Shields & Defence

A shield by definition is used to defend and protect against attacks. It would stand to reason that the in game shields should increase your defence in order to reduce incoming damage as well as increase your health. Funnily enough it's the one thing they should do but don't do.

I would propose that shields enable you to have additional defence that increases with the level of the shield itself.

Small Shield would offer say 0.6 defence which would give a maximum of +30 at level 50.

Large Shield would offer say 1 defence which would give a maximum of +50 defence at level 50.

The above I'd lean towards a rare standard as a basis to work from but you could vary it on item quality. I.e. +/- .10 per rarity level.

Considering the talents don't give you an extravagant amount nor do the perks I don't think these numbers would be too unreasonable.

 

I like the sound of that idea, but one opinion, aren't defenders already annoying enough. They can tank quite a lot of shots and then if there is a fixer. They go back to full hp. Maybe lower the defence of your ideas by a bit.

 

Maybe!! But then hp should be reduced a bit to compensate for that

 

Both would be equally valid to address, the defence numbers are just numbers to help present the idea. I don't really know enough about the impact of it in game to come up with more balanced numbers but you could well be right that they ought to be lower.

I think a reduction in the HP a shield offered would allow defence to play a bigger part and compensate for the increase. It's not really looked at currently from general player opinion.

 

I think that before anything is done to defence, it needs a change in functionality. For example, a % damage reduction instead of a flat amount. It needs to scale properly. Also, I'm not sure adding something to the existing shields is a good idea. I'd prefer that there was a seperate blue item with defence on it.

 

But directly damage reduction is exactly special feature of defense. Health protects your ship against burst damage that means rapid death. On the other hand current defense is more powerful against sustained damage like any mortar except big berta, standart cannon, sniper cannon, carronade and missle. I using defense perks on my defender and i reach def cap(100). Sometimes it is better than health but usually isn't because of burst weapons is the meta. I don't see any problem about defense but i see a lot of problem about meta. Im in nightmare league and a few of players using mortars, cannon or carronade. Everyone running multiple explosive cannons, snipers or blasts etc. If a change needed, then it must be about burst weapon meta.

 

An item in place of a shield like Armour Plating would have to provide a hefty amount of defence to be a viable shield alternative, likely in excess of the cap. But it would be a new item into the pool so more variety.

A change in the mechanics of defence as % opposed to a flat rate sounds good area to look at.

Appreciate the contribution so far!