*Shield Testing Complete!* - NMG/Adrenaline/Resist? Who is the winner?

I haven't tested this, and probably won't for be able to for a while (not investing in Flak Armor just yet). But, it's the FOTM with the recent improvement to it. I hope someone can test this out and let us know! Testing even at Flak Armor I or II against Resist I would be enough.

I play a run and gunner, even as a HA. I want to jump into the room with 5 bad guys and kill as many of them as I can before they take me down. I want to kill, I want to eat dead burnt bodies, kill!

So which shield is the best for this situation?. I'm a tad confused how these all translate to real play.

If still active upon kill, Adr Shield will receive the regen and remain active.
If inactive upon kill, Adr Shield will receive the regen and must activated.

Well that's the question, isn't it? The answer for you is definitely either Adrenaline or Resist. My suggestion before giving you numbers is:
If after jumping into a room to kill 5 guys you immediately want to jump into another room, then use Resist Shield. Resist Shield has much less downtime than NMG or Adrenaline.
If after jumping into a room to kill 5 guys you immediately want to jump into a corner for 30 seconds to say "holy sh~t", then use Adrenaline Shield. Presuming you are at 25% battery after sweeping the room, you'll need at least 30 seconds to let it charge up again to a reliable level.

Let's say you kill all 5 of them!
Your effective health available to you in each situation would have been...
NMG = 600 NMG + 500 Shields + 500 Health = 1600 Total (1725 with Nanoweave 5)
Adrenaline = 600 Adr + 4 Kills * 600 Adr * 25% Regen + 500 Shields + 500 Health = 2200 Total (1325 with Nanoweave 5)
Resist = (500 Shields + 500 Health) / (1 - 45%) = 1818 Total (2045 with Nanoweave 5).
Note, that Adrenaline Shield might 50-100 points higher: I used the observed amount I found in testing, but that includes battery loss due to time and activation, which I don't think would apply here.
A caveat to Adrenaline Shield appearing so awesome here is that you will have to make sure to reactivate Adrenaline Shield after every kill if it deactivated during that kill.

Aye thanks, but my concern isnt necasseraley Flak v Resist (Wich seems to be the impression you got??) but more Flak + Resist and the total bonus you get.

i'l be throwing numbers at the wall but ; if i have like 20% Flak will that mean it'll straight up acumulate on top of the 45% for a whopping 65% resistance? Or will one of the % apply in the damage reduction before the other? (like if you get hit for 1000 and it reduces it by 20% first (800) and then 45% (440) wich i think translates to a 56% total resistance?

I suppose testing Flak against Resist would be a pretty nice idea aswell. Unfortunatley i cant really test it myself either i havnt really invested in either Flak or Resist. Maybe i'l try to spend some points imto em just for science sake.

Annyway, sorry if you DID get what i was trying to say the 1st time, my bad if you did. Just got the idea you just missed it.


Thanks for the response!

Thanks so much for this, I'm thinking I'm going to be better with resist for a couple of reasons. The first being odds are when I'm frantically trying to kill people I won't think to turn on the shield after each kill and being each kill is worth about another bullet more of shielding, odds are again using it while trying to fight will be difficult. I would think where Adrenaline would be best is if you were in CQC going head shot to head shot and killing before your shield dropped.

So it would seem to me, based on your report, if:

1) So if you want to stay hidden/in cover and only re-actively activate your shield to mitigate damage and then quickly turn it off you'd use Adrenaline (or NMG if your Adrenaline is not yet Cert'ed). Seems like this is good for med/long range combat including anti-vehicle.

2) If you wanted to preemptively activate shields and leave them on while receiving damage go for the Resist shield. This sounds good for CQC and assault type scenarios.

So for my "Attack" and "Support" loadouts go with NMG (and replace with Adrenaline when Cert'ed) and for my "Assault" loadout go for Resist. As well for all 3 loadouts Nanoweave Armor is the main Suit slot, although you could make a good case for Flak for Assault styled CQC.

I'm curious of people's opinions on this reasoning.

So, I did a bit of mild testing, performing the same rocket launcher test I did to determine damage taken from each ability shield. My observations are that Flak Armor and Resist Armor is additive (wow), and not multiplicative.

I only tested with Flak 2 and Resist Shield, but the results were 200 damage taken from a 500 damage AoE. That's 40% damage taken or 60% damage resisted (roughly 40% from Resist Shield + 20% from Flak 2). This is pretty impressive. If it holds all the way up to Flak 5, then you are looking at 40% RS + 50% FA = 90% resistance to AoE/Explosions. That means 50 damage from rockets that are not direct hits, or 50 or 100 damage from Lightning's HE rounds that are not direct hits depending on whether the AoE damage is treated similar to a rocket's damage or not (whether AoE damage is 500 or 1000).

AstroCat, I agree with both of your takeaways. I hope others can respond with their thoughts as well. Also, it's interesting that you mentioned Flak Armor. If it works as I've seen it work in combination with Resist Armor (see post above), it would not have competition as the best anti-vehicle suit+ability loadout.

Ok, not sure how to get this problem addressed, so if anyone has a suggestion regarding this issue, please reply. I also have noticed that higher lvl Resist shields DO NOT add to the duration the shield will remain in effect. I just popped for lvl 4 and am still getting a mere 6 seconds of activity on that sheild, even after unequipping it, using NMG and then reequipping it. I have submitted a bug report about this but wonder if anyone else has noticed this issued and come up with a solution.

interesting I ll hold off adding more certs to resist shield

I have some questions...

A.) Does Adrenaline Shield recharge from EVERY kill, no matter if the shield has been used or not? Say... I spawn, run into a guy, pop my shield, kill him, turn off my shield since it's almost done. I continue my merry way... 10 seconds later, I pop 4 guys unawares without taking any dmg (and without using my shield at all), and my Adrenaline Shield is back to full? Correct?

B.) Is the only advantage of upgrading Resists Shield the actual shield duration? The damage mitigation percent is the same at level 1 as it is at max level? This would be make it by far the best shield in terms of cost/effectiveness (especially if Flak armor dmg reduction is additive).

I am not at Adrenaline 5 yet, but I do notice X amount of regen after a kill in both situations. So, yes, "correct". Some people have reported bugs with it, but I think that is either faction based or character based, because I have not seen any faults in the regen on my end.

The damage mitigation percent is the same at level 1 as it is at max level, yes. I have noticed longer durations at Resist Shield II through IV, but others report otherwise. Again, a bug that I think is not shared by all. Flak Armor is additive and I might move to to that, since Resist + Flak now looks like the best mitigation against AoE voiding any direct hits from tank shells. Against infantry, each shield still has its ups and downs, and which you use depends on how you typically play your HA.

Thank you so much for your testing and posting Megawatt. I'm a new player and I've found this whole thread to been very informative.

My questions/thoughts are about the Resist Shield "break point." I read in a different thread that anything that will deal more than 400 or 500 dmg straight up will just penetrate the resist shield
http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/3-reasons-why-nanite-resist.69794/
The guy posting it had some other things wrong, so I take it with a grain of salt, but my point would be that if it were true resist shield would be significantly more viable as NC than the other factions, as NC guns can deal that much damage with a headshot on many of their guns @ close range. Along with the higher potential for a NC gun to take out more shields/life with a surprise burst (higher base damage, lower initial recoil than the other factions), it seems like NC would be yet better disposed to take more advantage of resist shields than other factions.
I took my data from this spreadsheet when I was thinking on this:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...LMG&sortcolid=-1&sortasc=true&rowsperpage=250
But my information may be wrong about the headshot multiplier, if so I may just be flat out wrong. My point would be, however, that it is hard to analyze the effectiveness of shields against infantry without taking the faction weapons the shield will be facing into account.

I am a TR player, however, but I still am considering going in with a resist shield build because of its synergies with other upgrades.
The consensus of the thread appears to favor Nanoweave 5, but I would think that Advanced Shield Capacitor would synergize more with resist shield, as it would increase the amount of time where the resist shield would be at maximum effectiveness. Quicker regenerating shields would also compensate for the "extra" time that the resist shield is activated (because of the need to be pre-emptive) which deactivates blue shield regen. Along with a healthy supply of instant Med kits, the theoretical downtime of the build would be the lowest of any, short of a truly amazing shot with the Adr upgrade. This build would certainly have less effective EHP for a single-instance fight, but often I find that many of my deaths could not be avoided if I had 2500 EHP (turning corners into max's, being gang'd on).

I'm guessing passive regeneration is how long it takes for the shield to recharge fully, but what is effective regeneration in the spreadsheet?

I am fairly new. So it sounds like the Nanoweave health bonus is the most popular choice. As far as shields I have a couple questions.

1. Is it always best to activate them when your health and shields are at max to get the strongest shields?

2. I have been using NMG. I tend to cap a lot of stuff or attack generators. So normally I run into 1-3 guys. Mostly 1v1. I used to pop the shield right as I engage, but recently I found at least against other HA if I pop it after my blue line shields drop normally by then their shields are gone and I can pop mine protecting my red line health and kill them. SO my main question is, should I be popping my shields right as I engage or after my blue line is gone?

3. Based on what I have said does is sound like NMG and Nanoweave are my best combo?

Shields don't care when you activate them.
As for what they do, you want resist shield active before you take any damage.
You can activate NMG and Adrenaline during combat, as long as you're not dead yet.
The only advantage of activating the Overshield after your base shield is down is that the regen timer will start on it (10 sec), where as if you first deplete your overshield and then take a hit, you will have to wait 10 seconds after the fight.

Effective Regen was just the term I used for literally: "post-combat regen time of ability shields from zero to full". It really only differs for the Adrenaline Shield, which has a 60 second regen from zero to full, but I am presuming post combat that you have gained a 25% regen from the last kill, leaving 45 seconds of regen left for Adrenaline Shield.

[OP's Note: Hi, I'm back from vacation. Sorry, my brother introduced me to Borderlands 2 and I played that over the holidays instead. I hope all you PS2 players enjoyed the double exp, which I missed! Going to answer the few questions above now, after reacquainting myself with the numbers.]

1. and 2.) Hi, Rostan. Sorry I am late getting to this, but I'm glad UnDeaD_CyBorG gave you a good response. He is correct in the things he stated in his post below yours, which I believe should answer your first two questions.

3) To answer your third question, it's all relative to your playstyle. I would say it comes down to a) when you activate your shield and b) what encounters you typically find yourself engaged in. I personally use Resist+Nanoweave. I think some people who used NMG for vehicle kills are switching to Resist+Flak.

Appreciated! I had fun doing it.

You were absolutely correct here. For a brief 1-2 days, many NC weapons and some Vanu weapons did have this advantage due to the improper operation of the break point. I can't say for sure, but I believe the developers wanted sniper rifles to pierce Resist Shield, which is now the case. The other weapons, e.g. Gauss Saw and Rebel, are now fixed and are properly mitigated by Resist Shields, though sharp knives, stabbing weapons, still pierce.

I think your judgment of using Advanced Shield Capacitor is a sound one, and if it fits your playstyle then go for it! I think it would definitely have the lowest downtime by 2.5 seconds (looking at the tooltip), and with Med Kits would make for a very "fast" build and one that most always enters combat on equal footing. The reduced EHP from someone running Nanoweave 5, if activated from max health, is 228 which is a bullet or two, so consider that option if you often find yourself one true bullet short of the other guy in a firefight.