You need to understand how shields and resists works and how PIPS are affecting shields, but generally for shields you'd be looking at STR value (but do play with SYS PIPS and see how it affects shield strength)
So, 0 pips in SYS you get the Raw (absolute) shields value, augmented with the resists value
Keep in mind that resists are working only against designated weapon damage type, Kinetic will not protect against collisions and Thermal will not protect against heat damage
Ramming and collisions will always do absolute (raw) damage to shields and hulls
Weapons with absolute damage will ignore any resists
RNF value is for total shields recharge value and the number of "charges" (banks) available, but presented in a rather weird way (if you put an A-rate SCB and a B-rated SCB, EDSY will show and average number of charges like 5.5, which is rather... unfortunate)
And SCB will "charge your shields with a certain value (which you can see better/clearer in Coriolis)
Now you need to understand how SCB works, when you fire one, it will be a spin-up time, during which your ship will dramatically overheat, followed by a charge time, during which your shields will recharge with a certain number of MJ per second for a certain number of seconds, reaching the total listed in the Shield Reinforcement value (see below, ss from Coriolis.io)
So, the general wisdom is to have heatsinks ready to cool your ship everytime you use a SCB
If you have more than one SCB fitted, you can bind the SCB to a key and stagger 2 or even 3 SCB during the same heatsink duration
For example, a G4 Rapid Charge with Recycling Cell SCB, with a spin up time of 3 seconds, you can stagger 3 SCB to fire during a single heat sink which lasts for 10s cooling time (nope, it wont work with my example above since Size 8 SCB generate too much heat, but it will work with smaller size 5 or even size 6 SCB)
However, for larger SCB, it's rather safe to stagger 2 - press the heatsink bind, imediately press SCB bind, count 5 seconds, press SCB bind again - there you go, you used 2 Cell banks using a single heat sink
Also, SCBs need some time to recharge your shields, so dont wait till the last second to fire one because a sudden increase in damage taken can overwhelm the SCB recharge rate, especially for smaller SCB
Now, regarding your question, second is better simply because you have more MJ at your disposal assuming, of course, that you actually manage to use it all, and dont waste SCB by using them too early
And make sure your build has at least one Sirius Heatsink (since it has 5 charges) or 2 normal heatsinks
Edit: regarding shields engineering, always use the blueprint that's most suited to the encounters you're expecting
For example: for an exploration build or an AX build, you dont care about resists, so you use reinforced shields and heavy duty shield boosters - so this is really easy (in explorations your main killer is collision - aka crashing which does absolute damage, same for thargoids, they do absolute damage)
When it comes about generic PVE/PVP, it gets complicated and it depends on your encounter types.
For more fights but with some downtimes between them or during combat, bi-weaves are preferred because they recharge fast
For single big fights were you dont expect to have any time to catch your breath, prismatics are preferred
Regarding resists: again it depends.
If you are in PVP and you expect a lot of people using Plasmas, then you need more More Absolute shields, if you encounter Rail-user, keep in mind rails are doin 33% kinetic and 66% thermal. Also keep in mind that some PVP-er prefer to ram - especially if they know the opponents are using resists builds (with low absolute value, but extremely high resists)
I personally prefer heavier shields (reinforced) but with rather balanced resists (using a combination of heavy duty and thermal shield boosters)
So, 0 pips in SYS you get the Raw (absolute) shields value, augmented with the resists value
Keep in mind that resists are working only against designated weapon damage type, Kinetic will not protect against collisions and Thermal will not protect against heat damage
Ramming and collisions will always do absolute (raw) damage to shields and hulls
Weapons with absolute damage will ignore any resists
RNF value is for total shields recharge value and the number of "charges" (banks) available, but presented in a rather weird way (if you put an A-rate SCB and a B-rated SCB, EDSY will show and average number of charges like 5.5, which is rather... unfortunate)
And SCB will "charge your shields with a certain value (which you can see better/clearer in Coriolis)
Now you need to understand how SCB works, when you fire one, it will be a spin-up time, during which your ship will dramatically overheat, followed by a charge time, during which your shields will recharge with a certain number of MJ per second for a certain number of seconds, reaching the total listed in the Shield Reinforcement value (see below, ss from Coriolis.io)
So, the general wisdom is to have heatsinks ready to cool your ship everytime you use a SCB
If you have more than one SCB fitted, you can bind the SCB to a key and stagger 2 or even 3 SCB during the same heatsink duration
For example, a G4 Rapid Charge with Recycling Cell SCB, with a spin up time of 3 seconds, you can stagger 3 SCB to fire during a single heat sink which lasts for 10s cooling time (nope, it wont work with my example above since Size 8 SCB generate too much heat, but it will work with smaller size 5 or even size 6 SCB)
However, for larger SCB, it's rather safe to stagger 2 - press the heatsink bind, imediately press SCB bind, count 5 seconds, press SCB bind again - there you go, you used 2 Cell banks using a single heat sink
Also, SCBs need some time to recharge your shields, so dont wait till the last second to fire one because a sudden increase in damage taken can overwhelm the SCB recharge rate, especially for smaller SCB
Now, regarding your question, second is better simply because you have more MJ at your disposal assuming, of course, that you actually manage to use it all, and dont waste SCB by using them too early
And make sure your build has at least one Sirius Heatsink (since it has 5 charges) or 2 normal heatsinks
Edit: regarding shields engineering, always use the blueprint that's most suited to the encounters you're expecting
For example: for an exploration build or an AX build, you dont care about resists, so you use reinforced shields and heavy duty shield boosters - so this is really easy (in explorations your main killer is collision - aka crashing which does absolute damage, same for thargoids, they do absolute damage)
When it comes about generic PVE/PVP, it gets complicated and it depends on your encounter types.
For more fights but with some downtimes between them or during combat, bi-weaves are preferred because they recharge fast
For single big fights were you dont expect to have any time to catch your breath, prismatics are preferred
Regarding resists: again it depends.
If you are in PVP and you expect a lot of people using Plasmas, then you need more More Absolute shields, if you encounter Rail-user, keep in mind rails are doin 33% kinetic and 66% thermal. Also keep in mind that some PVP-er prefer to ram - especially if they know the opponents are using resists builds (with low absolute value, but extremely high resists)
I personally prefer heavier shields (reinforced) but with rather balanced resists (using a combination of heavy duty and thermal shield boosters)
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Yes, SCB are useful while there have any charges.
When you use all the charges, you have to visit the nearby RRR station to re-arm since you cannot re-synth SCB ammo
I found that using b shield cell banks don't generate as much heat ? This may be due to having 6 recharges rather than 5 but of a smaller amount ( but end up with a higher overall ) and I generally use one at a time . My go to is specialised boss cells from Mel in colonia
B-rated SCB dont have lower thermal load than A-rated
They just have more charges (6) but lower charge per bank will provide overall more shielding than A-rated ones (but not by much, like 5% or less).
B-rated are also heavier, but they use less power...
So... Choices
However, the Specialized blueprint (with Boss Cells) will have lower thermal load than Rapid Charge and much higher shield recharge - the downside being much longer spin-up and increased power drain
Basically, Specialized is better in PVE, but Rapid Charge is better in PVP because at G4 it has only 3s of Spin-up time and that makes really hard for someone to cancel your SCB using a Feedback Cascade Rail.
Rapid Charge is also good in PVE if you really need your shields back ASAP - like when an Interceptor is all over you draining your shields, having a 6s spin-up time feels like an eternity
I prefer to use G3 Rapid Charge with Recycling Cells (only G3 because i have pinned the Specialized blueprint from Colonia, just in case, and 3.5s spin-up time is decent enough - not much worse than 3s)
They're also vulnerable while in the spin-up phase to the Feedback Cascade experimental on railguns, which loses 90% of the subsequent charge boost.
It's rare - I'm not sure if any NPCs have it; if they do they're probably not going to time their shot right for it to matter. Just something to bear in mind though if you get the idea that your shields are invincible and then go up against a player with railguns, because they almost certainly will.
It's rare - I'm not sure if any NPCs have it; if they do they're probably not going to time their shot right for it to matter. Just something to bear in mind though if you get the idea that your shields are invincible and then go up against a player with railguns, because they almost certainly will.