Ship Class Tactical Overview

T1 frigates

Theese will generally just be tacklers. Point, web, speed mod, overdrives etc in lows+mids, irrelevant dps or nos etc in highs. Notable exceptions: Rifter The rifter is one of the best combat T1 frigs, and by most people even considered THE best. In a dogfighting fit with ACs, ab, web and scram, it can take on most other frigs and even some larger targets and win (watch out for the taranis and all the AFs though). Punisher and incursus are the amarr and gallente equivalents, but they don't quite reach the level of the rifter.

T2 frigs, interceptors(Inty/ceptor)

Theese are the primary tacklers in anything but 0.0 (where dictors and hics take over). They have the highest scan res of any class, and only vigils (minmatar EW frig) can match their speed. Their main purpose is tackling, and that's what they do best, but many interceptors can also be refit to be effective combat ships in an interceptor only gang. Their firepower and tank will be low compared to other types of ships, but they have the advantage of very high speed (even when tank+gank fitted) and awesome agility.

T2 frigs, Covert ops

They can warp cloaked, used as scouts and for probing stuff down. Can also be used for tackling stuff it has scouted/probed out, but that's only for experienced people that know what they can and can't hold long enough for help to arrive, and what targets are worth the risk.

T2 frigs, Stealth bombers(SB)

Super high dps/alpha frigates that can warp cloaked and doesn't have a sensor recalibration delay after decloaking. In 0.0, they can also launch bombs (basically a large, higher damage smartbomb). They have trouble hitting small targets with their torpedoes though.

T2 frigs, electronic attack ships(EAS)

Theese vary alot from race to race. Basically, it's a frigate sized version of the combat recons that will be described below.

T2 frigs, assault ships (AS)

High tank, usually high dps frigates. If you get tackled by one of theese, you're generally not going anywhere, they're a pain to get rid of when properly fitted. The disadvantage compared to interceptors is that they're slower, and usually sacrifice their MWD and fit an AB instead to be able to survive longer after getting the target tackled.

T1 destroyers

Anti-frig ships. Very good tracking, lots of small guns, however their tank is frig level, while they're almost as big as a cruiser. They die extremely fast, and are considered useless by many.

T2 destroyers, interdictors (Dictor)

Theese are useless in high and low sec, however, when they get into 0.0, they become one of the most important ships available. Their role is launching warp disruption probes, usually called bubbles. Those probes create a warp disruption field in a 20km radius from the probe, and inside that field, nothing can warp, nomatter how many stabs they fit. Anyone trying to warp to a spot withing 150 (iirc) km of the edge of the bubble will be pulled to the edge of it, although only if the bubble is in line between the 2 objects that the ship is warping between. Interdictors and HICs (heavy interdictor) are the only ships that can tackle titans and motherships.

T1 cruisers

Can have many roles, from mining and logistics (osprey, auguror, scythe, exequror) and EW (blackbird, bellicose, arbitrator, celestis) to pure dps (the rest basically).

T2 cruisers, Recon ships

Theese come in 2 cathegories, combat recons and force recons. Force recons can fit a covert ops cloak and therefore warp cloaked, while the combat recon is generally better suited for the actual combat part, either trough stronger tank, higher dps or simply better range for their EW. Their main purpose is EW, but what they use vary from race to race. Amarr: Drones for dps, strongly bonused neuts in the highs, tracking disruptor bonus for reducing incomming damage. The force recon, pilgrim, does not get a range bonus and is therefore limited to roughly 12km range with its neuts, while the curse reach about 36km with recon 5 and best named/T2 neuts. Minmatar: Extreme range webs (normal T2 reach about 40km with recon 5 without overheating) and strength bonused target painters. No big difference between the combat recon, huginn, and the force recon, rapier, except for the cloak. Caldari: ECM only. They can break all locks a hostile ship has and keep them from starting to lock anything again for 20 seconds, however, it's chance based and depends on luck. The rook can fit 5 missile launchers and a full flight of light drones, the falcon can cloak, but only get 3 guns and 2 drones. Gallente: Sensor dampening and warp disruptor/scrambler range bonus. Recon 5 give 18km scram range and 48km disruptor range without overheating (for T2 mods). Just like with minmatar, there's no big difference between the cloaky arazu and the lachesis.

T2 cruisers, heavy assault ships (HAC): Extremely versatile and powerful ships. They combine high speed and agility with either high dps and decent tank when in a close range setup, or very long range where only sniper battleships will be able to fire back, while still offering good dps and ok buffer when in a LR setup.

T2 cruisers, heavy interdictors (HIC): With the exception of some T3 cruiser setups, theese will have batter tank then any other cruiser, and match that f most battleships. Their dps is extremely low, but their role is tackling. In 0.0 they can create a 12-20 km radius warp disruption field similar to what the light interdictor create, however, while the light interdictor can launch its bubble and then get out, and the bubble will stay there for 2 minutes anyway, the HIC has to stay where it want its bubble to be, and while the bubble is up (30 second cycle time), it can not be remote repped, and while its normal speed remain the same, afterburners and microwarpdrives will have reduced effect. They're best used in pairs with logistics ships as backup so that 1 HIC can bubble the hostiles while the other one is being remote repped, and if the enemy starts shooting the bubbling hic, it can drop its bubble and be repped back up again while the second hic put up its bubble instead. The bubble can not be used in low or high sec, however, the bubble mod comes with a script. The script increase the range of the point by 50% and allows it to be used in empire, but it comes at a price: It no longer create a bubble, but instead act like a normal warp disruptor, with the difference that no amount of stabs the target has. Scripting it also removes all penalties caused by using it, except for the can't be RRd part, and make it use more cap/s, even though the cycle time is now only 6 seconds and it use less cap/activation. If you see a hic in empire that seem to have its bubble up, don't worry though, it's just a graphical bug caused by loading the grid after the point was activated, it doesn't create an actual bubble. Theese are the only ships that can tackle super caps in low sec (well, in high sec too I guess, but super caps can't go there, and it has never been possible to get one in there afaik).

T2 cruisers, logistics: Each race do it a bit differently here, but overall, theese ships are supposed to increase the survivability of the fleet in 1 way or another. Gallente and amarr rep armour, caldari and minmatar rep shield. Amarr and caldari gain 2 high slots compared to minmatar/gallente, but loose 2 lows/mids. They also get a cap transfer bonus instead of the tracking link bonus that gallente and minmatar have. What this means is that guardian (amarr) and basilisks (caldari) usually use either 1 (logistics 5) or 2 (logistics 4, don't fly a logi ship with less then that) large energy transfers in their extra highs to create cap from nowhere and some eccm, tank and speed in the low/mid slots, which means they have to operate in groups of atleast 2, and if any of them get jammed, they both become practically useless since one is obviously jammed and can't do anything, while the other is no longer recieving the cap it needs to keep operating from its buddy. Scimitar (minmatar) and oneiros (gallente) doesn't have this weakness since they rely on CCC rigs and cap power relays/cap rechargers to keep themselves running with their extra lows and mids, however, that is not enough to run as many reppers as the cap transfering ones. Scimitar/oneiros can usually run 3 reppers with logi 4, and 4 reppers with logi 5, while basilisk/guardian can run 4 reppers with logistics 5 and 5 reppers with logistics 5, while also keeping a stronger tank.

T3 cruisers, strategic cruisers

You can't get more versatile then this. Depending on what subsystems you put on it, it can basically do anything except for bubbling. With the right sub system, you can even become immune to bubbles (but you can still e tackled by hics with the script in and normal disruptors/scrams, which is a unique ability that no other ship has. They can be fitted to use their racial warfare links with an even stronger bonus then fleet command ships (described below), but it can only fit 1 link by default. However, by fitting 2 command processors, that can be increased to 3.

T1 battlecruisers(BC)

Very good mix between gank, tank, agility, speed and cost. Usually short range fitted (especially harbingers due to the awesome scorch), although some people that can't afford/can't fly a hac use them with a long range fit. HACs are way better for that role though, with better dps and range, so experience pilots usually do not have a reason to use a LR fit on it since most of them can also fly hacs, and therefore only use the BCs for close range stuff. They also have the ability to fit a single warfare link, which can give extra bonuses to your gang. I'll describe this more closely in the next section.

T2 battlecruisers, command ships(CS): Theese come in 2 classes, field command ships, which are basically just a stronger version of the T1 BC with a bit more dps and 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: Armour for amarr, shield for caldari, skirmish for minmatar and information for gallente, and there are 3 types of links in each class. If the command ship is in a leadership position in the fleet, everyone below him in the command chain (including normal members) get the following bonus, assuming the command chain is complete (for example, if the CS is wing commander, and there are no squad commanders, or more squads then the CS can handle with its current wing commander level, no bonuses will be applied. Armour/shield links:

1. Armour/shield resist bonus (stacking penalized with resist mods on the ship)
2. Armour/shield repper (both local and remote) cycle time reduction
3. Armour/shield repper (both local and remote) cap use reduction (combine 2 and 3 to get RRs with lower cycle time, but same cap use as before)

Skirmish:

1. Increase speed mod of afterburners and MWDs, so you go faster with them activated.
2. Increase the range of warp disruptors/scramblers and webs. HIC points do not receive this bonus.
3. Lower signature radius of all ships in gang, making them harder to hit and lock.

Information:

1. Boost the strength EW mods, like ecm and damps
2. Increase range of EW mods
3. Increase sensor strength (make it harder to jam them, I think it's stacking penalized with ECCM)

The links themselves only give a 2 or 3% boost, but that can be increased ALOT by training relevant skills, fitting it on the fleet command ship (or a T3 ship with the proper subs, as described above, or to a titan, described below), 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. That probably make it obvious why fleet command ships can have such a huge impact on the outcome of the battle, despite doing very low dps.

T1 battleships (BS)

You can't get heavier then this and still stay in sub capital ships, although there are ofcourse variotions. Great buffer tanks, very high dps when close range fitted for close range fitted ones, the best range in the game, while still maintaining good dps when long range fitted (usually apoc, mega, maelstrom/tempest and rokh, however, mega and mael/tempest can also be close range fitted and still perform better/as well as the other BS of their race). One notable exception here: The caldari scorpion, which is the only T1 EW BS, and use ecm. The weakness here is low speed and agility combined with slow lock speed and bad tracking, so it's hard to force an opponent in smaller ships to engage if the odds are in your favour, or to actually kill them since you'll be missing alot if you do get a fight.

T2 battleships, marauders: Theese are basically PVE only ships. Decent dps and good local tank, but in PVP you generally want a buffer tank instead, and marauders have very low sensor strength, making them easy to jam. However, the paladin and kronos can be situationally useful if you really need a target webbed down as much as possible, and don't mind using a ship worth over half a bill that's not insurable since they both get a 50% bonus to web strength, so a T2 web reduce the targets speed by 90%. I've only seen this used by one person, and that was on the Tama station since it's a kickout to prevent people from getting back in dock range, and that was with carrier support just in case.

T2 battleships, black ops (BO): Theese are the bi brothers of the recon ships, however, while they do get bonus to how fast they more while cloaked (which actually means that they'll move faster when cloaked then when not cloaked with the BO skill at a decent level), but they cost about 700m or so before fittings, so they're not really worth the risk of bringing it into combat. Despite that though, they do have a very useful role to play in PVP: the covert jump bridge. Covert cyno fields can now be lit even in cyno jammed 0.0 systems and doesn't appear as a beacon in the entire system like a normal cyno, and a black ops can then lock on to that field and create a bridge to it, which then allows other cov ops ships (aka any ship that get a bonus to cloaking, except T3 cruiser with the cloaking sub) to right click the BO and click jump to the system the bridge was set up to, so it basically become a 1 way stargate.

Caps (general travel)

Capital ships, aka dreads, carriers, motherships, titans and rorquals (although the last one isn't a combat ship) can't use gates, and the motherships+titans can't even dock. Instead they use their own jump drive to travel around, but in order to do that, they require fuel (racial isotopes, helium for amarr, oxygen for gallente and the rorqual, nitrogen for caldari and hydrogen for minmatar) and a cynosural field to jump to. Those cyno fields can be created in 2 ways, either by anchoring and onlining a cyno gen pos mod which will always be online and available for use for the corp/alliance the POS belongs to, however it requires the corp/alliance to have sov 3 there before it can be used, and it's impossible to have both that and a cyno jammer, which also require sov 3, online in the same system. Jump freighters and black ops also require a cyno field to use their jump drive, but they have the ability to use gates aswell, and black ops can lock on to a covert cyno field too, which is an unique ability for them.

Dreadnoughts (dread)

If you want pure dps, this is as good as it gets. Dreads do amazing damage, which can reach almost 5k dps when in siege even in a long range fit. When not sieged though, the generally just match a BS. Their tracking though is extremely bad, so they can basically only hit other caps and POSs/outposts, unless the target isn't moving at all. The exception is the moros, which get an awesome 50%/level bonus to drone damage and hitpoints, so the drones are lethal for any size of ships, but especially frigs. 5 T2 warriors with a 250% damage bonus before counting drone interfacing and stuff like that will kill any frig, except possibly for an AF (but that will die pretty fast too), in almost no time at all. The effects of the siege mod, which only dreads can fit, when activated, are: -75% scan res +625% damage mod -92.5% tracking -60% explosion velocity -100% speed +100% shield boost/armour rep amount -50% shield booster/armour rep cycle time Can't be remote repped Immunity to EW Max amount of targets lockable set to 2

Cycle time is 10 minutes and require 500 - (level of tactical weapon reconfiguration skill)*50 strontium clathrates (stront), during that time you can't move in any way, not even by warping/jumping out.

Carriers

Theese are giant logistics platforms. They have the ability to store 1.000.000 m3 of [b]assembled[/b] ships in their ship maintenance bay so that people that loose their ship can quickly pick up a new one, and other ships from your corp (or fleet if you have configured your carrier for that) can use you to refit in space. They get a 50%/level range bonus to 2 of the following, varying depending on which racial carrier it is: Capital energy transfer, capital shield transporter or capital remote armour repairers. The amarr archon get cap transfer and armour rep, the gallente thanathos and minmatar nidhoggur get shield and armour and the caldari chimera get cap transfer and shield. In addition to that, all carriers get an additional 5%/level bonus to the following: the chimera and archon get a resist bonus (armour for archon, shield for chimera), the nidhoggur get a capital remote rep amount bonus and the thanathos get a fighter damage bonus. All carriers get the ability to control one extra drone in addition to the normal 5/level of racial carrier and the ability to use fighters. They can't fit any guns or launchers at all, so the high slots are usually used for neuts, smartbombs (drone/small ship defense) and remote reps. However, just like dreads, carriers also get a special module that only they and their bigger brother, the motherships, can fit (10 minute cycle): the triage module.

The effects of it are:

• -100% speed
• -100% amount of drones controllable
• +900% scan res
• +4 max targets
• +100% shield boost/armour rep amount (both local and remote)
• -50% shield booster/armour repper cycle time (both local and remote)
• +100% remote hull rep/cap transfer amount
• -50% remote hull rep/cap transer cycle time
• +9999900% EW cap use (all EW mods will therefore take more cap then the ship could ever get, making them impossible to use)
• Immune to EW
• Can't be remote repped
• Can't jump out or warp away

The triage mod also use stront, just like the siege mod, and the same amount, although Tactical logistics reconfiguration is used instead to reduce stront use. Carriers and motherships can also use warfare links, but just like with battlecruisers and field command ships, they don't get a ship bonus to strength.

Motherships (MS)

Basically just a larger carrier with more slots and cap etc. It gets +3 drones/carrier level instead of 1, but it can't dock and it has shorter jump range. However, it's always immune to EW even when not in triage. It can also use a clone vat bay which can hold jump clones, but I'm not sure how that actually work, and it is very rarely used. They can only be tackled by dictors and HICtors (well, and anchorable bubbles I guess, but that's not practical due to the anchoring time required before they activate.

Titans

Like motherships, they are immune to EW and can only be tackled by dictors and hics. They're all able to fit and activate the largest and most lethal smartbomb in the game: a doomsday device, which does 70313 damage with max skills, but can only be fired once/hour, cost 75k racial isotopes to activate, and prevents the titan from using its jump drive for 10 minutes. Activating it takes 15 seconds, so you have some time to get out before the damage is applied, and the range of it is 250 km (aka the hard coded max lock range, nothing can do damage at longer range then that). Titans also have a jump bridge, which works in a similar way to the cov ops jump bridge described above that the black ops use, but this one can bridge any type of ship, has longer range and can only lock on to normal cynos, not cov ops ones. They have bonuses to their racial capital weapons, but no sane titan pilot actually use them. Titans are fitted with (officer where available) neuts, smartbombs, cap rechargers, agility mods and both armour and shield resist mods (to make the reps that will be comming in from the triaged carriers that will quickly be jumped in if the titan gets tackled more effective, this is basically the only exception to "don't tank both shields and armour" rule). Some even include a 100mn MWD, but I'm not sure how common that is. However, every titan should have its racial doomsday device and a jump portal generator fitted in the highs at the very least. Atleast in PL, they are usually used for bridging people around, but when it's time to bring them into combat and doomsday someone, the general tactic is to have dictors and HICs bubble the hostile fleet so it can't escape when they see the titans land and the doomsdays start to go off, while a cyno ship set up a cyno at range from the fight (not sure if there's any prefered range for that, probably situational), but anyway, the titans jump in there and activate their doomsday while aligning out and then warp out to a safe spot immediately after the doomsday goes off and cloak up there until their 10 minute no jumping timer has expired.

Capital industrial ships, rorqual: This ship is primarily intended for mining support with its huge tractor beam range and speed, ability to fit bonused mining leadership links and ability to compress ore. However, it does have a 50%/level range bonus to capital shield transfers, and a 20%/level drone damage bonus, so while it's not intended as a PVP ship, some people have been known to use it for that.