Ship Builds & Load Outs E5 shields - worth upgrading?

Running a vulture with 2xC3G beams, A rated power plant but stock 5E shields. Is it worth upgrading the shields? The power draw seems to rise significantly as the rating goes up - is there any noticable improvement in shield durability or am I just asking for trouble in the middle of a firefight? I've seen the formula that's floating around re mass etc but to me it seemed rather inconclusive. What's people's experiences?
 
From what I can tell, it's always worth it to upgrade shields. Also make sure you have a good power distributor in addition to your good power plant. And if you manage your modules properly, you can go over your power limit. I always set the FSD and docking computer (if you have one) to priority 3. Then I put things like heat sink launcher and chaff at priority two; just make sure you have an easily accessible button for retracting hard points in case you need to run.
 
Using the shipyard tools the data looks like this:

E5 - 295MJ
D5 - 320MJ (Also lighter)
C5 - 343MJ
B5 - 367MJ (Very heavy)
A5 - 391MJ

Ignoring mass entirely since all Class 5 shields are optimised for 405T then from E to A grade you are adding 100MJ or an extra 33% shield.

If you want my advice always stack shield power over weapons, 2 beams on a Vulture is way too heavy on both power and heat. Most people run as soon as their shields drop anyway so if you can make yours last longer then you are safer from damage and death. Loosing thrusters doesn't take long at all :(
At minimum i'd go for D grade for the mass decrease.

Most people run Cannon + Beam or PA + Pulse or dual pulses as I do:

My build:
http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=70N,5TP5TP01Q01Q0Wg3wo,326Q8I6Q5K7_6Q5A,7Sk7gy4xo10i10i
 
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The Vulture relies on it's heavy shields and agility so a balance of low mass and shield capacity is what you're after, a 5D shield + 3xA0 boosters has almost the capacity of a 5A + 2xA0 and is a fraction of the cost and lighter too, if you do loose shields switch off the boosters and the shield will rebuild quicker.

http://coriolis.io/outfit/vulture/0...44d03-242h.Iw19kA==.CwBj4yVI?bn=Vulture heavy

You could fit a 5A shield but you'll need to drop a booster or use more aggressive power management
 
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