Ion Modulator

"The Ion Modulator allows Energy weapons to deal more damage to shields, at the cost of reduced damage to armor."

General
The Ion Modulator boosts Energy weapons by increasing their shield damage. Consequently, their health damage is reduced, albeit to a lesser extent.

Advantages
Ion Modulators serve as a direct DPS increase against heavily-shielded enemies, especially cruisers which have extra shield slots.

Note that level I is the most mass-efficient version of this special.

Disadvantages
Ion Modulators can actually work against you when fighting shieldless enemies, which is often the case for modules, as well as Xeno Division Hulls or above due to the superior repair efficiency of armor.

Ion Modulators are generally less important than Focused Optics: what use is extra DPS when you cannot even get in range to fire?

Trivia

 * Ion Modulator had its health damage stat changed from -13% to -12% at some point in time.