Incursion fitting principles

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Fitting principles

Incursion fleets rely on good resists and buffer supported by a logistics. There are simply too many enemies to be able to fit a strong enough local tank, not to mention that by sacrificing a small portion of your fleet to bring in logistics instead of more damage dealers, the rest of the damage dealers can fit more offensive modules and your fleet will perform better.

Once you have a good enough tank, the rest of your spare slots should be used to augment your damage potential. While there's such a thing as under-tanked, being over-tanked is not only wasteful in incursions but even dangerous if done at the cost of offense.

Omni damage

The Sansha incursion rats deal two types of damages, lasers (EM and thermal) and torpedoes (kinetic and explosive). As such, they hit across all four resist types and all incursion fits must reflect that. In general we use a rather erroneous term "70% resists across the board" when we tell people what their resists should be. It is important to know that there is more to it than that.

First of all, it's more of an average resist per type of damage so you can often compensate one resist for the other. The Basilisk for example can leave a reasonable hole in its EM resist thanks to their high thermal resist and still stand up to the damage inflicted by lasers. It also means that most ships can have a slightly lower kinetic resist as long as their explosive resist is equally higher, averaging a solid 70% resist-profile for the damage inflicted by torpedoes.

Second, smaller ships take less damage from torpedoes than larger ships, especially if they are also faster. As such, logistics and strategic cruisers can often get away with slightly lower resists for kinetic and explosive, whereas battleships (especially those with huge signatures) would be better off pushing their kinetic and explosive resists a little bit higher to compensate for taking more damage from torpedoes.

The reason we still use the erroneous "70% resists across the board" term is that if you have 70% resists in all categories, you're good and there's no risk of anyone getting it wrong thinking you can combine a low EM resist with a high explosive resist.

Applied DPS

One of the most important aspects to realize is that whatever dps (damage per second) your favourite third party fitting tool tells you that you have, or whatever the fitting window ingame tells you, is worth nothing if you cannot apply that damage. Hence the term "applied dps" as opposed to "paper dps" which is basically just your potential damage.

Your velocity, your target's velocity, approach vectors, your gun's signature resolution, your target's ship signature, locking speed, locking range, your weapon's optimal and falloff range and tracking all play a vital part in how much of your damage you'll be able to apply on your enemy. See Turret Damage for a more comprehensive introduction to the factors determining how much damage you'll end up doing when you undock and leave your bubble.

Practically this means that utility modules often make or break fleets.

Utility modules

First of all, when the term "utility slots" is used it means the slots you have left over once you've fitted your tank and your weapons. So if your ship has five midslots and four are needed for your tank, then the fifth slot is your one utility midslot. If you ship has eight highslots and seven turrets, you have one utility highslot.

Second, the term "utility modules" refer to modules you fit that doesn't directly give you a higher dps in your favourite third party fitting program or on your fitting screen ingame. Instead they act as force multipliers of sorts making up for weaknesses or capitalize on strengths for increased efficiency. There are also modules that has no impact on your offensive capabilities, but are invaluable when things go wrong.

You should always bring as many of these modules are you can fit, so that you can tailor your ship to the needs of the fleet based on your current fleet composition. For example, if you have two free utility midslots, bring two of each of the below listed utility midslot modules. Do the same for any of the utility highslot modules you can theoretically fit to your ship. Keep the modules in the staging system for quick refits.

The fits presented for Vanguards and Assaults will have a default selection of these modules to ensure we have a good base for most fleets. See Anatomy of Incursions for more information on how you can change these modules around for different tactics based on your fleet composition.

Slot Icons Name Effect
Icon mid slot.png 6160_32.png 1952_32.png F-90 Positional Sensor Subroutines
Sensor Booster II 		Scripted module to increase either your scan resolution or your targeting range, or both to a lesser degree [1].
Icon mid slot.png 17559_32.png 14268_32.png Federation Navy Stasis Webifier
True Sansha Stasis Webifier 		Stasis webifiers slow down the target, dramatically increasing the chance to land good hits and thus increase applied dps [2].
Icon mid slot.png 1978_32.png 14238_32.png Tracking Computer II
Shadow Serpentis Tracking Computer 		Tracking computers can be scripted for additional range or tracking, or both to a lesser degree [3].
Icon mid slot.png 19806_32.png 31944_32.png Target Painter II
Republic Fleet Target Painter 		Target painters increase the signature of the target, making it easier to lock and shoot [4].
Icon mid slot.png 2104_32.png 14240_32.png Tracking Link II
Shadow Serpentis Tracking Link 		Tracking links are like remote tracking computers, able to project increased range or tracking to a friendly player.
Icon mid slot.png 5282_32.png 1964_32.png Linked Sensor Network
Remote Sensor Booster II 		Remote sensor boosters projected the same kind of effect as sensor boosters, stronger but can only be used on others.
Icon hi slot.png 8641_32.png 3608_32.png Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Large Shield Transporter II 		Repairs the friendly target's shields. Having a few extra shield transporters for emergency is invaluable.
Icon hi slot.png 16487_32.png 12102_32.png Large 'Regard' Power Projector
Large Energy Transfer Array II 		Consumes cap in order to send it to a friendly target. Giving each other cap like this creates more cap than it consumes.
Icon hi slot.png 1182_32.png 1436_32.png Auto Targeting System I
Auto Targeting System II 		Increases the number of targets your ship can potentially lock, still limited by your own skills however.
Icon hi slot.png 23527_32.png 24427_32.png Drone Link Augmentor I
Drone Link Augmentor II 		Increases the your drone control range.
  1. ^ In Vanguards, a battleship is useless without a sensor booster because it will not be able to lock anything in any kind of timely fashion. As such, a sensor booster is always fitted for vanguards, even at the cost of not having a web. For assaults, it is usually a matter of targeting range. Battlecruisers or strategic cruisers can usually get away without a sensor booster, but even they can make good use of faster locking if they have the slots to spare.
  2. ^ Webs are always better than tracking computers for shooting smaller targets, assuming the target will come into web range. The Federation Navy Stasis Webifier or True Sansha Stasis Webifier is needed for the extra range as regular webs fall short, literally.
  3. ^ If you primarily engage targets outside web-range, tracking computers become more important, as they'll be able to improve your range and/or your tracking. For Vanguard you almost always favour webs anyway, even if the fleet has many, because you can spread webs for increased efficiency.
  4. ^ Target painters would not be your first choice, but assuming the other needs are met, you sometimes reach a point where additional webs won't be needed and then the target painter would actually be of more use than another web.

Recommended skills

The following skills are recommended, if not downright required to fit the modules you have to in order to do incursions. For more information on what the different skills do, see the Support Skills page.

The training times listed for these will assume that you trained Cybernetics I and got a cheap set of +3 attribute implants, which is not only reasonable but highly recommended regardless what you plan on doing in EVE. There's even The +3 Implants Program for unistas to get started.

It's worth thinking one step further and try to figure out which of the advanced hulls you think you'll likely train into, then pick the most suitable path there in terms of which racial ship-line you go down first and what weapon system you train into. For example, if you do not meet the recommended skills for missiles it might be a good idea to consider how much time it would take to cross-train into a turret-based ship right away instead of spending precious time continuing to train missile skills. There's no point trying to pick the "best" Battlecruiser, simply because they all have downsides making them less than ideal for incursioning.

That said, it's perfectly fine to top off your current skills to meet the minimum requirement to come try incursions, if you're not sure you'll like it. You don't have to commit before trying it out.

Damage dealers

Getting the recommended skills for a damage dealer requires 59 days at the most, if you train into a turret-based battlecruiser on a brand new character. In comparison training for missiles is longer, up to 66 days, but normally you would only take that route if you already have missile skills to begin with.

Considering that is far more likely that you come looking for incursions after you have played the game for at least a couple of weeks, having trained some of the support skills already (the tutorial mentions many of them), you can often get ready much faster. Add to that the potential of neural remapping and what might seem like a daunting train can be covered in no-time.

While we primarily run shield fleets, most of the skills you use will be reusable for armour fleets as well. The skills required to fit a solid armour tank is listed in the right-most column even though they are not necessary to train right away.

Support skills Gunnery skills Missile skills Crosstraining armour skills
~ 38 days and 5 hours ~ 20 days and 12 hours ~ 26 days and 22 hours ~ 12 days and 21 hours
  • Cybernetics I
  • Electronics IV
  • Engineering IV
  • Mechanics IV
  • Weapon Upgrades IV
  • Energy Management IV
  • Energy Systems Operation IV
  • Shield Upgrades IV
  • Tactical Shield Manipulation IV
  • Jury Rigging III
  • Shield Rigging III
  • Targeting IV
  • Long Range Targeting IV
  • Target Painting III [1]
  • Propulsion Jamming III [2]
  • Drones V
  • Scout Drone Operation V [3]
  • Gallente Drone Specialization III [3]
  • Drone Durability I [4]
  • Repair Drone Operation II [4]
  • Shield Emission Systems III [4]
  • <racial> Frigate IV
  • <racial> Cruiser III
  • Spaceship Command IV
  • Battlecruisers IV
  • Gunnery IV
  • Small <racial> Turret IV
  • Medium <racial> Turret IV
  • Rapid Firing IV
  • Sharpshooter IV
  • Surgical Strike IV
  • Trajectory Analysis IV
  • Controlled Bursts IV [5]
  • <weapon> Rigging III
  • Missile Launcher Operation V [6]
  • Light Missiles III
  • Heavy Missiles IV
  • Missile Projection IV
  • Missile Bombardment IV
  • Rapid Launch IV
  • Guided Missile Precision IV
  • Target Navigation Prediction IV
  • Warhead upgrades IV
  • Launcher Rigging III
  • Hull Upgrades V
  • Armor Rigging III
  • EM Armor Compensation III
  • Explosive Armor Compensation III
  • Kinetic Armor Compensation III
  • Thermic Armor Compensation III
  • Remote Armor Repair Systems III [7]
  1. ^ Target Painting III is only needed if you'll use a Target Painter module.
  2. ^ Propulsion Jamming III is only needed if you'll use a Stasis Webifier module.
  3. ^ a b Drones V, Scout Drone Operation V and Gallente Drone Specialization I is required to use Hobgoblin II drones.
  4. ^ a b c Drone Durability I, Repair Drone Operation II and Shield Emission System III is required to use Light and Medium Shield Maintenance drones, which can be trained in mere hours if you can already use tech two scout drones.
  5. ^ Controlled Bursts is useful for all hybrids and lasers, but useless for projectiles and missiles as they do not utilize cap.
  6. ^ It's necessary to train Missile Launcher Operation V in order to be able to train Guided Missile Precision, which is essential to apply damage to small frigates.
  7. ^ Remote Armor Repair Systems III is required to use Light and Medium Armor Maintenance drones.

With the above mentioned skills, young unistas interested in doing incursions can fly one of the Minimum Incursion fits, while they train for a more suitable ship. See moving into useful hulls below for further training.

Logistics

Training for logistics is considerably more time-consuming than that of a regular damage dealer. Please remember that when you think the above mentioned skills for a damage dealer is a long train.

It takes up to 80 days to get good enough skills to fly a starter fit.

Support skills Shield skills Drone skills Crosstraining into armour
~ 66 days and 21 hours ~ 7 days and 19 hours ~ 5 days and 6 hours ~ 41 days and 12 hours
  • Cybernetics I
  • Electronics IV
  • Engineering IV
  • Mechanics IV
  • Energy Management IV
  • Energy Systems Operation IV
  • Energy Grid Upgrades IV
  • Jury Rigging III
  • Targeting V
  • Multitasking III
  • Long Range Targeting V
  • Signature Analysis V
  • <racial> Frigate IV
  • <racial> Cruiser V
  • Logistics IV
  • Energy Emission Systems IV [1]
  • Sensor Linking IV [2]
  • Tactical Shield Manipulation IV
  • Shield Upgrades IV
  • Shield Rigging III
  • Shield Emission Systems IV
  • Drones V
  • Drone Durability I
  • Repair Drone Operation II
  • Hull Upgrades V
  • Repair Systems II
  • Armor Rigging III
  • Remote Repair Systems IV
  • EM Armor Compensation III
  • Explosive Armor Compensation III
  • Kinetic Armor Compensation III
  • Thermic Armor Compensation III
  • <racial> Frigate IV
  • <racial Cruiser V
  1. ^ Energy Emission Systems is only required if you fly a Guardian or a Basilisk with energy transfer modules, the Oneiros and the Scimitar does not need this skill.

Thermodynamics

While not critical, being able to overheat your modules for a short while is often more than enough to save your ship when things turn from bad to worse. As such, it's also recommended that people train the following skills:

  • Engineering V (+4 days and 6 hours)
  • Science IV (+18 hours)
  • Thermodynamics III (+11,5 hours)

Moving into useful hulls

Once you have the recommended skills, the step from a Battlecruiser up to a decent Battleship is surprisingly short and you should take this step as soon as possible to get into a decent ship. You might need to top off some of the support skills, pending on what ship you decide to move into, if you run into powergrid, CPU or cap issues.

If the WSOP is not an issue, there's also the Strategic Cruisers and the pirate faction battleships. For Strategic Cruisers you'll most likely continue with the gunnery skills you have but will require some support skills to V and of course your racial cruiser of choice to V. Then you just move towards tech two medium weapons for further efficiency. For pirate faction battleships hulls like the Machariel, Nightmare and Vindicator, which are better in all regards compared to the regular battleships regardless of your skill, you only need to train a secondary racial ship-line.

Flying ships that cost over a billion in just the hull shouldn't be taken lightly however, but from an efficiency point of view there is no reason not to get one.

Battleships Strategic Cruisers Pirate Faction Battleships Crosstraining into a new race
~ 10 days and 2 hours ~ 40 days and 4 hours ~ 17 days and 16 hours ~ 13 days and 8 hours [1]
  • <racial> Cruiser IV
  • <racial> Battleship III
  • Gunnery V
  • Large <weapon> Turret III
  • Mechanics V
  • Shield Operation III
  • Electronics V
  • Engineering V
  • Gunnery V [2]
  • Missile Launcher Operation V [3]
  • Navigation V
  • <racial> Cruiser V
  • <primary> Cruiser IV
  • <primary> Battleship III
  • <secondary> Frigate IV
  • <secondary> Cruiser IV
  • <secondary> Battleship III
  • Gunnery V
  • Large <weapon> Turret III
  • <racial> Frigate IV
  • <racial> Cruiser IV
  • <racial> Battleship III
  • Gunnery V
  • Small <weapon> Turret III
  • Medium <weapon> Turret III
  • Large <weapon> Turret III
  1. ^ Gunnery V alone takes 4 days and 6 hours to train. If you have it already, or if you're crosstraining into another racial battlecruiser, the time to crosstrain is significantly shorter.
  2. ^ Gunnery V for the Legion, Loki and Proteus, but only Gunnery III for the Tengu.
  3. ^ Missile Launcher Operation V for the Tengu and Missile Launcher Operation III for the Loki. Neither the Legion or the Proteus needs this skill trained unless they decide to fit missiles.

This is just the the beginning ...

Remember that these recommendations are just for the basic levels and there is much room for improvement. Increase these skills, train up for tech two weaponry and max out the gunnery and support skills, and your ship will be much more efficient. You'll also have many more options to improve your fit with better fitting and support skills, like upgrading a module, swap out an ancillary current rig for a damage rig, drop an excessive tank module for more utility modules and so forth.

What you're going to train next differs a little bit based on what ship and what weapons you're going to use. For some fitting skills will be prioritized due to the lack of CPU/powergrid of their hull, for others capacitor skills are more important while others can simply go straight for better ship skills and tech two weaponry.

Fitting skills Support skills Gunnery skills Logistics skills
Prioritize which skills to train first, some are more important than others, so do your research.
  • Cybernetics V [1]
  • Electronics V
  • Engineering V
  • Mechanics V
  • Energy Management V
  • Energy Systems Operation V
  • Shield Upgrades V
  • Tactical Shield Manipulation V
  • Jury Rigging V
  • Shield Rigging V
  • Targeting V
  • Multitasking III
  • Long Range Targeting V
  • Weapon Upgrades V
  • Advanced Weapon Upgrades V
  • Gunnery V
  • Rapid Firing V
  • Sharpshooter V
  • Surgical Strike V
  • Trajectory Analysis V
  • Controlled Bursts V [2]
  • <weapon> Rigging IV
  • Small <racial> Turret V
  • Medium <racial> Turret V
  • Large <racial> Turret V
  • Small <racial> Specialization IV [3]
  • Medium <racial> Specialization IV [3]
  • Large <racial> Specialization IV [3]
  • <racial> Battleship V
  • Shield Emission Systems V
  • Energy Emission Systems V [4]
  • Sensor Linking V [5]
  • Repair Drone operation V [6]
  1. ^ Cybernetics V is required for the top-tier advanced implants, like the +6% CONCORD-implants.
  2. ^ Controlled Bursts is useful for all hybrids and lasers, but useless for projectiles and missiles as they do not utilize cap.
  3. ^ a b c Turrets have two different specialization skills, for example projectiles have both autocannons and artillery which are split into two different specialization skills.
  4. ^ Energy Emission Systems is only required if you fly a Guardian or a Basilisk with energy transfer modules, the Oneiros and the Scimitar does not need this skill.
  5. ^ Repair Drone Operation V is needed for tech two shield maintenance bots.
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