Howdy. I'm here trying to discuss why shields / blocking should be somewhat better and, maybe orbs could give you some added damage, but this is mainly about shields and blocking.
Blocking with a shield can block melee attacks only and you get 10% (less/more? not sure) reduction to magic damage with blocking skill and a shield equipped. Whatever the amount is, it's not enough. I'm not saying shield users should be able to take a screen full of blood mages, lords or so.eggmceye wrote:+AS on shields: it adds to your thac0: muyst be a shield (or orb etc). Orbs (not shields) used to add dmg bonus too, bt that was removed feb 2013 (not sure why, check updates thread?). It seems a bit confused.
What is the highest melee damaging monster? Well, I'm not sure, but I quess that would be a blood warrior or something. I don't know how much they can hit for, maybe a few hundred points of damage? I think that some magic attack mobs can do atleast 600 to 1000 points of damage. If you have a shield, and the magical damage gets reduced by 10%, that comes to 540 to 900 points of damage.
However, if you are wielding an orb of health, you get 10% more hp. So, let's say your hp is 1000. Which is the better choice:
1000 hp + 100 hp (10% from orb of health) = 1100 hp - 600 to 1000 dmg = 100 to 500 hp left
or
1000 hp - 540 to 940 dmg (10% damage reduced with a shield and blocking skill) = 60 to 460 hp left
The point: IF you are a fighter with 1h, and you fight magical mobs most of the time, you would benefit more from an orb - making your 100 block useless in that case, except shield bash is pretty good.
Conclusion: I think shields aren't worth it in higher levels, except if you happen to find a very good artifact or trade one.
Why? Because most of the mobs in higher levels do a lot high magical damage, and that 10% reduction doesn't help so much.
I'm not sure anymore, if attack/as should work fully on shields / orbs. It would probably out dps 2h weapons, since you could get +9 attack & as from a shield and that magical reduction. Sounds pretty OP!
What I would like to see:
-Orbs that give +as should give as & attack, BUT only like +3-6 max or something
-Shields don't necessary need to have any as / attack at all, but they should be more useful against magical mobs.
My suggestions:
-Maybe the +def on shield could SLIGHTLY increase the magical damage received?
-Maybe the amount of magical damage received could be lowered, like 15-20% reduction with a shield.
-How about a VERY LOW CHANCE (1-3%) to completely block / partially reflect / halve incoming magical attack damage
-Completely new and pretty cool idea. Since there are foods that buff resistances (but they use your food buff slot), maybe we could have the following: Either add suffixes like fire resistance, cold resistance, blood resistance (?) etc. and allow us to enchant them to shields, or allow us to have some new "shield stances" or auras which increase your resistances (or just one).
Waiting anxiously to get mithril tower shield of lightning resistance on my dwarf, or lightning stance
Discuss.
Thanks for reading,
Luxorious