always thought having a sorta wpf thing going on for shield would be nice
I find this a pretty good idea, make the shields extremely slow for blocking and much weaker when used without shield skill. As long as having 0 shield skill makes you fairly unable to fight with a shield I don't see a balance problem with it at all. It still costs you upkeep, reduces movement speed through being dead weight and takes up a slot. It would allow shieldless melee to pick up a shield from the floor to deal with last ranged standing which causes less drawn out rounds, which I can't see as a bad thing.
This idea would provide a good balance between being able to protect yourself from ranged without forcing everyone into the same boring 1h or hoplite fighting style like Native does. +1
I think if the difficulties are removed, shield skill should increase shield speed, increase cover area, and reduce less speed of the 1h weapon when using shield+1h. So everyone can use a shield, but if u dont want to get shot in the feet or having people wiggle their weapons behind your shields and hit u, or use a 1h weapon without having tons of weapon speed and damage reduction, u need shield skillz
approach could be to have a shield with requirement above your skill usless for fighting by making it
a) unsheathable
b) not usable with a weapon (drawing a weapon makes you drop the shield immediately)
so you could basically only hold it in front of you, dropping it if you wanna do anything else.
You mean remove Difficulty as a requirement?
Only problem with that would be people taking top tier shields without investing any points into something, would allow for some very strong 1 hand/shield builds
I think the lower tier shields should simply be less trash than now, at least make them weigh a lot less and reduce the shield penetration
always thought having a sorta wpf thing going on for shield would be nicegood sugestion
[Remove shield skill from shields]yes yes yes yes yes
Only if I get 0 slot sheathable pocket long spear so I can stop raging about cav
But you one shot the cav so what's the point?
Because cav totally gives a fuck when he can oneshot me one second afterwards while I try to crawl away at 1mph.
I don't think removing shield skill is neccesary. Investing even 3 points into shield already gives acces to decent shields, which are very effective against most ranged. The only problem here is the mentality of players. They'd rather suffer from ranged damage (and whine about it endlessly) than sacrafice a few points into shield. If an archer took no meele weapon and complained about being killed too easily in meele, he'd be laughed on. Yet some people do exactly that that - refuse to defend themselves and complain.
If an archer took no meele weapon and complained about being killed too easily in meele, he'd be laughed on.
I don't think removing shield skill is neccesary. Investing even 3 points into shield already gives acces to decent shields, which are very effective against most ranged. The only problem here is the mentality of players. They'd rather suffer from ranged damage (and whine about it endlessly) than sacrafice a few points into shield. If an archer took no meele weapon and complained about being killed too easily in meele, he'd be laughed on. Yet some people do exactly that that - refuse to defend themselves and complain.Putting 3 points into shield skill is a big fucking expense if you play a 2h or polearmer as it's use is extremely limited. You spent most of your time fighting where you simply are not going to use it. Also, you risk being caught with your shield out with a crappy dagger or something which makes using one quite risky as a non 1h.
Well, another, much simpler idea, would be to add a big shield, with low req, that is extremely slow, but got good hp/armor. Only for blocking ranged, not to be used in melee.
1. Let everyone pick up and use any shield (with penalty if requirement is not met)
2. Buff shield skill so it actually does something besides let you go one more axe swing before you have to pick up another shield from the ground
Those two changes would go a long way toward reducing the whining about ranged while actually rewarding people for putting points in one of the worst skills in the game (shield skill).
Phew, you are a super-cool shielder forever now...how can you say shield skill is the most useless skill! Have you used a kite shield with 3 shield skill and again with 6 shield skill? It make a world of difference!
Also, as the game stands now, having 5 or 6 shield skill lets you use shields that are much stronger than the ones available at lower tiers. This is far from useless. I have a steel shield and no one has ever broken it yet. It allows me to adopt a patient yet deadly combat style that I couldn't dream of using with only 4 shield skill.
This is far from useless! I think horse archery is a more useless skill, or even IF or WM -- compared to having an awesome shield.
OK, let me rephrase; shield skill above the requirement is nearly useless. With my +3 Knightly Heater shield, going from 4 skill to 7 skill allows my shield to survive exactly one more axe swing. Weapons without bonus vs. shield are unlikely to break it even with 4 skill. Even with 7 skill:
-People commonly swing around my block even if I am facing them directly (this is unaffected by shield skill)
-Blocks won't raise within a certain window after dropping block (this is unaffected by shield skill)
-Ranged weapons still go over/under/around/through my shield all the time (this is mostly unaffected by shield skill)
-The shield weighs me down a lot (this is unaffected by shield skill)
-I get crushed through almost every time (this is unaffected by shield skill)
-I get block stunned by anything heavier than ~3.5kg (this is unaffected by shield skill)
Those three skill points would be better spent almost anywhere:
Ironflesh-nets me 11% more hit points
Riding-I could ride a Rouncey
Weapon Master-Increase weapon damage by ~3% and speed by ~1% (fairly crappy, but still better than shield skill)
Power Throw-30% more throwing damage and/or the ability to throw Axes/Javs/etc
Shields don't suck, but the shield skill does.
Having 5 or 6 shield skill lets you use shield that CAN take much more axe hits and help with enemies trying to hit around your shield (huscarl shield, steel shield). Also, the if you get up to 6 shield skill, my steel shield resists crush-through the majority of the time.
How easy would it be for the entire attacking team to just waltz up the ladders and over the walls without any ranged fire to pester them?
Chief among these penalties that would be incurred for having shield skill below the requirement would be reduced HP and resistance, so throwing weapons would break these "un-specced" shields quickly, and bolts would easily penetrate them. Even with 7 shield skill, archers have no problem shooting around/over my shield when ascending ladders on siege (mostly because archers are usually shooting from about a 180 degree arc as you ascend), so someone with no skill and a significantly weaker shield would still have only minimal protection from ranged, but it's better than being a sitting duck. Although the 0-requirement shields offer this now, and I pretty much never see 2h players using them while attacking on siege (even when they have free slots). I guess they feel that the reduced mobility from the shield weight counteracts being able to stop 2-3 arrows.
I find this a pretty good idea, make the shields extremely slow for blocking and much weaker when used without shield skill. As long as having 0 shield skill makes you fairly unable to fight with a shield I don't see a balance problem with it at all. It still costs you upkeep, reduces movement speed through being dead weight and takes up a slot. It would allow shieldless melee to pick up a shield from the floor to deal with last ranged standing which causes less drawn out rounds, which I can't see as a bad thing.
This idea would provide a good balance between being able to protect yourself from ranged without forcing everyone into the same boring 1h or hoplite fighting style like Native does. +1
Well on the topic, if they remove shield skill it will be so easy to make 1hander build with high ath and high ps.