SakashiroEpisparhBurstar
So for the HRPs the debate is higher Thermal resistance bringing all close to middle, vs. higher total resistances and absolute armour with a lower thermal resistance.
As I said from my experience, it is better to have balanced resistances than specialized one. Or you simply expect enemies to stop firing their thermal weapons when shields drop?
I'm wondering if it would be better to optimize the hull for thermal resistance only. Because as long as the shield is up, hull damage occurs only from phasing sequence weapons, and those are mostly thermal. Kinetic phasing sequence damage can only come from engineered PAs which I've never seen on NPCs.
Phasing damage is absolute which is a point in favour of stacking for absolute.
As for balanced vs 'specialized'. 1) It's not specialized, it's maximized, and 2) I can't debate your experience with NPC's, nor am I saying you're right or wrong, just clarifying the schools of thought.
If there is a list of known NPC ship builds and their probability distribution you could do some math to figure out exactly the probabilities involved and declare which is build type is truly best. I am not aware of any such list.
My personal build philosophy is HRPs all HD/DP because absolute is a good stat to have for both PVP and PVE. It also makes the Engineering simple and transferable, and the total resistances maximizes your return if all other things are equal. I admit, they are not which is why I spec Thermal Shields. If your opponent gets through those they probably aren't focused on laser weapons. If they are, it's a good clue to cheese it. Good thing lasers aren't know for their burst dps...