Idk about late game, but it does pretty well in midgame. My character is 7 lvl right now, having Helmsmanship, Impact mitigation, Ballistic spec, Navigation, Gunnery Implants and Polarized armor. I ll add two skills for extra flux management and few skills for combat readiness later. Dunno about the rest.
For the loadout: i use Shiled shunt. Works kinda ok, but cant take reaper hits, so, you need to have some PD (and in many situations you dont need Ballistic rangefinder, since your small and medium non-PD ballistics very litimed). Also it will not resist heavy singlehit fire like Hellbore cannons for too long.
Anyway, now it is way more fun to play armor builds. But it will be painful at the start, till you get 6-7 skills (a bit less, if you dont pick Navigation first).
Also, lol... Got myself a Legion XIV (d-modded for armor, btw). Flying around, killing some stuff... My thoughts be like: "Well, it is tough to play, but manageble". Then i noticed that it has no Integrated targeted unit or Dedicated targeting core installed... And you know, after ITU installation it feels really enjoyable to play.
Is it better to use Shield shunt or not - open question now. I think that without it the gameplay is easier, but will keep it till lategame just to check it out. For now can only say that PD can be random. Sometimes it kills reapers, sometimes few of them passes... (i m talking about fights against medium pirate fleets now).
