Passive shield tanking
This article will discuss the use of passive shield tanking for PvE in general and PvE vs Angel in particular. A passive tank is not recommended for PvP. Due to base resists, shield tanks are weakest to Sansha and Amarr factions, so armor setups are usually better against them while the natural base resists of shields lends them well towards tanking Angel rats.
The principles explained here work for most ships of battlecruiser size or smaller but battleship shields regen too slowly to be truely effective at this method.
Theory
Principles
There are several important principles at work to determine how much damage your shield can tank passively without breaking:
- Shield resistances will reduce incoming damage by a percent depending on damage type
- 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, meaning an increase in total shield amount will increase the amount you regen.
Characteristics
Following those principles, we can look for modules which influence the relevant ship statistics to increase your passive shield regeneration.
- 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
Passive shield tanking is a snowballing effect, which means that the more mods you add, the more effect they have on your tank. Besides, regen duration and hp mods aren't stacked.
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.
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 passive shield tanked, even armor bonused ships like the Myrmidon.
Battleships and larger are better with active tanking. The reason being that cruisers and battlecruisers can fit the largest shield extenders available, so battleships have difficulties increasing their shield amount enough to reach good regen rates. There are, of course, exceptions such as the rattlesnake or rokh, because they have 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 against specific damage types, so there's no need to try to omnitank unless you're facing sleepers.
Fitting tips
What to choose between all those modules, what combination is the best? Instead of making convoluted excel sheets, your best bet is to fire up EFT and try. (if you don't know EFT, look here)
The base idea is to fill all low slots with shield power relays, all mid slots with the bigger shield extenders you can use and use 3 purger rigs. (For PVE purger rigs are better than extender rigs in all cases)
I've yet to see a fit under battleship size where a shield recharger is better tank-wise than an extender or an hardener.
So, when the above is done, remove one extender and add an hardener for the primary damage type of the NPC's you'll be facing. See if the tank amount is higher.
If yes, remove another extender and add another of the same hardener. If it's better, remove yet another extender and add an hardener for the secondary damage type of those NPC's.
If the second hardener for the primary damage type tanks less than an extender, swap it for an hardener of the secondary damage type.
Now look at your cap, if it's stable you're good to go. If not, swap a shield power relay for a shield flux coil, see if it's stable now. Continue swapping relays for coils until you're stable.
Sometimes, if you have to swap more than two relays for coils, you may try putting all the relays back except one and add a capacitor power relay.
I usually use low range, high damage weapons (autocannons) which means I need an afterburner to dictate range. Being able to perma run said afterburner often mitigates enough incoming damage due to speed to justify the tank reduction for cap stability.
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.
