EVE New Citizens Q&A

Tank for lvl 3 should be around 300 if you want to be on the safe side. LVL 4 can be anything from 400ish to 1k depending on the mission (most of those difficult missions tend to be faction ones which you could ignore as not to get too much negative standing). Also realise that it's not just tank; if you do crappy damage you'll need to tank a lot, if you do massive damage you need to tank less. Generally, if you aim for 600ish for lvl 4s you should be fine.

PVP works entirely different, whereas PVE tends to be a drawn out fight favouring active tanking, PVP is mostly a short burst of violence where active tanks struggle too much in most situations. And that doesn't even account for the cap use, required micro management and possibly being neuted. Therefore most PVP ships are fitted for EHP (HP+resists).

I tank level 4 missions with 700m/s and 140m sig radius. My ship has a shield booster fitted, but I never use it. Not boasting, just trying to raise your awareness that tanking is more than just activating a module to produce +HP faster than the enemy are giving you -HP.

For more inspiration in the world of tanking, read the Tanking entry in the EVElopedia, and this post on the old forums: A comprehensive new player guide to tanking.

For missioning a good practical way to determine your tank is to build up the number of damage modules. So for example pick a mission you know or have researched and run it with a single damage module. If you have no issues tanking it then use two damage modules and see if you can work up to three.

If you have the isk you can boost your tank and damage using faction modules. Many people often overlook implants. The +3% skill implants are relatively cheap and can boost shield armour or damage.

General rule of thumb for lvl 4 is that your tank + your dps has to be over 1000.

So you can do it with 500 tank and 500 dps, or 300 dps and 700 tank.
As any other rule of thumb, this is merely a easy to remember guideline. Always overtank a bit at first, then gradually go for less tank and more dps as you grow comfortable with your ship.

I found that I can easily do lvl 3 with about 150 tank and 300 dps.

Cap stability is not at all important for missions, in fact with most BS for lvl 4 it's undesired. First of all because cap recharge isn't linear; you don't have to perma tank (unless your applied dps is low) so you can stop repping when your HP is back up decently well and your cap is around 25-30%, then the recharge is MUCH higher than elsewhere and you'll gain back cap really fast so you can start repping again.

Secondly; making most active tanking ship cap stable involves lots of CCC rigs, cap rechargers and cap power relays. Slots which could be put to better use to increase your damage. rigor rigs for missiles, sentry rigs for droneboats and damage/range mods for turrets. So if you drop the all CCC/CR/CPR nonsense and replace that with a single mod called a capacitor booster you gain a lot of extra damage, making your ship way more efficient.

Sure using a cap booster takes some effort and all that but if that means you do missions much faster then that's a logical trade-off.

You should probably check my earlier reply in the thread, replying to the OP. The reply you started raging about was aimed at the last post before that one. Also, it's not difficult to use cap boosters, all it takes is some time to get used to it.

Instead of giving new players bogus info like "mining is good income" and "cap stability is a good thing", how about giving them actual valuable info, you know factual stuff. I'm sure they can take it.

Sure, but that's something entirely different from "cap stability is very important" which the person I replied to voiced. Instead of "cap stability is everything" and then after a year or so saying "well, we kinda lied to you or we didn't know any better ourselves" how about "cap stability is unwanted in most lvl 4 BS setups but if you're really new to it all you could decide to use a stable setup to start out, as a crutch". Ofcourse I realise that people have different playstyles, RL issues that might affect game play and all that but I'd rather be factual with an addendum than add to memes like "caldari is PVE god", "raven is everything" and "be cap stable".

I WISH that back when I started playing someone would have come along and put the smack down stating facts, handing out proper knowledge rather than low-effort idiots spouting nonsense memes (not saying you are), would have saved me a whole lot of time and annoyance back then.

In a Raven I orbit at 105 km. Nothing touches me at that range, so the only time I take significant damage is when I get aggro from the initial group on warp-in, or against Angels as they are swift. While at 105 km I turn off all my tanking modules and just run an afterburner.

In my Tengu, I warp in and just shoot everything because nothing in a level 4 mission can hurt it. It has 716 DPS of tank and a small 150m signature, but it is worth over 2b. A cheaper Tengu fit can be made with all T2, but with about 350 DPS of tank it has to keep moving (orbit the beacon at 5 km or a gate at 500m), then it can take almost everything.

Cap stability is overrated. Don't pile on the capacitor modules when you can use a single cap booster module, and use the slots you saved for more tank and gank modules. Buy the BPO for the cap charges and build them from reprocessed mission scrap, as the BPO and minerals are easier to move around than the charges, and you only need Industry 1 trained.

Yes, I must admit I've always used a cap booster even in missions. I've tried cap recharger fits but I find they're actually more tiring to use than a booster. With a booster you just notice you're low on cap and inject a charge or two and forget about it, with recharger fits you have to be always slightly monitoring cap usage (because you have no reserve).

But the biggest annoyance about recharger fits is the loss of midslots for more "interesting" modules (e.g. Tracking comps, drone mods, etc., etc.)

Maybe it's just a personal thing.

I wrote a big detailed post there and the forums ate it. Anyway, the gist of it was:

-When you're new go for a sniper fit ship. Cruise missiles, beams or artillery. It'll not only help with incoming DPS dropping due to range it'll also give you more time to react which is crucial for a new pilot. Save blazing through a BS squadron with autocannons firing at point blank range for when you're a lot more skilled and experienced.

-Fit an afterburner to help maintain range. Also cuts down missile damage slightly.

-Train and use Tech II drones. Lvl 4s have web/scram frigates that will hold you in place while the big guns pound you to scrap, and a BS will have serious trouble hitting one of them.

-Learn whether or not you can multitask. A fit with a cap booster will give more raw tank and more DPS than a cap stable fit, but that won't help if you forget to switch them off and drain your cap dry.

Tanking is more than just raw numbers. Range, speed, sig radius and transversal will all affect the amount of incoming damage you receive, even in a BS. I practised in lvl 3s for quite a while when I was new before stepping up into lvl 4s, you can play around with the practicalities of tanking in lvl 3s while you watch how much damage you've got coming in without being in as much danger or as expensive a ship as in lvl 4s.