Why is the expansion determined to not allow that?
Hm?
My character never used a shield and finished the campaign without any major problems. Or are you talking about Crucible?
Because the difficulty fetishists got their filthy little talons into the devs’ heads and made the xpac for them rather than for the 99% of people who enjoyed the base game and its ability to let multiple build styles actually shine. So now it’s “get a shield, overcap your resistances by 50%, and ratchet that DA up over 3k or forget ever completing the main quest!”
I know I just love having half a dozen characters I can’t finish ultimate act 6 on that did act 4 just fine, doesn’t everyone?
The shield isn’t needed in AoM, but high resists sure help. Even with a shield, you need high resists. Now Crucible on the other hand is starting to require a shield, or CDR build that keeps mirror and mark of torment up 100% of the time. I do believe the crucible change is going to take a toll on the enjoyability of the game. Those who do play in the crucible are going to be very limited on what they can play, and it’s going to frustrate a lot of people. At least it’s just a DLC, rather than part of the regular game.
Well call me fetishist but I really dont have any trouble finishing main game w/o shield, overcaped resistances, 3k DA and its doable using just vendor gear.
I have actually never done a shield build, and while I flit around a lot and rarely play a build to completion, the 4 I have played through to complete AoM on Ultimate were castors, ranged or Melee. Sure they may have had difficulties along the way and struggled on some bosses, but it may have been 2-3 deaths tops before beating whatever it was.
I probably will do a shield build, but am yet to find the Shield build I would like to do… So spammable castors it is for now!
I would like to see Channeling builds become slightly more viable for something like Crucible as I love the concept of them, but the energy usage and planting mechanics make me sad 
No, since I haven’t yet made a character that can’t complete ult act 6. :rolleyes:
Meanwhile I’m sitting here wanting to do a shield build, but I don’t have one lined up in my next 9 characters because it doesn’t feel remotely necessary.
In what way is the expansion determined to require a shield?
Actually the content is tested with unoptimized builds and sub-par gear, and sometimes even Grava.
I’ve yet to make a character that uses a shield, much less has the stats you just described.
If you’re complaining about the highest waves of Gladiator Crucible though, then I dare say top tier stats should be required, although 1-150 got a bit easier with AoM gear, not harder.
I never played a shield character until very recently and I think I finally build the shield character I wanted to build a couple years ago but never did, because Phantasmal blades got nerfed to the ground. It’s be revitalized and it’s finally near finished and a lot of fun to play. It’s one that I bet you’d like. A shield using Blademaster spamming Phantasmal Blades at range, but can get her hands dirty up close if need be.
I bet this would get you to use a shield. DPS is only 25K-26K, but that’s multiplied by 6 for each dagger. So it’s really more like 150K DPS, and with a shield.
Why yes, that why 90% of my characters in Ultimate AoM don’t have a shield or 3k DA but survive with no issues.
But keep believing that, someday it will be true.
And in my opinion, i think AoM difficulty is blown out of proportion. Is it harder than the base game? Yes, but not by much. I’ve survived during the beta with a BWC Sorcerer fine enough with level 75 gear (I died once to Ekket’Zul). And that was during the time the enemy damage was pretty overtuned. I was being punched in the face by Colossi for 4k damage.
You are correct, I do like that, I was actually trying to find a decent PB build that uses a shield so thanks for the link! I definitely like the idea of shields, just prefer other abilities. Maybe I’d do a Firestrike Dagallon’s with Skybreach Bulwark for pass through firestrike or something?
That last idea could be fun, but to be honest, I preferred that with Purifier, for the WPS’s of the Inquisitor, or just to use a normal pistol for one with a shield, as Cadence already pierces through enemies, but that’s me. That link is still a work in progress. It could be a lot better with better gear, but it’s still good as is.
Of course it’s possible to beat the expansion without a shield, but there’s a broader issue with how reliant the game is on defensive stats. The enemies in AoM hit extremely hard, and a lot of them can lower your resists* to hit even harder. They’re also extremely durable, and a lot of them are fairly fast. On top of that, almost all of them have some form of crowd control resistance and spawn in large numbers.
So you’re left with huge mobs of highly damaging enemies that you can’t possibly kill before they can do a significant amount of damage to you. That means you need raw defensive stats, and shields are one of the best and most readily accessible sources of those. Depending on your class and the gear that exists to support it they might be the only readily accessible option.
*You could honestly solve a lot of the problems in this game by getting rid of resist reduction in its entirety.
I still find I am able to deal with large AoM mobs on Ultimate without taking a significant amount of damage.
Also I think removing Resistance Reduction in its entirety would be extremely unwise. Especially for builds like my Vitality PB build which relies almost entirely on Vitality damage, and being able to lower certain enemies resistances to it is the only way I’m able to clear them.
Can you imagine Cupa without Vitality Resistance reduction? He’d literally be invincible to my primary damage type so I’d not be able to fight him at all. This would make the game extremely frustrating and make a lot of builds almost redundant at certain stages of the game.*
If you mean only removing enemy resistance reduction, then yeah I guess that’s fine, but removes some of the challenge (I assume that’s what you meant, it was just a bit unclear :P)
*I am of course taking the piss here btw, I don’t actually think you meant remove this functionality from the game in its entirety.
lmao Now, that’s just plain mean. 
I like his playstyle and he doesn’t even die that often. 
I made a quick vid of my Ranged Savagery+Mortar Trap Elementalist doing a Galakros run. When it takes damage, it’s substantial but that’s partly my fault for not taking Wendigo Totem or Primal Bond. To make matters worse it doesn’t have armor absorption capped and HP end-game is pretty crappy. Yet it survives due to playing “evasively”.
I find that most players try to face-tank everything in the game and when they fail they blame their gear or drops or build. Sometimes just moving out of the way is all you need. Use some CC abilities etc. Also some players have an issue using health potions. So it all comes down to the player at times. Don’t get me wrong I have shield builds that can stand toe-to-toe with some of the toughest enemies in the game but their clear speed is usually lacking and in most cases I don’t find them fun to use (not enough adrenaline moments). But they’re great for farming…
I feel a lot more optimisation is involved when playing HC and you certainly have to sacrifice damage output at times. Builds require more tinkering than just slapping on a shield and thinking you’re invincible.
If you want help with your character then we can help. Post a grimtools of your current build
Cause what you say is incorrect. It is very easy for non-Shield builds to beat the content on ultimate
It is very likely this is an optimization issue as the difficulty of AoM has been nerfed quite a bit since its release
Off-Topic
I never understood how an entire act related to defeating a literal Demi-God is less difficult than an act fighting goo filled corpses
I kicked the shit out of AoM with my witch hunter who is melee, no shield, her DA is nowhere near 3k and she is pretty much a glass cannon in terms of her health. I did it before I even got my current gear or the new components. Did I die a few times fighting the end boss of AoM? Yes, but she died a lot in the vanilla game as well before AoM. She won’t do gladiator yet, she has done challenger and might do gladiator with better gear but seem to have a lot of trouble getting the items I need and I have no interest in trading. I also don’t design my characters to do crucible. I find it somewhat mind numbing and only do it very occasionally. I have a bunch of non shield, non 3k DA characters who have beat AoM. My witch hunter has very few issues against mobs of enemies. I do tend to shadow strike into the heart of massive packs because that is where she shines.
If you are struggling that much with AoM content it is either your build or your play decisions. I’m not the best player and have stuff that gives me an even greater handicap but I persevere. I also don’t see dying a bunch of times as a bad thing because it is a learning experience and I’m not playing hardcore.
I’m not talking about crucible at all, I’m talking about enemies that you end up fighting as part of the main quest line. I have 3 characters right now that can (and have) destroyed Log on ult with only the gear they currently possess that flat out can’t survive packs in act 5 without pounding every relevant potion. It’s just a matter of “look at all this damage coming in at once” which you either absorb through a shield and overcapped resists or you die. Act 1-4 are a game of “make a build and see if it works”; act 5-6 are “make a build, then see how well you can run around like a retarded chicken in between using some manner of attack and hope that it can whittle away health faster than it grows back”.
It’s just highly disappointing that you decided to take the game this route, and further disappointing that you try to deflect any criticisms with “you must be talking about gladiator crucible which is supposed to be borderline impossible”.
I don’t think it’s that ridiculous to expect the hardest difficulty in the game to be…hard.
I play very glassy characters that the crucible experts would probably consider “trash” since they wouldn’t withstand the requirements of end-game gladiator runs. Those same character breeze through the campaign, expansion included.
When you say “this route” I imagine you are implying that we somehow catered the game to the elite players, which is just plain untrue. Everything outside of Gladiator Crucible, with the exception of super bosses, is doable by a vast majority of builds.
After the expansion was released, it saw a series of nerfs to the content because it was overtuned, to the chagrin of this elite you seem to think we cater to. These nerfs came in conjunction with a variety of buffs to both mastery skills and end-game equipment.
Things are overall in a very good place now.