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EVE Evolved: The art of tanking - Armour tanking
Back in 2005, I became obsessed with the art of tanking in EVE Online. Before writing the definitive tanking guide for EON issue 2 (for which the EVE community dubbed me "the tanking guy"), I spent a lot of time working out the mathematics behind the art. At a time when people preferred a trial and error approach to combat, I went as far as to create a spreadsheet to automate calculations on the strength of your tank. Over the years, more advanced tools like EFT (EVE Fitting Tool) have been released which have this functionality and more. In this short series of articles, I aim to cover tanking from start to finish in a concise and informative manner. In this first part, I begin with an introduction to tanking and follow up with a brief guide on how to select which type of tank to use and a complete overview of armour tanking. What is tanking?: Any MMO player will know the role of the "Tank" but the word's usage in EVE Online is a little different. Broadly speaking, a tank is whatever you use to keep yourself alive and it's something every ship can do. The MMO holy trinity of tank, healer and damage-dealer are combined into every ship in EVE. Because of this ability to self-heal, the word "tank" in EVE generally refers to the combination of both resisting damage and healing it. Fitting your ship then becomes a matter of balancing between tank and damage. Read on to find out how to select what type of tank to use and learn all about armour tanking.
One Shots: Angel at war
The ships in EVE Online may be varied in look, size, and function - but all of them are extremely well modeled and lovely to look at. As many only get a chance to see other ships in battle, we're glad to present this ship today as part of One Shots. This particular screenshot comes to us from our very own Brendan "Nyphur" Drain, who writes the entertainingly informative column for us, EVE Evolved. Brendan tells us a bit about this ship today: This is an NPC Angel battleship. The Guardian Angels are a pirate faction that use primarily Minmatar weaponry such as auto-cannons and artillery. The ship seen here is called a Machariel and a version of it is available for players, with limited run blueprints dropped as rare loot at the end of hard-to-find complexes (dungeons).If you've got screenshots, we need them! One Shots is best when it has community input, so we're reaching out to you. We're looking for any and all screenshots that you think are cool. Have something to show off that you're proud of? Want to tell everyone how cool your group of MMO friends are? Or maybe you just found some area, npc, or the like that you think is pretty awesome and should be shown off. Whatever your reasons, we want to hear from you. Grab a screenshot (or a bunch) and send them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, game and any other information you'd like to add. We'll post your screen and share your tale with all the Massively readers worldwide! %Gallery-9798%
One Shots: Genesis
One of the things we really like about EVE Online is the creative ways that the players keep contributing to the lore of New Eden. Today's One Shots is actually a "found" screen, culled from the forums by Massively's own Brendan "Nyphur" Drain, showing just a small portion of the creativity behind EVE Online's player-base. Nyphur tells us a bit more about this screen: I found this ages ago on the EVE forums and it's been my favourite screenshot ever since. It was either produced by a strange graphical bug or by opening the map in the New Eden system, but the composition of the screenshot gives it a wonderful symbolic feel. The map is visible with the Genesis region labled (the region that the EVE gate originated in and where settlers first entered New Eden). It's almost as if the genesis is occuring; the EVE gate giving birth to the thousands of little interconnected star systems that make up New Eden. If you're an EVE player who can tell us a bit more about how this screen came about, or who deserves the original credit, please do leave a comment below!Have you found an area that just sums up your game world as the above sums up EVE Online for Nyphur? If so, we'd love to see a screenshot of it and hear your thoughts. Just send that screenshot, your name, and your description to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com. We'll post it out here for everyone to check out!%Gallery-9798%
One Shots: Medic!
There's always something going on in New Eden. From the basics like mining and mission running to huge PvP wars, Tranquility is abuzz with activity. Today's One Shots comes from Massively's very own EVE Online columnist, Brendan Drain, who is also known in the EVE community as Nyphur. Brendan's weekly column, EVE Evolved, keeps players in-the-know on this highly interesting sandbox MMO - and the note he sent along with today's One Shots is no exception to his normal insight. Brendan tells us a bit about this interesting ship: This is an Oneiros, the Gallente logistics cruiser. Its role is basically the healer class out of other MMOs. With a massive bonus to remote armor repairer range and capacitor use, these ships are perfect for assisting with difficult level 5 missions and are very useful in organised PVP gangs.Are there any insights, tips, or tricks you'd like to give others in regards to your favorite game? Perhaps you'd like to show off your favorite ship, as our other EVE Online writer James Egan did, or you have great screens of PvP. If you've got screenshots from your favorite MMO, we want them! Just send them in to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and a brief description. Yours could be the next one featured here!%Gallery-9798%
Era of suicide ganking in EVE Online coming to a close
CCP Games has addressed the long-standing problem of suicide ganking in EVE Online in their latest dev blog, titled "Serious Security." CCP Fear stepped up to inform the player base that, yes, the devs do take the issue of suicide ganking seriously, and that they're going to take action. The proposed changes, outlined below, are not going into effect immediately, nor do they impact actions taken as part of Empire war declarations. However, they will be implemented with the next major update to EVE, which will be Empyrean Age 1.1, rolling out this Fall. The dev blog focuses on CONCORD improvements and the increased consequences of suicide ganks. CCP Fear states: "We have been looking at suicide ganking and overall security standing issues, and how these features affect the general landscape of EVE. We are not happy with the current ease of suicide ganking and the relative 'no hassle' it has become. In many cases, unsuspecting victims have no chance to escape, nor any help from CONCORD. We want to change this."
Massively takes on EVE Online's learning curve
EVE Online is a complex game. There's no doubt about that. That complexity is a large part of the draw, but that doesn't mean learning about the game has to be a daunting experience. With that in mind, Massively has EVE Online in its sights. We've brought solid writers on staff who are quite knowledgeable about the game and are here to give some in-depth info on how EVE is played. CrazyKinux and Crovan of The Drone Bay podcast joined us in April, and since then have provided Massively's readers with some helpful columns. CrazyKinux, aka David Perry, writes the Have Clone, Will Travel column. David's most recent piece, 3 Essential Tools for Capsuleers, provides a great overview of some of the third-party programs and resources available to help you plan your skill progression and your ship fittings. But we're also running two more EVE-centric columns at Massively. Read on after the jump to see what else we're bringing to the EVE community, and how we're easing that learning curve.
Empyrean Age factional warfare map included with newest E-ON issue
EVE Online's latest dev blog comes from Zapatero, one of the staff at E-ON, the quarterly magazine all about EVE. Our own Massively columnist Brendan Drain, aka Nyphur, has been a past contributor to E-ON, which should give you an idea of how in-depth some of the articles are. The magazine is a useful resource for any serious player of the game and the fiction is pretty solid as well, it's just a shame that there's a few-month gap between each issue's release. Maybe it was that wait that pushed him over the edge, but rumor has it one of the Massively writers snapped and bought every back issue of E-ON, but we think that he's unhealthily obsessed anyway. Zapatero writes that E-ON is about to celebrate its third year in operation with the release of issue 12, which will ship on July 4th. As a bonus to readers, it will include a free poster of the Empyrean Age New Eden star cluster, to aid players who have enlisted in factional warfare. The map was created by Council of Stellar Management (CSM) delegate Serenity Steele, who also brought EVE Strategic Maps (a book of star charts) to fans of the game. The free poster map will include region names and outposts. Faction warfare-enabled regions will be highlighted and the security status of each system will be color-coded. For those who actually have EVE Strategic Maps, the poster is cross-referenced with the book, although Zapatero states that the map will be useful on its own. He outlines what will be in issue 12 in his dev blog; if the content matches up to what the E-ON staff has put out in past issues, it should be worth checking out.
