Ships & Modules

The obvious difference is warp scram and web for PvP, not for PvE (some PvE setups do have webs, but it's not all that common). And NOS/Neut is never used in PvE.

Generally, your PvP setups will be buffer tanked rather than active tanked (i.e. extenders and plates, not boosters and reppers). Some exceptions to that, though that is usually on smaller ships.

This is a really broad question. Do you have anything in mind?

Not to mention that PvP is mostly buffer tank (stack as high EHP as you can) whilst PvE is about sustaining damage (stack high resists+repairer/booster).

Generally. There are some exceptions.

The absolute main difference is the fitting of a scrambler / disruptor.

Other than that, neuts are not used in PVE, but NOS can be since rats provide maximum NOS benefit per cycle to your ship as long as they are alive (they have unlimited capacitor). Some long range fits are good for sniper duty in PVP, but rarely is this the case as a proper sniper has zero tank.

Webs are handy in both PVE and PVP...target painters as well.

It is very rare to see an active tank (shield / armor rep) in PVP...but some ships excel at this at very small gang skirmish levels or solo. CCP is trying to change that I believe over the year with the addition of capacitor boosted shield reps.

It's not a dumb question. It would be good if more pilots asked it before they started throwing failfits into the grinder.

I guess another way of viewing this is to understand that a PVE fit is configured to fill a job, whereas a PVP fit is configured to fill a role.

A job is essentially a mission against NPCs, where you know what damage they do, you know what they can't resist, you know how they are going to react. The NPCs aren't going to warp off or really surprise you in any way. One of the major factors is that you are in full control of your distance to the enemy whether you have a propulsion module or not. Because of that control, you will tend to fit for a battle where you have "x" amount of damage coming in for "y" minutes, so you need to make sure your tank can do that. This means that a mission can last upwards of 30 minutes with you getting shot all the entire time and you need to have the capacity to repair it during that time.

A role is fulfilling a purpose inside a fleet, be it Tackler, Logistics, DPS, etc. This often requires you to communicate with others about their fittings so that you don't have fleets that are incompatible.. like armored battleships with logistics ships that can only rep shields. Going against real players means that there are no bounds to what can happen (even stupid things). You could get hot dropped by a fleet of capital ships (in low-sec or lower), ambushed at gates by superior numbers, or simply outskilled by a much better prepared enemy. This means that you focus your ship to do one role and one role only as well as giving yourself a reasonable GTF option should things go bad. Since most battles last a few minutes, you need to be able to tank quite a bit of DPS for that short time, and worry about repairs later.. either at station or by logistical ship. On that note, distance control is a vital aspect to playing against other Players, so having a way to control it is crucial.

PVP fits will have the following:
- Omni-Tank configurations (i.e. have as equal (and as high) resists as reasonably possible.
- Buffer Tanks - Combinations of Resists and either Shield Extenders or Armor Plates to gain maximum effective Hitpoints
- Warp Disruptor or Warp Scrambler (usually)
- Propulsion Module, usually a Microwarpdrive, though sometimes an Afterburner.. though some will have both.
- Focused ship fits. No mixed guns (i.e. no Ion Blasters with Autocannons or Beam Lasers) and the ship will be optimized based on the ship bonuses.

PVP fits also may have the following:
- Nosferatus or Neutralizers
- E-war Drones
- Webifier
- ECM / ECCM
- Sensor Boosters w/scripts

In the end, a PVP ship is a ship that has a role and does it very, very well.

Why is everybody claiming that pvp setups are usually buffer fit? That only is partly true for shield ships and for armor one the better ones are active!

Imho active > passive.

This changes for bigger fleets with logis but still!

No, they don't. Both nos and neut can be used in pve, nos will give you cap (not unlimited) but not have any effect on the npc, while neuting lowers the chance of e-war/reps from the npc. Not sure how this applies to sleepers and their remote rep/neuting though.

PvP = Like in just about every other MMO is about being able to both take and deal burst damage. So in EVE terms this means a high resistance/buffer tank (lots of shields or armor and minimizing damage where possible) and fast hard hitting weapons. Guns/Rockets/Torps. Missiles are generally frowned upon because of the amount of time they take to deal damage. Hopefully your enemy dies before your buffer fails or you have a logi to deal with rep'ing you back up.

PvE = Sustainability, consistency. You want to be able to take a hit and keep taking them. You want to deal damage, and keep dealing it. PvE ships tend to focus on stable heavy resistance/repair tanks that can survive until the server shuts down if neccesary. High damage while desired, isn't always at the top of the list, and there's far less focus on burst damage as you're using up a lot of your slots to achieve the immortal tank that is required to deal with facing dozens of NPC enemies at a time. You don't see a lot of burst damage so dealing with it over time is far easier. Weapons are whatever you want, but missiles are heavily favored as things like range to target, varying velocities, and all that aren't really a factor. That's the general school of thought anyways. There are those that run PvP like ships in PvE, and focus on killing the NPC's quickly as to avoid taking damage.

While not ideal you can run a ship designed for either job in the other role, just don't be surprised when your PvE ship has a hard time dealing with the large amount of burst damage seen in PvP (or dealing enough to break their buffer before they break your tank). Also don't be surprised if your PvP ship's buffer can't survive the 30 or so NPC's (in sometimes seemingly endless waves).