EVE New Citizens Q&A

In trying to determine which race to fly as in pvp, I have come to the conclusion that part of the decision is deciding whether to shield or armor tank.

It would seem to me that shields are more powerful since they dont apply the reduction to speed and agility that armor tanking does. However shields take up midslots which seem more critical than low.

seems like caldari is mainly shield tank, and is provided more midslots. this will allow them to buffer tank with more mobility?

since amarr lasers have great optimal range and are immediately adjustable ammo, do they not care about mobility as much?

How about Gallente?

Active shield tanking does not. However, it is highly dependent on cap. Passive shield is only somewhat dependent on cap - for active hardeners - but shield extenders increase your signature radius, which means incoming fire will likely do more damage to you.
Also, shield tanking will leave your lowslots mostly - if not totally - free, opening up slots for things like damage mods and tracking enhancers.



This is correct, and the reason for which numerous Caldari passive shield-tankers - the Drake, Tengu, and sometimes Rokh - are seen in many 0.0 fleets.



"As much" is the critical phrase here - with few exceptions, Amarr PvP ships will still fit an MWD.



Gallente are pretty poor at the moment due to a combination of Hybrid weapons being largely ineffective at any size other than small, poor base capacitor compared to Amarr hulls - yes, Amarr uses much more cap, but can actually be more stable due to higher base recharge and amount - and somewhat lower Armor resistance amounts. In terms of tanking, they are primarily armor tanks with a handful of hulls which can be reconfigured for half-decent shield tanks.

There are three other things for you to consider as well:

- Damage resistance skills are more useful to armor than shield as they affect passive hardeners more than active ones. While armor tanking will often use passive hardeners, shield tanking rarely does.
- Remote repair systems: While shield transfer arrays transfer their shield at the -beginning- of the cycle, allowing for immediate repairs, remote armor repair systems actually repair the armor at the end of their cycle.
- All T1 ships come with a 0% EM resist for their shields, forcing you to fit some kind of a module or rig to increase this specifically. Armor has a similar issue with explosive damage, however it is merely low resists (20-30%) compared to shields' 0% resist.

As someone who didn't apparently sleep through the last year of patch notes like the guy two posts up, Gallente are pretty solid. You will have to rely on balls or exploit flexibility to use them effectively, though, if you're looking for something that's fairly intuitive to fit and fly try Amarr. Caldari's still pretty simple but has actual weapon options, Minmatar can be moderately complicated since the independence of turrets from capacitor lets you put on different module combinations, and Gallente can be outright hard to find a fit for because there are usually five or six valid strategies for a given boat (cruiser+, anyhow) so its hard to resist the temptation to have them do a bit of everything, which doesn't work well.

Added the bold part to your list.

As for what race, if you are talking frigate sized PvP, I would say doesn't matter that much. Most frigates, when fitted properly, are about equally matched. When you are talking about bigger ships, then definately Minmatar for the speed part.

Confirming that real men hull tank.

Stop calling it a "passive shield tank" only some PvE fits can be called that (when you fit shield rechargers and purgers)
What you use on drakes, tengus and rokhs in PvP are called BUFFER tanks, they dont have anywhere near the shield regen a PvE passive tank drake might/will have.

To the OP: Depends, training armor tanks makes you more flexible later on though, training caldari is good and all, but if you need to crosstrain its a *****.

Youl probably be missile skilled, and shield skilled.

The other races use guns, and mostly armor.

If I were to start a new toon I would skill armarr or win.. Minmatar myself.

You'll end up doing both honestly but never at the same time. As a merc I fly what the FC asks me too. The more ships I can fly the more utility I provide my fleet.

Caldari ships do have good stats shield wise sadly if you look closely you'll see there actually quite slow despite this.

Minmitar have a handful of ships like the cyclone that have active shield boosting bonuses and are naturally fast. A cyclone with a couple of ASB is ******* deadly.

It is in your best interest focus on flying one race of ships down cold for starters, but if you want to be able to pvp alot you will need to cross train to fly other ships. This means you will need both armor and shield tanking skills. And since they are complementary(they all increase every ship you fly's total hp and resistance to damage), it never hurts to train both. Focus on one and move on to the other.

Also even with amar there are some ships that when shield tanked are lethal, the harbinger can be fast and hard hitting ship when shield tanked even though its amar. With the Oracle it does best sniping and you can only do that if your shield tanking. You also need to do that if you want any gtfo ability.

If you want to learn more about high efficiency pvp you can also apply at NA.