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Author Topic: When is Shield Shunt worth it?  (Read 6186 times)

Sendrien

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When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« on: July 31, 2023, 10:02:50 AM »

Question for you ship build enthusiasts: which ships have you found to best employ Shield Shunt, and how much PD is needed to support running around without shields?
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robepriority

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2023, 04:18:33 PM »

High armor is always a good argument for shunt, so the vanilla answers would be onslaught, dominator.

Aeson

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2023, 10:15:24 AM »

High armor is always a good argument for shunt, so the vanilla answers would be onslaught, dominator.
I don't know that I'd entirely agree; the main draw of Shield Shunt isn't the armor bonus but rather that it prevents the AI (or, for that matter, the player) from "wasting" flux capacity on shield-tanking, so it seems to me that it'd be a better hullmod for a highly aggressive build that you just want to get in there and kill things than for a resilience-through-armor build, especially considering that turning off the shields renders the ship a lot more vulnerable to beams and EMP damage. Onslaught and Dominator have the firepower to kill things, but they can have mobility/agility issues even with Helmsmanship officers and they also have big exposed backsides, so I don't think they'd be my first choice for Shield Shunt; I'd probably put Shield Shunt on an SO Eradicator, Enforcer, or maybe even Hammerhead or Lasher build before I put it on either Dominator or Onslaught, because those ships have the mobility to consistently run many things down and the firepower to be pretty scary if they'd just keep shooting but can quickly run into flux problems while using their shields.
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Daynen

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2023, 08:46:30 AM »

If you have a combat ship that seems to rely too much on its shields when armor tanking would serve it better, try shunt.  If a ship has a weak shield generator and you'd rather use that flux for more bang-bang, try it.  If you're setting up a ship with an officer and S-mods that push its armor value into the stratosphere, give it a try and see if its worth the time saved from waiting for flux.  If you happen to have a ship with high flux capacity but bad venting it might also be a good idea because, again, more time shooting and less time shield flickering at max flux.
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bowman

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #4 on: August 04, 2023, 02:30:08 AM »

onslaught, dominator, mora

Can't think of any others I specifically shield shunt off the top of my head but it's been a few months since my last campaign again. It's definitely a good hullmod tho, even after it was nerfed (and before it got the s-mod bonus).

As others have pointed out, part of its strength lies in not having shield flux be a concern. In particular, it makes the ship literally incapable of overloading (with the specific exception I guess of the Harbinger's special). As such, you just design the ship around dissipating exactly as much as the guns produce and arm it to the teeth. You can even undergun the dissipation and just treat it as burst windows since you don't have to worry about it overloading itself on accident.

Polarized armor is a massive skill for its use in a fleet setting, though. If you're going to run it it is a night and day difference in my experience. (Along with all the other armor skills, for that matter). I've ran fleets that are more unshielded than shielded against ordos, you've just got to be careful of HILs.
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Megas

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #5 on: August 04, 2023, 06:14:54 AM »

Two reasons why I would want to shut off shields:
* Can use more flux hungry loadouts without overloading.
* Prevent my NPC ships from cowering and backpedaling all the time when flux gets a little too high.
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Nightstrasza

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2023, 05:33:32 AM »

Never. Even the worst shield even for an AI is better than shield shunt. You can use it to flicker to catch a reaper or hellbore shell. AI will do that too. It should be free or even gain OP of removing shield, that 15% armor is not worth it and to make the mod worth it need to build it in and even with it built in my dominators do better with a shield, a dominator with trash shield that overfluxes itself quickly from gunfire is still better with a shield. Sure, you can put strong PD with PD skills maybe and PD hull mod but then you already paid OP to put on the shunt, not to mention the story point waste and S-mod slot waste, not to mention it will do nothing against plasma, hephaestus or hellbores flying your way. There's a reason Vanguard being so overhype when added to the game is trash, bcs it has no shield so you just shoot it for 5 seconds with hephaestus and it explodes, same gonna happen to any ship you put shield shunt on.

Is it good for player? debatable, I rather not pay anything to gimp my ship and catch missiles and anti armor projectiles with it, literally free defense, if you are reaching 100% flux anyway then you took more than you could bite at the same time and/or you have unoptimized loadout with flux hungry guns and not enough venting, shunt won't fix that, just turn off the shields and keep firing on 99% while backing off to vent and maybe catching a reaper with a flicker. For AI?, only to fix their behavior bcs they will catch even anti-shield projectiles on their shields while having bad shield, that's literally the only reason to ever use shield shunt and even then my builds still fared much much better with a crappy shield. It still comes down to the optimization, if the build is bad you will overflux even with shunt, it gives nothing to venting speed and your firing speed will grind to a halt at 99% flux.

Also, forgot to mention, your weapons will be perma disabled without a shield, enjoy a overload free life where you can't shoot anyway bcs damage and emp will disable everything. Shunt is only good to bully smaller than you ships but take on anything capable of equiping a heavy mauler, hephaestus, plasma or worst of them all, hellbore and tachyon then you are firing nothing and you will melt as they turn your armor black in first volley from max range before you even approched them. I don't put shunt even on mora simply bcs they eat more damage while having it and I don't have to pay any s-mod or story point or most importantly OP for it and even on things like dominator and onslaught you have to fix so many problems to minimize shunt drawbacks while you can have no shunt for free, keep the shield for flickers and eating infinite damage and spend all that OP for actually usefull stuff. Unless you are a Luddic and you want suicide run down the enemy, then you lose most of your fleet but win or you didn't bring enough and all explode bcs you can't push thro.
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Nuuki

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #7 on: May 24, 2024, 01:10:12 PM »

Don't listen to these HATERS!!! Shield shunt (S Mod) (+ Armored Weapon Mounts (S Mod) + Heavy Armor) is an incredibly good and !!!COMPLETELY VALID!!! combination. On XIVth Battlegroup ships this combo goes especially hard and lets you spit so much lead downrange you can just burst down anything and everything before it even has the chance to scratch you. I, personally, absolutely love my pure armor ships not because they are optimal (though the 14th Battlegroup Onslaught with the right officer is almost there), but because they are fun.

For me, the Enforcer is the absolute peak of armor shunted ships. It's not amazing, but it strikes the perfect balance between being wildly powerful, maneuverable enough to not just get mobbed the moment they burn into combat and disposable enough to keep losing it when you inevitably over-extend them.


If you plan on using mods with your shield shunted ships, the ones I'd recommend are the VIC for those delicious mods that enhance ballistics and HMI Supervillains so you can use the Fang Society ships which lean heavily into the "kamikaze" lifestyle of the average armor shunter
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Doctorhealsgood

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #8 on: May 24, 2024, 01:38:07 PM »

Shield shunt forces AI ships to be less cowardly so there is that.
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Killer of Fate

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #9 on: May 24, 2024, 02:07:54 PM »

For me, the Enforcer is the absolute peak of armor shunted ships. It's not amazing, but it strikes the perfect balance between being wildly powerful, maneuverable enough to not just get mobbed the moment they burn into combat and disposable enough to keep losing it when you inevitably over-extend them.
*immediately dies to High Intensity Laser*
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yajusenpai

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #10 on: May 24, 2024, 03:33:49 PM »

Only when S modding.
1. Ship that have high base armor. The only way to dumb amount of armor.
2. Ship that have garbage shield. To remove the waste of flux
3. Ship that can't have enough Flux vent to support their weapon. To capitalize on that firepower.
So I probably only put them on low/mid tech capital. Maybe a champion.

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Beep Boop

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #11 on: May 24, 2024, 10:12:08 PM »

Shield Shunt is most effective on AI-piloted ships with high armor and bad flux balance, especially coupled with unimpressive shields, since it stops them from wasting flux on *** shields and getting flux-locked.
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Nuuki

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #12 on: May 24, 2024, 11:56:10 PM »

For me, the Enforcer is the absolute peak of armor shunted ships. It's not amazing, but it strikes the perfect balance between being wildly powerful, maneuverable enough to not just get mobbed the moment they burn into combat and disposable enough to keep losing it when you inevitably over-extend them.
*immediately dies to High Intensity Laser*
those are some harsh words for someone in heavy machine gun range
for real though, HI-lasers aren't actually as good as you make them sound. I use them on my Sunders and unless you have two or three of them focused on one target with energy focus turned on they really don't do that much damage. They're amazing fly swatters though, I gotta give them that
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Killer of Fate

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #13 on: May 25, 2024, 03:25:08 AM »

For me, the Enforcer is the absolute peak of armor shunted ships. It's not amazing, but it strikes the perfect balance between being wildly powerful, maneuverable enough to not just get mobbed the moment they burn into combat and disposable enough to keep losing it when you inevitably over-extend them.
*immediately dies to High Intensity Laser*
those are some harsh words for someone in heavy machine gun range
for real though, HI-lasers aren't actually as good as you make them sound. I use them on my Sunders and unless you have two or three of them focused on one target with energy focus turned on they really don't do that much damage. They're amazing fly swatters though, I gotta give them that
Shield Shunt + Heavy Armour + Armoured Weapon Mounts on XIV Enforcer is 1100... 1400... 1550... If you s-mod it, it's 1700... Okay.
I guess I could be wrong.
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Beep Boop

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Re: When is Shield Shunt worth it?
« Reply #14 on: May 25, 2024, 03:39:37 AM »

focused on one target with energy focus turned on they really don't do that much damage.
Well, it's like they say: It ain't gonna faze 'er unless you charge your lazor.
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