For your personal shield...you can get some that have +5.1 Shield Regeneration.

Also...some armor comes with inherent shield regeneration.

How exactly does this +5.1 Shield Regeneration work?

..every second, it adds 5 shield points to your bar?

..it increases the 'wait' shield regen by 5 shield points per tick?

its either that or the other

That's what I'm trying to figure out.

I believe it indicates how fast it regenerates after you stop taking damage.

So what you're saying is that...no matter how much Shield Regen you have...you still have to wait the 3s before it starts to regen?

No. Shield Regen means a ships will regenerate at the given rate regardless of combat state. You can look at the Shield detailed description. It will tell you the amount and rate of regeneration. For example my Mk XI Jem'hadar armor has +7.6 / 4 second shield regeneration. It does that regardless of my combat status.

They're talking about personal shields.

And it's been my observation that shield regen starts after you're not being shot at and the time is just an indication if how much gets regenerated in that period.

That might be lag/ delay of info between my computer and the servers though.

For ground shields, it ticks every second. So if you have 5.1 shield regen, you get 5.1 shields back each second. On my engineer I can usually add shield regens and resists pretty easily, making my health much harder to get to.

Ground shield regen is additive (so far as I know), so it all goes together and can make a big difference. It also will, if you are not under fire, still help your shields heal faster, letting you get back into combat quicker.

That doesn't sound right. Shields have around 300 points. At 5.1 point regens per second, it would take a minute for yours shields to go back up. It doesn't seem that slow in-game.

It is right but remember it is in addition to the text on all personal shields that says "fully recharges after 3 seconds of no damage" or whatever it says to that effect.