Shield Bonus

[Kruell]

Working the formulas for damage and armor absorption an idea crystallized in my head. Two classes (argument for third) should get a slight bonus on the effectiveness of using a shield.

Knights are the martial equivalent of the Gods of War. Their damage, although not the top, is respectable. Their bonus health makes them tough and with the high armor possible they become the proverbial tanks. The problem is they have limited use and in most cases people will use flashier classes. If we give Knights a bonus to Shield effectiveness (only on Deflect determination) that raises their chance to deflect incoming attacks. By my math, a top armored knight with a 50% bonus to shield effectiveness (ShieldArmor + ShieldBonus) gets roughly 9.45% deflect. Giving them a 100% bonus tops them out at around 12.6%. Although it does raise their chance to deflect significantly, I don't believe it overpowers the absorb/deflect formula.

Paladins are martial Priests or Holy Knights... as such they should get roughly half the bonus that a Knight gets. Although we are talking about small percentage points, this would be an interesting bonus for them.

Arguably we can give Assassins a small bonus, 10%. This would be a representation of their nature and a tactical lure to shift people away from the cookie cutter dual wield I've been seeing.

These bonuses are not direct Deflection bonus, but are instead a bonus to the shield deflection chance.
Thoughs?

[Folder]

Thematically I like this. I think ultimately it comes down to class balance. If knights are tanky enough with the extra hp they don't need this. If they still aren't cutting it then this is a novel idea to boost their effectiveness.

I don't think assassins need it, at least not thematically. Again though it comes down to what balances the classes. If no slayer runs with a shield once the game gets going that'd be a problem.

[NiteHawk]

The thing that bothers me with this is its the hidden stat thing.

I think hidden stats are fine but what bothers me the most is that every class having a different hidden stat makes it rather confusing to a player to determine what their actual deflect will be. I like to try to keep everything uniform (Hence why I kind of poke the stick when I say I want to keep the npc and player formulas the same, etc.). I really am a fan of keeping the same formula for things like these, but I can see spells or skills that effect this. That would be 'ok'.

I remodified the values here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=693&p=4750#p4750 for deflect. We can make it a little heavier on shields if you actually think that would help. Both options though I think are okay. The second option I've put there means a general shield with 16 will give about 11.2% deflect. I think losing that is a pretty high impact,but it might be too much for general shields, not sure.

[Mujahideen]

How about class specific shields if you want to give them a bonus.

[NiteHawk]

How about class specific shields if you want to give them a bonus.

Also could be a viable option and not hidden stats if it's ever needed.

[Folder]

How about class specific shields if you want to give them a bonus.

You smart!

[Rodeo]

Could add a /showstats feature or have a tab next to the map options for dodge/deflect /absorb ect. So these so called hidden stats are seen. I like the idea of pally and knights being tanks and deserve some special treatment. Also a knight needs a bash skill that stuns for X amount of seconds or a shield slam that does the Same thing could make this passive like the ninjas RH but without any extra damage gain.

[NiteHawk]

I don't think their should be a generic passive skill that stops anyone in their tracks for any reason for PVP unless its super rare or unique (i.e. special item that might para 5% for 5 seconds or something.) I do agree they could use with another skill though.

I still think that it should be an active skill of some sort or visible passive. The easiest way to deal with this is to give them armor rather then giving them a random hidden stat. Having to /show to view it is eh. There are always ways around this and the game needs to make sense to a general person. Alot of people won't want to math it up.

[daedroth]

Shield "weights" like armour weights.
Light to Heavy, class restrict (actually I think just adding "heavy" shield would be best, too much tinkering otherwise).
Heavy shields only for knights/paladins.

[NiteHawk]

Shield "weights" like armour weights.
Light to Heavy, class restrict (actually I think just adding "heavy" shield would be best, too much tinkering otherwise).
Heavy shields only for knights/paladins.

Also a viable solution, and probably the best one yet. Similar to heavy helmets and light helmets.

Tower shields.