Slime Squisher
Posts: 400
Joined: Saturday, 24th September 2011, 03:45
Tuesday, 7th August 2012, 16:13
Shields
Or, why experienced players continually tell people to stop using them.
Basic info, courtesy of learndb:
Why shields are, in general, bad:
1. The best defense is a good offense. 9 times out of 10 you will take less damage by killing the dude faster with a bigger weapon, rather than swatting him with a smaller weapon and hoping you block his extra attacks.
2. The biggest/most annoying threats in crawl (torment,hellfire,smite,mutation,paralysis,constriction,fireball,most bolts,miasma,dispel undead,hell effects,zot traps) cannot be blocked. Whether you have 70 SH or 0, they hurt just the same.
3. AC and EV work against more threats than SH. HP and killdudesing work against everything. XP that would be spent on shield skill is almost always better spent developing other skills instead.
4. Shields become less effective based on how many times you block in a turn (see learndb #5). This means when you stair dance vaults:8 or charge that yaktaur pack, your other defensive stats end up working much harder than your SH.
Situations where I would use a:
Buckler:
- stabbers
- spriggan who doesn't want a 1.5 hander
- kobold/halfling
- normal sized race who has a good reason* to not use a two handed weapon
Shield:
- large race who has a good reason* to not use a two handed weapon (in general, trolls should UC and ogres should GSC)
- normal sized race who finds a good ego (resistance,rF,rC), can spare the XP, and has a good reason* to not use a two handed weapon
- you find The Gong and you want awesome points
Large Shield:
- Never. I mean it.
*good reasons: UC, enhancer staff (you mainly killdudes with spells), autumn katana (more awesome points)
Basic info, courtesy of learndb:
Spoiler: show
Why shields are, in general, bad:
1. The best defense is a good offense. 9 times out of 10 you will take less damage by killing the dude faster with a bigger weapon, rather than swatting him with a smaller weapon and hoping you block his extra attacks.
2. The biggest/most annoying threats in crawl (torment,hellfire,smite,mutation,paralysis,constriction,fireball,most bolts,miasma,dispel undead,hell effects,zot traps) cannot be blocked. Whether you have 70 SH or 0, they hurt just the same.
3. AC and EV work against more threats than SH. HP and killdudesing work against everything. XP that would be spent on shield skill is almost always better spent developing other skills instead.
4. Shields become less effective based on how many times you block in a turn (see learndb #5). This means when you stair dance vaults:8 or charge that yaktaur pack, your other defensive stats end up working much harder than your SH.
Situations where I would use a:
Buckler:
- stabbers
- spriggan who doesn't want a 1.5 hander
- kobold/halfling
- normal sized race who has a good reason* to not use a two handed weapon
Shield:
- large race who has a good reason* to not use a two handed weapon (in general, trolls should UC and ogres should GSC)
- normal sized race who finds a good ego (resistance,rF,rC), can spare the XP, and has a good reason* to not use a two handed weapon
- you find The Gong and you want awesome points
Large Shield:
- Never. I mean it.
*good reasons: UC, enhancer staff (you mainly killdudes with spells), autumn katana (more awesome points)
Last edited by eeviac on Tuesday, 7th August 2012, 18:06, edited 1 time in total.
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