is the shield bearer any good

[Androgos]

as the title says is she any good? im still near the start of the game and i find her lacking in all areas attack defense and CC. personaly i find her to be sub par does she get better?

[Zebedee]

I love mine. The ability to control initiative is really nice (alternatives exist though), as are the grace line of buffs, and even a dps one with the right traits can be surprisingly effective.

[Androgos]

at what lvl would you say it becomes good? i take mine on missions but barely use them my other 2 just kill so fast it dosent matter

[Zebedee]

Yeah, you can burn through to some degree until you need to start managing initiative of monsters/bosses more regularly. Or when having wodges of armour can really help speed things up because you can tank a hit. There are different ways round that though so can see other angles to it.

[Mandragore]

She's the only class I really have trouble making work outside of boss battles (and even here, she's subpar past a certain point... I killed boss 3 without her taking more than a single move action).

Her one good skill is Bash, which is truly excellent. Other than that, she's extremely slow and can't keep up with your Blademaster, and Soulslinger's defensive Reaction skills are just downright better and more reliable because of the range.

* Getting her mobility skill at level 10 is just way too late, it should be swapped with the level 5 unlock.
* Blacksmith's Grace only getting you armor for 40 units is not enough for a skill that costs you life. It should be until her next turn, like most Reaction skills. If you factor in the unreliable AI as well (mobs will ignore her if their AI is set on other targets), she will just stand there doing nothing. She needs a way to force aggro on her.

There is also a certain unlock in the story that will give you an option that's basically a Shieldbearer on steroids, and you will never look back again. When SB fails to do her job even on maps full on enemies rushing towards you and keep aggro on the same Sister, you know the class is in sore need of a handful of buffs. She's slow, she doesn't do enough, her kit is either HP-dependent (guess what? percentages don't care that you have 3000 or 8000 HP) or situational, and the one thing she's good at (Initiative delay) is barely enough to make her playable.

[Androgos]

i agree with what you said she needs some sort of a taunt ability to make things attack her or at least force them to move to her. many times i used blacksmith grace only to have them walk by and attack another target or just do nothing

[Fringehunter7719]

I feel this way about the blademaster. The basic attack doing its damage in 1 hit instead of 3 is nice against armor, but it only does about 20 damage more than the shieldbearer's equivalent 30AP attack. The mobility skill is quite nice for getting in about a half hit worth of extra free damage and the high damage 2 tile delayed AOE is situationally strong, but in practice I've found the extra HP, armor and ability to delay initiative much more useful.

I really like the blademaster sacrifice though, so I feel somewhat obliged to use them.

[Lord_WC]

Originally posted by OedonWrithe:

* Blacksmith's Grace only getting you armor for 40 units is not enough for a skill that costs you life.

You can put a memory in it that gives 400 armor, and it will proc every time. After a hit she is basically immortal to bosses and can facetank them.

I really don't bring mine only to bossfights - she gets everything I want at level 5, and after that the lower level she is, the better, she's easier to heal.

[David]

Early on, she's almost immune to scavengers with her base defence (if she's the target, they'll waste turns on her too). Anyway, she's not lacking in defence. From the beginning her slam skill can stun-lock non-boss enemies while damaging them. It knocks them back 25 and it only costs 25 to use.

[Trolleur_Durden]

In the current state of the game, I ditched the shieldbearer entirely, because I had no use for her. A soulslinger with a delay memory on the shot delays opponents much better, and if you play well, you are never in a position where you need to tank anything. Don't feel forced to play shielbearers just for the sake of it, a team of 2 SS and 2 BM is perfectly suited to deal with anything.

[Mandragore]

Originally posted by Lord_WC:

Originally posted by OedonWrithe:

* Blacksmith's Grace only getting you armor for 40 units is not enough for a skill that costs you life.

You can put a memory in it that gives 400 armor, and it will proc every time. After a hit she is basically immortal to bosses and can facetank them.

I really don't bring mine only to bossfights - she gets everything I want at level 5, and after that the lower level she is, the better, she's easier to heal.

I can do the same with a Blademaster's Sidestep though, without sacrificing damage in the process and making a much better target for my slinger's intiative burst.

Because of how enemy spawns and AI work, mobility is everything in the game. Blademaster has it baseline, Soulslinger attacks from range, Scythedancer acts 1.5 more times than everyone else on the battlefield. Only SB is a slow-ass turtle who plays catch-up with the team the entire time, and only gets a decent mobility skill at level 10, which is just too late.

Everything SB does, other classes can do it better. Damage? Blademaster. Mobility? Blademaster. Speed? Scythedancer. Crowd control? Soulslinger/Scythedancer. Tanking? Scythedancer. Initiative delay? Put delay on Scythedancer's Stealing and enjoy your 20 AP, ranged Bash. Dance of Death is also ridiculous when you stack it with a delay memory, or Root, or Weakness. Really, SB is fine before you unlock the fourth class. Afterwards she's just subpar, and her only somewhat-redeeming quality is her level 15 skill.

[AddictedToRot]

Controlling initiative is very important. She is good from the start. If you sacrifice a few daughters and up her damage, then you can have a powerful tank.

[Androgos]

ill try out sacrificing daughters to buff her

[VladK02]

late-game she is worthless. you dont need a tank if you dont get hit, and in late game, not getting hit is the way to go.

[snaplemouton]

Originally posted by VladK02:

late-game she is worthless. you dont need a tank if you dont get hit, and in late game, not getting hit is the way to go.

Shieldbearer can solo the last boss... She is definitely not worthless. She can hold on to a group of 2-3 enemies by keeping them delayed forever while the rest of your daughter are busy.
She can easily tank the bosses hits if you can't afford to interrupt. With proper memories, she can one shot most enemies with her shield charge or lunge attack. Her shield slam can easily kill in 2 swings and her spear tornado is a great delayed attack.

[Grim]

So far I use her far more than bladedancer. Currently working on chapter two boss and I find myself almost never using bladedancer and using shieldy far more often for damage mitigation. The only trouble I have really is against heavily armored units since both SB and SS do three mini shots rather than one big, but eh Im makin it.