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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Defensive stradegy

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Zornia Estemaire
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2012-02-09 21:48:43 UTC
When should I activate my armour repairer and hardeners? As soon as I begin to take damage to my shields or just before my shields are completely gone? I would think to save cap it would be just before I lose all my shields. Or do you activate when the alarm for 3/4th's shield is gone? Is it a signifigant savings to your cap to wait just before all your shield is gone. I tend to get so caught up in the battle sometimes I forget to check and when I do half my armour is gone alsoShocked. Just looking for a general concensus of when is the best time to activate and what stradegy works best.
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#2 - 2012-02-09 22:33:19 UTC  |  Edited by: Tau Cabalander
It really depends on the incoming damage.

If it is slow and steady damage (NPC), I usually wait until I'm about 1/2 armour before activating an amour repairer.

I activate hardeners as soon as I jump or undock, so I don't forget them in the heat of battle (which has happened in the past). Also a habit of being a shield tanker long before I trained for armour tanking; when shield tanking you don't want your shield removed by the first hit.

When to pulse the armour repairer (or shield booster) also depends on the state of your capacitor and the state of your armour/shield. If you are at >50% capacitor, you are pretty far from peak recharge so you may want to do a cycle now even if you don't have that much to repair. If you are struggling to keep-up with the damage, you may want to activate close to peak (25% or 33% depending on what references you believe, I personally believe it is 25% based on experience, fitting many ships over the years, and the discovered formula for recharge, but not everyone agrees). Capacitor management is really more of an art than a science.
Kilrayn
Caldari Provisions
#3 - 2012-02-09 22:54:07 UTC
I really do hate giving this answer, but it depends on your skillpoints and setup (except for hardeners, they drain little cap, turn them on early). Back when I armor tanked, I usually tried to make my fits cap stable so I can simply turn everything on and concentrate on my surroundings. I did fly a dual rep domi for a good while that was only cap stable with 1 rep on and I would only use the 2nd rep when incoming damage was high.

I'd recommend trying out a few different tanking set-ups and test their performance. I don't like using EFT f or real-world tests, try actually flying the fit in space and see how it does.

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Utsen Dari
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#4 - 2012-02-10 05:39:30 UTC
Your armor repper will give you the armor only after its cycle completes (as opposed to a shield booster which gives you shield hitpoints immediately), so you can anticipate damage and start pulsing it to finish later. If it starts operating while you still have shield remaining this is fine; capacitor is only wasted if you didn't actually take any armor damage before the repper finishes its cycle.

Also - you can set what % of armor and shield you want the alarm to sound (it's in the options thingy on the heads up display) so you can make the armor alarm sound when you are at 90% armor or something (or the shield alarm at 10% shield) if you want it to warn you that you need to turn on armor reps then. Or whatever as it suits you.
Velicitia
XS Tech
#5 - 2012-02-10 11:41:06 UTC
"Real men hull tank"

nearly a year old and you don't know how to tank yet ... ?

One of the bitter points of a good bittervet is the realisation that all those SP don't really do much, and that the newbie is having much more fun with what little he has. - Tippia
Steve Ronuken
Fuzzwork Enterprises
Vote Steve Ronuken for CSM
#6 - 2012-02-10 15:33:58 UTC  |  Edited by: Steve Ronuken
Tau Cabalander wrote:

When to pulse the armour repairer (or shield booster) also depends on the state of your capacitor and the state of your armour/shield. If you are at >50% capacitor, you are pretty far from peak recharge so you may want to do a cycle now even if you don't have that much to repair. If you are struggling to keep-up with the damage, you may want to activate close to peak (25% or 33% depending on what references you believe, I personally believe it is 25% based on experience, fitting many ships over the years, and the discovered formula for recharge, but not everyone agrees). Capacitor management is really more of an art than a science.



I'd recommend that you don't wait for your cap to be around peak when you activate the repper. you want it at peak /after/ you activate the repper and it eats its chunk of cap. That way, you don't go past the peak and into the lower levels.

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Zornia Estemaire
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#7 - 2012-02-11 01:15:22 UTC
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. It kinda re-affirms that I'm doing it right and not missing anything. So far, my main problem has been keeping an eye on my shields so I don't allow the damage to get to my armour before activating my repper and hardeners.
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#8 - 2012-02-11 01:36:18 UTC  |  Edited by: Tau Cabalander
Steve Ronuken wrote:
Tau Cabalander wrote:

When to pulse the armour repairer (or shield booster) also depends on the state of your capacitor and the state of your armour/shield. If you are at >50% capacitor, you are pretty far from peak recharge so you may want to do a cycle now even if you don't have that much to repair. If you are struggling to keep-up with the damage, you may want to activate close to peak (25% or 33% depending on what references you believe, I personally believe it is 25% based on experience, fitting many ships over the years, and the discovered formula for recharge, but not everyone agrees). Capacitor management is really more of an art than a science.

I'd recommend that you don't wait for your cap to be around peak when you activate the repper. you want it at peak /after/ you activate the repper and it eats its chunk of cap. That way, you don't go past the peak and into the lower levels.

I thought somebody would comment that way, hence I stated "around", but I didn't mean "less than" or "exactly at".

Yes, you want to be above peak recharge AFTER activating the repper. Don't forget that your other cap powered modules will cycle too. You don't want to dip below peak if you can help it.



Tip: a capacitor booster can often replace all other capacitor modules and capacitor rigs on a ship, making room for more tank or gank.
ISD IonCharge
ISD STAR
ISD Alliance
#9 - 2012-02-11 14:38:15 UTC
Because cap usage of modules comes in discreet chunks rather than over time, if you're running multiple hardeners, try staggering their activations by a few seconds between each one. This means that they all are taking from the capacitor one by one and giving it recharge time in between, rather than taking a big chunk all at once; doing it this way means you're less likely to get pushed over peak recharge point if your repairer/shieldbooster happens to cycle same time as your hardeners and guns...

ISD IonCharge

Executive, ISD:STAR