Ships How Many Prismatics Should I Buy?

[Darth Wonko]

I should unlock prismatic shields this Thursday. How many of each size should I buy?

I've seen suggestions to buy 3 of each size up to 7 and then two of 8.

My current fleet is small - Vulture, Python, DBX, AspX, Courier and T9. I'm thinking about scrapping the AspX.

The DBX is a bare-bones exploration/fuel ratting vessel and I won't put a prismatic shield on it. I'll put a 2A on the Courier, and haven't considered builds for the rest, although a 5A on the Vulture probably makes sense.

 

[HRDiagram]

Personally, I've purchased one each for class 1, 7 and 8, two for classes 2 to 5 and three for class 6 as I did not really know what I was going to do with them.
Nowadays I am still uncertain as to what I should be using them for, I have a few unused ones, while I had others installed just because I had them available.
I own 31 ships (so far).

Get at least one of each, that's for sure, you never know!

 

[Northpin]

Size 1 - x1
Size 2 - x2
Size 3 - x4
Size 4 - x4
Size 5 - x4
Size 6 - x3
Size 7 - x2
Size 8 - x2

 

[Innocentius]

I bought 1-3 of the sizes but I did not have the money to buy the C8 one at that point. That is the Cutter shield that I am missing but I am not really flying my cutter much anyhow and when I do I have the C6 shield on it and it is transferring some goods. I may buy it later at some point. Its not really hard to get back to PP faction: just join and then 3 weeks later do a 1h of grind and collect next cycle.

 

[S0rkvild]

Speaking of prismatics on a Courier. 1A is great, don't weight much, give good output, and due to very low weight goes excellent with enchanced perf. thrusters.

 

[Crank Larson]

I wondered how many to buy, and in the end I only used them on my Courier and my Cutter. For my Cutter I have both size 8 and size 5, but you can't get the size 5 anymore. For fighting ships, I prefer bi-weaves.

 

[Northpin]

Speaking of prismatics on a Courier. 1A is great, don't weight much, give good output, and due to very low weight goes excellent with enchanced perf. thrusters.

Yea, it's a good alternative if you cannot free a size 2 slot. But still, a 2C Bi-weave is better while having the same weight

 

[SergMx]

I should unlock prismatic shields this Thursday. How many of each size should I buy?

I've seen suggestions to buy 3 of each size up to 7 and then two of 8.

My current fleet is small - Vulture, Python, DBX, AspX, Courier and T9. I'm thinking about scrapping the AspX.

The DBX is a bare-bones exploration/fuel ratting vessel and I won't put a prismatic shield on it. I'll put a 2A on the Courier, and haven't considered builds for the rest, although a 5A on the Vulture probably makes sense.

You can only fly one ship at a time. You need one shield of each class.
And the main problem is not the sums but the materials for their engineering.

 

[Northpin]

You can only fly one ship at a time. You need one shield of each class.
And the main problem is not the sums but the materials for their engineering.

Depends.
Most of my Prismatics are reinforced. But i do have some that are enhanced low power

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Did the PP thing for them. Bought them, used them, sold them.

Hate the recharge time on them. Better to use a biweave and then stack up on Guardian and regular Shield Boosters and have a much faster charge rate.

 

[Dragsham]

Just remember they gobble up a huge amount of power. So use only as nessesary. I've phased em out except on just 2 or 3 of my ships

 

[Northpin]

They're best used on combat ships in pvp.
Or for combat ships that will do One heavy fight then will get the station and stay on the pad to recharge
Or for ships that rarely get into combat, usually in one of the smaller slots, to free the larger slots for other stuff

My Core miner
My T-9 hauler
My Python trader
My Haz Res Laser miner

 

[Trollymctrollerson]

Everyone's ship building preferences are different but I find that size 4,5 and 6 get the most use for me. On small fast ships, bi weaves get used alot and on big heavy combat ships, I don't do pvp. Size 6 prismo on a T9 is pretty nice. Mostly I just use them on an FDL. If you can afford it and have module storage room, just buy 1 for every ship in your collection and experiment. And don't screw around with any blueprint except reinforced+hi cap.

 

[Darth Wonko]

They're best used on combat ships in pvp.
Or for combat ships that will do One heavy fight then will get the station and stay on the pad to recharge
Or for ships that rarely get into combat, usually in one of the smaller slots, to free the larger slots for other stuff

My Core miner
My T-9 hauler
My Python trader
My Haz Res Laser miner

Thanks for sharing those builds. I really like the Python build and the T-9. I don't have an Anaconda (bought it twice and couldn't stand flying it), and I've not used a Clipper.

 

[Northpin]

and I've not used a Clipper.

When fully engineered, it's a really marvelous ship to fly with 600+ speed in an asteroid ring

 

[AlSki]

When fully engineered, it's a really marvelous ship to fly with 600+ speed in an asteroid ring

Will 2nd that. Particularly since the first class 4 slot wants a Class 4 refinery, leaving you with a 2nd for a Class 4 Prismatic. Few boosters and you have 1K Mj of shield.

 

[Innocentius]

They're best used on combat ships in pvp.
Or for combat ships that will do One heavy fight then will get the station and stay on the pad to recharge
Or for ships that rarely get into combat, usually in one of the smaller slots, to free the larger slots for other stuff

My Core miner
My T-9 hauler
My Python trader
My Haz Res Laser miner

Yeah.... definitely these reasons. A C6 Prismatic is great in a trading Cutter for example. A small prismatic can also be nice (properly engineered for weight and power) on some exploration ships. I do not really use them often for max shields even for combat as most of the time it is better to have smaller prismatic shield gen and larger SCB for more total shields. There are of course those times where one just goes for max shield gen value as you mentioned. You made a great summary on this.

 

[d8veh]

Whatever you do, don't start installing them on all those ships unless you're sure that they're suitable for what you want to do. For PvE combat, biweaves are nearly always better. Prismatics have some advantage for hauling and things like that, where you can use a much smaller slot to free up larger ones for more cargo or other stuff, and some people like them on a combat Corvette or Cutter, but in that case you need two SCBs to keep them charged.

I bought three pairs of every size, but I don't have them installed on any ship now except my hauler Cutter. Even then, they're unnecessary and bi-weaves would probably work better.

I can't think of any reason to put prismatics on a Vulture, especially as you need to fit two large MRPs to prevent the cockpit cover getting blown out, so no room for SCBs.

 

[SergMx]

Again, using ordinary logic.
In the future, the equipment engineers are qualified enough to redesign the shield modification. ( as opposed to gun-arm engineers) and so you just decide for yourself to wait another 4 weeks in the Force or just redo the module.