cRPG

cRPG => General Discussion => Topic started by: Rico on June 11, 2014, 07:55:36 pm

Title: Current shielder meta
Post by: Rico on June 11, 2014, 07:55:36 pm
Hello all!

Before you read, please keep in mind that there is always counter-examples against caricatural examples. Just like we all know that GET A SHIELD LOL does not provide a 360° protection from arrows, my observations are certainly not the absolute truth, but I think I found a tendency I personally dislike. If I am just not skilled enough to play a shielder well, please excuse I have said anything. And as usual, I hope I am not making you bored or offended with this opening thread.

I am very happy about additional speed for many weapons. The greatswords and long polearms are viable alternatives to their more spammish familiars. The last patches were successful.

However, it turned out that one-handed players do no longer have any class-specific speed advantage at all. My favorite example is a Long War Axe vs. Round Steel Buckler fight. Please ignore that the Buckler would die in a few hits whatsoever, let's assume a shielder with 8 shield skill, a Round Steel Buckler +3 and a very short fight, which is exactly what happened to me several times:

- Shielder (S) holds block.
- Polearmer (P) holds sideswing.
- S has a plan to kill P: "I pretend to attack for a split second, but immediately right-click again. P will release the swing, I will block. It's my turn now, I can make one feint, hold my next swing and get a hit on P."
- S pretends to attack for a split second and immediately right-clicks, even before the character executes the attack animation on the screen with a ping of 25.
- P observes that the shield goes down for a split second and releases the swing.
- S's shield is not ready to block yet and the sideswing kills S.

Let me generalize this observation a bit! The result is certainly not always this extreme, comparing a relatively fast polearm with the fastest useable shield. But it is a tendency that shows:
Compared to the now faster polearm and twohand weapons, the time a shield needs to get ready to block after the shielder right-clicks is too high.

Viable shielder gameplay is now restricted to
- stabbing weapons like Espada, Side Sword and Spathion to have a fast attack and distance to the enemy
- Arabian Cavalry Sword when mounted for bumpslashes
- Steel Pick and Warhammer which have been the strongest onehanders ever since just because of their high damage in spite of heavy armor

In the current meta of fast polearmers and twohanders, all other weapons are only viable when one has the level advantage. A Niuweidao might stop glancing with 3 LVLs higher than the enemy, i.e. 1 PS or 1 WM more. A Winged Mace can be deadly when you are level 35 or 36. But when a shielder of level 30 fights against a polearmer or twohanded of level 30, and the shielder is not using one of the weapons listed above, all odds are against the shielder. At the same time, the polearmer or twohander can use any weapon apart from special-purposes stuff such as Pike, Long Maul or Flamberge. By the way, if the shielder knows how to block manually, his chances are better when he puts the shield on the back before the duel to block the enemy hits sufficiently fast.

Responsive footwork commands (S-key :wink:), fast feints, instant blocks with any weapons but shields and unbalanced stuff, and the easy way you can turn the camera with your swing to hit faster or even hiltslash without glancing create a balance in strong favor of big weapons. This is not necessarily a bad thing in general, but I feel like shielder is very restricted in the choice of weapons and play style unless the character is some levels over 30, just like 1h+crossbow at level 30 or less became all about the Heavy Crossbow, rendering all other Crossbows useless or simply unusable.

This is why I suggest to make shields more responsive to the block command, at least some of them, such as the bucklers and maybe Elite Cavalry/Knightly Kite/Knightly Heater and the like. Perhaps other changes in the internal balance of one-handed weapons would also help.

Thank you for your time!
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: jtobiasm on June 11, 2014, 08:10:20 pm
Read the top half, but what most people forget is polearmers and 2hers are their to kill. Shielders are there to push the lines absorb damage and support the team.

If you're trying to duel as a shielder, you're doing sumat wrong.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Gurnisson on June 11, 2014, 08:16:24 pm
If you get hit while feinting, you're doing something wrong. I use slower shields than the buckler, and I haven't encountered what you're talking about. There's a lot more one-handers than you mentioned that are great, even at level 30 and below.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on June 11, 2014, 08:20:28 pm
Perhaps a wild shot in the dark here, but would it be possible to provide damage reduction from a hit to the shield bearing collision point via WSE2? This would simulate not bracing against an attack yet having a big piece of dampener in between you and the weapon, much like how shield on the back worked. If not cRPG, perhaps: Melee Battlegrounds.

Edit: my point is the penalty for releasing a block with a shield could be mitigated by giving the shield a bonus armour-like behaviour if the attack collides with it.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Rico on June 11, 2014, 08:20:39 pm
Quote from: jtobiasm on June 11, 2014, 08:10:20 pm
Read the top half, but what most people forget is polearmers and 2hers are their to kill. Shielders are there to push the lines absorb damage and support the team.

If you're trying to duel as a shielder, you're doing sumat wrong.
You have a point, but the truth is somewhere in between: If shielders were only a supporting class, they wouldn't really have to bring a weapon at all. But of course, they are no full dueling class either, because one handed weapons deal significantly lower damage than other weapons.

The council has to decide for the correct role for shielders. I think right now, if shielders as a hybrid between supporter and duelist reflect their approach, the shields should be made more responsive - otherwise, shielders are walking meat shields, not walking shields :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Radament on June 11, 2014, 08:53:23 pm
shielders are supposed to stay in front line (happens only when they are obliged to form a shieldwall , if not , i alway see a lot of shielders in the rear group , or they stay away from the combat) , they are no duelists , wtf really? they are one of the most important classes to beat the evil archery.
Yes they are a support class and maybe they are not scoring enough to be the best top players but only pussies like to see themselves on the scoreboard (at least for me) and fapping at their K/D ratio.
This game is supposed to be  based on team-play , even a Phyrex alone in the battlefield could be slaughtered by an horde of newbies , a shielder have more chances to survive but their life won't last long if they play solo.

*yes shielders are meatshields atm with so much ranged and cavalry but that's not a balance problem that's a number problem.

Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Kafein on June 11, 2014, 09:28:15 pm
Lel, using a shield in a 1v1
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: matt2507 on June 11, 2014, 09:34:10 pm
Quote from: jtobiasm on June 11, 2014, 08:10:20 pm
Read the top half, but what most people forget is polearmers and 2hers are their to kill. Shielders are there to push the lines absorb damage and support the team.

If you're trying to duel as a shielder, you're doing sumat wrong.

If Shielders played like you said, it would be most teamhited, they could not attack because pôle/2h glue them back and they would probably be the first to die because they have no support from pôles/2h behind.

Fortunately, Shielders do not play the way you want.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Konrax on June 11, 2014, 09:36:01 pm
I kind of see where you are coming from.

I have experienced this attempt to feint and get hit immediately after, however I use a heavy round shield MW, and have 7 shield skill.

So I should have a fast block response, but I honestly feel it's not enough in the last patch to effectively try to do feints against fast 2h/pole.

I expect that with 8wm, a 103 speed weapon, and 7 shield skill (pure 1h wpf) that I should be fast enough to at least get a chance to do a feint or two against fast 2h/pole enemies but that really isn't the case anymore.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on June 11, 2014, 09:49:53 pm
A shield needs more physical presence in the game.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Gurnisson on June 11, 2014, 10:08:22 pm
If you feel you can't use feints properly as a shielder, I'd advice you to spectate Nord_Sigrithr when he's on EU1/EU2.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: ecorcheur_brokar on June 11, 2014, 11:24:39 pm
If your opponent is spamming too much for a feint (fake attack-block-attack) then it means that you should hold just a little longer your attack, and realese it when your opponent tries to attack you again (as he's a spamming bastard).

However as jtobiasm pointed out, shielders are not made for duel. I'll add that on the other hand, they are better better for ganking. see my previous point if you want:
(click to show/hide)

If you really want to duel with a shielder build, wait for your opponent to break your shield, you'll be faster once it's done and you'll be able to duel correctly (even if you deal less damage).
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Tomas_Miles_again on June 11, 2014, 11:25:35 pm
Or put the shield away preserving it for if you need it later.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: ecorcheur_brokar on June 11, 2014, 11:28:56 pm
yeah but if you put it in your back, even if your feint will be faster than with your shield in your hand, it will still be a dead weight and will slow you down.

You must really throw it away.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Admiral Ballsack on June 12, 2014, 06:46:44 am
I think the real issue is that half of the shields/one-hands aren't used/useless.. Maybe you just aren't used to playing shielder, because I have no problems feinting unless it's against like a longaxe or similar spammy polearm. They do need to slow down some polearm stats though.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: UnholyRolyPoly on June 12, 2014, 07:35:42 am
Quote from: Panuru on June 11, 2014, 07:55:36 pm
Hello all!

Before you read, please keep in mind that there is always counter-examples against caricatural examples. Just like we all know that GET A SHIELD LOL does not provide a 360° protection from arrows, my observations are certainly not the absolute truth, but I think I found a tendency I personally dislike. If I am just not skilled enough to play a shielder well, please excuse I have said anything. And as usual, I hope I am not making you bored or offended with this opening thread.

I am very happy about additional speed for many weapons. The greatswords and long polearms are viable alternatives to their more spammish familiars. The last patches were successful.

However, it turned out that one-handed players do no longer have any class-specific speed advantage at all. My favorite example is a Long War Axe vs. Round Steel Buckler fight. Please ignore that the Buckler would die in a few hits whatsoever, let's assume a shielder with 8 shield skill, a Round Steel Buckler +3 and a very short fight, which is exactly what happened to me several times:

- Shielder (S) holds block.
- Polearmer (P) holds sideswing.
- S has a plan to kill P: "I pretend to attack for a split second, but immediately right-click again. P will release the swing, I will block. It's my turn now, I can make one feint, hold my next swing and get a hit on P."
- S pretends to attack for a split second and immediately right-clicks, even before the character executes the attack animation on the screen with a ping of 25.
- P observes that the shield goes down for a split second and releases the swing.
- S's shield is not ready to block yet and the sideswing kills S.



Try holding the attack button down to feint instead of letting it go.  It reduces the amount of time to bring the shield back up to a millisecond.  You can also set up chambers using the same method.  Most 2h/polearms will try to use their footwork (Maximum Distance) and hold their attack vs a shielder.  They are waiting for you to get frustrated and try to hit them.  As soon as you drop your shield they attack... back up/side step... and attack again.  Good players will turn heavily into their swings.  (Allows them to set up quickly and spam the shit out of you.)  Next time you are in this situation feint with the shield not the weapon.  Hold the attack... drop the shield for a split second and bring it back up to absorb the blow.  Then attack from the same direction as him and you will set up easy chambers.  If his blow lands early it hits the shield.  If it lands late you set up a chamber.  If he holds don't release the attack and bring the shield back up.  Do that a few times and you will take him out of his game.  Most players have spent their entire CRPG career developing one fighting style and a build to match.  Make it harder for him to play that way.  Don't let him position himself the way he wants.  Make him uncomfortable.   

Also.... just in general.... rarely if ever feint with your weapon (letting go of the attack button.)  Instead feint with your attack held.  It's faster and allows you to pull the shield immediately. 

And of course..... the best way to kill anyone in CRPG is...... have a good partner you are use to fighting with.  I suck at dueling.  But If it's me and 1 other Black Company dude.... we're a pretty good unit.  Especially if it's another shielder.  Instead of "master dueling skills" we use team switching etc.  It makes the game a lot more fun and the unit more effective.  I don't do very well on my own.  But I can top the boards with a partner. 
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: San on June 12, 2014, 08:14:31 am
^Good advice. I personally find that there's a use with release feints as well (mostly with overheads), but what you described seems to be overall superior with shield and is a commonly used tactic.

There's a learning curve, just like everything else. After a while, you just learn how to fight without becoming susceptible to the shield lag and not even having to think about it. Fighting with shield isn't that bad, though I haven't really felt a need to use tricky shield-only feints in a long time. It is pretty hard if you find yourself in a 1v1 with low health, however.

A good 2h/polearm would probably be 22-3, while a good shielder will get 16-2, 9-1, etc. Shielders don't get destroyed by cav as hard as they used to, especially with the addition of rolling. You can keep yourself alive much more consistently than 2h/polearm, which get screwed over more often if they ever find themselves getting focus fired.


You have both a variety of weapons as well as a good number of shields to choose from, so your purpose is decided by that equipment choice.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Kafein on June 12, 2014, 09:04:43 am
It's amusing when NA players talk about k/d ratios. Do you have peasants running around everywhere or something ?

The problem with shields in this meta is that the meta is spam spam spam spam. If you try to not be boring, chances are you'll get hit by a random swing.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: San on June 12, 2014, 09:05:56 am
Okay, then. What do you usually notice with k/d ratios?
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Admiral Ballsack on June 12, 2014, 09:24:37 am
Quote from: Kafein on June 12, 2014, 09:04:43 am
It's amusing when NA players talk about k/d ratios. Do you have peasants running around everywhere or something ?

The problem with shields in this meta is that the meta is spam spam spam spam. If you try to not be boring, chances are you'll get hit by a random swing.

What is your stance on shields at the moment then? I never have problems with fighting off spam, unless my footwork is bad and they are using a longaxe(similar polearm) and normally get decent k/d's as a shielder.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Kafein on June 12, 2014, 09:34:32 am
Quote from: San on June 12, 2014, 09:05:56 am
Okay, then. What do you usually notice with k/d ratios?

On EU servers, only the top players reach scores like 22/3. And by top I mean top. The second and third are usually around 10 kills or less at the end of a map. That's how it was the last time I played battle, anyway. Scores on siege tend to get higher.

Quote from: Admiral Ballsack on June 12, 2014, 09:24:37 am
What is your stance on shields at the moment then? I never have problems with fighting off spam, unless my footwork is bad and they are using a longaxe(similar polearm) and normally get decent k/d's as a shielder.

My stance on shields is that I personally use a 1h without shield most of the time and most of the time it works better than with a shield. Unless I'm fighting someone really skilled who can actually open my defense without using cheesy techniques, a shield has trivial utility.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Unwilling_Villain on June 12, 2014, 03:18:22 pm
Playing shielder I have 3.4/1 KD which is the same I had playing polearms. Shielder is a really good class I think because you can fight multiple opponents easily. Also shielder is there to provide front line support - they can go into places where two handers/polearms would be cut down from 3 block directions at once.

If you have troubles fighting two handers and polearms I would advise to be patient and surprise them with range of right swing and stab. When they are distracted and on the defense you should push forward, striking left and overhead swings on them in quick timing.

Basically shielder is a very different style of play to 2h and polearm. You should not duel them where they have the advantage. You must be tactical about how you kill them.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Konrax on June 12, 2014, 04:39:18 pm
I think the recent 2h buff just outpaced the speed of my current build.

Heavy round shield isn't exactly fast, with 7 shield skill its pretty quick, and worked fine before, now I just seem a smidgen too slow.

That being said I always release faint with me shield, and I am going to try holding my attack down as I didn't even realise it mattered.

Thanks for the tip
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Wesleysnipes on June 12, 2014, 04:53:25 pm
Non the less a 2h unbalanced axe should not be able to double swing a 104 speed 185wpf 1h weapon just because of "shield lag". Fuck that. Shielders also get fucked over with their builds because they have to get shield skill. Leaving them under one or two levels under their opponent. And stop saying "oh yea look at my kdr, or explain what techniques you practiced for 2 years". Chances are you're a high level 1h shield anyways. (Unholy, havelle, cough cough San). Any polearm/2h has a huge advantage over a shielder. (Back pedal, side step, hold, while using their range and breaking your shield. Yea of course a good 1h sheilder has ways around it. But when  a good 1h vs pole/2h, the one hander has a great disadvantage, range of weapon. "But Shielders are designed to stay at the front line to absorb enemie dmg and not duel". No, this mod is not based purely on teamwork. The only advantage is against ranged. But the time you get to the ranged the shield is gone. Without a shield it's sometimes easier to wiggle wiggle around them arrows.

Reduce the speed of all polearms and two handers. Or if you want to be fair, the more 1h wpf, the more shield skill.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Gravoth_iii on June 12, 2014, 05:03:28 pm
I dunno why you people say shielders arent good in duels, maybe not necessarily with a shield but just having a 1h weapon in a duel is really good because of the high speed and often slim sword weapons with left swing and overhead being very easily confused with eachother. Some feints like left>overhead>left or just overhead feint spam is IMO incredibly confusing and hard to follow. There are few feints from 2h that gets me, and pretty much none in polearm. Hold attacks are the best because everyone is impatient.

Everytime on battle when im at low hp i do everything to avoid shielders because im most likely to miss a block vs them compared to a 2h or polearmer.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Penitent on June 12, 2014, 05:12:16 pm
Shield is great for duels.  You can't block wrong when the opponent is spam feinting.  It's quite nice.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Rico on June 12, 2014, 05:29:33 pm
It's probably me just feeling uncomfortable about playing 1h/shielder. I perform better as a Swashbuckler, Hoplite, Archer and Crossbower, so I will just stick to these classes. The "turns" in the sense of hit (+hold/feint), block, hit, block... and a chamber once in a while are more clearly separated when playing shielder because of the weird block timing. Trying to break out of this scheme and dancing around the enemy trying to get an extra hit or a last minute block is not that easy with a shield, but I keep trying it and it gets me killed. So I'll just stop being a shielder, since I do not want to obey to the rules of this class.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: ecorcheur_brokar on June 12, 2014, 05:33:03 pm
Quote from: Admiral Ballsack on June 12, 2014, 06:46:44 am
I think the real issue is that half of the shields/one-hands aren't used/useless.. Maybe you just aren't used to playing shielder, because I have no problems feinting unless it's against like a longaxe or similar spammy polearm. They do need to slow down some polearm stats though.
I think there you pointed out the real problem with shield, most of them are useless.  Norman shield, elite cav shield, Knightly Kite Shield are good for cav. steel, huscarl and round good for tank.

But when it comes to hybrid shield, fighting shield, the problem is none are better than the elite cav shield as they are all much slower than the cav shield. I would say less protecting against arrows ,I have the impression that only round shaped shield are efficient against ranged, all the others dont block projectile efficiently, and that is an especially important point in those days with serv full of ranged.
I used to have a knightly kight shield but with the increasing number of ranged, it became useless, I was getting everything in my right hand.

And all this tradeoff, for only a small gain in resistance, that is imo useless as an axe will break it with just one more hit.

My point is all the non-round-shaped shield should get an increase in their size.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Phew on June 13, 2014, 01:53:05 am
The OP is referring to a specific mechanic whereby every shield has a significant delay (>0.5s) after releasing a block until they are able to block again (I'm not talking about the shield raise animation, which still occurs, I'm talking about the block actually being active). This mechanic is independent of shield skill, shield speed, etc., and it is probably the #1 thing that kills experienced shielders. It's the reason dueling with a shield is boring, because you can't ever drop your block while your opponent is holding an attack. When I'm fighting other shielders, I rarely even bother to switch to my axe, because it's faster to kill them just by holding sword attacks to exploit this mechanic. Just wait for them to get bored and temporarily drop their block, then release. This tactic isn't as effective against non-shields, because they can drop their block and still recover in time to block anyway.

 The neutral nudge is the only thing I've found that can break the monotony, but it's risky due to the wonky nudge hitbox. The chamber technique that Roly mentioned is probably even more risky, and more of a gimmick to mess up top-tier players than a strategy you can rely on.

Since no dev even knows about this mechanic, I'm not going to hold my breath about it being fixed.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: phnxhdsn on June 13, 2014, 01:59:16 am
Try the recently buffed Brown lion heater shield? IMO it's slightly better than Elite cav now but with a few drawbacks.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Yuang on June 13, 2014, 02:37:44 am
Quote from: ecorcheur_brokar on June 12, 2014, 05:33:03 pm
My point is all the non-round-shaped shield should get an increase in their size.

I agree with you!
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Konrax on June 13, 2014, 03:19:59 am
I think shield nudge range should be increased, having short weak damaging weapons should give them more utility to interrupt other players and have more utility other than blocking in frontline combat.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Smoothrich on June 13, 2014, 03:44:51 am
Any shielder who just holds down RMB while backpedaling and being too scared/bad to attack deserves any bug, exploit, or glitch possible to get them killed, its a terrible playstyle that should be nerfed to the ground.

Whenever I play shielder I have attack held down way more than block, and just tap blocks like any other melee class unless I'm shieldwalling or hiding from ranged. Never notice any downsides, "shield lag," or whatever like this, just that I can put all my effort into offensive positioning and let the RMB bubble handle my defense.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Yuang on June 13, 2014, 04:28:06 am
In CHN servers, the big strength archer has become BUG. Their arrows so accurate, so great hurt. Their numbers so much that a lot of players do not like to play. Next patch, please change about this situation.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Dan lol on June 13, 2014, 05:03:32 am
nerds just need to lern how to sheeld yo
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: San on June 13, 2014, 05:05:52 am
While the elite cav shield is excellent in many areas, it's less durable than almost every shield around it. HP can decrease by 10-15, but overall it's in a good spot IMO (look at the plain round shield & round cavalry shield that would be arguably more cost effective if the elite cav is nerfed too much, then there are the great non-round 3-4 diff shields).

I read in the past that shield sizes were altered to be more realistic. Do the 46-50 width values make sense? I don't know what sizes were like, but under 50cm doesn't feel like it would be that good. Feels like many of the non-round non-green crescent widths would benefit with +5cm. The heights also feel off when looking at some of the current proportions, but I don't think gameplay-wise it would really matter. Shields are already better than ever, so it's not really needed imo. You can always increase your forcefield with more shield, though it would be helpful to know how much it increases to understand the exact benefits.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Kafein on June 13, 2014, 10:37:10 am
Quote from: Gravoth_iii on June 12, 2014, 05:03:28 pm
I dunno why you people say shielders arent good in duels, maybe not necessarily with a shield but just having a 1h weapon in a duel is really good because of the high speed and often slim sword weapons with left swing and overhead being very easily confused with eachother. Some feints like left>overhead>left or just overhead feint spam is IMO incredibly confusing and hard to follow. There are few feints from 2h that gets me, and pretty much none in polearm. Hold attacks are the best because everyone is impatient.

Everytime on battle when im at low hp i do everything to avoid shielders because im most likely to miss a block vs them compared to a 2h or polearmer.

Well that's just you. Being worse than other weapons in every aspect, 1h are supposed to have some other advantage over other weapon types, and that is the ability to use a shield. But shields have become terrible. First because they are barely helpful as a defense against ranged, and second because few player need a shield to block properly these days. If anything, a shield makes melee fighting harder in general because of the lag and its weight.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Grumbs on June 13, 2014, 10:58:06 am
Quote from: Yuang on June 13, 2014, 04:28:06 am
Their arrows so accurate, so great hurt.

I agree. They should have to time their shots more and be punished more for missing. Slower projectiles and longer time spent drawing the bow back and less ammo. Being accurate is OK (as long as you put a decent amount of WPF into bows) but it should be harder to hit players consistently by tweaking other game mechanics

1 handers are a bit too good too, especially 0 slot ones

About shields...they are still awesome and the lower weight is a good thing for manoeuvrability. If you want to have a heavy shield you can take your pick
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Eddy on June 13, 2014, 11:10:14 am
Quote from: San on June 13, 2014, 05:05:52 am
You can always increase your forcefield with more shield

Wait, what? Wasn´t the bonus forcefield from shieldskill removed or nerfed so it is almost non-existend?
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Phew on June 13, 2014, 02:51:01 pm
Quote from: Psychoyeah on June 13, 2014, 11:10:14 am
Wait, what? Wasn´t the bonus forcefield from shieldskill removed or nerfed so it is almost non-existend?

The forcefield against ranged appears to only extend downwards (covering legs/feet). It is practically nonexistent laterally or upwards.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: EyeBeat on June 13, 2014, 03:26:15 pm
If you are a shielder and you can not pick your own fights then either you are out of position or you are wearing way too much armor.

That is a shielders strength.  You can pick your fights. 

Most 2h's do not have that advantage since they wear tons of armor.  The 2h's I encounter that wear less armor seem to be more risky in melees since they know it is easier for archers to pick them off.

I prefer to strike and move out on to another target or out of sight.  Then return and engage when  they do not expect you to.  At least that is my strategy towards armored 2hers.

Quote from: Havelle Registered Voter on June 12, 2014, 10:13:44 am
Did somebody say shielders get bad KDs or are underpowered?

(click to show/hide)

Herppp

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: Lethwin Far Seeker on June 13, 2014, 04:01:04 pm
Its good to see someone looking at shields as more than "autoblock for noobs".  Have fun dealing with all the butthurt 2h heroes that don't want their kd's challenged.
Title: Re: Current shielder meta
Post by: stickher on June 14, 2014, 07:55:05 am
If the person your fighting wont let you play around feint etc then consider your shield broken or run away. If you know how to block this is good for you because they most likely  assume your a noob and you could possibly surprise him and kill him quickly.