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This article is a basic primer aimed at helping players new to combat. Players who have been into EVE for some time may find this to be of limited use to them but this guide is more for beginners to intermediate players entering into the combat 'arena' for the first time.

In this guide I will be specifically looking at ship defense. This includes the equipment you can use with pointers to how it all works and the skills you need to learn. Also covered is some of the combat terminology which is an integral part of understanding combat which you will need when you want to discuss with other players or are seeking advice on how to defend your self.

TERMINOLOGY

TANK - tank is one of the most common terms used in combat. Tank is your defense and consists of shields and armour

Armour Tank /Shield Tank - This refers to how you tank your ship - see below

Passive Tank / Active tank - These terms refer to how your tank works - see below

Capacitor (cap) - The energy inside your ship capacitor that can be used to activate modules to help in defending your self.

Resistances (res) - the 4 resistances on your ship are Electro Magnetic (EM) , Explosive (EXP) , Thermal (THERM) , Kinetic (KIN). These are written as a percentage (%) value.

Note: remember there are 4 damage types that correspond with the 4 resistance types. You will often see pilots write their resistances in order such as 50/20/35/55 (i.e. EM, EXP, THERM, KIN)

Speed Tank - Speed tanking is setting up your ship to travel faster than missiles can hit you move as well as faster than projectiles and hybrids can track you.

PVE - Player versus Environment - This is fighting non player characters (NPC`S) and usually comes down to ratting in belts or missions

PVP - Player versus Player - When 2 or more players (real people) are fighting each other - all the way up to 100 man fleets.

Understanding Ship Types

Understanding ship types is important in the fitting of your ship - should it be an armour or shield tank? There are a few ways to deciding how to tank your ship and the following two are probably the easiest methods:

1. One way is to use the Market in your neocom and Search for the ship you wish to fly. Select 'Show Info' button and go to the 'Attributes' tab then look at the overall amour and shield amounts. Generally you will find that one value will be higher. The higher of the two values will indicate the preferred tank for that ship. For example in the case of a Raven it will be 6641 Armour and 7500 Shield. This would indicate a Raven is best fitted out as a Shield Tank.

2. Another method is to look at the ships Low and Medium slot configuration because of the types of modules that will fit in those slots. You can find this by selecting the 'Fittings' tab on the ships info panel.  If a ship has more medium slots this would indicate it is a shield tanker. If it has more low slots it would indicate it is a amour tanker. In the case of a Megathron it has 4 medium slots and 7 lows indicating the Megathron is best fitted out as an Armour Tank.

With both of the above methods you should be able to work out pretty much any ships "preferred" option of tanking. Note that this is not always the case and there are always setups out there that will go contrary to what a ship is intended to do. If your in any doubt though a good rule of thumb is this:

Caldari ships prefer Shield Tanks

Gallente ships prefer Armour Tank

Amarr ships prefer Armour Tank

Minmatar ships can Armour & Shield tank

Note that the Minmitar can use both tanks and different Minmitar ships favour different tanks. The shield tanking ships typically have a bonus to shield boost amount.

Shield Tanks

The modules you use will make a massive difference to how you tank. More importantly, what modules you can use and your proficiency comes down to the skills you have. If you don't have the necessary skills trained, you will find you wont be able to fit certain modules or if you can fit them then you probably can't use them properly. At the other end of the scale having certain skills trained up to LVL5 will give you an extra 2% and that can make all the difference in deciding who wins or loses a fight. Having low skills may also mean you can fit the module but activating it makes you 'Cap starved' and you find yourself continually having to warp in and out of a mission to recharge the CAP and survive. The following list of skills are sorted alphabeticaly but does not imply any relative importance.

EM Compensation - This gives a 3% (per skill level) bonus to passive EM shield hardening mods. This means the bonus this module gives to your ships resistance will be greater than normal

Energy Grid Upgrades - This allows you to use modules suck as cap batteries and power diagnostic systems (PDS's). Each skill level reduces the CPU fitting costs; the amount of CPU used to activiate these modules

Energy Management - 5% (per skill level) extra capacity to the Capacitor on your ship. Simply put, you will receive an extra 5% energy added to your ship per level. More cap means you will be able to run certain modules for longer allowing you to stay longer in the fight. Also having more cap but keeping the same recharge time will increase the amount of cap regenerated per second

Energy Systems Operations - 5% (per skill level) reduction to recharge time of your capacitor. Meaning that your capacitor recharges quicker after you have used it allowing you again to stay in the fight for longer.

Explosive Shield Compensation - See EM compensation

Kinetic Shield Compensation - See EM compensation

Shield Compensation - 2% (per skill level) reduction in the amount of cap used by shield boost modules. This will make your ship more efficient and leave you more cap to use for other things or last longer.

Shield Management - 5% extra shields (per skill level). This means your tank resistance value is bigger and it will take longer for an enemy to damage you. Also having more shields but keeping the same recharge time will increase the amount of shields regenerated per second

Shield Operation - This skill gives you 5% reduction to shield recharge time allowing your shields to recharge quicker between your enemy's attacks. This skill also enables you to use shield boosters.

Tactical Shield Manipulation - Once you reach your last 25% of your shield you will start to take minor damage to your armor. Having this skill will reduce that amount by 20% per level until at level 5 you take no damage to your armor until your shields are completely exhausted.

Thermic Shield Compensation - See EM compensation

Having these skills trained to a basic level will enable you to last longer while taking damage and in some cases reduce the damage you take in the first place.

 

Concepts

With a shield tank the main intention is to use your mid slots to tank your ship with modules that toughen your shields by increasing your resistances and reducing the damage you take. As well as this your mid slots should include some form of shield regeneration, in most cases this will be a shield booster but there are other modules you can use.

In your low slots your intentions are to complement your established mid slot tank with either modules to increase your cap / cap recharge rate or modules that increase your shield recharge rate. By doing this your creating a way to protect your self from damage while aiding it in becoming sustainable.

Follows is a table of some resistance amounts and the effect it has on tanking.

 

Resistance Amounts

	% Res	% Increase to Shield / Armor	% Increase to max dps
	0	0	0
	10	11	11
	20	25	25
	30	43	43
	40	67	67
	50	100	100
	60	250	250
	70	333	333
	80	500	500
	90	1000	1000

 

 

Notice that as resistance increases both your effective total shield / armor hit points increases at the same time as the amount of damage your boosters / repairers can recover.

The percentages were rounded and found by the following formula

% increase = 100 / (1 – res %)

So take a ship with 5,000 shield hit points. Fit a shield booster that restores 100 shield points. Fit modules to increase all of its resistances to 70%. According to the chart above, the ship will have 16,650 effective shield points and will be able to tank 333 points of damage per second (dps).

Increase   = 5000 x 333% or 5000 x (333 / 100)

= 5000 x 3.33

= 16,650

Shield Tanking Modules

You will find that some of the modules used in shield tanking are also used in armor tanking. These modules are energy modules effecting your cap. Some shield tanking modules come in different sizes because they are made for different ship types, but they all do the same job.

Also with each module there are "named" versions. Each named version get progressively better at increasing the attribute they are used for until you reach tech2 versions of each module. The top named version is in most cases as good as the tech2 as far as increasing a particular attribute but the tech2`s can take up more fitting space (cpu/grid). Again these modules are listed in no order of importance.

Shield Boosters - This is an active tanks first line of defense and repairs your shields when activated. This module has a cycle time and in each cycle will burn 'x' amount of cap whilst replenishing shields in the process

Shield Boost Amplifiers - This module increases the amount that a shield booster repairs per cycle.

Shield Extenders - These modules increase the overall amount of shields you have on your ship.

Shield Flux Coils - These modules increase your ships natural recharge rate in exchange for overall shield amount.

Shield Hardeners - These modules give a large boost to your ships resistances once they are activated. The increase is portrayed as a %. The hardener works on the portion of the shield not already covered. That means with a base resistance of 60%, a hardener only effects 40% of the shields. So in this case a hardener that gives 50% resistance will yield a total resistance of 80%, the math behind this is 100 * (0.5 + (0.4 * 0.5)). Additional bonuses to resistance will be stacking penalized. Stacking penalties are calculated separately for each resistance type.

Shield Power Relays (SPR`s) - These modules work like shield flux coils by increasing shield recharge rate, except this module reduces cap  recharge rate.

Shield Rechargers - This module also increases your shield recharge rate but only by a small amount, but has no down side to them.

Shield Resistance Amplifiers - These modules increase your ships resistances by a small amount but do not need activating. The increase is  portrayed as a %. The effective resistance after fitting the module is calculated in the same way as Shield Hardeners.

Damage Control (DC) - This module increases your ships armor, shield and structure resistances but by a small amount Only one of these modules can be used on a ship at any one time. It is important to note that the resistance offered by damage controls is NOT penalized by stacking.

Capacitor Batteries - These modules increase the amount of cap that your ship has by a set amount.

Capacitor Boosters - These modules inject extra energy into your ship when it needs it most, it does this by being used in conjunction with cap charges of various sizes.

Capacitor Flux Coils - This module decreases your ships cap recharge time, but reduces the overall cap amount you can store.

Capacitor Power Relays - This module decreases your ships cap recharge time but reduces your ships shield boost modules shield boost amount.

Capacitor Rechargers - This module decreases your ships cap recharge time but by a smaller amount with no attribute based penalty. However taking up a mid slot with a capacitor recharger can be disadvantageous to your tank as we will find out.

Power Diagnostic Systems (PDS/PDU) - This module has multiple advantages. The PDS increases cap amount and shield amount, while reducing recharge amounts on both. Also increases your ships power grid and helping with fitting other modules.

Reactor Control Unit (RCU) - This module increases your ships power grid amount.

Shield Tanking Rigs

Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer – Increases your ship's shield's resistance to EM damage.

Anti-Explosive Screen Reinforcer – Increases your ship's shield's resistance to Explosive damage

Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer – Increases your ship's shield's resistance to Kinetic damage

Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer – Increases your ship's shield's resistance to Thermal damage

Core Defence Capacitor Safeguard – Decreases the amount of capacitor used by shield boosters. This is especially useful when combined with a Core Defence Operational Solidifier rig because the combination nets a 6% increase in capacitor drain as opposed to the 18% increase in capacitor  drain of the Core Defence Operational Solidifier (figures are rounded and based on T1 rigs).

Core Defence Charge Economizer – Decreases the amount of power grid required to fit shield upgrades.

Core Defence Field Extender – Increases the amount of shields on the ship. It is best used on actively shield tanked ships to increase total hit  points.

Core Defence Field Purger – Decreases the regeneration time of the shields. It is an essential module on any passively shield tanked ship.

Core Defence Operational Solidifier – Decreases the cycle time of shield boosters. This results in an 18% increase in the amount of damage your  ship can tank and the amount of capacitor / second used by your shield booster (figures are rounded and based on T1 rigs).

The difference between active and passive shield tanking

Active and passive tanking are very different ways of shield tanking. Each method has different ways of setting up your ship and each method has its pros and cons.

In passive shield tanking your aim is to rely on your ships own recharge rate to be greater than the damage you are taking on. This method means you don't have to rely on cap meaning you don't have to worry about ships "nosing" or "nueting" you.

On the down side, once your ship is taking more damage than it can recharge - you are dead!

In a active tank you rely on cap to activate modules to recharge your shields as well as run your shield resistance modules. This method is very hands on and a lot of players prefer thins method for that reason.

On the down side if a ship "noses" or "nuets" you and thus draining your cap then you will be unable to activate your modules. That is the basic differences between the two main types of shield tanking.

Active Shield Tanking

In active shield tanking as stated above you use your cap to activate modules that regenerate your shields. The basic premise with active tanking is that you use your mid slots for modules that increase your resistances, shield amount and shield recharge.

In the case of your resistances your aiming to get each one to be as equal as possible. In some of your low slots you would load modules dedicated to cap recharge.

In the case of the Raven it has 6 mid slots and 5 low slots. These many slots allow you to build up a nice tank.

Firstly let us look at the mid slots.

The first thing we will need is a shield booster. In the case of a Raven this should always be a extra large (XL).

Secondly we can fill the second and third slot with shield boost amplifiers giving a massive boost to the XL shield booster already fitted.

In the fourth slot we can put a Photon Scattering Field which is a dedicated EM hardener due to the fact all shield tankers are weak in their EM resistance which is 0% in all but a few ships.

In the fifth and sixth slot we will try putting two Invulnerability Fields that will increase all resistances by a %.

As you can see I have built up a tank that has a high shield boost amount as well as close to equal resistances that are as high as possible without been a hindrance to my tank. As far as low slots are concerned I wouldn't take up all your lows with cap mods as you will want to put on modules such as BCSs so in 2/3 of your low slots i would put PDS or capacitor power relays. PDS have less of a boost to cap but have no draw back.

In the case of capacitor power relays they give a massive cap increase but reduce your shield boost amount. What you have to work out is the shield boost cap amount ratio. Is what your getting out eating your cap faster than it can regenerate?

Although a DCU is a good module, you have to ask your self as a shield tanker can you use your low slots better? The answer as a shield tanker is invariably yes. However, the damage control will make your armor and hull last longer in combat when your shields are depleted thus buying critical time for remote repairs, the arrival of more friendly ships, and the eventual destruction of the enemy ships.

Passive Shield Tanking

With passive tanking your relying primarily on 3 things, shield regeneration, shield resistances and shield amount.

With your ship being passive you will rely on your ship recharging its shields as quick as possible between missile volleys and salvos of rails. With high resistances the amount of shield that will be needed to be regenerated will be drastically reduced making life a lot easier.

Lastly a decent amount of overall shields so that you can't be easily overpowered (out dps`ed).

A perfect ship for this purpose is the Drake due to its high resistances, resistance bonuses, good shield regeneration and a good slot layout allowing you to build up a nice passive tank and is the favorite of many mission runners and pvp'ers alike for this reason.

Let's stick with a Raven though for the example fitout. First of all we will look at the mid slots on the Raven.

A command setup for a passive tanks mid slots is 2 large shield extenders, 2 hardeners usually 1 em and 1 invulnerability and 2 shield rechargers.

This is commonly referred to as the 2/2/2 passive setup.

The problem with the 2/2/2 passive setup when looking at a Raven is that you have low resistances making hardeners more of a priority and being a Battleship the shield amount reduction is an issue. This leads to the second most used command setup - the 3/3 passive shield setup.

This is 3 hardeners usually 1 em and 2 invulnerability and 3 shield Large shield extenders. This setup allows you to increase your already low em resistance and then lift your other resistances as well while also increasing your shield amount. What I suggest is a variation on the 3/3 setup with 3 hardeners and 3 shield rechargers as the shield amount of a Raven is less of an issue.

In the low slots of a Raven you would be tempted to keep 2 slots for damage modules while with your remaining 3 put in shield power relays and at of time of writing the shield power relays do NOT have any stacking penalty meaning.

Although a DCU is a good module, you are almost always better served by a module that increases the damage dealt by your weapons, a shield power relay, a shield flux coil, or a power diagnostic system.

Armor Tanking

As with shield tanking you should also start by training the skills most neeed for armor tanking. The modules you use can and will make a massive difference to how you tank but a large part you will find comes down to skills you train.

The following list is again in alphabetical order and does not infer relative importance.

Energy Management - 5% extra capacity to the capacitor on your ship per skill level. Simply put, you get 5% extra energy added to your ship per level. More cap means you will be able to run certain modules for longer allowing you to stay longer in the fight. Also having more cap but keeping the same recharge time will increase the amount of cap regenerated per second.

Energy Systems Operations - 5% reduction to recharge time of your capacitor per skill level. This means that your cap recharges quicker after being depleted and allowing you to stay in the fight for longer.

Em Armor Compensation - This gives a 3% per skill lvl bonus to passive em armor hardening mods. This basically means the bonus this module gives to your ships res will be greater than normal.

Exp Armor Compensation - See em armor compensation

Hull Upgrades - This skill gives you 5% extra armor amount per level. Also this skill allows you to use modules such as armor hardeners

Kinetic Armor compensation - See em armor compensation

Mechanic - This skill increases your structure amount by 5% per level and is also the basic requirement for armor repairers.

Repair Systems - This skill is also another requirement for amour repairers but also reduces the activation time of armor repairers allowing you to tank quicker helping to ensure you are not over powered by damage (out dps`ed)

Thermic Armor Compensation - See em armor compensation

Armour Tanking Modules

Some of the modules used in armor tanking, you will find are also can be used in shield tanking. These modules are energy modules effecting your cap. Some shield tanking modules come in different sizes this is because they are made for different ship types, but they all do the same job. Also with each module there are "named" versions. Each named version get progressively better at increasing the attribute they are used for until you
reach tech2 versions of each module. The top named version is in most cases as good as the tech2 as far as increasing the said attribute but the tech2`s can take up more fitting space (cpu/grid).

Again these modules are listed in no order of importance.

Damage Control (DC) - This module increases your ships armor, shield and structure resistances but by a small amount Only one of these modules can be used on a ship at any one time.

Capacitor Batteries - These modules increase the amount of cap that your ship has by a set amount.

Capacitor Boosters - These modules inject extra energy into your ship when it needs it most, it does this by being used in conjunction with cap charges of various sizes.

Capacitor Flux Coils - This module decreases your ships cap recharge time, but reduces the overall cap amount you can store.

Capacitor Power Relays - This module decreases your ships cap recharge time but reduces your ships shield boost modules shield boost amount.

Capacitor Rechargers - This module decreases your ships cap recharge time but by a smaller amount with no penalty.

Power Diagnostic Systems (PDS/PDU) - This module has multiple advantages. The PDS increases cap amount and shield amount, while reducing recharge amounts on both. Also increases your ships power grid helping with fitting other modules.

Reactor Control Unit (RCU) - This module increases your ships power grid amount.

Armor Hardeners - These modules increase armor resistances in exchange for cap.

Armor Plates - These modules increase the amount of armor that you have while increasing your ships mass

Armor Repair Systems - This module is the first line of defense on a active armor tank and repairs damaged armor in exchange for cap

Energized Plating - These modules are passive modules that increase your ships resistances but not as much as active modules.

Hull Repair Systems - These modules repair your ships structure in exchange for cap. However this is a slow process and best avoided for tanking except by very experienced pilots.

Armour Tanking Rigs

Anti-EM Pump – Increases armor's resistance to EM damage.

Anti-Explosive Pump – Increases armor's resistance to Explosive damage.

Anti-Kinetic Pump – Increases armor's resistance to Kinetic damage.

Anti-Thermic Pump – Increases armor's resistance to Thermal damage.

Auxiliary Nano Pump – Increases the amount of hit points your armor repairer will restore on each cycle. They are a good way to increase the amount of dps your ship can tank without increasing the draw on the capacitor.

Nanobot Accelerator – Decreases the cycle time for armor repairers. This increases the amount of damage your ship can tank by a greater amount than the Auxiliary Nano Pump. However, the reduced cycle time will cause your armor repairer to use capacitor points faster.

Remote Repairer Augmentor – Reduces the amount of capacitor used by remote armor and hull repairers.

Trimark Armor Pump – Increases the amount of armor on your ship. It is especially useful when fitted on passive armor tanked ships.

Note: Armor Rigs will reduce your ship's top speed. Armor Rigging I by 9% and Armor Rigging V by 5%.

The difference between active and passive armor tanking

There are many differences between active and passive armor tanking. The main differences are that in a active tank you use active modules to repair your damaged armor, hoping to be able to constantly repair over a period of time. Passive armor tanking is a matter of armor amount with no form of repair.

Active Armor Tanking

In active armor tanking as stated above you use your cap to activate modules that regenerate your armor.

The basic premise with active tanking is that you use your mid slots for modules that increase your cap. With your low slots you are aiming to put in modules that repair your armor, armor amount and armor resistances.

In the case of your resistances your aiming to get each one to be as equal as possible. For the purposes of armor tanking I will be using a Megathron battleship to create a tank with.

First off I will look at your low slots were the main tanking modules will be. Unlike shield boosters you do not get XL armor repairers, for that reason i always like to duel rep my armor tanks allowing twice as much armor to be repaired at any given time with large armor repairers (LARs).

Secondly i will be adding a explosive armor hardener to increase the ships incredibly low exp resistance. This low exp resistance is the same in almost all armor tanks.

After that I will be adding 2 Energized adaptive nano membranes (EANM`s) which are passive multispectral armor hardeners raising all your armor resistances.

My fourth module I will fit a DCU to increase your ships shield and armor resistances as well as your structure for those occasional "mishaps" we all have.

I would allow your 7th slot to be used by a damage mod or if you feel you need 2 you can drop the DCU which will still give you an ample tank.

In your mid slots you have to take into account things such as optimal ranges etc so some of your mids will automatically be taken up with a afterburner/mwd and a web, leaving you 2 mid slots.

In these 2 mid slots i would put 2 cap rechargers for pve and 1 cap recharger and 1 cap booster for pvp. This you give you a large repairing tank that has equalized resistances that will be relatively high as well as a way to regenerate your cap as an active armor tank is notorious for burning cap.

Passive Armor Tanking

Passive armor tanking is nothing like passive shield tanking as your armor does not repair itself. With passive armor tanking the principle is that you have a very large amount of armor, with high resistances over them.

Your aim is to let your enemy "chip" away at your armor while you shoot them hoping that they die before they get through your armor. This style has its pros and cons. With this setup you don't have to worry about cap for your tank and the cap is dedicated to your guns and also means you have all 4 mid slots free on your megathron.

But will all the extra armor you will not move very fast and makes getting into optimal range or pursuing a fleeing enemy become a serious issue. Plus you will probably need external support of some type to repair you between conflicts.

The low slots I will use are very much the same as the active tank. However instead of 2 large armor repairers I will put on 2 x 1600mm armor plates giving me a massive boost to my armor amount.

Next on I will put a explosive armor hardener to increase your extremely low exp resistance.

After that I will put two energized adaptive nano membranes (EANM`s) to increase your overall resistance.

Fourth I will put on a DCU to increase all your resistances in case you do run out of armor.

It will mean your structure will not just crumple like a a knife through butter. if you are not worried about damage amount you can use your last low slot for a 3rd EANM to again increase your resistances further.

Difference Between PVP And PVE Setups

There are only 2 main differences when setting up a ship for either PVE or PVP. The first is how you gain your cap.

In PVE with both shield and armor tanks, use a passive method of cap regain as this costs you a lot less than cap boosters saving you a lot or isk.

In PVP to keep your tank running for along time you should always use cap boosters as this will help with long fights and for when you are being nosed /nueted. This point is most important in armor tanks. Shield tankers can get away with this however it is advised in certain setups and roles.

The second main difference is resistance hardeners. In PVE you know which enemy is coming at you, so you can fit hardeners that match the damage they deal. There is no point increasing a resistance that the enemy will not be dealing; it is just a waste of a slot.

In PVP your enemy can and will throw all damage types at you so increase your lowest resistance (EM in shield tankers, EXP in armor tankers) then increase all your other resistances equally as well as you can with multi spectral hardeners. You can in some cases guess what damage certain enemy will be doing if you know they usually fit lasers or rails.

Below is a quick list of damage types to protect against in PVE:

Angel Cartel - EXP / EM

Amarr Navy - EM / Thermal

Blood - EM / Thermal

Caldari Navy - Kinetic / Thermal

Gallente - Kinetic / Thermal

Guristas - Kinetic / Thermal

Khanid - EM / Thermal

Mercenary - EM / Thermal / Kin

Mordus - Kinetic / Thermal

Sanshas - EM / Thermal

Serpentis - Kinetic / Thermal

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