Tree of Savior Forum

Changes to Shield Lob (still sucks)

Class and Rank Swordsman
#1

Shield Lob has been buffed now to deal 2 consecutive hits and the cooldown is now 14 seconds. Shield Lob’s main strong point is it has the largest AOE size of any sub-rank 7 skill and the highest attack ratio. Still does not synergize well with anything. Rodelero has two skills (Slithering and High Kick) that can make an enemy take more strike damage, but why would you waste that precious debuff time throwing out Shield Lob (it’s a slow 2 second animation for a potentially instant cast skill) instead of mashing on all your faster strike attacks.

To fix Shield Lob, let’s look at the main problems:

  1. Slow startup animation (forget about trying to hit a moving target)
  2. Defense debuff when you lose the shield (this is a tanking class for Jebus’s sake)
  3. Damage dealt is modest at best (by the tooltip, Shield Lob deals more damage at max lvl 10 than does Rim Blow at max lvl 15; voided by High Guard’s attribute to increase Rim Blow’s damage by 250%-350%)
  4. Shield skips across the ground (you have to walk past your target to get your shield; skip distance is influenced by throw distance)

For both tanks and DPS, Shield lob is all around bad, and no thanks to any of the reasons listed above. So, by the numbers, I’m going to list off possible fixes (listing the problem then listing possible solutions)(feel free to mix and match):

1.Slow startup animation

  1. Speed up the startup animation (obvious solution)
  2. Change target ground to target monster (to ensure target hit)
  3. Change target ground to a hitbox in front of the player (to work like other melee attacks, either a circle/box detached from the player or a column that can potentially hit anything between the player and the end of the hitbox; potentially requires an animation change)
  4. Increase size of AOE

2.Defense debuff when you lose the shield

  1. Make it easier to retrieve the shield, either by removing the skip (see problem #4) or allowing the shield to return to sender if you successfully hit your target (basically becoming RO’s Shield Boomerang)
  2. Add a Parry chance buff to offset the Defense debuff

3.Damage dealt is modest at best

  1. Increase damage or hit count (obvious solution)
  2. Create new attributes to synergies with other skills (i.e. adding a matching attribute to High Guard so Shield Lob can receive the same benefits as Rim Blow and Umbo Blow, adding an attribute to either High Guard or Shield Lob to consume the remaining duration of High Guard or Guardian and applying bonus damage to Shield Lob in proportion to remaining duration)
  3. Add a debuff to targets (i.e. chance to blind/unbalance/stun/silence/etc or increase strike/slash/pierce/missile/magic damage recieved)

4.Shield skips across the ground

  1. Remove skipping (obvious solution)
  2. Make it easier to retrieve the shield (already stated under #1 solutions)

5.Bonus solutions for improvement!

  1. Allow Shield Lob to be used while mounted (Butterfly is the only other Peltasta skill that cannot be used while mounted)

There’s my solutions, tell me what you think.

Reposted from suggestions thread because I think it’s relevant to both sections: Shield Lob just doesn’t make sense! (Peltasta suggestion)

5 Likes
#2

sounds good, don’t know if you need to buff the damage even more. it’s still a low rank skill and murmilo will buff it later.

1 Like
#3

No mention of buffing Shield Lob.

#4

Shield Lob has one of the largest AOE in your arsenal aside from frenzied slash. It has more aoe than targe smash and will have the highest attack ratio with the attribute.

If you were to jump throw the shield right in front you (not moving the cursor at all) your toon will pick it up right when it drops. It does that for me all the time. I use it as a close range mass aoe, not as a long range so i never worry about having to run and get it. Plus, you just have to get near your shield to retrieve it, you don’t have to walk right on it.

With all that said, it still needs improvements like the ones you mentioned to really be of any use. For now, it’s only worth 1 point at best.

1 Like
#5

@Spaghetti
Shield Lob does indeed have the largest AOE and attack ratio but right now it doesn’t mean much when you drop your defense to use it at any range. If you’re built to have tons of skills (if you grab every skill out of Rodelero for instance, as I have), you’re better off burning those skills than throwing Shield Lob; especially when you are trying to dance around a boss, since the animation is so slow.

I am glad you mentioned those though and will update the OP.

This is just a thought, but Shield Lob’s AOE is quite small compared to magic users AOEs. It’s only large compared to melee skills.

#6

I’m playing my rodelero right now and I’m telling you, if you throw the shield right in front you, (not moving the cursor), your toon will immediately pick it up when it lands and you only lose your def stat for like a split second. My shield has some CON on it and my hp and hp rec doesn’t even drop when I throw the shield on me. See for yourself.

Shield lob is for mobbing, there is no good reason to use it against a boss, even with the current buff. It literally is only good when there are many enemies on you as it is the largest AOE and attack ratio skill you have until you get frenzied slash. It’s not worth to use against 2 - 4 enemies imo.

The skill still sucks in many ways and is currently not that practical for regular use, but there is no reason to make it sound worse than it is. I agree with your buff ideas, any of those would be great.

Also, I personally only 6 rodelero skills. I’m not even gonna try to incorporate 9 atk skills into my rotation lol. More power to ya.

1 Like
#7

Alright, I gotcha. But, I don’t think I’m making it sound worse than it is.

I just feel like I get more use (especially in a party) if I’m using any of my harder hitting skills or any of the lighter hitting cc skills. I’m using a controller and I have the full skill bar loaded (Shield Lob is on there too) and I do NOT have time in the rotation to be throwing Shield Lob. The only other skill not in my usual rotation are Shield Charge, I also have antidotes on the first bar. I think Shield Charge is very lack luster as well but it’s at least serves as a quick cc in pvp (and aiming is not really an issue).

#8

Yea, for a skill that can lower your def with no overheat and slow animation, shield lob is lackluster. I use it cause I only rotate through 6 attak skills in my rotation on average. But seeing as how you likely took more skills than me, you wouldn’t get much use out of it.

And that’s the thing, it’s still not useful. Maybe only when you got like dozens of mobs around you, but you can always find something that will.be better to use. I personally would love it if they just gave it more dmg, idc if it’s flat dmg, so that we can have a semi nuke.

1 Like
#9

Thanks for thread tho, I found someone that I can talk about this sucky skill with​:joy::joy:

1 Like
#10

Melee problem from day 1, we’re at the frontline with higher risk of dying before we can unload a skill-

Also slow after skill animation delay

-and still at risk even after unloading a skill, specially now R8 patch screwed the bosses by spams undodgeable/unblockable skills aoes.

#11

Expanding on what @Fuwaro said, many of the problems from this skill effects all Swordsmen skills. This is currently the primary problem with Swordsmen. IMC can buff damage all they want, but Swordsmen still can’t kite effectively, and still suffer from knockdown more than the other classes.

#12

I might just go make a dedicated Shield Lob character to try and get some real traction with the devs.

So I went and made a build that would be favorable to lobbing shields but cata is going to dismount when you throw.


Granted, this is not something I’m going to throw my time at until I get my Templar 2 completed.