Shields in arena (aspirant especially, but on up as well)

[JtDarth]

WTF is my counter to them suppsoed to be? It seems to be total luck whether I win against a shield holder, and god help me if they spawn with a dagger! The only thing that's lost me more characters is cleaver fights.
I've yet to see this aspirant shield pop in the shop, and I've had characters make it to expert level before. Similarly, I've yet to see the two-handed mallet in the shop that I occasionally encounter at inept tier.

Pls no 'git gud'-type comments, they aren't helpful in the slightest.

[Viso Avis'ember]

Both overhead and left to right swing works for me.

[fuzzytoastpops]

like visogent said, practice overhead swings. if you use a 2h weapon, you have a reach advantage so you can pretty safely take your time. wait until they start swinging and stepping towards you, then double click and try to get it to land on their head. you pretty much have to attack immediately as they attack. the kite shields are the hardest ones, because you cant even get a lucky leg-shot like you can with smaller shields. If you have a sharp polearm, stabs work, too. Lots of overhead swings plus an occasional stab to the face usually does the trick

But the small aspirant sheild doesn't even need that level of percision. On a regular right-to-left swing, move your mouse cursor behind and to your left of the opponent as you swing, and you'll land a high hit, on the shoulder or on the head. don't just always keep the red cursor on the opponent when you strike, because you can affect your strikes by moving the mouse around.

Originally posted by JtDarth:

Similarly, I've yet to see the two-handed mallet in the shop that I occasionally encounter at inept tier.

they're pretty common tbh

[Moltenhead]

left to right hits at the right moment are most of the time very efficient against shields, when the opponent is hitting left to right, you can with lots of weapons hit them on the upper left parts with a right to left hit.
Also vertical hits can catch there head just after one of their attacks.
If you have a little bit of reading, you can preamptivly thrust an opponent on the beginning of his attack (aim for the right side of your opponent, or the head - the exposed part) .
You can also do horizontal slashes and crouch at the end of your hits to go for the legs, getting more chances to avoid there shields.
That's my way, I don't know if this is the good one, but I can assure you it can work, even on higher difficulty ennemies.

In any way, one good advice could be: make any hit count. Beat them hard and precise!

[J. Bruh]

Thrusting for the legs/groin area works well for me. Obviously swords/spears are prime for that, but if you find yourself without either of those weapons then LtR/overhead swings are your best bet.

[Mr. Zesty]

I find swinging from their sword hand side helps a lot. I also tend to time it so i connect with their swing arm extended

[Luzilyo]

to defeat people equipped with a shield, you want something very heavy. once the "shield stamina" takes damage, there will be a small cooldown before it starts to regenerate. so take the heaviest weapon that you can and just keep hitting them. eventually, their shield stamina will drop to 0 (heavier weapons will make this process faster) and then they won't be able to block actively and even if you do hit the shield while they are not blocking, they will still recieve a little bit of damage (depending on shield quality and weight of your weapon)

regarding the items:
1. go to the roster
2. click the "hire" button
3. find a merchant
4. hire him
this will give you a second merchant and when you click on this second merchant you will be able to select what equipment tier you want and wether you want only armour, only weapons or both. this should make it very easy to find certain types of weapons (or shields). finding certain types of armour (especially when you're also looking for a certain quality or style or even both) will be much harder but still a lot easier than it is with just the regular merchant.

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by Luzilyo:

to defeat people equipped with a shield, you want something very heavy. once the "shield stamina" takes damage, there will be a small cooldown before it starts to regenerate. so take the heaviest weapon that you can and just keep hitting them. eventually, their shield stamina will drop to 0 (heavier weapons will make this process faster) and then they won't be able to block actively and even if you do hit the shield while they are not blocking, they will still recieve a little bit of damage (depending on shield quality and weight of your weapon)

regarding the items:
1. go to the roster
2. click the "hire" button
3. find a merchant
4. hire him
this will give you a second merchant and when you click on this second merchant you will be able to select what equipment tier you want and wether you want only armour, only weapons or both. this should make it very easy to find certain types of weapons (or shields). finding certain types of armour (especially when you're also looking for a certain quality or style or even both) will be much harder but still a lot easier than it is with just the regular merchant.

Thank you for the explanation on merchants.
As for the other, I've tried that with the heaviest weapons available to me (that I've been able to obtain at aspirant) and it's still a luck based thing. Metal bar, craftsman's hammer, the super basic mace.

It really seems like I just need to mix in more overheads and LtR swings.
I also still really wish we could make left-handed fighters. I think they would be a pretty interesting dynamic to have, both ai and player-wise.

[zaratan4o]

Shielders get much more difficult adept+ when they all the skills for them.

It's not easy, going to take some getting used to. I would probably advise patience against them.

[D.Cub3d]

Originally posted by zaratan4o:

Shielders get much more difficult adept+ when they all the skills for them.

It's not easy, going to take some getting used to. I would probably advise patience against them.

Problem is they know they have the massive advantage and almost every one of them I have seen doesn't allow for patience, they just barrel into me and clinch and just ship damage me to death. So far the only counter has been to do it right back to them lol. Or get lucky.

[ChurchGorilla]

Originally posted by Transflux:

Originally posted by zaratan4o:

Shielders get much more difficult adept+ when they all the skills for them.

It's not easy, going to take some getting used to. I would probably advise patience against them.

Problem is they know they have the massive advantage and almost every one of them I have seen doesn't allow for patience, they just barrel into me and clinch and just ship damage me to death. So far the only counter has been to do it right back to them lol. Or get lucky.

Dual wield two swords and keep attacking from both sides continuesly. EZ win

[Luzilyo]

yeah especially in the lower ranks like aspirant there aren't any really good heavy weapons so it will take a long time. takes a weird mix of being very aggressive and at the same time careful to not get hit. you want to hit their shield as often and as quickly as possible with the most possible momentum. in an ideal scenario, you'd use the heaviest weapon and dodge all enemy attacks while at the same time constantly attacking and hitting their shield. since this is not possible unless you're one of those master-dudes that can beat expert training naked without taking any damage at all, you will probably have to take a few breaks to parry or dodge attacks, which will mean that things take a bit longer. then you need a bit more patience.

another option would be to just dodge until you see an opening and then stab them in the face or legs with a sword or dagger. for this, you just step backwards to dodge their attacks and then, before they can recover, you lunge forwards while simultaneously starting a thrust. two or three good hits to the face, or a few more good hits to the legs should be enough to take them out. generally, i'd say thrusting is the easiest way to take out opponents without getting hit. step back, lunge forward and thrust, repeat. it's what i always do when i face someone with a scary weapon (like cleaver in inept) and so far it hasn't failed me. and since thrusting also allows you to target specific body locations it also makes it much easier to get past shields.

[Rolly]

I am lazy so I beat the shield arm of my opponent until he/she tires out. Then you can pretty much hit anywhere a couple times to finish your opponent off.

[D.Cub3d]

Originally posted by Luzilyo:

-snip-

Speaking of daggers, I didn't even think about it, but pressing into them and doing thrusts could work rather well if you can get under their shield and control that arm.

I've noticed when I tie up their shield arm with my weapon a quick attack is unblockable though you don't generate much momentum. Perhaps the dagger could alleviate that. I wish we could set up primary and secondary weapons for arena.