Intermediate Guide to Tanking by Friedrick Psitalon
Armour Tanking
People who tank using their armour as their source of protection/regeneration follow a different philosophy. They accept that their shields will be chewed away swiftly, and call that “borrowed time” before they have to engage their tank – saving their capacitor for later. The risk involved is not insignificant; armour tankers who “lose their tank” are immediately taking damage on ship structure, and the end of THAT is a trip to your pod.
Armour tanking is a fairly easy concept: slap an armour repairer on your ship and turn it on. What makes an armour tank effective is the relatively low cost “per point” of armour repair (a shield tank repairs 1 shield for 1 energy, typically, while an armour tank can give as much as 2 or 3 armour for 1 energy.) No boosters exist for armour repair, except in the case of the Brutix – a ship type with a bonus to armour repair.
Armour repairers, armour plates, and armour resistance enhancements are all “low slot” items, which also makes them rather popular for players who have other uses for their mid slots – afterburners, webbing modules, warp scramblers, etc.
Typically, Armour Tanking is supplemented by resistance enhancers, but some players choose to install extra plating. Plating requires a specific, relatively minor amount of CPU and greatly increasing amounts of Power Grid as you increase plate density. Repairers likewise tend to take a moderate amount of CPU and greatly increasing grid. Hardeners tend to take very little grid, and a moderate amount of CPU.
While Active Shield Tankers tend to rely on Capacitor Boosters to supply them with large amounts of capacitor, Armour Tankers have another, more efficient option: capacitor regeneration items. A total of four items exist – two for the medium slots, and two for the low slots. (Sound familiar to shield regeneration items?) The medium slot items are simple Capacitor Rechargers (just like Shield Rechargers) and Capacitor Batteries (which function in the same way as Shield Extenders, including their affect on recharge rates.) The low slot options are (again, these may sound familiar) Capacitor Flux Coils and Capacitor Power Relays. Much like Shield Flux Coils, Capacitor Flux Coils lower the maximum capacity in exchange for faster regeneration. In this case, though, the other option is nearly always better: Capacitor Power Relays. A CPR lowers the shield boost rate (basically, the opposite of a Shield Boost Amplifier) in exchange for faster capacitor regeneration. This is rarely an issue for armour tankers, though, who usually do not even fit a shield booster module!
Armour Tankers should train in…
- Hull Upgrades; required for higher end armour plates, and also grants more armour to the vessel.
- Mechanic; required for you to use more effective armour repairers, and grants more structure… handy if your tank fails.
- Repair Systems; decreasing your repair time makes your healing cycle faster, allowing you to handle damage at faster pace.
- Energy Management; more capacitor means more times you can repair.
- Energy Systems Operation; since armour tanking can potentially extend for quite a period of time, faster regeneration of your capacitor can grant you several additional repairs.
Advantages of Armour Tanking – Speaking in capacitor terms, Armour Tanking is a middle ground between Passive and Active Shield Tanking methods. Obviously, it uses more capacitor than Passive Shield Tanks, but it is considerably more efficient than Active Shields. Armour tanks take their bites of capacitor every 10 seconds or so, allowing a ship more time to regenerate capacitor between bites. Armour tankers also have a much easier time increasing their resistances to very high levels. Armour tankers have a slower rate of “healing” than an Active Shield Tanker, but usually much quicker than a Passive Shield Tanker.
Disadvantages of Armour Tanking – The middle ground is just that: the middle ground. Your rate of healing may not be as swift as is needed in extremely high damage situations. It is still possible to run out of capacitor, though it may happen more slowly than an Active Tanker. Lastly, you have to be ready to move fast if your Armour Tank should fail – structure doesn’t tend to be very durable!
An Example of an Armour Tank System
Brutix (Gallente Battlecruiser) – bonus to armour repair rate
6x 200mm rail I (Most favour blasters over rails, but until you have significant drone skills, this will cause problems in dealing with cruisers that like to hang at 22km and run away when you close. Once you have significant drone skills, or you don’t mind switching guns between missions, switch to blasters.)
1x Small tractor beam (Same as Ferox- handy, and you can’t afford another rail anyhow; discard this when you switch to blaster)
1x Stasis Web I (There aren’t any mid-slot items to assist with an armour tank, so work to increase your damage – this helps a lot with frigs)
1x Painter I (Same as above, nice for long-range targeting.)
1x 10mn AB I (Useful for keeping distance as best you can, and for closing when you get blasters, swap for another capacitor battery or recharger if you like)
1x Capacitor Recharger I (to help keep your tank running)
1x Medium Armour Repairer I (get this to Repairer II ASAP)
2-4x Resistance Hardeners (This is up to you; the more hardeners you use, the less damage you take. I’ve used pairs of two hardeners for NPC missions quite well, but when the damage finally DOES start stacking up, you burn cap a lot quicker.)
0-2x Capacitor Power Relay (weakens shield boosting in exchange for more capacitor recharge…but do you see a shield booster on this ship?)
Hopefully you do have SOME drone skills by the time you’re in a Battlecruiser and need a real tank, as drones are one of your best tools for dealing with frigates in a Gallente vessel.