Wait, what? Please review carefully what you just posted; maybe understand the game better. Two choices are presented to you, Steel Thewed, AND Shield Master (Read the description), which have absolutely nothing to do with strength.
Didn’t know you could cross the Bridge of the Betrayer in that fashion, but hey, what do I know. Oh and, what happens when you are fighting Frost Giants which apply frostbite?
I always give them shield, mainly as plan B, should they get overwhelmed during purge. Though after Skelos bearers got fixed, purge became all about archers, as melee thralls will be overwhelmed and killed with ease.
As for climbing - mobility mods into armor allow me to climb pretty much anywhere, and due to being a sorcerer, I can just summon demon bat and fly, if necessary.
Shield Master is the perk you can use alternatively to Steel Thewed. It’s a Grit perk that allows you to block unblockable blows. It’s also a waste of a perk as it was bugged. Maybe It’s corrected now? I never met any player who actually made that choice instead of Steel Thewed.
Strenght has Crushing Swings that allows you not to be staggered by shields, in opposition to Blood-Mad Berserker . What am I missing?
I think I understand at least a little about this game, considering I sunk over 5000 hours in it…
Edit- you can cross the Bridge of the Betrayer with spicy food alone. Interestingly, the coldest spot on the entire map seems to be at the midfle of that bridge. But eating spicy food is enough for you to survive it.
2nd Edit ahh I see what you mean. Earlier I meant Grit, not Strenght. Corrected now.
Last time I saw this explaned, thralls use shields at chance. It’s random, it seems. They use it like any other attack. That would make it a random hit/miss mechanic.
You want them to have shields, as long as enemies don’t have weapons with “shieldbreaker” attribute to bypass shield, since increased survivability of thralls is a good thing. Especially for corrupted authority builds, where thralls share your damage taken and you boost damage they inflict.
Even if it’s random hit/miss mechanic, any chance is better, than 0% chance.
Buddy, thralls can’t use shields properly. That’s the problem. The slight increase in their random defensive moves are easily outmatched by their dmg dealing potential if they don’t have one.
They will be wasting time raising the shield only to lower it at the worst possible moment.
You can easily check this on single player mode even if you are on console. Give yourself admin powers, spawn two thralls and their gear. Pit them against an enemy (that you spawn) and conpare. Trust me, you will be better served giving them a mace. That’s the weapon that seems more effective. We used to give them 2h swords, but since the stun mechanic was tweaked, a mace is definitely better now, even vs groups. The 2h sword is too slow, they get stunned and that might mean death. So, maces are the best gear for the time being. No shields on thralls, ever. They don’t know how to use them properly.
Shield and mace is way to go, both Freya and Fei carry such combo.
Only mace. No shield. But you do you. I just don’t recommend it.
Two-handed weapons just too slow on thralls, bugged Skelos bearers were equipped with long swords and usually were knocked down way before swinging them even once. And since thralls can’t fight with other hand, may as well give them shield - Freya’s “perk” of self-stacking bleeding somehow works with serpentmen’s shield, so even hits at her shield cause enemy to start stacking up bleed to full.
You are wasting moves. Just a mace serves them better. This is common knowledge, mate. If you want them to use shields, it’s up to you, but there’s no rationale behind it. It is never a better option. It’s a shame, but that’s how it is.
Especially in this update mace is the king both in thralls and players when it comes to npc fights. Lights do not stagger anymore only heavy ones but the 2h sword is the lowest in this chain 
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I’m still to reinstall the game, @stelagel .
Are there other changes? I heard that stamina exhaustion is a bit too punitive. What do you think?
It’s still the fatality system that’s annoying, the rest is almost like you left them, yet i didn’t play exile lands , only Siptah. All i did is some purges with @LostBrythunian to test weapon changes but nothing else tbh.
Thanks for telling me, now I know better, and so do you.
If you read the thread you might learn something about shields.
I think I understand the game a little as well.
Agility and grit, that is what you are missing.
Are you currently even playing? And crossing the bridge, do you mean sprinting on a horse or standing naked at the start of the bridge, and run on foot to the other side just eating spicy food? Ya know what, don’t answer, it is completely irrelevant to the topic of the thread, I just wonder why there are temperature armors for then, particularly the Dragonscale Helm; after listening to you, having played 5k hours, it appears all those armors have no place in the game. Odd they even in the game if you can just chew food.
Try mulled brew while holding a torch instead of shield and let me know 
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You’re kind of a jerk aren’t you?
And there it is, the proverbial Ad-Hominem; designed to deflect from a poor argument so you can attack the interlocutor, ignoring the argument at large, because your facts ran out. I can be a jerk when warranted, yes.
There. I crossed the Bridge of the Betrayer naked only eating spicy food. 1 Chili Desert Style was enough for a two way run.
Now can you stfu?
On that subject specifically, certainly. Maybe finally you will as well… erm, in general =]
Just shut up and stop making a fool of yourself more than you already did. If you knew me a little better you would also know I can always prove what I claim I can do on video.
