Ship Class Tactical Overview

This Overview is designed to give a brief synopsis of the uses of each ship class in PvP.

Frigate Class Ships

T1 Frigates

These will generally just be tacklers. Point, web, speed mod, overdrives etc in lows & mids, irrelevant dps or nos etc in highs. Notable exceptions: Rifter The rifter is one of the best combat T1 frigs, and by most people even considered THE best. In a dogfighting fit with autocannons, afterburner, web and scram, it can take on most other frigs, and even some larger targets, and win (watch out for the Taranis (gallente combat interceptor) and all the assault frigates though). Punisher and Incursus are the Amarr and Gallente equivalents, but they don't quite reach the level of the Rifter.

T2 Frigates

Interceptors (Inty / 'ceptor)

These are the primary tacklers in anything but 0.0 (where dictors and hics take over). They have the highest scan resolution of any class, and only Vigils (Minmatar electronic warfare frig) can match their speed. Their main purpose is tackling, and that's what they do best, but many interceptors can also be refit to be effective combat ships in an interceptor only gang. Their firepower and tank will be low compared to other types of ships, but they have the advantage of very high speed (even when tank & gank fitted) and awesome agility.

Covert Ops

They can warp cloaked, and are used as scouts and for probing stuff down. Can also be used for tackling stuff it has scouted/probed out, but that's only for experienced people that know what they can and can't hold long enough for help to arrive, and what targets are worth the risk.

Stealth Bombers (SB)

Super high dps/alpha frigates that can warp cloaked and doesn't have a sensor recalibration delay after decloaking. In 0.0, they can also launch bombs (basically a large, higher damage smartbomb). They have trouble hitting small targets with their torpedoes though.

Electronic Attack Ships (EAS)

These vary allot from race to race. Basically, they are frigate sized version of the combat recons that will be described below.

Assault Ships (AS / AF)

High tank, usually high dps frigates. If you get tackled by one of these, you're generally not going anywhere, they're a pain to get rid of when properly fitted. The disadvantage compared to interceptors is that they're slower, and often sacrifice their MWD and fit an AB instead to be able to survive longer after getting the target tackled.

Destroyer Class Ships

T1 Destroyers

Anti-frig ships. Very good tracking, lots of small guns, however their tank is frig level, while they're almost as big as a cruiser. They die extremely fast, and are considered useless by many. Some missioners use them as a cheap salvaging vessels. Due to its many high slots many salvagers and tractor beams can be fitted on a low cost ship where no other qualities are required.

T2 Destroyers: Interdictors (Dictor)

These are useless in high and low sec, however, when they get into 0.0, they become one of the most important ships available. Their role is launching warp disruption probes, usually called bubbles. Those probes create a warp disruption field in a 20km radius from the probe, and inside that field, nothing can warp, nomatter how many stabs they fit. Anyone trying to warp to a spot within 150 (iirc) km of the edge of the bubble will be pulled to the edge of it, although only if the bubble is in line between the 2 objects that the ship is warping between. Interdictors and HICs (heavy interdictor) are the only ships that can tackle titans and motherships.

Cruiser Class Ships

T1 Cruisers

Can have many roles, from mining and logistics (Osprey, Auguror, Scythe, Exequror) and electronic warfare (blackbird, bellicose, arbitrator, celestis) to pure dps (the rest basically).

T2 Cruisers

Recon Ships

These come in 2 categories, combat recons and force recons. Force recons can fit a covert ops cloak and therefore warp cloaked, while the combat recon is generally better suited for the actual combat part, either trough stronger tank, higher dps or simply better range for their electronic warfare (EW) type. Their main purpose is EW, but what they use vary from race to race.

Amarr: Drones for dps, strongly bonused neutralizers and nosferatus in the highs, tracking disruptor bonus for reducing incoming damage. The force recon, Pilgrim, does not get a range bonus and is therefore limited to roughly 12km range with its neuts, while the Curse reach about 36km with recon 5 and best named/T2 neuts.

Minmatar: Extreme range webs (normal T2 reach about 40km with recon 5 without overheating) and strength bonused target painters. No big difference between the combat recon, Huginn, and the force recon, Rapier, except for the cloak.

Caldari: ECM only. They can break all locks a hostile ship has and keep them from starting to lock anything again for 20 seconds, however, it's chance based and depends on luck. The Rook can fit 5 missile launchers and a full flight of light drones, the Falcon can cloak, but only get 3 guns and 2 drones.

Gallente: Sensor dampening and warp disruptor/scrambler range bonus. Recon 5 give 18km scram range and 48km disruptor range without overheating (for T2 mods). Just like with minmatar, there's no big difference between the cloaky Arazu and the Lachesis.

Heavy Assault Ships (HAC)

Extremely versatile and powerful ships. They combine high speed and agility with either high dps and decent tank when in a close range setup, or very long range where only sniper battleships will be able to fire back, while still offering good dps and decent buffer when in a LR setup.

Heavy Interdictors (HIC)

With the exception of some T3 cruiser setups, these will have better tank then any other cruiser, and match that of most battleships. Their dps is extremely low, but their role is tackling.

In 0.0 they can create a 12-20 km radius warp disruption field similar to what the light interdictor create, however, while the light interdictor can launch its bubble and then get out, and the bubble will stay there for 2 minutes anyway, the HIC has to stay where it want its bubble to be, and while the bubble is up (30 second cycle time), it can not recieve any type of remote support, and while its normal speed remain the same, afterburners and microwarpdrives will have reduced effect. In return, their mass gets heavily reduced, so they can get up to speed and change direction etc extremely fast.

They're best used in pairs with logistics ships as backup so that 1 HIC can bubble the hostiles while the other one is being remote repped, and if the enemy starts shooting the bubbling hic, it can drop its bubble and be repped back up again while the second hic put up its bubble instead.

The bubble can not be used in low or high sec, however, the bubble mod comes with a script.

The script increase the range of the point by 50% and allows it to be used in empire, but it comes at a price: It no longer create a bubble, but instead act like a normal warp disruptor, with the difference that no amount of stabs can counter it. Scripting it also removes all penalties caused by using it, except for the can't be RRd part, and make it use more cap/s, even though the cycle time is now only 6 seconds and it use less cap/activation.

If you see a hic in empire that seem to have its bubble up, don't worry though, it's just a graphical bug caused by loading the grid after the point was activated, it doesn't create an actual bubble. These are the only ships that can tackle super caps in low sec (well, in high sec too I guess, but super caps can't go there, and it has never been possible to get one in there afaik). This bug has supposedly been fixed now, but I haven't confirmed it, and you may still see it in some old videos.

Logistics

Each race do it a bit differently here, but overall, these ships are supposed to increase the survivability of the fleet in 1 way or another.

Gallente and Amarr repair armor, Caldari and Minmatar repair shields.

Amarr and Caldari gain 2 high slots compared to Minmatar & Gallente, but lose 2 lows/mids. They also get a cap transfer bonus instead of the tracking link bonus that Gallente and Minmatar have. What this means is that Guardian (Amarr) and Basilisks (Caldari) usually use either one (Logistics V) or two (Logistics IV, don't fly a logi ship with less than that) large energy transfers in their extra highs to create cap from nowhere and some ECCM, tank and speed in the low/mid slots, which means they have to operate in groups of at least two ships, and if any of them get jammed, they both become practically useless since one is obviously jammed and can't do anything, while the other is no longer receiving the cap it needs to keep operating from its buddy.

Scimitar (Minmatar) and Oneiros (Gallente) doesn't have this weakness since they rely on CCC rigs and cap power relays/cap rechargers to keep themselves running with their extra lows and mids, however, that internal cap is not enough to run as many reppers as the cap transferring logistics ships can. Scimitars / Oneiros can usually run three reppers with logi 4, and four reppers with logi 5, while Basilisks / Guardians can run 4 reppers with logistics 4 and 5 reppers with logistics 5, while also keeping a stronger tank.

T3 Cruisers: Strategic Cruisers

You can't get more versatile then this. Depending on what subsystems you put on it, it can basically do anything except for bubbling. With the right sub system, you can even become immune to bubbles, which is a unique ability that no other ship has, but you can still be tackled by hics with the script in and normal disruptors/scrams. They can be fitted to use their racial warfare links with an even stronger bonus then fleet command ships (described below), but it can only fit 1 link by default. However, by fitting 2 command processors, that can be increased to 3.

Battlecruiser Class Ships

T1 Battlecruiser (BC)

Very good mix between gank, tank, agility, speed and cost. Usually short range fitted (especially harbingers due to the awesome scorch), although some people that can't afford/can't fly a heavy assault ship (hac) use them with a long range fit.

HACs are way better for that role though, with better dps and range, so experienced pilots usually do not have a reason to use a LR fit on it since most of them can also fly hacs, and therefore only use the BCs for close range stuff.

BCs also have the ability to fit a single warfare link, which can give extra bonuses to your gang. This will be described more closely in the next section.

T2 Battlecruisers

Command Ships (CS)

These come in two classes, field command ships, which are basically just a stronger version of the T1 BC with a bit more dps and tank and better resists, and fleet command ships. Fleet command ships get a bonus to their racial warfare links, and in general have extremely good tanks with great resists. The racial links are: Armor for Amarr, Shield for Caldari, Skirmish for Minmatar and Information for Gallente, and there are 3 types of links in each class. If the command ship is in a leadership position in the fleet, everyone below him in the command chain (including normal members) get the following bonus, assuming the command chain is complete (for example, if the CS is wing commander, and there are no squad commanders, or more squads then the CS can handle with its current wing commander level, no bonuses will be applied).

Armor/Shield links:

1. Armor/shield resist bonus (stacking penalized with resist mods on the ship)
2. Armor/shield repper (both local and remote) cycle time reduction
3. Armor/shield repper (both local and remote) cap use reduction (combine 2 and 3 to get RRs with lower cycle time, but same cap use/second as before)

Skirmish:

1. Increase speed mod of afterburners and MWDs, so you go faster with them activated.
2. Increase the range of warp disruptors/scramblers and webs. HIC points do not receive this bonus.
3. Lower signature radius of all ships in gang, making them harder to hit and lock.

Information:

1. Boost the strength of EW mods, like ecm and damps
2. Increase range of EW mods
3. Increase sensor strength (make it harder to jam them, I think it's stacking penalized with ECCM)

The links themselves only give a 2 or 3% boost, but that can be increased ALLOT by training relevant skills, fitting it on the fleet command ship (or a T3 ship with the proper subs, as described above, or to a titan, described below), and by using the racial mind link implant. With all that taken into account, a 2% bonus is increased to 26%, and a 3% bonus become a 39% bonus. That probably make it obvious why fleet command ships can have such a huge impact on the outcome of the battle, despite doing very low dps.

Battleship Class Ships

T1 Battleship (BS)

You can't get heavier then this and still stay in sub capital ships, although there are of course variations. Great buffer tanks, very high dps when close range fitted, long range fits have the best range in the game, while still maintaining good dps (usually Apoc, Mega, Maelstrom/Tempest and Rokh, however, Mega and Mael/Tempest can also be close range fitted and still perform better then/as well as the other BS of their race). One notable exception here: The Caldari Scorpion, which is the only T1 EW BS, and use ECM.

The battleships weakness is low speed and agility combined with slow lock speed and bad tracking, so it's hard to force an opponent in smaller ships to engage if the odds are in your favor, or to actually kill them since you'll be missing allot if you do get a fight.

T2 Battleships

Marauders

These are basically PVE only ships. Decent dps and good local tank, but in PVP you generally want a buffer tank instead, and marauders have very low sensor strength, making them easy to jam. However, the Paladin and Kronos can be situationally useful if you really need a target webbed down as much as possible, and don't mind using a ship worth over half a bill that's not insurable, since they both get a 50% bonus to web strength, so a T2 web reduce the targets speed by 90%. I've only seen this used by one person, and that was on the Tama station since it's a kickout to prevent people from getting back in dock range, and that was with carrier support just in case.

They're even less useful now that Blood Raider and Serpentis ships get a 10% bonus/level of minmatarr frigate/cruiser/battleship depending on which class it is, which also adds up to a total of 50% bonus at level 5.

Black Ops (BO)

These are the big brothers of the recon ships, however, while they do get bonus to how fast they move while cloaked (which actually means that they'll move faster when cloaked than when not cloaked with the BO skill at a decent level), but they cost about 700m or so before fittings, so they're not really worth the risk of bringing it into combat. Despite that though, they do have a very useful role to play in PVP: the covert jump bridge. Covert cyno fields can now be lit even in cyno jammed 0.0 systems and doesn't appear as a beacon in the entire system like a normal cyno, and a black ops can then lock on to that field and create a bridge to it, which then allows other covert ops ships (aka any ship that get a bonus to cloaking, including T3 cruisers with the cloaking sub) to right click the BO and click jump to the system the bridge was set up to, so it basically becomes a 1 way stargate. However, only BOs, recons and cov ops can fit and light covert cynos.

Capital Ships

Capital ships, aka dreads, carriers, supercarriers ("motherships"), titans and rorquals (although the last one isn't a combat ship) can't use gates, and the supercarriers+titans can't even dock. Instead they use their own jump drive to travel around, but in order to do that, they require fuel (racial isotopes, helium for amarr, oxygen for gallente and the rorqual, nitrogen for caldari and hydrogen for minmatar) and a cynosural field to jump to. Those cyno fields can be created in 2 ways, either by anchoring and onlining a cyno gen pos mod which will always be online and available for use for the corp/alliance the POS belongs to, however it requires the corp/alliance to have the relevant upgrades installed to the hub in the system before it can be used, and it's impossible to have both that and a cyno jammer online in the same system. Jump freighters and black ops also require a cyno field to use their jump drive, but they have the ability to use gates aswell, and black ops can lock on to a covert cyno field too, which is an unique ability for them.

Cynos can not be lit in high sec, so capitals can't go there, however, it was once possible to build capitals there, so there are still a few that never jumped out of the system they were built in. If they ever do jump out, they will never be able to return. However, they are not allowed to be used for anything that gives the owner any kind of advantage compared to someone that does not own a high sec capital ship, and durpng wars, they're not even allowed to undock. If the pilot break these rules, he or she will recieve a temporary ban, and the capital ship will be moved to a station in a nearby low sec system.

Dreadnoughts (Dread)

If you want pure dps, this used to be as good as it gets, but they have now been surpassed by supercarriers doing 8k dps (10k for the nyx) with max skills and a full flight of fighter bombers, and Titans which can reach similar dps numbers as dreads, but also get a super gun that does 3m damage/shot, but can only be fired once every 10 minutes. Dreads do amazing damage, and can reach almost 5k dps when in siege even in a long range fit. When not sieged though, they generally just match a BS. Their tracking though is extremely bad, so they can basically only hit other caps and POSs/outposts, unless the target isn't moving at all. The exception is the moros, which gets an awesome 50%/level bonus to drone damage and hitpoints, so the drones are lethal for any size of ships, but especially frigs. 5 T2 warriors with a 250% damage bonus before counting drone interfacing and stuff like that will kill any frig, except possibly for an AF (but that will die pretty fast too), in almost no time at all.

The effects of the siege mod (which only dreads can fit) when activated, are:

• -75% scan res
• +625% damage mod
• -50% tracking
• -60% explosion velocity
• -100% speed
• +100% shield boost/armor rep amount
• -50% shield booster/armor rep cycle time
• Can't recieve remote support
• Immunity to EW
• Max amount of targets lockable set to 2

Cycle time is 10 minutes and require 500 - (level of tactical weapon reconfiguration skill)*50 strontium clathrates (stront), during that time you can't move in any way, not even by warping/jumping out.

Carriers

These are giant logistics platforms. They have the ability to store 1.000.000 m3 of assembled ships in their ship maintenance bay so that people that lose their ship can quickly pick up a new one, and other ships from your corp (or fleet if you have configured your carrier for that) can use you to refit in space. They get a 50%/level range bonus to 2 of the following, varying depending on which racial carrier it is: Capital energy transfer, capital shield transporter and capital remote armor repairers. The amarr archon get cap transfer and armor rep, the gallente thanathos and minmatar nidhoggur get shield and armor and the caldari chimera get cap transfer and shield. In addition to that, all carriers get an additional 5%/level bonus to the following: the Chimera and Archon get a resist bonus (armor for Archon, shield for Chimera), the Nidhoggur get a capital remote rep amount bonus and the Thanatos get a fighter damage bonus. All carriers get the ability to control one extra drone in addition to the normal 5/level of racial carrier and the ability to use fighters (but not fighter bombers). They can't fit any guns or launchers at all, so the high slots are usually used for neuts, smartbombs (drone/small ship defense) and remote reps. However, just like dreads, carriers also get a special module that only they can fit (5 minute cycle): the triage module.

The effects of it are:

• -100% speed
• -100% amount of drones controllable
• +900% scan res
• +4 max targets
• +100% shield boost/armor rep amount (both local and remote)
• -50% shield booster/armor repper cycle time (both local and remote)
• +100% remote hull rep/cap transfer amount
• -50% remote hull rep/cap transer cycle time
• +9999900% EW cap use (all EW mods will therefore take more cap then the ship could ever get, making them impossible to use)
• Immune to EW
• Can't recieve remote support
• Can't jump out or warp away

The triage mod also use stront, just like the siege mod. The amount used per cycle is 250 - 25 * (level of tactical logistics reconfiguration). Carriers and supercarriers can also use warfare links, but just like with battlecruisers and field command ships, they don't get a ship bonus to strength.

Supercarriers ("Motherships", MS)

A larger carrier with the ability to use fighter bombers, greatly increasing their dps to roughly twice as much as a sieged dread with a full flight of bombers and max skills. It gets +3 drones/carrier level instead of 1, but it can't dock and it has shorter jump range (equivalent to a dread/jump freighter). However, it is no longer able to triage, but they're always immune to EW anyway due to being a super capital. They can only be tackled by dictors and HICs (well, and anchorable bubbles I guess, but that's not practical due to the anchoring time required before they activate combined with limited range).

Titans

Like supercarriers, they are immune to EW and can only be tackled by dictors and hics. They're all able to fit and activate the largest and most lethal gun in the game: a doomsday device, which does 2-3m damage depending on skills, but can only be fired once/10 minutes, cost 50k racial isotopes to activate, and prevents the titan from moving at all for 30 seconds and it can't use its jump drive for 10 minutes. Activating it takes 10 seconds, so you have some time to get out before the damage is applied, and the range of it is 250 km (aka the hard coded max lock range, nothing can do damage at longer range then that). Titans can also fit a jump bridge module, which works in a similar way to the cov ops jump bridge described above that the black ops use, but this one can bridge any type of ship, has longer range and can only lock on to normal cynos, not cov ops ones. They have bonuses to their racial capital weapons, and after dominion, most titans actually fit them and take part in capital fights. The doomsday device create a very effective counter against people playing docking games with capitals, the 3m damage it does is enough to kill any capital that is not either tanked specifically for that damage type (which is a stupid thing to do, unless you know that a specific titan is ready to jump in and DD someone and want to bait it) or fitted for max ehp. It is possible to tank a capital against every type of DD at once, but it requires completely gimping the fit, loosing damage and range mods on a dread, or the vital cap recharge on a carrier, combined with good leadership bonuses and preferably slave implants. Titans also have the ability to give out great leadership bonuses, even if they don't have any warfare links fitted (they are able to fit 1/titan skill level). Depending on the race of the titan, it gives out 7.5%/titan skill level to armor amount for gallente, shield amount for caldari, cap recharge for amarr and signature radius for minmatar.

Capital Industrial Ships: Rorqual

This ship is primarily intended for mining support with its huge tractor beam range and speed, ability to fit bonused mining leadership links and ability to compress ore. However, it does have a 50%/level range bonus to capital shield transfers, and a 20%/level drone damage bonus, so while it's not intended as a PVP ship, some people have been known to use it for that.