Battlecruisers are the step up from Cruisers in terms of Tanking Capacity, Damage output, Size and Cost.

Tech 1

A popular Battlecruiser is the Drake, due to the nature of passive shield tanking, the hull bonuses and relatively low skill requirements to make it effective. In PVP it is often used for bait, resulting in an aura of psychological nature surrounding the ship that can discourage many agressors from engaging it. A very common Effective Hitpoint Number for Battlecruisers are 30,000, while bait ships can field a significan amount of tanking ability providing the fleet enough time to warp in and assist with reps, tackle and damage.

Modules are a mix of cruiser and battleship sizes. While the Tier 3 battlecruisers can field battleship weapons, the Tier 1 and 2 battlecruisers are usually restricted due to powergrid to fitting cruiser sized weapons and modules.

For PVE, it usually becomes the ship choice for Level 3-4 missioners, as well as being an excellent choice for budding explorers.

Tech 2

Two specialized roles are offered with these vessels; Fleet and Field Commander vessels.

While the Field Commander ships are mostly an augmentation of the Battlecruisers (on-hands ship combat), the Fleet commander role bonus provides the fleet with stat bonus increases through the fitting of Warfare Link Modules.

For each level of the Command Ship skill trained, an additional 3% bonus is provided towards racial warfare link modules. At its peak, serving a bonus of +15%. For a ship such as the Damnation, it can bring an armor warfare module (+2.5% bonus) up to 21.56% bonus (with an all V character), while the non-racial siege warfare module will peak at 18.75%.

For some wormhole corporations, warfare link modules further augment some system effects which can have an effect on ship choice in engagements (PVE/PVP). Both in terms of engagement ships, but also which racial Command ship to chose for the off-grid booster.

Baiting in Command ships is easy, as they can usually fit tanks that will even damage output from a small-to-medium sized gang. Fitting the bait ship is easy, and the size of the tank can surpass 10x the tank of the Tech 1 equivalent. However, there is the price tag to consider. Flying a shiny ship will attrackt agressors, but obvious bait ships are obvious.

 

The Battlecruiser Family

Skill Level Amarr Caldari Gallente Minmatar
Battlecruiser I
Battlecruiser II
Battlecruiser III
Battlecruiser IV
Battlecruiser V
Command Ships I
Heavy Assault Ships IV