Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Beta Shields, Any use ?

4% blocking ?

Shields might be the most common tool of war because it is a higly effective and cheap way to protect oneself, which DOS doesn't reflect at all.

Armor block is added to player Armor Value. Those numbers are not definitive, just values.

I propose:
Small shield: 30% block chance. 5 STR +5 Armor Block
Medium shield: 50% block chance. 7 STR +10 Armor Block
Large shield: 70% block chance. 9 STR +15 Armor Block

Normale shield: 40 durability.
Reinforced shiled: 80 durability, +2 STR.

Shield skill:
level 1: +50% Armor Block
level 1: +100% Armor Block
level 1: +150% Armor Block
level 1: +200% Armor Block
level 1: +300% Armor Block (Legendary level is +100%)


Any other ideas ?

Actually, shield blocking is very strong, if you know how to do it (i.e. if you do have the shield skill). If your character doesn't know how to use a shield, it shouldn't have big benefits.

Lets say you have a 10% shield and skill lvl 2, +1 to skill from shield -> 25% chance to block with very little investement.

If you focus on blocking, you could probably end with a 50% chance to block incoming attacks. If anything, shields are a bit too effective right now.

But your stuff is only skill dependant, not shield dependant, which is ridiculous. Having this big wall of wood or leather or whatever in front of you should provide a very effective cover no matter what. Shield skill should provide different benefit than being the main blocking reason.

Don't underestimate 4%. That is 1 out of 25 hits. That is quite a lot. Get the Shield specialization and wait for better shields. It's that type of thing that only gets better as the game progresses and you'll need it, because enemies will miss less often.

If you don't know what you are doing, a big wall of wood only slows you down and makes you easier to hit. The only situation where an untrained person should benefit from a big shield is taking cover vs. ranged fire. Also, only the worst shields in the game have 4%, decent shields start at 8%, i had one with 12%. And being skilled in using a shield should obviously mean you can block better, thats what shields are for, what else should the skill do in your opinion?

I mentioned this in the main bug thread as well, but there's now this issue as of beta 1.0.59:

-"Blocking" still reflects the "Shield Specialist" system from previous beta versions (i.e. it adds a flat +5 block chance per "Shield Specialist" ability level, instead of the "new" additional 10%/level to the equipped shield's blocking capability).

So, if you have a shield with 10% base blocking, I'm reading this as meaning you'd get 10+1 = 11% blocking with 1 point in Shield Specialist. However, right now, the tooltip for Blocking still shows 10+5 = 15% - which was the pre-1.0.59 system. What this seems to mean is Shield Specialist's effect on blocking has been nerfed for weaker shields, but may become quite powerful for stronger shields (50% extra blocking at ability level 5 - so if you get an uber 40% blocking shield, you'd actually block 60% of attacks with Shield Specialist 5).

This is a game and things like that need to be balanced in some way, otherwise they would be clearly overpowering way too much, or useful way too much. So thats the reason why the skill affects it.

Im sure you wont but, you could imagine that a character without a skill is very, very fumbly, incompetent with a shield, that he cannot put it in the right position to defend himself from a blow fast enough or correctly enough. It does require some skill to use most efficiently. In reality.
It isnt just that simple as you think.

This is a gamey approximation. The most important thing is that it works good in the game, right now.
and it does work nicely. Im playing such a build now.

If it was to be made differently then the design of it should have been different from the start.
Too late for that now, of course.

Mikus does have a point, we'll have to look into that. Shield spec can have a flat bonus imo.

I didnt see his post before i wrote mine. I havent even noticed the details he is mentioning yet.
I agree with whatever you guys say. :P

It's still nerfed, your math is off.

In the old situation lvl 5 is +25(!). That's still way more than +20 if you find a +40 shield, which seems unlikely to happen.

It was pretty useful. +10% seems to make it a waste, just like the weapon skills no-one took (takes? Not sure if it changed much in the last version).

But yeah, it was too powerful, unlike the OP tries to make out Shields are very very useful.
I'll have to give feedback on the skill change once I play this version...

Just a clarification; I found it great that in the old system the gear was a minor boost, and the skill was the major boost. It made inventing skillpoints feel powerful (unlike in weapons which gave like +2 damage per point).

I prefer it if adding skillpoints feels like you make a good investment, rather than adding a pitiful +1 to some minor stat (in this case blocking).