Tanking: Difference between revisions

Note that while evading damage is also commonly called tanking, as in "speed tanking" and "signature tanking," this page focuses on reducing inflicted damage.

The Ship Status Panel shows the hitpoints of the player's ship with three rings, from outside to inside:

# shield (outer semicircle)

Buffer tanking has low or no [[capacitor]] demands, freeing up the capacitor for other tactical equipment. In the same way, having no active modules to manage liberates a pilot's attention for other challenges. However, a buffer tank without repair support has a set lifespan. Once the HP buffer is compromised, an unsupported buffer tank will soon reach the end of its engagement value.

Ship planners can combine raw HP and damage resistance to achieve an optimum level of effective health points (EHP). Focusing on more damage resistance, at the expense of EHP, enhances the value of remote repairs by decreasing the damage others must repair.  

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.

Active tanks can achieve either high burst restoration or sustained restoration over a long (potentially endless) time period. They require more management from the pilot than buffer tanks, and are often vulnerable to [[Capacitor Warfare]] that drains the ship's capacitor dry.

In PvE, players usually need a permanent tank that can consistently restore a steady stream of moderate damage, forever.

Sustained active tanks are rare in PvP.

Though fleet PvP can deliver incoming damage beyond the capacity of any subcapital sustained active tank, solo and small gang PvP often involves lower incoming damage, which a short-term active tank can fend off. The modules central to this tactic are Ancillary Armor Repairers (AAR) and Ancillary Shield Boosters (ASB). These modules can be loaded with Nanite Repair Paste (armor) and Cap Boosters (shield). While these modules have charges, ancillary armor repairers repair far more hitpoints than any other repair module, and ancillary shield boosters consume 0 capacitor to cycle.

The drawbacks of a burst active tank are that it requires considerable attention from the pilot, takes up a lot of cargo space, and (most importantly) will eventually give out.

Modules are available to help both your shields and your armor, but it is a good rule of thumb to focus on ''either'' shields ''or'' armor, not both.

Double-tanked ships are usually only used as specially-designed bait.

Resistances (or "resists) on a ship reduce the damage taken. A resist figure is number that tells you by how large a percentage the incoming damage is reduced. For example, 30% thermal resistance on shields means that all incoming thermal damage is reduced by 30%: 100 hit points of shield damage becomes 70.

Resistances are easier to figure out if you think in terms of "damage vulnerability" rather than "damage resistance". A ship with 60% EM resist is then going to take 40% EM damage received. Adding a 30% resist module multiplies the damage taken by 0.7, so you now take 0.7*0.4 = 0.28 = 28% of the raw damage.  

where R0 is the hull resist and R1, R2, R3,... are module resists in descending order.

Certain effects will apply negative resists to a ship. These include [[incursion]] effects, [[Abyssal Deadspace]] effects and [[Capital_Ship_Modules#Phenomena_Generator|phenomena generators]]. The way these are applied may seem confusing, but they are simpler than they seem. The idea is exactly same as with normal resists explained above where the percentage change is applied to vulnerability (100% - resist) instead of resist.

The math is simply:

The resist penalties will never cause the ship to have below 0% resist. If the penalty is big enough that the new resist would be negative, the new resist will simply be 0%.

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]]''

One major consideration when choosing resistance modules is that different races' Tech 1 ships have slightly different base armor resistances. This is explained in the article on [[Natural Resistances]], however for a discussion of tanking, there are four major takeaways:

The reason for these takeaways is that one of the general goals in resistance modules is to have all four of your ship's resistances be at some fairly equal high value; and because different races have different base values, different amounts of effort are required to even the numbers.

"Rainbow" tanking refers to an attempt to maximize damage resistance by running one pure resistance module for each of the four damage types. This is generally only done on Battleships or Capital Ships, because of the large number of slots require to do it. However, because of the distribution of base armor resistances, rainbow tanking is generally not quite the most efficient way to maximize resistances. What is generally more efficient is "Rainbow -1": One Membrane or Hardener for each of Explosive, Kinetic, and Thermal, and then a single Multispectrum Energized Membrane. This strategy takes advantage of armor's naturally high EM resistance, improves the other three resistances to match, then uses a single Multispec to further improve everything. This has the added advantage of only applying 1 layer of Stacking Penalties to most resists and no Stacking Penalties at all to the EM resist, and synergizes very well in a fleet setting with [[Command Bursts|Armored Command Bursts]].

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|[[File:Icon armor plate.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Armor plates}}''' increase the ships armor HP by a flat number. The drawback is increased mass that results in slower and less agile ship. It is somewhat common to fit oversized plates. For example 1600mm plates on a cruiser.

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|[[File:Icon energized membrane.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Energized membranes}}''' are passive modules which increase armor resists. The resist bonus is increased by Armor Compensation skills.

|[[File:Icon module damage control.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Damage control}}''' is a passive module that increases a ship's shield, armor, and hull resists. This module is not stacking penalized with most other resist modules. Only a Reactive Armor Hardener is stacking penalized with a damage control. As a result, this module is commonly seen as one of the most efficient defensive modules in the game.

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|[[File:Icon assault damage control.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Assault damage control}}''' is a variant of the Damage Control which can only be used by [[Frigates#Assault Frigates|Assault Frigates]] and [[Heavy Assault Cruisers]]. Passively, it gives weaker bonuses to shield, armor, and hull resistances than a normal Damage Control. In exchange, the ADC can be activated once every two minutes to give 12 seconds of massive reduction to all incoming damage. Like the normal Damage Control, the ADC is stacking penalized with the Reactive Armor Hardener but not with any other resist modules.

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|[[File:icon_reactive_armor_hardener.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Reactive armor hardener}}''' is an active module that increases armor resists. it gives in total 60% resist bonus split across all four damage types. When first activated, the module gives 15% resistance to each type of damage. As the ship receives armor damage, every time the RAH cycles its resistances will change to become more resistant to the damage which was last sustained, and less resistant to other damage types which were not sustained. The resists shift by up to 6% per cycle per resist. This module is not stacking penalized with other modules except for Damage Control.

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|[[File:Icon armor repairer i.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Armor repairers}}''' are modules that consume moderate amount of capacitor and use that to repair the ship's armor.<br>  

The capacitor is consumed at the beginning of the cycle but the repair happens at the end of the cycle.

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|[[File:Icon armor repairer i.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Ancillary armor repairers}}''' ("Ancils") are similar to normal armor repairers. These modules can be loaded with Nanite Repair Paste to drastically increase the repair amount for the first 8 cycles it is used. With paste the ancillary armor repairers repair considerably (~1.7x) more than normal T2 armor repairers. Each cycle consumes nanite paste (1 for small, 4 for medium, 8 for large). Once the paste runs out the module can still be used, however without paste the ancillary armor repairers repair considerably (~0.6x) less than T2 normal armor repairers. Reloading the paste takes one minute. During this time the module can not be used. As such, it is commonly recommended that pilots Disable Auto-Reload for ancillary armor repair modules, so that the module does not spontaneously become unavailable at an inopportune moment.

Because of the limited number of full-strength cycles the module can perform, Ancillary Armor Repairers should always be run [[Overheating|Overheated]]; and because of their extremely powerful repair cycles, Ancils are often only activated for single cycles at a time.

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|[[File:Icon energized membrane.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Layered Energized Membranes}}''' are passive modules that increase ship's armor by a percentage amount. These are very rarely used, as a plate and resist module are usually better than this module.

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|[[File:Icon adaptive nano plating.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Layered Coatings}}''' are passive modules that increase ship's armor by a percentage amount. These are less effective than the energized membrane variant but do not cost CPU to fit. These are almost never used, as plates and resistance modules are more effective in almost all cases.

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|[[File:Icon remote armor repair i.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Remote armor repair systems}}''' consume capacitor to remotely repair armor on single target. The repair again happens at the end of the cycle. This can make it hard to repair targets if they die before the repair lands. Fairly short range when not fitted to a dedicated Logistics Frigate or Logistics Cruiser. Relatively long optimal range but short falloff range; as a result the effectiveness drops rapidly if the target is beyond optimal range.

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|[[File:Icon remote armor repair i.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Ancillary remote armor repair systems}}''' are the remote counterpart of local ancillary armor repairers. Like the local ancillary armor repairers These can be loaded with nanite repair paste for 8 cycles of increased repairs. However, once the paste runs out they will repair less than normal remote repairers.

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|[[File:Module icon armor rig tech1.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Rigs}}'''  

* Nanobot Accelerator speeds up armor repair module cycle times at the cost of armor repairers' power grid use. In theory this is more effective for active armor tanks than the Auxiliary Nano Pump, but note that shorter cycle time also results in higher capacitor use.

Tech II Armor Rigs tend to all be very expensive because of the rarity of one component (Intact Armor Plates) which they all use.

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|[[File:Icon_implant_hardwiring.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Implants}}'''  

** The '''{{co|wheat|Asklepian}}''' implant set gives a multiplicative increase to armor repair amounts.

** You can mix & match HG, MG, and LG implants, for a final bonus partway in between.

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|[[File:Icon exile.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Exile}}''' medical booster greatly increases the ship's active armor repair amount, however they carry a chance to reduce your Armor hitpoints, capacitor capacity, turret tracking, or missile damage application.

|}

===Armor tanking skills===

** 5% armor HP per level

** Required for armor plates, hardeners, membranes, and resist plates.

** 5% hull HP per level

** Required for armor repairers

** 5% reduction in armor repair module cycle duration. It should be noted that a reduction in activation time increases the capacitor need of the module.

** Required for armor repairers

** 10% reduction in cycle time and 15% reduction in capacitor usage of Reactive Armor Hardener (and Capital Flex Armor Hardener) per level.

Shield tanking employs buffer tanking with passive shield regeneration (aka. passive shield tanking) or active shield boosting to withstand damage. Shields are innately resistant to explosive damage and weak to EM damage.

Shield modules generally fit in mid slots. This leaves low slots for damage modules, fitting modules or piloting modules. As a result, shield ships generally have higher damage output than their armored cousins. But using mid slots for tank can sometimes limit the ship fit into more or less pure damage dealing as the tank competes with tackling, EWAR, and propulsion modules.

In short, the advantages of shield tanking are:

And the disadvantages of shield tanking are:

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.

=== Passive shield tanking ===

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.  

The math for shield regeneration is exactly the same as that of the [[capacitor recharge rate]]. Two numerical attributes are required: shield capacity, and shield recharge time. These are both displayed in the ship's "show info" attributes panel in-game, below its capacity. Note that modules that refer to "recharge rate" modify the recharge time number, not the raw regeneration in HP/s.

...where:<br />

;Calculating Average rate

Every ship has a shield. Whether or not a pilot decides to expand and improve the shield is his or her choice.<br>

* Less need for EWAR modules (which tend to need mid slots).

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|[[File:Icon shield extender.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Shield extenders}}''' increase ships shield HP by a flat number. The drawback is increased signature radius that makes the ship easier to hit. Oversized modules are often used (Medium size on a Frigate class ship, for example).  

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|[[File:Icon resists.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Shield hardeners}}''' are active modules that increase ship's shield resists. Multispectrum Shield Hardener increases resist to all damage types but less than type specific modules. The name is misleading and the module does not adapt to damage like the reactive armor hardener. Active shield hardeners are considerably more effective than the passive shield resistance amplifiers.

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|[[File:Icon thermal amplifier.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Shield resistance amplifiers}}''' are passive modules that increase ship's shield resists. Easier to fit than active hardeners and do not need any capacitor. Considerably lower resist bonus compared to active hardeners. The resist bonus increases with appropriate shield compensation skill. There is no resistance amplifier that increases all resist types like there is for armor.

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|[[File:Icon module damage control.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Damage control}}''' is a passive module that increases ship's shield, armor and hull resists. This module is not stacking penalized with any other shield resist module.

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|[[File:Icon shield recharger.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Shield power relays}}''' are passive modules that increase ship's shield recharge rate at the cost of reduced capacitor recharge rate. This module defines a passive shield tank. Since the relay modules fit in low slots, this means more Extenders may be fitted alongside them. On the other hand, this also means no low slot weapon upgrade modules for high damage. This will limit the situations where a passive tank may be used. One of the few low slot shield modules.

|[[File:Icon shield recharger.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Shield flux coils}}''' are passive modules that increase ship's shield recharge rate at the cost of reduced shield capacity. The reduced shield capacity reduces the shield recharge rate but the recharge rate bonus on flux coils is larger than on power relays resulting in higher recharge rate.

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|[[File:Icon shield recharger.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Shield rechargers}}''' are passive mid slot modules which provide a modest increase to the shield recharge rate. If there is fitting room for shield extender then that may be a better choice.

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|[[File:Icon shield glow.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Shield boosters}}''' consume ship's capacitor to repair (or ''boost'', as the name says) the shields in exchange. Note that the repair happens at the beginning of the module cycle. Shield boosters generally have short cycle time and mediocre capacitor:hitpoint rate compared to Armor Repairers.

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|[[File:Icon ancillary shield booster.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Ancillary shield booster}}'''  provides a capacitor-free method of active shield tanking for limited time. They can be loaded with Capacitor Booster Charges, and will consume the loaded charges upon activation. When no charges are loaded, it will consume quite a large amount of capacitor instead. They will reload in 1 minute (60 seconds). Capacitor Booster Charges of different sizes can be fitted, however it is recommended to use the Navy variant of the smallest charge available (the accepted charge size is displayed on the Show Info tab). Using larger charges offers no benefits. Ancillary shield boosters are almost exclusively used in PvP situations to provide repairs without consuming the precious capacitor. Usage in PvE is not recommended due to the long reload time, the cost of Capacitor Booster Charges and burst tanking nature.

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|[[File:Icon shield boost amplifier.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Shield boost amplifiers}}''' are passive mid slot modules that increase shield booster repair amount without increasing the capacitor usage. They are completely passive and use only 1 powergrid, however they require quite a bit of CPU. This makes these impractical for smaller hulls due to the limited med slots and fitting resources. However, Boost Amplifiers double the heat damage from [[overheating]].

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|[[File:Icon shield transporter i.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Remote shield boosters}}''' use capacitor to repair shields of a single target. Moderately short Optimal range and long Falloff range. Note that the repair is delivered at the start of the cycle.

|[[File:Icon_shield_transporter_i.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Ancillary remote shield boosters}}''' are remote shield boosters that can be loaded with cap boosters. They behave exactly the same with local Ancillary Shield Boosters except they repair other ships instead. Usage without Cap Booster Charges are highly discouraged due to the large Capacitor usage.

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|[[File:Icon powergrid.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Power diagnostics systems}}''' are low slot engineering modules. Small percentage increase to shield capacity, capacitor capacity, powergrid output, shield recharge rate and capacitor recharge rate.

|[[File:Icon capacitor recharger.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Capacitor power relays}}''' are not exactly a shield modules, but an engineering module. They are a passive low slot module that increase capacitor recharge rate at the expense of reduced shield booster repair amount. These are generally avoided on active shield tanked ships. The penalty does not apply to remote shield boosters.

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|[[File:Module icon shield rig tech1.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Rigs}}'''

* Core defense operational solidifiers make the shield boosters run faster, increasing tank but also capacitor use. Unlike its armor equivalent, usually ignored in favour of a boost amplifier module.

* Core defense charge economizers reduce the powergrid need of shield extenders. Rarely used except in some very large buffers to pvp fits. They are much cheaper than the general PG upgrade rig

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|[[File:Icon implant hardwiring.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Implants}}'''

** The '''{{co|wheat|Nirvana}}''' implant set gives a multiplicative increase to shield hit points.

** You can mix & match HG, MG, and LG implants, for a final bonus partway in between.

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|[[File:Icon blue pill.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Blue Pill}}''' medical booster greatly increases the ship's active shield boosting amount, however they have a chance to penalize your ship's Capacitor and Shield capacity, your turret's optimal range, or your missile's explosion velocity.  

|}

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

** 5% increase in shield capacity per level.

** Required for shield boost amplifiers.

** 5% PG per level. Required for shield power relays and power diagnostic units.

** 5% reduction in shield extener PG usage.

** Required for resistance amplifier, shield recharger modules.

** 5% reduction in shield recharge time per level.

** Required for shield boosters and maximize shield recharge.

** Reduces damage bleeding to armor through shields-.

** Required for shield hardeners. No good reason for training beyond IV unless you want to use certain capital modules.

** Reduces the drawbacks of shield rigs.

** 5% hull HP per level. Required for damage control.

Hull Tanking is a rare and dangerous art employed only by the pilots with either the most bravery or the thickest of skulls. With hull tanking there is no safety buffer. Once your hull tank is gone your ship goes out in glorious explosion. Additionally, incoming hull damage slowly bleeds into the ship's modules, causing them to artificially burn out and making it unwise to hull tank for long period of time. Hull tanking is also very much an 'all or nothing' affair: it is nearly impossible to repair hull damage without docking in a starbase.

As all the practically useful hull tanking modules are passive, a hull tank is resistant to neuting and other forms of capacitor warfare.

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|[[File:Icon reinforced bulkhead.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Reinforced bulkheads}}''' give a percentage bonus to hull HP. These are the only modules that increase hull HP.

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|[[File:Icon module damage control.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Damage control}}''' increases ship's hull resist to all damage.

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|[[File:Icon hull repairer i.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Hull repairers}}''' use capacitor to repair hull. These modules are extremely slow and can not be practically used in combat.

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|[[File:Icon remote hull repair i.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Remote hull repairers}}''' allow you to remotely repair another ship's hull. These modules are extremely slow and can not be practically used in combat. No ship is bonused for using these modules.

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|[[File:Module icon armor rig tech1.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Transverse bulkheads}}''' give a large percentage bonus to hull HP. No other rig gives any bonuses to hull.

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|[[File:Hobgoblin.png|link=|]]

|'''{{co|wheat|Hull Repair Bots}}''' allow a logistics ship to remotely repair another ship's hull. These are the only form of hull logistics that are commonly used, as they count as Logistics Drones and thus receive bonuses from certain Logistics Cruisers. They are commonly used as an emergency backup, to patch up the hull of an allied ship which recently took a little too much heat.

|}

Hull tanking is improved by only a single skill:

** 5% hull HP per level. Required for damage control.

{{main|Logistics}}

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.

This is an advanced tactic hat requires a good deal of coordination to function effectively. It is most commonly used with battleships, particularly the [[Dominix]], which has no weapon bonuses (only drone bonuses), and so can mount remote restoration modules in its free high slots if pilots do not want to use those slots for weapons.

{{see also|Capital Ship Modules#Capital Emergency Hull Energizer}}

<references />

[[Category:Combat]]