Alena Ventrallis
Ahrendee Inc.
Negative-Feedback
2885
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Posted - 2015.03.30 04:56:00 -
[1] - Quote
Shield tanking is currently the lesser-favored tanking style in Dust. Armor has several advantages over shield that make it the "better" tanking style, some intended, some not-so-intended.
1. Armor has more health than shields. This is intended and as it should be, sort-of. Armor has large hp pools with slow regen, and shield has smaller hp reserves with high regen. More on this later.
2. Shield reps can be interrupted. There is currently no damage threshold on infantry. an AR can stop shield regen at 100m, which effectively eliminates the high regen advantage shield is supposed to have.
3. Armor has team support in a team-oriented game. Triage hives and rep tools mean that even shields advantage over armor can be surpassed through teamwork. I am not arguing for the removal of this tactic, but one cannot argue that even a militia rep tool can surpass the base regen of almost all suits save the CalScout.
Now, I believe in making small, incremental changes, so as to avoid making shield superior to armor. Both should be viable in their own right. So currently I will talk about one single change: closing the gap between plate and extender hp values. Currently shield extenders give 66 hp at the proto level. with level 5 shield skills, it gives 72 hp. A basic plate gives 85 hp before skills are applied. So even the best shield extender at level 5 operation falls behind a basic plate with no skills what-so-ever. I believe we can aid shield suits by buffing the hp of extenders slightly, so as to close the gap somewhat between extender and plate hp values. The increases are thus:
STD: 33 --> 36
ADV: 50 --> 55
PRO: 66 --> 72
This is basically a 10% buff to extender hp across the board. With level 5 shield extender skill (the name escapes my memory right now) you would have these values.
STD: 39.6
ADV: 60.5
PRO: 79.2
Once again, a basic armor plate with no skills gives 85 hp. so a PRO extender at level 5 still gives less hp than a basic plate. However, the gap between them has closed some, meaning shield tankers get a little more survivability without overtaking armors ability to tank damage. Now I can understand complaints that this will lead to more brick tanked shield suits. However, brick tanking them was never really feasible to begin with. And with this change, you could perhaps drop an extender for a precision mod, or damage mod, while still having appreciable hp. And again, this does not allow shields to overtake armor in terms of tanking damage. It only closes the gap some between the two.
There are many other changes that would aid shields, like adding a damage threshold or changing how delays work. But I believe these changes should come one at a time, until we find a good balance between shield and armor, to where armor isn't the go-to tank type for nearly everything.
Listen to my muscle memory
Contemplate what I've been clinging to
Forty-six and two ahead of me
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