About athletics/ agi related skills as a shielder

[Algarn]

Tittle says everything, do you think 7 Athl and 5 shield skill is enough for a heavily armored shielder ? Also, what weapon to use ? I saw that swords are somehow weak against ennemies wearing the regular ammount of armor (can't be arsed to hit someone 5 times, that's retarded), but maces/hammers are a bit too short.

[Krex]

Should be fine with the stats.

Would recommend the warhammer,but if you would like to have something with more reach you might wanna try the spathovalkolion-or however its spelled.

[Algarn]

Basically, I'm aiming at 27/21 turtle shielder, hard hitting, highly protected by armor and huscarl round shield. Was using warhammer on my 24/24 alt, it was quite of a good weapon, but it lacked of those few centimeters to get the ennemy's head.

[Krex]

Try the cleavers,they deal good damage and are longer than axes/maces.No knockdown tho :/

[Leshma]

Last build 30/15 (4 IF, 10 PS, 5 ATH/SHD/WM). I was wearing medium armor (15 weight) and was using Knightly Heater and European Cav Sword. It is very decent build, but be prepared to get spammed by "ninjas" (retards with 12/36 build and Katana/Miaodao bullshit swords). It is surprisingly good against heavily armored STR builds. Tried Military Cleaver, it sucks with this build. Too short. Sideways shield coverage is piss poor, so better to go with round shields.

Current build 18/24 (5 IF, 6 PS, 8 ATH/SHD/WM). Was using same gear but switched to light armor (6 weight) and combination of Broad Short Sword and Buckler. My kills dwindled to half/third of what I was doing with previous build but survivability increased (dat S key yo). Swings are useless, stab is potent but I miss way more than I hit (go with Espada imho). Sideways shield coverage is decent despite the fact I'm using buckler (8 shield skill is great).

Bottom line is, first build is better and 5 ATH is more than enough for siege imho. Decent for battle also. Crazy "ninja" builds will piss you off though, be prepared. They'll pound your shield, trying to get between the shield and your char model to get a "dirty" hit. Especially those with 50 ping or more, which is basically 50% of current EU community.

Wouldn't recommend doing a shield build, mainly because of server issues. Better go with retard ninja build. but don't go with spammy 2H weapons, pick some long and thin polearm like MW Svaerdstav. Aim for legs and s key while you are doing it. Great success!

Or go full ultramarine, with a long ass sword (Flamberge is great, but expensive). Cookie cutter builds like 27/18, 30/15 or 33/12 will do (go full IF). That will be the best possible melee build when new patch hit the shelves.

[Falka]

(can't be arsed to hit someone 5 times, that's retarded),

 

[Algarn]

Don't tell me you have to hit the fucker 5 times in the face with high PS value and blunt/pierce damage, won't believe you, even if it's the case with 1h swords.

[Daunt_Flockula]

Get a steel pick, spam overheads and after each block, stick to the enemy like a stubborn tick with a readied overhead. Your opponent will either be sick of waiting for you to finally attack or fail at intercepting the attack. Most of those damnable 1handers are so small that it tends to be quite difficult to see whatever you are attempting while trying to block anyway.

[Leshma]

Overhead is kinda hard to block for most people. Left swing is something most people can block by now, unless you have some crazy (macro) feints. Right swing is slow. Thrust is great, but blunt/pierce weapons don't have thrust (Warhammer does have thrust tho). But you're probably better at feinting than me, ever since I switched to inverse attack scheme feinting is hard for me (chambering very hard qq).

[McKli_PL]

27/21 tank shielder is bit boring and a funny thing on 1h ur not doing so big damage per power strike 9 than power strike 8 coz of 'slow'7 ath and s-keying opponent, its good build for strat/siege as front line and i dont think ur playing those serwers so often. 27/21 its a great build for pure 1h/2h/pole, so why is not so good/perfect for a shielder u may ask and the answer is realy obvious footwork/speedbonus damage, when ur in front line u will attack first and u will be attacked first, so there is no room for some super duper footwork, your 'right swings' will probably stuck on your team friend trying to support u, its much easier to kick fat shielder than agi leftswing only wersion and if ur using high speed weapons such as scimitars, nordic etc ur not doing big damage to your 'fat' 2h/pole opponets, reason of this is also simple-power strike dont scale good on 1h weapons with 'low'cut damage when u cant use(front line scenario) footwork, with 9 ps its much better to use blunt weps like warhammer coz of power strike scaling on blunt its great, and most important and bit forgoten today that with warhammer u can stun lock alot of ppl with fast good holds, like was doing Arnie from Drz he was spam/stuning like a mad killing a lot of unaware ppl. Tl:dr 27/21 shielder build its bit for special tactics big strat sieges when u need though front line etc, much better is 24/24 shielder (8ps,8ath 5sh/5 wm 0/IF) easier for leftswing only, harder to kick u, much easier to fast change targets on battlefield with 'almost' same damage as slow 7ath wersion.

[Macropus]

Don't tell me you have to hit the fucker 5 times in the face with high PS value and blunt/pierce damage, won't believe you, even if it's the case with 1h swords.

Well I'd tell you having to hit someone 5 times to kill him isn't bad for 1h. I'm mainly talking about swords, but 5 hits != 5 hits if you know what I mean. It all depends on how you aim and how your opponent moves.

With str shielder build (which I played a lot before 4. patch) I preferred long swords like KAS, NCS and spathion. Reach compensates for lack of athletics and damage is still fine with high PS, especially if you aim for the head. If you use a short weapon, which most of blunt/pierce weapons are, you are gonna have much trouble fighting agile characters with long weapons. 

[Algarn]

Ok, thanks for the imput everyone, I'm going to try my build tomorrow, 24/24 worked out like a charm, but I prefer some punchy 27/21 heavy shielder, because it's badass as hell. It was good actually, tried the 26/21 version on my STF (couldn't get everything), and I can say it serves the purpose I'm looking for : being one damned wall you shall not pass !

[Algarn]

Ok, I respecced my archer (RIP Merc_Algarn), and I actually enjoy it. I got that new Nordic Nobleman sword +3, but I would need some help on the "secondary gear", particularly, the boots/gloves. Do lighter boots give you less speed penalties than the heavier ones, and are heavy gloves any recommended regarding WPF penalties ? Got 27 STR, 2IF, and 120 wpf in 1h.

[Harpag]

Try this: lvl 37, 24/21 8PS, 7AT 7 WM (170 1h) 5 SH and 5IF. Very versatile, works with light and heavy armor, long and short weapon. There is no big difference between 8 and 9 PS for 1H - still 2 hits per kill.

For lvl 36 - 21/21 and 77777.... and kinngrimm build for lolz - 13/30  4PS 4IF and 9SH, 10ATL and 10 WM  200 WPF 1H  :-)))