Friday, June 08, 2012

Ancillary Shield Boosters

Orakkus over at 2nd Anomaly From The Left (mandatory reading people!) did a couple posts talking about the new Ancillary Shield Boosters and I thought I would take a look at them as well.

There are small, medium, large, and extra large versions and the description is:

Provides a quick boost in shield strength. The module takes Cap Booster charges and will deactivate once these charges run out. If not reloaded, it will start consuming the ship's capacitor upon reactivation.
Note: Can use Cap Booster 50, 75 and 100 as fuel. Reloading time is 60 seconds. Prototype Inferno Module.

So the idea is that its a combined cap booster and shield booster, thus saving you a slot to run your active shield tank. Intriguing! So let's compare stats, looking at the Medium Ancillary Shield Booster and the Medium Shield Booster II.


Stat Medium Shield Booster II Medium Ancillary Shield Booster
CPU (tf) 58 50
Powergrid (MW) 13 12
Energy Activation Cost (GJ) 60 142
Duration (sec) 3 3
Shield Boost Amount (HPs) 90 146
Capacity (m3) NA 20
Reload Time (sec) NA 60

Although the energy cost of the Ancillary shield booster is 142, you can get a full boost of 146 from a Cap Booster 50, 75, or 100. Since the biggest energy bang for your buck is Cap Booster 50 to fill in for 142 energy, and since the module can hold 10 of them instead of only 5 of the Cap Booster 100, it makes sense to go with the smaller charges.

You can run the module without charges in it and in my testing last night I found that with auto-reload turned off, it would run out of charges and keep running off of my ship's capacitor. It also works with a Shield Boost Amplifier so on a ship with active shield tanking bonus like a Harpy and a amplifier, the Ancillary booster gives 273 hit points every three seconds while the Medium Shield Booster II only repairs 168.

The downside is that your cap chargers only last for 30 seconds (10 charges and 3 second cycle time) and after that the hungrier ancillary booster will drain your cap dry... or you wait for 60 seconds to reload it with charges. Either way your tank may be dead in the water in that time and your ship to soon just be dead.

So, this module is not intended for long drawn out fights or for fights where you have to tank hard. Setups where the fight is over in 30 seconds (i.e. high DPS gank ships) or where the enemy is incapacitated in that time (such as a bait ship waiting for ECM reinforcements to arrive) or where you only need to pulse the repper have the time might work with this module that gives a significant amount of boosting over regular reppers. Any setup that needs to run this module a lot will not work unless you have insane capacitor capacity and recharge rates (I can't think of one that can handle it).


7 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:21 pm

    IMHO, you have to work out a strategy to use it effectively. For example, make it boost so much, that it fills 1/3 of your total shield and pulse it. Or as the name implies, use it as ANCILLARY, i.e having one regular booster and this mod alongside. :)

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  2. Wondering if there might not be a use for shield tanking carriers, chimera especially.

    Navy charges gives you an extra three in the hole, for 52 seconds of boosting before reload. That could actually get interesting if you're going to fit more than one. Three X-larges would give you an overlap after the first part of the first cycle or two would give almost an always on.

    The bonus obviously is a huge burst tank and no cap usage as long as the charges hold out. Someone with better brains than I should look into it methinks.

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  3. i have found them less usefull as you might think in practice. technically they produce as much ehp as a shield extender of the same size in 2 cycles. but to rely on the ancill as a tank is too iffy uless you can fit two of them to run them independently from eachother to work throught the reload time of the first while you run the second. a cyclone would work for example but without crystals and/or a booster character in your gang your tank will fail agains most other bc's. I am sure these mods will find their place but they will not be a mainstay in my setups just yet.

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  4. I've found them to be absolutely amazing. The key is that they give you a lot more EHP than LSEs, and can provide a nice amount of surprise burst tank for absolutely ZERO cap. Let me show you a few setups that I've personally flown to great effect so far.


    [Osprey Navy Issue, nano]
    Ballistic Control System II
    Ballistic Control System II
    Reactor Control Unit II

    Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
    Warp Disruptor II
    X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
    Small Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 150
    Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 150

    Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Assault Missile
    Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Assault Missile
    Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Assault Missile
    Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Assault Missile

    Medium Bay Loading Accelerator I
    Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I


    Hobgoblin II x2


    [Stabber Fleet Issue, 100mn AC original]
    Fourier Transform Tracking Program
    Gyrostabilizer II
    Gyrostabilizer II
    Nanofiber Internal Structure II
    Nanofiber Internal Structure II
    Internal Force Field Array I

    Experimental 100MN Afterburner I
    Warp Scrambler II
    Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
    Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 150

    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Hail M
    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Hail M
    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Hail M
    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Hail M
    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Hail M

    Medium Ancillary Current Router I
    Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing I
    Medium Ancillary Current Router I


    Valkyrie II x3
    Warrior II x2


    [Hawk, this isnt broken at all]
    Co-Processor II
    Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

    Medium Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 100
    Medium Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 100
    Gistii B-Type 1MN Afterburner
    Warp Scrambler II
    Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

    Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
    Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
    Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
    Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket
    Small 'Knave' Energy Drain

    Small Processor Overclocking Unit I
    Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

    [With LG crystals and tengu bonuses this hawk tanks 661 dps per booster before heat - can burst tank 1793 heating both boosters + invuln, and best thing is it can't be neuted out]


    [Cyclone, xl]
    Internal Force Field Array I
    Co-Processor II
    Gyrostabilizer II
    Gyrostabilizer II

    X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 400
    X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 400
    Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
    Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I
    Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I

    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
    [empty high slot]
    [empty high slot]
    [empty high slot]

    Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
    Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
    Medium Ancillary Current Router I

    [Drones of your choice, tanks 1425 dps pre-heat, 1968 w/heat. Add in LG crystals + tengu boosts and u get 5895 burst tank, or 2177 non-heated DPS tanked per booster]

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  5. [Drake, hamdraek ancillary]
    Internal Force Field Array I
    Ballistic Control System II
    Ballistic Control System II
    Reactor Control Unit II

    Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
    Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 150
    Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
    Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
    J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
    X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

    Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Assault Missile
    Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Assault Missile
    Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Assault Missile
    Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Assault Missile
    Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Assault Missile
    Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Assault Missile
    Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Assault Missile
    [empty high slot]

    Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
    Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
    Medium Core Defense Field Extender I


    Hobgoblin II x5
    [63.5k EHP, 393 dps "tank", in most fights your EHP will give you enough time to get another reload off on that booster. Again, hugely profits from bonuses as your EHP jumps to 94k and your tank jumps to 826 dps, before LG crystals.]

    CCP totally broke the one weakness that active tanking ships have - neuting. Theres absolutley no reason not to go full-retard with them if you have the isk now as only dps will break you, and you can get enough tank that people would need absurd amounts of DPS; see this fit:

    [Scorpion Navy Issue, Krystallnacht]
    Internal Force Field Array I
    Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
    Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
    Caldari Navy Co-Processor

    X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 400
    X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 400
    X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 400
    Pithum A-Type Adaptive Invulnerability Field
    Pith X-Type Shield Boost Amplifier
    Federation Navy Stasis Webifier
    True Sansha Warp Scrambler
    Republic Fleet Target Painter

    Torpedo Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo
    Torpedo Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo
    Torpedo Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo
    Torpedo Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo
    Torpedo Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo
    Torpedo Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo
    Corpum A-Type Medium Nosferatu

    Large Processor Overclocking Unit I
    Large Processor Overclocking Unit I
    Large Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I


    Ogre II x2
    Hammerhead II x2
    Hobgoblin II x1

    Tanks 13,243dps pre heat w/LG crystals + Tengu boosts, or 4465 per booster, which is all you should need. The burst tank is for if you need to deaggro. Overloading ur invuln + 3x boosters gives you an absolutely ridiculous tank of 20,537 dps, which should be all you need and more to deaggro vs just about anything - and it's entirely un-neutable. =D

    These modules are incredibly useful, and CCP will most likely be nerfing them imo(but then again they left Tier 3 BCs in the game as-is so far, so maybe CCP just feels like introducing OP as fuck ships/modules is ok now, who knows). :shrug:

    Hopefully these will give you some food for thought ;)

    -Lords

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  6. Anonymous8:07 pm

    Thanks for the compliment Kirith (you get me more hits than Eve Bloggers). I'll keep you in the loop if I find some other ASB configs that are useful.

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  7. I've tested a Dual xlasb fitted rokh Vs a bhaalgorn on sisi the Last days. This thing does about 900dps and the lossmail said 112k damage taken. I've tanked the bhaal till i ran out of cap boosters but sadly wasnt able to kill him due to perma neuted cap

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