I've been wondering lately about the use of the shield upgrade. In a few game, i've upgraded my shield, especially when i get to immortals and/or archons but i've noticed no change in the number of shield points of my units.
Does this research affect existing unit properly or does it only affect the next unit you'll build? Does it affect the damage you shield absorb or his regen?
it works the same as armor but only for the shield portion.For example, marines do 6 damage a hit if you have +1 shields they will hit for 5 until your shield is gone. Upgrading the shields does nothing against emp, and costs 200 gas for rank 1, so generally its better to get the other upgrades. The only time I think the shield upgrade may be worth it is when you have alot of air and ground units, because it effects both, or your doing heavy blink stalker because I try to blink the stalkers to the back once their shield drops.
i personally usually do it after 3 attack 2 armor, because the third armor isnt really that worth it considering its price and since ALL protoss things have shields your basically upgrading your building's defense too
Shields are like another 'hp' bar with a different armor that applies to it. Most shields start off with 0 armor (exceptions apply). It is therefore only beneficial to research shield upgrade IF AND ONLY IF: -You are massing archons (more shield than hp/ NOTE: DTs also have this except I feel that they rely less on hitpoints and more on stealth) -You are relying on some sort of a mass canon strategy fairly late into the game (shields apply to buildings) -Your army consists of a lot of air, esp. Carriers and Mothership (air units do not get ground upgrades except for shields, so it would be more beneficial than the ground armor upgrade) -You have excess money and are far ahead of your opponent production & economy-wise. (in which case, heck get everything)
In all other cases (where you have mainly a ground army with not many archons), all other protoss units have at least as much hp as they do shields, so it is generally more beneficial to buff armor as it is the cheaper upgrade. Later on in the game, shields become an option after all the attack/armor upgrades.
Despite all this, shields do apply to buildings, which means that it helps with drops that aim to snipe tech buildings. However, I think this helps so little that it's not worth it. Just get the armor upgrade.
EDIT - I forgot to mention this but...
Shields recharge quickly out of combat whereas HP does not, so for a mass blinkstalker strategy (or something along those lines), I suppose it is viable where your aim is to harass and lose only shields.
Almost all units have more HP than shield, so most often armor upgrades are more worth spending your money on. Though if you are in late game and you have a ground/air mixed up army, you might want to research shields as the upgrade affect all units with shields.
If you're 1a moving into enemyt army then armor is much better since shield never got to recharge.
Although i aways wonder why tosses who try to harrass with phoenixes\blink stalkers\dt's etc. etc. not make this upgrade. If one blink stalker get +1 shield and looses his whole shields 10 times it's obviously better to have shield upgraded not armor.
I take shields after armor 1, or if I'm going air.
Usually air units take a lot more shield damage (like void rays for example) than armor damage. When I do a voidray build, I usually push with 3 rays and pressure with them, often letting one voidray get to 0 shields and then letting another take shield damage. Rarely do I actually lose a voidray in the harrass. Thus, since I see that I'll benefit from shields during the harrass, and my ground units and buildings benefit too, I often get shields doing stargate builds.
In other builds, generally weapons 1 and then armor 1>2 is best, especially for robo builds. Oftentimes weapons 2 doesn't do anything, and armor 2 is really helpful for 175/175. After armor 2 you can get shields 1.
Shield upgrades would be good, but the first upgrade has a painful "upgrade tax" from the first Starcraft that renders it very difficult to justify. In SC1, shields would regenerate in combat, giving double damage reduction every time a shield point regenerated. It caused a considerable issue at 3/3, where that one shield point could effectively neutralize a marine shot every second.
This is no longer the case in SC2, as shields can not regenerate in combat. So there's really no reason for lvl 1 shields to cost 200/200. Perhaps with a cost reduction to 150/150, 250/250, 350/350, a shield upgrade would be more desirable.
For reference, Terrans have 6 unit upgrade paths, Zerg have 5, and Protoss have 5.
At the moment, no one has quick enough reaction times to pull that off, and even they sometimes take more damage than necessary.
Even with blink, they still take more hits than necessary due to the opposing player's units ( range 6 and above or quick MS and a lot of units focus firing. Although they could dodge the attack entirely if they blinked the moment the projectiles were still in the air (hydras/marines can't be dodged, they're instant).
It's useful if you have a lot of archons... or some very good micro in combat while macroing costs 200/200 300/300 400/400 ( 900/900 total if you get level 3 )
it applies to everything, but most protoss units have more health than shields
Is it me or does this says that Armor AND Shield upgrade actually do stacks a long as shields are up ? If this is the case, then i find it quite interesting to get..
Edit : on the other hand it means armor upgrade do works when shield is up and when shields are down ... Well never mind.
well it's seems something you get when you've the upper hand or in special circumstances thans a lot for the answers i'm quite interrested in it now that i've read all of that
If an attack is greater than 10 (ex: 50) and you have 3 shield upgrades, the shield upgrades are counted first, so it goes 50-3=47 which is greater than 10 so it gets reduced: no real benefit
However, if it is, say a marine (6) and you have 3 shield ups, it would do only 3 damage to the shield: huge benefit
If an attack does 12 damage, with 0 shield upgrades, it would normally do 10 damage, but with -3, it would do 9 damage: moderate benefit
Immortals are pretty cool, but i dont think upgrading shields is really worth it.
As a side note, ive always thought that archons should have a base shield armor of 1 or 2 to make them more tanky and unique.
Is it me or does this says that Armor AND Shield upgrade actually do stacks a long as shields are up ? If this is the case, then i find it quite interesting to get..
Edit : on the other hand it means armor upgrade do works when shield is up and when shields are down ... Well never mind.
You misread. It only applies twice when a single attack hits both shields and hit points.
"For example, a Zealot with full hit points and 5 shield remaining is attacked by a Roach. If the Zealot had no standard armor nor shield armor, the attack would do 16 damage, leaving the Zealot with 89 hit points and no shield. (5 damage to the shields, 11 to the hit points) If however the Zealot had 2 standard armor and 1 shield armor, both of these reductions are applied and the Zealot would be left with 92 hit points and 0 shields."
Armor upgrade does NOT apply when shields are up, and Shield upgrade does NOT apply when shields are fully depleted.