What shields should I choose for the T6 Negh'var?

gaalom

So I am nearly to the point of upgrading my components for my ship. After the long discussion here over the KDF big ships, I decided to forgo the Bortasqu, and went with the T6 Negh'var. One thing I am not sure about and that is shields. The old wisdom was cov for battlecruisers, regen for small agile ships, and resilient for everything else in between. I can not help but notice that high capacity shields even ones clocking at 8k plus melt away in seconds. So is resilient the correct choice now? I have seen some high capacity resilient shields out there, not as high as normal covs, but decently close.

tom61sto

I usually just go for a shield that's part of a set I want and upgrade it to Mk XIV, as the capacity and regen boost from upgrading negates the impact of the type variations for things like Battle Cruisers. I usually go for Iconian set shield, which is a Resilient shield base type for that piece.

revanindustries

Resilient is often preferred due to the 5% Absorb. If you don't have Plasmonic then I'd suggest the Adapted KHG Shield. Otherwise, like was mentioned if there's a shield you need for a set power use that. Another shield I like is the Aegis shield: nothing fancy, but it gets the job done and looks really good.

gaalom

Sounds like a plan thanks for the updated info.

ichaerus1

My main uses the Nukara T5 rep shield. But that's because it's a full tetryon monster, whether beam loadout or cannon.

gaalom

I hear you, I just have access to multiple sets at this point. The old omega one, Honor guard one, Ageis from the last time I completed R&D and others. Hence the question. I am using the Negh'var as a full blown cannon ship, and despite people saying command is torp only, it seems to have some nasty buffs you can throw your teams way. Not to mention completing command will allow me to give my ground bridge officers some deadly abilities on the ground. It seems to fit me so far. This is reason why I was carious about cov or resilient.

icsairguns

I have all the sets. but still always go back to the old Borg set on my Tork. with my build it have over 10k cap and nearly 1k regen seems nuts but for me it works pretty good.

on my Bird of prey style ships i use the covariant. the high cap stand up well for decloak, fire, run then recloak .

gaalom

Almost seems like a reverse to me, given you would have little in the way of shield regen abilities on a bird of prey. The screenshots seem to prove your point, but how did you get that shield up to 13k. I think the base non upgraded is what 6k last I looked. That is double the improvement. Are you using something to boost it?

icsairguns

space traits, rep traits, skill tree and ship traits is pretty much all i got

goodscotch

Looking at the replies, all seem to be leaning towards regenerative shield arrays. I've gone the other route and prefer the covariant models. Simple reason...sheer numbers. I'd much prefer to have a higher value from the get go than have a shield that's 3k to 5k less. The regeneration rate will be 25% slower, yes...but even a fast regeneration rate will make little difference when you're getting hit hard and fast. Just my opinion, but it's something to consider.

tom61sto

goodscotch wrote: »

Looking at the replies, all seem to be leaning towards regenerative shield arrays. I've gone the other route and prefer the covariant models. Simple reason...sheer numbers. I'd much prefer to have a higher value from the get go than have a shield that's 3k to 5k less. The regeneration rate will be 25% slower, yes...but even a fast regeneration rate will make little difference when you're getting hit hard and fast. Just my opinion, but it's something to consider.

Covariant is fine too on Battle Cruisers, as most Battle Cruisers will have more than enough Engineering BOff slots to slot Emergency Power to Shields in such a way to have it almost full uptime to keep shields refiled in all but the highest shield drain events, negating the need for Regenerative. An extra 5% bleedthrough compared to Resilient, which seems to have been recommended at least as much as Regenerative if not more this thread, isn't that big of a deal on the decently thick Battle Cruiser hulls and T5-U and T6 ones have innate armor to help as well.

Then again, with 1-1.15 shield modifier, Covariant's higher capacity isn't as big of a deal, particularly with the mentioned cycling of Emergency Power to Shields. Long story short, what I said in my first post, once the shield is Mk XIV, the capacity and regen of most any shield will be high enough to be usable in most situations on a Battle Cruiser.

gaalom

I have been reading the replies on this post of mine. I have also been running the numbers the in mind. The conclusion I have come to is covariant. The first and foremost reason is regen/resilient were not designed for big battle cruisers, so they may get nerfed down the road if the devs ever try to balance the game. The other reason is if someone is able to pull 13k shields with a regen, then a cov shield should be hitting in the 20k range, and that is some shield. When you fly with a regen on a bop, your turn rate, allows you to change facing shields all the time. You also keep punching your balance shield ability for quick regen. In a ship like a Negh'var you do not have that luxury, so I believe a higher cap shield like a cov would be the best choice.

icsairguns

on a bop id do cov not regen. the higher cap almosts last long enough to let you cloak again. and reset your run.

and as far as shield power goes min is set to the min number and i dont slot emc power to shields either . no reason for it weapon power is 125 engine power 99 . i play as a tac officer aux and shields at min lvls with sets and skills depending on the ship usually in the high 40s low 50s ill get a pic and show it in an edit. ok see if it works

gaalom

I run my ship the same way as far as power levels go. I am not saying you can do a cov on a bird of prey, but I was simply stating something from my own experience.

icsairguns

maybe im talking backwards or jsut misunderstanding you. cov on a bird of prey works excellent. thats what i use on them.

but on a battle cruiser where you have fire power to destroy the enemy the high cap does not last long enough for prolonged battle where the high regen keeps them up for the entire time.

gaalom

icsairguns wrote: »

maybe im talking backwards or jsut misunderstanding you. cov on a bird of prey works excellent. thats what i use on them.

but on a battle cruiser where you have fire power to destroy the enemy the high cap does not last long enough for prolonged battle where the high regen keeps them up for the entire time.

One thing is for sure I am not trying to say what is or isnt here. My knowledge of the game is based on years with breaks in between. So I hope I was not asserting that perspective. This last statement of yours "high regen keeps them up for the entire team", what do you mean? Not trolling I honestly did not know this.

Edit: After I got a good night sleep I remembered, I believe you are referring to the shield command ability. That enhances a teams shields.

goodscotch

icsairguns wrote: »

cov on a bird of prey works excellent. thats what i use on them...but on a battle cruiser where you have fire power to destroy the enemy the high cap does not last long enough for prolonged battle where the high regen keeps them up for the entire time.

Hmmmm...this is an interesting theory. I will have to revisit shield arrays. I'd written off regenerative shielding as being impractical in combat simply because the regeneration rate was too slow to make a significant difference. I had always relied on my BOFF's shield regen abilities to get the shields back to a decent level again. Perhaps I need to take a second look. Always interesting to start making modifications to see the effect on performance.

Thanks!

icsairguns

gaalom wrote: »

icsairguns wrote: »

maybe im talking backwards or jsut misunderstanding you. cov on a bird of prey works excellent. thats what i use on them.

but on a battle cruiser where you have fire power to destroy the enemy the high cap does not last long enough for prolonged battle where the high regen keeps them up for the entire time.

One thing is for sure I am not trying to say what is or isnt here. My knowledge of the game is based on years with breaks in between. So I hope I was not asserting that perspective. This last statement of yours "high regen keeps them up for the entire team", what do you mean? Not trolling I honestly did not know this.

Edit: After I got a good night sleep I remembered, I believe you are referring to the shield command ability. That enhances a teams shields.

TIME not team

gaalom

Well changes the structure somewhat, anyways I gave it a go, because I had the adapted set from a long time ago. The results were mixed. In one stf my shields never went down, in a Borg stf my shields were depleted rapidly, and I had trouble getting them back up even with power being put into shields. At anyrate the one thing I noticed was unlike my high cap shield the arcs lasted allot longer. The bonus of the set shot my hull points up from 86k to 91k. I will continue to run stfs with regen, this conversation is causing me to yet again rethink which shield is best.