Upgrade Dilemma - bandage or std shield?

I've seen so many posts about how Defenders should be HP beasts. I play mk5 Defender but only have one big shield in my blue slots. The rest are taken up by two bandages and one turbo.


I've got a std rare shield which is ready to be upgraded. I'm particularly interested in upgrading it because I intend to slot it on to a mk5 enforcer if I ever have the discipline to save the gold for it:


But I can also upgrade one of my bandages to lev40 instead:


So, here's the problem. Everyone here says "shield". But the maths says that a shield has to be 1200 hp to match up to my bandage before it's upgraded if I last a minute after getting tapped ( 60 x 60 / 5 ) and that std shield isn't getting anywhere near that.

So why is a shield better?

 

Why not upgrade your big shield since you have one spare?

 

I think I've got about 7 days of Brock training until I can upgrade my big shield. I've got a spare ready.

 

A thick post with multi-layers of hidden questions. I like a challenge!

You ask why is shield better? It depends on your play style. If you rush in then shield is better. If you hang back, you will get more from your bandage. Also depends on how often you have a fixer on your team, and if you have one, how often you stick with them.

You are also kind of asking if you should use 2 shields (big and std) and one bandage or the other way around. Check your battle logs to see how much hp in general your bandages are giving you and if it is more than the shield, then you should keep the bandages.

Why are you not leveling the epic big shield which you can get to lv30? It would surpass your rare 30 there.

I feel you are looking at the standard shield only because it might be applied to your other ship. That is a different decision all on its own. Level whatever you can and then grind some more. It is a lot cheaper and you get more out of leveling low level stuff.

Good luck with your decision(s).

 

It also has Some kind of psychological effect. People usually don't want to target a ship with lots of hp. Kinda ironic that by having more hp you will lose less hp. This gives you some time to go up in front and focus your Fire on a weak target.

This is an effect that can't be seen at the result screen.

 

I tried both you know just because you urge on hp. T3R big shield on my speeder it gets me around 3300k hp but I usually have to fight 1v1 so I found my T3R bandage more useful 60-65 hp per 5 seconds.
I tried both for 10 matches shield gave me 4 wins 6 loses out of which 4 battles were 1v1 I won 1 lost 3.
Bandage gave me 7 wins 3 loses 6 1vs1 all wins.

 

Till mk 5/6 speeder, bandage + turbo is the only way to roll. (How is that rudder working for you @TheAntiSnipe )

 

I voted for shield in this pole. I would also suggest a shield on defender because mk5 can reach upto 7k hp easily with shields maybe 6.5k with a turbo or rudder. I was just sharing the thing I tried.

 

Omg i cant believe i messed up how many secs there are in a minute Another good reason to get more than one pair of eyes on a problem!

That brings the std shield much closer to the bandage, ta

 

I actually prefer more hp on defender and i hate going against a defender above 18k hp with my lil speeder! Also a defender gets right into the fight (of course only if the team supports him) and faces ships in their face. Healing a bit every 5 seconds in that time doesn't help me as much but ofc depends on your playstyle. Hope it helps a bit and its understandable what i tried to explain

 

1- i tend to hang back, assess then pick my moment to muck right in. I play with a torp (long shot, short and sharp), berta (controlling the field of battle) and sniper (v long hits, fist pump on crits)
2- i generally last long
3- ive got a spare rare big shield so i know i can take that to lev40
4- keeping one eye on my enforcer goal is stopping the grind wearing me down!

Thanks for the input!

 

But still 720 per minute once dmg is taken is pretty solid

 

Around 3500 infamy even a standard canon may deal more than 720. Of course most shooters don't use a standard canon, they use weapons twice as strong... On top of that they got 5 of those weapons, and on top of that, they are together with 4 other enemies.

So no, 720 a minute is kinda worthless at higher level.

 

*On top of that*
Every 2 sentences there is on top of that

 

Your point (2) answers your question, since you already last long by hanging back and dealing suppression damage, bandages will give much more value than a standard shield. I main a defender myself, and I don't use standard shields but bandages in their place. Most matches each of my bandage can give the equivalent hp recovery of a big shield or much more, so it's an easy choice.

 

If you hang back most of the time, maybe pick bandage. But defender’s role is mostly being in the front and especially later, they lead the attacks. So maybe develop the std shield too, though when you get to enfo mk6, you can fit a big shield

 

Well for me I'll never be close to that infamy lol so it's not a problem