What is all this shield stacking stuff?

swanvalkyrie · July 2015

Call me a bit of a noob, but I've actually never heard of this shield stacking. What exactly is it in laymen's terms? I know that people can block ALOT of damage but I don't know how it's done?

swanvalkyrie · July 2015

So... No one has an answer but clearly everyone is talking about it?

Novustratum · July 2015

From what I can gather, I don't think they mean literal blocking with shields (since you mentioned blocking), rather they mean magical shields like when you see a lighter color over another player's health bar in PVP, that's how you know they're shielded. Some of them are indeed tough to beat through and you exhaust almost all resources just burst damaging their shield away, only for them to have a seemingly fresh shield. It's frustrating.

Zlater · July 2015

Hehe it's only frustrating when you're not doing it, what class are you?

swanvalkyrie · July 2015

Thanks for answering!i am a sorcerer.... Funniest thing is I haven't shielded once cause I have no idea what skill lines are actually being used for this shield stacking. I'm not so much into PVP but thought it would be handy for pve

DeanTheCat · July 2015

Try Conjured Ward, morphed into Hardened Ward. Then after casting it, cast Annulment (Harness if you have low magicka regen, Dampen if you have high magicka regen). Those two added together gives you around 25k shields vs magical attacks and 15k shields vs physical attacks.

Fun right? Now, let's make it a bit better. When you are low on health, pop a Healing Ward for a 16-18k shield, then cast Hardened Ward for another 15k shield, then add in Annulment. That's round 32k shields vs physical attacks, and 47k shields vs magical attacks. In addition, when that Healing Ward fades away, it heals you for the complete value of the remaining shield strength.

For complete and utter overkill, add in Spiked Bone Shield for an additional 6k shields vs physical attacks with 33% damage return, and for the heck of it, Reviving Barrier, which gives a 25k shield as well as a 23k heal. So potentially you could have 63k shields vs physical damage and 67k shields vs magical attacks.

Don't forget, having a shield active negates critical hits, so enjoy being a literal walking god as long as you keep those shields up. And if anything threatens you, just bolt (Make sure you use Ball of Lightning!) away and drop mines. Heck, add in /laugh if you feel like it. Add in CP into reduced break free cost and round 1k stamina regen and nobody will ever be able to CC you for long! Break every single stun tossed at you with impunity!

Last but not least, get Nirnhoned on your armor and use Boundless Storm. You get to shock and reveal nearby enemies and due to nirnhoned, even if your shields are down, you get 50% damage mitigation vs magical attacks!

leepalmer95 · July 2015

DeanTheCat wrote: »

Try Conjured Ward, morphed into Hardened Ward. Then after casting it, cast Annulment (Harness if you have low magicka regen, Dampen if you have high magicka regen). Those two added together gives you around 25k shields vs magical attacks and 15k shields vs physical attacks.

Fun right? Now, let's make it a bit better. When you are low on health, pop a Healing Ward for a 16-18k shield, then cast Hardened Ward for another 15k shield, then add in Annulment. That's round 32k shields vs physical attacks, and 47k shields vs magical attacks. In addition, when that Healing Ward fades away, it heals you for the complete value of the remaining shield strength.

For complete and utter overkill, add in Spiked Bone Shield for an additional 6k shields vs physical attacks with 33% damage return, and for the heck of it, Reviving Barrier, which gives a 25k shield as well as a 23k heal. So potentially you could have 63k shields vs physical damage and 67k shields vs magical attacks.

Don't forget, having a shield active negates critical hits, so enjoy being a literal walking god as long as you keep those shields up. And if anything threatens you, just bolt (Make sure you use Ball of Lightning!) away and drop mines. Heck, add in /laugh if you feel like it. Add in CP into reduced break free cost and round 1k stamina regen and nobody will ever be able to CC you for long! Break every single stun tossed at you with impunity!

Last but not least, get Nirnhoned on your armor and use Boundless Storm. You get to shock and reveal nearby enemies and due to nirnhoned, even if your shields are down, you get 50% damage mitigation vs magical attacks!

and this is why sorc's need nerf.

strikeback1247 · July 2015

DeanTheCat wrote: »

Try Conjured Ward, morphed into Hardened Ward. Then after casting it, cast Annulment (Harness if you have low magicka regen, Dampen if you have high magicka regen). Those two added together gives you around 25k shields vs magical attacks and 15k shields vs physical attacks.

Fun right? Now, let's make it a bit better. When you are low on health, pop a Healing Ward for a 16-18k shield, then cast Hardened Ward for another 15k shield, then add in Annulment. That's round 32k shields vs physical attacks, and 47k shields vs magical attacks. In addition, when that Healing Ward fades away, it heals you for the complete value of the remaining shield strength.

For complete and utter overkill, add in Spiked Bone Shield for an additional 6k shields vs physical attacks with 33% damage return, and for the heck of it, Reviving Barrier, which gives a 25k shield as well as a 23k heal. So potentially you could have 63k shields vs physical damage and 67k shields vs magical attacks.

Don't forget, having a shield active negates critical hits, so enjoy being a literal walking god as long as you keep those shields up. And if anything threatens you, just bolt (Make sure you use Ball of Lightning!) away and drop mines. Heck, add in /laugh if you feel like it. Add in CP into reduced break free cost and round 1k stamina regen and nobody will ever be able to CC you for long! Break every single stun tossed at you with impunity!

Last but not least, get Nirnhoned on your armor and use Boundless Storm. You get to shock and reveal nearby enemies and due to nirnhoned, even if your shields are down, you get 50% damage mitigation vs magical attacks!

Well, goddayum

swanvalkyrie · July 2015

Holy cow..... That's awesome but so much to follow for now as I've stuck with pretty much the same stuff since ice started and still not familiar with all the lingo. It seems that all the items on the ability bar are just shields!

DeanTheCat · July 2015

Sorcs have an offensive bar (Dual Wield/Destruction Staff) and a defensive bar (Restoration Staff). The defensive bar is usually nothing but buffs and shields while the offensive bar contains their nukes. It works for them due to shields typically lasting more then just a single second, so they can shield, swap, nuke, swap again and refresh shields.

Even though shields have no mitigation values, the very fact they negate DoTs and Crits makes them absurdly tanky. It's easier to kill a heavy armor 40k HP full tank then it is to kill a max damage Sorc. Hardened Ward and Healing Ward scaling off max Magicka means that Sorcs can stack their Magicka at the expense of every other stat as Magicka fuels both their damage and defensive power. Not to mention they have bolt and mines, easily eluding physical damage dealers (Which are mostly melee). So... Make your choice. Go in melee and get blown up by mines, or range and have to deal with the spell sponge Ball of Lightning and Annulment.

Pompeyfluff · July 2015

mad shields considering its a Sorc.

It's more than my tank can build.

Tankqull · July 2015

DeanTheCat wrote: »

Sorcs have an offensive bar (Dual Wield/Destruction Staff) and a defensive bar (Restoration Staff). The defensive bar is usually nothing but buffs and shields while the offensive bar contains their nukes. It works for them due to shields typically lasting more then just a single second, so they can shield, swap, nuke, swap again and refresh shields.

Even though shields have no mitigation values, the very fact they negate DoTs and Crits makes them absurdly tanky. It's easier to kill a heavy armor 40k HP full tank then it is to kill a max damage Sorc. Hardened Ward and Healing Ward scaling off max Magicka means that Sorcs can stack their Magicka at the expense of every other stat as Magicka fuels both their damage and defensive power. Not to mention they have bolt and mines, easily eluding physical damage dealers (Which are mostly melee). So... Make your choice. Go in melee and get blown up by mines, or range and have to deal with the spell sponge Ball of Lightning and Annulment.

they don´t negate dots only bleeds wich noone is using anyway.

DeanTheCat wrote: »

Try Conjured Ward, morphed into Hardened Ward. Then after casting it, cast Annulment (Harness if you have low magicka regen, Dampen if you have high magicka regen). Those two added together gives you around 25k shields vs magical attacks and 15k shields vs physical attacks.

Fun right? Now, let's make it a bit better. When you are low on health, pop a Healing Ward for a 16-18k shield, then cast Hardened Ward for another 15k shield, then add in Annulment. That's round 32k shields vs physical attacks, and 47k shields vs magical attacks. In addition, when that Healing Ward fades away, it heals you for the complete value of the remaining shield strength.

For complete and utter overkill, add in Spiked Bone Shield for an additional 6k shields vs physical attacks with 33% damage return, and for the heck of it, Reviving Barrier, which gives a 25k shield as well as a 23k heal. So potentially you could have 63k shields vs physical damage and 67k shields vs magical attacks.

Don't forget, having a shield active negates critical hits, so enjoy being a literal walking god as long as you keep those shields up. And if anything threatens you, just bolt (Make sure you use Ball of Lightning!) away and drop mines. Heck, add in /laugh if you feel like it. Add in CP into reduced break free cost and round 1k stamina regen and nobody will ever be able to CC you for long! Break every single stun tossed at you with impunity!

Last but not least, get Nirnhoned on your armor and use Boundless Storm. You get to shock and reveal nearby enemies and due to nirnhoned, even if your shields are down, you get 50% damage mitigation vs magical attacks!

quite right but numbers are wrong.

Leandor · July 2015

Also, the biggest shield in this stack is barrier, which is a 200 point ultimate (or is it even 250?). I do know that sorcs can passively reduce ultimate cost, but it still is a tall order and not immediately available again.

The stack per se is not a problem, it is the fact that you can spam cast hardened ward to escape from a dense situation, if you know how to use LOS. I have escaped from a consolidated assault by several players by just spamming ward and retreating behind a rock to BE away - on a VR1 sorc with bad equipment. Not only once but several times.

I think the only reasonable "quick fix" change that would reduce this issue would be to increase the magicka cost of conjured ward and morphs. The increase cannot be so large as to make the skill useless, but should ensure that a decent damage build (physical damage) can break through the ward by depleting magicka before the attacker runs out of stamina.

But this would also only be a band-aid instead of a real fix. As usual, this problem is reduced to the issue of infinite resources. I tend to agree to those that say the only real problem we have with all skill imbalances can be reduced to that.

Please bring back caps for regeneration stats. This alone would remove the overwhelming majority of imbalances.

Lucky28 · July 2015

leepalmer95 wrote: »

DeanTheCat wrote: »

Try Conjured Ward, morphed into Hardened Ward. Then after casting it, cast Annulment (Harness if you have low magicka regen, Dampen if you have high magicka regen). Those two added together gives you around 25k shields vs magical attacks and 15k shields vs physical attacks.

Fun right? Now, let's make it a bit better. When you are low on health, pop a Healing Ward for a 16-18k shield, then cast Hardened Ward for another 15k shield, then add in Annulment. That's round 32k shields vs physical attacks, and 47k shields vs magical attacks. In addition, when that Healing Ward fades away, it heals you for the complete value of the remaining shield strength.

For complete and utter overkill, add in Spiked Bone Shield for an additional 6k shields vs physical attacks with 33% damage return, and for the heck of it, Reviving Barrier, which gives a 25k shield as well as a 23k heal. So potentially you could have 63k shields vs physical damage and 67k shields vs magical attacks.

Don't forget, having a shield active negates critical hits, so enjoy being a literal walking god as long as you keep those shields up. And if anything threatens you, just bolt (Make sure you use Ball of Lightning!) away and drop mines. Heck, add in /laugh if you feel like it. Add in CP into reduced break free cost and round 1k stamina regen and nobody will ever be able to CC you for long! Break every single stun tossed at you with impunity!

Last but not least, get Nirnhoned on your armor and use Boundless Storm. You get to shock and reveal nearby enemies and due to nirnhoned, even if your shields are down, you get 50% damage mitigation vs magical attacks!

and this is why sorc's need nerf.

Fine then. Nerf Wards, give us back infinite Streak spam. we need something really good to cover our weak ass armor values. otherwise we'll just die all the time.

Novustratum · July 2015

@Zlater
I'm a Nightblade.

@DeanTheCat
Sorcerers are ridiculous OP. It's funny because I hear all this talk about NB's being OP because of how fast they can kill something, not the case with a sorc played right. The most annoying thing is when I break their shields quick enough that they don't refresh them and I start pegging away at their actual health, I watch them teleport away and within seconds they're halfway across the map. If that's not cheese I don't know what is. At least when Nightblades stealth away there is an opportunity to find them and many things can be done to flush them out. As for a sorc? Nope, once they're gone, they're gone and all you can do is stand there staring at them get further into the distance.

Lucky28 · July 2015

@DeanTheCat
Sorcerers are ridiculous OP. It's funny because I hear all this talk about NB's being OP because of how fast they can kill something, not the case with a sorc played right. The most annoying thing is when I break their shields quick enough that they don't refresh them and I start pegging away at their actual health, I watch them teleport away and within seconds they're halfway across the map. If that's not cheese I don't know what is. At least when Nightblades stealth away there is an opportunity to find them and many things can be done to flush them out. As for a sorc? Nope, once they're gone, they're gone and all you can do is stand there staring at them get further into the distance.[/quote]

Well that's just not true. you can use a distance closer, CC or Snipe them with Arrows.

Nightblades are in fact worse.

I don't really think anything is "OP" in this game to be honest. it's just a lot of it requires thinking which is an aspect of the current game i really enjoy.

Master_Kas · July 2015

@DeanTheCat lol poor sorcs they're so weak

Got hit with CF proc. for nearly 13k dmg (no stealth needed if someone says "snipe cam do higher) and this was with 2x nirn pieces, 2 reinforced, 13% reduced magic dmg in CP and full medium on.

And curse for 10k crit when I had no nirn on .

Fact is, sorcs are just as OP as stamblades, and if they are played right they are devestating. You just need practice Op

rfennell_ESO · July 2015

120 points in "the steed" constellation gives you another shield that goes up when you block.

Every 10 seconds.

Oh and I know it lists itself as 1216 point shield and sure that would be totally not worth it. Thing is it seems ZOS forgot to add a zero to that in the Champion system interface.

trimsic_ESO · July 2015

DeanTheCat wrote: »

Try Conjured Ward, morphed into Hardened Ward. Then after casting it, cast Annulment (Harness if you have low magicka regen, Dampen if you have high magicka regen). Those two added together gives you around 25k shields vs magical attacks and 15k shields vs physical attacks.

Fun right? Now, let's make it a bit better. When you are low on health, pop a Healing Ward for a 16-18k shield, then cast Hardened Ward for another 15k shield, then add in Annulment. That's round 32k shields vs physical attacks, and 47k shields vs magical attacks. In addition, when that Healing Ward fades away, it heals you for the complete value of the remaining shield strength.

For complete and utter overkill, add in Spiked Bone Shield for an additional 6k shields vs physical attacks with 33% damage return, and for the heck of it, Reviving Barrier, which gives a 25k shield as well as a 23k heal. So potentially you could have 63k shields vs physical damage and 67k shields vs magical attacks.

Don't forget, having a shield active negates critical hits, so enjoy being a literal walking god as long as you keep those shields up. And if anything threatens you, just bolt (Make sure you use Ball of Lightning!) away and drop mines. Heck, add in /laugh if you feel like it. Add in CP into reduced break free cost and round 1k stamina regen and nobody will ever be able to CC you for long! Break every single stun tossed at you with impunity!

Last but not least, get Nirnhoned on your armor and use Boundless Storm. You get to shock and reveal nearby enemies and due to nirnhoned, even if your shields are down, you get 50% damage mitigation vs magical attacks!

This means a balanced game

BigTone · July 2015

Bwahaha!

Any decent stam build can kill a sorc. L2P

Vizier · July 2015

Lucky28 wrote: »

leepalmer95 wrote: »

DeanTheCat wrote: »

Try Conjured Ward, morphed into Hardened Ward. Then after casting it, cast Annulment (Harness if you have low magicka regen, Dampen if you have high magicka regen). Those two added together gives you around 25k shields vs magical attacks and 15k shields vs physical attacks.

Fun right? Now, let's make it a bit better. When you are low on health, pop a Healing Ward for a 16-18k shield, then cast Hardened Ward for another 15k shield, then add in Annulment. That's round 32k shields vs physical attacks, and 47k shields vs magical attacks. In addition, when that Healing Ward fades away, it heals you for the complete value of the remaining shield strength.

For complete and utter overkill, add in Spiked Bone Shield for an additional 6k shields vs physical attacks with 33% damage return, and for the heck of it, Reviving Barrier, which gives a 25k shield as well as a 23k heal. So potentially you could have 63k shields vs physical damage and 67k shields vs magical attacks.

Don't forget, having a shield active negates critical hits, so enjoy being a literal walking god as long as you keep those shields up. And if anything threatens you, just bolt (Make sure you use Ball of Lightning!) away and drop mines. Heck, add in /laugh if you feel like it. Add in CP into reduced break free cost and round 1k stamina regen and nobody will ever be able to CC you for long! Break every single stun tossed at you with impunity!

Last but not least, get Nirnhoned on your armor and use Boundless Storm. You get to shock and reveal nearby enemies and due to nirnhoned, even if your shields are down, you get 50% damage mitigation vs magical attacks!

and this is why sorc's need nerf.

Fine then. Nerf Wards, give us back infinite Streak spam. we need something really good to cover our weak ass armor values. otherwise we'll just die all the time.

Trade one OP skill for another? LOL ya, that makes sense...

Lucky28 · July 2015

@Vizier

Dude, i'm in Full Epic light armor right and my Armor value is Laughable. Without Wards or a way to get the hell outta dodge i literally get ROFLStomped we have those abilities for a reason.

eliisra · July 2015

Lucky28 wrote: »

@Vizier

Dude, i'm in Full Epic light armor right and my Armor value is Laughable. Without Wards or a way to get the hell outta dodge i literally get ROFLStomped we have those abilities for a reason.

Dude, I've been in full heavy legendary armor+self-buffs and my armor values where not laughable. Still took 100% dmg due to the broken design of spell/armor penetration lol.

If you want to argue about sorcs need for big shields and BoL/Streak to infinity, use a better argument than wearing light armor. Every caster uses light armor. Secondly, armor is a junk stat, doesn't *** matter in Cyrodiil if you have 10k or 20k armor. You get hit the same.

Want to not get insta-killed by magic, than you need to stack nirn up 40k, to even notice a bigger difference. Want protection against physical attacks, stack shields or block reduction, because you cant get physical resistance high enough to even make the tiniest difference v.s stamina users.

Waffennacht · July 2015

I also wondered, but assumed correctly on what they ment with shield stacking.

Which is insanely common in rpgs. All dragon age games have it where mages are literally invincible.

I thought the whole rpg mage idea was, low levels really weak, high levels godly (at least thats how it was explained to me which makes sense as in all fantasy mages be uber)

Isn't there a move that silences a mage and there they cant cast?

Which that list of moves doesn't make synergy with my dude. Like switching weapons makes all spell effects disappear. Makes my daedra disappear.

How many people run pure melee? In my pvp experience i came across only one pure melee guy. Not even a tank, (seems tanky builds are really rare in pvp?)

I like my tanky mage, when I get 42 conjuring im getting that ward. I dont see the mage being OP (the ability to flee is not unique to the mage) I see it being very effective against most players (again all players ive been in combat with are DPS) as im not a dps, im all about survival, It seems I have an advantage being so defensively minded. (As I have yet to lose the rare 1 v 1 battle)

Maybe its not so much their shield is so high, its just that your dps struggles which such an opponent? Remember you shouldn't count them fleeing as failure

I will add that my experience is pre lvl 50 so as far as i know everything changes afterwards

yodased · July 2015

Trying to attack a shield stacker head on will give them a clear advantage. Thing is though, catch a nuke sorc in the middle of their rotation with a dodge roll and cc. Boom goes the dynamite they dead.

Lucky28 · July 2015

eliisra wrote: »

Lucky28 wrote: »

@Vizier

Dude, i'm in Full Epic light armor right and my Armor value is Laughable. Without Wards or a way to get the hell outta dodge i literally get ROFLStomped we have those abilities for a reason.

Dude, I've been in full heavy legendary armor+self-buffs and my armor values where not laughable. Still took 100% dmg due to the broken design of spell/armor penetration lol.

If you want to argue about sorcs need for big shields and BoL/Streak to infinity, use a better argument than wearing light armor. Every caster uses light armor. Secondly, armor is a junk stat, doesn't *** matter in Cyrodiil if you have 10k or 20k armor. You get hit the same.

Want to not get insta-killed by magic, than you need to stack nirn up 40k, to even notice a bigger difference. Want protection against physical attacks, stack shields or block reduction, because you cant get physical resistance high enough to even make the tiniest difference v.s stamina users.

Thing is. what these people are complaining about is not The Wards sorcs use. It s long time players who are V14 with insane levels of CP. they are simply going up against character who are higher level than they are, so of course they are going to have trouble with them.

As for me, i've never been in Blackwater, i've been on Vet servers since my character was lv25, so i knew what i was getting into. good way to gauge character progression. I enjoy PvP the way it is to be honest, but one thing i have learned it is extremely hard to catch up to other players (who have been playing much longer than i have) perhaps better ways for people to close that gap is what people should be asking for.

Waffennacht · July 2015

Whats with the gap anger in general? No one is equal in real life why do we expect it in a game? I think its insanely unfair to have a player playing for a month be anywhere near a player playin for a year. Especially true in an mmo.

I like seeing gods walk amongst mortals. I wish to become a god

Talongar · July 2015

I just started using conj ward.. and well this post made me re spec when I get off work lol..
I was told to have two offensive bars ( both destro ) ... One for single target and another for AoE...
But ... with this I might have to do some changes lol... or just change my bars when in PvP idk , what ya think cus I'm pretty squishy lol especially in dungeons with fire ( vamp life )

rfennell_ESO · July 2015

Talongar wrote: »

I just started using conj ward.. and well this post made me re spec when I get off work lol..
I was told to have two offensive bars ( both destro ) ... One for single target and another for AoE...
But ... with this I might have to do some changes lol... or just change my bars when in PvP idk , what ya think cus I'm pretty squishy lol especially in dungeons with fire ( vamp life )

I'd seriously consider going resto staff on one bar for healing ward. It's one of the best skills in the game.

Talongar · July 2015

You think? Thanks man, Im trying to be a good use to my team ... Im tired of being number one target dead cus they sense im squishy lol .. Thanks @rfennell_ESO

Lucky28 · July 2015

Waffennacht wrote: »

Whats with the gap anger in general? No one is equal in real life why do we expect it in a game? I think its insanely unfair to have a player playing for a month be anywhere near a player playin for a year. Especially true in an mmo.

I like seeing gods walk amongst mortals. I wish to become a god

I agree with you, they worked for it, they earned it. Better option would be converting a server to low Vet for newer players