Shield Breaker, your best comp?

[.VM8RA]

I just got myself a couple of shield breakers and I see they are a full blown movement character. Will they go better in movement teams or can they do well in a regular team as well?

I must admit, at first all that moving about kind of put me off some characters, but the Jester ended up being my favourite back in vanilla. (albeit I never really used it as a movement character and more of a utility/DPS hybrid if I remember correctly)

I'd love to try these girls out, but I am just not sure where they are best suited right now. I guess I need to go and read the power properly first and see what's going on... what kind of damage she can do will determine which dungeon I use her in. bleeders for weild etc.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by ^c6VM8RA:

I just got myself a couple of shield breakers and I see they are a full blown movement character. Will they go better in movement teams or can they do well in a regular team as well?

You don't want two front characters who can't deal with being shuffled to the back two. So for instance Leper/Flagellant would be bad (other than just having a Leper in it). A Crusader or Highwayman or Bounty Hunter would be fine because they can either attack from the back or move to the front with an attack.

The rest of the team doesn't have to be mobile, but they have to be at least tolerant of it, or there has to be only one who isn't.

[Rouken]

The shield breaker will naturally move towards rank 1. So the big issues there would be if you have someone else in rank 1 that doesn't want to move off that spot (I'm thinking Hellion while you still need access to Iron Swan) or if you have other characters that could also move forward while attacking and thus move a front line character to rank 3 where they're not so useful.

Otherwise, I'm a big fan of shield breakers, ignoring prot and being able to hit any of the 4 enemy ranks from just about any of your ranks is pretty good. Also good for getting to enemies that are being guarded.

Only real downsides seem to be camping sucks until you resolve their issues and they sometimes feel squishy.

[.VM8RA]

Originally posted by Rouken:

The shield breaker will naturally move towards rank 1. So the big issues there would be if you have someone else in rank 1 that doesn't want to move off that spot (I'm thinking Hellion while you still need access to Iron Swan) or if you have other characters that could also move forward while attacking and thus move a front line character to rank 3 where they're not so useful.

Otherwise, I'm a big fan of shield breakers, ignoring prot and being able to hit any of the 4 enemy ranks from just about any of your ranks is pretty good. Also good for getting to enemies that are being guarded.

Only real downsides seem to be camping sucks until you resolve their issues and they sometimes feel squishy.

I have been messing about with grave robber and crusader with their movement attacks (and grave robber being able to sink back and gain stealth) it's very strong in the ruins. I think the shield breaker might be good in this party as well as blight is decent there.

you gotta start the grave robber in the back though. as long as the shield breaker doesn't mind starting in first it will work out fine.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by Rouken:

The shield breaker will naturally move towards rank 1. So the big issues there would be if you have someone else in rank 1 that doesn't want to move off that spot (I'm thinking Hellion while you still need access to Iron Swan)

A solution is not to run with Hellion, but I really like Hellion, so if I want SB/HEL I'll generally start with SB in front and HEL right behind.

Then I open with Adder's Kiss, moving SB back and HEL to the front. Alternately you can put Breakthrough on Hellion's bar. Although I don't like this AoE much, it is worth having if you intend to have SB in front from time to time.

[No One]

GR-SBR-OCC-HEL. It's not a good party, but it is a fun party. SBR has captivate so you can stay in position for bleed out, OCC has ceiling tentacles because generally the SBR should go first.

It's low on stuns and is triple squishy backed by OCC healer (kek) but it does absurd damage and does it darn fast.

You can rearrange the party both before battle and on the fly.

Sadly I expect the best SBR party is the most boring, though I haven't actually tried it due to the boredom. VES-JES-SBR-SBR.

[RopeDrink]

Only real downsides seem to be camping sucks

Sucks? Only for people unfamiliar with the encounters/mechanics - SB camping is actually a huge benefit once you know what to expect. I'm actually surprised/annoyed to hear that they reduced the encounter chance to 50%.

either way, you can essentially choose when (and with whom) you want to do an encounter with (just like most bosses). By winning an encounter, the entire party (including SB) gains anti-stress for the rest of the dungeon (which persists through camping) as well as other combat buffs for the SB herself.

What does that mean? It means entering a dungeon and immediately going for snakes could provide your group with un-removable anti-stress and a more powerful SB for whatever dungeon you liked (provided you have snake encounters to handle). You could also opt for long dungeons and use the second campfire to remove the SB's stress intake from the nightmare and just re-stack more anti-stress or buffs on top of the bonus - and then enjoy stress being even less of an issue for the entire run. You can imagine how that works when using things like Jester's stress-healing and group-wide anti-stress camping skill.

Only downside is if you lose the encounter (which you won't when you're the type who plans for it), the opposite happens - SB gets debuffed and the whole party will take more stress for the rest of the run.

In short, SB camping is more of a benefit than a detriment (provided you know what you're doing).

-----

As for compositions, anything where the SB has at least two spaces to remain mobile-free without annoying other heroes is fine. The likes of CRU>VES>SB>HWM does well, or you can run double-SB's. I run triple SB's sometimes - their kit is obnoxiously good at smashing everything in sight. Captivate (her ranged DoT) is very potent and actually hits pretty damn hard. As such, for less mobile comps you would aim to have the SB in R2 or R3 and use her to snipe R3. If you need to kill R4 you can just have her spear it to death (which would move her forward).

You don't NEED a full party of mobile heroes so long as your party can dedicate some free space without it negatively effecting heroes who are pushed around. You CAN use the whole shuffle-train (eg. GR's, SB's, CRU's, MAA, HWM, HEL etc) but there's not a lot of benefit for anyone other than the Crusader (who benefits by having someone constantly pushing him backward).

[.VM8RA]

so the camping thing, this is the nightmare mechanic right, you get ambushed by pliskin?

so this is a story thing and you have to work through them and eventually they stop or something? sounds interesting.

I took one on a team with an antiquarian last night to test it out and I like it. the rest of the party were bounty hunter and vestal I believe. did pretty well tbh.