Shields; Liability.

[The Pollie]

I've caught utter hell from a lot of friends on this game for not using Shields more often. But every time I have, I've regreted it. They're fat, slow as hell, can't hit the broad side of a barn past five feet, and even with all that crap still just get mowed down instantly.

I've never had a mission where a Shield didn't die, and just scrapped the run to deploy Assaulters and Pointment instead. Even when breaching the worst sort of situations, the Shields have always disappointed and were proven laughably unneeded.

Why should I bother? They can't find, they can't even defend themselves. The only time I've ever found a use for them was locking down a hallway to prevent flanks during a sweep, and even then I have to dedicate a second officer to do so, since they can't handle anything more threatening than a rag dol on their own. But if I'm to do that, why not just set up two Assaulters with full-jackets and long arms? They'll kill faster, which gives the enemy even less time to get off a shot, which makes them deal less damage, rendering the Shield even less necessary.

[Akastasiya]

Yeah, I stopped using shields. A flashbang followed by sweeping into the room is always 100x more effective.

[Liquid ID]

They make excellent distractions during multi-point entries, allowing troopers to safely and effectively engage enemies from behind/the side. They are also great moving cover in wide open areas where there is none.
They are not the most effective from a purely offensive standpoint, obviously. If you expected them to be, you're using them wrong.

[The Pollie]

They're not even reliable in those instances. It's a complete RNG if they're even viable.

Get lucky? Congratulations, your officer will stand there all year, fending off forty Juggernaut Jims at close quarters. Bad roll? Junkie Harry just one-shot your waste of a slot.

I've had plans re-run six times and had different results because of this crap. Officer goes through a door with a shield, dies instantly. Restart, this time he doesn't even get injured. Try again, he's left critical after the fire. Try again, he instantly one-shots everyone as he comes through, nothing gets through the shield.

[Taberone]

Theres this one really good shield that has 95% chance to defend against pistol-caliber threats that's really good from what I recall.

I've had several Nameless Thugs in the same room shooting at my Shield trooper, only for him to survive the sheer amount of bullets (And RNG rolls determining if the bullets penetrate or not).

I never found much use for any of the other shields though.

[The Pollie]

It's too inconsistent. I've been messing around with it still and can't find it reliable. One run, the Shield is an unkillable wall that just eats the sustained fire of six people. Next run, a single thug with a handgun one-shots them coming through a door. And for what? The possiblity they work as cover, negated by random chance when they die? In exchange, I end up with a slow officer that can't fight for jack.

[Taberone]

Even regular armor is inconsistent, though, due to RNG. IIRC, in DK, damage affects the chance to kill or the chance to wound, with every wound making it easier and easier to die. Thats why enemes can rarely oneshot troopers, and thats why even weapons with terrible damage can occasionally oneshot tangoes.

[Marbur]

Quoting my own guide about shield class:
On the one side they have additional armor from the shield, on the other side they are bad shooter, because:
1. Attack types are downsizing strongly the 1H weapons.
2. The doctrines Double Tap and Mozambique can't be used by the shield class.
Good thing: The shield protects also other team members.
Avoid shootouts on middle and long range, if you don't have a teammate firing over your shoulder!
First new gear: The Magnum 44 1H (15 stars), because it has high damage and less downsizing than most other 1H weapons. The Ironman Shield (15 stars) is the only choice.
Don't waste your stars to shields which can't block rifle calibers (bullets with armor piercing level 5)!

Look in the chapter Damage and Armor Piercing of my guide for more infos.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=745159653