Shield tanking versus Armor tanking- Rifter

[Venkman]

I'm confused about Armor Tanking. I have this shield thing, and it just seems odd to let it fall, relying on the second layer for defense. I understand "armor tanking" is what the Rifter can do well, but I'm not really sure why.

Why wouldn't I Shield tank? Is it a CPU-draw thing?

[Yoru]

It generally costs more capacitor per unit of shield restored vs. unit of armor restored. Also, look at the base resists for shields and armor; armor is more durable than shields to start out with. Armor upgrades are mostly lowslots, so if you have a lot of low-slots, you can upgrade your armor more than your shields.

[Venkman]

Ah ok, that explains it then. Thanks!

[Hoax]

I think the general logic goes something like this:

You will never have the slots to ungimp your resists on both layers of protection, furthermore you will never have the slots to actually tank (ungimp resists + repair damage) both armor and shield.  Therefore using min/max basic philosophy (dont try to do everything) it has become the overwhelming opinion that you either tank your armor or tank your shields.  Typically you just look at whether you have more mids (shield) or more lows (armor) and go from there.  But sometimes it can be a little more complicated then that.

[5150]

2 things I can tell you for sure

Caldari ships = Shield tank
Amar ships = Armour tank

I can't help you with the other 2 as no one in my corp flys either of the other races ships

One thing to note though - if you are big on EW _and_ you shield tank something has to give because they both use mid slots. Scorpion pilots have this problem particularly (and Blackbird pilots). It has been suggested that its better to armour tank these ships than have no tank at all, an active armour tank (as opposed to a passive one) might leave you with cap problems if your running EW though....

(active tank = one which requires modules to be activated: Boosters/repairers etc)
(passive tank = one which doesnt need activated modules: Extenders/plates/resist boosters etc)

Active tanking is a case of being able to stay in combat until you run out of cap (assuming the incoming damage doesnt exceed your tanking ability). Passive tanking is a case of having enough armour/shield to be able to kill everything attacking you before you run out

[Wolf]

Caldari ships = Shield tank
Amar ships = Armour tank

Just to add - Gallente ships Armor tank

[Merusk]

Minmatar - We're mongrels.. depends on the ship.
   Flying as Min means you develop a very diverse skillset early on, so you can actually use your ship to its fullest.  It also means you're gimpy longer as you switch around between types.

Rifter and Rupture are good Armor tanks, tho.  My Cyclone is a big ugly shield tank, and I luv it.  I should pop in more often to tool around in it.

[Silus Fromme]

(and Blackbird pilots)

BBs are cheap, and are pretty juicy targets in fleet battles.  Generally people just slap a 1600mm armor plate mod in a lowslot and hope for the best.  You need every point of cap you have to power six multi-spectrals.

[Venkman]

I finally got around to installing JVM2 on my PC so I could run QuickFit. Well, this has been educational on the whole Shield thing. Man, what a Capacitor sink. This program is a dream!