Shield off better than shield on?

[Dodo]

Just a sneaky lil' tip I've used a few times when the enemy ship has only beam drones and/or beam weapons with an ION cannon of some description.
Really only is worth it if you only have 2 or 3 points in your shield, but helped get me out of many tight situations;

After the ION cannon has shot, wait a little bit, then disable your shield.
The shield has a delay, so sometimes you can turn it back on straight away.
The ION cannon now only has a small chance of hitting the shield generator.

If you've timed this right, the shield will come back up before the beam weapon/drone hits, thus avoiding actual damage.

Timing is everything of course, and it can't work 100% of the time.

So next time you face a ship with only beam+ion, try turning your shields off and on, it can be valuable.

That is all.

[Spazticus]

Yep, this is something I use often, especially if I have sufficient ion weapons of my own, and I have their weapons locked down. The side benefit to this trick, aside from the obvious negation of some damage, is that the crew manning the shield station gets experience for every point of shielding that gets restored, even if you lower it yourself. If that crew not already maxed in the skill, it's an easy (if somewhat time consuming) method to do so.

An alternative to your trick (which works better early on, in my experience) is to put at least two Zoltans in the shield room. If you have two of them in there, at least one point of shielding will be immune to the lockdown from ion damage. Of course, the system can still be knocked out by other means, but some protection is better than none.

[Dodo]

I like the Zoltan trick, hadn't thought of that.
Thanks

[UberFubarius]

Yep, this is something I use often, especially if I have sufficient ion weapons of my own, and I have their weapons locked down. The side benefit to this trick, aside from the obvious negation of some damage, is that the crew manning the shield station gets experience for every point of shielding that gets restored, even if you lower it yourself. If that crew not already maxed in the skill, it's an easy (if somewhat time consuming) method to do so.

An alternative to your trick (which works better early on, in my experience) is to put at least two Zoltans in the shield room. If you have two of them in there, at least one point of shielding will be immune to the lockdown from ion damage. Of course, the system can still be knocked out by other means, but some protection is better than none.

I remember that trick!
Save me from a battle against zoltan (ion 2 + twin mini beam).
Was low on hull (had to escape a solar flare hazard), engine is on fire and soon destroyed after I jump in. But my two zoltans in shield room kept the shield up to block his beams while I leisurely put out fire and repair everything before destroying the zoltan ship.