Hey Guys,
What is the best setup for a front line support ship. I am looking for a relatively tanky ship that can get to the front lines and heal / buff allies. What are the best:
* Faction
* Sub Faction
* Ships
* Skills
* Weapons
* Active Modules
* Passive Modules
I know this is a lot to ask for, so any information on any of them would be great!
I use a fed support frig T2 with group shield, group hull repair mods and the pulse for when things are on me, next time I’m in game I’ll give you the name of all my mods.
Fed frigates are good for frontine support, i bring propulsion inhibitor, missile defense and shield regen buff with anti missile drone, and i prefer plasma cannons to punish all those who dare tread close 
I’m trying to like fed frigs, but in tier 3 it seems to get even harder to make them work. I also have propulsion inhibitor, and regen buffs, but my frig only has combat drones, so no missile shooting, or shield boosting.
This may sound strange but I found frontline in my tier 2 Jericho Tech frigate to work somewhat well. I have to stay near a solid object close to the action to prevent being circled. (I can’t log in atm so you’ll have to forgive my descriptions of items). I run a shield regen for nearby allies, a self shield regen item, and an item that does AOE damage over time to nearby enemies (between it and my torpedos I can fend off interceptors that very often run assault runs on me). Also get lots of allies passing by back and forth to and from the action getting charged up. Works amazingly well. The heavy lasers do significant damage, sniping lasers are overrated for Jericho. During occasional luls in the action on my side of the rock/wall/immovable object I just fire torpedos out.
obviously self shield regen can be subbed for team hull regen but the offense item is necessary.
Anyways I’m a pure Jericho player but that’s what I found wins battles with my frigate. Helps gain map control and inevitably victory. So far I’m generally able to fend off fighters, interceptors and even frigates. I can take them all 1on1 since enemy frigates are generally loaded in low DPS sniping gear. Basically can take anyone 1on1 and usually have a lot of allies around to help.
Federation Command and Offense fighters are pretty awesome. I fly with the hull resist buff mod on my command fighter, and the targeting laser on my offense fighter. Get lots of assists. The hull resist buff gives something like 56 resist.
Does the empire drone that shoots down missiles, shoot down missiles targeting allies, or only targeting yourself?
so far my drones shot down every enemy missile in range, so with my setup i can catch 3 missiles upfront
I have been liking my tanking Acid Hydra. I run aoe hull regen, missile defense and pulsar. I also have a Jericho t2 frig(steam one) which is also tanky that I have missile defense, shield aoe and propulsion jammer.
Depending on enemy setup I play either frig for front line support. Also fly a command fighter and Wasp(steam) interceptor. That gives me 2 front line brawlers, 1 front line pure support, and a micro-warping int for beacon captures. Both my frigs have a good amount of hull/shields respectively, and hold their own rAther well.
For tier 3 there is no front line brawler, 2 stuns and your dead.