Shield booster or chaff launcher?
-
Greetings Commander, want a more instant approach to your questions and need for help? Check out the Galactic Academy Discord server!
Feel free to join the Galactic Academy Discord server by clicking here!
Newcomer / Intro Shield booster or chaff launcher?
- Thread starter Gobin Splat
- Start date
Ideally a combination of Shield Booster and Chaff Launcher. As the end result is similar, to avoid hull damage.
The catch twenty two is chaff launchers are limited duration but greatly reduce gimble locked weapon damage, which in turn gives your shield generator a moment to recharge, But Shield boosters increase total shield strength which adversely also increases total recharge time.
My personal rule of thumb is similar to @Ashnak
If the shield strength total is low, i will supplement a Chaff Launcher over the extra shield booster. Which is common on smaller ships.
If the ship has a good total shield strength i will attempt to min max that benefit by adding shield booster over chaff if i had to choose.
A 0A Shield Booster provides +20% total strength which obviously becomes more effective on larger numbers. 20% of 100 vs 20% of 1000.
Drawback is power consumption over a chaff launcher, and increased shield recharge time.
The chaff Launcher has a limited duration but ideal in breaking target lock damage. (with respect to distance, an opponent who has their vultures nose stuck against your hull makes chaff nearly useless)
Drawback is chaff has a 10 second cool down before you can use it again, and limited ammo.
My opinion to take away from this is to always equip a chaff launcher, as it is useful for both combative and non combative ship types. If you ever watch Three of Nine videos his combat style in PVP shows how effective chaff is over shield boosters. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUvdCr9lvqspoTqKe47ACaA
The catch twenty two is chaff launchers are limited duration but greatly reduce gimble locked weapon damage, which in turn gives your shield generator a moment to recharge, But Shield boosters increase total shield strength which adversely also increases total recharge time.
My personal rule of thumb is similar to @Ashnak
If the shield strength total is low, i will supplement a Chaff Launcher over the extra shield booster. Which is common on smaller ships.
If the ship has a good total shield strength i will attempt to min max that benefit by adding shield booster over chaff if i had to choose.
A 0A Shield Booster provides +20% total strength which obviously becomes more effective on larger numbers. 20% of 100 vs 20% of 1000.
Drawback is power consumption over a chaff launcher, and increased shield recharge time.
The chaff Launcher has a limited duration but ideal in breaking target lock damage. (with respect to distance, an opponent who has their vultures nose stuck against your hull makes chaff nearly useless)
Drawback is chaff has a 10 second cool down before you can use it again, and limited ammo.
My opinion to take away from this is to always equip a chaff launcher, as it is useful for both combative and non combative ship types. If you ever watch Three of Nine videos his combat style in PVP shows how effective chaff is over shield boosters. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUvdCr9lvqspoTqKe47ACaA
Last edited:
Is this for PvE?
Does chaff even affect NPCs?
Does chaff even affect NPCs?
Significantly.
I'm more likely to take chaff launchers when in a PvE focused ship because gimbals are generally more common on NPCs.
From my experience chaff effects NPC's using Gimbled weapons, just like players. The game mechanic should be the same for both.
I get the impression that it even affects the planetary defense turrets. Useful for those data retrieval missions, if you don't want to bother with a SRV.
First time I saw them, good pilot, instructive to watch, great fun!
Mostly like this. Also note that chaff even against NPCs does very little if your ship is huge and the NPCs are right next to you. It just means their guns will hit all over your ship, but they will still hit.
The smaller your ship and the higher the distance to the enemy, the better chaff gets. So yes, a small ship should carry chaff. In some configurations even two chaff launchers might, depending on how you fly, be the superior choice. With two chaff launchers, if you use them properly, you can maintain full chaff uptime till your launchers are empty.
As soon as you have more than two utility slots available, boosters are generally the most effective thing you can put there. Point defense only is of interest when your shields are down and while it does its job, it is far inferior to the shield booster. Only when your power plant doesn't support more boosters, point defense can get interesting.
Another option always is at least one heat sink launcher. Depending on your weapons and ship configuration, it might be very valuable or a complete waste of an utility slot, though. Due to it being so depending on your configuration, it's impossible to make a general statement about it.
Also note, once engineering comes into play (so not a beginner thing, but a frequent thing for a more experienced player) shield boosters become much more dominant. Engineering your powerplant allows more power hungry ship configurations and engineering your shield boosters for additional resists and capacity makes your shield insanely more durable.
On my trade ships, I try to have at least one PD to protect my cargo hatch. Now if I could just figure a way to attach explosives to my shield-penetrating hatch breaker limpets! (I've been playing too much Space Engineers, LOL)
True. My posting was made from a fighters point of view, not from a traders.
Shields are for wussies bruv!
But seriously, if you're taking hits constantly pick chaff outside of fitting on a large vessel.
Vs NPC's you should get to a point where they cant dish out all that much damage to you thus it becomes less of an issue in PvE what you choose. Until then, choose things that provide relief from incoming fire. As others have said a PDT isnt a bad choice though, ECM are also not too bad but ineffective vs player vessels as if the pilot is savvy they will time missiles/torpedos to circumvent it.
Small vessels make the most out of the majority of countermeasures though as they can leverage distance in a far more significant way therefore allowing the optimum timing of said countermeasure vs the opponent.
But seriously, if you're taking hits constantly pick chaff outside of fitting on a large vessel.
Vs NPC's you should get to a point where they cant dish out all that much damage to you thus it becomes less of an issue in PvE what you choose. Until then, choose things that provide relief from incoming fire. As others have said a PDT isnt a bad choice though, ECM are also not too bad but ineffective vs player vessels as if the pilot is savvy they will time missiles/torpedos to circumvent it.
Small vessels make the most out of the majority of countermeasures though as they can leverage distance in a far more significant way therefore allowing the optimum timing of said countermeasure vs the opponent.
I've been giving serious thought to putting together a dedicated planetary bombardment ship rather than using my exploration-fit DBX for it, seeing as how scan missions never send me more than a short jump away. I need to play around and find the largest ship that can still scan a data point from the cockpit - I used to run a FAS for my crimeboat but it had trouble at the little outposts, even putting the nose right on the thing it still didn't count as close enough to scan.
Bonus points if it has enough hardpoints to overwhelm point defences when blowing up generators and a big enough shield to tank the turrets.
I'm using a Viper - something close to this (just cobbled it together, as I'm not on my game PC right now)
You could add some bang to take out generators, but as it is, she's already sightly over the minimum mass, so every gram will slow her down. But a pair of lightweighted small dumbfires should still work.
OTOH, the one time I tried it, I had no problem (well, apart from, as usual, forgetting to deploy hardpoints for the scan...) to scan the data point from my Mamba.
You could add some bang to take out generators, but as it is, she's already sightly over the minimum mass, so every gram will slow her down. But a pair of lightweighted small dumbfires should still work.
OTOH, the one time I tried it, I had no problem (well, apart from, as usual, forgetting to deploy hardpoints for the scan...) to scan the data point from my Mamba.
If a mamba's viable for the scan that'd be perfect. Couple of small dumbfire racks should be enough to take out a generator, and the shield's certainly tanky enough with utilities to spare for chaff.
Plus it looks cool.
edit: oh, and a better mass-lock factor than most settlement defence ships and a decent enough boost on a combat fit to get out of mass lock once the settlement turns hostile are a big bonus. Had a hairy moment the other day fleeing from a vulture and an eagle in the SRV, railgun shots slamming into the ground next to me, recalled ship, got into the bay, took off... and suddenly found that a vulture is big enough to masslock a DBX. Just about got out of there
Plus it looks cool.
edit: oh, and a better mass-lock factor than most settlement defence ships and a decent enough boost on a combat fit to get out of mass lock once the settlement turns hostile are a big bonus. Had a hairy moment the other day fleeing from a vulture and an eagle in the SRV, railgun shots slamming into the ground next to me, recalled ship, got into the bay, took off... and suddenly found that a vulture is big enough to masslock a DBX. Just about got out of there
Last edited:
Some CMDRs here mentioned the possibility of having multiple chaff launchers, and I will say I do this on some builds, two chaff with extended ammo capacity. If you use chaff sparingly it will last a long time, or if you need to you can spam chain your chaff. Very handy.
I also do something a bit unusual for some builds, usually small ships which also have chaff. I will equip two E-rated shield boosters with resistance-based engineering. I do this intentionally to keep overall shield capacity low (which means fast regen) but the shields can actually be quite hard against non-absolute-damage weapons. These "fast recovery builds" I try to keep the shield recharge under 45 seconds. Some are as low as 29 seconds.
I also do something a bit unusual for some builds, usually small ships which also have chaff. I will equip two E-rated shield boosters with resistance-based engineering. I do this intentionally to keep overall shield capacity low (which means fast regen) but the shields can actually be quite hard against non-absolute-damage weapons. These "fast recovery builds" I try to keep the shield recharge under 45 seconds. Some are as low as 29 seconds.
My vulture runs two E-rated resistance boosters and two extended capacity chaff launchers for exactly that reason.Some CMDRs here mentioned the possibility of having multiple chaff launchers, and I will say I do this on some builds, two chaff with extended ammo capacity. If you use chaff sparingly it will last a long time, or if you need to you can spam chain your chaff. Very handy.
I also do something a bit unusual for some builds, usually small ships which also have chaff. I will equip two E-rated shield boosters with resistance-based engineering. I do this intentionally to keep overall shield capacity low (which means fast regen) but the shields can actually be quite hard against non-absolute-damage weapons. These "fast recovery builds" I try to keep the shield recharge under 45 seconds. Some are as low as 29 seconds.
Though I do run a guardian shield booster as well. Saves a utility slot, and on a biweave it's better bang for the power than upgrading the utility slots to A-rated.
In the utility slots. I always go:
1st: Heat sink. They are a life saver, in so many ways.
2nd: Chaff launcher. Because turrets and gimbled weapons are hard to avoid, by using directional thrusters alone. However: against beam weapons, they don't really work, because the chaff, makes the weapons wobble about and so a constant beam, will still strafe my ship.
3rd: Point defence. This is on larger ships, with more utility slots, where missiles can hurt me. The smaller ships, can dodge and shoot the missiles, as they are more agile.
4th: Then I may think about shield boosters. However. these really eat the power and as pointed out, increase the recharge time. The recharge time can be shortened, by switching off the booster, when the shields go down and putting them back on, once they boot back up again.
That said: I mostly use Bi-weave shields.
1st: Heat sink. They are a life saver, in so many ways.
2nd: Chaff launcher. Because turrets and gimbled weapons are hard to avoid, by using directional thrusters alone. However: against beam weapons, they don't really work, because the chaff, makes the weapons wobble about and so a constant beam, will still strafe my ship.
3rd: Point defence. This is on larger ships, with more utility slots, where missiles can hurt me. The smaller ships, can dodge and shoot the missiles, as they are more agile.
4th: Then I may think about shield boosters. However. these really eat the power and as pointed out, increase the recharge time. The recharge time can be shortened, by switching off the booster, when the shields go down and putting them back on, once they boot back up again.
That said: I mostly use Bi-weave shields.
I will equip two E-rated shield boosters with resistance-based engineering. I do this intentionally to keep overall shield capacity low (which means fast regen) but the shields can actually be quite hard against non-absolute-damage weapons. These "fast recovery builds" I try to keep the shield recharge under 45 seconds. Some are as low as 29 seconds.
I know what you mean, but i think i should clarify on the terms. Using e-rated boosters does not increase regeneration rate. Regeneration happens when shields are up and the capacity they regenerate is the same, no matter if you have booster or not and if yes, which boosters they are. (Some engineering can change the regeneration rate, but that's a different topic. )
So yes, it's true that a shield recharging from almost zero to full takes longer when you have bigger boosters there, but it's just because of the larger shield pool. Regeneration rates are still the same.
What is modified by maximum shield capacity is rebuild time. When your shield goes down it as some internal cooldown, then it starts rebuilding. It again rebuilds at a fixed rate, but only reforms to be a functional shield when it reaches 50% of the shields capacity. This means that the higher your maximum shield capacity, the longer also the time till it reaches the important 50% mark where it rebuilds again.
It's a give and take there. Stronger booster and engineering for more capacity means you have more shields before they go down. Then they take longer to rebuild but when it does, it again has 50% of the higher capacity. Setting up for either is sensible and viable, it very much depends on the setup of the rest of the ship, your goals and your fighting style.