Ships & Modules

There are many that are vastly more experienced in pvp than I, and some of them are math hounds too, so can give better break downs. Some of the things I do know and / or have learned so far...

Missiles advantages: Range, and can do any damage type. Uses no cap.
Missiles Drawbacks: Travel time, and for larger missiles (cruise, etc) they tend to do very poorly against smaller ships.

Lasers advantages: Scorch (crystal for pulse) is I believe the best damage - for - medium range ratio in game. Can switch crystals in 1 second. Almost endless supply of ammo.
Lasers drawbacks: Slower tracking. Beam lasers do not seem to do as well. VERY vulnerable to cap drain (can shut down the weapon system). No damage selection (em / thermal is it).

Hybrid advantages: With the changes in hybrid, I am not overly sure about the pros, cons here. Blasters I believe are the highest damage close range in game however.
Hybrid Drawbacks: Uses cap (so can be shut down if heavily cap drained). See above. Medium rails are considered bottom of the food chain atm.

Projectile Advantages: Can do any damage type. Uses no cap. I believe they are also rather easy to fit.
Projectile Drawbacks: Honestly not sure, do they have any? Others can fill this in better.


Shield Advantages: Shields recover faster, make better active tanks atm, and (at least for now), have ASB's which are tremendous. Tend to be faster ships.
Shield disadvantages: EM hole that you MUST take up slots to fill. Do not make as good a buffer tank as armor. I believe they are more cap dependant as well (unless they have a passive regen fit).

Armor Advantages: Better buffer tanks. Better resist profiles (no em hole, etc).
Armor drawbacks: Plates slow ships down, low slots can sometimes compete with damage mods, active tanks get hps at end of cycle, no buffer (shields are at front of damage chain, not at back), if armor goes, you go. Active tanking can be a huge cap draw.


Minmitar - speed boats, often are the most versatile. But take the most training (shield & armor, missile & gun, etc).

Caldari - shield kings and missileers. Also I believe the best ECM ships. Hybrid guns are their other weap system. Caldari are usually considered the PVE kings as well (just a side note).

Amarr - Armor and laser tanks. With some exceptions, they are rather straightforward tank n spank ships. They do have some notable Drone Boats, and favor Tracking Disruptors for ecm.

Gallente - Drone kings, and armor tanks. Hybrid guns. Used to be in a bad place, but recently have been doing much better due to changes in ships and game. Gallente blaster boats tend to get a deep respect, but can be hard to get close enough to use that brutal damage with.




Others will shortly step in and give much better details momentarily I'm sure. Hope this helps as a starter though. ;)

So, two equally skilled(not SP) pilots both in Hurricanes using similar weapons, the only real difference being that one is using shields and the other is using armor, who wins?

Let me make the scenario more clear. The only difference between the two ships is their defensive structure. One is using shields and it's expected support slots and the other is using armor and it's expected support slots. They are both using the exact same weapons and they enter the fight at their weapons optimal ranges.

The point of this whole thing is essentially, for a Hurricane, in a majority of situations is it more prudent to go with armor or shields?

The further reaching point of this is that while everything may be "effective", there is a smarter way about deciding what you want to focus on and to that end, x race is generally preferred with y focus on weapons and z focus on defensive components.

I am not looking for cookie cutter builds, I just want to make sure that my initial game plan is one that has legs, and if it doesn't, make the appropriate skill switches before I start investing weeks into less than ideal skills.

The thing about it is that they both cannot be entering the fight at "their optimal ranges" because the two ships have different ranges. Only one can start optimally. And furthermore, while the shield cane has some amount of cookie cutterness to it, the armor cane's mids are a total crap shoot. MWD, Disruptor/Scram, Scram/Web/TC, Web/Cap Booster/TC.

If the armor cane is Disruptor + 2 TCs, the shield cane is gonna run or die. If it's Disruptor/Scram/Web, it might land a lucky scram and the shield cane dies. There's just not enough information to know.

That said, if you're flying Minmatar, Caldari, or Gallente in small gangs, I'd recommend shields over armor. Maybe even Amarr, sometimes.

-Liang

Heh, I rather strongly disagree. I think you can be extremely successful PVP regardless of the race you're flying. I'd even go so far as to argue that I have much higher success with Gallente in small gangs. But you are of course entitled to your opinion. :)

-Liang

Ed: I guess I should hurry up and put out Fluxing. It features a fight which a shield Amarr fleet ******* dominates a nano Minnie/Caldari fleet.

DPS, tracking, and the Null boost combine with the fact that blaster ships are surprisingly fast gives you a great sweet spot for killing stuff. My favorite ships in game right now are the Ion Talos (shield), Harpy (shield), and Taranis (armor). The Brutix (shield) comes in pretty high too - though the new XL ASB Cyclone looks so outrageous it's gonna eat a nerf bat soon.

-Liang

Don't fly inferior races. Fly caldari, the master race.