Shield feels not-so-great

[Lord Cantbeatme]

I've played for quite a few hours now and tried a lot of combinations among classes. I just don't feel like the damage mitigation from shields is really worth it. It only blocks a small chunk of damage in front of you. And while there's a stun, it's only marginally useful.

The best defense seems to be just killing things before they touch you. And parrying mitigates 100% of the damage, albeit only a percent of the time. Ranged classes also have some advantage in that they don't have to get close to danger.

My suggested improvements would be one of these two options:

1. Give the shield more damage reduction, a slightly larger radius (say 210-240 degrees), and the bash does some damage (20-40% weapon damage)

2. Change the shield's bash to a short period of invulnerability or massively reduced damage (ex. 80-90% reduced damage for 3s, 5s cooldown)

These possible changes could make the shield feel like a truly useful tool for someone who wants to be a human wall. Right now it feels like a liability when straight up killing enemies faster protects you better from taking damage.

Would love to hear what other people think about the shield.

[Scittle]

My last run on paladin, it said I took 32.6k damage, and my shield blocked 10.6k damage. My shield also has 32% parry on it alongside the 16% my axe has.
Early on, the shields don't feel like they do a whole lot, but throughout the longer runs as your progress it really adds up. Shields are especially great if you're going for a spell damage / spell crit paladin build.

[Shaunus Lemons]

Shields are pretty good.
Blocking up to 50 flat damage works really well against traps and enemy mobs if you position well. As far as I know you can't parry ranged attacks and when my friend and I were playing we'd wear shields on anything we could even spellcasters. My warrior is infinitely more tanky than my ranger despite my warrior being in melee range. My warrior can face tank most enemies, my ranger has to dash to stay up on NG1+.

Keep in mind a lot of the reason for melee being squishy is spell damage, the wizards and lightning archers dealing huge damage output (especially against paladins, as they don't have much damage reduction). Try running these classes without shields, you will soon discover just how meaningful they are.

Also mobs can also carry shields and anyone that has played ranger will express frustration early as it will block all non-crit damage in the early game. Changing both to massively reduce damage for x duration would make the gameplay pretty miserable borderline unplayable. Looking at steam achievements rangers have half the representation as the other classes.

If anything shields need to be nerfed slightly.

[✪ Sacreville]

I'm not on NG+ yet but I feel the other way around. Shield seems so useful and powerful early on, the damage reduction increase survivability so much. Most of my decent runs mostly have shields equipped.

[Revalopod]

Nah, shields are too OP to the point you want to be using them on a wizard lol.

[Drengr]

why people are crying about everything .... change this aaand change here . sometimes game is not the problem ^^

[iHaku]

Originally posted by Revalopod:

Nah, shields are too OP to the point you want to be using them on a wizard lol.

Originally posted by ✪ Sacreville:

I'm not on NG+ yet but I feel the other way around. Shield seems so useful and powerful early on, the damage reduction increase survivability so much. Most of my decent runs mostly have shields equipped.

yeah no point in ever using 2H unless you REALLY wanna do a weapon skill build and not stack spell power on a wizard. shields are easily the way to go for wizards especially since this game is a lot less lethal than HoH1, which only makes stacking survivability that much better.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Drengr:

why people are crying about everything .... change this aaand change here . sometimes game is not the problem ^^

The answer is easy and complex at the same time.

[Ronnyfire]

I am in the group of people who thinks shield is so incredibly powerful i have them on every character because the blocked damage is so crazy good for staying healthy. In multiplayer i can stand in front of arrow traps to block projectiles for friends and in fights i never have to leave, no matter how many enemies there are.
Just gotta strafe in large circles and keep facing the archers while you hunt down wizards and the shield is crazy good :)

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Ronnyfire:

I am in the group of people who thinks shield is so incredibly powerful i have them on every character because the blocked damage is so crazy good for staying healthy. In multiplayer i can stand in front of arrow traps to block projectiles for friends and in fights i never have to leave, no matter how many enemies there are.
Just gotta strafe in large circles and keep facing the archers while you hunt down wizards and the shield is crazy good :)

Especially in the final level.

[Varyn [GER]]

Don't see your problem, shield is imho pretty much BiS for almost every class. When you regularly use the stun, especially on dangerous targets like elite lighting mages, you negate SO MUCH DMG to you and your team.
You always want a balance between survivablity and killspeed, and shield gives you a lot bonus surviveability with, depending on class and build, just a mild hit on killspeed.

[Martial Autist]

I think shield is relatively fine as it is, though I have only used it on paladin so far. I wouldn't mind some physical damage on the bash though, just enough for it to act like a weapon swing that stuns. Or a little bit of parry% as baseline.

Originally posted by Varyn GER:

Don't see your problem, shield is imho pretty much BiS for almost every class. When you regularly use the stun, especially on dangerous targets like elite lighting mages, you negate SO MUCH DMG to you and your team.
You always want a balance between survivablity and killspeed, and shield gives you a lot bonus surviveability with, depending on class and build, just a mild hit on killspeed.

Would you recommend a lvl1 shield from a new paladin or one of the better ones that require STR investment? If the latter is the cut-off point 50 damage blocked or do the secondary stats on it also matter thus making item level more important?

[LupisVolk]

I did my first Paladin run and with a shield and mace i got to the last phase of the cave boss.

[MIJAMIJAMIJA]

Originally posted by Shaunus Lemons:

Shields are pretty good.
Blocking up to 50 flat damage works really well against traps and enemy mobs if you position well. As far as I know you can't parry ranged attacks and when my friend and I were playing we'd wear shields on anything we could even spellcasters. My warrior is infinitely more tanky than my ranger despite my warrior being in melee range. My warrior can face tank most enemies, my ranger has to dash to stay up on NG1+.

Keep in mind a lot of the reason for melee being squishy is spell damage, the wizards and lightning archers dealing huge damage output (especially against paladins, as they don't have much damage reduction). Try running these classes without shields, you will soon discover just how meaningful they are.

Also mobs can also carry shields and anyone that has played ranger will express frustration early as it will block all non-crit damage in the early game. Changing both to massively reduce damage for x duration would make the gameplay pretty miserable borderline unplayable. Looking at steam achievements rangers have half the representation as the other classes.

If anything shields need to be nerfed slightly.

Warrior being able to facetank isnt because of shield though. My warrior is in NG6 and i take 100 shadowcurse each run and play 2h weapon. You do not need a shield to be invulnerable on warrior.

[Varyn [GER]]

Originally posted by Martial Autist:

I think shield is relatively fine as it is, though I have only used it on paladin so far. I wouldn't mind some physical damage on the bash though, just enough for it to act like a weapon swing that stuns. Or a little bit of parry% as baseline.

Originally posted by Varyn GER:

Don't see your problem, shield is imho pretty much BiS for almost every class. When you regularly use the stun, especially on dangerous targets like elite lighting mages, you negate SO MUCH DMG to you and your team.
You always want a balance between survivablity and killspeed, and shield gives you a lot bonus surviveability with, depending on class and build, just a mild hit on killspeed.

Would you recommend a lvl1 shield from a new paladin or one of the better ones that require STR investment? If the latter is the cut-off point 50 damage blocked or do the secondary stats on it also matter thus making item level more important?

For a STR-class, the better shield is surely fine. On meteor wiz or any warlock a lowlevel shield is fine - the statinvestment just for a better shield nets more when used on better stats instead. The shieldstun stays the same anyway.