How to make the most of Prismatic Shields?

Starman 1966

S
Greetings CMDRs,

until now I have used Bi-Weave Shields. Engineering them is always the same - G5 thermal resistant shields + two or three G5 resistance augmented shield boosters + some G5 heavy duty ones.

Now I tried some Prismatics for the first time and I am somewhat underwhelmed. I have modded them G5 reinforced and added two G5 thermal resistant, one G5 resistance augmented and one or more (depending on ship's utility mounts) G5 heavy duty boosters. All those boosters have at least very decent rolls. Nonetheless the realised resistances aren't impressive, especially the thermal resistance does not exceed 39% despite the two thermal resistant boosters.

This configuration seems to hold only a bit longer compared to the thermal resistant Bi-Weaves and the recharging time is a real pain in the thrusters. Should I consider the thermal resist mod for the Prismatics, too or do you have another suggestion here?

I could imagine that PvE against the odd single pirate or HazRES farming could favour different setups as well as 1vs1 PvP.

Thanks a lot for helping on this one.
 

Happy Shrapnel

Happy Shrapnel
I only play PvE..... I've found Prismatics to be, well, pointless. Too heavy, too slow to recharge no matter how much engineering you do.
 

Achibot

A
I only use Prismatics on ships I have no intention of fighting with. You have modded yours the same way I do mine, for what it's worth. Ultimately high-alpha, low recharge shields aren't suitable for sustained combat, Bi-weaves are the best there. But on my Cutter (used as a Trader) using the Prismatics gives me ~14k effective shielding with 4 pips in shields, allowing for the maximum time to run away over multiple interdictions. In fact, no-one (human) has ever tried to re-interdict that ship after it escaped the first time, although the sample size there would be too small to be of any significance I guess.

So, tl/dr, horses for courses. Prismatics have their place but I personally rarely look past Bi-weaves for actual combat.
 
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TheNut

T
It depends on how you rig your ships. Some people like to specialize their ships for a specific role. A combat conda with class 7C bi-weave is very effective. A multi-role conda with class 5C bi-weave is risky. A 5A normal or prismatic however puts you on par with a class 6C/7C shield strength and could mean the difference between life and death. Personally I roll with a 5A beefed up shield on my multi-role conda. I have 868 shield strength and roughly 75% resistance against all attacks. I generally don't fall below 2 rings in most normal skirmishes. The only weapons I need to be mindful about are dumbfire missiles, which some ships (mostly gunships) tend to have and those do wreak havoc. In those situations, I'm thankful to have stronger shields to keep the fight going (especially against a wing of them) and would gladly accept a slower recharge time than a rebuy screen.
 

Gusty

Gusty
I think strong shields dont need recharge rates as you recharge them with scb.
Running ingeneered 7a on a Vette there is even no need of scb killing a elite pve Vette.
I am hauling atm stupid stuff for the girlie to get prismatics. Hope they are atleast a bit stronger without too much negatives.
 

Conch

Conch
I want them for my FAS.
gonna go for heavyduty shield with heavyduty boosters. Then use reboot/repair allot te gain back half my shield.
 

w3bbo

w3bbo
I use 7a prismatics on my PVE corvette with twin 7a SCB. Never ran out of SCB before getting bored in CZ's and Haz res and the shields hold up well with a decent variety of boosters (Thermal/resist augmented) even against wings. If they did get low it takes nothing to reboot when in a safe area to get half of them back. PvP is a different story though as once they're gone escape is your only option so best go with bi-weave/normal. I read somewhere that the prismatics actually re-charge close to the same rate as bi-weave when you consider the mj differential but broken shield regen is the killer in PvP with prismatics imo.
 

Crank Larson

Crank Larson
Delmonti said:
I only play PvE..... I've found Prismatics to be, well, pointless. Too heavy, too slow to recharge no matter how much engineering you do.
Click to expand...

The weight can be mitigated, and I take my shields dropping as a sign I should leave. :)

All my ships currently have prismatics, and they rarely drop when I'm playing PvE (which is why I have them).
 

Crank Larson

Crank Larson
Starman 1966 said:
Now I tried some Prismatics for the first time and I am somewhat underwhelmed. I have modded them G5 reinforced and added two G5 thermal resistant, one G5 resistance augmented and one or more (depending on ship's utility mounts) G5 heavy duty boosters. All those boosters have at least very decent rolls. Nonetheless the realised resistances aren't impressive, especially the thermal resistance does not exceed 39% despite the two thermal resistant boosters.

This configuration seems to hold only a bit longer compared to the thermal resistant Bi-Weaves and the recharging time is a real pain in the thrusters. Should I consider the thermal resist mod for the Prismatics, too or do you have another suggestion here?
Click to expand...

I mod the shields with G5 thermal resistance, and then mod the shield boosters with a mixture depending upon what rolls I get (I usually try to boost the lowest resistance). My Cutter has six boosters and with 8A prismatic shields can take on anything (PvE) without worry of them dropping.
 

yolomcbobbinz

Y
Unless you do pvp just stick with biweaves, save yourself the power, mass, and credits. put g5 reinforced on it and put g5 heavy duty on boosters point of prismatics is to have the highest mj count
 

kofeyh

kofeyh
Starman 1966 said:
Greetings CMDRs,

.. until now I have used Bi-Weave Shields
Click to expand...

Nice. Wait is this a question or a statement? Welcome to the power of regen. The reason you're not having a good time, is the game is fundamentally based around shields that charge and reform quickly; prismatics give you a much larger shield pool, with a glacial regen rate. As you are discovering; this doesn't automatically work out better. At best they are situational. I haven't figured out which situation that is, yet, though.

A rated (to a lesser degree, perhaps) and Prismatics are borderline useful on a trade ship; but everything I have, uses bi-weaves, because essentially the regen and reform time keep you in a fight (or mean shields have reformed if you're being interdicted); SCBs have a better percentage value for overall pool restore as well. Even on a trade ship, where they reform and regen so fast in SC, they're up again if you are being chain interdicted.

Prismatics are essentially based on the concept that as long as you can keep your shield running, you're golden, which actually makes them a calculated risk; if they do drop, they aren't coming back that fight, or anytime soon, so your only choice is to leave. Bi-weaves keep you in a fight, like nobodies business.

There are probably a bunch of PVP folks who have some tried-and-true strategies around prismatics; but they are just too slow for me to find a practical use.
 
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V'larr

V'larr
Prismatics are nice for trading or missions, where you aren't planning on sustained combat and can happily out-tank your foe, relying on supercruise & docking to regen shields between interdictions.

For bounty hunting or CZ, long-term endurance is best, so bi-weave regen is key, even if they never go down.
 

CMDR ANCALAGON

C
I'm glad to be reading this. I was looking at potential loadouts on coriolis and no matter what, it seemed like class 7A prisimatics akways came up short compared to my 6a biweaves on the anaconda. (Keep the top slot for class B SCB).

Even when it was close, I'm certainly not seeing anything worth the !$^!&#*÷! Million cr cost difference!
 

yolomcbobbinz

Y
V'larr said:
Prismatics are nice for trading or missions, where you aren't planning on sustained combat and can happily out-tank your foe, relying on supercruise & docking to regen shields between interdictions.

For bounty hunting or CZ, long-term endurance is best, so bi-weave regen is key, even if they never go down.
Click to expand...

Yea the shields on my fdl are always 70% > in cz thanks to biweaves nothing better for non pvp use
 
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