Shields don't affect swing speed.

[Spawny]

Thanks for the feedback Spawny, I have reconsidered my spec. I believe that 7 ATH would be overdoing it, considering that I won't be wearing heavy armor (or heavy shields for that matter) and 6 ATH should be far enough to catch a backpeddaler. I think I'm better of with 1 more PS.

So I'm going with 21/18, which is more or less the same as 18/21 build, but 1 less ATH and 1 more PS:

(click to show/hide)

    * Converted: 8
    * Ironflesh: 0
    * Power Strike: 7
    * Shield: 4
    * Athletics: 6
    * Riding: 0
    * Horse Archery: 0
    * Power Draw: 0
    * Power Throw: 0
    * Weapon Master: 6

Glad I could help.

One thing I would like to mention, since people are speaking about onehanders as if they have no advantages, is that they have extremely high speed. That is all, just pointing out something that somehow never got mentioned. Also, with a few onehanders *cough* Steel Pick *cough* your damage is pretty much comparable to a two hander. Yes, reach is the big issue with that weapon, I know, I know. I didn't find it all that hard to counter the reach issue on my shielder, but it certainly forced a different playstyle.

The speed advantage isn't really there when you use a shield. You're on par with 2h/polearms now, where pre-patch they were faster.
The damage on a steel pick is awesome, I agree on that. I've used it all night yesterday and the most hits I needed to kill someone was 3. 90% dropped in 2 or less hits. I can't imagine the hurting a MW steel pick would do when used with 7 or 8 powerstrike. I'm going to test the warhammer tonight to see if it's worth trading 2 damage and some speed for knockdown, a 4th attack direction and a tiny bit more reach.

[Vibe]

The damage on a steel pick is awesome, I agree on that. I've used it all night yesterday and the most hits I needed to kill someone was 3. 90% dropped in 2 or less hits. I can't imagine the hurting a MW steel pick would do when used with 7 or 8 powerstrike. I'm going to test the warhammer tonight to see if it's worth trading 2 damage and some speed for knockdown, a 4th attack direction and a tiny bit more reach.

Hm I'm interested in this too, as I have not yet completely decided if I'll use the pick or warhammer. 33 pierce damage is deadly, but 31 blunt (which is just a bit more than pierce) with a chance to knockdown seems like a tasty choice too. The speed difference between the two is only 1.

[Spawny]

Hm I'm interested in this too, as I have not yet completely decided if I'll use the pick or warhammer. 33 pierce damage is deadly, but 31 blunt (which is just a bit more than pierce) with a chance to knockdown seems like a tasty choice too. The speed difference between the two is only 1.

I'll let you know what my findings are.

[Tears of Destiny]

Hm I'm interested in this too, as I have not yet completely decided if I'll use the pick or warhammer. 33 pierce damage is deadly, but 31 blunt (which is just a bit more than pierce) with a chance to knockdown seems like a tasty choice too. The speed difference between the two is only 1.

If you are good at hitting heads in melee, choose the pick.

[Grey]

swing from left while fighting with 1h weapon, unless your looking at your opponents groin im not sure how you can miss head.

Formless needs to gripe less about things he doesnt understand...

Shielder with STR : Needs to be very clever with his positioning, and save his shields HP. He can 1hit everyone all the time in 1v1 melee.
This is a fairly difficult class.

Shielder with AGI (seems logical since shieldskill feeds off AGI): Stack athletics, 1h wpf, shieldskill, run around blocking everything in the 180 degrees you are facing, spam toptier (sidesword, wh, etc), one headshot at PS 4 (12 STR is minimun I would recommend, unless making dedicated javchucker) will kill most everything upto head armour 35-40 unless your timing and position sux.

Im sry to all of you who think its not, but shielding IS easier, and doesnt have enough drawbacks... I would like to see 2h swords nerfed a little, polearm swingspeed on the majority of large ones nerfed LOADS, to account for physics, since swingspeed is handspeed and animation runspeed, not weapontip speed, polearms are ridiculously overpowered. I would like to see 1h swingspeeds be significantly faster than 2h, especially "useless" items like Fighting Axe, but shields are very overpowered too. Saying "Shields are NOT overpowered, I find it hard" or "Shields are NOT overpowered, look at TWOHANDED!!!" is just changing the subject.

RIGHT NOW IN THE GAME: Easiest way to KILL in mixed melee (where many opponents from both factions are swirling around each other):

1st: Polearms
2nd: 2h
3rd: 1h

But easiest to survive reguardless of skill: shield

And to steal: shield

And to ignore half the weapon classes (3 ranged types): shield

Easiest to fight multiple enemies without worrying about your timing or position too much: shield

[Noble Crassius]

I agree with most of the above except one shotting even to the head (unless its with pierce). Even with a balanced 18 18 build I could not one hit most people using the left to right slash. Besides that exaggeration the rest seems spot on. Although your 1. 2. and 3. on the list can do a little work. I think now the weapon classes are balanced in killing power with 1hands + shield being only slightly behind. This is a moot point tho since we all can throw in what we feel but this is just how it seems to me.

Being a shielder means you have the easiest play style: hold RMB facehug upslash repeat. That is what I did anyways and I did fairly well. Shields ARE a crutch they essentially bypass half of the "skill" in the game (i.e. manual blocking). To be a good 2hander you need to know how to manual block! period. To be a good shielder you need to know...how to feint?
(don't give me this BS about position, timing, and angles all classes have to worry about that to a degree.)

(edit)
With high shield skill (6) and a Huscarl I could just click RMB right before an attack hits me and still block it. Trivial blocking like this + their lightning speed makes 1+shield a deadly combo in the hands of the right people.

I think damage/speed wise 1hands are finally on par with the other melee classes. These absolutely should not be nerfed but something has to be done about the over used Huscarl that's both fast + highly resistant.

[Kafein]

swing from left while fighting with 1h weapon, unless your looking at your opponents groin im not sure how you can miss head.

Formless needs to gripe less about things he doesnt understand...

Shielder with STR : Needs to be very clever with his positioning, and save his shields HP. He can 1hit everyone all the time in 1v1 melee.
This is a fairly difficult class.

Shielder with AGI (seems logical since shieldskill feeds off AGI): Stack athletics, 1h wpf, shieldskill, run around blocking everything in the 180 degrees you are facing, spam toptier (sidesword, wh, etc), one headshot at PS 4 (12 STR is minimun I would recommend, unless making dedicated javchucker) will kill most everything upto head armour 35-40 unless your timing and position sux.

Im sry to all of you who think its not, but shielding IS easier, and doesnt have enough drawbacks... I would like to see 2h swords nerfed a little, polearm swingspeed on the majority of large ones nerfed LOADS, to account for physics, since swingspeed is handspeed and animation runspeed, not weapontip speed, polearms are ridiculously overpowered. I would like to see 1h swingspeeds be significantly faster than 2h, especially "useless" items like Fighting Axe, but shields are very overpowered too. Saying "Shields are NOT overpowered, I find it hard" or "Shields are NOT overpowered, look at TWOHANDED!!!" is just changing the subject.

RIGHT NOW IN THE GAME: Easiest way to KILL in mixed melee (where many opponents from both factions are swirling around each other):

1st: Polearms
2nd: 2h
3rd: 1h

But easiest to survive reguardless of skill: shield

And to steal: shield

And to ignore half the weapon classes (3 ranged types): shield

Easiest to fight multiple enemies without worrying about your timing or position too much: shield

So you think ranged classes should not have a "counter" (very poor actually since most shields don't cover well and a few throwing shit can crush any shield to pieces) ? The only way to play safe with a shield is to use a throwing weapon. You can't be safe if you don't have ranged weapons, period.

To the funny part now, when a shielder looses his shield. Option one is to loose all your time seeking another shield. You have some luck if you find a proper one. But often you don't have time to do that because your shield was destroyed by a big 2h axe. In melee, 1h without shield seems just like a fast and very short 2h, before you encounter someone with an heavy weapon. If you have to fight bardiches and the like, you are as good as dead. The stun makes it virtually impossible to fight.

[Noble Crassius]

So you think ranged classes should not have a "counter" (very poor actually since most shields don't cover well and a few throwing shit can crush any shield to pieces) ? The only way to play safe with a shield is to use a throwing weapon. You can't be safe if you don't have ranged weapons, period.

Shields don't cover if you have a low shield skill true but with just 3 skill and a heavy round shield I rarely if not never got head shotted through my block. Shielders with a huscarl (90% of the shield population) don't have to worry about any ranged unless directly behind. This is way different than say I two hander with one shield skill (which I was) when I actually was shot through my board shield by an archer. Your far safer as a shielder from ranged than any other class it's a fact you can put any what ifs you want in there it doesn't change jack.

To the funny part now, when a shielder looses his shield. Option one is to loose all your time seeking another shield. You have some luck if you find a proper one. But often you don't have time to do that because your shield was destroyed by a big 2h axe. In melee, 1h without shield seems just like a fast and very short 2h, before you encounter someone with an heavy weapon. If you have to fight bardiches and the like, you are as good as dead. The stun makes it virtually impossible to fight.

The stun is the hard part about 1h no shield but after the first initial stun your free to block and spam as you please, this is only a small problem in my experience. There are plenty of Huscarls lying around from shielders who died before their shield did (this is the case most of the time for Huscarl users) as long as you have at least 4 shield skill you should be able to find a shield fairly quickly.

[rustyspoon]

Shielder is the easiest class to play, but also the most boring. I would probably never play one ever again except for the fact that throwing spam makes me rage so much.

The one thing that could at least make playing a shielder somewhat more interesting would be shield diversity. Shield diversity will NEVER happen until shield speeds actually mean something. That is what I want.

[Noble Crassius]

I know what your saying Rusty going from a shielder to a 2hander is rage inducing. Every time I get into a nice melee fight I get plinked by an arrow which rarely happened to me while I was a shielder. Good thing about shields is while even at rest it still sucks up arrows, I used to laugh when I was running with an archer to my left as he was feebly trying to shoot me with his crap tastic arrows only to get sucked up into my Huscarl...Ah the good ol days.

Needless to say I'll be going back to shields after a couple of refreshing gens away from them. 

[Spawny]

Hm I'm interested in this too, as I have not yet completely decided if I'll use the pick or warhammer. 33 pierce damage is deadly, but 31 blunt (which is just a bit more than pierce) with a chance to knockdown seems like a tasty choice too. The speed difference between the two is only 1.

So I tried the warhammer and I personally didn't like it. The main advantage of the steel pick is that it doesn't glance on right to left swings where the warhammer does. This surprises quite some people as almost everyone has a standard right block up when facing a shielder. Feint left-right swing, kill em with the right left swing.
I got 2-9 kd ratio with warhammer on siege server and 13-2 with the steel pick.

[Grey]

If you are glancing with warhammer, its because you are hitting heavy armoured guys, or in a very bad position: I manage to take down any level of armour players with my 2 fav weapons: iron mace and sword of whine. Just watch your range, get a sweetspot headslash in from ANY direction, or a facestab.

VERY WORSE CASE scenario, blackarmour dude with silly amounts of IF, just take a runup.

As to stuns vs 1h from heavy weapons: It will take time to get into range, nice big polearm will have time to swing at you twice as you approach. O!? Whats that?! Stun from blocking heavies affects 1, maybe 2 hits only? PERFECT, Ill be out of stun just as I come into range, seems like someone thought this up well....

I like poles, longswords, single handed weapons, axes, mauls, what have you, I use it and like it. And, in all honesty, shielders have an easy time surviving, and the shields need to grouped as either Melee shields, good speed but low coverage, or ranged defence, large but cumbersome. But as to offensive styles, polearms has it ALL going on, with faster real speed ingame than any other class, simply by applying physics: 2 levers turn at the same point, at the same speed, but are different lengths: The tip of the longer level will be travelling faster than the tip of the shorter level: apply this to weapons:

Get a 1h weapon like....Fighting Axe

Fighting Axe   2596   
weight 2
requirement 9
spd rtng 94
weapon length 90
swing damage 31, cut
thrust damage 0 pierce
Bonus against Shield
Secondary Mode

Lets compare with: Hafter Blade

Hafted Blade   2450   
weight 2.25
requirement 8
spd rtng 95
weapon length 132
swing damage 36, cut
thrust damage 20 pierce
Penalty with Shield

Hafted blade is cheaper faster longer. Then apply the fact that its additional length makes it effectively faster still. Polearms GOT IT GOING ON!!!

[rustyspoon]

I lot of people have said that the devs will be adjusting a lot of the polearms next patch. Some of them are REALLY OP. **cough**Long Hafted Spiked Mace**cough**

[Vibe]

Hm I've been testing Warhammer vs Steel pick quite much and it just seems to me that Steel pick kills faster. Not sure whether it was just luck/right enemies.

[Spawny]

Hm I've been testing Warhammer vs Steel pick quite much and it just seems to me that Steel pick kills faster. Not sure whether it was just luck/right enemies.

It's what I've been experiencing. My enemies seem to have an easier time blocking the warhammer than the steel pick.

The better fighters are easier to kill with my sidesword though. They will use the range of the steel pick against me, while the average players don't.