Shield Banner needs a rework

[galdon2004]

To be specific, I am referring to the Commander Buff which makes every other nearby enemy invincible, not the one which doesn't take damage from the first few attacks it takes.

This particular trait does not work with the game's general design. As is proudly proclaimed in the loading screen from time to time "you can dodge every enemy attack" and I believe this is intended to be a core design philosophy.

But what happens when you find yourself in a situation where an enemy's physical presence is fully blocking the path to the commander? Suddenly, you can't pass through that spot, because the enemy is invincible and you can't remove it's invincibility because you can't pass through that spot.

You're stuck in an unfair situation where you are forced to take damage not through any error of your own, but simply because the level is designed in such a way that taking damage is a requirement to progress. That doesn't feel good as a player.

I think there should be a rework to this enemy type to be more fair. Some ideas off the top of my head would be to have it provide a damage buff instead, for it to absorb damage from nearby enemies instead of just nullifying it, so you can break the stalemate eventually by fighting the invincible minions, or for it to instead provide enemies around it a couple points of armor that can be broken through rather than total immunity to damage.

[Omegatherion]

Just decreasing the range in which it affects other enemies would be a good start. Right now, the buff protects enemies that are way more than one screen away from the commander, which seems a bit busted.

[Gnodab]

The radius of Shield Banner actually got reduced with the Halloween patch.

[Omegatherion]

Originally posted by Gnodab:

The radius of Shield Banner actually got reduced with the Halloween patch.

I have to admit, i overlooked that apparently. From gameplay alone i didn't notice a difference.

[eric-belair]

I think a window of opportunity design, or even just that commander gives 10 armor stacks (like the 100% blocking ones, not the ones the armor mitigation ones) which allows for the situation to be brute forced BUT still heavily incentivizes the intended gameplay

[Makahaleb]

there could be several possible improvements,
it could become a mere damage reduction or the enemy could just take the damage for the others,
another approach could be it handing a regenerating life shield or just having short down times,
but the easistes start would be reducing the range below a screen and maybe making the active range a bit more obvious (maybe make it a blue silhoutte like the red souls have in red)

[RNorthex]

Originally posted by galdon2004:

But what happens when you find yourself in a situation where an enemy's physical presence is fully blocking the path to the commander? Suddenly, you can't pass through that spot, because the enemy is invincible and you can't remove it's invincibility because you can't pass through that spot.

Yeah. IIRC you can't knock them back either. If that is the case and you were able to knock them back, that could solve the issue.
Otherwise, maybe if the damage reduced would be 90-95%? Or say a small amount of damage done to shielded enemies would be instead sent to the commander? Would keep it's intended purpose, but could provide a very slow, but possible opportunity to deal with some of the heinously bad situations they can create.

[ser5lexx]

Originally posted by galdon2004:

As is proudly proclaimed in the loading screen from time to time "you can dodge every enemy attack"

And then a blinking mask charged with explosive teleports right under my æss and immediately explodes, duh.