Deman
18th December 2006, 20:11
Straight robbed for my own use.
Introduction
The point of this post is to share some some tips on how to make good tanks of your own. I'll try to follow that up with some skill advice and some practical examples. I do not consider them to be absolutes, but until someone shows me something better, I think they are pretty good advice. Here goes:
First of all, there are 2 critical components, that any tank must have. Enough Capacitor and High Resistance. Without those, anything else has limited effect.
Secondly, don't try to make a tank that is supposed to work against all possible kinds of enemies. It will only ever be mediocre. Instead adjust your tank according to the specific type of enemy you expect to meet. It will cost you less slots and in the end be more effective.
Note: You can find info on almost all NPC enemies at elFarto's NPC Database and Grismar.net. Both work in-game
Finally, never try to combine shield and armor tanking. It's a complete waste of slots and capacitor and will be much more inefficient than a dedicated tank.
Skills
To achieve the first point you'll need to train the 2 all important Capacitor skills, "Energy Systems Operation" and "Energy Management" to at least lvl 3 but preferably lvl 4. These skills actually increase the capacitor recharge a lot more than you'd think from their description. Using a Megathron as example, (I calculated it for iloren once) you will, with these 2 skills at lvl 4, regain 50% more cap per second, compared to having them untrained (unlikely I know), but it's still more than the obvious 2 x lvl 4 x 5% = 40% you'd think from reading the 5% per level in their description. With both at lvl 5 it's 66% more cap regained per second.
For the Resistance part of the first point you'll want to start out with hardeners. That means "Hull Upgrades" lvl 4 (requires Mechanic lvl 1) for armor tankers, or "Tactical Shield Manipulation" (requires Engineering lvl 4) for shield tanking. Hardeners cost capacitor to run, on top of what is needed for the Armor Repairer or Shield Booster. Which is also why Cap Skills are necessary. It is also possible to tank using Energized Plating or Shield Amplifiers, which don't need cap, but for it to be as effective as hardeners you need to train the armor or shield compensation skills to at least lvl 4. And there's one of them for each of the 4 damage types, so from a training time point of view, hardeners are quicker to train for.
For Shield tanking you'll also want to train "Shield Operation", "Shield Managment" and "Shield Compensation" skills to at least lvl 3, but preferably lvl 4.
Unfortunately due to peoples varying skills and preferences it's really impossible to give a list of "perfect" setups, so I'm not going to try and do that. Instead I'll try to give some guidelines about what I consider good module combination.
Note: The following points, are primarily meant for Cruisers and Battlecruisers, although some of them can be applied to other types of ships. See Hasan's post for a tip on the use of plates and extenders on BS.
Armor tanking:
Important! Armor tanking often requires you to cross a psycological boundary that for some, can be quite hard to get over. You have to learn to (almost) completely disregard the shield. You have to learn not to be distracted by the fact that it is rarely recharged once you have entered battle. Don't fall for the temptation to mount a little shield booster, just so you can arrive at the next encounter with a full shield. It may give you a few seconds extra time before you need to start the armor repairer at the beginning of the fight, but it will take minutes away from your tanking time in the other end, because you will run out of cap much faster, than if you had done the right thing and mounted a Cap Battery or Cap Recharger.
* A good armor tank consists of an Armor Repairer and at least 2 rat specific Armor Hardeners.
* If the armor repairer can't keep up with the damage sustained, add 1 or 2 more rat specific hardeners.
* If you run out of cap, but is otherwise able to cope with the damage, add a CPR or a Capacitor Battery, or possibly a Cap Recharger.
* If you have a situation where you need to fit an RCU, to have enough powergrid for an Armor Plate. Don't. This is, in my opinion actually, worst thing you can do for your tank. You will be much better off with 2 rat specific hardeners.
* If you insist on fitting that big, nice, protective plate, then use smaller guns or remove one gun. Don't ruin your tank.
* I my opinion a harderner is always preferable to an armor plate. A hardener will actually decrease the amount of damage you take, making it easier for the Repairer to keep up, so you don't need to run it as often. A plate will only prolong the inevitable.
Shield tanking:
* A good shield tank consists of an Shield Booster, at least 2 rat specific Shield Hardeners and a Shield Boost Amplifier.
* If the shield booster can't keep up with the damage, add an extra Shield Boost Amplifier.
* If you run out of cap, add a PDU. CPR's penalize shield boosters, so they are not a good choice.
* Oversize Shield Extenders can be used to tank instead of a shield booster, using only hardeners and PDU's or SPR's. It requires your "Shield Operation" and "Shield Managment" to be lvl 4, but is entirely possible.
* Beware that SPR's really cut down your cap regain.
* Also I don't recommend Oversize Shield Extenders against ships that are larger than your own ship. They increase your ships Signature Radius, which means you'll take a lot more damage from bigger ships.
General tanking:
* NOS's are a good idea if you have spare hi slots and expect short range attackers.
* In PvP NOS's are also a good weapon against any frigates that may be warp scrambling you.
* To save on CPU use Carbide Railguns or 'Malkuth' Launchers.
Here are some examples of the tanking modules from setups I use on my ships.
UPDATE! I've noticed that some changes have happened to the NPC compositions and damage types, since the Static update on June 20th and the Hotfix on the 21st. Specifically lvl 3-4 Angel missions now have Cyclone Battlecruiser that deal quite a bit of Thermal damage. And many of the little Rogue Drones (close orbiting) and some missile firing ones now do Explosive damage. Therefore I've updated the recommended hardener configuration accordingly.
Shield Hardener configurations
Against Serpentis, Mordus and Drones
1x Shield Boost Amplifier I
1x Named or Tech2 Heat Dissipation Field
1x Named or Tech2 Ballistic Deflection Field
Against Angels Updated!
2x Named or Tech2 Invulnerability Field
1x Named or Tech2 Explosion Dampening Field
1x Named or Tech2 Heat Dissipation Field
1x Shield Boost Amplifier I
Against Mercenaries
1x Named or Tech2 Photon Scattering Field
1x Named or Tech2 Heat Dissipation Field
1x Named or Tech2 Ballistic Deflection Field
Armor Hardener configurations
Against Serpentis, Mordus and Drones Updated!
2x Thermal Hardener
1-2x Kinetic Hardener
Against Angels Updated!
2x Explosive Hardener
1-2x Kinetic Hardener
1x Thermal Hardener
1x Kinetic Hardener
Against Mercenaries
1-2x Explosive Hardener
1-2x Thermal Hardener
1-2x Kinetic Hardener
Tanking Mercenaries is probably the hardest one, because they do all types of damage. For shield tankers the problem is the Mercenary Commander that makes EM damage. For armor tankers the problem is Mercenary Wingmen that make Explosive damage. You'll often need to use a 4th shield hardener or 4th and 5th armor hardener to take on mercenaries.
Glossary:
AF - (Assault Frigate) Assault Ship
BC - Battlecruiser
BS - Battleship
CC - (Common) Cruiser
CPR - Capacitor Power Relay
HAC - (Heavy Assault Cruiser) Heavy Assault Ship
NOS - Nosferatu, Energy Vampire
PDS - Power Diagnostic System
PDU - same as PDS
RCU - Reactor Control Unit
SBA - Shield Boost Amplifier
SPR - Shield Power Relay
Introduction
The point of this post is to share some some tips on how to make good tanks of your own. I'll try to follow that up with some skill advice and some practical examples. I do not consider them to be absolutes, but until someone shows me something better, I think they are pretty good advice. Here goes:
First of all, there are 2 critical components, that any tank must have. Enough Capacitor and High Resistance. Without those, anything else has limited effect.
Secondly, don't try to make a tank that is supposed to work against all possible kinds of enemies. It will only ever be mediocre. Instead adjust your tank according to the specific type of enemy you expect to meet. It will cost you less slots and in the end be more effective.
Note: You can find info on almost all NPC enemies at elFarto's NPC Database and Grismar.net. Both work in-game
Finally, never try to combine shield and armor tanking. It's a complete waste of slots and capacitor and will be much more inefficient than a dedicated tank.
Skills
To achieve the first point you'll need to train the 2 all important Capacitor skills, "Energy Systems Operation" and "Energy Management" to at least lvl 3 but preferably lvl 4. These skills actually increase the capacitor recharge a lot more than you'd think from their description. Using a Megathron as example, (I calculated it for iloren once) you will, with these 2 skills at lvl 4, regain 50% more cap per second, compared to having them untrained (unlikely I know), but it's still more than the obvious 2 x lvl 4 x 5% = 40% you'd think from reading the 5% per level in their description. With both at lvl 5 it's 66% more cap regained per second.
For the Resistance part of the first point you'll want to start out with hardeners. That means "Hull Upgrades" lvl 4 (requires Mechanic lvl 1) for armor tankers, or "Tactical Shield Manipulation" (requires Engineering lvl 4) for shield tanking. Hardeners cost capacitor to run, on top of what is needed for the Armor Repairer or Shield Booster. Which is also why Cap Skills are necessary. It is also possible to tank using Energized Plating or Shield Amplifiers, which don't need cap, but for it to be as effective as hardeners you need to train the armor or shield compensation skills to at least lvl 4. And there's one of them for each of the 4 damage types, so from a training time point of view, hardeners are quicker to train for.
For Shield tanking you'll also want to train "Shield Operation", "Shield Managment" and "Shield Compensation" skills to at least lvl 3, but preferably lvl 4.
Unfortunately due to peoples varying skills and preferences it's really impossible to give a list of "perfect" setups, so I'm not going to try and do that. Instead I'll try to give some guidelines about what I consider good module combination.
Note: The following points, are primarily meant for Cruisers and Battlecruisers, although some of them can be applied to other types of ships. See Hasan's post for a tip on the use of plates and extenders on BS.
Armor tanking:
Important! Armor tanking often requires you to cross a psycological boundary that for some, can be quite hard to get over. You have to learn to (almost) completely disregard the shield. You have to learn not to be distracted by the fact that it is rarely recharged once you have entered battle. Don't fall for the temptation to mount a little shield booster, just so you can arrive at the next encounter with a full shield. It may give you a few seconds extra time before you need to start the armor repairer at the beginning of the fight, but it will take minutes away from your tanking time in the other end, because you will run out of cap much faster, than if you had done the right thing and mounted a Cap Battery or Cap Recharger.
* A good armor tank consists of an Armor Repairer and at least 2 rat specific Armor Hardeners.
* If the armor repairer can't keep up with the damage sustained, add 1 or 2 more rat specific hardeners.
* If you run out of cap, but is otherwise able to cope with the damage, add a CPR or a Capacitor Battery, or possibly a Cap Recharger.
* If you have a situation where you need to fit an RCU, to have enough powergrid for an Armor Plate. Don't. This is, in my opinion actually, worst thing you can do for your tank. You will be much better off with 2 rat specific hardeners.
* If you insist on fitting that big, nice, protective plate, then use smaller guns or remove one gun. Don't ruin your tank.
* I my opinion a harderner is always preferable to an armor plate. A hardener will actually decrease the amount of damage you take, making it easier for the Repairer to keep up, so you don't need to run it as often. A plate will only prolong the inevitable.
Shield tanking:
* A good shield tank consists of an Shield Booster, at least 2 rat specific Shield Hardeners and a Shield Boost Amplifier.
* If the shield booster can't keep up with the damage, add an extra Shield Boost Amplifier.
* If you run out of cap, add a PDU. CPR's penalize shield boosters, so they are not a good choice.
* Oversize Shield Extenders can be used to tank instead of a shield booster, using only hardeners and PDU's or SPR's. It requires your "Shield Operation" and "Shield Managment" to be lvl 4, but is entirely possible.
* Beware that SPR's really cut down your cap regain.
* Also I don't recommend Oversize Shield Extenders against ships that are larger than your own ship. They increase your ships Signature Radius, which means you'll take a lot more damage from bigger ships.
General tanking:
* NOS's are a good idea if you have spare hi slots and expect short range attackers.
* In PvP NOS's are also a good weapon against any frigates that may be warp scrambling you.
* To save on CPU use Carbide Railguns or 'Malkuth' Launchers.
Here are some examples of the tanking modules from setups I use on my ships.
UPDATE! I've noticed that some changes have happened to the NPC compositions and damage types, since the Static update on June 20th and the Hotfix on the 21st. Specifically lvl 3-4 Angel missions now have Cyclone Battlecruiser that deal quite a bit of Thermal damage. And many of the little Rogue Drones (close orbiting) and some missile firing ones now do Explosive damage. Therefore I've updated the recommended hardener configuration accordingly.
Shield Hardener configurations
Against Serpentis, Mordus and Drones
1x Shield Boost Amplifier I
1x Named or Tech2 Heat Dissipation Field
1x Named or Tech2 Ballistic Deflection Field
Against Angels Updated!
2x Named or Tech2 Invulnerability Field
1x Named or Tech2 Explosion Dampening Field
1x Named or Tech2 Heat Dissipation Field
1x Shield Boost Amplifier I
Against Mercenaries
1x Named or Tech2 Photon Scattering Field
1x Named or Tech2 Heat Dissipation Field
1x Named or Tech2 Ballistic Deflection Field
Armor Hardener configurations
Against Serpentis, Mordus and Drones Updated!
2x Thermal Hardener
1-2x Kinetic Hardener
Against Angels Updated!
2x Explosive Hardener
1-2x Kinetic Hardener
1x Thermal Hardener
1x Kinetic Hardener
Against Mercenaries
1-2x Explosive Hardener
1-2x Thermal Hardener
1-2x Kinetic Hardener
Tanking Mercenaries is probably the hardest one, because they do all types of damage. For shield tankers the problem is the Mercenary Commander that makes EM damage. For armor tankers the problem is Mercenary Wingmen that make Explosive damage. You'll often need to use a 4th shield hardener or 4th and 5th armor hardener to take on mercenaries.
Glossary:
AF - (Assault Frigate) Assault Ship
BC - Battlecruiser
BS - Battleship
CC - (Common) Cruiser
CPR - Capacitor Power Relay
HAC - (Heavy Assault Cruiser) Heavy Assault Ship
NOS - Nosferatu, Energy Vampire
PDS - Power Diagnostic System
PDU - same as PDS
RCU - Reactor Control Unit
SBA - Shield Boost Amplifier
SPR - Shield Power Relay