I don´t go obelisk with my targo warlord 100% recovery. Would lose too many dmg constellations, and obelisk does not really give me anything important, shield-wise.
Define better. I have no recent data to go on, so I’m refraining from voicing my opinion on the matter. I’m just surprised at ya’s response regarding shields.
I hadn’t realized that the damage spike had increased so tremendously.
But for the record, if I were going a shield build, I’d focus on IT, not auto attacks.
I would like to suggest giving all shields an +%AS (or CS) rather than strengthening a particular mastery. (However, anything that might be used in RAtA Warlord should be excluded.)
All S & Bs I have made so far have never reached the limit of AS(CS). Many of them fall within the range of 1.60-1.80.
By making it possible to raise the AS to the cap, it is possible to improve both the lack of attack and defense.
Good point. For me, I would say clearly useful on more different types of builds. Particularly, I think oath keeper’s shield support should be more meaningful that people say it is and make sword and board a competitive choice outside of specific builds. But I haven’t actually tried to make any characters like that, so I probably should also refrain from making (further) suggestions.
And if you change the principle of the block. That he worked on the principle of “barriers”. That is, it blocked the specified damage for a certain time (for example 0.1 sec).
This will significantly increase the effectiveness of shields precisely as a defense mechanism in order to more effectively compete before assembling for damage through vampirism.
Unfortunately shield spec was nerfed multiple times because as others described it, they were utterly immortal and trivialize basically all contents.
This is probably more of a “for Grim Dawn 2” type of suggestion, but it seems to me the problem is block recovery. I have the feeling that this was designed before other aspects of the combat gelled into their present state. Given the fact that block and recovery applies to DoT ticks, and that in general being hit with multiple small hits is more threatening than single large attacks(shotgun effects, damage pools, etc; this is obvious from the fact that flat absorb has a more noticeable effect on defense than %absorb), shields are too dependent on 100% recovery to be useful. But, block rate and damage blocked values can get extremely high, so once you have 100% recovery, shields suddenly become enormously powerful. If block recovery were simply removed so that shields could always block every attack, it would be easier to balance their effectiveness based just on block chance and damage blocked. That would require completely changing the values of those two stats, though, which doesn’t seem likely at this point in the game’s development.
So I think the only real way to handle this is through itemization. Adding powerful defensive properties for shields other than block and treating shields more as defensive offhands with powerful skill modifiers will make them more attractive. In other words, make more shields look like Bramblevine. Mostly trying to keep those properties away from the Soldier mastery is probably also healthy.
This, especially from res perspective. Maybe it is worth to add various amounts of either elemental or even ‘9res’ (resistances from main char sheet except maybe stun) as a base to each shield grade (amount based on grade, from magic to legendary). Also probably make it ‘on block only’. This will also motivate everyone to max block chance if possible, and go more offensive in augments department.
But, block rate and damage blocked values can get extremely high, so once you have 100% recovery, shields suddenly become enormously powerful.
I think this is the problem of shields. They are too effective in some classes, but not effective in others.
Therefore, here you can do the same as in other gaming characteristics, namely, set the limit to the maximum level.
In this case, raise the total minimal. To shield was a universal way to increase the survival of any class. And not just those who specialize in shields.
Shields are a reliable way to increase the toughness of any character. Naturally, some classes will excel with shields more than others, and that is by design. In the early stages of the game’s development, we actually shifted much of the passive support for shields from Soldier and into the Devotion system so that any class can benefit.
One thing some here seem to be overlooking is that damage can help you survive as much as durability since dead enemies aren’t damaging you, and that is where shields balance out as your damage output suffers in exchange for the greater durability.
There was a time when shield builds did more damage than they do now, and it heavily skewed builds to using shields exclusively for endgame content because it was very safe but cleartimes were also reasonable. We have no interest in returning to such an era.
Shields are in a good place now. Useful, but not critical.
One thing some here seem to be overlooking is that damage can help you survive as much as durability since dead enemies aren’t damaging you, and that is where shields balance out as your damage output suffers in exchange for the greater durability.
Hello.
Do not take this as a dispute or statement, I have not so much experience or knowledge of game statistics.
But according to my personal feelings, I have the opinion that damage + vampirism give more survival, while maintaining the ability to quickly destroy enemies. (Or as much survival as with a shield, but still maintaining the ability to do more damage).
After all, no matter how much damage you take. The main thing is that in the end you still survive the enemy, while killing him faster.
That is, it turns out that it makes little sense to make assemblies with a shield. Only if you just want to play with the shield, without any special meaning.
exactly +1
This has been brought up several times in this thread and the thread asking about shields in gameplay discussion that I started several times. Always as a reason that shields are on the weak side, since they skew too heavily towards defense, to the point that shield builds end up taking more damage in many situations because they can’t clear quickly enough. I’m not saying I agree with that, but there were some people bringing up this very point as evidence that shields were overnerfed.
My only concern, and I must admit that I’m not speaking from a position of deep personal knowledge, is that shields are only worthwhile with maxed block recovery. Certainly, from my own experience, you can’t just slap on a shield and see any noticeable improvement in defense. Oathkeepers have multiple skills supporting shields, but can only attain max block recovery when paired with Soldier. If it’s true that shields are only really useful defensively with maxed block recovery, those skills have an extremely narrow use case (warlords, retal builds, aegis builds, builds with build-defining skill modifiers on the shield). Is the common wisdom expressed here on the boards false, or is that the intended design of those skills? I don’t take what’s posted here, even by very experience players, as gospel, but it does seem shields are a little too dependent on block recovery, and thus soldier, when oathkeeper and itemization for other classes (e.g. skybreach bulwark) ostensibly supports them too.