Here's a Dust 514 Shields and Armor Guide by Overlord Zero.

• Armor and shielding are NOT equal, they have very different effects on your stats and heavily affect your play style.
• You can add more armor HP with weaker mods than with shielding, but armor only regens with a repair module or someone repairing you with a repair tool (or special hives) and it slows you down the more you have equipped.
• Shielding auto recovers and it’s regen amount and speed can be boosted with shield mods (hardeners are only available on vehicles), but you get way way fewer shield HP on modules than you do armor on same level modules
• Armor is best suited to heavies and Type 1/A suits, though heavies with Type 2/B suits can do very well with shield speced suits too.
• Shielding is best suited to scouts and Type 2/B suits. Scouts can do well with armor as well, but the light weight shielding better works with their quick and fast suit types.
• There are skills that will boost your ability to regen armor and shielding, as well as boost your total amount of each on both dropsuits and vehicles. Definitely look into the skills for the type of protection you plan to use the most.

As for Logi’s and Assault:

I would recommend Armor for the Logi’s because their skills take a lot of their SP since there are so many Logi skills and the armor skills seem to be cheaper SP wise.

I would recommend shields for the assault because slipping around a corner to heal up quickly can save your skin in a pinch, and assult types need to be as mobile as possible since they stay at the front of the fighting.

Of course, you play your own way, but that’s my best advise to the new people coming in. Good luck and happy hunting.

Note: Armor Enhancement Modules also slow down a players Movement Speed which in turn decreases how high you can Jum

Armor also has a higher resistance to damage than Shields do.