I have been looking at some of the builds posted here and elsewhere and trying out the shield tester on the Down to Earth Astronomy website and struggling to get my head round some of the choices. I find the shield mechanics of ED the most involved, but have a basic understanding and essentially there are 3 types of builds from what I understand so far.
(1) Single use. This would be shields for a trader or mining ship. Not worried about recharging the plan is the shield will absorb enough damage until you can escape. This would have an A rated or Prismatic shield, with heavy duty, super cap boosters. No Guardian shield boosters or shield banks as you need the slots for cargo, mining equipment etc. This sort of shield would also be useful for an exploration ship although Prismatics would add a lot of extra weight.
(2) Rechargeable. This type of shielding would be for a combat ship where you need sustained protection over time, such as hunting in CZ’s or Res sites. So a biweave shield with boosters to enhance resistances and a modicum of Guardian boosters, but not too many as pushing the absolute MJ up harms the recharge rate. No shield banks as the recharge rate keeps the shield topped up between fights. Additional slots would be used for hull and module reinforcements to boost hull hit points in case your shields go down.
(3) High intensity combat build. This sort of build would be for high threat environments where you expect to get a lot of incoming fire, but need to stay in combat, such as high intensity CZ. This would have A rated or Prismatic shields, heavy duty super cap boosters, Guardian boosters and shield cell banks. Aim is to push shield HP high. Recharge rates are poor, but the shield banks supply the recharge ability.
So far so good. Now comes the confusing part. Have looked at some builds. For example someone sent me a Corvette build designed for Haz Res PvE. It has biweave shields, boosters to augment resistances, so far so good, but then it has heavy duty super cap boosters and a shield cell bank. This pushes the absolute MJ up and slows recharge right down, to the point where the shield bank makes sense to add recharge ability. Swapping out the heavy duty boosters knocks over a minute off the recharge time and pushes the resistances higher. If you are going to go with high MJ why not an A rated shield or Prismatic? Do they know something I don’t? is there a point where heavy duty boosters and SCB’s makes sense with biweaves? The rest of the build features hull and module reinforcements so it is hull tanked too.
(1) Single use. This would be shields for a trader or mining ship. Not worried about recharging the plan is the shield will absorb enough damage until you can escape. This would have an A rated or Prismatic shield, with heavy duty, super cap boosters. No Guardian shield boosters or shield banks as you need the slots for cargo, mining equipment etc. This sort of shield would also be useful for an exploration ship although Prismatics would add a lot of extra weight.
(2) Rechargeable. This type of shielding would be for a combat ship where you need sustained protection over time, such as hunting in CZ’s or Res sites. So a biweave shield with boosters to enhance resistances and a modicum of Guardian boosters, but not too many as pushing the absolute MJ up harms the recharge rate. No shield banks as the recharge rate keeps the shield topped up between fights. Additional slots would be used for hull and module reinforcements to boost hull hit points in case your shields go down.
(3) High intensity combat build. This sort of build would be for high threat environments where you expect to get a lot of incoming fire, but need to stay in combat, such as high intensity CZ. This would have A rated or Prismatic shields, heavy duty super cap boosters, Guardian boosters and shield cell banks. Aim is to push shield HP high. Recharge rates are poor, but the shield banks supply the recharge ability.
So far so good. Now comes the confusing part. Have looked at some builds. For example someone sent me a Corvette build designed for Haz Res PvE. It has biweave shields, boosters to augment resistances, so far so good, but then it has heavy duty super cap boosters and a shield cell bank. This pushes the absolute MJ up and slows recharge right down, to the point where the shield bank makes sense to add recharge ability. Swapping out the heavy duty boosters knocks over a minute off the recharge time and pushes the resistances higher. If you are going to go with high MJ why not an A rated shield or Prismatic? Do they know something I don’t? is there a point where heavy duty boosters and SCB’s makes sense with biweaves? The rest of the build features hull and module reinforcements so it is hull tanked too.