Ballistic shield needs a buff

[AndiNova]

Title says it all its perhaps one of the worst backpack items in the game,
every item has its use against Automatons or Terminids, the Ballistic shield however stands alone, only good against one and made obsolete once you get the Force Shield.

1) its only good vs Automatons, as it only blocks Ranged attacks, of the non Fire and Acid variety, with that because it only blocks part of your body and theirs no guarantee you will not get shot and gunned down from a lucky string of shots.
2) you can only use one handed weapons with it, of which in the game their are very few, and 4 of 6 are Secondaries, any other weapons make the shield stow on your back. this also means you cant use any support weapons with it as no support weapon is one handed.
3) its a back pack item? as such you cant use other backpack items, but as its interactions with support weapons all being two handed weapons you cant use it with support weapons ether. this leaves you with only one real viable option of weapon, the Defender.
4) its unique interactions, it acts like a support tool as you use it with one handed weapons. however as a back pack it also get stowed on your back when you are holding anything else. its the only backpack in the game you can drop when you get tumbled even if you dive leaving you to have to hunt for it in combat. if you pick up a data case wail holding it you drop the shield, no other back pack item is dropped when picking up a Data/Cache case. it does have a melee damage reduction but its only a reduction of 10% which isnt much at all.

as a backpack Defense item its completely overshadowed by the Force Shield Backpack, now i dont wnat that nerfed in any way further as i feel its in a good place now.


Solution?
1) i say give the Ballistic shield Melee damage immunity, or at least a Damage Reduction of 90%, this would give it use against both factions. and make it much less of a one trick pony.
2) make it a support weapon, as you cant use support weapons with it anyway this change would increase its utility 10x. allowing players to run many more combos and have much more fun with it.


Combos this change would allow
1) Ballistic Shield + Knight + Supply Pack- sustainable run and gun vs bug and bots.
2) Ballistic Shield + Defender + Force Shield- Tank defense build, to support allies.
3) Ballistic Shield + Defender + Rover- drone support that allows you to scoot and shoot.
4) Ballistic Shield + Senator + Jetpack- enough said.

Thoughts Comments Concerns
Thanks

[reaper557]

I completely agree that the ballistic shield is kinda worthless right now.

[Katitoff]

I have only issue with dropping it on ragdol, that should never happen.
Still narrow weapon selection for it does not help either.

[Charlie]

They should give an artificial buff to the user, give it more armor just for bringing it.
Also, I don't mind ragdolling so long as I don't drop the freaking shield

[Helios481]

i do feel that because you can only use shield with smg and secondaries it should deffinatly have better blocking power to help out weigh the downsides, if it could fully block spitter bile and perhaps a bit of bile titan bile then it could see it more usefull, or perhaps allow it to block melee attacks making it usefull against hunters and stalkers would be nice.

as far as automatons they should make what you can block based off armor type, having heavier armor could allow more weight to prevent medium weapons like walkers and light misile attacks from rag dolling while light armor would mostly be fore small firearms.

[C4NNED]

YUP Ballistic shield needs a bigger block window when equipped in hand and be able to withstand bigger threats. Or give us a passive Stat Boost to explosive resistance and limb health

[SievertChaser]

"Super"earth failing at something XIIIth century Earth didn't - enarmes and guige?

Pathetic as always.

[Onimaho]

Would be kinda cool if it blocking projectiles when stashed on your back...

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Onimaho:

Would be kinda cool if it blocking projectiles when stashed on your back...

Reminds me of the glitch in Bannerlord that sometimes spawns NPCs with two giant roundshields, one in the hands, the ither in the back...

[CaliTurian]

It should let you temporarily deploy it and by doing so, it generates a small frontal shield that acts the way way as the bubble shield stratagem. Would be cool to run, deploy it, block a volley of rockets and then pick it back up and keep running.

[Onimaho]

Originally posted by SievertChaser:

Originally posted by Onimaho:

Would be kinda cool if it blocking projectiles when stashed on your back...

Reminds me of the glitch in Bannerlord that sometimes spawns NPCs with two giant roundshields, one in the hands, the ither in the back...

Originally posted by CaliTurian:

It should let you temporarily deploy it and by doing so, it generates a small frontal shield that acts the way way as the bubble shield stratagem. Would be cool to run, deploy it, block a volley of rockets and then pick it back up and keep running.

Like a pavise

seems we have some cultured ones in here

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Onimaho:

Originally posted by SievertChaser:

Reminds me of the glitch in Bannerlord that sometimes spawns NPCs with two giant roundshields, one in the hands, the ither in the back...

Originally posted by CaliTurian:

It should let you temporarily deploy it and by doing so, it generates a small frontal shield that acts the way way as the bubble shield stratagem. Would be cool to run, deploy it, block a volley of rockets and then pick it back up and keep running.

Like a pavise

seems we have some cultured ones in here

They need to figure out how a regular ol' kite shield works first.

Also, the pavise is a shape, not the function. Smaller pavise displaced heater shields, seen as far east as the Russian expeditions to Siberia, where they clashed with the locals' wing shields[disgustingmen.com].

[Onimaho]

Originally posted by SievertChaser:

Originally posted by Onimaho:

Like a pavise

seems we have some cultured ones in here

They need to figure out how a regular ol' kite shield works first.

Also, the pavise is a shape, not the function. Smaller pavise displaced heater shields, seen as far east as the Russian expeditions to Siberia, where they clashed with the locals' wing shields[disgustingmen.com].

ugh fiiiiiiiiiiiine

but the most famous reference would be the pavise used by genoese crossbowmen and that is more or less what would make sense for the size of shield the game is using

[TamTroll]

Using a 2-handed weapon makes it go onto your back right?

what if having it on your back provided you protection from getting shot in the back? Like the Sniper in TF2 with the backstab-proof shield.

That'd be great for those of us who tend to get tunnel-vision and accidentally end up flanked.

[Daos]

its only use is against the bots and the bots love there rockets and can snipe you from 200m easy. needs to be able to block heaver stuff and deploy it as cover

[Nokturnal]

Biggest problem I've run into with it is a bug ever since the Railgun nerf patch.

You can get stuck holding your hands out to your side and the shield no longer functions until you swap weapons, happens fairly often.

It can happen while carrying the SSDD objective item as well. It's some weird dual wielding bug.