Living tree shield buff - good enough?

[w.f.schepel]

40 hp
20 mdef
17 rdef
12 fat

And the fun part: regenerates 4 hp durability each turn.

Is this enough to make these shields worth it to hunt down schrats? (The fire lance did insane dmg to the schrat, btw.) I really like the durabiltiy regen, but 4 points/turn is never going to make up for the damage axe wielding orcs will do.

I really do like the look of it, but I am on the fence whether or not the living tree shield is *quite* good enough to hunt down schrats.

[Cat®]

Wait, the firepots do nothing but the firelances do big damage? I'm going hunting.

That said while I wouldn't risk anyone's lives for a shield, even a good shield such as the living shield; I think they're worth fishing for if nothing else. Sure, don't run into a 3-skull contract just because, but consider taking a chance. Overall schrats give good crafting ingredients so I'd say if you got the muscles to take a few of them down they're worth the recovery. Death? Not so much. Also, the blacksmith makes them redundant. Keep that in mind.

[chandl34]

Hey that's cool. Were there other old items that got buffed for the DLC?

Schrats aren't too bad if you have the gear for them. I wouldn't rush them for the shields, if you aren't prepared.

[Scathe]

look, I happen to think schrats are easy, and I think the light padding armor attachment is decent and I'd consider still hunting them to put light padding on noble mails for my nimble bros, but both the light padding and the living shield are outclassed by blazing deserts easy to get loot, IMO. simple southern mail with hyena fur attachment is quite good, and sipar shield is more all purpose than living shield. I already have 6 sipar shields by day 47 just from fighting nomads and fighting conscripts from the city-state I chose to go to war with. sipar shield is 18mdef 18rdef -18fat 60dur. that 60dur makes a difference over living tree.

the power creep is real.

[Whatever100500]

Famed shields are still better and relatively common.

[Hairy Coo]

Can someone confirm firelance is doing extra dmg vs Schrats? I mean, they are made of wood and all, it makes sense.

[Zankaze]

Originally posted by Whatever100500:

Famed shields are still better and relatively common.

Teach me your secrets. In my 200+ hours, i've never seen one.

[Hairy Coo]

Originally posted by Zankaze:

Originally posted by Whatever100500:

Famed shields are still better and relatively common.

Teach me your secrets. In my 200+ hours, i've never seen one.

Wut? Thats like a pretty common named loot. Can literally appear anywhere.

[Whatever100500]

Originally posted by Hairy Coo:

Originally posted by Zankaze:

Teach me your secrets. In my 200+ hours, i've never seen one.

Wut? Thats like a pretty common named loot. Can literally appear anywhere.

Exactly, just go loot some camps.

[w.f.schepel]

Originally posted by Cat®:

Wait, the firepots do nothing but the firelances do big damage? I'm going hunting.

That said while I wouldn't risk anyone's lives for a shield, even a good shield such as the living shield; I think they're worth fishing for if nothing else. Sure, don't run into a 3-skull contract just because, but consider taking a chance. Overall schrats give good crafting ingredients so I'd say if you got the muscles to take a few of them down they're worth the recovery. Death? Not so much. Also, the blacksmith makes them redundant. Keep that in mind.

Did you drop the shield on the schrat? Can't imagine a fire bomb doing nothing.

[Cat®]

Originally posted by w.f.schepel:

Originally posted by Cat®:

Wait, the firepots do nothing but the firelances do big damage? I'm going hunting.

That said while I wouldn't risk anyone's lives for a shield, even a good shield such as the living shield; I think they're worth fishing for if nothing else. Sure, don't run into a 3-skull contract just because, but consider taking a chance. Overall schrats give good crafting ingredients so I'd say if you got the muscles to take a few of them down they're worth the recovery. Death? Not so much. Also, the blacksmith makes them redundant. Keep that in mind.

Did you drop the shield on the schrat? Can't imagine a fire bomb doing nothing.

I popped the pot to start the fight just for science, and it did functionally nothing. However now that you mention it maybe it does do significantly more once the shield is down. However if so you're kinda in a pickle because odds are you'll be standing in fire too. I feel if the shield is down you've already got good conventional damage options.

[Teut]

The idea of a regenerating shield fits well, but only 4/round is just not good enough. And making it a couple points better than a regular heater wouldn't hurt either.

Craftables from high tier monsters could use a buff anyway - especially Kraken stuff. 50 durability on the shield is way too low and the armor plating absorbing only 10% is very dissappointing.

[w.f.schepel]

Originally posted by Teut:

The idea of a regenerating shield fits well, but only 4/round is just not good enough. And making it a couple points better than a regular heater wouldn't hurt either.

Craftables from high tier monsters could use a buff anyway - especially Kraken stuff. 50 durability on the shield is way too low and the armor plating absorbing only 10% is very dissappointing.

It is quite a bit better than a normal heater. Its base hp value alone is better, but it comes with better def stats as well. So, compared to the heater, it is a strict upgrade. Compared to the metal nomad shield it becomes a bit more complicated. It is cheaper in terms of fatigue and comes with better def stats. The durability on the metal shields is better, though.

I fought a lindwurm or two (in the arena) with the living tree shield and a regular heater. The heater got almost destroyed and I had to rotate the guy out. The living tree shield survived intact. Which saves some repair costs.

Incidentally, that is also a matter of consideration for fights with several rounds: the regen ability becomes quite useful.

[Sathra]

Yeah, they're very niche. I mostly make them because I can. I don't need light padding much, and money isn't an issue so why not. There's a few fights where I'll take heaters instead of sipar. Mostly pure melee fights not against Orcs.
Living Shields are slightly better, and in big fights where fatigue is an issue why not take the advantages. Also, they're readily available so don't care if they get broken. Schrats aren't hard if you know what you're doing.

[Donuel the Daring]

I found groups of 4 schrats pretty simple; just put longaxes on my backline and arranged them on hexes 2-out, but not in a straight line with the attack pattern; while tanks with shieldwall kept them anchored. Gathered materials to make my first living shield... then didn’t actually end up using it because I thought it was ugly :) so I used 3 sipars until I ended up finding 2 named shields and crafting a lindwurm shield for my 3 tanks.

[Teut]

Originally posted by w.f.schepel:

Originally posted by Teut:

The idea of a regenerating shield fits well, but only 4/round is just not good enough. And making it a couple points better than a regular heater wouldn't hurt either.

Craftables from high tier monsters could use a buff anyway - especially Kraken stuff. 50 durability on the shield is way too low and the armor plating absorbing only 10% is very dissappointing.

It is quite a bit better than a normal heater. Its base hp value alone is better, but it comes with better def stats as well. So, compared to the heater, it is a strict upgrade. Compared to the metal nomad shield it becomes a bit more complicated. It is cheaper in terms of fatigue and comes with better def stats. The durability on the metal shields is better, though.

I fought a lindwurm or two (in the arena) with the living tree shield and a regular heater. The heater got almost destroyed and I had to rotate the guy out. The living tree shield survived intact. Which saves some repair costs.

Incidentally, that is also a matter of consideration for fights with several rounds: the regen ability becomes quite useful.

I need shields for my tanks, so they can stand there being sorrounde by heavy hitters. Often they will try to break a shield and only Orc ones are enough to withstand Barbarian 2H's or Orcs a full round. 50 stability just won't cut it, 4 regeneration isn't noticable, even if you would cycle through shields. Five more MDef is nice, but they're too hard to get just to expose them to the high risk of getting destroyed.

Better ranged defence than a heater's is a non factor. If you want range defense - maybe for Gobbo City - you'll take kites anyway.