Engineers Shield upgrade advice

[Tromador]

Engineering needs a plan, there's so many options. So whilst you might think my plan is dumb and are free to say so, please can I have advice on the following?

Given:
I'm flying a multirole 'conda with a slight lean towards PvE combat.
I've given up on getting a quick shield recharge, I want god shields that never go down (or as close as I can get).

Obviously 7A shields and unless there's some amazing reason why not, that would be Prismatic 7A.

However, after that I'm unsure. I see a lot of people saying Thermal Resist, but Reinforced looks nice, or even enhanced low power has promise.
Then the shield cells. Rapid or specialised?
Boosters. Heavy duty or something else?

and in each case, what experimental.

I just don't get the numbers. I mean I know what a megajoule is, but how that then goes into the equations with hull size and so on and etc. I get very lost very quickly.

 

[Codger]

Keeping it simple, you want to use resistance augmented boosters and thermal resistant main shield, aiming for about 50% resistance for the 3 types of damage (thermal, kinetic, explosive)

Beyond that it’s a matter of personal preference. And also how you use the ship.

For PVE, on my Anaconda, I use the biweaves because I want faster recharge between fights.

 

[Kzak]

If you can get them, prismatic 7A shields engineered for reinforced shields + boosters. Say, 5 Heavy Duty ones, one Thermal Resist and two for general resistance improvement. On my Conda, with D-rated boosters (to keep the weight down somewhat), I get over 3000 MJ with the prismatic 7A shields.

Shield cell banks - you might well go for the specialized ones, as they also give less heat and you will most likely manage without heat sinks, allowing you to use that utility slot for a shield booster instead.

EDIT: While bi-weaves are also good, I like prismatics better. You can reboot and repair, which will always bring your shields up to 50%, though the rest will have to be charged up normally or by use of a shield cell bank.

 

[Tromador]

Also how you use the ship

Well, yes - hence trying to be specific in my OP. The question is, in PvE what will likely keep my shields up and running longer? What experimental effects too?

 

[Wasp0]

If you are going to enter into ANY PvP fights with worth opponents in good combat ships, then you do need to seriously consider using Prismatic Shields.

If you are just going to do PvE combat then my advice is to use Bi-Weave shields. You can get great resistances and shield strength on these, if like advised earlier, you get a Thermal resistance engineer and Shield boosters with Heavy Duty and some with Resistance Augmented, a good mix to get all three resistances as close or above that good 50% mark.

On my PvP battle wagon cutter, my Prismatic s take over 40 mins to get back from 0-100%. (If i don't reboot!). i 1v1 PvP that is not an issue, as i am usually heading to a station to reload and repair after a good fight, but in a PvE Res/CZ scenario, this is plain stupid. With a Bi-weave and the right engineering then they can recover in a matter of minutes keeping you in the Res/Cz longer.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Thermal biweaves for PVE, with fast charge or lo-draw depending on your loadout.

Another advantage of bi-weaves esp with high resistances is the SCBs go further.

 

[Ceekay]

Here's my PVE Conda and a wingmates they're quite different but both are effective PVE ships that reflect different combat styles, I try to get into a good firing position and minimise the amount of incoming fire whereas my mate goes for the face to face and slug it out approach.

My Conda

http://www.edshipyard.com/new/#/L=C...cgy000AA10AA10AA108c11rq050U00721072123u12UI1


mates Conda

http://www.edshipyard.com/new/#/L=C...L4CfL4GfL423u16DCH0040u008wPcGy00Mu002UI10nE1

Both work fine in a HazRES although I'd probably pick my targets with a bit more care e.g. wait until a wing has engaged a target then pick them off one at a time.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

As far as prismatics go, pretty typically it's:
Reinforced with one thermal resistance booster + 2 resistance augmented and the rest HD/supercapcitors.
You can use the lo-draw mod on the shield gen, or hi-cap if you have the power to spare.
I use the flow control mod on my RA boosters.

 

[Nero Tacitus]

Shield choice depends on the content. If you're focused on PvE, most people will suggest bi-weaves as their regen wins out over base MJ through a session of bounty hunting or, to a lesser extend, conflict zone.

Prismatics give ~50% more MJs toward your effective hit points (EHP), however they regen at 1.1 MJs p/s. Bi-weaves have lower base MJ, but regen 4.4 MJs p/s. This means a Prismatic with several HD boosters will take ~45 minutes to regen 2 rings, whereas a bi-weave will take ~10 minutes. So going fight-to-fight, a bi-weave will eventually regen more MJs than the Prismatic ever had. Also, on larger ships SCBs make up a large percentage of your EHP, and so Prismatics offering ~50% more EHP actually offer ~20% more once you factor in SCBs, while bi-weave regen remains the same.

As for engineering (keep in mind I run 2x Resistance Augment & the rest Heavy Duty as I've found this to give the best results). I did the math a while ago and found Reinforced overall best for Prismatics. Going Thermal Mod literally halves your Kinetic EHP and almost halves your explosive EHP, in exchange for a ~20% increase to your Thermal EHP. It's just not worth it. The negative of Reinforced is that it lowers your regen/broken regen, but that's irrelevant on Prismatics anyway.
For Bi-weave, Thermal Mod. Evening out your resistances is better for your SCBs (which are more important on a bi-weave), and the mod doesn't destroy your regen (the main reason to run bi-weaves).

For SCBs, if you have extra power Specialized will give you the best bang for buck, combined with a Boss Cell experimental. If you're short on power, or looking to PvP, Rapid Charge with Flow Control is my prefered setup when I can't justify Spec.

For Boosters. The idea is to even out your resistance to all forms of damage so you're not weak to a particular damage type. However, the game has pretty steep diminishing returns (the more resistance you stack, the less you get), so most people aim for around 50% resistance; once they have that, they stack percentage through Heavy Duty boosters. This is the key, to keep both resistances and MJ equally invested so they bounce off each other. High Res / Low MJ will get destroyed by PAs (which deal absolute damage). High MJ / Low Res will take forever to regen and water down your SCBs. Aim for 50% with a Thermal Mod shield, then stack MJ. For Reinforced, 50% on Kinetic/Explosive, 30% on Thermal is fine.

I'm personally not a fan of using Thermal/Kinetic/Explosive Resistance mods on boosters. The math doesn't support sacrificing a Resistance Augment or Heavy Duty for one, it's just a net loss outside niche resistance builds.

I did a quick comparison of Booster Configs here if you're interested.

 

[Kilostream]

....Given:
I'm flying a multirole 'conda with a slight lean towards PvE combat.
I've given up on getting a quick shield recharge, I want god shields that never go down (or as close as I can get)....

I've done both - I've got a multi-role build with Bi-Weave, and I've got a heavy combat build with prismatics and SCB's.

My multi-role lightweight build is a six-booster, two heavy duty, two reinforced and one each thermal and kinetic, shield gen is 7C Bi-Weave with Thermal, it's got about 1500 raw MJ, and solid resistances across the board - it'll not cut the mustard in conflict zones or where heavy shields are necessary, but for Hazres and down it's plenty good enough.

If you're interested, it looks like this: https://eddp.co/u/wN6lG5Qp
You'll note the undersized PDU and PP - I built this to be good enough whist maintaining 35LY jump range, it needs pip management in combat, but with a bit of tinkering with the optional internals it turns it's hand to pretty much anything, and does it pretty well so, since you said that's what you're building the shield for, I'd suggest something along those lines.
Prismatics and SCB's will certainly deliver far superior shields but, if it's for a multi-role ship rather than a combat behemoth, I think you'll find they're overkill for the situations you put the ship into, and the mass they add, and the extra utility and optional internal slots they occupy will undermine the multi-role aspect to the fitting.

 

[Zelos1983]

For PvE (sustained) combat I'll suggest Bi-Weave shields.
It's not about how many HP you have, it's about being able to recharge them faster than the fights take them away. Also, Resistance helps a lot.

 

[bigity]

Engineering needs a plan, there's so many options. So whilst you might think my plan is dumb and are free to say so, please can I have advice on the following?

Given:
I'm flying a multirole 'conda with a slight lean towards PvE combat.
I've given up on getting a quick shield recharge, I want god shields that never go down (or as close as I can get).

Obviously 7A shields and unless there's some amazing reason why not, that would be Prismatic 7A.

However, after that I'm unsure. I see a lot of people saying Thermal Resist, but Reinforced looks nice, or even enhanced low power has promise.
Then the shield cells. Rapid or specialised?
Boosters. Heavy duty or something else?

and in each case, what experimental.

I just don't get the numbers. I mean I know what a megajoule is, but how that then goes into the equations with hull size and so on and etc. I get very lost very quickly.

Mod to the shield's inherent strength. If you are using bi-waves, engineer for quick regen times. If prismatic or regular, mod for high capacity. Balance resistances for both (especially if you pvp or might be attacked).