Tank Support Squads

This is a squad that will keep your tank alive if done right and will ensure victory over the enemy team.

Logi: Needed to repair the armor of the tank in case it takes damage (Logi LAVs are effective in remote shield recharging and can be the difference in life and death)

Assault: Needed to go into tight spaces and kill off any AV players hiding and waiting for a chance to ambush you and destroy your tank.

Heavy HMGs: Needed to be used to kill anything in its path that is too tuff to be killed by regular assault players.

Heavy Forge Gun: Needed enable your squad to chase after and damage enemy vehicles before they have a chance to hit you thus making them vulnerable for you to attack and destroy them instead.

Scout: Needed to spot incoming enemy players coming from a distance, can replenish ammo if a nanohive is equipped.

6th spot is not used for now, please comment on what else needs to be included.

I think the 6th spot could really be for a second assault or logi. Or for the daring maybe another tank?

interesting thought, although I wonder what type of tank should be in there

maybe a fast, nimble caldari "scout" shield tank fitted with some advanced propulsion modules to give it acceleration and top speed as well as a railgun turret in order to soften up enemy tanks and lure them into the sights of a more formidable aggressor.

Armor (Gallente) VS Shield (Caldari)

When it comes to being in close and personal in battles, armor is the way to go, it is faster than shield is (at the moment), can take a beating and the reps are faster. Armor hardeners are effective at giving you the 3x the armor you actually have when you activate it without the use of more armor plates giving you more PG & CPU to use for Armor Repair Modules and Turrets, giving you a boost of health and making it harder for the enemy to kill you.

Shields aren't that effective in any situation at the moment but they are essential to your survival since they are the 1st line of defense you have, those that use shield as the main defensive point are mainly known as "Glass Cannons" because of the fact that they are still easy to destroy if they get caught in fire and cant escape and if they aim at you, your automatically dead. Shield hardeners are recommended since the base shields plus the shield extenders take up too much CPU at the moment not allowing you to have a good shield booster thus taking it longer to fully recharge, on the plus side, shield is automatically recharged after being hit so its like a "passive" regenerator unlike armor where you have to activate the armor repair manually.

There are pros and cons to both armor and shield but it would take me several hours to type them all into this post, you decide which one you want to go with.

Please do not forget to mention how shields take less damage from AV grenades and swarms and how armor takes mor damage from AV and swarms, while shield takes more damage from lasers/blasters.

interesting thought, although I wonder what type of tank should be in there

Great guide thanks alot. Using alot of this currently.

If you use a LLAV for the tank's logistical support, wouldn't it be beneficial for the squad to have a dedicated logi? The LLAV driver could be a logistics, but then he would have to split his focus between the tank and the squad.

please make a fit about gunnlogi, can't get one irght!

What about shield hardeners?

haha, looks like things are finally starting to get fun, I can no longer kill of enemy tanks so easily, im finally having to work for it.... FINALLY A CHALLENGE

Do they happen to be god mode madrugers? Thats the onlybones that give me trouble. Shield tanks are still popping to my glass cannon fit.oh and by the way here it is

The glass cannon. (NOT FOR THE INEXPERIENCED )

High slotts- 1 heavy converse shield booster, 3 aztropic ward shield extendersand a ward shield amplifier

Low slotts - 2 10% dammage mods (cant remember their names off hand)

Large turret- 80 gj compressed particle cannon

Small turrets - 2 st cycled missiles


This fit is exelent at range and will deal devistating alpha dammage. But be carefull not to overheat take your time between shotts 4 or 5 consecutive shots will kill almost any tank reps or not ( iv found that 3 normally dose it if you get the drop on them).
Using this fit is not for the faint hearted and will die verry quickly if the tank you are hunting sees you first.
Allways get a good position with a line of sight on your preys retreat route and if you take your time you will kill them .
Be sneaky drive right round the redline behind them and flank them before attacking and get them when they are not expecting it.
The heavy shield booster is really only any use against light av resistance so run when you get roo many reds round you a dead tank is no use to your team.

Hope this is of some use. Ill post some frontline rail and missile fits over tge coming days.

Any madruger that takes 4-5 vollys from the build I mentiond is what I call a god mode tank as they obviously have good reps and resists. Iv even had one take 6 vollys but I couldent confirm if all were direct hits . Probably not unless all hardners and reppers were acctive. I have had allot more fun hunting armour tanks in my gunlogi as you really feel the risk and really need to be on ball. When im using the madruger it feels a bit too easy to be honest.

Can you fit decent tanks with 10m SP?
Or, should I just grind out another 5m in Militias?

I have 9 million sp in tank driving and the rest im saving for the jet fighters.

in short, yes you can, your survivability is dependent on your experience as a driver

Any advice on a madruger railgun build for <50m range?

Alright Void, I just met you on the wrong side of a skirmish on manus peak, you were rail sniping. WTH kinda fit are you using on that maddy? It was ridiculously heavy hitting with 7k armor.

Now as a tanker and especially a shield tanker you have to know your priority targets , for me it is as follows from threat level highest to lowest of my top 10 threats on the battle field

1 any tank

2 forge gunner

3 rail turret

4 swarm launcher

5 plasma canon operative

6 blaster turret

7 av nader

8 bumper car (they can ram your tank to death)

9 proxy mines

10 Normal infantry

Follow the 3 DGÇÖs and youll do well in your tanking venture

Demoralise, distract and destroy, this is your job this is your goal itGÇÖs not always about getting the kills but you are the biggest and meanest machine on the field if you force even 1 whole squad to come after and chase you all game then thatGÇÖs 1 whole squad your foot troops donGÇÖt have to bother about.

hm.. wow you put plasma cannon really high, most miss and they are easy to avoid, i would put it at the bottom. and switch the forge with SL(proto) because they are much harder to avoid and dodge with similar damage and are homing and can follow around corners and usually invisible with wrong hit markers.

"god mode" would be if you continually hit him yet he doesn't need to activate anything.

There is no way your maddy could withstand 11 vollys from a fully maxed falchion in succession . The only way you would survive that is if the opposing pilot missed every 2nd volly and your repswwere on . Infact no blody way did you take 11 hits in quick succesion your talking over 24000 hp if its fully maxed and has a dammge mod not to mention 120% efficiency against armour.

2 armor reppers 2 armor hardeners plus the 10% skill and a DCU it is possible to tank all that damage from a fully spec falchion with 3 damage mods and proto missiles because that drops the damage to around 14500 and the two repairers would repair 13000~ when skilled into. so yes totally possible to do, the falchion would only barely beat the repairers in damage that way.

Just a friendly bump to belp the aspiring tankers.

Any madruger that takes 4-5 vollys from the build I mentiond is what I call a god mode tank as they obviously have good reps and resists. Iv even had one take 6 vollys but I couldent confirm if all were direct hits . Probably not unless all hardners and reppers were acctive. I have had allot more fun hunting armour tanks in my gunlogi as you really feel the risk and really need to be on ball. When im using the madruger it feels a bit too easy to be honest.

that depends on whether or not the swarms were advanced, proto or just standard tier

If I was to go into tanks with the goal of providing support for infantry in an urban environment, what would be best? I remember being in a gunnlogi that was equipped with missiles that seemed to do pretty well against infantry. I'd like it to be Caldari for RP but I don't mind going Gallente if that's what's best.

Also, how are enforcers so much easier to kill than regular tanks? I've never driven either, but just looking at the numbers they seem to have a negligible difference in shield/armor and cpu/pg, along side an extra high/low slot. Is there something I'm missing as a newbie to tanks? Or is this no longer the case?

Is there a point in making a hybrid shield/armor tanked tank?

Have a look at the basic fits I posted in this thread for gunlogi fits. If you are really intarested in shield tanking drop me a message in game and ill see if I can help you out. Im allways happy to help a fellow shield tsnker as we are a dying breed.

Its too bad that most of the post are empty...

Id have to agree with void hear if you are new to tanking then go with the fotm madruger . Simplu because shield tanking is broken just now and its really only vets that can make a profit from shield tanking . That being said if ccp get round to fixing shield tanks and release proto havs then shield tanking will be a viable option for new tankers, as shield tanks have great resistance against the most common tyoe of av dammage (explosives such as avnades and swarms.).

I have to agree that armor really does have it made at the moment. Probably best for the nubs if money is an issue. Though as a shield tanker myself, don't underestimate the viability of a shield tank. Swarms are a huge issue for armor tankers, I srsly will eat those up all day (proto swarms with damage mods though do a fair chuck of damage).

Ran a few matches with my buddy armor tankers, Lone-Wolf and xxXLonewolfXxx last night and man was it great. Everyone running AV had swarms. More then a few times I pulled in front of my counter part Lone-Wolf and soaked up the swarms for him, that's how we spider tank it. Lost no tanks, always a good thing.

Shields do take a bit to get used to, but if you fit them with high mitigation and use range to your advantage, you can usually escape most situations. Not to mention I always use a nitro speed booster in one of my high slots. This, is very important when it comes to shield tanking. Being squishier, you need the speed to get out and away. And it will surprise the Av tryin to murder you, FG has to lead his shots out, same with rails, far more to get ya. More often then not, they miss!

I hope 1.5 brings me all the speed I've dreamed about:)

there really is not problem with it, according to the lore, the gallente federation have mastered armor and speed, and the caldari have not, which is why the gallente are faster in both eve online and here

See I can understand that in space, but on a planet, armor does slow you.

If you read the forum post the devs put up about 1.5 they talk about armor being the guys that soak up all the damage, and shields being hit and run.

Less mass = less required energy for movement

more mass = far more energy required for movement

(A quote from the post)
Shield
Low HP ceiling, fast regen, hit-and-run.
More shields increases shield regen delay.
Once depleted, shields take a long time to kick back in.

Armor
High HP ceiling, slow regen, stand-and-deliver.
More armor slows you down.
Armor has no native regen.

Given this, I would assume they make shield tanks faster then armor to fit these loose guidelines set out by ccp.

To be "hit and run", you have to be able to get in and out within the time allotted.

"stand-and-deliver" makes me think, slower but able to take the punishment.

I understand the lore part, but on a planet it just doesn't make sense.

Armor has far more mass, it should have slower regen and speed, but much more HP and Long lasting resist

Shields have far less mass, so more speed considering most of the power goes for propulsion, high in cpu and burst resist and healing.

Only the future will tell!

I have to agree that armor really does have it made at the moment. Probably best for the nubs if money is an issue. Though as a shield tanker myself, don't underestimate the viability of a shield tank. Swarms are a huge issue for armor tankers, I srsly will eat those up all day (proto swarms with damage mods though do a fair chuck of damage).

Ran a few matches with my buddy armor tankers, Lone-Wolf and xxXLonewolfXxx last night and man was it great. Everyone running AV had swarms. More then a few times I pulled in front of my counter part Lone-Wolf and soaked up the swarms for him, that's how we spider tank it. Lost no tanks, always a good thing.

Shields do take a bit to get used to, but if you fit them with high mitigation and use range to your advantage, you can usually escape most situations. Not to mention I always use a nitro speed booster in one of my high slots. This, is very important when it comes to shield tanking. Being squishier, you need the speed to get out and away. And it will surprise the Av tryin to murder you, FG has to lead his shots out, same with rails, far more to get ya. More often then not, they miss!

I hope 1.5 brings me all the speed I've dreamed about:)

If your tanking with xxxloanwolfxxx get him to show you his logi tank its awesome. Hes a good tanker and any advice he can offer should be taken. Send him my regards.

I love shield tanks. The speed tanked glass cannon seems far more effective than a tanked out tank....then again, all I ever do in PC is kill tanks.

I love how armor tankers assume I'll be an easy kill. Makes baiting them so easy. Well...except the guys who have played me a few times. They kind of assume I'll be there the second they forget about me and its much harder. True tank v tank combat is feigning weakness, patience, and striking when they've decided you're not a big deal. Even in my best blaster fits, I don't engage head on. Unless you KNOW you have a much better tank beyond the shadow of a doubt (and in PC I rarely do), never attack what is attacking you.

In the quick paced PC environment I def agree speed tank glass cannons are the way. In PC, if you aren't losing tanks, you aren't doing your job.

In Pubs though, where maintaining income is an issue, I prefer high mitigation tanks.

Agree with you wholeheartedly on the tank to tank battles. I've destroyed me some armor tanks using superior tactics. Though if I see a soma, I'm rammin that *****, guns a blazin

I disagree with the 1st part.

if your constantly losing tanks, your doing it wrong and costing your corporation ISK that could be better used elsewhere.

if your not dying yet your killing the enemy nonstop.. your doing your job perfectly.

Not like you are constantly losing a stream of tanks, losing 3 or 4 isn't a huge deal if you are putting the hurt on in turn. I myself though haven't done any PC in a few months, but 3 or 4 was about my average. No time anymore for it!

But still, a lot about keeping your tank alive involves you sitting and waiting for reps. In PC a tank should be more aggressive, therefor less worried about dying and more concerned about winning!

just because we need to win doesn't mean tanks have to be as ******** as pub infantry.

Word, I know he is speced as deep as you can go in both tanks. Said he never plays his shields anymore, too gimped compared to the armor! If I play with him again I'll be sure to ask him about it and give your regards.

Not like you are constantly losing a stream of tanks, losing 3 or 4 isn't a huge deal if you are putting the hurt on in turn. I myself though haven't done any PC in a few months, but 3 or 4 was about my average. No time anymore for it!

But still, a lot about keeping your tank alive involves you sitting and waiting for reps. In PC a tank should be more aggressive, therefor less worried about dying and more concerned about winning!

Hahah shields aint that gimped he just misses the dammage we could do back in chrome.