Shield maiden just sucks now?

[M3AT 7R4IN]

Recently came back to this game after a few weeks and saw it had an update. Went to my max block/defense maiden build and wow, even at 240+ block I'm getting destroyed by basic mobs. What happened to block?

[# OG]

On all old levels, she's still strong, but not invincible. You'll need to move around a tiny bit to avoid death in very specific instances, but once you get rolling with Arcane Rift, and very large pickup range, you can just farm exp while barely moving again. You'll be able to pretty easily juggle between hits and regen early/mid game, using the regen necklace to smooth out the leveling process until Arcane Rift takes over the game.

On the new level, you can do the same strat, but arcane rift doesn't become as OP as quickly, the mobs are more resilient, and you'll have to move around more, so you aren't fed xp as fast. The regen playstyle is just plain more work, which makes her way less powerful than say, archer, which absolutely crushes mobs from an entire screen away, while only needing to worry about dodging the giant crab boss who spams orbs if you max-range him.

I found the power of the maiden is to simply force an extremely close playstyle which was only useful for certain new achievements, such as the 3mill dmg spirit warr.

[I have no idea what I'm doing.]

Originally posted by # OG:

On all old levels, she's still strong, but not invincible. You'll need to move around a tiny bit to avoid death in very specific instances, but once you get rolling with Arcane Rift, and very large pickup range, you can just farm exp while barely moving again. You'll be able to pretty easily juggle between hits and regen early/mid game, using the regen necklace to smooth out the leveling process until Arcane Rift takes over the game.

On the new level, you can do the same strat, but arcane rift doesn't become as OP as quickly, the mobs are more resilient, and you'll have to move around more, so you aren't fed xp as fast. The regen playstyle is just plain more work, which makes her way less powerful than say, archer, which absolutely crushes mobs from an entire screen away, while only needing to worry about dodging the giant crab boss who spams orbs if you max-range him.

I found the power of the maiden is to simply force an extremely close playstyle which was only useful for certain new achievements, such as the 3mill dmg spirit warr.

That has more to do with Arcane Rift being OP as hell. You could go in without any upgrades and totally naked, turn off your auto attack, and you'd still obliterate most stages with arcane rift alone.

Shield Maiden is in a really bad way right now; the upscaling of monster damage has rendered block almost entirely useless which was more than half the point of shield maiden in the first place. I've been able to get some decent damage out of shield bash by dumping absolutely everything into block but even 200+ block just feels like wet cardboard now with how much punches through it. Not worth investing into.

[Hqbobski]

shield maiden is pile of ♥♥♥♥ now? what the ♥♥♥♥ they did to it ?!??!?!?

[Ulyaoth]

I have to agree.
Tried multiple atempts for a Block Build on Forgotten Viaduct Agony and it became impossible.
During Beta I did a Block Build on Frozen Depths and it was wonderful.

Either something broke with Block in functionality, or the base damge scaling was set to high.
On Ember Grounds and Haunted Caverns I didnt tried it by now.

[Street]

Originally posted by Ulyaoth:

I have to agree.
Tried multiple atempts for a Block Build on Forgotten Viaduct Agony and it became impossible.
During Beta I did a Block Build on Frozen Depths and it was wonderful.

Either something broke with Block in functionality, or the base damge scaling was set to high.
On Ember Grounds and Haunted Caverns I didnt tried it by now.

Y, I've heard multiple times folks complained on Block.

PS: tyvm for Agony 3 guides for new chars <3 Srsly.

[lefiath]

Even with the patch, it felt like they fixed nothing, the block still seems barely do anything at all... has anything changed (I could've just missed it, I only play the game on the casual level, trying to have fun), or is it still not viable to play with the character?

[MrQun]

Without any upgrades her baseline block is 20, which blocks 5 dmg at 100%. Imo, this is just woeful. She is a SHIELD Maiden and as such her gameplay should be built around the shield. I think her baseline block should be 50 (at least), but to compensate, maybe the devs can make her a bit slower. In addition, maybe from having to wield such a heavy shield, she might suffer a damage penalty to all other skills. And maybe the mark of the SM can give 10% block instead of defence.

Just throwing some ideas out there. Bottom-line, the effectiveness of her shield should be much better, but you want to make sure that she is balanced in other areas as to not make her too powerful.

[lefiath]

Well, I've made it through Agony on Viaduct with her in a second attempt, so it's not so bad when even someone such as myself can finish a round, but I felt like the character has lost half of the quirks unique to her, since she used to be about tanking and deflecting.

I guess I should do some of those achievements (such as staying still for 180 seconds) on normal, because it doesn't seem possible on Agony. Hopefully the devs will continue with improvements and reworks.

[Ragnaman]

Defence stacking until your damage reduction is at 86% is where its at now. You can just stand on the spot with 2500hp and observe how your HP is healing with those boots. Block build still works, but you cant just get 100% block now. Instead of trying to reach for 100% block threshold, stack defence, hp, regen and reach for that 25% block threshold.
Keep hp at 10% so all HP goes into boosting your dmg with the amulet.
The crit counter still annihilates things.

[MrQun]

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

Defence stacking until your damage reduction is at 86% is where its at now. You can just stand on the spot with 2500hp and observe how your HP is healing with those boots. Block build still works, but you cant just get 100% block now. Instead of trying to reach for 100% block threshold, stack defence, hp, regen and reach for that 25% block threshold.
Keep hp at 10% so all HP goes into boosting your dmg with the amulet.
The crit counter still annihilates things.

Yep, I did something similar to this not long ago. Though I managed to get DR up to 90%, but with a but of min maxing, I could see this going a bit higher.

[Senny]

She is really weak now.
Very often I get hit even if dmg is lower than my 100% block rate

[CY13ERPUNK]

removing her base def really hurt her defenses , she feels pretty gutted imho

there are obvs arguments that block is weaker than it was and there are pros/cons , like i can see how previously max block almost made her invincible , but atm max block doesnt even make her SURVIVABLE , so thats not a good middle ground imho

either :
A - give her back her base def , 20 or 30
B - give her higher base block , like 40-60 or something big enough to be able to scale up with gear and traits and min/max potions and be able to handle at least having a 75% chance to block those agony 4 frozen beasties

[LazärheaD]

She sucked before, but at least I knew I could possibly get to level 100. Now I have no idea how to get to Agony 3. The bar does whatever it wants, even if I just survived Agony, I did not reach 3 with the Shieldmaiden. The whole Agony mode must be overhauled. Just make it Hard mode, if you beat it, you get the achievement.

[Ulyaoth]

Originally posted by LazärheaD:

Living Bomb
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2218750/discussions/0/3816292540676093159/
Build Suggestion
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2218750/discussions/0/3816292540668453975/

Good Luck,
Cheers!

[Ragnaman]

Originally posted by TheQunRules:

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

Defence stacking until your damage reduction is at 86% is where its at now. You can just stand on the spot with 2500hp and observe how your HP is healing with those boots. Block build still works, but you cant just get 100% block now. Instead of trying to reach for 100% block threshold, stack defence, hp, regen and reach for that 25% block threshold.
Keep hp at 10% so all HP goes into boosting your dmg with the amulet.
The crit counter still annihilates things.

Yep, I did something similar to this not long ago. Though I managed to get DR up to 90%, but with a but of min maxing, I could see this going a bit higher.

i tested this quite a lot and trying to get past 85% dmg reduction becomes kinda waste. 50def armour + bulwark alone gets you to 75def, with maxxed blessing of 15 def you get close to 100 def, which is just about enough for DR. Funny, all that from 1 item and 5 points into bulwark.