Warfare & Tactics

They do, it's just that they do it in WH's. Check with one of the many WH pvp corps to get into Armor T3/HAC Gangs. It's a blast and if you have time to farm you have enough money to lose really expensive ships.

Are shield fleets really more popular now? :O Do people finally like Chimeras or is that still no?

I am no expert on nullsec war, but a HAC is worth roughly 5x as much as a BC. So, if you have a fleet of T3s (billions and billions of isk!) and HACs (5xBC isk), and you lose even a few ships killing a cane fleet, you're actually losing money.

Because PL is the only one who can afford to.

armor hacs are sooo 2010

Upgrading all your ships is good. But without a good tactile FC, it means nothing. You could throw proteus and lokis all aboutthe place and you stillwon't be able to get away from loki and proteus in hellcats. Also don't forget the obligatry hotdrops, other, better FCs and fleets.

You will have your arse handed to you on a plate. maybe let these pilots grow in confidence before you push them into expensive ships they won't b able to replace.

Also, as far as I know, PL invite through recomenadtions.

Not empty quotin'!

As well:

Even a "fast" armour-boat is still an unwieldy, wallowing pig.

Slaves cost a little more on TQ than the ISK 100.00 they do on SiSi.

A typical nano/HM Drake, shield-Cane, or shield/nano ' Binger costs 1/5th what an armour-HAC costs, is fully insurable, and has free low-slots for gank/speed.

In my experience, a 10-20 man fast shield BC fleet with a Scimitar or two, and Recon support, with an FC that knows what s/he is about can not only punch waaaaay above its' weight, it's also much more likely to find people willing to engage it.

(Dual-nano/HM Drake is almost as fast, and much more agile, than a single-nano 'Cane, and can project its' full dps as far as it can target, too. Just sayin' )

Shields are just better.

Wow, these are all very solid points. You should bring this killer awesome T3/HAC fleet to low and nullsec all over, it'll wipe the floor with every shield hugging hippies there. Make sure to bring a LOT of T3's, it'll show us the mighty power and forever make us realize shield fleets are fail fleets.

LOW SEC WILL BURN.

Shield fleets are used because, guess what, quite a lot of people make the mistake of being Caldari. Its just a fact.

Nano drakes are as good as it gets for shield fleets, with good mobility, naturally regenerating passive buffer tank, long range DPS. Its like an AHAC gang rolled into one ship, for a quarter the price.

Shield tanking buffer fits (eg, nanocanes, drakes with BC's instead of carebear fits, buffer Cyclones) provide superior DPS to AHACs, for a fraction of the cost and training time.

Don't get me wrong, you will not find an effective shield HAC gang composed of Vagas, Cerbs, Eagles Munnins and shield Zealots backed by logi, which has the same brawling endurance as a AHAC AB fleet. You simply cannot get enough resists cheap enough to cover the EM hole, provide buffer, and point and MWD. There's a lot of stuff you need to pack in and not that many midslots, which is why AHACs wirk well. Plus the sig radius is a downside, as well.

The other thing to point out is that, right now, it is easier to beef up a Guardian pair or group to 100K EHP with faction gear than it is to try that with Basi's (the equivalent shield logi). This is because, for instance, faction invuls are 400M and faction EANM's 40-60M; armour resists in T2 ships are higher, base and more uniform. Viable faction shield RR modules are nonexistant and the CPU drain is ridonkulous. Couple this with sig bloom when you do shield tank your Basi and your tank is inherently weaker, meaning your logi chain is weaker than a Guardian chain.

This is why you don't see faction fitted shield logis and why shield logi pairs fold a lot faster than Guardians. hence, a shield HAC gang is better done as Drake blob, or arty cane blob, backed by scimis.

I'm not complaining, mind you, about the state of play of shield vs armour logi. Properly deployed and managed, a shield logi can really tip the balance.