Capacitor warfare: Difference between revisions

This is an ongoing project.  Any changes or help will be appreciated and then mutilated, hacked, revised and generally forced into the authors grand vision (ha ha ha).  Once an intial draft is completed (yes this will take months) a thread on the forums will be established for discussion and corrections.  Thanks!

=Capacitor Warfare Overview=

You have probably heard the phrase 'cap is life' during your time in EVE.  There are many good reasons why this is true, and each one is also a reason why Capacitor Warfare can be extremely effective.  Capacitor directly feeds laser and hybrid turrets, keeps active tanks running, and powers the majority of fighting midslot modules including all EWAR modules and propulsion systems.  An enemy without capacitor is an enemy without options which means you get to dictate the flow of the battle - kill them your way or if something goes wrong you can always be confident that warp jamming requires cap.

Cap Warfare is a bit mysterious for some.  Rarely will you see EWAR guides include Cap Warfare even though that is where it rightfully belongs, much like warp jamming.  Capacitor Warfare has had its ups and downs in the history of EVE, with its wild days of overpowered glory, and subsequent 'rebalancing' lows.  It is still and will always be an extremely viable tactic in the sandbox of EVE, and the pendulum will continue to swing back and forth over the impossible 'balanced' ideal, but knowing what and how is extremely important even if you never plan to employ cap warfare yourself.

Capacitor Warfare, defined as direct action taken to reduce or elminate the capacitor of a target, can be accomplished a few ways:

*Using one of two types of Engineering Equipment modules

**Energy Destabilizers - energy neutralizers of various sizes and meta levels

**Energy Vampires - nosferatu of various sizes and meta levels

*Using one of three Combat Utility Drones

(as an aside if you have ever been curious where the word nosferatu comes from check out this link to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosferatu Nosferatu])

Although focussed on the same goal, each of the these systems has its own strengths and weakneses and each is very different in implementation.  Cap warfare drones are the same as other EWAR drones and share strengths and weaknesses with the TD and SD drones.  Alternatively the modules are very different from other EWAR modules.  They fit like weapons rather than EWAR modules, in high slots with three sizes corresponding to hull size, competing for fitting slots with DPS and high slot utility rather than mid slot tank and utility.  Compared to other EWAR modules they have short ranges and kill capacitors incrementally in the same way that DPS destroys shields.  Much like TD, cap warfare has setups against which it is inherrently limited.  As an example, a passive tanked drake will still be able to tank and DPS with 0 capacitor (it won't be able to use any active hardners, warp jamming, or propulsion modules though!).  Cap Boosters are the natural counter to capacitor warfare as they inject capacitor charges which will nullify, mitigate, or enhance recovery from cap warfare just as a shield booster will counter DPS.

Capacitors are a common thread for every single ship in EVE.  The same can't even be said for module slots.  Every engagement, PvP or PvE, will involve cap.  Cap to get there, cap to keep someone there, cap to tank, cap to kill, cap stable or capped out, cap is life.  Therefore whether you are planning, fitting, or undocking, countering or using capacitor warfare is something which needs to be considered.

And that is the basics.  Keep reading for how it works, what ships it works best with and how to make it work for you.