Incursion Fitting: Vanguard
Template:Work in Progress (Page should be finalized by the end of May.)
Incursions are fleet based PvE sites where the only enemies are Sansha’s Nation ships. The AI for these NPCs use some of the most advanced tactics seen in game, including many forms of EWAR. Further, all enemies have both high damage output and high resistances. This means that it is very easy to lose a ship if unprepared. But with a proper fit one should have no trouble getting into a EVE Uni Incursion fleet.
This page contains the basic requirements for an Vanguard site fitting, a basic Vanguard fitting guide, and numerous sample fits for damage dealer ships. If you are looking for fittings for Logistics Ships, or other site type fitting, please refer to the appropriate guide: (Until the other DD sites are built, this guide provides many fundamentals, though some of the specific recommendations many not be applicable.)
- Assault Fitting (To be Created)
- Headquarters Fitting (To be Created)
- Logistics Fitting (Under Construction)
Requirements
When entering an incursion fleet the Fleet Commander (FC) will ask to see your current fit. This section will detail the bare minimums all FCs are looking for. Note that having these does not guarantee entrance. Some FCs might want more, though most EVE Uni FCs will not.
The Sansha’s Nation ships deal high amounts of Omni (all types) damage. The key to surviving this is having high resists and a large buffer. Shield & armor repair modules and shield regeneration rate do not matter as the alpha damage is simply too high for a single ship to tank without help. Logistic ships are used in all incursions and provide the healing. All the damage dealers must do is survive long enough for a Logistic ship to heal them. The objective of these requirements is to ensure survivability as losing a ship is far worse than completing sites slowly due to low damage output.
All ships should have above 70% resists for all damage types of their tank type. So an Armor Tanked ship needs above 70% resists in Armor EM, Thermal, Kinetic, and Explosive resistances and a Shield Tanked ship needs above 70% resists in Shield EM, Thermal, Kinetic, and Explosive resistances. Also the ship needs a large buffer of hit points (HP) to survive any alpha. Usually 50,000+ Effective Hit Points (EHP) is sufficient for Battlecruisers (BCs). Battleships (BSs) should aim for more. The main trade off is between EHP and Signature Radius. The chart on [site] (External Link) provides good guidelines. To achieve this a Battlecruiser and Tech 2 Tank modules are needed. Note, you are not required to have a Full Tech 2 Tank, but this puts a pilot on that path.
With these facts in mind the minimum requirements are:
In addition, for an Armor Tank:
In addition, for a Shield Tank:
These skills will allow a pilot to fit Tech 2 Resistance and HP modules. As a side note, it is actually faster to train the shield skills as Hull Upgrades V takes over 9 days by itself. While training both Shield Upgrades and Tactical Shield Manipulation from 0 to IV takes just over 6 days.
Most Incursion ships also fit Tech II Weapon Upgrade modules and some FCs might require them. The skill needed to fit them is:
This skill is extremely useful because it reduces the CPU requirements of Turrets and Missile Launchers. All the fittings on this page will assume the pilot possess this skill at level IV.
Also note that Tech II weapons are strongly recommended for Incursions. The increased damage output and ability to use Tech II ammunition is very relevant. While a new pilot is not required to have these for their first Incursion, training towards them is expected.
Basic Incursion Fitting Walkthrough
This walkthrough will help a new pilot put together a solid fit for a first Incursion and explain the logic for the fits below. It is recommended that pilots be familiar with EVE Uni's Fitting Guidelines before reading the rest of this guide. If a pilot has any questions while fitting asking for help on mumble or the in-game chat channels is encouraged.
Hull
The first and probably most important decision is to pick the hull to use. Most Tier 2 BC hulls are fine. Namely the Drake, Harbinger, Hurricane, and Myrmidon. The Tier 1 hulls tend to simply be worse version of the Tier 2 hull. Though this is not universally the case. The Tier 3 BC hulls don’t have a big enough tank to be used in Incursions and should be avoided. The next step is to add the Tech 2 Tank modules.
Shield Hulls
- Harbinger Good damage, good drone bay, hard fitting requirements
- Drake 2-3 Mid-utility, longest range, Best Tank, lowest damage
- Brutix Highest possible damage, good drone bay, worst tank
- Myrmidon Best drones, 1 utility mid-slot, Bad primary weapon damage, worst tank
- Hurricane Good damage, 1-2x ET, Small signature resolution, small drone bay
The Drake has the best tank of any BC that runs incursions. Further it has the best damage projection of any hull option. It is expected that Drake pilots can hit the Maras in OTAs and NMCs. This requires a range of over 60km. To achieve this a Drake pilot should have a III and a IV between Missile Projection and Missile Bombardment. Further the Drake has 6 mid slots, the most of any BC. This means that Drake pilots are expected to equip and use both Stasis Webifiers and Target Painters. Initially the pilot can only equip 2 due to needing 2x Adaptive Invulnerability Field II's, but at Battlecruisers IV only one is necessary, so 3 should be fitted. 2 Webs and 1 TP are recommended. Also the relevant support skills for TPs should be trained to maximize bonuses:
While the Ferox has different offensive bonuses to the Drake and provides Caldari pilots with a possible Hybrid Turret platform, it should be avoided in Incursions. The problem is the even a T2 fitted Ferox cannot keep up with the damage output of a T1 fit Harbinger or Hurricane. Hence a T1 fit Ferox is out of the question and any pilot with the ability to fit a T2 Ferox should be thinking about other hulls, such as the Rohk or the Brutix.
Armor Hulls
(Under Construction)
Tank
The goal for an Incursion tank is above 70% resists for all types and above 50,000 EHP for a BC when all modules are active. Refer to link above for other ships. It is best to get the resists up, and then add to EHP. The first module on an Incursion ship should be a Damage Control Unit II. This provides bonuses to all resists for Shield, Armor, and Hull when active. Essentially every fit uses one of these. Next use rigs and active hardeners to even out resistances. For a shield ship this usually means an EM Ward Field II and a Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I rig. Finally add modules which boost all resistances until one is over 70% for all. For a shield ship this usually means adding 2 Adaptive Invulnerability Field II. (Note, only one Damage Control Unit can be active at a time, hence adding more than one to your ship will not help.) Some ships might only need one if you have high enough skills, like the Drake, but this is a good place to start.
Once resistances are above 70%, it is time to add to EHP. There are two ways to do this one is through rigs and the other is modules. Which a pilot goes with in the end depends on how they balance with other considerations, such as damage, speed, and signature radius. A good way to start is to add the rigs and then use modules to top it off. Again using the shield example, 2 Medium Core Defense Shield Extenders and a Large Shield Extender II suffice. Once a pilot is comfortable with a ship and has improved skills, tweaking these modules is acceptable, keeping in mind the general principles mentioned above.
Shield Modules & Rigs
- Damage Control II
- Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
- EM Ward Field II
- EM Ward Amplifier II
- Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
- Large Shield Extender II
- Republic Fleet Large Shield Extender
- Caldari Navy Large Shield Extender
- Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
- Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Armor Modules & Rigs
(Under Construction)
Weapons
The weapons fitted should match any bonuses the ship hull gives. For example the Hurricane gives a bonus to projectile turrets damage and rate of fire. So Artillery Cannons or Autocannons should be fit to a Hurricane. When fitting fill as many high slots with the boosted weapon system. The Hurricane has 8 high slots and 6 turret hard ports, so should fit 6 projectile turrets. Weapon size should be picked to maximize damage to ships orbiting between 10km & 20km. Further, weapons effective against Frigates are preferred as most NPCs in Vanguard sites are Frigates. Therefore, statistics like explosion radius and signature resolution should be taken into account when choosing.
Tech II weapons are preferred, but take a long time to train. When using Tech I guns stick to as high a Meta level as possible. Meta 4 is preferred, but Meta 3 might have a better value for its cost. Don’t go below Meta 2 is possible. Also, don’t mix Meta levels, so the cycle times stay in synch. Don’t fit a secondary weapon system yet. The Hurricane has 2 open high slots with a full set of turrets and 3 launcher hard ports. Wait for the utility section to consider fitting a secondary weapon system.
Hybrid Turrets
Medium Hybrid turrets are one of the worst weapon systems for Incursions. Blasters lack range and Railguns lack DPS. Only the Tech 2 Blasters are really viable and should be loaded with T2 Null ammo.
Lasers
(under construction)
Projectile Turrets
(under construction)
Missiles
(under construction)
Weapon Upgrades
Next fill all remaining low slots with weapon upgrade modules. These might need to be removed later due to fitting skills, but try to fit them first before adding fitting modules. Again Tech II versions are preferred. Only Weapon Upgrades IV is required, which is always a useful skill as it reduces weapon fitting requirements as well. Missile ships should fit Ballistic Control Units. Gun ships fit Tracking Enhancers and should hold off on the Targeting Computers till later. Laser ships fit Heat Sinks. Projectile ships fit Gyrostabilizers. And Hybrid Turret ships fit Magnetic Field Stabilizers.
Utility Modules
Now that the basics are covered, any free slots can be devoted to utility modules. The fits thing to check is fitting requirements. If there is any difficulty, fitting modules can be added, but this should be avoided at all costs. A good rule of thumb is if the fit requires more than one fitting module, the pilot is not ready to fly that ship.
Also Capacitor stability needs to be checked at this point. Being stable is preferred. If that is not possible using capacitor modules aim for 15+ minutes of capacitor time. That way a pilot should be able to do a Vanguard site without running out of Capacitor. Note that running out of Capacitor is one of the worst things that can happen as this shuts down all defensive modules. These resistance modules are key to a pilot’s survival in an Incursion. Without them running there is a high likelihood of losing one’s ship.
Medium Slots
If there are any open Medium slots after fitting the tank and capacitor modules the following utility modules can be considered:
- Federation Navy Stasis Webifier
- Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
- Tracking Computer
- Signal Amplifier
Stasis Webbifiers (Webs) reduce the speed of the webbed ship. This decreases tracking issues and explosion velocity problems. The Tech I and Tech II versions are not really that useful in Incursions due to the range at which ships orbit, 10-20km. So very rarely will a standard Web be useful. That is why it is recommended to by the expensive faction version for the extra 4km. Though this could run almost as much as the hull+rigs, it is worth while investment as it will be used more frequently. If price is an issue fit the Target Painters before the Web.
Target Painters increase the signature resolution of the painted ships. This makes bigger weapons do more damage. 1-2 Meta 4 Target Painters are useful on most Ships. These have the longest range of all the utility modules.
Tracking Computers can be useful on Gun ships by boosting optimal range and tracking speed.
Signal Amplifiers can be used on ships with poor signal resolution to improve locking time. This can be a big benefit for a Battleship trying to lock a Frigate.
High Slots
Pilots should try to fit the following modules into empty high slots:
- Large 'Regard' Power Power Projector
- Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
- Secondary Weapon System
- Auto Targeting System
- Warfare Link
The first thing that a pilot should try an fit into an empty high slot is a Large 'Regard' Power Power Projector. This only requires Energy Emission Systems I. An Energy Transfer (ET) provides added safety to the fleet in the event that there is a problem with the Logistics ET chain, such as a Logistics Pilot disconnecting. Also, this allows fleets to run with only one Basilisk or Guardian in fleet which makes assembling a fleet easier. An Incursion runner should fit 1-2 of these if possible. The Tech II versions are not needed. Medium ETs do not transfer enough capacitor to be useful.
Next a pilot should consider a single Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter. This requires Shield Emission Systems I. Again this is another safety module. A bit less useful than an ET as any ship running one will run out of Capacitor quickly. This can be used as a temporary stopgap in the event of an emergency though. Medium Shield Transporters do not transfer enough shield to be useful.
Only after looking at the safety modules should a pilot consider a second weapon system. While this does provide additional DPS, it has high skill requirements due to an addition set of support skills. Hence the DPS increase will not be that great, and the pilot will run into mixed cycle time issues.
Another module that bears mentioned is the Auto Targeting System. This module can improve lock times on ships with low sensor strength and provides additional locked targets. The drawbacks are additional targets are only useful with high skills to enable the extra locks. Also ships need to be killed in order in Incursions, so losing control over targeting order is very problematic.
The final modules to mention are the Warfare Links. These are advanced modules which most pilots don't use and just listed here for completeness.
Rigs
Any rig slots not devoted to the Tank or Capacitor stability should have weapon rigs fitted. The goal is to improve DPS, either directly through higher damage amount or rate of fire, or indirectly through improving things like tracking or explosion radius.
For missiles rigor rigs are strictly better than flare rigs as they don't suffer stacking penalties.
Drones
Drones are very helpful in an incursion site and even a new pilot's drones are useful as most targets are Frigates. A pilot should strive for Drones V to command a full flight. Most new pilots will bring Hobgoblin I's as these have the highest DPS of the light drones and all Sansha are Omni-Tanked. Next a pilot should look to have Light & Medium Shield/Armor Maintenance Bot I's. These provide an additional layer of safety in the event of Logistics problems. Finally a pilot should get Hobgoblin II's for additional damage, with sentry drones also an option for larger ships. Pilots should always fit a full flight of one type before adding drones of a second type to the drone bay. So if there are only 25m^3 in the drone bay either fit Hobgoblin I's or Light Maintenance Bot I's, not a mix. On ships with bigger bays, fit full flights of different drones, including the Medium Maintenance Bot I's if drone bandwidth is at least 50m^3.
Ammunition
Ammunition should be Tech II or Faction due to the increased damage. Faction is often preferred as Tech II has drawbacks and requires Tech II weapon systems. As the Sansha are Omni-Tanked, the damage type does not matter. Ships that have bonuses for one type, like the Drake, should use that. The cargohold should be nearly full of ammunition for all but laser ships. Laser ships should consider holding 255 units of Lyvalite for Nation Mining Colonies it there is room after adding crystals.
Implants
Table might be out of date due to name changes.
| Type of Bonuses | Model name | Slot 6 | Slot 7 | Slot 8 | Slot 9 | Slot 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Projectile Turret | 'Gunslinger' | SX: Small damage | AX: Tracking (All) | MX: Medium damage | CX: Damage (All) | LX: Large damage |
| Energy Turret | 'Lancer' | Alpha: Small damage | Beta: Capacitor use (All) | Gamma: Medium damage | Delta: Rate of Fire (All) | Epsilon: Large damage |
| Hybrid Turret | 'Deadeye' beginning with "ZG" | ZGS: Small damage | ZGC: Falloff (All) | ZGM: Medium damage | ZGA: Optimal Range (All) | ZGL: Large damage |
| (Non-Racial) Turret CPU | 'Gnome' | KZA: CPU need (All) | ||||
| Unguided Missiles | 'Snapshot' | ZMT: Torpedo damage | ZME: Heavy Assault missile damage | ZMR: Rocket damage | ||
| Guided Missiles | 'Snapshot' and 'Deadeye' | ZMU: Cruise Missile damage | ZMH: heavy Missile damage | ZMA: Explosion radius | ZMN: Light missile damage | |
| Defender Missiles | 'Snapshot' | ZMD: Missile Velocity | ||||
| F.o.F. Missiles | 'Snapshot' | ZMF: Explosion radius | ||||
| All Missiles | 'Deadeye' | ZMC or ZML: Flight Time or Velocity | ZMS: Explosion Velocity | ZMM: Rate of Fire |
Shamelessly copied from: [1]
Sample Shield Fits
(Under Construction, goal is to have a T1 & T2 fit for all T1 BCs & BSs, then a T2 fit for all other appropriate ships)
Be sure to read the notes for all fits for relevant skill requirements.
All T1 fits assume IV's in relevant weapon, fitting, & defensive skills; rigging skills are assumed to be I's. Exceptions will be noted.
Tech 1 Battlecruisers
RELATED UNI-WIKI REFERENCES
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S H I P B O N U S E S
Amarr Battlecruiser bonuses (per skill level): Right from its very appearance on a battlefield, the Harbinger proclaims its status as a massive weapon, a laser burning through the heart of the ungodly. Everything about it exhibits this focused intent, from the lights on its nose and wings that root out the infidels, to the large number of turreted high slots that serve to destroy them. Should any heathens be left alive after the Harbinger's initial assault, its drones will take care of them. |
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RELATED UNI-WIKI REFERENCES
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S H I P B O N U S E S
Caldari Battlecruiser bonuses (per skill level): Of the meticulous craftsmanship the Caldari are renowned for, the Drake was born. It was found beneath such a ship to rely on anything other than the time-honored combat tradition of missile fire, while the inclusion of sufficient CPU capabilities for decent electronic warfare goes without saying. |
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RELATED UNI-WIKI REFERENCES
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S H I P B O N U S E S
Gallente Battlecruiser bonuses (per skill level): Worried that their hot-shot pilots would burn brightly in their eagerness to engage the enemy, the Federation Navy created a ship that encourages caution over foolhardiness. A hardier version of its counterpart, the Myrmidon is a ship designed to persist in battle. Its numerous medium and high slots allow it to slowly bulldoze its way through the opposition, while its massive drone space ensures that no enemy is left unscathed. |
RELATED UNI-WIKI REFERENCES
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S H I P B O N U S E S
Minmatar Battlecruiser bonuses (per skill level): The force with which this ship hits is more than sufficient to leave a trail of shattered enemies, floating around like so much lifeless debris. An adaptable vessel, it has enough turret hardpoints for a full-scale assault while remaining versatile enough to allow for plenty of missile fire, and has both sufficient speed to outrun its enemies and sufficient capacitor charge to outlast them. |
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Sample Armor Fits
(under construction)
Legacy fits
The fits in Incursion Fitting do not necessarily conform to this guide. They will be removed after appropriate fits have been added.
Helpful Links
- Incursion fitting advice: http://incursions.nexsoft.de/
- Basic incursion ship fits for shield and armor: http://forum.eveuniversity.org/viewtopic.php?f=128&t=46156
