Armor or Sheilds?

[TheHarmlessPanda]

As we go towards higher levels and in Void Fissures / Void , There damage of the enemies ridculously increases.To minimise dying , What should I focus on? Armor OR Sheilds?

[PsiWarp]

Armor, it's effectively damage reduction for your Health.

[TheHarmlessPanda]

But Sheilds Regenrate so aren't they better? 

[Naftal]

Shields don't have damage reduction so they are stripped immediately at higher levels. Modding for armor is good only for a handful of frames that have high armor and health.

Most frames don't want to mod for ehp and instead rely on abilities.

[aligatorno]

Just now, TheHarmlessPanda said:

But Sheilds Regenrate so aren't they better? 

Only if you have a way to regenerate them yourself with something like Capacitance Volt, Harrow's Penance, Mag's Crush etc.

[Nez-Kal]

Shield's have no damage reduction. A 400 damage shot to shields does 400 damage.

Armor has Damage Reduction, but only to your Health, and their are quite a few Damage Types that will bypass your Shields and go right for your Health. (Slash, Toxin, Etc.)


More or less, Armor (Plus some manner of Healing eventually) is for Endgame survivability, on top of Ninja Movement and Constant Mobility or Crowd Controlling Enemies.
Shields are for early game survivability.

[TheHarmlessPanda]

So If a frame has high armor I mod it for armor otherwise for sheilds..

Btw when do we consider armor high?

[Naftal]

Just now, TheHarmlessPanda said:

So If a frame has high armor I mod it for armor otherwise for sheilds.. 

Btw when do we consider armor high?

Better to never mod for shields.

I wouldn't mod for armor on any other frame but Inaros and Chroma, possibly Valkyr too if you're not going to take advantage of invulnerability.

[TheHarmlessPanda]

Ok Thx

 

[RendingStone]

hace 20 minutos, TheHarmlessPanda dijo:

- Armor OR Sheilds?

None. Focus on mobility and cc.

Facetanking isn't really an option at higher levels. Stealth is an alternative.. and limbo (please don't)

[tprx]

I do mod for max shields and regen, but only for the Hijack missions (the objective leech your shields to move forward). But then, there's Inaros...

Edited May 30, 2018 by tprx

[taiiat]

there is no clear cut answer. Warframes that have low Armor don't get anything relevant out of Armor Mods.
Warframes with low Shields don't get that much out of Shield Mods. (though Mesa is an example of an exception there since Shatter Shield makes those Shield Points a lot more effective).

generally Armor Mods come into usefulness in play at 150pts. there's a few Abilities that use Armor as well, which can give you other reasons to use Armor Mods.
whether to use Shields comes down to whether you have the opportunity to take Damage only from time to time. though Damage Resistance via most any form (usually Abilities) can make Shields very effective. some more specialized Equipment like Arcanes can also make an enormous difference as to the effectiveness of Shields.

 

suffice to say that both Health and Shields can prove quite useful depending on the situation and your Equipment. saying any just aren't useful at all is objectively incorrect.
for example, one of my favorite things to do with Shields is pair them with Trinity and have an effective Regen Rate of >2000 Shields/second. which in turn lets Trinity act like Nidus, as Nidus can reach the same general area of effective 2000ish Health/second.

[Vilemyre]

If your frame has high base armor go for more armor. I'm not kidding. They are made to tank.

Low base armored frames should get shields. Steel fiber and AA will only raise it so high and its not a lot. usually about 150 - 200 at most.

Edited May 30, 2018 by Vilemyre

[Oreades]

Honestly I don't use any sort of survivability mods in the bulk of my builds, just not enough room for them. I've found that the best defense is making sure everything is dead before it has a chance to kill you. 

I think the closest thing to a shield mod that I run on a regular basis is Guardian. Occasionally I'll run Primed Vigor but most of the time that's when I'm leveling up a frame for the first time in Hydron.

That said early on they can be kinda useful, personally when I did use survivability mods I tended to go for shields since as you stated in your post, they regenerate. Armor does not and health orbs (unless you are playing with a Necros) are about as rare as Ayatan in normal gameplay. 

Edited May 30, 2018 by Oreades

[AJ5511]

Or get an opticor with argon scope and bladed rounds, and incinerate them all before they can touch you XD

Edited May 30, 2018 by AJ5511

[Guest]

Armor is only good on some frames like:

1. Frames with innate health regen methods and high armor (Nidus, Inaros, Oberon, Valkyr, Atlas, Regenerative Molt Saryn)

2. Frames that use it for other calculations (Frost, Rhino, Nezha)

Other than that Armor is pretty pointless to build ... unless you are getting it via Arcane Guardian.

Shields are mostly pointless outside of very niche situations, but it can be good to have a bit more so you can survive getting hit once if you mess up your evasion dance. They don't go down instantly even in Sortie, and the level one has to reach to see shields instantly break is not encountered in normal play.

[SenariousNex]

4 hours ago, TheHarmlessPanda said:

So If a frame has high armor I mod it for armor otherwise for sheilds..

Btw when do we consider armor high?

Generally never mod for shields.

vitality, Arcane Guardian + Arcane Grace for anything under 150 base armor, 

vitality, steel fiber,  + Arcane Grace for anything above 150 base armor

Arcane Grace can be replaced with a plethora of other healing abilities, Arcane Elevate/Nourish, Life Strike, Winds of Purity for Furis, Vazarin Focus, You won't need em if you are running one of many frames that can heal, 

There are also tons of special combos like:

Equilibrium + Arcane Energize + Arcane Guardian + Shield of Shadows for Nekros, 

Rage + Hunter Adrenaline + Ability Duration on Wu Kong

Also utilize tanking abilities like Iron Skin for Rhino or Shatter Shield for Mesa

[Degameth]

Inaros ftw!

5600 hit points with Negation Swarm mod.

Plague Kripath with range, dmg and crit dmg riven.

3 piece Gladiator set crit bonus, Arcane Avenger and Arcane Fury. 

I walk thru everything!

Edited May 30, 2018 by Degameth

[Mach25]

23 minutes ago, SenariousNex said:

Generally never mod for shields.

vitality, Arcane Guardian + Arcane Grace for anything under 150 base armor, 

vitality, steel fiber,  + Arcane Grace for anything above 150 base armor

Arcane Grace can be replaced with a plethora of other healing abilities, Arcane Elevate/Nourish, Life Strike, Winds of Purity for Furis, Vazarin Focus, You won't need em if you are running one of many frames that can heal, 

There are also tons of special combos like:

Equilibrium + Arcane Energize + Arcane Guardian + Shield of Shadows for Nekros, 

Rage + Hunter Adrenaline + Ability Duration on Wu Kong

Also utilize tanking abilities like Iron Skin for Rhino or Shatter Shield for Mesa

Thanks for posting this good info. Any special combos for Volt or Excal?

[SenariousNex]

27 minutes ago, Mach25 said:

Thanks for posting this good info. Any special combos for Volt or Excal?

Volt is my "Main" I run

Arcane Guardian for armor (Even though he only has 100 armor, for Eidolon Hunts I slap on Steel fiber since I won't need Capacitance mod)

Arcane Grace + Magus Nourish for healing

Vitality + Quick thinking + Hunter Adrenaline + Primed flow for HP pool and energy regen are a must core mods on volt.

rest are non-core mods

usually Narrow minded 2 gladiator mods or 2 Vigilante mods + Steel fiber or for 5th mod.

or Blind rage + Capacitace + Range mods 

non-core mods really don't matter to be honest.

I don't play excal,

But he needs  a strong source of energy so Primed flow + Hunter Adrenaline + Vitality would be a good start

With good base armor, you can get away with steel fiber + vitality.

He has strong base shields so if you want, you can mod for that

No vitality, no rage/adrenaline, Primed Vigor, Redirection, Arcane Aegis

Arcane Energize or hunter Adrenaline or Zenurik for Energy (Pick one or two)

You can combine both hp, armor and shields, but then you will lose damage on your exalted blade, and then what is even the point of excal if you do that.

PS> The biggest issue with Modding for shields is that shield will not proc Hunter Adrenaline, which means you will need Arcane Energize (Expensive and takes arcane slot) OR Zenurik (Which pigeonholes you into that, so you have no flexibility with your focus schools, for example you lose the 60% dmg boost of madurai,)

 

 

Edited May 30, 2018 by SenariousNex

[TotallyLagging]

You just can't generalize what survivablity stat is good because frames have different ways to survive

There are frames that benefit more from armor like Valkyr, Inaros, Rhino, etc. Basically frames that already have decent armor to start with.

There are frames that survives through ability use like Mesa with Shatter Shield, Nova's Null Star, Nyx's Absorb/Assimilate, Atlas' passive armor stacking, etc. in which case neither shields nor armor is worth wasting a mod slot on and instead you want whatever stats that boosts those abilities

There are frames that benefits from having more shields like Volt, Mag and Harrow but these are special cases. Volt and Mag can reliably replenish shields/overshields while Harrow requires shields for his abilities and general gameplay to work

Shields could work with Mesa's Shatter Shield with Arcane Aegis, since your damage reduction ability also works with Shields, so having shields constantly regenerate with 95% DR on bumps your EHP by a crapton. Works with Gara's Splinter Storm too.

Otherwise there's the Quick Thinking + (Primed)Flow for frames with high energy pool

[Corvid]

For Zephyr, I balance health and shields without boosting armour. At higher levels, Turbulence is my primary means of defense, so I like to have a layer of shields strong enough to soak up anything that gets through long enough for me to reposition.