How to win with the riot shield

How to get kills and help your team while using the riot shield as your primary weapon. Strategies, requirements, and the best classes.

Prerequisites

Riot shield isn't always the best choice or a viable play-style. Sometimes it is a terrible idea to use the riot shield. There are 4 main reasons why.

• Maps: Maps like Downturn, Fallen, and Baakara are very hard to use the shield on. Snipers can try to shoot your feet and there is too much open area to travel. On the other hand, Dome is also no good for shield users because you will likely encounter more than one enemy at a time. The best shield maps are Carbon, Bootleg and Underground, in that order.
  
• Ping: If the ping is no good then you will have a hard time using the shield. I never try to use the shield if ping is yellow, and even 3bar is iffy. You need to be able to stay looking directly at the enemy, which cannot happen if they are 500ms ahead of you.
• Teams: if you are playing against a coordinated team of enemies (like a clan) you will have no chance. 2 players can just go to you and one of them will end up behind the shield. If they are alone they are probably smart enough to just run away (best defense against shield.
  
• Too many explosives: If everyone on the enemy team saves their C4, Semtex and rockets just for you then you should just change classes.

If all of these problems are avoided then it is time to start using the shield.

Building your class and how to play

The difference between a good riot shield player and a bad one is their class. Many perks, secondaries and other items seem like a good idea, but really aren't. There are 3 types of shield classes that you can use

The Team Player

The point of this class is to help your teammates and win the game. You will probably go negative, but get like 12 assists. You want to stick around near your teammates and try for "crowd control" assists. Get 2 assists and it adds 1 score to your score-streak. When you use the Recon Drone you will get some more assists and everyone you mark will stay on the Minimap in real time UNTIL THEY DIE. (btw if you ever get tagged just commit suicide and the tag will go away). If you find yourself 1 on 1 wait for the enemy to reload after shooting at you then switch to the .44s and shoot them. If they do not shoot at you go for a bash. The throwing knife can be used if you run out of ammo or you face a static sniper, or just replace it with c4 for room clearing.

Gettin' kills

So, you just want all the kills for yourself? Take the team player class and replace the hardline with assassin. Replace the support kill-streak with specialist if you want. I recommend you do not do that. Riot Shield users die often and sometimes it is unavoidable. You can use g18s instead of .44s if you want for more ammo. You will still be killing mostly by fast switching to secondary with SOH pro.

The Purist

This is the worst class, but more satisfying. Replace SOH with extreme conditioning and hardline with quickdraw. Replace the secondary with the SMAW or Javalin (for shooting down UAVs). You will be getting most of your kills with the bash or throwing knife. With quickdraw the throw is much faster so you will have to practice knife skills some. You can replace SOH with recon and use stunners too for easier bash kills.

What to avoid

There are some mistakes people often make when using the riot shield.

• Using Blast shield: 2nd slot is too important to waste on this. You should be close enough to enemies that their stuns stun them too.
  
• Using the "speed" weapon perk: It increases your speed by 10%. Melee is much more important and useful. Even with speed you are slower than everyone but barret/rsass/as50 and LMG users.
  
• Running: when you run your shield pretty much moves to the shadow realm and takes a while to come back. If enemies are near walk or sneak.
  
• Going into the Kill Zone: if you see 2 enemies at once you are almost certainly screwed. Try to pick off people in the lanes, not the main battle area, unless you have teammates and are just acting as a distraction.
  
• Throwing crap: when you throw knives and flashes your shield also goes off to the shadow realm. Only do this when far away or during a reload unless you have quickdraw pro.

The end

Have fun and thanks for reading. If you want to translate just message me.

[Bontii]

C4 is superior. Support class ONLY vest and UAV so you get vest every 4 kills.
1. Lure enemy by waiting
2. Disappear behind corner when they are closer
3. Jump back out with full fire akimbo in their face
Best class to kill hackers with