Ships & Modules

Hull tanking is one of those things that is often the butt of a joke, rather like honor tanking, fair fights in PvP, and hisec being safe. However, the comedy arises not from the fact that hull tanking is inherently bad, but from the fact that the circumstances under which hull tanking is viable are so maddeningly limited than it often gets improperly used. I'm writing this post to share my collected experience with hull tanking, along with when to use it.

This story begins with with the gank Taloses and kiting Thoraxes I prefer to fly. I used to have them both fit with Large Shield Extenders and an EM Shield resist rig for their tank. They got a decent shield buffer out of this arrangement, along with great DPS from the free lows and good mobility from the Polycarb rigs I would use in my other two rig slots. However, I noticed that in spite of their shield buffer, both builds would still take more damage than I would expect them to.

The problem was with their signature radii. In the case of the Thorax, my two shield tanking modules increased its signature radius by over 25%. The Talos wasn't as bad off, but it was still considerably larger than it had been before. Given my understanding of game mechanics, I realized that my opponents were likely scoring better hits on me than they should have been because of my bloated sig, thus partially negating the extra EHP afforded me by the shield extender.

So, I set out to find a way to eliminate this problem. At first, I tried armor tanking, but I found that I had traded my high signature radius for low speed. When trying to kite or get into blaster range, low speed is a real pain. So, armor tanking was out.

That's when I considered hull tanking. Each form of tanking Exchanges one attribute for another. Shield tanks exchange shield HP for bigger signature radii, armor tanks exchange armor HP for lower speeds. But hull tanking? It exchanges hull HP for...cargo space? Who the heck needs cargo space on either of the builds I was working with?

So I went to the drawing board to give it a try and came up with the pros and cons.

Pros:

1. Adds EHP without increasing your signature or (significantly) decreasing your mobility.
2. Requires only one module to grant 60% resists across the board.
3. The reactions from people when they go from expecting an easy kill as your shields and armor melt away only to find a sturdy hull tank are priceless.

Cons:

1. Kills your cago capacity. Kills it dead.
2. Your primary resists can never be above 60%. Ever.
3. Active tanking, be it local or remote, is not practical unless you're going for a comedy fit.
4. EHP is limited by the lack of modules that add structure instead of multiply it, which also limits ship selection.


As fate would have it, I happened to be flying within the confines of the very narrow circumstances where hull tanking could work to non-comedic effect. Those confines are:

1. You fly Gallente because you'll need lots of structure.
2. You fly T1 ships because you don't want to waste T2 resists.
3. You fly ships that are naturally fast and/or high DPS because you'll need them to survive.
4. You fly solo or in gangs with no remote reps because you can't active tank.
5. You need lots of mids and lows for tackle and DPS.
6. You don't need any rig slots for anything else because you'll likely need 3x Transverse Bulkheads.
7. You don't need much cargo space because, well, you won't have much.
8. You have ready access to stations with repair facilities.

If your style of flying meets all eight of those criteria, then hull tanking may be for you. My new hull-tanked Thoax and Talos builds have roughly the same EHP as my shield-tanked builds (slightly less in both cases) and are slightly less mobile (due to the lack of polycarb rigs), but maintain the same DPS, have reduced signature radii (25% smaller for the Thorax), and have an extra midslot for tackle. At first, I was worried about the lower EHP and mobility, but the extra midslot and lower sig have proven themselves far more useful.

Both builds go something like this:

Rigs: 3x Transverse Bulkheads

Lows: 1x DC2, 3x MFS2, 1x "Utility" slot (I fly with TE2, but Reinforced Bulkheads, iStab, etc. could also work. Just don't use a Nanofiber!)

Mids: 1x MWD, 1x Scram, 1x Web, 1x "Utility" slot (web for the blaster Talos, long point for the kiting Thorax.)

Highs: Guns. Duh. (8x T2 Neutron Blasters for the Talos, 5x T2 200mm rails for the Thorax.)

Drones: To suit. (5x Lights for the Talos, 5x Medium ECM Drones for the Thorax as a GTFO button for annoying frigates that get under my guns.)


So far, I've had good success, albeit with a limited number of engagements, with both of them. I'm also going to try a hull-tanked, gank blaster Vexor fit in much the same manner as the Talos above at some point. I'll update this post periodically as I learn more.


Fly dangerously, and good hunting.

EDIT: Added Criteria 8 as suggested.

Meta4 web ('fleeting') is better than T2. Should never use T2 webs.

Right now there is a serious war going on between my desire to troll you for even suggesting the possibility of hull tanking, and the fact that you presented your argument in a well written format that is throwing viable numbers at me that even the troll can't ignore.


Plus you used the word "comedy", that was my weakness right there lol. The idea of people seeing your shields and armor melt only to run into a brick wall of structure is indeed comedy.

+1

I've been doing this for quite some time actually, being able to fit dual webs on the rail kiting rax and still having a decent EHP + alot of dps is fun :)

that said, there is quite alot of ships in the gallente lineup that can be hulltanked succesfully, especially the navy brutix :)

You forgot one application: awesome bait

Most people think, once a ship is in hul its pretty much dead. A Thorax, Vexor, Brutix, etc with max hulltank can get impressive EHP while having all its midslots free for tackling whoever takes the bait.

Also, hulltanked Catalysts and Algoses are awesome in FW complexes.

Yeah I feel you, that hull warning sound always makes me **** myself a little.

The new hulltank rigs give you an option for all those gun-tanked ships out there. You can pretty much take any guntanked ship and replace one of the 2 dmg rigs for 2 hulltank rigs.

Enyo comes to my mind. Its often flown with just a damage control and it has a ton of hullpoints.

Also, how could I forget the Tristan?

Pretty much been thinking along the same lines since they introduced the hull tanking rigs. When it comes to standard shield kiting fits you can actually make some fantastic compromises with hull tanks that compare well. Not to mention the extra PG you get to play with is worth its weight in gold.

Been using this Brutix recently and imo its better than the standard armor version when you factor in ehp, dps and utility. Lack of a second web is a shame though.

[Brutix, Hull Brutix]
Reinforced Bulkheads II
Reinforced Bulkheads II
Reinforced Bulkheads II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Damage Control II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Medium Micro Jump Drive
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Warp Scrambler II

Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Medium Transverse Bulkhead I
Medium Transverse Bulkhead I
Medium Transverse Bulkhead I

Hammerhead II x5


Also this https://zkillboard.com/kill/41723783/

Hull tanking is manly as ****, also pretty damn viable with quite a few hulls

with hulltanking, how do you deal with modules getting broken? I got put into hull while escaping a camp in a not-hull-tanked ship and it put some damage on most of my modules, and I presume as you get hit more, you take more module damage