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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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How to decide how to set up a tank on a ship.
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C-NIC
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#1 - 2011-10-24 21:03:42 UTC
Ok, im currently running level 2 missions and I am planning ahead with my training for lvl 3's/4's when I eventually gain enough standing to run them.

I've been looking at the Drake which ive read is the ship I want to go for seeing as I trained for the kestrel and then the caracal with the missile and shield skills and obviously the required spaceship command skills.

My question is : How do I tell from the information screen whether the drake would be suited to a passive or an active shield tank?
I've looked on evemon and can see that passive seems the way to go, but i'd much prefer to come up with my own set up rather than just copying one that ive seen on evemon; so i feel its really something I could do with finding out.

:)
mxzf
Shovel Bros
#2 - 2011-10-24 21:21:29 UTC
I suppose the difference in weather or not a ship should be passive tanked depends on it's shields, base shield regen rate, base cap/cap regen, and any and all bonuses it gets.

Personally, I've found the best way to decide how to tank a ship is that I first decide what I want to do in it. A lvl 4 missioning BS in Min space is going to be tanked differently than an exploring AF in Amarr space. Then I'll toss together a rough guess as to what I want in EFT and start playing around with it.

Once you learn the basics of tanking, it's fairly easy to switch between different setups to see what gives you the best defense against the damage profile you've selected. The easiest way to figure out what works best is to make a few fits in EFT and see which one is best. After that it's just practice and more practice 'till you don't have to really think about what to fit, you just know what'll work best.
Paragon Renegade
Sebiestor Tribe
#3 - 2011-10-24 22:18:13 UTC
It all depends on the bonuses, ship traits, base shield regeneration & resistances.

Passive modules get more of a bonus from Compensation then active hardeners do, but active modules are always handy to use in a pinch.

The pie is a tautology
C-NIC
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#4 - 2011-10-24 22:35:40 UTC
Ah im with you, so obviously as far as the cap goes if it has a low base cap then its going to run out faster using actives therefore it would be practical to use passive, I see the drake gets a bonus to shield resistances aswell. Also I havnt noticed any difference between shield recharge time between any of the bc's (the ones that ive looked at anyway) but having a high shield hp I suppose that also merits towards a passive tank along with the resistance bonus if im thinking about it rightly now?


Thankyou both for your replies :)
mxzf
Shovel Bros
#5 - 2011-10-24 22:52:57 UTC
C-NIC wrote:
Also I havnt noticed any difference between shield recharge time between any of the bc's


I just looked at all the BCs and it is true that all of their shield regen times are the same, but that doesn't say anything about the regen rate.

Here's a bit of simple math to make it chearer:
Ship A has 1000 shields and a base regen time of 100s
Ship B has 2000 shields and a recharge time of 100s

A will regen 10hp/s, but B will regen 20hp/s because it has more shields to regen in the same time.

By the same token, if both ships have 1000 shields and one takes 100s to regen and the other takes 50s, the ship that needs 100s to regen will regen 10hp/s while the ship that only takes 50s to regen regens at 20hp/s.

So, while the Drake has the same 1400s regen time as all the BCs, it has 5469 shield HP, which is 586 more shields than the Ferox (which is the next most shields). That combined with the slot layout that the Drake has and the resists per level bonus is what makes it the best passive tanker out of all the BCs.
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#6 - 2011-10-24 23:28:11 UTC
A lot of it is experience and experimentation. I play around with EFT a lot, and consult fits that others use, but I ultimately end-up with a fit that I prefer.

I may ultimately end-up with a cookie-cutter fit, but part of the fun is learning about how the ship wants to be fit for a particular task.

Example:

Last evening I purchased a Rupture to do some level 2 missions. I've never fitted one before. I noted it had low slots > mid slots, so it was an armor tank.

I then looked at some of the fittings on Battleclinic and Scrapheap Challenge, kill-mails on EVE-Kill, the Ships & Modules forum, etc., and used that info as a starting point for my own fit, then made my own completely different fitting based on my own needs and preferences. Notably, I didn't like the tank of most other fittings, and came up with my own fitting to try out.

I then went out and tried it, and found that I really disliked autocannons (the Rupture doesn't strike me as an exceptionally fast or manoeuvrable ship), so I switched to artillery losing a turret and gaining a launcher in the process. The range and one-shotting of NPC frigates put a huge smile on my face. The tank didn't get much of a workout vs. NPC frigates (I was never in armor) so I'll test it more tonight against some cruisers to see what I think of it.