Ship Builds & Load Outs When Are Bi-Weave Shields Worth It?

[Krivan]

This is something I've been trying to work out for a while. I currently do not have the Cr balance to properly test it and my only experience with the Bi-Weave Shield is using the 1C on my Sidewinder so I can fit a fuel scoop, SRV bay and 4T of cargo.

Looking to make a more informed decision when I upgrade to a combat ship (iEagle or Viper).

 

[sbdags]

They are worth it if recharging quickly is important to you. Do you tend to exit or disengage from combat once your shields have gone down? Then use normal shields, no then use bi weave shields with hardened reinforcement packages and shield boosters or shield cells.

 

[SushiCW]

I've been playing with them on the ships I've been flying since 2.0 dropped, although I may switch back.

I've noticed that they drain the SYS capacitor so fast that I don't have energy for firing heat sinks mid-combat, which rather negates their usefulness outside of silent running.

 

[CariadocThorne]

I'd say yes on small nimble fighter ships. I use them on my DBS, and although they drop quicker, they come back crazily fast.

When your shields drop, concentrate on evasion and getting behind your target where it can't shoot you, and the shields come back up before you take much (or any) hull damage.

Combine with chaff and a HRP or 2 and you can become surprisingly durable in a small fighter.

 

[GJ51]

[h=2]When Are Bi-Weave Shields Worth It?[/h]
When you buy them...

 

[EffKay]

This is something I've been trying to work out for a while. I currently do not have the Cr balance to properly test it and my only experience with the Bi-Weave Shield is using the 1C on my Sidewinder so I can fit a fuel scoop, SRV bay and 4T of cargo.

Looking to make a more informed decision when I upgrade to a combat ship (iEagle or Viper).

Bi-weave shields are best in prolonged combat. The key difference is in when the shield has collapsed and needs to recharge.
The Bi-Weave shield recharges a LOT faster at the expense of diverting power from weapons and engines. But that's normally OK as one is usually high-tailing it away from opponents.

A Bi-weave shield allows one to retreat for a lesser time (to recharge one's shields) than with the standard shield generator of equivalent size/class.

 

[Lt.RAT]

if your shields are down your doing it wrong

 

[Zelos1983]

I tried Bi-Weave shields and didn't found them worth it.
In prolonged combat, you use shield cells to regenerate your shields, so the added recharge rate is not really worth it - double because it draws power from engines and weapons.

They are also significantly weaker, meaning that shield cells will a lot less often become active before the shields are down.

 

[Rocky-451]

Bi-Weave shields are quite good for small to medium combat ships. It's a nice surprise sometimes to see them come back online just a few seconds after getting hit. Another advantage is that they require less power compared with normal shields, so you could use the spare power for other modules.

 

[Ragnarr_Lothgar]

http://coriolis.io/outfit/federal_c...404B03k06f6v12d2d2b2b24.AwRj4yuig===.Aw18Z5A=

When are Bi-Weave shields worth it? See link. 1,263 shields double the recharge rate of an equal shield gen. On larger ships that can fit Boosters Bi-weave cut down on well, down time. It also gives enough strength to the point that I can take a wing of 2 anaconda and win with 1 bar left(because it recharges so fast during combat also) and just continue fighting or wait a minute and recharge a bar or two.

also I really liked Bi Weave on my FDL, cut down on power plant stress allowing me to equip bigger guns on my hard points.

 

[Jaeger]

This is something I've been trying to work out for a while. I currently do not have the Cr balance to properly test it and my only experience with the Bi-Weave Shield is using the 1C on my Sidewinder so I can fit a fuel scoop, SRV bay and 4T of cargo.

Looking to make a more informed decision when I upgrade to a combat ship (iEagle or Viper).

Equipment options suck by design. They are worth it when ever you gather enough immersion to make up a reason yourself.

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

I replaced all shields on all my vessels with bi-weave, because they are simply superior. It's like pulse lasers vs beam lasers... the latter are more powerful, but pulses are simply superior because you can fire them longer. Downtime is much lower.

And they are more economic, using less power.

 

[DragoonKnight]

This is something I've been trying to work out for a while. I currently do not have the Cr balance to properly test it and my only experience with the Bi-Weave Shield is using the 1C on my Sidewinder so I can fit a fuel scoop, SRV bay and 4T of cargo.

Looking to make a more informed decision when I upgrade to a combat ship (iEagle or Viper).

On a sidewinder, eagle, viper you really do not appreciate how good bi-weave is because the shields already regenerate to 50% in under a minute. When you are flying a ship with strong shields, bi-weave is great. When you are in a Vulture, FDL, or Anaconda then you really see the value of bi-weave shields. Ever had to wait 5 minutes for your shields to regenerate? With bi-weave you will not have to

 

[CariadocThorne]

On a sidewinder, eagle, viper you really do not appreciate how good bi-weave is because the shields already regenerate to 50% in under a minute. When you are flying a ship with strong shields, bi-weave is great. When you are in a Vulture, FDL, or Anaconda then you really see the value of bi-weave shields. Ever had to wait 5 minutes for your shields to regenerate? With bi-weave you will not have to

I disagree. A little under a minute with no shields is more than long enough for those small fighters to be turned into smoking debris. With Bi-weave, the shields are back up so fast you can take little to no damage before they are back up. In fact, they may never go down at all, as they charge back to full so quickly.

The caveat is that you need pips to Sys. In my DBS I usually have half a pip or one pip in Sys, and the recharge drains my Sys capacitor so I can't even fire chaff.

 

[Starender]

Bi-weave is perfect for ships that has power problems (viper, vulture...) and ships that are nimble if you manage to not get hit very often (FAS...)

but it's true that they empty the Sys capacitor so fast >< they are a pain to use to be honest