Definitely liking it a lot more now.

As an armor tanker, I feel powerful and my personal skill allows me to back up that feeling with action. I've literally watched as half of the enemy team approached the objective and lasted just by picking them off one by one, using the terrain and environment to my advantage to separate them in a maze of concrete walls.

I went 19/1 in that match.

But something I've noticed is that there have been a few shield tankers who have figured out the shield's new strength and honestly, I'm terrified of them - because I now know the signs. Now, your typical shield tanker isn't going to have the same kind of EHP that an armor tanker will now that the plates have been buffed - but they retain their fast recharge which has become their true power as it should have been from the start.

Insert scene:

I am rocking around 680 armor and 150 shields with a Duvolle Assault Rifle (no AR comments please, this is about tanking) and I've succeeded at separating a few of the more "shoot first think later" types and killing them off. I've already dispatched a very powerful heavy using a grenade and finishing off what he had left and there's a few more in the area that are potential threats but most are fielding standard/advanced fits which I'm not too concerned about.

Of course, there's always a bigger fish. Low and behold a Caldari Assault - probably armed with shield regulators - opens fire on me. My shields melt and that's fine, I can take the initial onslaught. At this point I'm about a quarter into my armor when I take his shields out and he buggers off. Considering this may be a trap, I don't follow. Instead, I hold back and reload, considering whether or not he's got back up on the way.

He attacks, again, from a different angle. He's got about half of his shields left by the time I recover half of the damage dealt to my armor and I fire back - he scarpers off but not before I've been dropped to about half of my armor.

At this point, I realize what's happening. This guy is a Komodo Dragon. He's a velociraptor. He's a hyena. Everything he's doing reminds me of these animals because no matter how hard I try I can't get rid of him and he's slowly picking away at what I have, able to recover the damage I deal far quicker than what he's dealing out to my armor. At this point I consider my options:

a.) I could stand and fight, maybe get lucky and he'll make a mistake with which I can use to kill him.
b.) I can try to utilize the environment more to survive until help arrives.
c.) I can run...

Now, the consideration of these options isn't very good because I'm under pressure but obviously if I try to stand and fight him one-on-one he's going to continue this charade. It might take a while but eventually he's going to kill me because of this hit-and-run skirmisher tactic he's using.

There's no help on the minimap and the nearest friendly is a good two hundred meters away at another objective, so it's unlikely that help will arrive in time.

My only option is to run and try to make it back to the rest of my team.

With which, low on ammo - out of grenades and barely recovering from the ordeal, he takes that initiative to strike as he no longer has to worry about the defensive. He's had me on the reactive since the start of our little duel and now I'm in a position where my back is to him and he's got nothing but time. I'm dead before I ever make it to my friendlies.

So the moral of the story here is that Armor tankers -NEED- their team to survive, both for recovery efforts and for the ability to easily withdraw when things get bad. Shield tankers? You need to focus solely on picking off stragglers, lone wolves and the weak and dip out of combat to make use of your fast recovery. You won't be able to take an armor tanker head on but if you wait for a weakness, you'll definitely have the upper hand.

Armor vs Shield in 1.4? Everything I imagined it to be.

Armor - Brutes who are designed to take and deal punishment
Shield - Jackals that have no mercy or remorse in killing off the stragglers