Home
Note that the following represents my preferred way to fit ships for Missions and Combat Sites. Its not the only way, and in some cases, it doesn't work. With that in mind, here's some general rules for PVE ships.
1) First, things not to do. DO NOT mix guns. If you're using 250mm railguns, don't also fit blasters, or even other railguns. DO NOT mix tank. Don't try to fit a shield and an armor tank, and don't try to do both passive and active shield fits. The negative effect is synergistic and you'll lose the ship and then we'll all make fun of you.
2) Your tank determines what missions/sites you can do, your dps determines how quick. This means don’t spend a month on gunnery skills if you can't fit a t2 tank yet. Also, your tank in a PVE situation is the damage per second you regenerate. Your EHP is fairly useless. If I have 1 million EHP but can’t repair my ship and I can’t get away for whatever reason, I may takes an hour to die, but I will die. Alternately, I can only have 10,000 EHP, but if I regenerate 5000DPS (and cap stable) I’m virtually indestructible.
3) Always be cap stable, without cap boosters or ancillary reps. This means cap stable without the prop mod active (prop mod=propulsion module i.e. afterburner, microwarpdrive). Also note that a microwarpdrive has a capacitor capacity penalty just to have the mod on your ship, and is therefore very difficult to fit on a larger ship and maintain stability.
4) Have a prop mod. Slow boating 60km to the next acceleration gate in a BS that goes 100m/s is less fun than self castration. Fit some kind of prop mod.
5) Go for high resists. There’re two ways to go about this. You can fit an omni tank (which I prefer for missions) or specialize tank (which I prefer for combat sites). Omni tank means all your resists are about even, and usually 70% or higher. Specialize tank means raising only the resists necessary for the mission or site. For instance, if a mission pits you against Serpentis, raise only Kinetic and Thermal resists. This method is less fool proof, and if you forget to switch your tank it could cost you your ship. The specialized tank generally allows you to have either much greater tank than omni (against the appropriate factions) or the same tank with more dps. Its worth noting that wormhole rats deal omni damage.
6) Passive shield tanks work by increasing the resists somewhat, but mainly increasing the capacity of the shields and the recharge rate. This leads to a natural regeneration of shields that is much higher than normal. You can sometimes use an over-sized shield booster in an active shield tank, but you will have to pulse it to keep from destroying your capacitor.
7) Use a fitting tool to determine how your fit stacks up. EFT, Pyfa, and EVEHQ are all good options. Play around with the fit to see what works best. Sometimes low resists and two reppers will work better than high resists and one rep. As always, ask those experienced in PVE to help you fit a ship, and always post the fit in corp/alliance to see if anyone spots any glaring issues.
Finally, while you shouldn't do anything ridiculous (see #1) don't be afraid to experiment a little. A passive shield tanked Myrmidon with autocannons is a perfectly fine fit, if its done right. Just because its not normally done, does not mean its wrong. Of course, chances are if you're doing something no one else does, you're wrong, you'll lose your ship, and we will, of course, make fun of you. Mercilessly.
1) First, things not to do. DO NOT mix guns. If you're using 250mm railguns, don't also fit blasters, or even other railguns. DO NOT mix tank. Don't try to fit a shield and an armor tank, and don't try to do both passive and active shield fits. The negative effect is synergistic and you'll lose the ship and then we'll all make fun of you.
2) Your tank determines what missions/sites you can do, your dps determines how quick. This means don’t spend a month on gunnery skills if you can't fit a t2 tank yet. Also, your tank in a PVE situation is the damage per second you regenerate. Your EHP is fairly useless. If I have 1 million EHP but can’t repair my ship and I can’t get away for whatever reason, I may takes an hour to die, but I will die. Alternately, I can only have 10,000 EHP, but if I regenerate 5000DPS (and cap stable) I’m virtually indestructible.
3) Always be cap stable, without cap boosters or ancillary reps. This means cap stable without the prop mod active (prop mod=propulsion module i.e. afterburner, microwarpdrive). Also note that a microwarpdrive has a capacitor capacity penalty just to have the mod on your ship, and is therefore very difficult to fit on a larger ship and maintain stability.
4) Have a prop mod. Slow boating 60km to the next acceleration gate in a BS that goes 100m/s is less fun than self castration. Fit some kind of prop mod.
5) Go for high resists. There’re two ways to go about this. You can fit an omni tank (which I prefer for missions) or specialize tank (which I prefer for combat sites). Omni tank means all your resists are about even, and usually 70% or higher. Specialize tank means raising only the resists necessary for the mission or site. For instance, if a mission pits you against Serpentis, raise only Kinetic and Thermal resists. This method is less fool proof, and if you forget to switch your tank it could cost you your ship. The specialized tank generally allows you to have either much greater tank than omni (against the appropriate factions) or the same tank with more dps. Its worth noting that wormhole rats deal omni damage.
6) Passive shield tanks work by increasing the resists somewhat, but mainly increasing the capacity of the shields and the recharge rate. This leads to a natural regeneration of shields that is much higher than normal. You can sometimes use an over-sized shield booster in an active shield tank, but you will have to pulse it to keep from destroying your capacitor.
7) Use a fitting tool to determine how your fit stacks up. EFT, Pyfa, and EVEHQ are all good options. Play around with the fit to see what works best. Sometimes low resists and two reppers will work better than high resists and one rep. As always, ask those experienced in PVE to help you fit a ship, and always post the fit in corp/alliance to see if anyone spots any glaring issues.
Finally, while you shouldn't do anything ridiculous (see #1) don't be afraid to experiment a little. A passive shield tanked Myrmidon with autocannons is a perfectly fine fit, if its done right. Just because its not normally done, does not mean its wrong. Of course, chances are if you're doing something no one else does, you're wrong, you'll lose your ship, and we will, of course, make fun of you. Mercilessly.
