How do YOU use Prismatics?

[Scoob]

Hey all,

Not so long ago, I bought up a load of Prismatic Shields, then didn't play for a while. My thinking initially regarding a use case for these was as follows:

On smaller ships to gain a "1 tier up" shield strength advantage. Downside being poor recharge and power concerns. Small ships, for me, are very much hit and run, with shields back up to 100% in no time and I'm back in the fight. I'm unsure whether Engineering Prismatic Shields for faster charging is practical.

On some of my trade / mining ships, where they only have to survive long enough to get away. Extra shield points a plus, power not an issue as these builds are generally unarmed.

On an Anti-Xeno build where pure shield health matters. Just a casual level of AX combat vs. the little Scouts and only against larger ships if teamed up.

My first project with Prismatic Shields was the AX build, more of a support AX build really. Using an Anaconda, I fit AX Turrets, capacity-buffed 7A Prismatic shield, shield boosters and various other bits to support other ships in AX combat, while being able to defend myself. The idea being the other guy to have a more optimised build, but I could come in to aid in repairs / decontamination etc.

Prismatic Shields seem to be considered by many the "best" and first Power-Play module one should go for. So I did. However, looking at the stats I'm really not so sure of their utility. I generally like Bi-Weaves for their faster charging, I engineer them for good Thermal Resistances (general build, not AX) so they shrug off regular laser fire and recharge quickly in combat. Replacing those with Prismatics would totally change tactics and I'm not sure offer an advantage.

I've not really been playing much of late, so I'm not feeling very tuned in to ED at the moment, but wanted to want to play, if you get what I mean, and this is my current project.

So, how do you use Prismatic Shields in your builds? Where do you feel their strengths / ideal applications are?

Cheers.

 

[Kzak]

Typically, reinforced shields G5 maxed, with Low Power special effect to reduce the power draw which can be steep especially for the larger sizes of prismatic shield generators. You only lose a little bit of shield power with Low Power and I think it's worth the trade.

Of course, they are slow to recharge, so either you'll have to use shield cell banks or do reboot/repair if your shields are down and you have a moment to fix your ship up.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Never unlocked them.

 

[angusmadmac1]

I use them mainly on traders so I can transport more cargo ( put class 4 prismatics to give me size 5 shields ) . I have one for my assassination fdl. But I find the disadvantages ( power ,weight )outweigh( extra MJ) any supposed advantage and most ships have normal shields . Not a huge combat pilot though .

 

[Northpin]

I use prismatics if i want to free the larger slots or if i need the maximum possible shielding

So, size 3 prismatics on my Cargo or passenger Pythons (that is if i bother to use any shields)
Size 4 prismatics on Clipper or Conda
Size 4 on my Ground Attack DBX (1392MJ shields)
Size 5 prismatics on T9
Size 6 Prismatics on Cutter

On smaller ships they're not that useful.
Usually you get more shields with faster regen if you use a 1C bi-weave and a Guardian shield booster.
The only exception would be iCourier, but even then i still prefer bi-weaves

Or a size 8 Prismatic and a size 8 SCB+a size 6 SCB on my AX CZ cutter
Size 5 on FDL and Mamba
etc

 

[CMDR The Riz]

On an Anti-Xeno build where pure shield health matters. Just a casual level of AX combat vs. the little Scouts and only against larger ships if teamed up.

My first project with Prismatic Shields was the AX build, more of a support AX build really. Using an Anaconda, I fit AX Turrets, capacity-buffed 7A Prismatic shield, shield boosters and various other bits to support other ships in AX combat, while being able to defend myself. The idea being the other guy to have a more optimised build, but I could come in to aid in repairs / decontamination etc.

Generally speaking, running cold to avoid drawing Thargoid aggro / throwing off their aim is preferrable to outright tanking incoming fire, especially since higher-tier Interceptors can put out a ton of damage and the Scouts can continually apply the Caustic status effect / lob missiles at you. I'm not sure if that would apply to an Anaconda, however.

Prismatic Shields seem to be considered by many the "best" and first Power-Play module one should go for. So I did. However, looking at the stats I'm really not so sure of their utility. I generally like Bi-Weaves for their faster charging, I engineer them for good Thermal Resistances (general build, not AX) so they shrug off regular laser fire and recharge quickly in combat. Replacing those with Prismatics would totally change tactics and I'm not sure offer an advantage.

Prismatics excel in focus-fire situations where a higher HP pool is needed and shield regeneration is continuously denied, such as fighting wings in Res sites or soloing Wing Assassination missions. Bi-Weaves work better in 1v1 situations, with more evasive flight styles and in conjunction with a sturdy hull underneath to take advantage of the fast Broken Regeneration rate.

 

[Bigmaec]

Prismatic Shield Generator	8A	Reinforced	5	Lo-draw	AX Cutter	Used on Buenos Aires
Prismatic Shield Generator	7A	Reinforced	5	Lo-draw	PvP Vette	Used on McXecutor
Prismatic Shield Generator	6A	Reinforced	5	Fast Charge	Trader T9	Used on LRV White Ship
Prismatic Shield Generator	6A	Thermal resistant	5		Trader T9	Used on Pleiades Heavy
Prismatic Shield Generator	6A	Reinforced	5	Hi-Cap	Pirate Phantom	Used on Scourge
Prismatic Shield Generator	6A	Reinforced	5	Lo-draw	Explorer Beluga	Used on 449 Hamburga
Prismatic Shield Generator	6A	Thermal resistant	4	Fast Charge	Trader Mk2	Used on kRusty Burger
Prismatic Shield Generator	6A	Reinforced	4	Hi-Cap	Miner T10	Used on McMiner

Prismatic Shield Generator	5A	Reinforced	4		PvP Mamba	Used on LRV The Hound
Prismatic Shield Generator	5A	Reinforced	5	Hi-Cap	PvP FdL	Used on LRV Randolph Carter
Prismatic Shield Generator	5A	Reinforced	5	Hi-Cap	Trader Python	Used on McDelivery
Prismatic Shield Generator	5A	Reinforced	5	Hi-Cap	PvP FdL	Used on McFlurry
Prismatic Shield Generator	5A	Reinforced	5	Hi-Cap	PvP FdL	Used on Trainy McTrainerface
Prismatic Shield Generator	5A	Thermal resistant	1		Trader Cutter	Used on Golden Arches
Prismatic Shield Generator	4A	Reinforced	5	Hi-Cap	Rescue Conda	Used on Rescue One
Prismatic Shield Generator	4A	Enhanced low power	5	Hi-Cap	Explorer Conda	Used on Pleiades Rising
Prismatic Shield Generator	4A	Reinforced	5	Hi-Cap	Explorer Keelie	Used on LRV Descendant
Prismatic Shield Generator	4A	Reinforced	3		Explorer Dbx	Used on LRV The Tree
Prismatic Shield Generator	4A	Reinforced	5	Hi-Cap	Explorer Dolphin	Used on Fishmaec
Prismatic Shield Generator	3A	Reinforced	5	Hi-Cap	Rescue T7	Used on Pleiades Rescue
Prismatic Shield Generator	3A	Enhanced low power	5	Hi-Cap	Explorer Dbx	Used on Starhopper
Prismatic Shield Generator	3A	Enhanced low power	5	Hi-Cap	Explorer Phantom	Used on McXplorer

Sorry, formatting is borked...


Edit: so the essence is, as others already said, use prismatics on ships for PvP in certain cases (FdLs/Corvettes due to high shield multiplier) and for ships expecting to receive high burst dps but only for a short time (traders/explorers that want to escape).

 

[Dillon Fallon]

Depends - my rule of thumb is if shield recovery is 1:30 or less I go biweave. More and it's a prismatic.

Basically this means biweaves will come back during a fight. If they won't, you might as well go for the big shield and reboot the ship to get back to 50% between kills if it drops below that.

 

[Scoob]

Thanks for the tips guys, some good information there. One of my concerns is I'm gonna have to do some material grind for each shield I replace with a Prismatic... still, I've been putting it off for a while.

 

[Stealthie]

I stick 'em on cargo ships so I can, effectively, use a smaller slot for a given strength of shield.

Forget about using them for any role that might require them to recharge because they take a ridiculous amount of time.
Can't remember what ship it was but I briefly considered putting a big Prismatic shield on some ship and Coriolis told me it'd take fifty-odd minutes for the shield to fully recharge!

Basically, they're "single use" shields.
You fit 'em to a ship that's only likely to get shot at once (or, possibly, a couple of times) before it docks at a station.... which, again, means cargo ships.

 

[Dagwit]

Over the course of an hour or so in a RES or CNB the fast recharge will give you far more shield hit points from a Biweave than you will get out of a Prismatic.

I've seen people use reboot/repair on Prismatics but I've always reckoned that if you do that then the slow recharge rate means you're effectively running a shield with little more than half its nominal strength.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

I've seen people use reboot/repair on Prismatics but I've always reckoned that if you do that then the slow recharge rate means you're effectively running a shield with little more than half its nominal strength.

YMMV but I've found if it does drop, it's generally just before I've run out of ammo anyway and on a ship that warrants a prizzy, that's still 1500 mj+ even at 50%.

 

[cmdr milesred]

I stick 'em on cargo ships so I can, effectively, use a smaller slot for a given strength of shield.

Forget about using them for any role that might require them to recharge because they take a ridiculous amount of time.
Can't remember what ship it was but I briefly considered putting a big Prismatic shield on some ship and Coriolis told me it'd take fifty-odd minutes for the shield to fully recharge!

Basically, they're "single use" shields.
You fit 'em to a ship that's only likely to get shot at once (or, possibly, a couple of times) before it docks at a station.... which, again, means cargo ships.

we fight different..

I go into haz res or cz and I stay there until I am done. that is what prismatics do.
and I don't have to fidget with pips because of the shield, ever! only for thrusters and weapons.
that is usually hours and several dozens of kills and synthing ammo, but NOT worrying about if my shield will make it or not.

when I use anything other than prismatics, then I have to constantly make sure the lousy shield is getting the power it NEEDS to recharge, useless for actual battle.
THAT takes energy and time away from actual killing., a real time waster IMO.

I prefer prismatics on almost all ships
regular is fine on some
I have yet to discover a reason for bi-weaves. it recharges fast for a reason(weak), just like prismatics take forever to recharge(strong) - for a reason

you call it a one shot shield, I call it a ignore and go kill stuff shield.

go to achenar 3 in any ship you NEED a shield for and aim at the surface full speed. see which shield you prefer after that test.

 

[S0rkvild]

Size 1 go nicely with Imperial Courier

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Prismatic Shields seem to be considered by many the "best" and first Power-Play module one should go for. So I did. However, looking at the stats I'm really not so sure of their utility

I think there's a few things going on here:
- Bigger shields are useful on pretty much any ship, whereas, say "a better frag cannon" is only going to be useful on a build where you were considering fitting frags of any sort.
- Even among the Powerplay weapons, quite a few of them are, let's say, extremely niche.
- Back pre-engineering, Powerplay modules were the only way you could get access to anything outside the norm

I've got some prismatics on a FDL for "the ammunition will run out before the shield does" combat situations and otherwise tend to go with biweaves on my multirole ships (tend to only fight one thing at a time, so the in-fight recharge comes in handy if the enemy doesn't have too many turrets, and it'll be back up to full before the next fight) and standard on my non-combat ships (prismatics would often be technically better, I just can't be bothered getting more)

 

[goemon]

legacy engineered class 2 shield on a dolphin. freeing up the class 3 for a limpet controller.

and, as that wasn't named, builds to fly with 0 pips in sys so you can go 0-4-2 or 0-2-4.

 

[BL1P]

How I use my prismatics, maybe not the best but works for me.

NPC Ship Combat :-
I tend to go all out shield when using prismatics and I just bug out if it ever looks like the last ring is going to go.
I will G5 reinforce with Hi cap the Prismatic, I then G5 Heavy duty with supper cap some boosters BUT always with 1 or 2 (pref 2) boosters being G5 Thermal with super cap. (to balance out the resistances.)
If posible I then will add Guardian Shield modules to the internals.
EXAMPLE :-

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Open Trade :-
Same principle max out shield as much as pos and bug out soon as posible as its a trade ship not combat.
A middle range shield 4/5/6 (reinf/hicap) as many boosters as posible (HeavyDutySuperCap) with 1 or 2 being thermals as mentioned above.
EXAMPLE :-

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

The best ships for prismatics are the ones with the most utility slots cause they will never regen so might as well boost them all the way !!

 

[Jmanis]

Here's how I use them:

...

Thanks for listening to my TED talk on Prismatic Shield use.

 

[V'larr]

So, how do you use Prismatic Shields in your builds? Where do you feel their strengths / ideal applications are?

Cheers.

Anything that involves frequent visits to stations and a need for extra protection. "Native" regen time can be upwards of a half hour without assistance from reboot/repair, use of SCBs, or docking with a station to get around the regen penalty. Viewed another way, prismatics are superior for short amounts of combat, bi-weaves are superior for sustaining lots of combat (which is the majority of scenarios outside of armed trading, really).

edit: Some of the advice put earlier in here is pretty suspect, like putting "low power" Engineering on it, planning on your shields dropping at all (should never happen with Engineering in mind), or testing your shields by crashing into Achenar 3 (which only tests the raw shielding amount you have, and proves absolutely nothing about resistances or regen sustain)...I would recommend visiting edshipyard and tinkering yourself.

edit 2: an example armed trade Cutter, the weapon choice is completely debatable and optional: https://edsy.org/s/v1BJrV3

 

[Broken_One]

Hey all,

Not so long ago, I bought up a load of Prismatic Shields, then didn't play for a while. My thinking initially regarding a use case for these was as follows:

On smaller ships to gain a "1 tier up" shield strength advantage. Downside being poor recharge and power concerns. Small ships, for me, are very much hit and run, with shields back up to 100% in no time and I'm back in the fight. I'm unsure whether Engineering Prismatic Shields for faster charging is practical.

On some of my trade / mining ships, where they only have to survive long enough to get away. Extra shield points a plus, power not an issue as these builds are generally unarmed.

On an Anti-Xeno build where pure shield health matters. Just a casual level of AX combat vs. the little Scouts and only against larger ships if teamed up.

My first project with Prismatic Shields was the AX build, more of a support AX build really. Using an Anaconda, I fit AX Turrets, capacity-buffed 7A Prismatic shield, shield boosters and various other bits to support other ships in AX combat, while being able to defend myself. The idea being the other guy to have a more optimised build, but I could come in to aid in repairs / decontamination etc.

Prismatic Shields seem to be considered by many the "best" and first Power-Play module one should go for. So I did. However, looking at the stats I'm really not so sure of their utility. I generally like Bi-Weaves for their faster charging, I engineer them for good Thermal Resistances (general build, not AX) so they shrug off regular laser fire and recharge quickly in combat. Replacing those with Prismatics would totally change tactics and I'm not sure offer an advantage.

I've not really been playing much of late, so I'm not feeling very tuned in to ED at the moment, but wanted to want to play, if you get what I mean, and this is my current project.

So, how do you use Prismatic Shields in your builds? Where do you feel their strengths / ideal applications are?

Cheers.

Enhanced low power prismatic shields are the coldest shields in the game.