Even if it isn't a big deal, it's entirely unnecessary now.

Armor is better than shields currently. It's just how it is. This means 2 things:

1. Shields don't need any kind of nerf--it just doesn't make sense anymore.

2. No reasonable person is ever going to use regulators now that armor is so powerful. You know I run the CalLogi, so I even have the bonus to regulators. I ran them for a little bit to try them out, but once that buff to armor came, there was absolutely no comparison between the two.

And without going into every positive and negative, the huge difference you're missing is that armor gives a monumental increase in health compared to shields. The basic armor plate gives more health than the complex shield extender and runs at fraction of the fitting cost.

This clearly depends a bit on your playstyle. If you want to go toe on toe with the enemy in cqc yes armor is superior as this seem to be the strong side.

Shield however favor a more tricky playstyle that requires flanking and a fast retreat to cover. Once you are in cover your shield will regenerate a lot faster than armor (well unless a logi/triage hive is involved), while being more mobile.

The biggest problem I see with shield is that shield tanking was so overpowerd compared to armor that no one even bothered to use shield the way they IMHO should be used. Every one used heavy shield tanked suits to excel in cqc this was easy possible as armor just sucked and you could easily outstrafe the slower suits.

Now this has changed armor provides a bigger HP buffer and the speed penalty is not as harsh as before and because of better hit detection and aim assist strafing is much less powerfull. So instead to create new tactic peapole simly started to armor or dual tank.

But this does not not mean there are other ways to benefit from shields, their fast regen and their speed advantage. The ways simply have changed...

Almost every player at the highest tier of play is using massive amounts of armor because the situations you described where shields are helpful don't really happen, or aren't realistic. The buff to armor coupled with the extreme amount of healing (and WP) gained from rep tools has made armor very powerful, certainly more than shields--which means any nerf to them right now makes absolutely no sense.

Lets be honest a logi in your back = 1 gun less to shoot the enemy and the HP difference is with the current TTK not as big as many may think. I kill armor tankers quite a lot if you know their weakness and with the new rifles you will be able to kill them even faster.

But running straight into firefight and hoping to outstrafe armortankers does simply no longer work for shield tankers...

there is not point in using regens and reachrgers in PC as it is rare you get the delay time for shields to go back up.

Triage nanohives and proto reps are far superior

Read Ackie's post below. We're talking about the highest competitive tiers here. There's no time to wait around for 6-10 seconds while your shields recharge in a PC match versus a competent, good group. Meanwhile assault/logi suits can throw down one rep nanohive and repair more armor per second than you could shields with three or four energizers on. Not to mention there's no delay to armor repair--module, suit, or equipment related--and you're trying to defend a further nerf to shields? Come on man.

I actually think that this nerf doesn't do enough to discourage brick tanking. But something more will probably be needed to discourage the Caldari users from stacking all armor in there lows. What exactly should be done I am not quite sure. Can't go to low with shield delay time, and if shield HP is buffed to were many of the people clamoring for a buff want it, then we will be right back where we were before the armor buff, and armor will be worthless again.

But its cool for Gal to stack plates and dam mods.

Thatis what they were designed to do, so yes, yes I would say that indeed it is.

You sir have no concept of balance

But its cool for Gal to stack plates and dam mods.

What else are they supposed to use in their highs? There are shield extenders and damage mods, they are going to stack either 1 of those, or use a combination of the 2. Its not like they have much of a choice. I face the same problem with my Amarr suits, and I choose damage mods, because the Amarr traditionally favor damage output over shields.

I actually play all four races on four diferent characters and the lowest SP character has more than 10m SP. What are your qualifications?

LOL go back to the cabbage patch troll

Think whatever you like, but i assure you it's not a troll. I've been playing this game for more than a year now.

Like wise

Armor with squad support trumps shields with/without squad support every time.

Armor with no support (and no triage hives) is at a slight disadvantage to shields if the engagement is at a distance, and cover is involved.

Out in the open or in CQC, it's a tossup depending on total EHP and player gun game, with a slight advantage to shields if the armored guy is particularly slow.

Also, armor users can mix regular plates with ferroscale or basic reactive plates to negate the movement penalty due to the nature of stacking penalties. A proto Gal logi can use 2x enhanced plates and 3x enhanced ferroscale plates to add 407 HP armor (with lvl 5 in the skill), and the movement penalty is only .05 m/s for walk and.08 m/s for sprint. This takes 121 CPU and 33 PG. A shield tanker gets at max, 363 HP for 5x complex extenders but uses 270 CPU and 55 PG.

What about self rep, you say? Repair tools rep at a minimum of 40 HP/s, and the "repair delay" is the time it takes for you to alert a squad mate that you need repairing. Assuming you are using team work, this should be under 8 seconds, and your team/squad gets additional WP for triage.

This right here needs to be changed. Ferroscale plates shouldnt reduce a speed penalty, they should just not add an additional speed penalty.

I assume that is what is supposed to occur but the fitting screen shows different. CCP should clarify this.

Almost every player at the highest tier of play is using massive amounts of armor because the situations you described where shields are helpful don't really happen, or aren't realistic. The buff to armor coupled with the extreme amount of healing (and WP) gained from rep tools has made armor very powerful, certainly more than shields--which means any nerf to them right now makes absolutely no sense.

Forrscale plates do not reduce the speed penalty of other plates. The stacking penalty is what reduses the speed penalty beyond the first plate that is calculated, which so happens to be the Ferroscale plates, and this is because of the way that deminishing returns functions.

Why would a stacking penalty reduce a speed penalty thus making you faster

- Speed penalty should be applied and only increase, never decrease. The only way to alleviate it should be through Kinetic Catalysers.

I would hope its just a bug in the fitting screen calculations and not applied that way in the field.