Missions & Complexes

So I started eve awhile back (though still recently compared to many of you) and then stopped for a few months. When I came back I remembered i was just transitioning in to level 4's in a raven (though at a somewhat lower skill level). I recalled that a typical fit utilized an 800 cap booster module with the X-Large shield booster (faction hopefully).

Now this new module essentially incorporates those two pieces in to one. Has anybody tested their viability in a solo level 4 mission raven? They seem they could be a good fit, but when i went to use one it just didn't go very well at all. It seems they never offer you the ability to rely on your capacitor like an ordinary shield booster would; instead, you must burn through the five charges in it before using the capacitor and if you deactivate it will reload. This doesn't seem cost friendly really and when it is reloading you can't use it for anything at all.

tl;dr: Ancillary Shield booster (new module) in PvE?

Perhaps I could get some clarification on how the module works? It seems that it can be loaded with either 400 or 800 cap boosters to equal effect, but if it is pulling directly from you cap it takes 800. Am i wrong in seeing that this thing runs a nearly 1000 shield boost for 400 cap if you keep it loaded?

it will give you 980 shield hp and eat a cap booster, wont use any cap as long as you have cap boosters loaded. you can load it with either cap booster 400 or cap booster 800, the 400s are smaller and you can hold more so I would suggest using it with those. the main downside imo is the 60s reload timer. tbh I wouldn't worry about the cost as cap booster 400s are pretty cheap.

I wouldn't say it is useless in PVE. when paying attention and flying a gank tank you usually don't have to tank all that much, and with its large boosts you should be able to top off and ride out the 60s reload time. some missions where you might not want to do that though. I haven't bought one to test em out yet though.

Personally, I'm a fan of the new boosters on mission setups. As others have pointed out, their biggest weakness is the reload time, so it comes down to whether you can burn all the rats down before you consume 10 charges. On the harder missions, you really need to bring a lot of DPS to get by with the ancillary booster, and so I wouldn't recommend it for newer mission runners. That said, if you can make it work, it lets you get by with devoting very few slots to tanking without throwing tons of ISK into your ship.

i'm thinking about a fit where you have a small deadspace booster which permaruns and 'prolongs' your buffer and a large or X-large ancillary shield booster to use when the shield siren makes you pause the porn.

I only use it on my Tengu, so the most expensive thing I am using is a small pithi c booster and than I use the ancillary shield booster to supplement it by throttling it or as a GTFO free card incase I am webbed/scrammed. Had to gimp a few things to do that in terms of normal overall tank, but the burst tank is significantly higher. Of course the Tengu's 50% bounus to shield boosting helps significantly as that will boost the shield 5850 hp in the course of about 40sec and I am cap stable enough to run it for few more reps after that before my cap is drained, which is more than my shield HP (not taking resists into account, just HP), this is when I am of course using a Large Ancillary Shield Booster.

But in most ships for PVE I would not reccomend it especially if your new to lv4's it will spell death. A lazy cap stable or good burst setup with cap boosters is preferred. The 60 sec of doom, otherwise known as the long reload will get you killed if your new to missions or aren't paying 100% attention to it and try to use it as a primary booster.

It's not about the "np", it's about what's actually better. Have you ever considered what you could have fitted instead those two ac boosters? Not to mention that for most ships, that'll spell serious fitting issues, plus problems with cargo space. Imo, if you have to run on cap boosters, x-large + regular cap booster does better, then at better skills you replace the booster with an amplifier, problem solved.

For pvp, though, anc's burst regeneration is absolutely amazing.

Anybody got some lvl4 experience with it on a BS? Worth giving it a shot?