EXPLODING SHIELD not working?

[Archany]

It protects me from a blow, it makes the explosion sound with animation and even has the chance to knock-down enemies however, it does not do damage to enemies. I noticed it wasn't doing any damage when it broke so I tested it vs some level 1 wolves and confirmed it doesn't do damage for me.

It is upgraded to 3/3 and before you say anything I do have it equipped, is this the case for anyone else?

[tonypa]

Could be just that wolves are immune to the effect, as it did nothing against wolves for me too. However, most effects work only against human enemies (or some selected monster types), and exploding shield works on humans too. Go to Devils Pit and fight some bandits there.

[ZEbani]

Was that a press and hold the button kinda spell? If so, hold the button to perform some aspects of those spells

[Stormsong]

Exploding shield, even when it works (very selective), is underwhelming. It's a bit of a waste of upgrade points in my opinion. If you get to a point where you've got 1000 to spare, or you make more disappointing point decisions later (it can happen, like with Fleet Footed, also meh if not outright busted), I'd down a Wolven Hour or whatever the skill clear is called and pick something else.

[i-Jinx]

Always seemed effective to me, can put a bunch of bandits on their backs and knock harpies out of the air. It only explodes when depleted by damage, if you keep refreshing it in combat that won't happen. Probably requires high intensity to have a good chance of knockdown too.

Testing it out on low level enemies can be misleading. You may be negating so much incoming damage that the shield times out before it breaks. Try it with no armour and no damage reduction.

[Codester]

The exploding shield is linked to the alternative quen. The active life absorbing shield. It does NOT affect the passive regular Quen. It causes damage, deals a low % chance of knock downs, can knock air enemies out of the sky. Ect.

[i-Jinx]

DOES affect regular quen. Would be idiotic to make a tier 1 ability useless unless combined with a tier 3 ability.

[Archany]

Originally posted by Codester:

The exploding shield is linked to the alternative quen. The active life absorbing shield. It does NOT affect the passive regular Quen. It causes damage, deals a low % chance of knock downs, can knock air enemies out of the sky. Ect.

I have also upgraded the life absorbing shield and randomly got a level 15 bandit to 1% hp by luck so I casted my shield then watched him smash me with his mace, the shield exploded without doing any damage to him, he should have just killed himself with that blow.

[Archany]

Originally posted by i-Jinx:

Always seemed effective to me, can put a bunch of bandits on their backs and knock harpies out of the air. It only explodes when depleted by damage, if you keep refreshing it in combat that won't happen. Probably requires high intensity to have a good chance of knockdown too.

Testing it out on low level enemies can be misleading. You may be negating so much incoming damage that the shield times out before it breaks. Try it with no armour and no damage reduction.

I did say that the shield does explode however, it doesn't do any damage, I have noticed the chance to knockdown works though.

I'm playing on deathmarch where even level 1 creatures do decent damage to me and things closer to your level often 2/3 hit you so I don't think my armour is reducing the damage to a point where it does no damage on explosion.

[Archany]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

You seem to be relying on Quen far too much in combat. It's there for that one or two blows that get by you. The key to combat for a witcher however is not to get hit at all. Dodging, rolling, bombs and signs are all effective weapons in your arsenal to ensure you level the playing field and give yourself an opportunity to create advantages for yourself.

But if you try to tank most enemies by throwing Quen and hoping it will shield you from most damage and then have the explosion add some damage of your own, you're leaving yourself wide open for attacks that will hurt you badly.

Well you need to stop making stupid assumptions and then giving me advice based on your wrong assumptions, do you really think I just cast Quen for damage and stand there tanking hits?

I use it as an extra shield, to protect me from the hits I dodged yet somehow managed to hit me, it really doesn't break during combat unless I get hit from something I didn't see from behind or a boss does an unexpected attack I never knew it could do.

I only made the observation that it lacked damage when I ran into low level monsters or got someone to a slither of health and thought it would be amusing if he killed himself on remaining shield. The only reason why I'm complaining is because I put points into it and the tooltip says it does damage and I feel like those points were wasted.