message from Godin: bu but I can stealth tank better than any Caldari or Winmatar suit can, and I'm faster than the Caldari HAV's......

I like my armor tanked suit as i prefer to brawl it out instead of trying to make a run for it and armor allows me to do that, though in extended firefights vs multiple opponents my suit gets worn down and i need a hive to get repped back up.

Both work pretty well.

Shield tries to wear down an Armor tank by popping in and out of combat.
Armor tries to kill Shield before it tries to retreat into cover.

Shield, if my protection layer is gone, retreat fight another day...
Armor, if my protection layer is gone, ill be dead, so lemme kill you before that happens... :)

The problem with armor is they have tank and gank. Shields are supposed to be the DPs dealers. Get in, deal damage, get out. Armor is about staying power. They can make up for damage mods it with EWAR.

Move damage mods to the lows, and move everything save fitting mods, regulators, and damage mods to the highs. Shields can shore up their weaknesses with regulators. Armor should be able to shire up their weaknesses (slow) with kincats, plus have codebreakers and all that to get the advantage over shields.

Shield regen vs. Armor repair is not the real problem. They are both moot points if you are killed. The problem is an armor suit has more ehp and can stack damage mods. This gives them a huge advantage against shield suits as the armor suit can kill faster and live longer.

Armor suits have many ways to repair after an engadement, and with more damage and health, they have the upper hand. Shield regen is only a factor five seconds after an engagement. And with less ehp and less damage a shield suit is at a disadvantage versus an armor suit and often doesn't survive to regen.

As someones already said before, armor plates are broken compared to shield extenders.
armor is 4x the HP of its shield counterpart at MLT & STD, with EXTREMELY low pg & cpu cost(1pg, 10cpu), 3x HP at ADV with similar yet still superior fitting,and 2x as effective at PRO with similar yet still superior fitting.

Its that simple, you get 400 HP from 5 extenders or 370 or so with 4 on calassault, you get 770 from 5 plates.

with level 5 on both its 155 armor per plate, 75 shield per extender.

of course all tiers are great with plates while protos only useful with extenders, but this COULD be remedied by PG/CPU mods IF pure shield tanking had higher EHP, letting it be viable. Regulators are also completely useless, while reppers are perfectly balanced.

As a result of these stats, all decent armor tankers run 1 complex repper with all other slots plates, or logis use no reppers and all plates, then use a proto weapon, then fit as many complex damage mods as possible with any leftover fitting going to scanners, low level nanohives, or grenades.

Shield suits have to mimic these fits to stand a chance, while callogis sacrifice a low for a CPU mod, and callassaults sacrifice a low for a repper, or have no reps at all.
Minassaults run no reps all extenders 2 plates, Min logis stack 4 plates with 3 damage mods 1 ext or 4 extenders.
Minmatar scouts are just screwed.