So both Wraithguard and Watcher of Erulan basically do the same thing: they support 1-handed ranged pierce builds. 1-handed ranged shield builds are extremely rare (Stronghold is the only really strong one), and decent Pierce ones are non-existent. I’m not really against niche builds but … do we need two identical shields for that?
I think we could have one of those shields repurposed for a Pierce SnB archetype. Pierce melees are well-known for their strong single target damage, however making one with a shield to utilize Oathkeeper’s shield wps is impossible to do properly currently for one simple reason: physical shield base and physical damage on Shattering Smash cannot be converted via main hand armor piercing (and yet there is support for physical, fire, cold, acid and chaos SnB Oathkeepers).
So my suggestion is:
Add 100% phys>pierce conversion to Righteous Fervor (or Safeguard) mod to one of the mentioned Shields and change flat/speed bonus mod for ranged weapons to melee weapons. It would also be nice to get +1 to Oathkeeper as well.
Wraithguard seems to fit better since Erulan has %all damage and supports wider range of possible 1-handed + shield ranged builds.
So, please share your thoughts on this topic.
P.S. Wendigo Glare medal (for Shattering Smash) actually has %Pierce damage already (maybe there were plans to have Pierce SnB support but then they were scrapped?).
If this applies to Wraithguard it’s fine, but not to Watcher of Erulan. Losing the one handed ranged bonus in my Pierce Aegis Paladin would screw him over big time.
Yes…let’s take one of 3 shields that support a niche playstyle and completely redo it…
Making those two shields a little more distinct from each other is fine. Pulling the rug out from under someone’s 1h gun build cause they happened to lose the coin flip on which shield got redesigned is not.
not sure i understand, how would adding a modifier that converts phys to pierce for RF (so shield dmg is applied for melee) ruin their pierce gun build ? (since wrathguard is pierce %)
likewise if the flat dmg and attack speed got baked into the shield, so it applied to melee too, there would also be 0 change for a gun build? (and this part i’d personally consider optional, i think leaving the range bonuses are fine)
edit. oops, forgot baking in flat dmg makes it part of weapon, whcih wouldn’t apply to gun as global, but speed would change nothing atleast
i think the main suggestion here is Wrathguard really, since it’s already clearly pierce oriented, Erulan all dmg would probably be touching too many things
Just make the passive bonus for shields instead of ranged so both S&B and S&R builds can utilize it and maybe add a Shattering Smash mod, ranges can’t use it anyway. @Zantai
probably doesn’t need a Smash mod
if we get phys converted to pierce for RF, then there will be plenty dmg, smash is plenty strong with current stuff
likewise if the pierce conversion mod was applied only to smash, instead of RF, it would gimp smite since it strikes with the shield too
item granted wps like direwolf wont trigger on wearing a shield, neither will bladedancer relic, so wouldn’t really want a gimped smite when low on wps as S&B atleast
Just some pierce damage. Maybe some RR to make it gain devotion points by not taking Scales. It doesn’t need RF mod either, when you have %100 Armor piercing, you’ll get it anyway, burn and trauma damage also doesn’t get converted. Smite mod already exist on other shield. But OA is needed, it’s hard build to combine.
no it doesn’t, that’s the whole point of getting the RF mod
Smash scales on shield as %wd, so 0 AP conversion happens
same for smite on offhand, 0 AP so 0 conversion on the offhand dmg portion
which doesn’t mean this shield needs it, “not all shields needs to be the same/have the same mods”, smash is fine without additional dmg mods
-and i think the RR is too greedy personally, it’s fine to make builds take RR in devos
which is still quite a bit lost WD since it’s 50% of our only “dual wield” wps already