Shield Enemies are a Slog to Fight(with light weapons)

Wicked Feedback
1

I enjoy the combat of this game quite a bit, but I find all that enjoyment goes to die the moment i see an enemy with a shield in this game.

The total lack of counterplay against this enemy type when you’re using anything less than heavy weight, or using heavy weapons makes fighting these guys rough.

We cant backstab while their guard is up, and we are punished for any aggression, increasing our stagger and interrupting our combos when we deflect off their shields. The experience I have is often that I’m just left waiting for them to do anything so I can have the smallest opening to attack, often so short you end up nearly staggering yourself when they raise their shield again after only a couple hits.

There are many ways of solving this but i would love to see some changes to how we can engage with shielded enemies, as they feel really boring and frustrating to fight with all the limitations put on the player.

Would love to see other’s thoughts on this, even if they disagree and think this critique is benign.

2

Anyone feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but I believe they have said with the class system coming in 1.0(official release) that they are looking to have rune attacks for each class that cover this scenario.

iirc, they said each class should have a shield/guard breaking rune attack, and a disengagement type rune attack, etc.

I think it was said in a recent live stream… so you may already be getting your wish!

I only wish I could remember where I heard it so I could link you confirmation. Anyone else know if I remember correctly, and where/when it was said?

3

You say there are many ways of solving it..
There is a way to solve your own frustration and limitations and that is by Facing them more often and try to figure out a pattern for what work and what doesnt. ^^

I use Festering Earth Run Attack it simply butcher them.. It also Cancel Out those Exploding Abominations Run Attack and Infinite combos

I dont Agree but i also dont Disagree.. I will see what this Evolve into and choose whether i Agree or not later on :wink:

4

I was moreso talking about light weapons, with heavy weapons, it feels better! Ill update to make that more specific

5

Thanks for the info!

6

I think this is already the point. There are many ways to deal with shield enemies at the moment. I would love more ways to deal with them. For instance i would like a grappling skill that is maybe able to grapple a shield and then you play a small minigame to try to take the shield from the enemies and maybe some enemies can do this to you to, maybe.

Currently, for shields I either have a aoe rune that effectively bypasses the effects of the shield. Most aoe attack will do that. Or if im using a light weapon i do a single attack at the shield and then the enemy is guaranteed to do an attack after that and I wait for the parry and then go for the kill.

That’s what works for me, but im sure people have other preferred ways to deal with that issue. Granted at the beginning shield enemies where fustrating and sometimes I still miss timings or get a rune attack on a shield which stops it.

Did you have any specific ideas on what you would like to see for different ways to engage?

7

Some runes on most weapon classes have a guard break or knock down ability. If you find one of these runes for your weapon, shielded enemies will be a breeze!

I don’t know which light weapon you are using, but double daggers have Dual Breaker, found on the Brother’s Keepers knives, and 1 h-weapons have a lot of options, from whirls and spins to strikes and slams. Gauntlets need to rely on good positioning and timing, since they only have 2 knockdown runes right now.

This will all change in 1.0, when we will get a ton more options.

8

yes it’s a good idea to carry a shield breaker rune in your light weapon

some shield breaker runes IIRC:

  • circular
  • charge strike
  • gyro slash
  • jump cut (my favourite, has iframes and is useful everywhere)
  • all the elemental ‘spin’ attacks ?
  • most jump attacks i think

you can check:

also dodge→attack after they attack you

most importantly have a fully upgraded weapon, as high lvl as you can, because damage > all

9

I appreciate that enemies with shields are difficult to fight for some weapons (if you just spam attacks). I dislike that they become trivial once you simply punch through the shield with armour pen and massive damage.

The real joy arises if a shielded enemy protects a bomb-thrower or works together with an assassin. It should make players think twice about engaging, and more about alternate approaches:

  • runes that break blocks, or knock down (boo! too good, especially once focus becomes infinite),
  • unconventional rune solutions like traps or blinks,
  • ranged attacks or thrown items,
  • a spare pair of pants with the ‘curse’ of being able to shoulder-barge at any weight,
  • an emergency paddle,
  • a friend to distract one of the two,
  • stealth (extremely correct for daggers),
  • baiting one enemy into hurting another.

And of course there’s always the option to run in anyway, dodge perfectly, and punish the small openings. If that wasn’t hard, it wouldn’t feel as rewarding. I also really enjoy that shield-pushes can’t be parried, so you actually have to pay attention which wind-up the enemy is doing.

10

You do remember correctly. It was mentioned a few times, especially in the context of two-handed weapons, and most recently a week ago in the co-op stream. Timestamped for your pleasure: