EVE New Citizens Q&A

For starters, forget about cap stability when it comes to PvP. Frigate fights are quick and deadly with few exceptions, the only way to make a cap stable fit is to sacrifice other, more immediately useful fitting choices as options. Some ships and fit shine with a Capacitor Booster, which is a module that uses charges to 'inject' power into the capacitor. Some MWD kite fits use them to keep their MWD running for a long time, dual rep fits also use these to great effect to get monstrous repair rates. These however are exceptions. Most of the time a fit isn't going to have much longer than a minute of cap life with everything running. Here is the key, you almost never need to have EVERYTHING running at one time. Proper module management will do far more for your cap than a bad fit.

When it comes to the fit linked, it's alright, no glaring awful choices like fitting lasers instead of ACs, but it's only sorta kinda okay. There aren't any situations where I can see it excelling. It's also visibly old since it's not using an 'Ancillary Armor Repairer'. It's an armor rep that uses charges called Nanite Paste, enough for 8 cycles. This repairer has a number of advantages over a T2 rep, for starters, it flat out reps more per cycle. It also uses very little cap. It is however not an indefinite source of rep like the T2, when it's out of charges, it can still work, but much worse. It will rep less than the T2, and use a LOT of cap when empty. That can be enough to let you win a close fight of course, and this is the key again, you don't need to repair indefinitely, you just need to repair long enough for the other guy to get dead, and get you out alive.

EFT (Eve Fitting Tool) and EveMon are 2 apps that can help you with this.

In EFT you can import loadouts or make them yourself you can also import your character's skills and adjust your character's skills to make a loadout fit. Then you can export the character to EveMon and have a skill plan for how long it will take you to get to that point.

Just a note, the ancillary armor rep uses the same amount of cap/cycle as a tech 2 rep, and uses the same amount of cap whether or not it is loaded with nanite paste. However, your effective reps/cap is higher while you have paste loaded (and lower when you do not). If you just leave it cycling it will drain your cap at the same rate as a tech 2 rep.

This is different from the ancillary shield booster, which does not use any cap at all when loaded with cap booster charges but uses a massive amount of cap to run when it runs out of charges (boosting the same HP amount). With this one you need to be careful because you can easily drain your cap dry if you accidentally leave it running without booster charges.

PS If you are still worried about cap life, there are some skills to improve it. Capacitor Management and Capacitor Systems Operation are good skills to have trained up for any ship. The Afterburner skill will also help some for this particular fit.

here's a question I have been quite curious about for a while.

Op, why did you think you needed to be cap stable?
I would genuinely like to know, I had my own reasons as to why I thought so but I'd like to know yours.

youtube of trial acnt rifter with fitting advice, skills needed, cap issues addressed and some really good fights to show you how to fly it.

Personally, I tend to prefer regular reppers over ancillary for general PvP. Active rep is kinda for longer fights to begin with, if you're in "eh, I just have to take a few hits before the fight's done" mode a buffer tank might serve you better, shoving an EANM or something in that slot for a bit maybe if nothing else will fit.

This isn't to say that ancillaries are useless or anything, they're just... more situational. Like, they're crazy good if you're the lead-in tackle for a fleet, where you really MIGHT have to hold on for dear life for 8 or so repper cycles until the cavalry finishes warping in and you can blow up in peace. As a sort of general rule, though, active is sort of a long-haul thing.

I don't know man. An ancillary rep really would have rounded out that PVP hacking vexor fit. You should look into that.

I thought the cap had to be stable to keep the ship flying. I found out that you don't lol.
I can't imagine needing all modules activated at once so I now see that cap stability isn't really an issue here.

The Rifter used to be good I'm told. It is not now.

Aim for a Tristan and then comet; if you must fly minmatar a breacher or a firetail.

I have never seen a solo rifter in lowsec I don't think. And very rarely as part of a gang.