Battlecruisers
Battlecruisers are larger, slower and have more slots than cruisers, but they're smaller than battleships and fit the same medium-sized weapons that cruisers use. They occupy a position between cruisers and battleships analogous to destroyers' position between frigates and cruisers, although battlecruisers are much more versatile and widely-used than destroyers.
T1 Battlecruisers
In PvP Tech 1 battlecruisers represent a good balance between DPS, tanking, agility, speed and cost (they cost much less to lose than a battleship). Battlecruisers can be fitted for long or short range pvp combat. In large-scale alliance battles in nullsec they are often part of each side's 'support fleet', defending the main battleship fleet from attack.
In PvE Tech 1 battlecruisers are the standard tool for completing Level 3 combat missions. Several battlecruisers can mount passive shield tanks ideal for PvE combat; the Caldari Drake can mount an absolutely exceptional passive shield tank. Battlecruisers are also suitable salvage ships for the large amount of loot produced by Level 4 missions.
Battlecruisers also have the ability to fit a single warfare link, which can give extra bonuses to your gang. Warfare links will be described in more detail in the section below on command ships.
Amarr
- Prophecy: Can tank better than some BSs. Usually bait. Low DPS.
- Harbinger: High DPS, can tank well. Can be fast when it isn't loaded down with armor plates. Very cap-dependant, since it uses lasers.
Caldari
- Ferox: Hybrid turret gunboat. Not very popular.
- Drake: Amazing passive shield tank for pve combat (with low DPS). Alternatively, good pvp DPS when fitted with Heavy Assault Missiles. Drakes are often bait in pvp.
Gallente
- Brutix: Blaster gunboat, high point-blank dps, usually not well tanked. Sometimes mounts a pvp shield buffer tank for speed and to clear lowslots for damage mods.
- Myrmidon: Versatile drone boat. Usually mounts an active armor tank. Can also mount a passive shield tank.
Minmatar
- Cyclone: Respectable DPS, bonuses for active shield tanking.
- Hurricane: High DPS and high speed. Can mount an active armor tank, buffer armor or shield tanks, or even a passive shield tank.
T2 Battlecruisers
Command Ships
These come in two classes, field command ships, which are basically just stronger versions of the original Tech 1 battlecruiser hull with a bit more DPS, more 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 three types of links in each class. If the command ship's pilot is in a leadership position in the fleet, everyone below him in the command chain (including normal members) get bonuses, assuming the command chain is complete.
Armor/Shield links:
- Armor/shield resist bonus (stacking penalized with resist mods on the ship)
- Armor/shield repper (both local and remote) cycle time reduction
- 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:
- Increase speed mod of afterburners and MWDs, so you go faster with them activated.
- Increase the range of warp disruptors/scramblers and webs. HIC points do not receive this bonus.
- Lower signature radius of all ships in gang, making them harder to hit and lock.
Information:
- Boost the strength of EW mods, like ecm and damps
- Increase range of EW mods
- Increase sensor strength (possibly stacking penalized with ECCM)
The warfare links themselves only give a 2% or 3% boost, but that can be increased a lot by training relevant skills, fitting the links on a fleet command ship (or a Tech 3 strategic cruiser with the proper subsystems), 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. Fleet command ships can therefore have a huge impact on the outcome of a battle, despite doing very low DPS.
