Kraven Kor
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Posted - 2006.05.23 16:39:00 -
[1]
Couple points I'd like to make:
First off, I do agree with you to an extent. But there is more to the issue than just med slot / low slot balancing.
Compare shield and armor base resists:
Amarr Frigate
Shield / Armor
EM: 0 / 60
EX: 60 / 20
KI: 40 / 25
TH: 20 / 35
Now, right there you see that armor has more "well rounded" resistances.
Next, consider hardener choices:
Shields have a (base) 25% "universal" resistance mod -- the "Invulnerability Field." This is an active mod, and fairly cap intensive particularly for smaller ships.
Armor has their "universal" 25% as a passive mod.
Active, single-resist mods are about even -- shield hardeners take a touch more cap, but have a skill to reduce the cap they use. Armor tankers get the opposite -- their bonus is to repair faster, which actually uses more cap, but the repairers are more cap efficient.
Shield tank ships typically only have a little bit more shields than armor, while armor tank ships have a lot of armor with not much shield.
Shield tanking is massively cap dependent. Not that armor tanking isn't, mind you, but shield tanking is more so.
Shield tanking seems to be designed to take massive punishment for a short time. Most shield tankers depend on cap boosters to keep going. Compare shield boosters to armor repairers -- shield boosters take more cap per hp repaired, but repair much more than similar armor repair modules. They also do so at the beginning of the cycle, not the end. In addition, shield boosters can benefit from "boost amplifiers" whereas no such module exists for armor tanks. Finally, shield extenders are easier to fit than armor plates, when comparing ships that are meant to fit either. Armor tanks use a lot of PG for plates, making the fitting of many modules difficult with an armor tank.
Conversely, armor tanking seems to be much better at sustained tanking. A raven can tank a lot of stuff -- heck, 2x XL Shield Boosters (note there is no XL Armor Rep), a boost amp, and decent resists can take almost any amount of punishment for a short time. I've watched an overtanked raven last a full minute to a 10-man PVP fleet. But, again, armor repairers are much more cap efficient while not providing the "oomph" of shield boosters. While I've seen some folks fit cap boosters with double-repairer tanks, most PVP fittings have the repairer really as an afterthought, seeing as it is easier to just pump up armor resists and hope to kill your target or disengage before being blown up.
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Armor tanking and shield tanking are different.
Fitting a GOOD armor tank reduces your ability to do damage because you lose low slots for damage mods and PG for the big guns.
Fitting a GOOD shield tank means you can't really fit an afterburner/MWD, or much in the way of EW. But, you still have your low slots for damage mods, and shield tanks seem much more conservative on CPU/PG for the sake of fitting "big guns." I can squeeze 6x Cruise, 2x Heavy Nos, 2x XL Boosters, 4x hardeners, 2x BCS, and 3x PDS on a Raven. That is sick, really, but my tank only lasts for maybe 1.5 minutes (as far as cap goes.)
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