I always hear the terms Buffer and Active tanks but I am not 100% clear on what they are. I have a general idea but at times I still get a bit lost when people start to throw these terms around.
Can anybody please define them for me and give me an exampled?
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Silas Sanyasi
[ Moderator ]
Wolfe got it mostly right.
An active tank uses armor reppers or shield boosters in combination with shield or armor hardeners to negate incoming damage. This is usually very cap intensive and means you can only run your tank for a certain time before your cap runs out. Active tanking set up to run permanently is a popular choice for PvE ships.
A buffer tank relies on shield extenders and armor plates to increase your total hit points meaning it will take a potential enemy longer to kill you. This can also be combined with resists mods, either passive or active. This is the most common approach for PvP as it requires no cap. It is also the obvious choice for remote repping gangs.
wolfe lazers
this is how i understand it all..
Active tank: you are using sheild or armor repair units to continously repair yourself as you become damaged.
Buffer Tank: you increase the resistance lvl of your tank to EM, Therm, Explosive, and Kin. This will help you last longer in a fight because you will be taking less damage but unless you have someone runnning logisticts on you, you will eventually die unless you kill your opponets first.
Also with your buffer tank would be a passive sheild tank. This means that you have boosted the recharge rate of your sheild as high as possible so that hopefully it is repairing itself faster then the damage your taking.