Shield Question and Suggestion

[Xanirus]

First the question, I only noticed this last night, we have a stat called "Shielding from Continent Tier."  Mine says 55.5%.  What is this exactly?

And a suggestion for shields in general.  I'm finding it a little hard to even bother with them.  (I think others have said the same thing.)  I have them on a separate ability bar so I can quickly activate via R then switch back, but the drain is a bit much.  It's either turn a shield on and don't attack, or don't use it at all.  What I suggest is that instead of having them drain mana, have them take a percentage from your capacity, more commonly known as a maintain requirement spell in other games.  For instance if you have 100 mana, and the shield has a 20% maintain, your mana would stop regenerating at 80% for as long as you maintain the spell.

[Zozma]

As I understand it, whenever you raise your continent tier, you get a certain amount of additional protection from damage. It mentions it in the notification whenver you raise the continent tier.

[Misery]

First the question, I only noticed this last night, we have a stat called "Shielding from Continent Tier."  Mine says 55.5%.  What is this exactly?

And a suggestion for shields in general.  I'm finding it a little hard to even bother with them.  (I think others have said the same thing.)  I have them on a separate ability bar so I can quickly activate via R then switch back, but the drain is a bit much.  It's either turn a shield on and don't attack, or don't use it at all.  What I suggest is that instead of having them drain mana, have them take a percentage from your capacity, more commonly known as a maintain requirement spell in other games.  For instance if you have 100 mana, and the shield has a 20% maintain, your mana would stop regenerating at 80% for as long as you maintain the spell.

Depends on the situation (and possibly on the difficulty level?).   I originally said the same thing, but now after some time with the game I find myself using the things quite alot.   Particularly the fire shield.   Even with my current character who has a max mana of about 220, I end up using the shield alot.   It took some experimenting to find the best ways to make use of it though.

[Xanirus]

First the question, I only noticed this last night, we have a stat called "Shielding from Continent Tier."  Mine says 55.5%.  What is this exactly?

And a suggestion for shields in general.  I'm finding it a little hard to even bother with them.  (I think others have said the same thing.)  I have them on a separate ability bar so I can quickly activate via R then switch back, but the drain is a bit much.  It's either turn a shield on and don't attack, or don't use it at all.  What I suggest is that instead of having them drain mana, have them take a percentage from your capacity, more commonly known as a maintain requirement spell in other games.  For instance if you have 100 mana, and the shield has a 20% maintain, your mana would stop regenerating at 80% for as long as you maintain the spell.

Depends on the situation (and possibly on the difficulty level?).   I originally said the same thing, but now after some time with the game I find myself using the things quite alot.   Particularly the fire shield.   Even with my current character who has a max mana of about 220, I end up using the shield alot.   It took some experimenting to find the best ways to make use of it though.

Right, but are you actively fighting those enemies who are using fire attacks with your shield on, or are you just avoiding them?

[Misery]

Right, but are you actively fighting those enemies who are using fire attacks with your shield on, or are you just avoiding them?

Fighting. 

With my playstyle and my own general aggressiveness, it doesnt generally occur to me to simply avoid anything, unless it's something like the slimes which take 20 kersquillion hits with spells not designed for the task (mostly, they just take too bloody long).

Other than that though, if it's there, I'm probably going to attack it.

[Xanirus]

I suppose that's easy if you have a shield in your right click ability bar, you can activate and reactivate quickly.  Unfortuantley I don't do that, there's too many different shields I'd rater have them all on one bar so I can clearly pick on out.  (I don't use the shield hotkey either as I don't know how the game determines which shield to use based on the situation, if it does at all)  But fighting a water esper boss for example, it doesn't fare well when you can only fire a few shots before having to switch ability bars, deactivate, recharge, reactivate, and switch again for only a few shots again.

[Misery]

I suppose that's easy if you have a shield in your right click ability bar, you can activate and reactivate quickly.  Unfortuantley I don't do that, there's too many different shields I'd rater have them all on one bar so I can clearly pick on out.  (I don't use the shield hotkey either as I don't know how the game determines which shield to use based on the situation, if it does at all)  But fighting a water esper boss for example, it doesn't fare well when you can only fire a few shots before having to switch ability bars, deactivate, recharge, reactivate, and switch again for only a few shots again.

That's one thing I'd like to see the game do..... is DIFFERENTIATE the different shields a bit beyond just element.   Give each one a secondary advantage, so players have more reason to choose between them.

Mostly, I just use the fire shield;  all of the attacks in the game that REALLY give me the most trouble are fire based, and the shield is generally decent even at deflecting other attack types.   I'm careful about mana usage, so even with my high-damage character (around 225 mana), I can use the shield effectively;  generally I might turn it on for a second if a difficult to dodge (like, in narrow passages, or whatever) attack is coming my way.  Generally, I wont attack when using the shield, unless I'm using my high-mana guy, who can hold the shield and get a few shots off without it breaking.

The shield is very useful against the seeker flares fired by dragons and the Overlord, and also REALLY good against those bloody fairies; an earth shield would probably be a bit more efficient against them, but the fire shield absorbs those attacks well enough.

And using a controller, I generally have the fire shield mapped to the same button most of the time (while the others change based on what active spells I'm using at the moment), so that makes it easy to use.

[kuliksco]

All shields can ignore all damage types.  The fire one for example just does fire damage about 25% better.

Just get one shield leveled up and bind it to an easily reachable binding.  I use mouse btn 4, but you could use something like F or shift.  There is even a direct keybinding for shields in the options that will use the first shield in your inventory so it doesn't have to use a spot on your main bar.

Don't bother attacking while using your shield, if you don't you can have shield up for a good 5-8 seconds with over 250 mana.  It basically makes you invicible during this time no matter what type of shield you are using and any damage type you are taking.  Like I said, you don't need a fire shield to block fire damage, an earth of water shield will work just fine.

Good to use shield to absorb the little homing faeries who die when they touch you and you will take no damage.  Also, for walking through the little flames the dragons spawn.

[LayZboy]

When I am using a shield and change maps, the shield animation is gone but it still counts that it's on.
Can be a bit confusing at times.

[Terraziel]

Because it hasn't been specifically mentioned Shield Strength is affected by both character magic power and enchants, so if you use a +50% water power enchant that will increase your water shield strength by 50%.

Just something to keep in mind when picking a shield.