Engineers Thermal vs Reinforced shields

[Xyience]

I need some input on this. I want the highest possible shield strength. After some research i found two compelling arguments.

Thermal shields with heavy duty and resist augmented boosters. Lower MJ. Resistances are an average of 60%.

Reinforced shields with heavy duty and thermal resistant boosters. Higher MJ. Resistances are an average of 50%.

The ship in question is the Cutter. Four heavy duty and two resistance boosters. What is the optimal setup for the highest shield strength? Im having trouble deciding. The thermal setup is appealing but is about 800mj less than the reinforced setup. Can someone with more experience than me give some input or suggestions on this? I am not entirely sure myself.

 

[JeanGrey]

I need some input on this. I want the highest possible shield strength. After some research i found two compelling arguments.

Thermal shields with heavy duty and resist augmented boosters. Lower MJ. Resistances are an average of 60%.

Reinforced shields with heavy duty and thermal resistant boosters. Higher MJ. Resistances are an average of 50%.

The ship in question is the Cutter. Four heavy duty and two resistance boosters. What is the optimal setup for the highest shield strength? Im having trouble deciding. The thermal setup is appealing but is about 800mj less than the reinforced setup. Can someone with more experience than me give some input or suggestions on this? I am not entirely sure myself.

I would recommend getting two of the heavy duty boosters an change them to thermal resistant grade 5, so you wound have 6 boosters, 2 HD, 2 Thermal Res, and 2 reinforced.
The shield gen, go for reinforced, grade 4 or 5. I use grade 4 in my Anaconda because I don't want the regen rate to get too low.

Above 60% resistance, each additional booster will not improve the percentage much, so it's a better deal to sacrifice ki and explosive resistances to boost thermal.

For PVE it's the best deal.

 

[biohazard15]

I would recommend getting two of the heavy duty boosters an change them to thermal resistant grade 5, so you wound have 6 boosters, 2 HD, 2 Thermal Res, and 2 reinforced.
The shield gen, go for reinforced, grade 4 or 5. I use grade 4 in my Anaconda because I don't want the regen rate to get too low.

Above 60% resistance, each additional booster will not improve the percentage much, so it's a better deal to sacrifice ki and explosive resistances to boost thermal.

For PVE it's the best deal.

Reinforced shields (normal and especially prismatics) don't have any regen. Just use reboot when 3rd ring goes red.

 

[Herbrand]

Reinforced shields (normal and especially prismatics) don't have any regen. Just use reboot when 3rd ring goes red.

Is it possible to bind reboot to a key?

 

[JeanGrey]

Reinforced shields (normal and especially prismatics) don't have any regen. Just use reboot when 3rd ring goes red.

I use reboot, but still like to have some regen rate. For me it makes a difference due to my PVE play style.
My Anaconda has only 1,000MJ shield. Regen rate becomes abismal if you have too much Joules in your shield, which is not my case.

Cheers!

 

[JeanGrey]

Is it possible to bind reboot to a key?

No it's not, but then again you need to be almost stopped and should be away from fire to use it.
I rebooted some times too close to combat zones and received fire while rebooting.
Luckly the armor did hold.

 

[Elpapo]

Is it possible to learn this power?

Fixed that for ya

And right anwser would be: Not from a Jedi.

 

[True Phoenix]

its a really good question OP.

i too have this issue, whether thermal or reinforced shields. I don't separate pve from pvp, I don't really see the point. i want max shields whatever the situation. so, my thoughts:

1. There is an excellent thread or 5 that compare stats for shield boosters so I'm not going to go mad on this. there is even stuff out there on what size to use, i.e. weight considerations / %s.
2. Ship. Huge variance in base shields across the ships so this has a lot to do with the choice
3. Slots for shield boosters - as above
4. often overlooked but shield cell banks. Bigger the better.

FdL - this baby will fly with either shield generator, thermal eng'd G5 gave some good secondary on optimal etc. I go 2 HD, 4R for boosters. Everything above 60% with good MJ too. With reinforced shield generator eng'd grade 5 i use 3HD and 3R. Not quite the same % for K/T/E but not bad, high MJ figures. Downside is only a SCB of size 4.

FGS - Man its a cracker. i don't use thermal shield generator cos base is too low. But with 3 HD & 1 R booster (all eng'd with good secondary) plus reinforced shield gennie grade 5 eng'd, 1000MJ. The killer is the size 6 SCB.

i dread to think what either option on a cutter would give you with a high level SCB, or 2....

 

[biohazard15]

I use reboot, but still like to have some regen rate. For me it makes a difference due to my PVE play style.
My Anaconda has only 1,000MJ shield. Regen rate becomes abismal if you have too much Joules in your shield, which is not my case.

Cheers!

Just 1000 for a Conda? That's... thin.

 

[sb413197]

PVE and casual PVP generally is thermal biweave shields with resistance boosters (maybe 4) and some heavies. My anaconda runs this and is more or less immortal - I can keep fighting without pause for as long as I want.

I'm building my cutter with prismatic reinforced shields and mostly heavy boosters however - currently 6 heavy and two resistance boosters. Plasma accelerators are apparently 60 percent resistance ignoring; ramming is common; feedback cascade rails nerf SCBs. All these things made me go that route because they kinda defeat the resistance build and recharge isn't relevant in a single fight due to shields not charging after getting struck (which you will, a LOT, in a big ship). My python is taking a similar approach, as a heavy trader.

 

[JeanGrey]

Just 1000 for a Conda? That's... thin.

It's a trader/multi purpose Conda, 256 ton of cargo and planetary landing SRV bay.

Didn't want to turn it into a battle ship, even tough I spend money in the reactive surface bulk head and modded it to Thermal resistance grade 5. The things we do when money is not an issue : )
The good thing is that I can enter combat zones and kick some NPC Ships a..s. I wouldn't risk PvP with it, 25MM credits re-buy is quite some money.
Also it's a very slow ship for PvP, really like manuvering a battle ship, and if you install turret weapons on its upper hardpoints you will think it's a navy boat hahahaha!

 

[biohazard15]

It's a trader/multi purpose Conda, 256 ton of cargo and planetary landing SRV bay.

Didn't want to turn it into a battle ship, even tough I spend money in the reactive surface bulk head and modded it to Thermal resistance grade 5. The things we do when money is not an issue : )
The good thing is that I can enter combat zones and kick some NPC Ships a..s. I wouldn't risk PvP with it, 25MM credits re-buy is quite some money.
Also it's a very slow ship for PvP, really like manuvering a battle ship, and if you install turret weapons on its upper hardpoints you will think it's a navy boat hahahaha!

That is one very strange Conda...
I built one for my 2nd account - like yours, it's a multipurpose ship with 192t cargo, two scanners and SRV bay, also class 6 fighter bay and 5A fuel scoop.
However, it has 7C reinforced bi-weave and 6 boosters (2 thermal, 2 resistant and 2 heavy) which gives it 2 GJ of shields (recharge-able at 3.8 MJ\sec), and there is also 5A SCB w\heat sink (1 SCB charge = 1 minute of normal recharge).
No armor though.

And I never participate in PVP (consensual or not) since I play in Mobius on both accounts

 

[Bryan K]

I always use Thermal Resistant base shields with stacked HD boosters. That way you get extremely strong, universally resistant, and decent recharging shields all at once. Hasn't let me down yet.

Without taking resistances and SCBs into account, my Cutter gets about 3117 MJ with 4 boosters. That's more than enough to survive ganking attempts and dominate any PvE situation, as well as survive a high-speed collision into a planetary surface.

 

[Ziljan]

If this is for PVE, I'd say go with Biweaves with a thermal resist mod and 4 resist boosters. For PVE you don't need anything bigger or badder, and you can even skip SCBs.

For PVP you'll probably want Prismatics with a reinforced mod, and maybe even all reinforced boosters, especially if you plan on surviving the ubiquitous ramming meta.

 

[StiTch]

Use thermal resist if you want to improve your ship.

Use reinforced if you don't.

 

[HeavyGroovez]

PVE and casual PVP generally is thermal biweave shields with resistance boosters (maybe 4) and some heavies. My anaconda runs this and is more or less immortal - I can keep fighting without pause for as long as I want.

I'm building my cutter with prismatic reinforced shields and mostly heavy boosters however - currently 6 heavy and two resistance boosters. Plasma accelerators are apparently 60 percent resistance ignoring; ramming is common; feedback cascade rails nerf SCBs. All these things made me go that route because they kinda defeat the resistance build and recharge isn't relevant in a single fight due to shields not charging after getting struck (which you will, a LOT, in a big ship). My python is taking a similar approach, as a heavy trader.

Yeah on my FdL im running thermal resist on my base with heavy duty boosters to boost the raw MJs needed to deal with plassies that i dont evade.

 

[Quantis Trap]

its a really good question OP.

i too have this issue, whether thermal or reinforced shields. I don't separate pve from pvp, I don't really see the point. i want max shields whatever the situation. so, my thoughts:

1. There is an excellent thread or 5 that compare stats for shield boosters so I'm not going to go mad on this. there is even stuff out there on what size to use, i.e. weight considerations / %s.
2. Ship. Huge variance in base shields across the ships so this has a lot to do with the choice
3. Slots for shield boosters - as above
4. often overlooked but shield cell banks. Bigger the better.

FdL - this baby will fly with either shield generator, thermal eng'd G5 gave some good secondary on optimal etc. I go 2 HD, 4R for boosters. Everything above 60% with good MJ too. With reinforced shield generator eng'd grade 5 i use 3HD and 3R. Not quite the same % for K/T/E but not bad, high MJ figures. Downside is only a SCB of size 4.

FGS - Man its a cracker. i don't use thermal shield generator cos base is too low. But with 3 HD & 1 R booster (all eng'd with good secondary) plus reinforced shield gennie grade 5 eng'd, 1000MJ. The killer is the size 6 SCB.

i dread to think what either option on a cutter would give you with a high level SCB, or 2....

Man that's hard to read! I say this even though I know most of the abbreviations. Everyone, please consider readability over looking ... cool ... when writing!

 

[True Phoenix]

Man that's hard to read! I say this even though I know most of the abbreviations. Everyone, please consider readability over looking ... cool ... when writing!

I bet you iron your socks and underpants..... Try not to spend your life moaning about the inconsequential on a forum board, there are better things to do.

 

[JeanGrey]

Yeah on my FdL im running thermal resist on my base with heavy duty boosters to boost the raw MJs needed to deal with plassies that i dont evade.

I've seen most commanders are running thermal on the shields and a stack of boosters, some times mixing HD and Reinforced, other times only HD SB.

Is there any news about FD's idea about nerf the SB stack?
I know there is a beta running right now, but I didn't check it out yet.

 

[AnotherVoice]

I was running thermal resistant shield on my Conda, switched for resistance augmented: my shield total MJ doubled.

So imo, use reinforced for the big 3, and bi-weave thermal resistant for almost everything else.