Regular Shields, Prismatic, Bi-Weave - which is more useful and when?

[Iskariot]

What's the consensus on which shields are the best to use under various circumstances and ships?

For example, are you better off with a Bi-Weave shield on a small/medium ship because their shields tend to be weak to begin with, so (in theory) it's better to have them charge faster and reform faster once broken?

Are you better off with Prismatic shields in a larger ship because of the initial boost it gives and the fact you'll probably have Shield Cell Banks to top it up with?

Are you better off with normal shields because screw that whole fancy shmancy stuff?

I think the Bi-Weave are quite interesting to use on combat ships.
They are weaker, but because of their fast reboot you are back in the fray in no time.

I have been testing the Bi-Weaves on my War-Python for a week now and I like them.
I think the B-Weave Shields are a great addition to the game.

I have not yet been able to test them in CZ. I think they might be a handicap there.

 

[Bacalao]

I'm finding that I am happier when my decision is based less on "weak shields=biweave", "big shields=standard/prismatic" and make the decision based on how I'm playing and which suits it better. For instance, biweaves work much better for me in RES sites, the travel time and often negligible damage I take from single target enemies keeps my shields topped up and they are strong enough to let me survive a tough wing (2 Clipper and an Anaconda) without breaking, maybe using 1 SCB charge, this has allowed me to pack far fewer SCBs, keeping my ship lighter, faster, more maneuverable, things I prize in the many 1-3v1s and travel between fights in a RES
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For combat zones though, I find myself taking less big bursts of damage with time in between and more steady damage with occasional big burst. Maneuverability and speed are less important in the CZ because the enemies are usually occupied at least partially by allies and the enemies are all much closer (no travel time, no need for fancy maneuvers), so I pack a stronger shield with more SCBs, it lets me survive the big bursts of damage from bad positioning, which I find more necessary than passive recharge and then I occasionally pop an SCB when my shield just get whittled down from constant fire. The biweaves don't hold up enough under the occasional heavy fire to work for me in a CZ.
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I do tend to run just biweave in my faster, armored ships though, their strength is hit and run, so they get enough reprieve from damage that the recharge comes into play big time. Took on a wing of 3 dropships in my FAS and the biweaves were magnificent. Lost my shields twice during the fight, but they came back twice, my hull easily shrugged off the heavy fire until I could get some distance and come back in again with full shields.
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As a trade setup, I'd just go with D rated shields, I get the strength of the biweave and good jump range, the shield is more than enough to tank fire with 4 pips and chaff while I high wake away and they'll top up at the next stop.
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Each pilot will have to find what works well in which ships, which is heavily dependent on play style and the environment you're in.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

I put Bi-weaves on my Clipper and added one shield booster, replaced the shield cell banks with HRPs.

First issue. I didn't know what to put in the class 6 compartment. There's no combat related module in size 6 that's not related to shields (and of course 7/8 too if we want to think about Cutters and Corvettes). The Python is also affected by this, so is the Anaconda and the Federal gunship.

So I put a size 6 Fuel scoop in there, as if I'm some sort of explorer.

I also had way too much power now that I had a C-rated shield instead of an A-rated (+1.4 MW) and no shield cell bank to power (+2.48 MW). I had nothing to put that power on either. So I blew it on A-rated sensors and an A-rated KWS - and I am already running a beam laser on that Clipper. I could go even more power hungry on the weapons, but the Clipper only has a class 6 distributor, so that wouldn't really help.

So I took the Clipper into combat. The results were underwhelming. The shield recharges faster, but that drains your power capacitor hard. Two pip SYS were required. Since Two pip SYS do next to nothing on your shield resistance, those are essentially wasted. On my A-shielded clipper I would go 4 WEP 2 ENG against big ships and 4 ENG 2 WEP against small ships and just kill them before they drop my shields. That did not work as well as my shields were considerably weaker and repeatedly failed. However, due to the 2000 armor hp my clipper now had, I took very little damage after that. Except the Canopy. That thing blew out at 80% at the latest, rendering all those HRPs and military grade armor moot.

So I switched to just running and rebuilding shields if they failed. Rebuilding in combat was out of the question anyways, because that requires all 4 pip in SYS else the Capacitor goes dry. 4 Pip SYS while not having shields basically leaves you toothless, so it's a terrible idea. It also takes 15 seconds to start up the rebuilding, then 20 seconds to rebuild it. In 35 seconds you'll usually get severe canopy damage already, if you don't lose it right away.

This build really only works against single enemies you get the drop on. Wings won't work, conflict zones won't work. The shields are just too weak and the 15 second timer before the shield even starts rebuilding is just too long to be viable in combat.

You just need to be really active with the pip management. Can't set it and forget it at all.

 

[KidA39]

I've been using Bi-weave on my Python with one HRP and reinforced armor and it works pretty well for grinding in a HIRES. Only issue is if you choose to tangle with a wing of 3 then those small ships can strip those shields pretty quick when you're focused on another.

 

[znôrt]

Funny, I would have thought it would be more useful on bigger ships because they normally take ages to recharge. Well, I might try it on my bounty hunter FAS then (currently I have regular A shields).

don't take my word, it was just a guess, i really haven't tried it on the conda. it probably depends a lot on what you are doing and faster recharge is always good but i think the fas will definitely benefit from bi-weave more often than not.

 

[zxdc8]

Personally I prefer Bi-Weave, at least for PVE, because they allow me to quickly recharge my shields before my next engagement, and when they do go down my Conda can tank pretty well until they come back up again.

 

[Julio Montega]

I use the bi-weave on my combat ships, with the backup of armor and silent running.
A fast recharging buffer shield is quite useful,
also does the bi-weave shield put less strain on the generator, allowing high powered weaponry.
Those shields also have an advantage when you harden them by 4 pips to sys and stay in the fight.
The regeneration boost adds up to the time you stay in combat, shield boosters and scbs are not my style.

The normal shielding i use on ships dedicated to fight using shields as primary defense.
When i fight on such a craft it is "Viper style", stay in there until shields nearly drop and use speed to run for recharge.

Prismatic? I hardly have the power or the will to equip 'em.
Working for imps? Nah!

Personally, bi-weaves are a great step in the right direction, but we need more versatility.

 

[rucky]

Seems I'm one off the lonely Prismatics user out there (could be 'cause I've got them prior after 4 weeks for that nice girl)
And perhaps I think my FAS doesn't need LESS shield (275 MJ) but MORE (491 MJ).
One the other hand it's a very hull tanking one (2020 Armor) so as I'm fighting in CZs very often that long recharge time IF it occurs does not really get me in big troubles...
And also on my trading ships I like Prismatics in lower classes - so I get more cargo in ;-) and you only need to prevent them until you could escape anyway ;-)

 

[Quineloe]

The regeneration boost adds up to the time you stay in combat, shield boosters and scbs are not my style.
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There is no regeneration while you're being hit. That's the whole reason those shields aren't as good as they should be.

Higher rating (and possibly higher class) afmus have a quicker repair rate. Alternatively, you can stack 2 or 3 of them for very quick repairs. Shield tanks have SCBs. Hull tanks have afmus.

AFMU require more power than shield cells. You can't run multiple at once - and I am already using a single 4A. It's not that fast.
Never mind that I'm trading away the hull strength for this when I get rid of all those HRPs.

We need a canopy module. If you want to fight shieldless, you need the option to install a sturdy canopy.

You just need to be really active with the pip management. Can't set it and forget it at all.

That's not it. Fighting with 4 pip in SYS while rebuilding a shield (and therefore only having two left for WEP and ENG) simply is pointless. You have no bite, you have no maneuverability. You just get hit more while you wait for the shield to rebuild.

 

[Weavers]

I switched to bi-weave on my sidewinder because it's one size smaller and let me keep the cargo and the planetary bay. I didn't seem to have significant differences in survival afterwards.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

That's not it. Fighting with 4 pip in SYS while rebuilding a shield (and therefore only having two left for WEP and ENG) simply is pointless. You have no bite, you have no maneuverability. You just get hit more while you wait for the shield to rebuild.

Works fine for me. I normally fight with 4 pips in Wep, 1 Eng, and 1 Sys. When I need to turn extra hard, I swap it to 1 Wep, 4 Eng, 1 Sys. When under fire, I swap to 1 Wep, 1 Eng, 4 Sys. Now I just leave it in that position a bit longer when the sys cap needs it. Micromanage from those starting points as needed. Not really a big deal.

You don't fight in any one position. The whole point of active pip management is that you actively swap around priorities as needed.

You can claim it doesn't work in theory all you want, but I actually do it and it works great for me.

 

[aRtFuL]

I think bi-weave favors ship with tanky armor and weaker shielding more.

Prismatic is the other way around.

I have prismatic on my imp courier and bi-weave on FAS.

 

[Dunkel Reynolds]

I absolutely love the bi-weave in my Clipper. Sacrifice 50 shields to pick up about 40 million credits and some extra power...seems like a good deal to me. With a couple hull reinforcements and military bulkheads, the rare occasion when the shields go down is not a big deal. No more SCBs, which is nice.

I do have to juggle pips a little, but I can live with that. And yes, bringing a AFMU is nice; I just boost off to a safe distance, count my bounty vouchers, let the shields top off for a minute, and I'm back in the fight with an intact canopy.

I threw a cargo bay in that class 6 slot...now I really feel like I'm flying a multi-role ship, rather than having to switch out modules for each and every mission.

Overall, bi-weave shields have had an overwhelmingly positive effect on my play style. In RES, my Clipper is a beast.

One caveat...stay out of CZ...the Clipper really isn't suited to that kind of fight, anyway.

 

[Armia]

You just need to be really active with the pip management. Can't set it and forget it at all.

This.

I was one of the set-and-forget flock before, but after swithing to bi-weave, I'm starting to discover the magick of pip managing. I'm even actually starting to find pip micromanaging quite enjoyable. It gives me the feeling of commanding a real warship.

 

[CMDR Byr Goefin]

I absolutely love the bi-weave in my Clipper. Sacrifice 50 shields to pick up about 40 million credits and some extra power...seems like a good deal to me. With a couple hull reinforcements and military bulkheads, the rare occasion when the shields go down is not a big deal. No more SCBs, which is nice.

I do have to juggle pips a little, but I can live with that. And yes, bringing a AFMU is nice; I just boost off to a safe distance, count my bounty vouchers, let the shields top off for a minute, and I'm back in the fight with an intact canopy.

I threw a cargo bay in that class 6 slot...now I really feel like I'm flying a multi-role ship, rather than having to switch out modules for each and every mission.

Overall, bi-weave shields have had an overwhelmingly positive effect on my play style. In RES, my Clipper is a beast.

One caveat...stay out of CZ...the Clipper really isn't suited to that kind of fight, anyway.

Clipper is fine in a CZ in a wing. Ships die too fast to be an issue.

 

[Armia]

There is no regeneration while you're being hit. That's the whole reason those shields aren't as good as they should be.


AFMU require more power than shield cells. You can't run multiple at once - and I am already using a single 4A. It's not that fast.
Never mind that I'm trading away the hull strength for this when I get rid of all those HRPs.

We need a canopy module. If you want to fight shieldless, you need the option to install a sturdy canopy.



That's not it. Fighting with 4 pip in SYS while rebuilding a shield (and therefore only having two left for WEP and ENG) simply is pointless. You have no bite, you have no maneuverability. You just get hit more while you wait for the shield to rebuild.

I usually put 4 pips to SYS occasionally during combat(i.e. not all the time). Like when a Conda is doing a bombing run on you. Its ~50% damage reduction is especially useful when tanking enemy fire(I'm in a Conda, so I usually resort to tanking tactics rather than vainly trying to dodge them), while also topping up the SYS capacitor at the same time, to later allow for some shield recharging between enemy volleys. Also, my WEP capacitor is capable of sustaining my pulse lasers to some extent even with 0 pips to WEP.

For AFMU's, I agree with you that using them while in a fight is rather pointless. It's almost, if not entirely, impossible to afford that amount of power consumption especially with deployed hardpoints, let alone justify it.

Though I still casually pack one of them for some in-situ repair of damaged modules between fights. Bear in mind that I'm referring to RES PvE BH situation here, though.

 

[Dunkel Reynolds]

Clipper is fine in a CZ in a wing. Ships die too fast to be an issue.

That's probably true...I typically am not in a wing, though, so my experience has been that I'm never more than a few seconds from being the object of a gang bang at any given time.

I really feel like the Clipper wasn't intended by game mechanic or by in-game lore to be a combat focused ship-of-the-line, so to speak. It works great as the jack of all trades, doing whatever the Empire needs done at whatever particular time and place. It excels in that role and that's the style I like to play, as well.

 

[clinton]

The 2.0 beta buffed SCBs class 5 and above, particularly those class 6 and above, so to get the most advantage out of now buffed 6+ SCBs, you need shields big enough that they can fit the full charge of a class 6 SCB, plus a little extra (so you don't risk your shield going down).

In this case I still think the prismatics win. You can go one class down to save money also and often still have a shield strength close to the A rated versions one higher class.

I'd like to see them introduce class B and class A bi-weave shields (with class C and class B strength respectively). At that point they might compete with the prismatics. But currently due to the SCB buff the Prismatics are still quite strong.

 

[aRtFuL]

I'd like to see them introduce class B and class A bi-weave shields (with class C and class B strength respectively). At that point they might compete with the prismatics. But currently due to the SCB buff the Prismatics are still quite strong.

I actually thinks that if they are going to introduce bi-weave class E to A the class of the shield should determine the recharge speed rather than the strength. That would give an even more diverse style of gameplay in regards to shields (ie. with Class A bi-weave the ships that focuses on armor tanking won't even be worrying about carrying an SCB, instead can focus all it's internals on HRPs and all it's power on weapons).

 

[Yokoshima]

PvE is about longevity, not burst defense. And thanks to HRP buffs as well as 3x shield recovery speed when down, bi-weave is king (Bi-weave recharges 4.5 mj/s when down). There are rare exceptions to this, but for the most part hybrid builds with bi-weave shields will last for hours. The only reason I have to leave a CZ is the game starts to lag and will eventually freeze and hour - hour and a half in.