User:Qwer Stoneghost

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Active Shield Tanking

Active shield tanking is used primarily in PvE. PvP encounters are often over quickly, making a short term, but high mitigation tank preferable. PvE encounters tend to unfold more slowly, and in taking on opponents one at a time (or in small groups) a player benefits from a renewable tank, even if its maximum power is less impressive.

A combat technique known as "kiting" makes use of active tanking and is widely used in PvE. A kiting ship attracts enemies and then flees, stringing the enemy out like the tail of a kite. By controlling its speed, the player ship can allow only a few enemy ships to come into range at any given time. These are killed, and while that is happening, the player's tank is rebuilding itself. (Note that this spreads out the wrecks and makes looting and salvaging take longer.)

An active shield fit needs enough tanking power to withstand the damage from a group a ships for some amount of time - enough regenerating power to rebuild the shields before they collapse under the damage. If this sounds imprecise, it is because the goal depends on the balance between power and regeneration, and there are a lot of ways to accomplish that balance.

Here is a typical mission running cruiser fit:

Ship: Caldari Caracal High Slots

• Light missile launcher x 5

Mid Slots

• Large Shield Extender x 2
• Compact Thermal Shield Hardener
• Compact Kinetic Shield Hardener
• Afterburner

Low Slots

• Shield Flux Coil x 2
• Ballistic Control System x 2

Rigs

• Medium Core Defense Purger x 3

Drones of choice x 2

This ship has five mid level fitting slots. This is typical of shield tanked ships and also typical of Caldari ships, which often prefer shields.

The high slots will be filled with offensive weapons - depending on the players preference and skill level. Missiles are used here because the Caracal has bonuses for missiles. Note that the more power and cpu used by the weapons, the less power and cpu available to the shields. This is the trade-off that every player must make. If your missile skills are high, and your engineering skills low, you might want to downgrade the launchers in order to have more cpu and power available for shields. There are a very large number of possible combinations.

In the mid slots, the two shield extenders increase the shield's toughness in general. The thermal hardener increases thermal resistance, and the same for the kinetic hardener. The hardeners can be swapped out to match the damage giving characteristics of the NPCs to be engaged.

The low slot fittings represent another choice for balance. The two flux coils draw capacitor to rebuild the shields. The two ballistic control systems increase the missile damage and rate of fire. A player may want to remove a ballistic control system and add a shield rebuilding module - exactly which module is a matter of skill level and choice.

A caracal fit similar to this on can be viewed at EVE Workbench. Other typical ships that benefit from active shields include the: Drake (battlecruiser), Hurricane (battlecruiser), Raven (battleship) and Maelstrom (battleship).