How to make the shield sign withstand more damage ?

[Delicia Suprema]

I have 90% sign power intensity which i think is high for level 52.
Im using the very first shield sign skill which it breaks and damages enemies.
Im just dissapointed that it only takes 1 or 2 attacks for it to break. And to cast it again geralt animation is super not secure.

You masters know anything that might be of help ?

[worm_master]

Well you could switch to ALT mode.. this provides a continuous shield, till Adrenaline an Stam are drained, but u cant move.. So not much help there. I'm afraid your stuck with the easy break, but then, it was never designed to be a "shield" rather a temporary protection, to allow u to disengage or switch position.

POF None of the magic was designed for offence, that's provided by unparalleled sword skills and ability's, think of it like "The Mysterious Stranger" (The being who pops up when in V.A.T.S) in the Fallout series.

[Neon Noodles]

Not necessarily withstand more damage, but, the Ursine school gear bonuses enhance quen significantly. With 3 pieces you have a 15% chance to instantly recast Quen when it breaks for no stamina. This increases 5% per additional piece up to 30% with 6 pieces. [Technically there are 7 with the Crossbow but it doesn't scale well and is generally low level]

Also, having 6 pieces increases the damage dealt by abilities involving the Quen sign by 200%. Combined with the Exploding shield perk, this can be fairly substantial considering its also adding the pushback and knockdown chance.

Hope that helps!

Cheers

[Delicia Suprema]

Originally posted by worm_master:

Well you could switch to ALT mode.. this provides a continuous shield, till Adrenaline an Stam are drained, but u cant move.. So not much help there. I'm afraid your stuck with the easy break, but then, it was never designed to be a "shield" rather a temporary protection, to allow u to disengage or switch position.

POF None of the magic was designed for offence, that's provided by unparalleled sword skills and ability's, think of it like "The Mysterious Stranger" (The being who pops up when in V.A.T.S) in the Fallout series.

Hmm. Yeah i finished fallout 4 not long ago. I know what you mean... To bad.

[Delicia Suprema]

Originally posted by AFD86:

Not necessarily withstand more damage, but, the Ursine school gear bonuses enhance quen significantly. With 3 pieces you have a 15% chance to instantly recast Quen when it breaks for no stamina. This increases 5% per additional piece up to 30% with 6 pieces. [Technically there are 7 with the Crossbow but it doesn't scale well and is generally low level]

Also, having 6 pieces increases the damage dealt by abilities involving the Quen sign by 200%. Combined with the Exploding shield perk, this can be fairly substantial considering its also adding the pushback and knockdown chance.

Hope that helps!

Cheers

Thanks. Yeah im already using the ursine gear. Beyond looking super good it also works pretty well with my build.

For clarification the crossbolt doesnt add up because there isnt a grandmaster craft level to add up with the rest.

Gonna add your response as the answer since it has the most useful info.

Have a good day.

[eyeC]

I have 138% at leve 49, which is around 550 damage needed to break the quen. So, yeah. Nothing (that i know of) to be done about it except either 1) significantly greater quen investment or 2) changing gear to improve quen, as suggested above. Personally, I would just stick with weaker quen, as it's never, ever, very good ... but that's up to you. Bear gear will help, but it's polishing a turd.

[eyeC]

Not to hijack the thread, but still in line with my last post here: at level 49 Geralt, 1 hit from a level 6 bear (Kaer Mohren), is likely to break his (+138%) shield. Usually does, in fact. Quen is not very good.

[Delicia Suprema]

Originally posted by eyeC:

I have 138% at leve 49, which is around 550 damage needed to break the quen. So, yeah. Nothing (that i know of) to be done about it except either 1) significantly greater quen investment or 2) changing gear to improve quen, as suggested above. Personally, I would just stick with weaker quen, as it's never, ever, very good ... but that's up to you. Bear gear will help, but it's polishing a turd.

I mostly only started using quen because of arrows. I find that deflecting arrows with swords just quite ridiculous to me. So i never use that skill haha.

[worm_master]

Originally posted by eyeC:

Not to hijack the thread, but still in line with my last post here: at level 49 Geralt, 1 hit from a level 6 bear (Kaer Mohren), is likely to break his (+138%) shield. Usually does, in fact. Quen is not very good.

That's because ya falling into the "signs" trap.... Signs are not "offensive magic" or even "defensive" magic, they merely facilitate battle filed planning, and aid escape OR provide u with protection, whilst u take out that freaking archer.

[Cootswig]

Idk. I run an amazing full signs build now in ng+ on deathmarch and I'm cruising.
While on sword and broken bones I struggled a lot with a half sign half sword build.

I'm level 77 and I kill level 80 guards with 1 or 2 igni

That's witouth any runewright or concoctions.
If I use those then it's even worse (for the enemies hehe)

I almost never draw my sword.

[Cootswig]

Btw my sign intensity is +324%
424% standing in yrden and it can be boosted to over 500%
It's super powerful

If anyone interested, this exact build can be done around level 55 already, assuming you got all places of power

[worm_master]

Originally posted by Cootswig:

Idk. I run an amazing full signs build now in ng+ on deathmarch and I'm cruising.
While on sword and broken bones I struggled a lot with a half sign half sword build.

I'm level 77 and I kill level 80 guards with 1 or 2 igni

That's witouth any runewright or concoctions.
If I use those then it's even worse (for the enemies hehe)

I almost never draw my sword.

Lol Congratulations on ya victory, the only sign I ever use is Quen(oh an super charged Arrd for Dettleff).. As to cruising, I cruised "of sword and dumplings" on DM at level 3.... Faught my way to the Toad Prince at level 4 too.

[Cootswig]

Originally posted by worm_master:

Originally posted by Cootswig:

Idk. I run an amazing full signs build now in ng+ on deathmarch and I'm cruising.
While on sword and broken bones I struggled a lot with a half sign half sword build.

I'm level 77 and I kill level 80 guards with 1 or 2 igni

That's witouth any runewright or concoctions.
If I use those then it's even worse (for the enemies hehe)

I almost never draw my sword.

Lol Congratulations on ya victory, the only sign I ever use is Quen(oh an super charged Arrd for Dettleff).. As to cruising, I cruised "of sword and dumplings" on DM at level 3....

It's not a competition. I'm just saying signs are very powerful with the right build.

[worm_master]

I'm agreeing, but taking the opposite view... U don't really need anything but Quen an a few potions, I used my examples as "evidence" of my claim, that you can "cruse" DM with out magic.

Then too theres a difference between Pre-Update an Update, in a lot of cases the number of NPC's has been reduced in the update... Pre-Ipdate "Of swords and dumplings" had 6 NPC's to fight, after the update, there's only 4, and with the nerfed enemy's, much easyr to kill, as evidenced by my exploits.

Also pre-update you had more "skill levels" I think they removed 2 levels form each skill... They've also nerfed potions, pre-update I could neck 7 potions, after update I can barely manage 5.

The Update changed a lot of the old rules.

[Cootswig]

Originally posted by worm_master:

I'm agreeing, but taking the opposite view... U don't really need anything but Quen an a few potions, I used my examples as "evidence" of my claim, that you can "cruse" DM with out magic.

Then too theres a difference between Pre-Update an Update, in a lot of cases the number of NPC's has been reduced in the update... Pre-Ipdate "Of swords and dumplings" had 6 NPC's to fight, after the update, there's only 4, and with the nerfed enemy's, much easyr to kill, as evidenced by my exploits

You can. I can't. That's why I use signs. People asked if it's possible to increase intensity so I provided an answer with huge sign intensity increase ;)

[worm_master]

Lol I thought the OP asked if Quen could absorb more damage. That was answerd, the rest of the convo is organic, flowing from point to point as dictated.

Interesting u find magic so easy to use, i tried a magic build Pre-update, kept dieing too easily, so i switched to sword and started dieing less.
Thing is I am a MAGE... every game that has that class i play, so I understand magic, perhaps i should try a sign build after update.