shield abilitys

[Kwan]

Yo

There is a shard thats summons books around you that protect you from incoming damage and also deal significant damage to nearby enemies.

With this shard you can faceroll most things, except bosses. am i missing something or is this just op?

Im at about 50% if game. with this shard it feels like easy mode.

[LadstonFelisGaming]

You’re referring to Welcome Company. There’s already been a lot of posts regarding it and it’s “overpowered” nature.

That said, it’s not as powerful as many people hype it up to be. At max rank and grade, it does average damage at best, and the barrier does not protect against contact damage nor projectiles that penetrate solid objects. There’s also the aspect of needing to recast it constantly to maintain the barrier.

If you want an overpowered defensive shard, go grab Directed Shield. It blocks everything in the game except grabs and gives you invincibility frames after blocking an attack, which renders contact damage and penetrative projectiles a non-issue.

[SmallGespenst]

nah it's not op, it's just easy to use. it's damage is nothing special and the protection only works on either toads, which get knocked back, or enemies weak enough to be killed instantly. i guess some projectiles might be blocked, but there are enough that aren't that it's not reliable, especially if you've lost some of the portraits. it's real use is a safety net on platforming segments with the dulla-heads, as well as clearing out bats and toads.
as a general rule, most shards have the potential to be absurdly powerful (with some obvious exceptions like summon chair and flytrap) welcome company just has the good fortune to peak in it's power early, so savour it's power while you can, you've probably already got more then a few shards that'll out shine it before long.

[Kwan]

thank you for your answers.
i just started playing this game without any pre-knowledge.

yes the book-shield is useful against the little pesky enemies. im still on first playthrough so nothing dont know yet what is going to be needed lateron. i got a directional shield which seemed really good but never used it so far as there is no need as of yet.

to sum it up, im just going with the "flow" i got the dagger upgrade shard, i got the best dagger weapon from "8-bit-shard". investing in everything making daggers better. they probably have the hightest dps ingame. (just estimated). because the attack speed is insane. reach weapon is nice, but if everything melts it doesnt matter. as i said first playtrough.

[shikushiku]

Originally posted by LaddytheOutcast:

There’s also the aspect of needing to recast it constantly to maintain the barrier.

This is honestly barely an issue with it. Maxed out, there are few rooms with enough sturdy enemies in them where you'll need to cast it even twice, and at moderate upgrades casting two or three times a room isn't a big deal, since most shards you'll be casting more than that if you wanna use it on everything.

I wouldn't say it's quite game-breaking, but it definitely feels like it should be taken down a notch or two, maybe by making the paintings break more easily so it's not something you can just put up all the time like you currently can.

[Visi]

They're paintings... not books... how do you confuse the two?

[Kwan]

yeah just based on feeling i do feel i get the most out of the PICTURES in relation to mana cost. i can literally (almost) (carefully) face tank evreything.even bosses are first try easy. maybe normal difficulty is too easy, but i did have more issues in the early game.

[Aicus]

I prefer Directed Shield in most situation.

Welcome Company is great to keep those pesky Dulla Head, toads, bats, bugs or any small creatures from bugging you.