click on the manual, you`ll see in their all races ships and the shield modifiers each ship has its own specifications and its not limited to class.
scouts obviously only for scouting, or really expensive fodder as most had decent shields, the strafez fodder are just that something to shove in a stack and hope they take the hits with minimum damage.
as for the rest if you view them seperately and play around a little you`ll soon figure out some stacks that will work for you, each day week month year is different people build one way discover that everyone`s worked their method out and changes what they build for a while and so on and so forth.
but weapon types and shield types the most important information and simple to remember once you play a bit and get a handle on it.