What is 'Tackling'?

Question

I have started playing EVE Online and I'm working through a set of suggestions I have been given by a friend who has been playing EVE for a while to get setup to actually play the game in some capacity as quickly as possible.

One of the things that has been suggested to me is that I learn 'tackling'. I've got to grips with the UI for EVE and have had a look through the skill training screens but can't see anything relating to 'tackling'.

What is 'tackling' in EVE Online and how can I learn the required skills to do it?

Answer 1

First, you'll need some friends to fly with. Tackling is about PvP, and while you can certainly PvP alone, I wouldn't recommend that in the very beginning.

The job of the tackler is to prevent the enemy from getting away. The warp disruptor and warp scrambler modules will prevent an enemy from activating their warp drive and fleeing. A warp scrambler also disables the enemy MWD, slowing them down, but has a much shorter range than the warp disruptor.

The absolute minimum requirement for tackling is to be able to fly any frigate and to use either a warp scrambler or warp disruptor (which requires the Propulsion Jamming skill).

Then you need a cheap ship and a minimal set of skills. The best ship to start would be one of the T1 attack frigates, as they get a bonus to the cap usage of tackle modules. Those frigates are

• Slasher (Minmatar)
• Atron (Gallente)
• Condor (Caldari)
• Executioner (Amarr)

Choose the one where you already know the frigate skill, which corresponds to your starting race at the very beginning.

I strongly recommend you to read the Newbie Tackling Guide from Azual Skoll, it goes into much more detail and also contains some example fits. Just take one of the example fits and plug it into EFT or Pyfa to see which skills you need to learn to use all of the modules.

Answer 2

In a fleet, the tackler prevents enemy ships from warping away when they're in danger, allowing other fleet members to concentrate on dealing damage and their own survival. Tacklers are usually small and cheap ships, for example frigates - the small size makes it harder for the large, cornered enemy ships to destroy the tackler; the low cost is because tackling ships are destroyed very often. Tacklers also often fit modules for slowing the movement of enemy ships, to make them easier to hit for their allies.

See Eveuni's article on tackling: http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Tackling_101_Guide

Answer 3

Much like the RL sports where it's derived from, it boils down to approaching an opponent as quickly as possible in order to prevent them from continuing.

In EVE, this is generally done by a frigate-sized ship (either a frigate or an interceptor; especially when you're just starting out I recommend sticking to the cheaper option) configured for high speed and using warp core destabilizers; you basically afterburn/MWD up to the target and activate your destabilizers so that he can't run away while the rest of your gang gets into range at a slightly more sedate pace to proceed with the business of extortion, piracy and/or murder.

Of course, interceptors are still frigate-sized and therefore fairly fragile; combined with the fact that they're fairly obvious as the one ship that your target must destroy or disable in order to get out of the trap, it tends to be a high-risk position.

As for the skills you'll need -- aside from the in-game skills required to fly Interceptors and operate the various warp destabilization and speed decreasing equipment modules, tackling is an art in and of itself that requires player skills and more than a little practice. @fadeway's link to the EVE University is a good place to start.

Answer 4

A tackler is technically any ship that fits a Warp Scrambler or Warp Disrupter to their ship. In practice most tackle are "fast tackle" or ships that are faster then the rest of the fleet designed to go out and grab people.

While tackle frigates such as interceptors are built for tackling, the size of the tacklers can increase as the fleet ship size does. For example a heavy tackle fit Omen cruiser may fill the role for a battleship gang.

Another common characteristic of tacklers is the inclusion of a sensor booster when the pilot can squeeze it in. This allows you to lock on to targets faster, and get tackle on a target before they can escape. This is especially true for gate camps.

Another form of tackle appears in null sec with interdictors and heavy interdictors. These destroyer and cruiser size ships are capable of area of effect zones where all warping is not allowed (with the exception of Tech 3 cruisers that can fit a system to counter that). Heavy Interdictors can also focus their interdiction field into what is known as an "infini-point" which will prevent warp of any ship regardless of warp cor strength. This is basically the only way to catch and tackle super capital ships.