Rookie training grounds would be a better place for this.

GD, because GD.
It'll probably be moved, but GD is where it'll most likely be read by players dabbling in Tanking rather than straight up new players. I think I've visited the Rookie forum once because one of my threads ended up in there.

What does this mean?

Edit: What in the flying flux? When I pressed quote the only thing there was "GD, because GD."

Good post, +1.

Historically, Jason has been one of my favorite tankers to hunt and definitely one of the more challenging to kill. (although I haven't seen you in a while)

You tank folks should take his advice, give me more skilled tankers to hunt :)

I am not reading that mountain of text.

DO NOT FORGET ABOUT YOUR LIGHT TURRETS. fit them if you can.

They aren't worthless now. If you can get some decent shots in there, they will wreck infantry while you focus tanks, provide extra DPS against tanks, installations, or even save your ass against those pesky jihadjeeps that the scrubs are running now.

or even just for having fun with friends. Gotta love my macross missile massacre fit. enough tank to go toe to toe with the big boys, and turrets for my friends to tip the odds in my favor, or just for everyone to have a blast(Hah, missile joke) also, it's just funny as hell to watch a suit go flying when you punch a small railgun slug through their chest.

And I prefer preemptive activation of hardeners and damage mods. yes, I lose a second or two of uptime, but that's time I already bought with SP over that militia scrub-bucket I'm fighting. and the only things that survive a full clip of modded proto missiles is tanks with their hardeners already running, supply depots, and crus.

hence why I mentioned friends. all my "not with people I like/trust" fits are just a gun and complex mods so I can minimize downtime.

Fair point, I don't have friends I trust either xD

Tanking.

You're reading this because you're bored, have nothing better to do or you're actually interested in what I'm going to say, or you're just about to click back at this point and in which case I say fare well, I'll see you on the battlefield.

If you've stayed with me past the first paragraph, allow me to explain this post, I've noticed a lot of bad tankers, I'm not talking about Militia Tanks, but just bad tankers dying extremely easy or doing stupid things. I would like to make a post that helps somewhat if possible, from my experiences during this build (and previous builds). I must stress that I am a Gunnlogi Pilot, so I'm going off of that perspective, but I'm pretty sure Madrugars would be able to use this to their own as well.

So first things first, your fitting as a Gunnlogi Pilot. As of 1.7 Active Modules no longer suck and are key to your survival, thankfully CCP has made it easy on newer players and made modules pretty much the same, but different cooldowns and duration timers. For example a Militia module will take 100 seconds to cooldown whereas Complex will only require 60, it's even less when you get the skills that reduce it by 25% at level 5.

So, on your Gunnlogi Fit, you're going to want a hardener. That's going to be your common item on your fits here, you'll have two additional high slots which can have extenders, boosters, scanners, damaged mods or injectors. You can add an additional hardener, I highly frown upon it but until CCP restricts it I can't stop you. I'd look at having perhaps a Heavy Extender and a Light Booster.

Next pick your turret, forget the smalls. Missile, Rail or Blaster.

Missile: Missiles are wonderful anti-armor weapons, that said they can kill shield tanked vehicles as well, just prepare to be awful at killing Infantry. 12 Missiles in a clip, this turret is fully auto and able to fire the entire clip in around 2 seconds, beware of long reload times though.

Railgun: A Rail is a common go to weapon for fighting other Tanks, at proto it's ridiculous and is very capable of two shotting a tank with its hardeners down, one of the best ways to take down a shield tank., but ofcourse can do Armor as well. 9 rounds a clip with overheat, you're going to need to be careful firing these off.

Blaster: Blasters are mostly Anti Infantry, it's a large Assault Rifle with a massive magazine to go with it, 205 bullets before you have to reload, you're able to waste any Infantry in your path, not only this but it's decent at killing tanks at CQC, but still outclassed.

So once you've got your Turret and fittings, you might notice I skipped the lows and you may now notice you're hurting for CPU and/or PG, try fitting a PG or CPU unit to try and balance that out. If possible try to fit a light armor rep on the fit. It can and will save you in the future.

So tactics.

You're not going to be the best nor the strongest tank out there, I recommend starting on Domination or Skirmish where you've got the red line to escape too, there's no shame in it, you're looking out for yourself here, you're the guy that matters. As I've said you're not going to be a few things when you're out there, you've got plenty of competition so you've got to remember a few things

Awareness
If you're constantly aware of surroundings, both visual and audio, you're going to have a much better time of it than someone charging around blind and deaf. constantly check behind you, behind corners and ofcourse on hilltops just incase a tank is waiting for you.

Sound is also a major part of tanking, if you can hear your opponents and they haven't heard or seen you, you're in a better position because you can figure out the general direction they're in, just pause for a moment and try to hear above your engines, you'll pick him out. If you approach cautiously you're able to get the shots off first and activate your hardeners later.

Timing
With Actives playing such a large role in both Tank v Tank and AV v Tank, timing is key to a lot of the battles, if you activate your modules before the enemy tank, turn around and then start firing, he's already got you, unless he's an idiot he's going to activate his modules the moment you start hitting him, you're going to barely do any damage to one another and then the moment your modules go down he's got you. You're either going to try and run, or continue firing till his run out and hope he runs. He probably wont.

That said, if you're the guy in the position of attacking first, the above applies to you in reverse, activate your modules only once this guy has hit a small chunk of your shields off. If you're getting low and your regen has stopped, continue firing and activate your booster, it gives a large chunk of HP and also kickstarts your shield Regen, bonus. Once he starts running, persue and keep hitting him with whatever you've got, he's yours, claim the kill. If he runs to the redline, don't be scared, you're fast enough to make it in and then get out with a victory under your belt.

Movement
Movement and facing direction is important, let's go through the facing direction first. If you ever engage an enemy tank, always do it with your front facing him, or at least on the side of your tank facing him, if he hits your rear he's got a bonus damage that could make him the victor in a close fight. With that in mind, engaging your enemy in the rear, can lead to a quick victory, especially with Missiles.

On movement, don't stop moving, many tanks roll up to me and just stop and fire, the key is to move, most people are terrible at aiming their weapons, and even the best miss. Weapns like Missiles and Railguns have the tendency to go flying past you if you keep circling your opponent. Always try to push to your opponents rear while keeping your side towards him giving you that much needed opportunity to win.

Neato.

I have some questions.

How effective is a missile turret against infantry? Is a triple hardener fit on a Gunnlogi effective/the height of faggotry or is there some reason it's terrible that I've missed?

Neato.

I have some questions.

How effective is a missile turret against infantry? Is a triple hardener fit on a Gunnlogi effective/the height of faggotry or is there some reason it's terrible that I've missed?

Posting to say I disagree with small turrets, I don't trust anyone and focus more on solo tankers, haven't found any tanks that have been good with turrets.

Neato.

I have some questions.

How effective is a missile turret against infantry? Is a triple hardener fit on a Gunnlogi effective/the height of faggotry or is there some reason it's terrible that I've missed?

Missiles are "decent", I think Garrett has answered it as best as anyone can, you'd do much better with a blaster if you're priority is Infantry. Three while possible doesn't work as well as many think due to the lack of resistance it actually provides, two complex can last for a minute which is why I despise it, since you give 15 seconds of vulnerability and is just generally unfair all around.

Most of my tanks have at least one small turret if at all possible to fit one. Namely the small rail gun. The really buffed it up, and my blueberries get plenty of kills with it. Small turrets work better now, and in a tank battle, it can make a difference between blowing that enemy up, or getting blown up yourself.

Well, If I am going to spec into HAV OP 1 anyway, I could just try out the regular hulls with MLT class mods right?