Hello! Now after trying things out with a friend and then hearing of issues on other servers, I’ve noticed that there are quiet a number of different views on the shield’s current state, ranging from “they are overpowered” to “they are useless”. That said, I’d like to get a better idea on where shields stands, and help come up with possible solutions to their use.
I understand that there are changes in the works, such as adding stamina drain to blocking, which was actually something I was thinking of suggesting until I heard it from the devs, but I feel that there are other underlying issues with them.
My own stance on the shields currently is that they are useful, but require too much management. They break nearly instantly when faced against attacks with the “shield breaker” perk and their extremely high amount of durability makes them very costly to repair.
I know that in reality, there is no such thing as an indestructible shield and that there were cases where they would break and thus be rendered useless. However, I feel like that makes for a poor game mechanic when the first 1 hander with the shield breaker perk spams light attacks and gets through in less then 5 seconds. I’d expect that from a heavy weapon or a heavy attack from such specialized weapons.
For the repairs issue, I propose that shields use their “attack” value (that they are currently not using) as an armor value, reducing the damage they take to their durability and reduce their overall durability to come more in line with weapons and armor. This would allow them to better withstand chip damage from lower quality gear and also drastically reduce repair costs.
Another thing that might be useful into considering, would be to replace the “shield breaking” with creating a wide opening when blocking a hit that would have otherwise broken the shield. An extreme stagger after blocking if you will.