Shield Throw NEEDs Some Love

[AbombDaChamp]

I had this in another thread for someone trying to make Shield throw work and sadly we are still trying to make this ability function. It needs some love and I have some suggestions after making a FG and Pally Shield throw.

Shield throw needs some love and the problem with the tree is you always have to go down and spend 7 pts into -mana cost and no CD. Then over and grab the ricochet on the right now you got 13pts. Then up to the left now 17pts into Shield throw to make the ability have basic function.

So you spent 17 pts so the ability functions and nothing into any damage nodes. This is why Shield throw skill needs a rework. You also need to ricochet it off a target so you have to take either ring of shield or manifest armor.

So you need + skills and that means Sigeon shield for the +2-3 skills and shield throw on helm as well as the belt for +1 skills.

Above we highlight that 17 pts are needed for basic function of Shield throw that are 100% required. You have to take these nodes. No exceptions which feels pretty bad and corners you into specific gear for + skills and you never get to take damage nodes.

Functionality Suggestions

• Polished steel 2 pt node -20 mana cost. Instead of requiring 5 pts.
• Hermin’s Technique is swapped places in the tree with Armoring Aegis.
• Ricochet now has no increased mana cost.

Now for the damage of shield throw. Sadly Shield throw doesn’t do any damage (no matter what you do) and the only way to do damage is by triggering smite or applying 100’s of Dot stacks.

I’d like to see a world where Shield throw can do damage.

Damage Suggestions

• Added damage has a 500% effectiveness
• Heavy shield is +12 damage per point
• Spiked plates +75% of block up from 50
• Rygar’s fury 150% of block up from 100

The main way to get flat damage is with Sigeon shield 10 Flat damage = 1 throwing damage but we can’t get enough reflect damage.

This next change could just add more builds overall and it’s a change to the Thornmail passive in FG tree.

Currently Thornmail scales horribly because the 5 pts passive gives 5 flat reflect damage based on 1% armor. It’s good early game but then falls off and the build then fails.

• Thormail 5 pts passive now gives 5 flat damage per 100 armor.

This would drastically shake up the build options and armor talents/armor affixes we never would take now seem attractive since they scale reflect damage. Also talents in Shield throw that reward armor based on ricochets now are attractive as you ramp up your armor so does your damage.

This would give Shield throw the flat damage to now work and open up tons of build options. Hope this feedback helps and we can get more players out there excited about having Shield throw as their MAIN ability instead of some support skill in a minion build.

PS Bonus Change - Have the node Aegis shields bounce off friendly targets changed to also INCLUDE you!! I’m sorry I don’t think Shield throw should require manifest armor or ring of shields to function on single target.

[Llama8]

@AbombDaChamp

The main way to get flat damage is with Sigeon shield 10 Flat damage = 1 throwing damage but we can’t get enough reflect damage.

Not really, no. Going purely from gear, you can get +89 from T5 Ballista’s & Catapult’s on 2x rings, amulet, gloves & relic, compared to 176 (t5 shield affix) + 225 (t5 chest) → 40 flat throwing damage.

Historically Shield Throw was always about clear rather than single target while Hammer Throw had better single target since the orbiting hammers can hit a big target multiple times. I’m not saying that Shield Throw couldn’t do with more damage, but I don’t think that a spammable skill should have 50% added damage effectiveness, especially if you’re then going to give it oodles of flat damage.

I agree that the skill tree does require quite a lot of mandatory points, likely due to it being fairly old.

Personally I’d probably rather Shield Throw gain flat damage from your block effectiveness since that’s thematically related (since you’re throwing the shield) as well as see some throwing damage related affixes on the shield, even if they’re limited to Shield Throw rather than generic throwing damage.

I agree that Polished Steel could do with having it’s pointed reduced, though you don’t need it upped to -20 since you’ll have 2x Ballista’s on your rings for -6 (t5) to -10 (t7) mana cost. Maybe change Focussed Campaign to require 1 point & Polished Steel give -7 per point.

[GoldenExperience]

@AbombDaChamp

Now for the damage of shield throw. Sadly Shield throw doesn’t do any damage (no matter what you do) and the only way to do damage is by triggering smite or applying 100’s of Dot stacks.

I’d like to see a world where Shield throw can do damage.

I’ll just put this here: https://old.reddit.com/r/LastEpoch/comments/1eoyxx7/fire_shield_throw_forge_guard/

This person has also beaten Aberroth with the build I believe.

[Scipo0419]

Stop! You’re ruining his “point” and he’ll block you for not echoing his sentiments in his echo chamber! Facts and logic that refute his statement aren’t allowed in Abomb’s posts, only mindlessly agreeing with him!

[AbombDaChamp]

You can put that there but it has nothing to do with the thread though or fixing Shield throws design.

• Even if Shield throw could get 500 flat damage it wouldn’t be very good.
• Then you have the skill design issues which I covered that prevents build diversity because you have to take 17 pts to make the build function.
• You also have a lack of scaling as well since Thornmail is finite and capped easily.
• Lack of gear options which highlights the problems with it’s core design.
• Finally you are pigeon holed into other talents for ricochets like manifest armor or ring (it doesn’t have to be this way.)

I’ll revisit Shield throw when the skill gets the love it needs to be interesting where you can have some build flexibilty in the talent choices. Think most players are waiting on that which is why I made this thread. So can we look at fixing the skill so it’s something people really want to play and make builds around.