Passive shield tanking
This article discusses the proper use of a passive shield tank as intended for a PvE setting.
The principles explained here apply to many ships of battlecruiser hull size and smaller. It should be mentioned that most ships with a battleship sized hull and larger regenerate shields too slowly to be as effective with a passive tank.
Theory
Principles
There are several important principles at work to determine how much damage your shield can tank passively without breaking:
- Shield resistance reduces incoming damage by a percentage, and is determined separately for each of the four damage types.
- Shield regeneration is non-linear, meaning how quickly it regenerates changes depending on how much shield you currently have. It's very close to, if not the same as the capacitor regeneration curve and maxes at approximately 2.4x the base amount.
- Shield regeneration time is the time it takes shields to regenerate from 0% to 100% and does not change, even if the total amount of shield a ship has changes. Thus increasing the total shield amount also increases shield regeneration rate.
Characteristics
Following these principles, we can look for fittings that influence the quality of a passive shield tank.
- Shield Amount
- Power Diagnostic Unit (low)
- Shield Extender (mid)
- Core Defense Field Extender (rig)
- Shield Regeneration Time
- Power Diagnostic Unit (low)
- Shield Power Relay (low)
- Shield Flux Coil (low)
- Shield Recharger (mid)
- Core Defense Field Purger (rig)
- Shield Resistances
- Damage Control (low)
- Shield Resistance Amplifier (mid)
- Shield Hardener (mid)
- Screen Reinforcer (rig)
Snowballing
Actively improving passive shield regeneration with modules and rigs has a snowball effect. With most systems in EvE there are diminishing returns, referred to as stacking penalties, when additional fittings affect a specific attribute. On the other hand, the calculation for passive shield regeneration rate is multiplicative; the more fittings you add that affect shield regeneration rate the greater effect each fitting has.
Let's look at the example of a Hurricane:
All numbers here are without skills taken into account. Mods are all T2.
Base shield: 4297 hp
Base regen duration: 1400 s
Base peak regen rate: 7.7 hp/s
Peak regen rate with
| Mods |
Regen rate |
regen rate increase |
|---|---|---|
| 1 shield power relay | 10.1 hp/s | (+2.4) |
| 2 shield power relays |
13.28 hp/s | (+3.18) |
| 3 shield power relays | 17.48 hp/s | (+4.2) |
| 4 shield power relays | 23 hp/s | (+5.52) |
| 5 shield power relays | 30.26 hp/s | (+7.26) |
| 6 shield power relays | 39.82 hp/s | (+9.56) |
| 6 spr's + 1 purger rig | 49.77 hp/s | (+9.95) |
| 6 spr's + 2 purger rigs | 62.22 hp/s | (+12.45) |
| 6 spr's + 3 purger rigs | 77.77 hp/s | (+15.55) |
The last rig adds 6.5 times more than the first power relay.
A hurricane with a purger rig alone (without any other mod) has only a regen rate of 9.59 hp/s (+1.89 hp/s compared to base)
Now if we add large shield extenders to the same setup we have:
| Mods |
Regen rate |
Regen rate increase |
|---|---|---|
| 6 spr's + 3 purg + 2 lse |
125.28 hp/s | (+47.51) |
| 6 spr's + 3 purg + 2 lse |
172.79 hp/s | (+47.51) |
| 6 spr's + 3 purg + 3 lse |
220.3 hp/s | (+47.51) |
| 6 spr's + 3 purg + 4 lse |
267.81 hp/s | (+47.51) |
Each extender adds the same amount of regen rate BUT that precise amount is because the regen duration is already modified by the relays and purgers.
A base hurricane with a single large shield extender has a regen rate of 12.36 hp/s (+4.66 hp/s compared to base)
The skills (shield operation and shield management) also add a lot because of the snowballing effect.
On a full spr, large extenders, and purgers setup the skills add:
| Shield management | Regen rate | Regen rate increase |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 267.81 hp/s | +0 |
| 1 | 281.21 hp/s | +13.39 |
| 2 | 294.6 hp/s | +13.39 |
| 3 | 307.99 hp/s | +13.39 |
| 4 | 321.38 hp/s | +13.39 |
| 5 | 334.77 hp/s | +13.39 |
This skill raises shield hp's, so it adds a fixed amount like the shield extender mod.
Going from 0 to 4 in shield management adds 53.56 hp/s in our example hurricane fit.
On the same setup with shield management at 5, shield operation adds:
| Shield operation | Regen rate | Regen rate increase |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 334.77 hp/s | +0 |
| 1 | 352.39 hp/s | +17.62 |
| 2 | 371.96 hp/s | +19.57 |
| 3 | 393.84 hp/s | +21.88 |
| 4 | 418.46 hp/s | +24.62 |
| 5 | 446.36 hp/s | +27.9 |
Short summary of skill effects:
No skill: 267.81 hp/s
Both at lvl 4: 401.72 hp/s
Both at lvl 5: 446.36 hp/s
As you can see, there's little use trying to go half passive. It starts to work when you add lots of modules and have well trained passive tanking skills.
Passive Shield Tanking and PvP
Passive tanking is generally not advised for PvP pursuits. PvP altercations tend to consist of high damage concentration for a brief period of time and will almost always break a passive tank. For more information regarding tanking in PvP see Armour Tanking, Shield Tanking, and The Guide to Basic Tanking.
In practice
Mods
Shield power relays
Pro: Relays reduce your regen time, they start being useful if you have many.
Cons: Relays kill your cap regen rate
Shield flux coils
Pro: Coils reduce your regen time but less than relays, they start being useful if you have many.
Cons: Coils have no drawback except being weaker than relays.
Shield extenders
Pro: Extenders add to your shield hp's. So they both gives you an hp buffer AND raise your regen rate.
Cons: Extenders raise your sig radius, making you take more damage from npc's.
Shield rechargers
Pro: Rechargers reduce your regen duration, like power relays and flux coils.
Con: Rechargers have no drawback except being weaker than relays and coils.
Shield rigs (extenders and purgers)
Pro: shield rigs add to the shield hp's or reduce the regen duration.
Cons: They raise your sig radius, making you take more damage from npc's.
Powerdiagnostics
Pro: Powerdiags add to the shield hp, reduce the shield regen duration, add to the capacitor hp and reduce the capacitor regen duration.
Cons: Their effect is lower than the other mods.
Ships
Most ships smaller than a battleship can be effective with a passive shield tank, even ships with armor bonuses like the Myrmidon.
Battleships and ships with larger hulls are often better with active tanking. The reason being that cruisers and battlecruisers can fit the largest shield extenders available, so battleships have difficulty increasing their shield amount enough to reach relatively comparable regeneration rates. There are notable exceptions such as the Rattlesnake and Rokh, because of their slot layout and innate shield resistance bonuses.
Overtanking
If you fill all of your low and middle slots with a passive tank, you don't have any propulsion, utility, or damage mods. This is typically less than an ideal setup. There is often a sweet spot between tank and gank/usability. The trick is to decide an amount of dps to tank and reach it with the fewest possible mods, dedicating the remaining slots to damage, speed, and/or utility.
It's also very important to remember that PvE tanking is often against specific damage types, so there's usually no need to omni-tank except in certain situations such as when you're facing Sleepers in Wormhole Space or incursion rats.
Fitting tips
When setting up a new ship, The EvE Fitting Tool (EFT) is an invaluable utility that will give you information and insight into how effective your setup is going to be before you try it out in-game.
For the passively regenerative tank the basic idea is to fill several low slots with Shield Power Relay modules, several mid slots with Shield Extender modules, and finally to fit usually all three rig slots with Defense Field Purger rigs. Note that for a passive tank purger rigs are almost always more effective than extender rigs.
Most often Extenders and Hardeners are preferable to Shield Recharger Modules when fitting a battlecruiser or smaller sized hull. Hardener modules should be added specifically for the primary damage type of the NPC's you'll be facing. Always double check the Effective Health Points (EHP) when fitting and aim to get the highest possible value by swapping Extenders, Hardeners and other modules.
Once your tanking modules are set make sure your ship's capacitor is stable. If it isn't, consider swapping one or more Shield Power Relays for Shield Flux Coils. If you have to swap more than two Shield Relays for Shield Coils, consider putting all the Shield Relays back except one and adding a Capacitor Power Relay.
Example fits
Here are some example fits and tank comparisons between passive shield and active armor/shield. Skills are All lvl 5.
More ship examples will be added later.
