Shield Mastery Ruined; Bear Nerf

[Mavis]

As far as I know, bear was not a super dominant clan compared to the ones at the top, especially after the bear relic nerf, so I'm confused why shield mastery was completely gutted.

Shield Mastery as a lore (which you usually get 7th if you go down harpoons, then middle) used to give reduced cost for shield bearers, 5% bonus resistance, and shield camps had no upkeep cost. Now... it makes upgrading shield bearers free? Except upgrades in the forge only cost 5 iron now AND you do not regularly get shield mastery early enough to still have time to fully forge it before a normal mid-802 swing. So, the "free upgrade" is essentially useless and the 5% resistance it still offers doesn't feel worth it enough to pick it solely for that reason.

As a regular bear player, the new shield mastery lore feels absolutely garbage. I find no worth in going it and it feels bad, even more so compared to what it used to be. The bear clan (at an average player level) never had a TON of gold. Now? It's so hard to manage my gold when my units all cost more than they used to AND all my camps cost full upkeep. I'm having to relearn my gold timing entirely and it just feels so, so, so bad for the bear clan.

In the end, it is what it is, but I'm theory-crafting new lore paths because I wouldn't advise anyone to go shield mastery. I'd rather build a brewery and dip into harpoons, shipbuilding, and then stop at protector of the land or go harpoons and then down to military strategy than build shield mastery with the new changes.

If any upper level player who knows what they're talking about disagrees, I humbly ask you to give me some tips on how to help my gold gains after the changes and mitigate what feels like an extremely bad nerf to shield mastery. :)

Adios and have a great day.

[Velimirius]

New player here, didnt want to open new topic since this one is up already, any general tips for bear, played only as kraken so far.

I usually play 4v4 with Ex AI cuz i enjoy crowded matches.

[Velimirius]

Cool, thx!

[Zachopotamus]

Once you have your relic, your shield maiden is unkillable. Seriously, go nuts!