A new way to use SCBs?

[Legacy_LuckyLuke]

I instantly went off SCBs after I watched my ship fry upon using two stacked ones a couple of weeks ago. I promptly sold them and found I didn't really need them anyway. They were just there to give me a little more staying power in the Emperors Dawn CZ CG.

I decided to rebuy one again last night, and found that the best way to use it is when I'm not in the middle of combat. Generally when my shields go down, I begin to boost away to allow them to recharge, or jump out if I'm getting a hammering.

A good technique I found last night was to boost away, disable my shield boosters to allow faster recharging, then once one ring was up again, reapply boosters and then use an SCB to fully charge. (It's important to switch the boosters back on before using the SCB, as full shields will lose a ring once the boosters are turned on because they also need time to power up.)

Then boost back into the combat situation with full shields

Seemed to work quite well for any time that I lost shields - although it was still awfully tempting to hit the SCB button whenever my shields dropped to one ring

 

[BimblesDidums]

I instantly went off SCBs after I watched my ship fry upon using two stacked ones a couple of weeks ago. I promptly sold them and found I didn't really need them anyway. They were just there to give me a little more staying power in the Emperors Dawn CZ CG.

I decided to rebuy one again last night, and found that the best way to use it is when I'm not in the middle of combat. Generally when my shields go down, I begin to boost away to allow them to recharge, or jump out if I'm getting a hammering.

A good technique I found last night was to boost away, disable my shield boosters to allow faster recharging, then once one ring was up again, reapply boosters and then use an SCB to fully charge. (It's important to switch the boosters back on before using the SCB, as full shields will lose a ring once the boosters are turned on because they also need time to power up.)

Then boost back into the combat situation with full shields

Seemed to work quite well for any time that I lost shields - although it was still awfully tempting to hit the SCB button whenever my shields dropped to one ring

SCB followed by Heat Sink really works to.

 

[El Dragoon!]

I instantly went off SCBs after I watched my ship fry upon using two stacked ones a couple of weeks ago. I promptly sold them and found I didn't really need them anyway. They were just there to give me a little more staying power in the Emperors Dawn CZ CG.

I decided to rebuy one again last night, and found that the best way to use it is when I'm not in the middle of combat. Generally when my shields go down, I begin to boost away to allow them to recharge, or jump out if I'm getting a hammering.

A good technique I found last night was to boost away, disable my shield boosters to allow faster recharging, then once one ring was up again, reapply boosters and then use an SCB to fully charge. (It's important to switch the boosters back on before using the SCB, as full shields will lose a ring once the boosters are turned on because they also need time to power up.)

Then boost back into the combat situation with full shields

Seemed to work quite well for any time that I lost shields - although it was still awfully tempting to hit the SCB button whenever my shields dropped to one ring

or use heat sink and watch your problems float away

 

[DragoonKnight]

or you could also use them one at a time. That way your ship will not get fried.

 

[Zylark]

The point to SCBs is to not lose your shields to begin with. We call it 'Tanking' - the ability to sustain a lot of incoming fire without taking (significant) damage. With 1.5/2.0 Tanking became less efficient, as to be able to do it one must sacrifice some Shield Booster slots to Heat Sinks, or else you'll fry in your own fat once you start popping those SCBs.

On some small/medium ships this have introduced a new concept - the Stealth ship. Useful in PVP only naturally - NPCs cheat as we all know. Basically it is doing away with shields altogether, and rely on Silent Running, Heat Sinks and very good armour and hull reinforcements in order to Hull-Tank any incoming fire. Not that one will see a lot of it, as when running silent, not many bother to focus on you.

I got a FAS dedicated to this concept, and it worked really well in our previous big PVP battle.

 

[Legacy_LuckyLuke]

or use heat sink and watch your problems float away

Yep. I'm deliberately trying avoid using a utility slot for a heat sink.

I rarely have use for SCBs anyway - my shields only go down when I'm being silly like taking on a wing of FAS because I didn't check to see if the ship was in a wing before attacking first. I usually run out of ammo before running out of shields

But last night it seemed like a good method to me to use them for quicker charging once my ship had cooled down a bit to avoid the heat issue, then rejoin the action.

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On some small/medium ships this have introduced a new concept - the Stealth ship. Useful in PVP only naturally - NPCs cheat as we all know. Basically it is doing away with shields altogether, and rely on Silent Running, Heat Sinks and very good armour and hull reinforcements in order to Hull-Tank any incoming fire. Not that one will see a lot of it, as when running silent, not many bother to focus on you.

I saw a good video on this a few months back. Though admittedly he was using the method to lurk and hide from a stalker, rather than being the stalker himself

 

[Zylark]

I saw a good video on this a few months back. Though admittedly he was using the method to lurk and hide from a stalker, rather than being the stalker himself

Well, as it happens I got a video of it in use in a big battle right here:

[video=youtube;BK27su4PpNQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK27su4PpNQ[/video]

 

[GammaZ]

Yep. I'm deliberately trying avoid using a utility slot for a heat sink.
...

Heatsinks were buffed significantly, they are now really good to have on combat ship. Not just for SCB-s, but to be able to shoot hi heat weapons continiously, or just do everything at the same time.
In fact you can go to almost zero heat forcing opponent to loose lock on you, while charging SCB or shooting rails.

 

[GunnerBill]

I find low rated SCBs work well with the bi-weave: keeps it topped up, no real heat issues and something to do with the small slots. Allowing some heavy duty HRPs elsewhere.