Tesla shield level up....

I am planning on building my first MK5 ship, and chose the enforcer. I want to run dual tesla shields. I have an epic level 12 tesla shield and two more waiting. Should I use them to keep leveling up the level 12? Or combine the two to start my second?

 

If I remember correctly, mk5 enforcer only got two yellow slots so double tesla shield means you can't use overboost. So you're sacrificing a lot of speed - maybe it's only at its best after mk6 where you have three yellow slots.

Back to your original question: you should definitely use your two additional tesla shields to evolve your first shield to t4. Two t2 shields are really too weak to be effective. Build one strong epic and maybe try to find rares for second while you're building it.

 

One strong shield is worth a lot more than 2 weak ones. Besides if you have my luck you may never see shield dups 5 and 6, much less another 6 to build a second for the foreseeable future..

 

As a general rule, you should never start upgrading ‘any’ Epic item unless you already have enough duplicates to get it to t4.

You really don’t want to be stuck with t2 Epics later in the game, when everyone else has ‘at least’ t5 Rares (which are way better), and you’re still waiting on Epic duplicates to get to t3.

This is especially true for Tesla Shields, because there are really only two tiers for the Tesla Shield: Shields that can take a Blast Cannon hit without breaking, and shields that can’t. There might only be a few hit points between them, but it makes the world of difference.

If you do already have enough duplicates to build a t4 Epic Tesla Shield, then congratulations! You’re able to build one of the most sought after items in the game. You should absolutely build the t4.

It would be best just to start working on a Rare as your 2nd, and see how your luck goes. You ‘might’ find more Epic duplicates down the line. It’s possible that you ‘might’ even combine a legendary, or get one through a future achievement. But the t5 rare is guaranteed. Don’t waste resources on anything else, unless it’s also guaranteed (I.e. you have all the duplicates in your inventory).

 

Just don't do what I did:
I scrapped my four epic Tesla Shields.