Flame of the Firehawk

The  is a Nova Shield manufactured by Maliwan. The Flame of the Firehawk is obtained from the mission Cult Following: The Enkindling located in Frostburn Canyon.

Special Weapon Effects
Constant fire nova effect when the shield is depleted. This effect lasts indefinitely, as long as the shield remains at 0, and triggers roughly every two seconds. Any shield recovery forces for a complete shield recharge before the effect can trigger again.

Usage & Description
The Flame of the Firehawk is a powerful nova shield which repeatedly releases novas for as long as the shield remains depleted. As with all nova shields, the Flame of the Firehawk is well-suited against melee attackers and tightly clustered crowds. Additionally, the condition for nova bursts being only that the shield remain depleted, it continues to burst while going into Fight For Your Life. This often means scoring an effortless Second Wind, even before the Fight For Your Life timer actually starts; but if a Second Wind is not achieved this way, some players may have difficulty tracking a weapon's aim on an enemy through the nova bursts.

Performance of a Flame of the Firehawk will suffer from investments in improved recharge delay (e.g.: Ward, Tactician class mods, badass tokens), as these will reduce the number of novas fired before the shield begins to recharge. Performance is improved by investments in recharge rate, shortening the time charging to full. Capacity bonuses will have a negative impact unless matched by recharge rate bonuses.

Skills which automatically recharge a portion of a shield's charge (e.g.: Inertia, Blood Soaked Shields), even with only one point invested, completely nullify the special characteristic of this shield. The novas only continue so long as the shield is depleted, and then cannot trigger again until the shield is fully recharged; with such skills, any kill made will partially recharge the shield and stop the novas. Such skills effectively render the Flame of the Firehawk an above average nova shield at best.

Trivia

 * The Flame of the Firehawk is the only orange item in the game given as a mission reward.
 * The name of the shield and its special effect is reminiscent of Lilith's Phoenix skill from Borderlands.
 * The flavor text refers to the mythological bird the phoenix, which was said to die in a burst of flames and to emerge from these flames reborn, effectively being immortal.