25 replies to this topic

[Alan Drifter13]

Hi,

 

I recently started with the MP, and I had never played a tank in SP, so I'm not very familiar with the specifics of Shield Wall, but it seems to do nothing against bosses. Or close to nothing. Today I tried using it against a Revenant and the templar boss (can't remember the name now, the one who looks like Loghain and has a sort of whirlwind skill). Against the Revenant I seem to generate very little guard and take most of the damage. Against the templar boss I didn't get any guard at all, just full damage. 

 

So, shield wall works well against minions but not against bosses? Is this related to the amount of damage they make? If yes, is there a way of knowing the damage limit you can absorb? Will this change once my character levels up and/or gets a better shield/armor?

 

Thanks for your help on this. I feel like the answers to this should be on the skill's description, but apparently they aren't.

[nibyl]

Absorbing damage consumes stamina. When your stamina is gone, no more blocking. Against revenant I think if you have full stamina you can block 2 of its 3 swings and that should give you over 50% guard.

 

Shield wall works great against bosses as long as you keep an eye on the stamina bar.

[Cheviot]

Shield wall is a great last resort when the DC starts screaming and you know you're not getting out of panic range.  You get at least half guard to keep you safe until you recover.

[TormDK]

As noted above, it depends on your stamina levels.

 

Here's a few suggestions on absorbing boss mob damage;

 

Revenant;

 

Start combat with full stamina, block two first strikes and let him hit you with the third. While you are attacking him, you will be able to get back to full stamina to redo the cycle.

 

Arcane Horror;

 

Stay away from it (I see so many people with aggro run up to it, which simply means it starts teleporting), so that it will only toss one projectile against you and not teleport around. Let the DPS do the job while you shieldwall block the single projectiles.

When he does the 3x3 barrage move, feel free to move back and forth to avoid them. You can shieldblock about 60% of the barrage if you have full stamina, which will grant you a full guard bar.

 

Red Templar Commander;

 

His normal swings costs you same level of stamina as blocking the Revenant. I will typically melee him and absorb two normal strikes (Which gives full guard bar) and then start the kiting while the DPS do their job. When he is not spinning, doing the ground smash, or jumping at you, you can trigger his normal strikes still to regain more guard in case you lose it do to stray Archer arrows.

 

Daemon Commander;

 

Keep your stamina near max at all times. In order to keep a high level of stamina, alternate between blocking his normal slash to gain Guard, and letting him hit you to spend it. This will leave you with enough stamina to shieldblock the damage part of his scream, which will give you Guard, and let you have the stamina needed to use Payback Strike to get out of the fear component right away. This leaves you with more time to move into a better position for when he does his 4 bolt ranged attack. (Which you can chose to block if you have the stamina for it).

 

When he teleports back to you, it is possible to shieldblock his "popup" attack if you position correctly. Once he is back, redo the cycle as he will start slashing normally again.

 

Venatori Commander;

 

Not alot to absorb, but you can shieldblock her fire mines, and her Arcane Barrage in order to build guard for when she firewall's.

[jerky]

^^^^^

This is pretty much the perfect post about it.  Follow those guidelines and you'll survive.

[Alan Drifter13]

As noted above, it depends on your stamina levels.

 

Here's a few suggestions on absorbing boss mob damage;

 

Revenant;

 

Start combat with full stamina, block two first strikes and let him hit you with the third. While you are attacking him, you will be able to get back to full stamina to redo the cycle.

 

Arcane Horror;

 

Stay away from it (I see so many people with aggro run up to it, which simply means it starts teleporting), so that it will only toss one projectile against you and not teleport around. Let the DPS do the job while you shieldwall block the single projectiles.

When he does the 3x3 barrage move, feel free to move back and forth to avoid them. You can shieldblock about 60% of the barrage if you have full stamina, which will grant you a full guard bar.

 

Red Templar Commander;

 

His normal swings costs you same level of stamina as blocking the Revenant. I will typically melee him and absorb two normal strikes (Which gives full guard bar) and then start the kiting while the DPS do their job. When he is not spinning, doing the ground smash, or jumping at you, you can trigger his normal strikes still to regain more guard in case you lose it do to stray Archer arrows.

 

Daemon Commander;

 

Keep your stamina near max at all times. In order to keep a high level of stamina, alternate between blocking his normal slash to gain Guard, and letting him hit you to spend it. This will leave you with enough stamina to shieldblock the damage part of his scream, which will give you Guard, and let you have the stamina needed to use Payback Strike to get out of the fear component right away. This leaves you with more time to move into a better position for when he does his 4 bolt ranged attack. (Which you can chose to block if you have the stamina for it).

 

When he teleports back to you, it is possible to shieldblock his "popup" attack if you position correctly. Once he is back, redo the cycle as he will start slashing normally again.

 

Venatori Commander;

 

Not alot to absorb, but you can shieldblock her fire mines, and her Arcane Barrage in order to build guard for when she firewall's.

 

Thanks, this looks very useful, I'll try to follow it to avoid dying.

 

Since we are on the subject, one more thing: since I leveled up the legionnaire I decided to remove shield wall because war cry and walking fortress seem to be enough to stay alive (so I keep shield bash and payback strike to do some damage). Am I right to think that this won't work in perilous and I'll have to go full tank, replacing shield bash and payback strike with unbowed and shield wall?

[TormDK]

No, the Legionaire can function just fine without shieldwall, in fact it functions better without it.

 

Legionaire perilous build is considered ; Payback strike, Counterstrike, Walking Fortress and Warcry as far as I recall (I don't play him)

 

My suggestions are mostly meant for Templars, since they are much more dependant on shieldwall in their builds (You can do without it, if you have the willpower and gear to melt everything you encounter with the WoH/Purge combo, as well as Unbowed)

[nibyl]

There are some good threads about legionnaire around if you dig a few pages back. I'd say if your critical chance isn't high enough to keep walking fortress up more or less constantly with flow of battle passive (crits reduce cooldowns), then keep shield wall. I almost always keep it on my lego, but there are many who don't.

 

The build TormDK suggested is very good. Every perilous build centers around counterstrike and walking fortress. Payback strike is there to get you out from stuns and knockdowns and the fourth skill is up for debate. Shield if you think you need it, something else if you think you don't.

[Alan Drifter13]

Thanks everyone, that was very useful info.

[DrKilledbyDeath]

If you aren't host I'd make sure to be ready to block well before the attack comes. Many times I try to pull the shield out as the hit is coming, I won't take damage but I won't get my guard.

[Laforgus]

No, the Legionaire can function just fine without shieldwall, in fact it functions better without it.

 

 

You have no idea how many players i have seen dying for not having Shield Wall, not having it could be good against demons, but against an arrow in the knee... well..

 

Also, remember he is new on MP, so until he gets good equipment and some combat experience i would recommend the use of Shield Wall.

[Beerfish]

Absorbing damage consumes stamina. When your stamina is gone, no more blocking. Against revenant I think if you have full stamina you can block 2 of its 3 swings and that should give you over 50% guard.

 

Shield wall works great against bosses as long as you keep an eye on the stamina bar.

I've never once looked at my stamina bar in this game, not once.  No wonder I'm so terrible.

[Jkregers]

No, the Legionaire can function just fine without shieldwall, in fact it functions better without it.

 

Legionaire perilous build is considered ; Payback strike, Counterstrike, Walking Fortress and Warcry as far as I recall (I don't play him)

 

My suggestions are mostly meant for Templars, since they are much more dependant on shieldwall in their builds (You can do without it, if you have the willpower and gear to melt everything you encounter with the WoH/Purge combo, as well as Unbowed)

 

No one has said anything about cunning yet. To keep your protective skills up with few to no breaks of downtime, you will want to have high cunning (crit chance) to take advantage of the "Flow of Battle" passive. This will lower your cooldowns with every critical strike. There are also other ways to increase cunning/crit chance besides promotions. 

 

This is why shield wall becomes less useful with this type of play style, because you are attacking less if you are using shield wall, so you are not lowering your cooldowns as efficiently. That being said, I still use shield wall for the extra support xp (a lot of it), and for...blocking. 

[Luke Barrett]

Shield Wall takes stamina on every instance of damage you block. The amount it takes is relative to the overall strength of the creature not the strength of the attack - the only exception is that all ranged attacks should be treated equally. As long as you have enough stamina to cover it you will take 0 damage, if you are short it will ratio out how short you are and damage you by the inverse ratio.

 

In ideal circumstances it is used to block arrows and all attacks from lesser creatures. Against a boss you'll probably want to make sure you're blocking only the very strong attacks.

 

Hope that helps

[Drasca]

Vs Revenant and certain other boss animations. If you blockade them, often ther is gap time between attacks where you can strafe or run out of weapon range. For rev in particular block the firstly second and runaway for the follow up attacks. Blockade that grappling chain he uses on you too if you have allies. If you're really well timed, you can block ,attack, block, attack, block, and take reduced damage for the third swing because you gained stamina in between shield walls and for hitting him. It is harder to pull off obviously.

Be mindful of that stamina bar, and of enemy attack animations.

Vs RTC spin to win you can. Block, be knocked back, get up and run if you're too close to run in the first place.

Don't try to block a charging druffalo. Stay in close range so he cannot charge.

[Theghostof_timmy]

Vs Revenant and certain other boss animations. If you blockade them, often ther is gap time between attacks where you can strafe or run out of weapon range. For rev in particular block the firstly second and runaway for the follow up attacks. Blockade that grappling chain he uses on you too if you have allies. If you're really well timed, you can block ,attack, block, attack, block, and take reduced damage for the third swing because you gained stamina in between shield walls and for hitting him. It is harder to pull off obviously.

Be mindful of that stamina bar, and of enemy attack animations.

Vs RTC spin to win you can. Block, be knocked back, get up and run if you're too close to run in the first place.

Don't try to block a charging druffalo. Stay in close range so he cannot charge.

Cuz druffy don't give a nug.

[DrKilledbyDeath]

Drasca when you mention strafing, on PC can you properly strafe side to side? Unless I am doing something horribly wrong it can't be done on console, so it makes gameplay quite different than what you may experience.

[TormDK]

Strafing works fine (on PC at least), I use it all the time to avoid the arcane horror's 3x3 barrage.

[DrKilledbyDeath]

When you move left or right on PS4, whether you have something targeted or not your body turns to move in that direction. So if you are trying to move side to side to avoid projectiles, you will be hit by everything before you finish turning.

[TormDK]

Well, you could simply start moving in one horisontal direction, it will produce the same result (He will miss)

[DragonRacer]

Yes, console basically has to anticipate earlier so we have time to turn and run. No strafing, sadly. One of the advantages of PC. 

[uzivatel]

As noted above, it depends on your stamina levels.
 
Here's a few suggestions on absorbing boss mob damage;
 
Revenant;
 
Start combat with full stamina, block two first strikes and let him hit you with the third. While you are attacking him, you will be able to get back to full stamina to redo the cycle.

If you do have guard, why not taking the first or second hit and block the last to have full guard?

[TormDK]

If you do have guard, why not taking the first or second hit and block the last to have full guard?

 

Blocking his last hit will not give you full guard though, but in essence it's about getting enough guard to absorb a strike (prehaps two) while you rebuild your stamina. Obviously if you have full guard, you could be kiting him instead (provided you have aggro)

[Luke Barrett]

When you move left or right on PS4, whether you have something targeted or not your body turns to move in that direction. So if you are trying to move side to side to avoid projectiles, you will be hit by everything before you finish turning.

Target lock with shield wall very specifically let's you move backwards and side to side while the ability is active. It is the only one that works like this currently.

In fact, if I get a chance on the stream today (tune in in 105 minutes!) I will demonstrate. Your head will 'asplode!

[DrKilledbyDeath]

Target lock with shield wall very specifically let's you move backwards and side to side while the ability is active. It is the only one that works like this currently.

In fact, if I get a chance on the stream today (tune in in 105 minutes!) I will demonstrate. Your head will 'asplode!

Cool, didn't know that. I'll admit I've accidentally used targeting more than I have on purpose. I haven't played my archer/hunter in a while but I think you can move sideways while shooting your bow, you can correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

i just wanted to clarify because I know Drasca mentions strafing to dodge arrows and what not quite frequently but obviously PC/console users don't know how the game runs on the other platform. Don't want some new console players losing it when they can't figure out why they can't strafe