Tanking: Difference between revisions

Buffer tanking comes in three flavors: [[Tanking#Armor tanking|armor buffer tanking]], [[Tanking#Passive shield tanking|passive shield tanking]], and [[Tanking#Hull tanking|hull tanking]].

An "active tank" uses armor repair or shield booster modules to restore damage done to the ship. Active tanks use energy from the ship's capacitor to run local armor-repairing or shield-boosting modules. So long as the incoming damage never exceeds your restoration capacity and your capacitor never gives out under the pressure, an active tank can last forever ("perma-tanking"). If either of these two things happens, your tank will collapse ("break") under the pressure.

==Armor tanking==

Armor tanking emphasizes the use of low-slot modules to increase armor hit points, resistance to damage, and gain the ability to repair damage taken by armor. Regardless of the approach taken to armor tanking, understand that armor on T1 hulls has an inherent weakness to Explosive damage, and usually a mild weakness to Kinetic damage, and you should plan your resistance modules accordingly.  

Armor tanking is most common in Amarr and Gallente ships, which tend to have lots of low slots and sometimes have bonuses for armor resistance (Amarr) or active armor repairers (Gallente). Minmatar ships and even some Caldari ships are sometimes also given armor tanks: the [[Hurricane]] and [[Blackbird]] are two examples.

''see also: [[Natural Resistances#Tech I armor resistances]]''

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*{{sk|Hull Upgrades}}  

** 5% armor HP per level

Shield tanks are most common on Caldari ships, followed by Minmatar ships. Both races' ships tend to have adequate numbers of mid slots; some Caldari ships have bonuses to shield resistances, and some Minmatar ships have bonuses to shield boosters. Shield tanks also synergize well with Minmatar ships' emphasis on speed. Some Gallente and Amarr ships are sometimes shield-tanked: one example is the [[Curse]].

Active shield tanking is most commonly used in higher-level PvE, but also has a place in solo or small-gang PvP. Active shield tanking is based on using a shield booster to recover shield HP faster than incoming damage can deplete it, while also fitting modules to harden the shields' resistances.

Unlike Armor hit points, shields will recharge themselves after taking damage. A passive Shield tank maximizes this natural recharge rate without the use of active booster modules. The shields of a ship have two stats that are relevant to passive recharge: shield capacity and shield recharge time. The shield capacity is simply the maximum HP for the shields while the recharge time tells how long it takes for the shields to recharge.

It is generally advised '''NOT''' to mix modules that increase shield recharge rate (a passive shield tank) rate with modules that repair shield damage (an active shield tank).

All ships have shields, and all shields have a recharge rate.  

;Calculating Average rate

In many cases the technical construction of the ship dictates the use of shields (or armor) as its primary defense. Any ship receiving a bonus to shield capabilites would likely use shields. And because most shield modules use medium power slots, a ship with more mid than low slots will tend to use shields. As a shield ships use mainly mid slots for defence, they can fit much higher damage output and are often faster.

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The following skills are required to field a full Tech 2 Shield tank:

A remote repair tactic allows the main fleet to fit large buffer tanks that makes them able to survive the alpha of enemy fleet, secure in the knowledge that their logistics wing will repair damage. This also allows the logi wing to focus the repping power of whole fleet on single ship.

While normal logistic fleet configuration outsources repairing to specialized logistics ships, "spider tanking" shares the repairing and combat duty between the whole fleet. Most or all of the ships in the fleet fit one or more remote restoration modules, and the fleet as a whole repairs whichever member comes under attack.