Here is a comparison of my best Gallente Assault against my best Caldari Assault.
These suits are min maxed for pub matches, and there is literally no better way I can think of to fit these suits after months of trying out stuff.

First off, that cal assault doesn't get any armor reps at all, thats almost 25% of total HP not regenerating.

Personally I'd put 2 dmg mods, 2 basic plates and an allotek hive on it, giving it about 765 HP (or another extender with one dmg mod) and a combined rep speed after 5 sec of 71 or close to it (dunno exact hive impulse speed). Anyways, losing 187 EHP for saving 2.2 sec of the recharge delay giving you about 70 hp more after 5 sec, compared to having 40 more reps all the way. And yes you have to stand on the hive, and yes there are only 3 off them, but these are for sticky situations, your 422 or 502 shiels are supposed to carry you through most encounters.

In short: Best way to make a cal assault suit good in terms of best HP/DPS/REP combo is to armor tank it, even better with hives.

My bad:


Edit: Mobility. After 10 seconds you'll have about 220 shields back right? And thats if not a single bullet hits you, you have to have complete cover.

Well, I'll get 3-400 points of armor back in the same time, while getting hit by a bullet or two, I can be in a high intensity area due to the hive's 7.2 m radius. Yes mobility is one thing, but 10 seconds behind cover goes for both suits....