Mathir
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Posted - 2006.01.10 03:35:00 -
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Edited by: Mathir on 10/01/2006 03:36:40
The life of your ship is based on three things staying greater than 0: your shields (which regenerate on their own), your armor and your structure. You can think of these as your "hitpoints" from other games like WoW and EQ.
Note that unlike those other games, once you get damage in armor or structure, if you don't do anything about them, they will stay damaged. There is no negative effect for that (that I'm aware of), but it's never a good idea to run around without all the defense you can muster. (I realize you can damage your armor in EQ2 and WoW, but we're talking about your hitpoints = shield/armor/structure which determine your ship's "life.")
There is only one way to survive in combat: do so much damage that your opponent is destroyed before he kills you. (Well, I suppose running away is another way but we'll not talk about that.) If you have so much damage per second (dps) that you can destroy him while taking all of the dps that he dishes out to your shield/armor/structure, then you win. (This is a frequent strategy of the Minmatar race and their ships - they have very fast ships that are generally very hard to hit/damage.)
It's typically the case that you cannot damage your opponent fast enough. In this case, you need to repair ("heal") some of the damage to your shields/armor/structure during the fight. I'll stop including structure going forward, as there's no (reasonable) way to do that in combat although there are modules you can use on yourself to fix structure damage (and save repair bill costs.) Note that although your shield will regenerate over time, it's very likely that it will not regen fast enough to replace significant damage while in combat. (When you're flying larger ships, you will be able to do that with very low level enemies, but it's not very realistic.)
However, there are modules ("mods") you can install on your ship that when activated will replace "lost" shield and/or armor. Shield mods are usually installed in the middle (indicated with a "--" graphic) slots while armor repaire mods ("armor reppers") are low (indicated with a "|" graphic) slot mods. Taking damage and repairing it is called "tanking" (after the combat vehicle which had a very goodly amount of armor.) If you prefer to do that with shield modules, and use mid slots, you are "shield tanking." If you do it with armor modules (not caring about your shield at all as it will regen eventually on its own) you are defending yourself via "armor tanking." Having more mid slots on your ship tends to encourage shield tanking, while more low slots encourages armor tanking.
Hopefully, added to what was said above, you have a better notion about why putting a shield booster (a mid slot shield tank item) and an armor item (helps give you more armor) are somewhat contradictory from a shield/armor tank perspective.
Personally, I tend to put a gyrostabilizer in my low slot, to help my guns hit better. But much of the charm (some would say challenge and frustration) of Eve is figgering these things out for yourself as there is no "perfect" set of equipment.
Welcome, and have fun!
Corporate on my uniform, Freelancer in my heart
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