By active, it is generally meant that the HP restoration is needing capacity, not that the hardeners are needing capacity. for example, a passive tanked Drake with active hardeners is still a passive tank.
I won't go into speed tanking for this article as it is much more complex and usually related to high level ships like HACs, command ships, assault frigates or interceptors, which are all quite beyond our current scope.
===__**2. OMG! But what to choose?**__===
a. Active shield tanking modules are mid-slots
b. Armor tanking modules are low-slots
c. Passive shield tanking modules are both mid and low slots AND kills your cap regeneration.
So if your ship has more mid than low slots, go for shield tanking, if it has more lows than mids go for armor tanking.
Passive shield tanking works on most cruisers, battlecruisers and some battleships. The big drawback being the low cap regen. This tank type particularly shines for angel PVE. (more on that in the passive shield section)
Some ships have bonuses to some tanking type, think twice (and more) before deciding you want to go with another tank type on those ships. (example: myrmidon: armor, maelstrom: shield active, ...)
===__**3. The principles of tanking:**__===
Tanking is two fold, it involves restoring your lost HPs and being resistant to damage.
Its no use being very resistant to damage if you cant restore lost HPs and its no use having two shield boosters if you have very low resistances.
Usually you should avoid mixing two tank types, exception to that is the damage control mod, which tanks shield, armor and hull and which is always a good idea for that last low slot.
==__3.1 Hardening:__==
Hardening modules work by subtracting their % from your "weakness" %. __Example:__ I have a 10% explosive resist and I put a 50% explosive hardener on. My weakness is 90% (100-10), the hardener subtracts 50% from it, which is 45%. My new weakness is thus 45%, my new resist is 55%. And not 50%+10% as everyone seems to think. If my original resist was 70%, my weakness would be 30%, the hardener subtracts 50% of 30%, which is 15%, my new weakness is 15%, my new resist 85%. So it's easy to see, the more you are resistant to a damage type, the less effective the hardeners are.
Hardening for PVE is easy, look at their dmg type and harden that. For pvp however its a bit more complex as you can't possibly foresee the dmg type that'll be applied to you, so the best bet is to be a bit less but evenly resistant, which is called an omni tank.
To achieve an omni tank, the plan is to harden your hole first, then go for the next less resist, and so on, until all resists are covered. That tactic should be balanced with going for multiple omni hardeners. The problem of omni hardeners being they harden less than specific hardeners. Concrete examples are given in the tank type sections.
A last note on those shiney compensation skills which raise the effectiveness of PASSIVE hardeners. So first, yes, they affect only passive resists. And second, they add their % to the passive module's %, not to the global resist. Example: you have a 10% resist module and a lvl3 (15%) skill for the corresponding compensation skill. The final effectiveness of the module will become 10+(15% of 10), thus 11.5%. The same situation with a lvl5 (25%) skill would give a final 12.5% resist for the module. Keep in mind thats the module's effect, not the ship resist, the same as in the above paragraph applies to it, so for a 10% passive module, your lvl5 skill will at the very best do 2.5% of added resist (0% original resist) and much less for higher original resists.
The only case in which it seems these skills become interesting is if you use 3 omni passive modules (eanm, ...), as the skills applies 3 times to each resists. Even then, with all lvl4 skills it would be inferior to 3*active hardeners by just a bit.
Faction passive modules might benefit more from the compensation skills as their base resist are significantly higher than standard modules.
==__3.2 HP restoration:__==
For active tanks, restoring HPs uses capacity, so your tank will only last until you have capacity. Once you hear the nice lady say "your capacitor is empty" you're about to die very soon. To somewhat compensate that, people use hardening, which uses a lot less capacity than HP restoration. The plan is to have high enough resistances that you can skip running the HP restoration continuously but rather pulse it when needed.
There is also a solution to capacity restoration and it's called capacitor boosters. It's a mid slot module which uses charges to inject capacity into your ship. The problem is that those charges take a lot of cargo space so you can't haul a ton with you. For example, I can fit 14 big charges (800cap) in my hurricane's hold (they have a volume of 32).
An interesting alternative to capacitor boosters is the combined use of cap rechargers, cap relays and heavy skills. That can sometimes allow to run your tank indefinitely, an example of that in the active shield section.
For passive tanks, HP restoration happens by itself so you don't eat capacity to regenerate HP and you can potentially regenerate forever. The problem is passive tanking uses both mid and low slots, so it means no damage/tracking/whatever modules on the ship, which in turn means passive tanks usually have low DPS.
==__3.3 Stacking:__==
In eve, most module effects are stacked, which means if you use more than one module affecting the same characteristic, each module after the first will become less effective.
It is indicated in the module info by the following: "Using more than one type of this module or similar modules that affect the same attribute on the ship will be penalized."
Eve being eve, its quite possible some modules don't have that sentence but are still stacked and vice-versa, I don't have a list...
The module's effect is multiplicated by the following:
first: 1
second: 0.87
third: 0.57
fourth: 0.28
fifth: 0.10
after fifth, it becomes abysmal (<0.03)
So it's usually a bad idea to have more than 3 modules affecting the same characteristic.
__Example:__
A gyrostabilizer multiplies your gun's damage by 1.5.
The second same gyro you add will do *(1.5*0.87) = 1.305, for a total of 1.5*1.305 = 1.975 times your gun's damage mod.
==__3.4 Calculating the equivalent HPs:__==
If you have a 65% resist to EM and someone does 100 EM damage to you, you will lose 35 HP.
That is calculated like this:
HP = Damage * ((100-Resist)/100)
which is the same as:
Damage = HP / ((100-Resist)/100)
So, if you replace HP by your, let's say shield, HPs and resist by your EM resistance, you'll know how much EM damage it would take to kill your shields.
When you've done that for your four resistances, you'll have an idea of how much damage you can tank.
==__3.5 Hardening vs more HP:__==
If you add an armor plate/shield extender, its usefulness is enhanced by your resistances, according to the equivalent HP formula.
So it may at first seems better to swap an hardener for an HP extender.
The catch is that hardening also betters your HP restoration.
__Example:__ If your armor repairer restores 30 HP/s, a 30% hardening difference makes it tank 13 extra dps, it seems few but its a lot.
==__3.6 Tank characteristics:__==
From the above, we can deduce 3 characteristics that define a tank.
- Equivalent HPs
- Dps absorption
- Full tank duration
__Calcul example:__
**Rifter**
200mm AutoCannon I
200mm AutoCannon I
200mm AutoCannon I
'Malkuth' Rocket Launcher I
1MN Afterburner I
Stasis Webifier I
Warp Disruptor I
Small Armor Repairer I
Damage Control I
Adaptive Nano Plating I
430 shield, 2.15/s, E/T/K/Ex=7/25/44/62
421 armor, E/T/K/Ex=75/46/38/26
287.5 cap, +4.42/s, -14.4/s
833.0 m/s
With my skills, the repairer restores 12.5 hp/s
__Eq armor HP:__
EM: 421/0.25 = 1684
EX: 421/0.74 = 569
TH: 421/0.54 = 780
KIN: 421/0.62 = 679
__Dps absorb:__
EM: 12.5/0.25 = 50
EX: 12.5/0.74 = 17
TH: 12.5/0.54 = 23
KIN: 12.5/0.62 = 20
__Tank duration:__
50s with the repairer and DCU only
27s with the warp disruptor running too
The Eq HP and dps absorbed are calculated using my excel sheet, the Tank duration, using quickfit's cap simulation.
To really know if you're better with another hardener, of which type, or maybe with a plate/extender or another booster/repairer, you have to calculate the tank characteristics of each setup and evaluate which one appeals to you most. It's very difficult, for me at last, to tell the concrete effect of tank modules without comparing the final numbers, not the resists or raw regen rate for example.
=====**__4 Active shield tanking:__**=====
==__4.1 Modules:__==
An active shield tank revolves around a shield booster. The modules you'd want to consider are these:
- Shield booster (aim for the biggest you can fit, cruiser: medium/large, bc: large, bs: x-large)
- Shield boost amplifier (raises the shield boosters effectiveness)
- Shield hardeners (active)
- Shield resistance amplifiers (passive)
Hear me out now, if you put a shield booster on your ship, don't put any other shield mods than the above, no shield rechargers, no shield relays or shield flux coils, clear enough? In all cases you're better with more hardeners/dmg mods/utilities than with rechargers for an active tank.
==__4.2 Skills:__==
The skills involved in active shield tanks are the following:
Shield management (more shield HP, use of boost amplifiers t1=1 t2=5)
Shield operation (shield regen rate, use of shield boosters t1=1-3 t2=3-5 depending on booster size)
Tactical shield manipulation (use of active shield hardeners t1=1 t2=4)
Shield upgrades (use of passive shield hardeners, t1=1 t2=4)
Other skills useful for active shield tanks are the following (related to cap usage):
Energy management (more capacitor HP)
Energy system operations (capacitor regen rate)
Shield compensation (less cap used for shield boosters)
==__4.3 Hardening:__==
I see no reason to use passive hardeners other than not enough skills for actives OR not enough power/cpu to fit actives.
For shield, your resists in least to best order are: em, therm, kin, expl. So the plan is to first put an EM hardener then a Thermal, and so on. I believe it's best for shield tanks to use up to two omnis before adding more specific hardeners beyond the original EM one.
If you have only one slot for hardening, put an omni, if you have 2 slots, go for em first, then omni. For 3 slots, EM, omni, omni. For 4 slots, EM, Thermal, omni, omni, etc.
Be aware that stacking applies if you use multiple omnis.
__Pros:__
- Shield boosters have a lower cycle time than armor repairers, so they react faster AND restore HP faster.
- Shield boosters restore more HP/s than similar sized armor repairers.
- The shield regen by itself.
- If your tank is broken, you still have armor and hull to try to go away, warp out or kill the enemy.
__Cons:__
- Active shield tanks use mid slots and pvp usually requires a propulsion mod, a warp scrambler and possibly a capacitor booster and a stasis webifier, which also use mid slots.
- Shield boosters are less cap effective than armor repairers. (less HP restored per cap used)
- Shield base resists have a 0% hole (EM) while armor base resists have a 10% hole (Expl).
- There's no omni passive shield hardener (like eanm for armor)
__Examples:__
**Cyclone**
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
'Anointed' I EM Ward Reinforcement
Ditrigonal Thermal Barrier Crystallization I
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
10MN Afterburner I
Counterbalanced Weapon Mounts I
Fourier Transform I Tracking Program
Capacitor Flux Coil I
Capacitor Flux Coil I
4834 shield, 12.09/s, E/T/K/Ex=60/68/54/69
1817.5 cap, +15.97/s, -58.4/s
410.0 m/s
This fit has 'ok' shield resists and with my skills, the booster restores 73 raw HP/s.
Its least resist dps absorption is 160 dps.
Its tank duration is only 45s though with the booster running continuously
**Cyclone 2**
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
10MN Afterburner I
Medium F-RX Prototype I Capacitor Boost [1xCap Booster 800]
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
'Anointed' I EM Ward Reinforcement
Counterbalanced Weapon Mounts I
Fourier Transform I Tracking Program
Reactor Control Unit I
Counterbalanced Weapon Mounts I
4834 shield, 12.09/s, E/T/K/Ex=60/39/54/69
4687 armor, E/T/K/Ex=69/35/25/10
2515.625 cap, +12.43/s, -56.733/s
410.0 m/s
This fit has still 'ok' resists.
Its least resist dps absorption is 120 dps.
Its tank duration is 267s though with the booster running continuously, and that's thanks to the cap booster module.
Before the cap runs out, it uses 12 cap 800 charges
These two examples are symptomatic of how you should balance your tanks. None is better than the other, they just fit different roles.
**Cyclone 3**
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
650mm Medium Prototype I Siege Cannon
Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
10MN Afterburner I
Medium F-RX Prototype I Capacitor Boost [1xCap Booster 800]
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
Counterbalanced Weapon Mounts I
Fourier Transform I Tracking Program
Reactor Control Unit I
Counterbalanced Weapon Mounts I
4834 shield, 12.09/s, E/T/K/Ex=41/53/64/76
4687 armor, E/T/K/Ex=69/35/25/10
2515.625 cap, +12.43/s, -58.4/s
410.0 m/s
Its least resist dps absorption is 123 dps which is a tiny bit better and the other resists are 10% or so better than the previous fit. However it's weakest resist is EM and that is very bad, because people will know a Cyclone is probably shield tanking and there is a good chance they go for EM damage when facing it.
Its tank duration is the same as the previous fit.
The 3 examples above are for PVE or fleet PVP, meaning you don't have any warp scrambler nor stasis webifier, so you need someone to tackle for you in a PVP situation.
**Maelstrom**
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
1400mm 'Scout' Artillery I [10xEMP L]
'Copasetic' I Particle Field Acceleration
'Copasetic' I Particle Field Acceleration
X-Large Shield Booster II
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
Cap Recharger II
Damage Control II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Power Diagnostic System II
Rigs : Capacitor Control Circuit I \ Capacitor Control Circuit I \ Capacitor Control Circuit I \
9659 shield, 14.08/s, E/T/K/Ex=48/58/69/79
9000 armor, E/T/K/Ex=74/44/36/23
4836.234562329941 cap, +81.97/s, -83.5/s
132.0 m/s
This above setup is particular, it is totally oriented to have enough cap regen to keep the X-Large booster and the hardeners running permanently. In order to achieve that, it needs to sacrifice damage (no gyro in lows), it needs 3 cap rigs and it needs both cap skills at 5. (energy management, energy systems operation)
With battleship 3, the booster restores 241 hp/s.
__Dps absorb:__
EM: 241/0.52 = 463
EX: 241/0.21 = 1148
TH: 241/0.42 = 574
KIN: 241/0.31 = 777
Impressive numbers and it can run nearly permanently. Of course the absence of a propulsion mod puts it at risk.
Still an interesting concept.
===__**5. Active armor tanking:**__===
==__5.1 Skills:__==
Hull upgrades (more armor HP, allow the use of armor plates t1=1-3 t2=3-5, allows the use of resistance platings t1=1 t2=4, allows the use of energized platings t1=1-3 t2=5, allows the use of armor hardeners t1=4 t2=5, allows the use of damage controls t1=1 t2=4)
Repair systems (armor repairer cycle time reduction, allow the use of repair systems t1=1 t2=3-5)
Mechanic (more hull HP, allow the use of repair systems t1=1-3 t2=3-5)
Energy management
Energy systems operation
==__5.2 Modules:__==
Armor repairers (HP restoration)
Armor hardeners (Active hardeners)
Energized platings (High passive hardeners)
Resistance platings (Low passive hardeners)
Armor plates (More armor HP)
Damage controls (Shield, armor and hull hardeners)
The level of hardening raises in the following order: resistance plating, energized plating, armor hardener. The advantage of resistance plating is that it doesn't use any CPU, only 1 POWER, so its usually good if you have a low slot left but no more energy/cpu to fit anything else.
The 'refuge' adaptive nano plating is also the best passive module (15.36% omni hardening) until you can use energized adaptive nano membranes II (20% omni hardening).
==__5.3 Hardening:__==
Armor has the following base resists: EM 70%/EX 10%/KIN 25%/THERM 35%
The hardening principle is similar to that of shield tanks, fill your hole first then add specific hardeners, then omni hardeners. The difference with shield tanks is that there is no real active omni hardener for armor (as there is no real passive omni shield hardener). So when shield uses two omnis, armor is better with one specific and one omni.
So if you have one slot go for a DCU or an EANM, two slots: explosive hardener, EANM, 3 slots: explosive, kinetic hardeners, EANM, etc.
Also note that DCU II has the same armor hardening as an EANM I and adds 60% omni resists to your hull. DCU are active but their capacity need is well under 1 cap/s, which any ship can support. Having your hull 60% hardened can buy you that extra time which could be needed.
__Examples:__
**Rifter**
200mm AutoCannon I
200mm AutoCannon I
200mm AutoCannon I
Small 'Knave' I Energy Drain
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
Small F-RX Prototype I Capacitor Boost
Small Armor Repairer I
Damage Control I
Energized Reactive Membrane I
430 shield, 2.15/s, E/T/K/Ex=7/25/44/62
421 armor, E/T/K/Ex=72/41/32/47
287.5 cap, +4.42/s, -10.15/s
895.0 m/s
This fit uses the standard 1 repairer/1 capacitor booster setup.
Its hardening is quite good for a t1 frigate.
It can tank 18.4 equivalent dps in its lowest resist.
The tank can run for 52s without the nos or cap booster
The tank can run for 120s with the nos only
With the cap booster, the tank can run until you have no more charges
**Typhoon**
XT-9000 Cruise Launcher
XT-9000 Cruise Launcher
XT-9000 Cruise Launcher
XT-9000 Cruise Launcher
1200mm Heavy 'Scout' Artillery I
1200mm Heavy 'Scout' Artillery I
720mm 'Scout' Artillery I
Drone Link Augmentor I
LiF Fueled I Booster Rockets
Omnidirectional Tracking Link I
Medium F-RX Prototype I Capacitor Boost
'Orion' Tracking CPU I
N-Type Explosive Hardener I
N-Type Kinetic Hardener I
N-Type Thermic Hardener I
Damage Control II
Large 'Accommodation' Vestment Reconstructer I
Large 'Accommodation' Vestment Reconstructer I
Capacitor Power Relay II
Rigs : Auxiliary Nano Pump I \ Anti-Explosive Pump I \ Capacitor Control Circuit I \
7142 shield, 9.52/s, E/T/K/Ex=12/29/47/64
6562 armor, E/T/K/Ex=74/72/68/71
6250.0 cap, +29.06/s, -75.21/s
390.0 m/s
This setup uses two large armor repairers and a combination of cap regen/cap boosting.
With my skills, the repairers restore 138 hp/s.
__Dps absorb:__
EM: 138/0.26 = 531
EX: 138/0.29 = 476
TH: 138/0.28 = 493
KIN: 138/0.32 = 431
This is a good example of a 'low' repair / 'high' resist setup, which tanks a bit less, but similarly to the Maelstrom active shield tank setup shown above.
Tanks either are specific or omnis, with specific tanks being, in my opinion, for PVE only. While omni tanks being for both PVE/PVP. Still in my opinion, an omni tank is roughly worth its lowest resist.
Thus, an omni tank with 500 dps absorption in all resists but one, where it has 1000 dps absorption is not really better than a omni tank with 500 dps absorption in all resists.
The modules can all run until you're out of cap booster charges.
=====**__6. Passive shield tanking:__**=====
==__6.1 Principles:__==
In eve some parameters of your ship regen by themselves, they are the shield and cap. The following shield principles somewhat also applies to cap.
If you can get your shield to regen so fast it is restoring HP at a rate similar to that of a shield booster, then you have achieved a passive tank.
The shield base regen rate is calculated like this:
Base regen = Shield HP/Shield recharge duration
From the above, we can deduce there are two ways of raising your regen rate, either augment the HP amount, either reduce the recharge duration.
An important note here, the shield regen rate isn't linear, which means it changes over time, or more precisely, it changes according to your current shield HP amount. Without going into mathematical details, it has been empirically measured that the shield regen curve reaches a peak when the shield HP is around 30%. And at that time, the regen is roughly 2.4 times the base regen:
Peak regen = 2.4 * Base regen
The ragen rate raises from less than Base regen to that 2.4 peak and then reduces again to less than Base regen. Which means if you're passive shield tanked and your shield HP is under 30%, the tank is permanently broken until your shield HP regen above 30% again.
One of the modules used in passive shield tanks is reducing the cap regen. So usually, passive shield tanks have near 0 cap regen rate, barely enough to run the hardeners. That poses a problem to use most mid slot utilities.
==__6.2 Modules:__==
- Shield extenders (gives more shield HP, aim for the biggest you can fit)
- Shield hardeners (active)
- Shield resistance amplifiers (passive)
- Shield power relays (increase the shield regen but reduce the cap regen)
An important note about shield rechargers and shield flux coils:
There are two reasons for using shield extenders over shield rechargers, first the extender helps the regen rate more if it represents more than 11% of your total shield HP (t1 recharger) or more than 16% (t2 recharger). Second, extenders add more HP, so your damage buffer is better AND the more HP you got, the longer the peak effect will last. So in some cases it *might* be better to use shield rechargers but usually it is not.
For shield flux coils, they increase the regen rate at the cost of shield HP, which in turn reduces the regen rate. So flux coils are NEVER better than power relays.
==__6.3 Skills:__==
The skills involved in passive shield tanks are the following:
Shield management (more shield HP)
Shield operation (more shield regen rate)
Tactical shield manipulation (use of active shield hardeners t1=1 t2=4)
Shield upgrades (use of shield extenders, use of passive shield hardeners, t1=1 t2=4)
Energy grid upgrades (use of shield power relays, t1=2 t2=4)
Other skills useful for passive shield tanks are the following (related to cap usage):
Energy management (more capacitor HP)
Energy system operations (capacitor regen rate)
==__6.4 Hardening:__==
Hardening is similar for active or passive shield tanks, use active hardeners if your cap can support it.
For shield, your resists in least to best order are: em, therm, kin, expl. So the plan is to first put an EM hardener then a Thermal, and so on. Once you've put 3 specific hardeners and you still have hardening slots left, you should put omnis.
If you have only one slot for hardening, put an omni, if you have 2 slots, go for em first, then omni. For 3 slots, EM, Thermal, omni, etc.
Be aware that stacking applies if you use multiple omnis.
__Example:__
Drake
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay [35xScourge Heavy Missile]
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay [35xScourge Heavy Missile]
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay [35xScourge Heavy Missile]
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay [35xScourge Heavy Missile]
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay [35xScourge Heavy Missile]
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay [35xScourge Heavy Missile]
SV-2000 Assault Missile Bay [69xBloodclaw Light Missile]
Drone Link Augmentor I
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
'Anointed' I EM Ward Reinforcement
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
Shield Power Relay I
Shield Power Relay I
Shield Power Relay I
Shield Power Relay I
13440 shield, 409s, 82.04/s, E/T/K/Ex=71/60/70/80
4687 armor, E/T/K/Ex=59/44/25/10
3234.375 cap, +3.74/s, -8.333/s
175.0 m/s
Base regen = 13440 / 409 = 32.86 HP/s
Peak regen = 32.86 * 2.4 = 79 HP/s
You can see that quickfit gives the Peak regen and not the Base regen (the slight difference comes from rounding)
__Eq shield HP:__
EM: 13440/0.29 = 46345
EX: 13440/0.2 = 67200
TH: 13440/0.4 = 33600
KIN: 13440/0.3 = 44800
__Dps (peak) absorb:__
EM: 79/0.29 = 272
EX: 79/0.2 = 395
TH: 79/0.4 = 197
KIN: 79/0.3 = 263
__Tank duration:__
530s during which the ship can sustain the hardeners, after that it is out of cap but the shield regen is still the same, just not hardened.
That's with the following skills:
Shield management 2
Shield operation 4
Energy management 3
Energy system operations 3
If we take the same ship but with higher skills we have the following:
Shield management 4
Shield operation 4
Energy management 4
Energy system operations 4
14662 shield, 409s, 89.49/s, E/T/K/Ex=71/60/70/80
3375.0 cap, +4.15/s, -8.333/s
Base regen = 14662 / 409 = 35.85 HP/s
Peak regen = 35.85 * 2.4 = 86 HP/s
__Eq shield HP:__
EM: 14662/0.29 = 50558
EX: 14662/0.2 = 73310
TH: 14662/0.4 = 36655
KIN: 14662/0.3 = 48873
__Dps (peak) absorb:__
EM: 86/0.29 = 296
EX: 86/0.2 = 430
TH: 86/0.4 = 215
KIN: 86/0.3 = 287
__Tank duration:__
550s
So just raising two levels of the shield management skill gave roughly 9% more dps absorption.
Two last notes on passive shield tanks:
1. The Drake is particularly well suited for that kind of tank. And that's for 3 reasons, it has 6 mid slots, it has bonus to resistances which means less hardeners needed AND, mainly, it has a low shield recharge time for its shield HP amount. (5469hp/1250s, base regen = 4.37)
If we compare it to its big brother, the Raven, we see 6 mid slots and 7500hp/2500s, base regen = 3. That difference being even furthered because the Drake uses the biggest shield extenders already, taking even more advantage of its low regen time.
No other ship, from cruiser to battleship has the same combination of elements.
2. Passive shield tanks use both mid and low slots, which in turn basically gimps anything else than the tank on those ships. No utility mods (target painters, warp scramblers, webifiers, afterburners, ...) and no damage mods (BCU/Gyros).
3. If you use rigs, mostly all ships can be passive tanked. The reason behind this is that all the modules used in passive tanking directly affect the same characteristic. So, the more you add, the more you got out of the module (as they're giving a % bonus).
__Example:__
**Typhoon**
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Rigs : Core Defence Field Purger I \ Core Defence Field Purger I \ Core Defence Field Purger I \
12607 shield, 210.16/s, E/T/K/Ex=48/58/68/79
6562 armor, E/T/K/Ex=69/35/25/10
5750.0 cap, +1.98/s, -6.4/s
188.0 m/s
__Dps (peak) absorb:__
EM: 210/0.52 = 403
EX: 210/0.21 = 1000
TH: 210/0.42 = 500
KIN: 210/0.32 = 656
That's a pretty nice passive shield tank, considering this is an armor tanking ship...
To have an idea of the evolution, here are the peak regens according to the number of modules:
1 extender: 12.5
2 extender: 15.8
2ex+1relay: 20.7
2ex+2relay: 27.3
2ex+3relay: 35.9
2ex+4relay: 47.2
2ex+5relay: 62.2
2ex+6relay: 81.8
2ex+7relay: 107.6
same+1rig: 134.5
same+2rig: 168.1
same+3rig: 210.2
The first relay adds 7hp/s, the last rig adds 42hp/s (relays are +24%, rigs +20%)
That's central to passive setups, its usually worthless to go half passive because it's when you add those last modules that you reach amazing regen levels...
Well, this concludes the article. Don't hesitate to ask questions and/or point errors to me.
