I've been playing since beta as HA but I still feel like I under use my shield. There are still times, even in hit for hit 1vs1 where I forget to turn it on. Can you guys give me more insight on how you guys use your shield (which ever of the 3), when you guys turn it on, for how long, etc etc?
Any time I know I'm about to take damage. Tank looking at me, enemy rounded a corner, sniper just shot me, the shield is mainly used to survive incoming hits so I can get to a more defensible position. If I'm streaking from cover to cover, I'll gauge the chances of me getting hit with the current amount of life had and decide whether I'm more likely to survive with movespeed over shield. I only leave it on for as long as I'm in danger. Getting out of danger is always the first priority when the shield goes up. That means killing any immediate threats barring my escape route then making my getaway. I see too many heavies do the following: 1) Three people show up in front of you. 2) Shield and start firing. 3) Die horribly. What they should have done: 1) Three people show up in front of you. 2) Shield and run the other way. 3) Get behind cover and survive. Again, other times it's good to shield are when you're low on health in a dangerous situation, when a sniper just shot you but missed your head (there will be another shot), when you're dueling a tank with rocket launchers and he's moving that cannon to face you, or any other situation where getting shot is an extremely likely scenario. This doesn't mean any time you're in a firefight. Getting shot when enemies are nearby is actually less likely than people think. It's only when you see enemies actually looking your way that you know the shield needs to come up. It's also good to put it up by reflex if you are taking damage from an unknown source and spin to meet the damage source. Once you've identified what is hurting you, the shield gives you the time to decide whether to stay or run. If running is your option, just bolt, the damage from whatever was shooting at you will drop the shield on its own and increase your speed. I turn off my shield immediately once the danger has passed. When the guy blocking my way is dead, when I'm safely behind cover, when I need the extra movespeed to get away from a full squad of enemies, basically whenever the shield stops being useful to me. It's not always a good idea to activate the shield, but that is strongly a case by case situation and needs to be determined on the fly based on number of enemies, the nearest safe spot, how much cover exists between you and the enemy, the direction and distance of the danger, how much health you currently have, how much ammo is your clip, the effective range of your weapon, the charge strength on your shield, and the locations and awareness of any allies nearby. I take into account ALL of these factors in the split second you have to decide how to respond to the situation. It is literally impossible to look at that much information at once so you already need to KNOW it. Make a habit of keeping note of your ammo, health, recharge, teammate positions, possible cover points, enemies you may encounter, etc all in your head at ALL TIMES. This constant scanning of information will help you in crunch time when you need to make a fast decision. It helps to have a premade plan in mind and how you will react to threats you may face and what your exit points will be. Charging in without a plan will make even your meaty shield a useless time delay to your imminent death.
I'm horrible about using the shield as a reaction to combat, but pretty good about turning it on before initiating combat myself, so I went with the resist shield cert line (in conjunction with next-to-maxxed nanoweave).
I'm on my way out the door so I can't form a long response here. But you just need to learn to make it second nature to pop it on during the start of a firefight. Also you need to learn when to use it preemptively, if you're about to turn a corner and you know that the enemy is there or there is a good chance they will be there pop it on the second before you peek that corner. Turning on shield to try to run away from enemies is often a bad choice simply because of the speed debuff on it, if you're that much slower you may just end up getting mowed down instead of having had time to quickly dart back into cover.
Depends on type of shield... the default shield is best to pop right before your std shield runs out (or right before taking a big hit). The other shield (costs more, requires certing into just to use) is best to pop as soon as you start taking fire. just because of how they work.
I play HA a lot, and for the first couple weeks I found I wasn't using my shield much either. What helped me was remapping it to one of my extra mouse buttons (knife got mapped to another) and I tend to hit it more often. I primarily use the standard shield, but recently changed to Adrenaline after I got 4 levels certed. Using a LMG, or Launcher if a MAX is a target, I tend to pop my shield before engaging, as soon as I'm shot at, or right before I turn a corner inside a base. As soon as danger is past, I turn it off and hunker down in cover to get both shields topped back off before engaging again.
The problem with the shield is that you use it to mitigate ( prevent or reduce) damage but when you pop the shield it makes people shoot you more, thus negating its benefit.
Yes the resist shield is definitely the more proactive of the two as you're only going to get full use out of it if you pop it before going into battle. But I still feel the other two shields benefit from using them pre-emptively. I am not talking about just walking about with them up all the time, but if you throw it on a split second before you turn a corner you're losing very little of its effectiveness and getting rid of having to worry about throwing it on once the chaos of a fire fight erupts.
