shield question

[Pierra Panini]

can someone plz explain to me how shields work?


i find myself going down in like 1-3 shots whereas im having to empty a full lmg into people for theres to break

[Alcator]

You start with a WHITE shield which has a capacity of 50 damage.
It can be replaced with, or upgraded to, Rare ("blue", 75 dmg), Epic ("purple", 100 dmg), Legendary ("gold", 100 dmg) or Mythic ("red", 125 dmg); the colors may be different if a player uses a different color scheme to account for one of the variants of 'color-blindness'.

MOST damage that hits you goes into the shields first, depleting a corresponding amount of shield strength; once the shield is fully depleted, which is called "cracked", the player who dealt that damage will receive a notification that they cracked your shield. Any surplus or subsequent damage goes directly into your health.

RING damage skips shields and goes directly into health.

Shields can be replenished in several ways:
1. Shield cells and Shield batteries. These are FASTER than the equivalent "health" item, so if you are low on health AND have no shields, it's smarter in most circumstances to "pop a battery" or "pop a cell" (use a shield battery or shield cell), rather than use a syringe or medkit -- you will, practically speaking, get the same 'extra health' from a shield cell as from a syringe, but it will take shorter time, so if the enemy is charging at you, you are more likely to finish the shield cell / shield battery, than a syringe/medkit.
2. Phoenix Kit. The slowest healing item, it recharges both your shields and your health to maximum.
3. Shield-swap: If there is a death box nearby, such as from an enemy you just killed, you can loot the body shield from it. When anyone is killed, their death box contains their body shield with full shields. Shield swapping is a crucial skill that you need to learn to succeed against skilled opponents.
4. Watson's Interceptor Pylon Ultimate ability: Watson has the option to place an Interceptor Pylon which regenerates shields of everyone in the vicinity.

[Alcator]

Each shield, when WORN, tracks damage done by the wearer to enemy players (and wildlife on some maps). If you accumulate enough damage done, the shield will be upgraded to the next stage: Basic --> Rare --> Epic --> Mythic.
It takes 200 damage to go from Basic to Rare, 400 damage to go from Rare to Epic, 750 damage to go from Epic to Mythic. The extra 'cell' gained via such upgrade will not be filled, you will need to use a shield cell or some other way to charge it.

You can also spend 50 crafting materials at a Crafter to 'upgrade' your body shield, as if you dealt 200 damage to enemies. This means that a single 'upgrade' will make your body shield go from White to Blue (Basic to Rare), two such upgrades will turn it from Rare to Epic, and 4 such upgrades from Epic to Mythic. Note: This does NOT count as "Upgrade your armor to Red" task (which can be present in the Weekly challenges).

Note: Using this "Upgrade" action will also fully charge your shield, so if you don't have shield cells or batteries and need to fill your shields, this is another option.

[Alcator]

As to your problem with going down too quickly, that is an unfortunate experience of many new players. You will need to dive into cover, move less predictably, alternate between running, sliding and jumping, so that it's harder to hit you, and to never stand still, especially when trying to look through a scope of a sniper rifle or marksman weapon. STAY IN MOTION!

[Pierra Panini]

Originally posted by Alcator:

As to your problem with going down too quickly, that is an unfortunate experience of many new players. You will need to dive into cover, move less predictably, alternate between running, sliding and jumping, so that it's harder to hit you, and to never stand still, especially when trying to look through a scope of a sniper rifle or marksman weapon. STAY IN MOTION!

i had a pathfinder down my entire team with just a single wingman and yet for me to down him i had to fire all of my lstar ammo into him

[Alcator]

Originally posted by Vanessa:

i had a pathfinder down my entire team with just a single wingman and yet for me to down him i had to fire all of my lstar ammo into him

Unfortunately, on PC, you will be going against a mixture of players, some of whom use controllers and some use Mouse and Keyboard.
If they are using a controller, they get a small Aim Assist, which allows them to hit you with near perfect accuracy. The Wingman is particularly egregious with it, because as far as I know, the Aim Assist has a tendency to 'snap' to enemies' heads, and with the Skullpiercer hop-up, that is devastating.

[CopperTear]

Yeah, the Wingman in particular is insanely high damage. A fast firing pistol that can do like 80+ on a headshot.
Full red shield + full health is 225 total damage you can take. A couple wingman shots will drop a person pretty quickly.
It's a pistol with sniper rifle damage.

It's what would be referred to as a high-risk weapon. If you hit the shots then it's amazing, but a lot of people struggle to hit shots with it.
It has pretty poor bullet velocity, but is still incredibly effective at longer ranges once you learn how to lead your targets.