EVE General Discussion

i just came back after a long absence, and im still seeing people flying mostly shield tanked ships. things are more or less the same as they were 2 years ago, or would anyone be so kind to correct me on this?

DUAL REPPER HYPERIONS USING AARS BRO

Armor tanking has had some buffs, but CCP hasn't tacklet the serious "structural" problems that make Shield tanking much more useful than armor tanking.

Damage mods are lot slot mods, meaning the armor tanker can chose between damage or tank. The shield tanker has to make some choices (tank or ewar for instance) but it's just not the same.

Shields regen, making passive tanking still viable in PVE. A passive tanked armor ship in pve is just gonna die slower while racking up hugh repair bills in npc stations lol.

And shield mods are just plain better. Invules are worth their weight in gold, EANMs are just ok. The ancillary shield boosters are monsters, the ancillary armor reps...... let so. Hell, even remote repping is better with shields than with armor.

Shield implants are better than armor too......

I like armor ships, but armor tanking is just outclassed by shileds evecpt in pvp gangs/fleets with lots of logi.

Oh, CCP tried to buff active tanking. Besides the new Ancillary Armor Repairer (it's not as bad as it looks on paper), the "active" tanking rigs were changed so they no longer slow the ship down, but cost slightly more PG instead. Can't say anything else about that, I haven't used active tanking rigs for quite a while now, I fly mostly Amarr.


Also there is the new armor honeycombing / armor layering skill that reduces the weight of all armor plates and the weight of several armor plates was reduced by default.

Then we have the new reactive armor hardener that adapts resistances to match the incoming damage types, but this module is rarely used, mostly on capitals.

Is there any other way to fit a thorax or Deimos these days?

Armor tanking is not supposed to be the same as shield tanking. Players will always discover best ways to tank their ships against eve red crosses. If it is shield tank atm let it be. Both shield and armor local tanks were buffed recently so I am hoping and noticing that more people are using it.

My current rail astarte is somewhat useful, actually (but of course it's ASB tanked).

That's probably because you've never flow one properly shield fitted, those can become monsters or just finally good. Most of all because the low slots number aloud a substancial increase in dmg amount projection AND application, compensating a lot for the loss of some EHP, plus with ASBs and their power rep/shields efficiency etc, you get more than enough tank to blast your enemy.

Of course this doesn't work that well as soon as numbers start climbing but a good group of those with decent logi pilots can put the misery on a lot of stuff thx mostly to the increase in dmg and speed (kill them with gank before they can go through your tank)

My corp has been using armor tanking in low-sec for more than a year now to very good effect. Armor seems to be better when you have friends around, but shield is better for the lone wolf.

Armor is now somewhat competetive, depending on what excactly the problem is that you are trying to solve (with space violence); sometimes being the better choice.

Now, shield tanking is still more popular and probably optimal more than half the time, but I am not looking for 50/50 when they are doing a balancing pass (you'll never balance a game like eve on a razors edge; something WILL be the FOTM). All I am asking for is that one solution isn't always the best option (or 95% of the time), and I think they have reached that point.

I think they have managed to buff armor tanking well into viable territory, so I'll just go ahead and declare success.