Ships & Modules

They both come from the respective faction equivalent escalation and yet the Pith modules are worth a fraction of the Gist variation and offers sub-par performance, so much so that even a Gist C is better than a Pith X. Why is that?

I am aware of this and I am asking why was it created this way? Double cap cost for an extra ~200 in shield repairs hardly seems effective in comparison.

I would imagine that someone was following a formula, and not looking at how balanced the end result would be.

I should clarify; why does a Gist A sell for 900 mill and drops from Angels rally point while the Pith A sells for 175 mill and drops from a Guristas rally point. Same slot and fitting, swap missiles for lasers, kinetic for EM and they're the same thing, except one is worth 6 times more because it is that much better than the other via double capacitor need for an extra 160 shields.

This.

The key difference is that 99% of the market for high-end faction shield boosters is carebears, and most carebearing demands long-term cap stability but doesn't need absolute maximum tank. The reason to invest in high-end tank isn't to survive a level 4 mission (which you can do with T2 modules on a T1 battleship), it's to improve your cap efficiency so you can replace cap modules with more damage. So pith stuff doesn't help much, while gist stuff helps a ton.

If a meaningful number of pvp players could afford to fit faction boosters then you'd probably see more parity between the two, since the pith ones are ideal for pvp (unless you're using an ASB instead).

Pfft. Tank goes in the high slots!

Perma-tanking - that's the difference. The lower cap usage of the Gist boosters allows cearbears to turn the booster on and leave it on during missions - no need to worry about pulsing.

Perma-tanking in lvl 4 missions has a huge appeal to a large population of mission runners out there and the gist boosters are one of the only ways you can get there. The T2 and Pith boosters will use a lot more cap than the ship can naturally produce if their left on all the time. Since people want to use the minimum number of cap-increasing mods on their ships (as was Zhila saying), they go with the booster that will produce enough tank for a lvl 4 mission, and not burn out the capacitor.

The uninformed carebears absolutely cream themselves when they achieve cap-stable tanks which is the main reason for the Gist boosters being so obscenely expensive. Though anyone with half a brain knows that L4s are so easy you just blast everything away with high dps and run a burst tank. I actually never bought a Gist booster, I usually run CN/DG boosters cause they give more burst tank and lower fittings, Pith C is as high as I'll go for L4s.

Perma-tanking setups are simply isk/hour inefficient because the mods required will neuter your ability to fit damage rigs, tracking comps [I don't roll a Varg with less than 2], etc. Gist are literally an afk mod.