Ships & Modules

Hi all,

hybrid armor tanking = buffer + one repper.

I'd like to ask about opinions when it comes to armor tanking of tech1 ships (in small scale PvP). Tech2 ships have high resistances, so there's a great benefit when fitting armor reppers. But on tech1 ships I don't even get a defence value (in EFT) which is higher compared to the passive regeneration of shield buffers. Example: a nano Drake (1 LSE + 1 Invul) has 96 DPS omni defence, a 1600mm Harb with 1 EANP + 1 ANP and one medium armor repper gets just 84 DPS omni defence.

So in EFT world a pure armor buffer would make more sense. My raw EHP value would be much higher that way. But in-game I often try to use a repper nevertheless. We do PvP in low sec, factional warefare. We try to avoid blobs, it's alot back and forth at times. It just feels better to be able to repair in space. Sometimes we've prolonged fights with some interruptions. Fighting on a gate -> a blob appears on scanner -> retreat -> hunting/waiting -> another attack...and so on. Another reason: border systems don't have stations every time. Sometimes a station is 1-3 jumps away. Also: docking on stations invites to get camped on this station. We rather try to keep moving.

So in my books it does make sense to fit armor reppers even on tech1 armor tanked ships and even by getting less EHP that way. At least as long as no dedicated logistic is part of the fleet ofc. But I know sometimes it would be better to have just more raw EHP to survive fights where we're (slightly) outnumbered.

I want to ask about other opinions. What is your preference, and why?

Thanks.

Everyone packing an offlined remote armor repper would work nicely. Fight, run off to a safe.Everyone onlines they're repper. Bring everyone back up to full buffer. Rinse repeat.

Unless you've got a bonus (Brutix, Myrmidon, Hyperion, Legion, Proteus), active armor tanking is usually ill-advised. Most armor tankers use capacitor-intensive turrets, and finding the free capacitor to run a tank is challenging even before neutralization is present.

Honestly, nerf trimarks. They should at least have a stacking penalty...

Why?

Because trimarks have become the de facto rig for PvP for almost every armor tanker in the game. (Shields: See CDFEs.) Armor tankers not only suffer the speed penalty for their active tanking rigs, they also suffer a vulnerability to alpha strikes and extreme capacitor strain to run their tanks.

When almost PvP-fitted ship in the game is buffer tanking and they're doing it nearly universally by trimarks (rather than, for example, resist rigs) -- it's worth looking at. Particularly when HP multipliers are an attribute that is stacking penalized elsewhere (regenerative membranes).

At the very least, I think we should consider adding armor compensation skills to armor resist rigs.