I am only about 2 weeks into intermittently dripping. I drip directly onto the coil. And if you can see the coil then chances are you don't have a bridge. A drip shield I believe seals up the joints so no juice gets out. And a DCA is an assembly that has an atomizer contained in a housing and it's all sealed up. I just think they look clean and very appealing to the eye. So far I just have an atomizer and a drip tip with a big enough hole to drip right into instead of taking off tip and dripping. Makes it a little less fiddley.