User:Antei thantonne/Logistics Guide

Logistics, in EVE, refers to ships and modules that provide remote support to other ships. In real life, the term "logistics" is typically used to describe the coordination of military troops and supplies, and EVE University has a Logistics Division that serves this role. But in the EVE client, Logistics decribes remote assistance, and particularly:

• Remote Shield Boosting
• Remote Armor Repair
• Remote Hull Repair
• Remote Capacitor Transfer
• Remote Tracking Support
• Remote Sensor Boosting

One other type of off-grid remote boost module, the Warfare Link, is not typically considered logistics and will not be described here. This Guide summarizes the common mechanics of logistics modules; explains the differences between remote shield, armor, and hull repair in detail; and compares ships that are bonused for logistics. CCP made significant changes to logistics modules and ships in the Frostline patch in December 2015, and those changes have been incorporated here.

Visual effects for the different types of logistics modules are shown on the Identifying Visual Effects page.

Logistics Modules and Mechanics

Remote Repair: Comparing Shield, Armor, and Hull Repair

Most commonly, fleet logistics is about remote repair. Logistics ships in EVE are similar to the "healer" character classes you find in many other online multiplayer games; logistics pilots usually assist their fleetmates by restoring their hitpoints (HP), in battle. Remote repair can be used to restore HP to a ship's shield, armor, or hull, via three types of high-slot, remote repair modules: Remote Shield Boosters, Remote Armor Repairers, and Remote Hull Repairers. (Technically speaking, shields are "boosted" rather than "repaired", but for the purpose of this Guide, shield boosters have been classified as repair modules.) These three types of remote repair modules have some important differences, and the differences became more pronounced with the December 2015 Frostline update. The chart below illustrates these differences for medium-sized, Tech I modules of each type:

Remote Repair Modules

Item		CPU (tf)	Powergrid (MW)	Cycle Time (sec)	Repair Amount (HP)	Repair Rate (HP/sec)	Activation Cost (GJ)	Cap Demand (GJ/sec)	Optimal Range	Falloff	Rep Applied At
File:RemoteShieldBoostIcon.png	Medium Remote Shield Booster I	50	52	8	260	32.5	232	29.0	5.00 km	7.50 km	beginning of cycle
	Fitted to a Scythe* (Tech I shield logistics cruiser)				390	48.8	158	19.7	26.5 km	39.8 km
File:RemoteArmorRepIcon.png	Medium Remote Armor Repairer I	20	120	6	196	32.7	155	25.8	8.75 km	2.50 km	end of cycle
	Fitted to an Exequror* (Tech I armor logistics cruiser)				294	49.0	105	17.6	46.4 km	13.3 km
File:RemoteHullRepIcon.png	Medium Remote Hull Repairer I	68	115	6	96	16.0	244	40.7	8.75 km	5.00 km	end of cycle

∗ Flown by a low-skill Unista (Racial Cruiser IV, Shield Emission Systems III, Remote Armor Repair Systems III). Your results may vary.

As the table above shows, fitting remote repair modules to bonused logistics ships makes them work much better, and pilot skills affect these numbers as well. In addition, there are meta versions of these modules with improved range ("Scoped"), CPU and powergrid requirements ("Compact"), or capacitor usage ("Enduring"). So, the specific values in this table are not so important. Nevertheless, the chart does illustrate some of the most important differences between remote shield, armor, and hull repair modules:

• The icons for remote repair modules look like those of local repair modules, and armor and hull repairers look alike. Make sure you select the module you want! All remote assistance modules are distinguished from local modules by a double arrow on the icon. The icons for remote armor and hull repairers show welding helmets with different colors: gold for armor, and silver for hull. If you find the symbols confusing, the names are much clearer, so you can mouse over the module icon to make sure you have the right kind.

• Remote hull repairers are inferior to remote armor repairers and shield boosters, so remote hull repairers are never used in combat. Remote hull repairers require a great deal of CPU, powergrid and capacitor, and repair less HP than other repair modules. Unlike the other two remote repair types, there are no ships in EVE that are bonused for hull repair. As a result, remote hull repairers are not generally used in fleets, even for compositions focused on hull tanking. Remote hull repair is a convenient alternative to paying for hull repairs in station, however, and so these modules are used outside of combat.

• Overall, remote shield boosters and armor repairers restore HP at the same rate. Neither of these repair modes is inherently better than the other. They do have differences, however, that make each one preferable under certain circumstances.

• Remote armor repairers require less capacitor than remote shield boosters. Not only do armor repairers require less capacitor per cycle, they are also more cap efficient (requiring less cap per time) relative to shield boosters. This means that armor-repairing ships have more cap room for other active modules, and are less sensitive to enemy neutralizers and Nosferatus, than shield-boosting ships. Armor logistics ships have an easier time running all of their repair modules continuously, whereas shield logistics ships often have to cycle their boosting modules on and off to conserve capacitor. Because of their cap efficiency, armor logistics ships are more powerful for longer engagements (in which fleetmates don't die quickly), and in any PvE activity where cap stability may be an issue.

• Remote armor repairers have longer optimal range than remote shield boosters. Armor logistics ships can stay farther away from the action, and still deliver 100% of their repping power, compared to shield logistics ships. As the chart shows, ship-bonused armor repairers have fairly long optimal range, and an Exequror—a Tech I armor logistics cruiser—can apply full armor repairs from 50 km away. The optimal range of a Scythe, the matching Tech I shield logistics cruiser, is less than two-thirds as long. As a result, it is easier to keep armor-repairing ships out of harm's way than it is shield-repairing ships.

• Because shield boosters deliver HP at the beginning of the module cycle, no cycles are wasted. Armor repairers, by contrast, deliver repairs at the end of the module cycle. One downside of flying armor logistics is that, sometimes, your armor-tanked fleetmates will die faster than the cycle time of your remote armor repair modules. When this happens, each module's repair cycle is lost; the target of the remote armor repairer no longer exists, and so when the module completes its cycle, nothing gets repaired. This never happens with remote shield boosters, because a shield booster delivers HP at the beginning its module cycle. This may sound like an unusual situation—how is it possible that a ship is destroyed in just 6 seconds? In fact, this happens frequently in large fleet fights, where tens of opponent damage dealers are focusing fire on a single ship. But wasted cycles also affect longer fights, where each wasted cycle diminishes the overall, average efficiency of repairs. Not only does shield repair involve no wasted cycles, but because shield disappears before armor, shield logistics pilots have a little more time to rescue their fleetmates than armor logistics pilots do. As a result, shield logistics is better than armor in very large fleet engagements, or in any situation where you expect your fleetmates to die quickly.

• Remote shield boosters deliver more HP/cycle, so they have more repair "alpha". Combat ships are sometimes judged by how much damage they can deliver in their first ("alpha") volley. Logistics ships can be compared by a very similar measure, by how much damage they can repair in their initial repair cycle. By this measure, remote shield boosters are better than remote armor repairers—they repair more damage, right away.

Prior to the December 2015 Frostline patch, the statistics for shield and armor repair modules were much more similar, and flying shield and armor logistics was mechanically almost identical. Now, even though logistics pilots are still expected to fly whatever logistics type matches their fleet's doctrine, they have to pilot shield and armor ships slightly differently, according to their strengths and limitations.

Remote Repair: Comparing Module Size

As you would expect, small, medium and large remote repair modules differ in the amount of HP they repair per cycle, and in their repair range. But these characteristics are also affected a great deal by the ships they are fit to. The chart below compares remote repair modules that have been fitted to logistics ships of matching size:

Remote Repair Module Sizes

Item	Repair Rate (HP/sec)	Optimal Range	Falloff
Small Solace Scoped Remote Armor Repairer fit to an Inquisitor* (Tech I logistics frigate)	28	11.6	19.3
Medium Solace Scoped Remote Armor Repairer fit to an Exequror* (Tech I logistics cruiser)	61	51.0	14.6
Large Solace Scoped Remote Armor Repairer fit to a Nestor* (Faction logistics battleship)	112	26.4	7.7

∗ Skills: All V's.

Though this chart is focused on just armor logistics, and shows just a few of the ships that are bonused for remote repair, it illustrates something that is true across all sub-capital logistics ships and modules: Logistics cruisers, and matching medium-sized logistics modules, represent a sort of sub-capital "sweet spot" in terms of repair amount and range. Medium modules fit to logistics cruisers repair much more effectively than frigates, and have a significant range bonus relative to battleships. (This is due to ship bonuses, not to module differences; unbonused large repairers have longer range than medium repairers.) As will be discussed below in the section on Logistics Ships, Unistas are often advised to skill into Tech I logistics cruisers if they are interested in fulfilling the logistics fleet role.

Remote Repair vs. Local Repair

One, very intuitive reason for including logistics ships in fleets is so that damage dealers can focus on their own role; by having logistics ships manage repair, the other, combat-oriented ships in the fleet can fit more modules, rigs, and implants dedicated to damage-dealing. But another, less intuitive justification is that logistics ships are often better at repairing other ships than those ships are at repairing themselves. The table below illustrates this by comparing local and remote armor repairers fit to cruiser hulls:

Local vs. Remote Repair Modules

Item	Repair Rate (HP/sec)	Repair Efficiency (HP/cap unit)
Medium Remote Armor Repairer II fit to an Exequror*	69	4.3
Medium Armor Repairer II fit to an unbonused hull	41	2.3

∗ Skills: All V's.

Logistics ships often repair their fleetmates more effectively, and with less capacitor, than their targets can repair themselves. This comparison can become a bit more complicated with shield boosting, particularly for combat ships that can fit oversized local shield boosters. Nevrtheless, remote shield boosters fit to logistics ships—like the remote armor repairers shown above—are more effective than local shield boosters of the same size.

Ancillary Remote Repair Modules

In the Citadel expansion (April 2016), CCP introduced two new classes of remote repair modules: Ancillary Remote Shield Boosters and Ancillary Remote Armor Repairers. These modules are similar in function to local ancillary repair modules (introduced in the Retribution expansion of 2013) that consume charges in exchange for local repairs; the remote versions apply repairs to a fleetmate instead of locally. The attributes of ancillary remote repair modules are different from those of local repair modules, however, and are discussed further below. In general, both ancillary remote armor repairers and ancillary remote shield boosters are used to provide a quick burst of remote repair over a few module cycles, which consume all of the module's loaded charges. Once this happens, ancillary remote repair modules must undergo an extremely slow reload before they can be used in charge-boosted mode again. As a result, ancillary remote repair modules do not improve on the overall repair rate of standard remote repair modules—the combination of boosted repair and the long reload time results in an averaged HP/time that is similar to ordinary remote repair modules—but they can be used to front-load these repairs.

Ancillary Remote Shield Boosters

Ancillary Remote Shield Booster Comparison

Item	Shield Boost (HP)	Activation Cost, without charges (GJ)	Activation Cost, with charges* (GJ)	# Cycles Before Reload	Reload Time (sec)	Boost Rate (HP/sec, including reload time)	CPU (tf)	Powergrid (MW)	Cycle Time (sec)	Optimal Range	Falloff
Medium Ancillary Remote Shield Booster I	475	700	0	9	60	32.4	50	52	8	5.00 km	7.50 km
Medium Remote Shield Booster I	260	232				32.5	50	52	8	5.00 km	7.50 km

∗Navy Cap Booster 50. The Cap Booster 25 size may not be used with ancillary shield booster modules. Larger boosters can fit, but they offer no repair gain over Navy Cap Booster 50's, so the smallest possible booster is always used.

As the comparison chart above shows, ancillary remote shield boosters (ARSBs) have two advantages over standard, Tech I shield boosters: they deliver almost double the shield boost of a standard shield booster for 9 module cycles, and they require no capacitor when operated with cap booster charges. ARSBs also receive all of the ship bonuses that standard remote shield boosters do (and so, while the exact numbers in this table will change according to the ship they are fitted to, the comparison will not). These are pretty significant advantages. Shield logistics ships are often capacitor-limited, and so delivering repairs without the need for capacitor not only helps them contribute longer, but also makes them more resistant against enemy capacitor warfare. And an initial, powerful shield boost might be just what your fleet needs at the beginning of a fight, when incoming alpha damage is at its greatest.

Nevertheless, ARSBs have some clear drawbacks. When the ARSB module runs out of cap booster charges, the logistics pilot has two choices: either wait for a 60-second reload, or use the module without charges, which costs three times as much capacitor as the standard module. (Most shield logistics ships don't have enough capacitor for the second option.) As is true for local ancillary repair modules, only one ARSB can be fit to a ship, so logistics pilots with an ASRB fitted will also have to use standard shield boosters. And finally, while ARSBs compare well against standard Tech I modules, they don't look quite as strong compared to meta, Tech II, faction or deadspace shield boosters; they have shorter range, and sometimes worse fitting, than many of these other options. In particular, Tech II logistics ships are probably better fit with standard shield boosters, because Tech II ships are less capacitor-limited. On the other hand, groups of Tech I Scythe pilots could benefit significantly by fitting ARSBs, so that they can boost each other through the initial wave of damage that is frequently aimed at logistics. Although ARSBs are very new and rare—they can only be manufactured from blueprint copies found via exploration or ratting—they may still find a niche in low-skill logistics.

Ancillary Remote Armor Repairers

Ancillary Remote Armor Repairer Comparison

Item	Repair Amount, with charges* (HP)	Repair Amount, without charges (HP)	Activation Cost	# Cycles Before Reload	Reload Time (sec)	Repair Rate (HP/sec, including reload time)	CPU (tf)	Powergrid (MW)	Cycle Time (sec)	Optimal Range	Falloff
Medium Ancillary Remote Armor Repairer I	435	145	155	8	60	32.2	20	120	6	8.75 km	2.50 km
Medium Remote Armor Repairer I		196	155			32.7	20	120	6	8.75 km	2.50 km

∗Nanite Repair Paste.

Ancillary Remote Armor Repairers (ARARs) are similar to ARSBs in that they deliver more HP repair—more than double that of a standard, Tech I remote repair module—at the expense of charges. ARARs consume nanite repair paste instead of cap boosters, and they can only be loaded with eight cycles worth of charges instead of nine. More significantly, ARARs consume capacitor whether they are loaded with paste or not, but they only repair 1/3 as much HP when they are operated without paste. Just like ARSBs, ARARs have a 60-second reload time that limits the average repair efficiency of the modules. You can only fit a maximum of one, and ARARs compare poorly against meta, Tech II, faction and deadspace repairers in fitting and overall efficiency. But, as with ARSBs, they can be used for a short burst of repairs at the beginning of an engagement.

Logistics Rigs

There is only one set of rigs dedicated to assisting logistics ships—Remote Repair Augmentors—and these only assist armor repair, not shield boosting. Remote repair augmentors reduce the capacitor demand of armor repairers (by 20% for Tech I rigs, 25% for Tech II). Given the cap demand of remote repair modules, it might seem as though logistics pilots should always fit one or more of these rigs. But Capacitor Control Circult, Trimark Armor Pump, or Ancillary Current Router rigs may be preferable, depending on the fit.

Logistics Drones

Logistics drones (Maintenance Bots) are an important component of logistics piloting. All logistics ships of all sizes and races have dronebays that can fit maintenance bots. In addition, nearly all Tech I and Tech II logistics cruisers (except the Osprey and Augoror) receive a 100% bonus to maintenance bot repair amount. To put the importance of this bonus into perspective, about 25% of the repping power of a standard, Unista Fleet-Up Fit Scythe comes from its drones.

A detailed description of maintenance bots is available in the UniWiki's Guide to Drones. The message here is simple: use them, and use the best ones that you have the skills for.

Remote Capacitor Transfer

Remote Capacitor Transmitters consume capacitor on the fitted ship, and transfer that capacitor to a targeted fleetmate. On unbonused ships, remote capacitor transmitters can be used to counter the effects of capacitor warfare, but local options (such as cap battery or booster modules) are often more effective at this job. However, as explained further below in the Logistics Ships section, Caldari and Amarr logistics cruisers have significant bonuses to remote capacitor transmitters that create an unusual situation: when these ships activate a remote capacitor transmitter, they transfer more capacitor than they consume. In effect, Caldari and Amarr logistics cruisers can use remote capacitor transmitters to create capacitor units, out of thin air.

Effects of Ship Bonuses on Remote Capacitor Transmitters

Medium 'Regard' Remote Capacitor Transmitter:* (meta 4)	Activation Cost (GJ)	Capacitor Transferred (GJ)	Optimal Range
unbonused	85	108	6.0 km
fit to an Osprey (Tech I logistics cruiser)	85	324	66.0 km

∗ Skills: All V's, including Capacitor Emission Systems V.

As shown in the chart, an unbonused transmitter transfers about the same amount of capacitor as it consumes. (A bit more at high skills, a bit less at low skills.) When fit to an Osprey or Augoror, on the other hand, these modules can generate hundreds of capacitor units for other ships in the fleet, at significant ranges. Most commonly, this extra capacitor is transferred to other logistics ships in a capacitor chain (or "cap chain"). In cap-chain logistics, a squad of logistics ships simultaneously give and receive capacitor to each other as a means of increasing their available capacitor. Cap-chain logistics is described further in the Tactics section of this Guide.

Remote Tracking Computers and Sensor Boosters

The Oneiros and the Scimitar—both solo (non-cap-chain) Tech II logistics cruisers—are bonused for remote tracking computers. These are primarily used to support battleship fleets, and to help their battleship fleetmates hit cruiser-sized targets. Although remote tracking support is probably not the first thing that EVE players think of when they consider logistics ships, remote tracking computers are often fit to these two specific logistics hulls.

No logistics hulls receive bonuses to remote sensor boosters (RSBs), but they are a form of on-grid remote assistance, and RSBs are sometimes fit to logistics ships as a counter to enemy electronic warfare (EWAR). In particular, cap-chained logistics ships can combine RSBs to help counter focused EWAR that is aimed at breaking the cap chain; in this scenario, multiple RSBs can be used to shore up the sensor strength of the targeted chain member.

Logistics Ships

Racial Specializations

Race	Armor or Shield?	Cap-Chain or Solo?
	Armor	Cap-Chain
	Shield	Cap-Chain
	Armor	Solo
	Shield	Solo

Each of the four player races specializes in the type of logistics that their ships are naturally tanked for. Caldari and Minmatar ships are ordinarily shield-tanked, and so these two races specialize in shield logistics; and Amarr and Gallente ships are typically armor-tanked, so these two races specialize in armor logistics. In addition, each race either specializes in cap-chain logistics, or not, as shown by the chart at right. It is important to note that capacitor chaining only occurs for cruisers and force auxiliaries; all frigate logistics ships, of all races, are "solo" logistics ships.