EVE Evolved: The art of tanking - Unusual tanks, part 2

ECM tank:
Electronic warfare and tanking may seem worlds apart but using ECM jammers a pilot has a chance to avoid damage entirely. ECM jammers have a percentage chance of causing the enemy to lose their target lock and be unable to acquire a new target lock for 20 seconds. ECM specialist ships like the Falcon routinely use their jammers as a defence against tackling frigates and enemy snipers that would threaten their ship. ECM also works against NPCs but isn't really viable as you tend to get large numbers of enemies each individually dealing small amounts of damage. To jam enough NPCs to make a difference would require more jammers than a ship can fit.

Speed tank:
Everyone has heard of speed tanking in some form or another. It was the primary drive behind the nano craze and the reason that speed was rebalanced. Simply put, speed tanking involves orbiting an enemy so fast that their guns can't track you and will never hit. Enemy missiles are also reduced in damage by your speed, allowing a fast ship to resist turrets and launchers alike. Increased speed is primarily achieved through the use of a good afterburner or microwarpdrive and hull upgrades like the "Nanofibre Internal Structure I" or "Overdrive Injector System I". Beware when using the microwarpdrive, however, as it increases your signature radius by 500% and so could actually make you a lot easier to hit.

Although larger ships like the Sacrilege and Ishtar used speed as their primary defence before the speed nerf, speed tanking was designed to be used by frigates. After the rebalancing of speed and missiles, interceptors are the new kings of the speed tank. Their new bonus allows them to use a microwarpdrive without increasing their signature radius by a large factor, meaning they can get up to several kilometres per second without being an easy target to hit.

Range tank:
Although not a tank in the traditional sense, long range fittings have become a staple defensive tactic in EVE. If your ship can snipe enemies at extreme ranges, you can engage the enemy from outside their own weapons range. Sniper battleship setups can hit ranges of over 200km with good skills and equipment and the Raven can be set up to fire cruise missiles from 250km away. In PvE such as when you're running a mission, a sniper setup can be extremely effective in killing enemies since they tend to approach at predictable and slow speeds. By using an afterburner, a long range ship can keep the NPCs in a mission or asteroid belt at arm's length and kill them at his leisure.

In PvP, sniper ships are still useful and are typically deployed by warping them to pre-made safespots 150-200km from the main battle area. The main down side of a long range fitting is that they have to sacrifice so many slots to achieve their high range and damage that they are almost always lacking in defences and will have no tackling ability. In PvP therefore, sniper wings are usually accompanied by other gang mates, including dedicated tackler squads and electronic warfare ships to jam anyone who gets close to the sniper point.

Summary:
Although in EVE we typically think of a tank as something a ship does itself by absorbing and repairing damage, there are plenty of alternative ways that a ship can avoid damage. These methods are equally qualified to be called tanks as they perform the same essential function. This final part concludes the guide on the art of tanking in EVE Online. In this concise three part series we've looked at topics from choosing between using a shield or armour tank to passive shield tanking, spider tanking and the controversial speed tank. Whatever your level of experience with EVE Online, I hope this guide has been helpful to you.