Flowman
07-23-2012, 08:26 PM
Force Shield: Kinda Sorta Useless
So I just reactivated my engineer this morning (Thank you STS Support! :D) and was forced to respec my stats and my skills because activation turns on "Auto Level"...and I didn't like having 6 points in Revive :p. I like playing my engineer as pure support with the ability to stay alive. Obvious skills to max for support are Empathy, Transference and Protection, a point in revive, and then Decay and Pain for the stuns/debuffs. As support, I do not need to focus on single combat DOTs, so Whither and Leech are out. The other skills don't seem needed, so that leaves me with Force Shield. Do note that I am currently only lvl 37, so that is why my skills Don't have the remaining 4 points.
So what exactly is wrong with Force Shield?
Before we can point out what's flawed, here's a look at what the skill actually does:
*Force Shield has 2 primary effects; boosting armor and increasing the rate of mana regeneration for a period of 30 seconds, or until the shield breaks
*At lvl 6, Force Shield increases armor by 120 and increases mana regeneration by 2 for a period of 30 seconds, or until the shield breaks
The Flaws - Skill
The damage required to break the shield is far too low
The armor buff doesn't soften the damage enough
The Mana Regeneration increase is too low
The skill recharge time is too long
The Flaws - Mechanics
Low damage threshold of the shield defeats the purpose of having an armor buff
45 second recharge is way too long considering the shield breaks after basically one hit
Healing skills cause aggro for engineers, and the shield then breaks instantly
Offensive skills cause aggro for engineers, and the shield then breaks instantly
Skill does not take increasing campaign difficulty into account
At lvl 6, it only takes 75 damage to break the shield. Now the +120 armor might soften to blow a little bit and in the lower leveled campaigns, the shield might last a little bit longer...but when you get to the harder campaigns, especially the new Hive maps, the shield drops down in a single hit. You could argue that this skill is meant to be used for long, open hallways so you can regenerate mana...but then why is there an armor buff? I feel as though this skill should be one or the other. Just seems like a waste to have both if one is utterly useless in combat. Engineers skills draw all aggro from mobs, especially the healing skills (Transference especially). Pain and Decay draw aggression should the pain stun not hold, so the shield goes right away should you have it up. There are also normal enemies with ranged attacks who can drop your shield in as little as 2 hits. While your armor total increases as the maps get harder, it doesn't do much at all as it seems enemies close to you in level (As in a lvl 40 running the Hive vs a lvl 5 running Red Sun) hit you very hard and for more than 75 damage at times. The 45 second cooldown is far too long considering the skill lasts for about 5 seconds.
My Solutions
Make the mana regen buff last for the specified length of the skill (30 seconds) regardless of if the shield is up or not.
Increase the overall threshold of the shield by either time (no damage threshold) or by a damage threshold equal to a percentage of your total HP
Take away the aggressive properties of the engineers healing skills
Severely decrease the recharge time of the skill while slightly buffing the damage threshold
As an engineer, you have limited skill builds for a support roll. I understand they're not supposed to be tanks with big damage, but this skill is nothing short of useless for the harder campaigns right now. You can easily just not use the skill...but I find less use in my build for some of the other skills, and I believe that there should not be a skill that is just useless on all levels. This is a skill that could severely effect the way engineers play and survive, as well as giving them a potential buff for PvP, where I understand they are lacking in power.
So I just reactivated my engineer this morning (Thank you STS Support! :D) and was forced to respec my stats and my skills because activation turns on "Auto Level"...and I didn't like having 6 points in Revive :p. I like playing my engineer as pure support with the ability to stay alive. Obvious skills to max for support are Empathy, Transference and Protection, a point in revive, and then Decay and Pain for the stuns/debuffs. As support, I do not need to focus on single combat DOTs, so Whither and Leech are out. The other skills don't seem needed, so that leaves me with Force Shield. Do note that I am currently only lvl 37, so that is why my skills Don't have the remaining 4 points.
So what exactly is wrong with Force Shield?
Before we can point out what's flawed, here's a look at what the skill actually does:
*Force Shield has 2 primary effects; boosting armor and increasing the rate of mana regeneration for a period of 30 seconds, or until the shield breaks
*At lvl 6, Force Shield increases armor by 120 and increases mana regeneration by 2 for a period of 30 seconds, or until the shield breaks
The Flaws - Skill
The damage required to break the shield is far too low
The armor buff doesn't soften the damage enough
The Mana Regeneration increase is too low
The skill recharge time is too long
The Flaws - Mechanics
Low damage threshold of the shield defeats the purpose of having an armor buff
45 second recharge is way too long considering the shield breaks after basically one hit
Healing skills cause aggro for engineers, and the shield then breaks instantly
Offensive skills cause aggro for engineers, and the shield then breaks instantly
Skill does not take increasing campaign difficulty into account
At lvl 6, it only takes 75 damage to break the shield. Now the +120 armor might soften to blow a little bit and in the lower leveled campaigns, the shield might last a little bit longer...but when you get to the harder campaigns, especially the new Hive maps, the shield drops down in a single hit. You could argue that this skill is meant to be used for long, open hallways so you can regenerate mana...but then why is there an armor buff? I feel as though this skill should be one or the other. Just seems like a waste to have both if one is utterly useless in combat. Engineers skills draw all aggro from mobs, especially the healing skills (Transference especially). Pain and Decay draw aggression should the pain stun not hold, so the shield goes right away should you have it up. There are also normal enemies with ranged attacks who can drop your shield in as little as 2 hits. While your armor total increases as the maps get harder, it doesn't do much at all as it seems enemies close to you in level (As in a lvl 40 running the Hive vs a lvl 5 running Red Sun) hit you very hard and for more than 75 damage at times. The 45 second cooldown is far too long considering the skill lasts for about 5 seconds.
My Solutions
Make the mana regen buff last for the specified length of the skill (30 seconds) regardless of if the shield is up or not.
Increase the overall threshold of the shield by either time (no damage threshold) or by a damage threshold equal to a percentage of your total HP
Take away the aggressive properties of the engineers healing skills
Severely decrease the recharge time of the skill while slightly buffing the damage threshold
As an engineer, you have limited skill builds for a support roll. I understand they're not supposed to be tanks with big damage, but this skill is nothing short of useless for the harder campaigns right now. You can easily just not use the skill...but I find less use in my build for some of the other skills, and I believe that there should not be a skill that is just useless on all levels. This is a skill that could severely effect the way engineers play and survive, as well as giving them a potential buff for PvP, where I understand they are lacking in power.