I have done an extensive study of my fleet of ships and compared their current shield setup and a hypothetical setup with prismatic shields. Of all of my ships the ones that would most likely be fitted with prismatic shields are my Cutter Hauler, Anaconda miner, Krait MK II fighter, T9 CG hauler, and my Courier. Each of these ships already have G5 engineered shields in various forms based on their roles. I compared mass, energy requirements, shield strengths, and jump range between my current shields and prismatic shields with similar engineering and my conclusions is it probably isn't worth it in my particular case. The only 2 ship exceptions might be my T9 CG hauler and the Courier. The prismatic shields for the most part are just too darn heavy, draw lots of power, and the broken regen rate is slow. Am I missing something here? Can any other CMDRs offer advice or their experiences with these shields? I just want to do my due diligence before I pledge for 4 weeks and then spend hundreds of millions of credits and materials to engineer them. Thanks.
Prismatic shields are for you if you're going to engage other ships in single or a short series of fights in which you won't have to wait for the shield to regenerate. Prismatic shields have, as you stated, very high capacity but poor shield regeneration. They are e.g. useful for PvP fights as well as a number of NPC encounters. Note that you can always recharge your shields to 50% by doing a Reboot and Repair (takes ca 30 seconds and not taking any damage).
I was on the fence about Prismatics (and powerplay stuff in general) until about a year ago, when I started on them off and on. Quite a few said the same thing as @Kzak said above, they're useful for PvP but beyond that fairly unnecessary apart from niche situations. Despite that, I unlocked them and bought one of each (multiples of some, again based on advice) at the cost of almost a billion credits.
Having had them for a while, I can confirm - I use them on one ship, my smuggling Python where interdictions are pretty common. Beyond that, the others are just sitting in storage, taking up space. I certainly wouldn't put one on my Courier, it'd negate the reason I love that ship, the speed and agility.
I have purchased two each of the class 6, 7 and 8 prismatic shields on the chance that we get new ships that can use that size shields. I already have the lower classes of prismatic shields either on ships or in storage. Panther Clipper, if/when it arrives, might use class 9, maybe? Difficult to tell.
I use them on my Cutter and T9, because I can fit 1 size smaller shield and still get the same protection, thus leaving room for more cargo. I use those 2 ships mainly for hauling, and/or mining, but they are armed and shielded to fight off pirates. I never run from those NPCs.
I use them on my Corvette because I tend to engage in one fight at a time in that ship, rather than many fights one after the other. Thus I'm more interested in raw MJ. I don't care about regen time.
I'm also using a size 4 in my multi-role Krait MKII, just to have more protection and still carry decent cargo and a fighter bay.
That's about it. My other ships use either Bi-Weaves or normal shields.
I use them on my Corvette because I tend to engage in one fight at a time in that ship, rather than many fights one after the other. Thus I'm more interested in raw MJ. I don't care about regen time.
I'm also using a size 4 in my multi-role Krait MKII, just to have more protection and still carry decent cargo and a fighter bay.
That's about it. My other ships use either Bi-Weaves or normal shields.
Good point.
Worth noting is, that while c1-c5 std shields dont have any extra active regen, c6+ got inceasing active regen over sizes, OTOH all prismatic shield have same active regen acrosss all sizes and worse broken regen than all other shields. This make c1-c5 prism much better choice over std SG's of same sizes, but choice is not so clear cut for bigger ones.
Prismatic shields also work quite well on a battleship if you use two SCBs to recharge them. That sort of load-out might be better for CZs, especially when dealing with special ops because they can take down bi-weaves cery quickly if you're not carful. That's probably a better load-out for players inexperience in high intensity CZs, though it adds the extra complication of watching your shields and knowing how to use one heatsink while you fire two SCBs, but once you get the hang of it, you can sit and tank anything while you pound them with your weapons. For RES farming and low intensity CZs, I prefer bi-weaves.
I use prismatic shields on 2 ships :
1) 8A on my anti-cyclops cutter (the fights don't last long enough for the regen rate to be important).
2) 6A on my trade cutter (mostly for trade CGs) : Size 8 is out of question since it's a trade ship, and size 6 offers decent protection against the occasionnal player interdicting you.
1) 8A on my anti-cyclops cutter (the fights don't last long enough for the regen rate to be important).
2) 6A on my trade cutter (mostly for trade CGs) : Size 8 is out of question since it's a trade ship, and size 6 offers decent protection against the occasionnal player interdicting you.