Biweve C vs Norrmal A'

[JudeSaint]

The differrence between the Biweave C and the regular c is something like 80Pts. I have not come across a 6a for shields yet but im wondering are the Biweave's really betterr than the A grade shields? I mean once they have been upgrraded that is. I know they recharge faster but it just seems like you would be better off with a bunch of boosters/cellbanks/Sinks .... The boosters lower the recharge rate of the Biweave anyway.
What do you guys think?

 

[Apos]

Depends on what you want to do.

Bi-weaves are great for BH where you get time windows without being damaged. This might not be the case when, for example, you get swarmed in a combat zone and you could use the extra strength.

 

[Vardaugas]

In a res zone you don't want to wait 10 minutes for your shields to recharge between every engagement. If you just go through single combat events like assassinations or interdictions, the higher shield value matters more than the recharge. So it really depends on what you are planning to do.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

What ship? Reason I'm asking is all ships have unique shield modifiers = different raw strength.

For example, a Size 4A shield on a Cobra Mk III gives 120-something mj shield. The same shield generator gives... Well it gives a higher mj reading on a Viper Mk IV.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Depends on the ship, opponent, tactics and skill level.

If you are in a Vulture vs an Anaconda with low DPS weapons like lasers and a high skill I'd go bi-weave as you will sit mostly in the enemy blind spot picking away. Same with a Cutter/clipper/cobra where you can out-run anything you need to and let your shields recharge.

For big slow things like Anacondas and Gunships and/or stuff you plan to literally go head to head until one or the other breaks its obviously prismatic/normal shields.



I think somewhere there is someone with some maths that shows theoretically biweave with boosters modified for resistance over pure Mj is better than a tank going for maximum Mj value. However, in my experience and opinion it is entirely dependant on all the factors in the equation and what/how you decide to fight.
As above RES for engagement to engagement it's biweave unless you are picking on the big targets where you really need the extra Mj.

 

[Ian Skippy]

The differrence between the Biweave C and the regular c is something like 80Pts. I have not come across a 6a for shields yet but im wondering are the Biweave's really betterr than the A grade shields? I mean once they have been upgrraded that is. I know they recharge faster but it just seems like you would be better off with a bunch of boosters/cellbanks/Sinks .... The boosters lower the recharge rate of the Biweave anyway.
What do you guys think?

It depends. If you fly ships that are intended to keep shields up all the time (FDL, big three, iCourier etc) use A-rated/prismatics with boosters. Small ships without disproportionately strong shields are better off with bi-weave. Ships like the Eagle can recharge their shields in almost no time, which means that with proper flying you can just evade the enemy for a little bit until the shields are up.

 

[JudeSaint]

Flying a Python

 

[CMDR Corlas]

The boosters lower the recharge rate of the Biweave anyway.

Maybe worth noting - boosters don't alter the recharge rate of shields, bi-weave or not. The rate remains constant, there's just more shields in total to recharge. So the effectiveness of the bi-weave remains unchanged, even though your shield indicator takes longer to show as "full".

Personally, I really like bi-weaves and a booster or two, all modded for resistance. I very rarely lose my shields anyway, so I find a faster recharge is far more useful than more capacity.

Any shields you don't lose were technically pointless for that fight, so I prefer to focus on having those come back quickly, and be ready for the next fight.

 

[Frenotx]

Flying a Python

What sort of activities do you do? Trading, where you generally only have to fight one opponent at a time with supercruise time in between, or bounty hunting, where you expect to be fighting many ships in a row, and stay out for a while?

 

[JudeSaint]

Bounty/ Hi/has res and CZ

 

[Susanna]

No brainer 90% of the time... Biweaves. Hardly ever touch grade As any more.

 

[Nalessa]

I got a biweave on my FAS because it already has meh shields, so I figured I'd rather have meh shields that recharge fast and it does that really well, with some reinforcement modules I can tank damage while the shield is down pretty well too.

After you destroyed a ship, just wait for a little and you're good to go again!

 

[Kaybe]

Bi-weaves for bounty hunting or anywhere else you're not expecting very firepower. A-rated for PVP or anywhere you're expecting big burst damage. Also, A-rated if you're loading a lower class of shields for out of combat missions.

For example, for bounty hunting on my Cutter, I'll use 8C bi-weaves, whereas I'll use 6As when trading.

 

[CMDR ANCALAGON]

You will hear different opinions on this, and as usual you should try both and go with what works for you.

I recently worked through the same decision, and incase you find it helpful, I will offer my experience and findings.

For my anaconda, I had engineered (Enhanced, I think) 7A shields, and every utility slot filled with engineered shield cell boosters. My objective was to build up the highest MJ that I could. The majority of my optional internal slots were filled with hull reinforcement modules. I had tanked hull and shields.

I could fare well against NPCs for the most part, but I quickly realized that the time required to recharge my shields was a big problem. Once my shields were nearly gone, it would take something like 18 minutes to recharge. I had read about shield cell banks, but thoses were completely ineffective as they couldn't restore a significant percentage of the shield. Effectively my shields didn't recharge, which means they were really no different than armor.

On the advice of someone in these forums, I slapped on a bi-weave but NOT in the class 7 slot. I put the biweave in the class 6 slot, and a 7B Shield Cell Bank in the class 7 slot, a 6B SCB in the other class 6 slot, and a 5B in one of the class 5 slots.

The 7B shield cell banks restore less MJ per cell bank than the 7A, but the 7B has one more cell bank than the 7A. So the total MJ that the 7B module can restore is higher than the 7A module.

The raw MJ of the 6C Biweave is less than the 7A, but the MJ of damage that can be absorbed by the 6C biweave plus the cell banks is far, far, greater than the 7A plus five or six cell boosters. Also, your shields will recharge quite a bit in between battles without using the cell banks.

I finally know the experince of sitting in the middle of four or five hostile NPCs and laughing. No longer do I need to leave the battle or RES to return to the station to recharge my shields. I can't say enough about the difference, and I have seen the same results on my FDL, and as a general rule, I now fill the second highest slot with a biweave and the highest with a cell bank for any ship that I expect will see combat.

Once I get back to my laptop I will post the coriolis links to my ship with and without the biweaves so you can see for yourself.

I will say that should you go this route, that you shoud practice using your cell banks before you get into combat. You will need heat sinks, and plan on firing two cell banks per heat sink (I fire a cell bank and launch a heat sink when my heat hits 80% or so, then fire the other cell bank). If you run out of heat sinks, I'm not sure that you can safely use a cell bank.

 

[Stealthie]

For me it's just a case of A-rated for defensive use and for one-off combat and bi-weaves for ships that are intended to ongoing combat.

Basically, I bung bi-weaves on all my combat ships and A-rated shields on everything else.

*EDIT*

Suppose it's worth mentioning that the whole "reboot/repair to 50% shields" thing means you can use A-rated shields for extended period of combat as long as you can get a chance to do a reboot/repair.
Personally, I don't rely on this 'cos I consider it an exploit and I can't help thinking that FDev are going to remove it at some point.

If your shields are down when you reboot your systems, they shouldn't magically obtain the power needed to recharge them.
They should reboot in the same state they were previously.

 

[Wulfram Carbide]

For me it's just a case of A-rated for defensive use and for one-off combat and bi-weaves for ships that are intended to ongoing combat.

Basically, I bung bi-weaves on all my combat ships and A-rated shields on everything else.

That's basically me too. Though I will sometimes use As on combat ships for assassination type missions.

 

[Frenotx]

For me it's just a case of A-rated for defensive use and for one-off combat and bi-weaves for ships that are intended to ongoing combat.

Basically, I bung bi-weaves on all my combat ships and A-rated shields on everything else.

*EDIT*

Suppose it's worth mentioning that the whole "reboot/repair to 50% shields" thing means you can use A-rated shields for extended period of combat as long as you can get a chance to do a reboot/repair.
Personally, I don't rely on this 'cos I consider it an exploit and I can't help thinking that FDev are going to remove it at some point.

If your shields are down when you reboot your systems, they shouldn't magically obtain the power needed to recharge them.
They should reboot in the same state they were previously.

That's the way to do it. If you only need a one-time barrier to protect you while you bail (trade ships, etc.), A-rated or prismatic is the way to go. In extended combat, though, the biweave will give you far more overall protection in the long run.

 

[SushiCW]

I've gone with Bi-weaves because they feel more fun, especially in extended furballs with NPCs. The extra 50 mj or so of strength from using A-rated isn't likely to make a difference anywhere that matters.

 

[coca_fr]

Bi-Weave is great for small - medium combats ships including FdL and Vulture.

The thing is that with this kind of ships you often have your shield down pretty fast and as your ships is fast you can outrun your opponent while recharging your shield. And the fast the better.

Above Bi-Weave shields strength are more meant for slower ships. Indeed as they cannot outrun their opponents they need a very strong shield to last very long.
Prismatic Shield is great in that matter for slowest ships to make war ship or to outfit traders/miners/explorers with still decent shield strength.

 

[RidingTheFlow]

Flying a Python

Bounty/ Hi/has res and CZ

I would advise against biweave for this. It can get suddenly very toasty if they gang up on you.
Even with single target you don't know when they may bring wingmen friends, or launch fighters (and you don't want to ignore fighters - they pack massive punch).

Instead, go with highest rating shield (A or prismatic), preferably modded for thermal resistance (to eliminate weakness). This will give you total peace of mind.