Natural Resists
THIS IS A DRAFT, AND A WORK IN PROGRESS! DO NOT EDIT YET PLEASE!
Natural enemies
Before going into ship types you need to know the races, and more importantly who are enemies to each other in order to understand how the natural resists work.
Amarr VS Minmatar
Gallente VS Caldari
Each race has a dominant damage type
Amarr
Amarr deal both EM and thermal, but does more EM damage throughout all ammo types. This makes EM the dominant Amarr Damage type
Minmatar
Minmatar deal all damage types depending on ammo, but 6 out of the 8 ammo types you will find some explosive damage. Most people will argue that projectile ammo can be interchanged to deal any damage type, however for the sake of this topic; we will stick to Explosive as the Minmatar dominant damage type.
Gallente
Gallente use hybrid ammo that only deal kinetic and thermal damage. It is clear that Gallente have thermal as highest damage type, however for the sake of this topic lets assume that the dominant Gallente damage type is thermal.
Caldari
Caldari missiles have the versatility to deal all damage types equally well. However, three of their most popular ships also have bonuses to kinetic damage. So it is safe to say that Caldari have kinetic as the dominant damage type.
Race |
Dominant Damage Type |
Amarr |
EM |
Minmatar |
Explosive |
Gallente |
Thermal |
Caldari |
Kinetic |
Tech 1 Ships
Generally all Tech 1 ships (and faction ship) follow a general pattern when it comes to resists. For a given race, all tech 1 ships and faction ships have the same resists, be it a tech 1 frigate or a titan. A Punisher has the same exact resistance attributes as an Avatar.
All tech 1 ships have an EM shield hole and an explosive armor hole.
All tech 1 ships and faction ships have the same shield resist. However, armor resists between different races vary slightly, mainly to compensate for the dominating enemy race damage type.
Lets take a look at the different tech 1 ship resists by comparing them to their natural enemies.
Amarr VS Minmatar
As you can see, the Minmatar tech 1 ships have a slightly higher EM armor resist to compensate for the dominant Amarr damage type. Likewise, the Amarr tech 1 ships have a slightly increased explosive resist to compensate for the dominant Minmatar damage type.
Gallente VS Caldari
The Caldari tech 1 ships have a slightly higher thermal armor resist, again to compensate for the dominant Gallente damage type. The Gallente however opted for a balanced kinetic/thermal resistance attribute.
Tech 2 Ships
Tech 2 ships have different resist types than their tech 1 variants.
Tech 2 resists can be split into 6 diffrent profiles. Lets examine these profiles using a table.
Class | Type 1 | Type 2 |
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- Type 1
- Type 2
- Type 3
- Type 5
Some ships offer bonusus to resistance based on the prerequsite skill to fly them. In the next table, you will find the resistance profiles based on having the respective ship skill at level 5. However, this does not affect the ships natural resistance, but the remaining amount. For example, the Vengeance has an 80% armor explosive resistance, but the 25% armor resistance bonus works on the incoming 20% damage. This means that out of the 20% incoming explosive damage, 25% is resisted, which is 5% of total incoming damage and results in a total of 85% explosive armor resistance.
Class | Type 1 Armor Modified | Type 1 Shield Modified |
Type 2 Armor Modified |
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Defence Type |
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- Type 1 Modified Shield
- HACs
- Heavy Interdictors
- Type 2 Modified Armor
- Type 2 Modified Shield
For comparisons sake, lets examine the aggregate resists of each of these resistance profiles.
Class | Type 1 | Type 2 |
Type 3 |
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Lets now look at the modified shield and armor aggregate resists.
Class | Type 1 Modified Shield | Type 1 Modified Armor |
Type 2 Modified Shield |
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Defence Type |
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- Amarr vs Minmatar
It is clear that the Amarr Vengeance has an increased explosive resist to make up for the Minmatar explosive damage. On the other hand, we have the Minmatar Jaguar with a high EM resist to make up for the Amarr dominant EM damage type. We see a similar pattern with armor as well.
- Gallente vs Caldari
Again, here we see the Gallente ships have an ever so slightly higher kinetic shield resists, while the Caldari have a slightly higher thermal shield resists. Same goes for armor.
- Noticeable findings
Both the Gallente are Caldari are striving for high thermal and kinetic resists, while ignoring the EM and explosive resists. The Vengance covers most resistances in its armor, while the Jaguar covers its resistances in its shields.
Amarr generally are better off armor tanked, while Minmatar are better off shield tanked. Gallente and Caldari have a good balance between shield and armor, with the Gallente leaning a little towards armor and Caldari leaning towards shield.
The rate at which each faction covers its defenses versus their enemies damage type changes with each class. It is highest with the Assault ships and lowest with the interceptor and the covert-ops, which share the same resists.
Tech 2 Frigates
Tech 2 frigates all have different resists based on thier hull, but they follow the same principle. I will be using the assault frigate as an example.
Assault frigates are variations of a tier 1 frigate hull, namely the Incursus, Rifter, Punsiher and the Merlin. Since both Assault frigates from each race stem from the same hull, any one of the two will do for the comparison. When comparing the four assault frigates, we see a pattern that resembles the tier 1 resistance attributes. Some ships still have a shield EM hole and an armor explosive hole.
It is worth mentioning that the Vengeance has a 5% armor resist bonus per assault ships level, which means at level 5 assault ships, the Vengeance gets a 25% bonus to armor resistance.
Tech 2 Destroyers
Tech 2 Destroyers, also known as Interdictors, follow the same principle as the tech 2 frigates. However, it is interesting to notice is that they have the exact same resists as the interceptors and covert-ops ships.
Tech 2 Cruisers
Heavy Interdictors
Heavy Interdictors again follow the same principle of tech 2 frigates, and again they have the same resists as the Assault frigates. However, keep in mind that Heavy Interdictors have a 25% bonus to armor (Gallente,Amarr) and 25% bonus to shield (Minmatar, Caldari) as a prerequisite to fly one. Cruiser 5 is a prerequisite and offers a 5% bonus to either armor or resist per level.
For clarification, it works on incoming damage rather than the ships natural resists. For example, the Devoter has an 80% explosive resistance, but the 25% bonus from the ship will work on the 20% incoming damage only. This means that out of the 20% incoming damage 25% will be resisted which means only 5% bonus resistance to explosive damage, making the Devoter's armor resist a total of 85%.
Heavy Assault Cruisers
Although each faction have 2 Heavy Assault Cruisers (HACs) which have different hulls, they both share the same resistance attributes; which are similar to the assault firgate resists.
The Amarr Sacrilege has an armor resist bonus and the Caldari Eagle has a shield resist bonus which works exactly the same way as the Heavy Interdictor bonuses.
Logistics
Logistics also follow the standard T2 resists pattern, and they have the same values as the Assault Frigates, Heavy Interdictors and HACs.
Recon Ships
Force Recon Ships have the same resists as the Electronic attack frigates.
However, the Combat Recon Ships have thier own unique resists. Compared to the most common T2 resist pattern (The assault Frigate Pattern),
- Amarr Combat Recons have a slightly lower shield and armor explosive and kinetic resists
- Minmatar Combat Recons have a slightly lower shield and armor EM and thermal resists
- Gallente Combat Recons have both a lower thermal and kinetic shield and armor resists
- Caldari Combat Recons also have lower thermal and kinetic shield and armor resists
Tech 2 Battlecruisers
Also known as Command Ships, are split into two types, Fleet Command and Field command; and both have the same hull type for each faction.
- Fleet Command ships have the same resists as T2 assault frigates. The Amarr Damnation has a 25% bonus to armor resists and the Caldari Vulture has a 25% bonus to shield resists as a prerequisite. Take a look at the Heavy Interdictors section to find out more how these bonuses work.
- Field Command Ships follow the same resist pattern as the Combat Recon Ship resistance attributes. Again, as with the Fleet Command Ships, the Amarr Absolution has a 25% bonus to armor resists and the Caldari Nighthawk has a 25% bonus to shield resists as a prerequisite.
Tech 2 Battleships
Marauders
Marauders follow the same general principle of T2 ship resists, and they have the exact same resist values as the stealth bombers.
Black-ops
Black-ops follow the same principle of T2 ship resists, but they have their own unique values that differ from all other T2 ships. They have a slightly higher resist than the interceptor, covert-ops and Interdictor resistance attributes, which puts them at the 2nd worst resists among all the T2 ships. This follows the trend that Cloak-able ships have lower resistances compared to non Cloak-able ships.
Tech 2 Transport Ships
Deep space Hauler
Deep Space Haulers follow the same principle of other T2 ship resists. They have the same resists as the Assault Frigate ship type.
Blockade Runner
Blockade Runners follow the same principle of other T2 ship resists. They have the same resists as the Electronic Attack Ship type.
Summary
- Assault Frigates, Heavy Interdictors, HACs, Logistics, Fleet combat ships and Deep Space haulers have the same natural resists.However, all Heavy Interdictors, Sacrilege, Eagle, Damnation and Vulture have a 25% resist skill bonus, which makes them the highest natural resistance ships in game.
- Combat Recon ships and Field Combat ships have the same resists. Absolution and Nighthawk both have a 25%
- Electronic Attack Frigates, Force Recon Ships and Blockade Runner have the same resists.
- Stealth Bombers and Marauders have the same resists.
- Black-ops have a unique resists that differ from all other T2 ships.
- Interceptors, Covert-ops and Interdictors have the same natural resists.
The above list is arranged from highest to lowest T2 ship resists.