Directional shields

[Jazyra]

Hi, on a ship with the directional shields is there a way to directly move the shields power to front ?

 

I ... feel like dying often to having to first power up the rear shields and wait for the global cooldown of the ability, vice versa.

 

Can i manage a bind for this ?

 

I mean like 3 binds like the F1 F2 ... system (Front-balanced between-rear)

 

Thanks.

Edited February 1, 2016 by Jazyra

[Ramalina]

There's a global cooldown on Directional shields that can not be eliminated except by the Devs deciding to rewrite some code.

 

Some pilots deal with this by flying with shields to the rear.

 

The logic is as follows:

You can't see people behind you so it's a good place to have extra shields.

You can see people in front of you, so if you see them start to target you, you can switch shields to the front right away.

 

With upgrades to things like large reactor, and more practice flying it's less of an issue, because it becomes fairly rare to die to damage in less time than it takes to shift the shields wherever you want them.

Edited February 1, 2016 by Ramalina

[FlavivsAetivs]

Although not a bad idea the problem with that is I pretty much always need directional shield in the front to kill people jousting with me.

 

The other solution is to go full tank with power to shields (F2) and it's almost like having directional shield in front and back at the same time with faster regeneration (i.e. Fortress shield). Works great in a hairball (in a Clarion at least since your mobility isn't badly affected because you can still powerdive without engine power), but once you start throwing good gunship pilots into the mix, that falls apart. But the same applies with having directional shields to front or rear 100% of the time.

 

Albeit... good gunship pilots cause anything to fall apart...

 

~ Eudoxia

Edited February 2, 2016 by FlavivsAetivs

[Nemarus]

In general, unless you are in the middle of a furball, fly with shields to the front.

 

Then if someone starts shooting at your back, hit the cycle button to immediately balance your shields. If you need to, then you can hit it again to put shields to rear.

 

The reason the cycling works the way it does is because putting an enemy in front of you is generally a premeditated action on your part--thus you can prepare for it by putting shields ro front. Whereas someone shooting you in the back suddenly is generally a surprise that you want to immediately react to.

 

Imagine if shields cycled the other way. You'd be flying with them balanced, and someone would start shooting you in the back. You would want to cycle your shields aft, but to do so, you'd have to go fore first, leaving your aft (which is under attack) exposed.

 

This is how it was in beta, and it made Directionals almost unusable.

[Ryuku-sama]

Directionnal use isn't the ability to double front or rear in a joust. Don't get me wrong, it is actually useful in 1vs1 to win a joust... But it's far from its best use. Switching std - rear - front - std allows you to rebalance your shield.. And assuming you haven't been hit on say your front arc, the front arc will now be damaged but without the 3s (6s without T3 left) no-regen downtime. This allows you to regen your shield faster than you could.. On a clarion, you can use PDive to give you a 3s window where you're very unlikely to be hit so you can shuffle around your shields.

Doubling on shield is marginally useful when jousting a gunship when you KNOW FOR SURE you won't be attacked by someone else. Just be sure to switch to rear so you can take ion damage on your hull and shield only slugs. Against scouts, it's rarely very useful... When they have cooldowns up, you're better to avoid them, and when they don't or are using Blaster overcharge without Wingman, Suppression will lets you stay alive betterand joust them without losing all your shield and becoming an easy target for anything roaming around. Suppression is less useful for gunships since they always have Wingman (unless they are forgetting how powerful evasion and tracking penality are) and you can hardly joust them without being an easy target for them.

Bombers mines hits on all side, so you better never double shield in a minefield or you risk an early death.

[Lavaar]

In general, unless you are in the middle of a furball, fly with shields to the front.

 

Then if someone starts shooting at your back, hit the cycle button to immediately balance your shields. If you need to, then you can hit it again to put shields to rear.

 

The reason the cycling works the way it does is because putting an enemy in front of you is generally a premeditated action on your part--thus you can prepare for it by putting shields ro front. Whereas someone shooting you in the back suddenly is generally a surprise that you want to immediately react to.

 

Imagine if shields cycled the other way. You'd be flying with them balanced, and someone would start shooting you in the back. You would want to cycle your shields aft, but to do so, you'd have to go fore first, leaving your aft (which is under attack) exposed.

 

This is how it was in beta, and it made Directionals almost unusable.

 

Nemarus is right

 

That we agree on this speaks volumes about it's credibility.

[RickDagles]

Although not a bad idea the problem with that is I pretty much always need directional shield in the front to kill people jousting with me.

 

The other solution is to go full tank with power to shields (F2) and it's almost like having directional shield in front and back at the same time with faster regeneration (i.e. Fortress shield). Works great in a hairball (in a Clarion at least since your mobility isn't badly affected because you can still powerdive without engine power), but once you start throwing good gunship pilots into the mix, that falls apart. But the same applies with having directional shields to front or rear 100% of the time.

 

Albeit... good gunship pilots cause anything to fall apart...

 

~ Eudoxia

 

 

F2 gives an extra 20% of the base shields, which is only 360 for strikes (base shield 1800), 340 for gunships (base shield 1700), 300 for bombers (base shield 1500), and 260 for scouts (base shield 1300).

 

By comparison, directional shield nearly doubles whatever your upgraded shield values are. This means it takes into account the extra 20% shields from large reactor and the 10% shields from the defensive crew member.

The exact values are hard to determine but based on the GUI I'd say it's around an 85-90% boost to the fully upgraded shields. That's about 2200 extra shields for strikes, 2100 for gunships, 1800 for the sledgehammer/decimus, 1600 for the flashfire/sting. Also, why wouldn't you just combine directional shields and F2?

 

 

Directionnal use isn't the ability to double front or rear in a joust. Don't get me wrong, it is actually useful in 1vs1 to win a joust... But it's far from its best use. Switching std - rear - front - std allows you to rebalance your shield.. And assuming you haven't been hit on say your front arc, the front arc will now be damaged but without the 3s (6s without T3 left) no-regen downtime. This allows you to regen your shield faster than you could.. On a clarion, you can use PDive to give you a 3s window where you're very unlikely to be hit so you can shuffle around your shields.

Doubling on shield is marginally useful when jousting a gunship when you KNOW FOR SURE you won't be attacked by someone else. Just be sure to switch to rear so you can take ion damage on your hull and shield only slugs. Against scouts, it's rarely very useful... When they have cooldowns up, you're better to avoid them, and when they don't or are using Blaster overcharge without Wingman, Suppression will lets you stay alive betterand joust them without losing all your shield and becoming an easy target for anything roaming around. Suppression is less useful for gunships since they always have Wingman (unless they are forgetting how powerful evasion and tracking penality are) and you can hardly joust them without being an easy target for them.

Bombers mines hits on all side, so you better never double shield in a minefield or you risk an early death.

 

While I agree that the instant regeneration trick is super awesome, the double front or double rear shields is pretty damn strong as well. I don't make it a habit of jousting someone that has better cooldowns than me, but if the situation calls for it (and it sometimes does) then I will joust him and watch my shields disappear. If you time it right you can powerdive/barrel away before he touches your hull. Or in the case of having directional shields + retro thrusters you are a jousting machine and should typically participate in them every 15 seconds if you can.

 

 

Also, I agree with Nemarus. That's a good description.

Edited February 2, 2016 by RickDagles

[Jazyra]

Well ... Thanks for the answers, that's what i though.

[Odacervicix]

Reading these responses, I was thinking that I do it kind of differently. Not that I think it's necessarily better, but it is what works for me. Basically, I prefer flying with directional shields in a balanced position unless the situation calls for a switch, or I suddenly take damage (and even then, I sometimes just cycle back to balanced instead of doubling one side or the other).

 

Directional shields are loads of fun, and can absorb huge amounts of damage once you get the hang of them. One of my favorite things to do in the game is to see how much damage I can take on a ship in a game without dying, and I’m most effective at this with directional shields. But they do take quite a bit of time to get used to. Think of them as the Power Dive of shields. Hard to use at first, but powerful once you get the hang of it.

 

As for my flying style, I try to only fly with them forward or rear when I am close to certain that there are no burst damage threats in the direction that I have pointed away from the shield strong side. So, for example, in opening a game, I’ll put them forward heading towards a satellite or for a DO. I’ll put them to the rear when retreating back to my team after an attack run, particularly in TDM. The key for me is to avoid burst damage to the unprotected side. This is primarily Slug Railgun, but also includes BLC’s with cooldowns popped, certain scout rocket builds, and any opponent with DO. But mostly it’s slug railgun. So I try to not leave my unprotected side towards a GS for any amount of time. It’s important to keep cycling as Ryuku points out, and you will sometimes be exposed for a very brief window while cycling when actively engaged in combat, but it’s uncommon to be hit in that window by burst damage, although it does happen.

 

Anything that isn’t sudden burst damage tends to be easy to detect and avoid before it does any real harm, allowing you to escape and reset your shields.

 

In any situation where I can’t localize or prioritize threats to one particular side (this is most of my combat time), I’ll put the shields in a balanced position and cycle them when I take damage, using LOS and power dive to create cover while cycling.

 

Missiles can be confusing to deal with at first when using directional shields. Individual clusters are easy to just eat in a balanced position. But cluster missile spam needs to be avoided or dealt with by eating the missiles on the appropriate side and then cycling. This is made more difficult in that there is something weird about how missile damage hits the different shield sides. Damage seems to come from the direction of the ship, not the side the missile animation hit you on. I’m not entirely sure about this. Others can jump in here if I’m wrong. But if I want to eat a missile, I seem to have better luck boosting away from the person that fired at me, creating space so that I know the missile will hit the rear of the ship, and switching the shields to the rear for the missile hit.

 

I do joust with directional shields sometimes. But there is a weird lag issue, perhaps related to the missile issue described above, where your opponent’s jousting shots (and missiles) can hit your unprotected rear in the pass. BLC’s, cluster missiles, and feedback shield hits have all done this to me. So I try to cut the joust short before risking those sorts of hits if I have shields forward.

 

If you do decide to joust, have your shields ready well before you enter it. In a joust, a lot of things happen very fast, you have to listen to missile tones, watch for sudden changes of speed or strafing, keep your aim true, look for offensive and defensive CDs and time everything so that you don’t end up with a missile released directly into your cockpit, while trying to do exactly that to the other guy. The last thing you want to do is be fumbling around with the direction of your shields while trying to keep track of that other stuff in the second or two that the joust lasts. Just reject the joust if you aren’t set up for it. If you really want to do it, reject the joust initially and then set your shields while turning around, and then joust. And don’t joust scouts running TT or BO. I do that sometimes. But I’m an idiot.

 

As far as eating railgun shots, I tend to eat slugs (if I have to) and avoid ion shots like the plague. Yeah, I know some people prefer rotating shields away from the shot and trying to tank it. I do that if I have to, but I just haven’t got a lot of mileage out of it. Fully upgraded ion shots have too much other bad stuff baked into them (loss of engine power, laser power, slowed speed or energy regen). It’s just too much bad. I will usually do whatever I can to get to the side of their aiming circle or try to time the shot and tilt up and powerdive forward (if I have it) to avoid it. If I do get hit, I usually abort the attack and try and get to LOS as soon as possible. If I think the GS is not running Distortion, I may try to release a missile first to make him barrel roll. But other than that, I don’t stick around.

 

Just a word of warning. My skills are limited, often intentionally by fermented grain and fruit products, and my observations may be colored by said spirits. Others may be more qualified to discuss directionals. But I just thought I’d throw in my two cents, since I find directional shields to be one of the most rewarding and enjoyable components in the game.

 

Also, I primarily use directionals on strikes and the T3 bomber. I imagine that how they are used might be very different on a gunship. For starters, you probably have most of your enemies on one side of your ship most of the time. If you know where they are, setting the shields forward or back as a default might make more sense. But I really don’t know. I just haven’t messed around with them much on those ships.

[Nemarus]

With practice, I find that Directional Shield play becomes almost automatic. As your spatial awareness of enemy locations gets better, you will naturally start to shift your shields around. It's actually one of the most cool sensations in GSF, I think, when your brain just starts processing and planning on its own.

 

I particularly love a Rycer with Directionals, Ion Cannons, Clusters, and Heavies, as you're almost always managing three things at once.

[Greezt]

With practice, I find that Directional Shield play becomes almost automatic. As your spatial awareness of enemy locations gets better, you will naturally start to shift your shields around. It's actually one of the most cool sensations in GSF, I think, when your brain just starts processing and planning on its own.

 

I particularly love a Rycer with Directionals, Ion Cannons, Clusters, and Heavies, as you're almost always managing three things at once.

 

Try out quads/ions and concussions, and pretend you're a scout. Also, kill any scout dumb enough to face tank you.

[FlavivsAetivs]

I hate ion cannon cause it's pretty much the only thing (other than BLC/ion spam) that beats directional shield. So whenever I see a Rycer with Ion cannons I protorp it into oblivion. They generally still loose in a joust against Clarions.

 

And yes F2+Directional Shield is just extra amazing.

 

~ Eudoxia

[Nemarus]

Try out quads/ions and concussions, and pretend you're a scout. Also, kill any scout dumb enough to face tank you.

 

The thing with Ion + Clusters is that the time to lock on with Clusters is about the same time it takes to strip shields with Ion Cannons. So your Clusters basically do 800 hull damage. It's actually really, really incredible burst damage, that combo.

 

The heavies are there just to clean up any remaining hull points, and to kill turrets and Charged Plating builds.

 

Also, if you do happen to get a DO, the Heavies (with range capacitor) turn you into a little Death Star with 6900m range.

 

At the end of the day, we are proposing similar combos. You get your short range killing power with Quads, I get it with Clusters. You get 7km armor piercing with Concussion Missiles, I get it with HLCs. Still, I think Clusters give me more ability to peel Scouts. Concussion Missiles rarely hit anyone but newbs.

[Greezt]

The thing with Ion + Clusters is that the time to lock on with Clusters is about the same time it takes to strip shields with Ion Cannons. So your Clusters basically do 800 hull damage. It's actually really, really incredible burst damage, that combo.

 

The heavies are there just to clean up any remaining hull points, and to kill turrets and Charged Plating builds.

 

Also, if you do happen to get a DO, the Heavies (with range capacitor) turn you into a little Death Star with 6900m range.

 

At the end of the day, we are proposing similar combos. You get your short range killing power with Quads, I get it with Clusters. You get 7km armor piercing with Concussion Missiles, I get it with HLCs. Still, I think Clusters give me more ability to peel Scouts. Concussion Missiles rarely hit anyone but newbs.

 

I did in fact take quads so my lasers would synergize better, and concussions are mainly for bombers and gunships. That being said concussions can hit fairly often in a dogfight if you land them from close enough (and you will when firing ions).

 

I tried out the cluster build, but it just feels like a weaker scout.

 

I hate ion cannon cause it's pretty much the only thing (other than BLC/ion spam) that beats directional shield. So whenever I see a Rycer with Ion cannons I protorp it into oblivion. They generally still loose in a joust against Clarions.

 

And yes F2+Directional Shield is just extra amazing.

 

~ Eudoxia

 

I don't think a Rycer loses to a Clarion in a dogfight. the T1 has much higher DPS. It can strip the shields off a T2 in around two seconds (by feeling, not math), and another 1-2 seconds for finishing the hull. I fly both ships a lot (the Clarion more these days), but the Star guard is stronger in a 1v1.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Greezt

[RickDagles]

I found ion+hlc/cluster to be more effective than ion+quad/concussion.

 

There are very few scenarios where quads are a better choice than HLC imo. That being said, I think HLC/RFL/cluster is the optimal build on that ship. But that kinda defeats the purpose.

Edited February 5, 2016 by RickDagles

[Greezt]

I found ion+hlc/cluster to be more effective than ion+quad/concussion.

 

There are very few scenarios where quads are a better choice than HLC imo. That being said, I think HLC/RFL/cluster is the optimal build on that ship. But that kinda defeats the purpose.

 

Clusters are more effective than concussions for sure, but quads are just about as effective as heavies from where you'll be firing ion cannons, I think. You lose some accuracy in the long ranges, but you make up for it with higher damage, accuracy and lower tracking in the short ones.

 

I only take concussions to have some sort of armor piercing.

[RickDagles]

Clusters are more effective than concussions for sure, but quads are just about as effective as heavies from where you'll be firing ion cannons, I think. You lose some accuracy in the long ranges, but you make up for it with higher damage, accuracy and lower tracking in the short ones.

 

I only take concussions to have some sort of armor piercing.

 

Yep that's what I'm saying, the quads are a better in the 3000-4000 range if your target isn't at high deflection. But any good pilot won't be flying straight at you, which makes HLC and quads equally useless here. At least you can use the ion/cluster combo to make him blow some defensive cooldowns and possibly run away for a bit.

 

Then again, the best build might depend on what you're trying to go with the starguard. If you're trying to hunt gunships, ion/quad might be a bit better due to the higher burst damage. When I play starguard it's always in domination, and my goal is to attack the off-sat. It's pretty decent at that, even if there's a strong bomber there. HLC are crucial in that role. The strategy doesn't work well if there's an ace BLC scout or Ion gunship in the game, of course.

Edited February 5, 2016 by RickDagles

[NeverEvar]

I actually prefer ion/quad/cluster combo. DPS is insane. But sure, you will want to bite your own stupid have when facing a cp bomber. But even against does your are not as helpless as you might think. Clusters can mask another lock on, and ion strips shields leaving it open to any AP attack. As for jousting, that combo can even match Quad/pod with some luck. Turrets are on the other hand not a problem since you can rig that ship to have 18 D-V clusters, and you can just over dmg them

 

 

E3

[Greezt]

Yep that's what I'm saying, the quads are a better in the 3000-4000 range if your target isn't at high deflection. But any good pilot won't be flying straight at you, which makes HLC and quads equally useless here. At least you can use the ion/cluster combo to make him blow some defensive cooldowns and possibly run away for a bit.

 

Then again, the best build might depend on what you're trying to go with the starguard. If you're trying to hunt gunships, ion/quad might be a bit better due to the higher burst damage. When I play starguard it's always in domination, and my goal is to attack the off-sat. It's pretty decent at that, even if there's a strong bomber there. HLC are crucial in that role. The strategy doesn't work well if there's an ace BLC scout or Ion gunship in the game, of course.

 

I fly the starguard for fun in deathmatch, so I don't even have directionals on it any more. I figure it's an ok ship to bring to an unbalanced game with QC. It can pack a punch, but it's not unkillable by new players. It also lets me do some weird stuff like fighting with power to shields.

 

Out of interest, when do you fly a strike?

[RickDagles]

I fly the starguard for fun in deathmatch, so I don't even have directionals on it any more. I figure it's an ok ship to bring to an unbalanced game with QC. It can pack a punch, but it's not unkillable by new players. It also lets me do some weird stuff like fighting with power to shields.

 

Out of interest, when do you fly a strike?

 

I'll fly Starguard/Rycer in domination if I don't notice any aces on the other team or in games that are very clearly one sided. I used to fly a lot of Clarion/Imperium back in the day as a kite ship in 'serious' TDM games because I was convinced I could find a role for it. But I usually just use a BLC evasion scout for that purpose now since it's definitely so much better. I rarely fly the Pike/Quell because I find the Starguard/Rycer so much more fun, mostly due to retro thrusters.

 

I have a few strike-only alts kicking around that I brush the dust off of once in awhile if I feel like forcing myself to play Strikes against good players . I've likely played around 1000 games in Strikes.

Edited February 6, 2016 by RickDagles

[FlavivsAetivs]

I don't think a Rycer loses to a Clarion in a dogfight. the T1 has much higher DPS. It can strip the shields off a T2 in around two seconds (by feeling, not math), and another 1-2 seconds for finishing the hull. I fly both ships a lot (the Clarion more these days), but the Star guard is stronger in a 1v1.

 

From my experience jousting Rycers I usually come out on top, unless I do something stupid. Nothing seems to win in a direct joust against a Clarion really, except BLC-equipped things. Ramparts if they're 99% DR can, but if I'm up against one of those I can stay out of range and protorp it into oblivion, no need to Joust.

 

The problem is when I've got an ion-equipped Rycer/Star Guard pilot flying around me and I can't joust him, then he'll wear out my shields. If that's happening I'll generally bail the fight and find a gunship I can use to take him down.

 

There's about four Rycer pilots on Jedi Cov that seem to hunt me with their ion/HLC combo. They do this second tactic, but 99% of the time I manage to wear them out with quads and protorps in 1v1 fights.

 

I always fly strike. I don't like scouts and gunships cause I suck at them, and I can hold a sat more easily in a Clarion than in a Rampart.

 

~ Eudoxia

Edited February 6, 2016 by FlavivsAetivs

[Greezt]

I have a few strike-only alts kicking around that I brush the dust off of once in awhile if I feel like forcing myself to play Strikes against good players . I've likely played around 1000 games in Strikes.

 

I don't doubt your credentials

 

Eudoxia, in regards to a clarion vs. a star guard: the only way a clarion can win against a star guard of equal skill is with combat command (and maybe suppression). I have a friend who flies that from time to time, and he kills everything with it. However, it's a troll build obviously...