Overguard and Ascension have equal cd and duration and are all self-buffs while Seal is an aoe skill with shortest CD.
While Ascension and Seal provide some good bonuses (like % all damage, ele resistance, some juicy bonuses from nodes) and can be used with any type of build, Overguard can be taken only on S&B build and has probably the worst bonuses:
lowest value of flat absorb
heath regen is quite meh except some specific builds (and they’re not shield builds, obviously)
block bonuses are ok but remember that you trade a solid bunch of damage for some tankiness when taking a shield instead of dw/2h weapon.
what do I suggest?
increase absorb value to Ascension or Seal value.
remove damage penalty for modificator (note - not retal damage penalty). As Overguard has no nodes with extra bonuses, I think these changes would make it a bit better compared to other similar skills and won’t broke anything as 1h phys builds with soldiers (the most common type of shield builds) are quite mediocre in performance and will gain nothing but a bit of extra tankiness.
write what you think and share your thoughts, if you want to.
you can’t compare overguard to other flat absorbs
it requires a shield and massively boosts shield defense while active, on top of the absorb
like… im sorry if i’m being rude, but are people just nuts with the requests lately? @_@
i kinda wonder if you even realize how nuts Overguard, as is, without MD, is in terms of defense/survivability boost, even on non retal builds - and for retal warlords it’s borderline OP
heck the fact you can freely pair it with Ikrix on top is even more
if you read carefully, you may noticed that I said
so, I’ve never seen any S&B builds (non-retal) breaking the game and making like 2:00 RT crucible runs etc.
I don’t ask for removing retal penalty etc as i know what consequences it will have.
also, block and all “on block” procs work well only when you focus on them, not like you take a shield and you’re invincible.
I even don’t ask for damage buff.
only a small defensive improvement.
(MD transmuter is not used as it’s garbage, lol, same as Seal’s one)
so, what’s of that is terribly wrong?
I’m not gonna make any point of comparing the raw numbers of Seal/Ascension vs Overguard but I will say, in my experience, Overguard does make a very noticeable difference in defense when it is used. On paper, it doesn’t look like a lot but it really is.
This isn’t for block stacked Retal tanks either, just standard S&B Soldiers that pick up Shield Training, Overguard and maybe even Menhir’s Bulwark up to at least softcap.
^this, so much this
you can’t expect to get a massive def freebie, just because you willfully sacrifice some dmg
shield builds are supposed to be played around, even when not retal - and for leveling purposes Overguard, as is, is borderline OP
again i rudely dare raise the question, if you’ve actually played with shield builds using overguard, even non-retal? - the difference is huge, and something like a blitzer, which doesn’t sacrifice that much damage, benefits massively from it - and anyone willfully going shield without shield offensives, is practically begging for gimping, and imo doesn’t deserve a further pat on the back in terms of free defense, that would just blow other existing builds into true immortality
srs, try it, ikrix+overguard and cycle that sht against ex Callagadra, it’s very very helpful, even if on paper the absorb seems low, the increased block defense is big absorb
