In recent months we have seen more fleets using armor doctrines than shield in nullsec warfare. However, after the dreaded Phoebe release there will be an increase in shield concepts used at the alliance and coalition levels across all of nullsec. Why would this happen you ask? Armor fleets are more effective than shield fleets; they are harder to hit and easier to save. Armor fleets have impressive tanks and decent dps coupled with a lower sig radius than shield fleets, which allows armor ships of the same hull class to take more hits from bombers than their shield counterparts. You can’t win a fight if you never arrive on the battlefield with a force capable of fighting.
Following the release of Phoebe and its multitudes of boat-rocking changes, any nullsec alliance worth its weight in tritanium will be heeding the message of the day: “Speed is everything.” Shield fleets will prevail over armor fleets for the sheer fact that, in a race from one system to another, shield ships will always win. Currently, sovereignty-holding alliances plan to maintain their grip on the space they own. For example Nulli Secunda and by extension N3 is planning on holding all of its current sovereignty after Phoebe. From Delve in the South West all the way North to the beginnings of the Drone Lands. This will require S2N fleets to travel from Impass up to Insmother and then back down to Esoteria in the same day. Try dragging a domi fleet along that route. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
As said in the hit zombie movie World War Z, “Movement is Life.” Shield concepts will allow alliances to travel vast swaths of empty nullsec and make it to the fighting front before downtime before their enemies in comparable armor doctrine ships! Once Phoebe is out there is no going back. Alliances must adapt or die. There are only two things anyone can accurately predict about Phoebe: stuff will hit the fan and when it does shield fleets will be a log to hold on to in the river of chaos that is to come!
