Blazing Shield... What's the Point?

StarOfElyon

Billium813 wrote: »

Ohh Blazing Shield, what a let down. Both Blazing Shield and Unstable Core have been critically over looked over the years and nerf'd into oblivion. Hell, the Templar NPCs in the game that use Eclipse don't even use the REAL Eclipse that players have; they get access to the OG Eclipse cause the latest version is so trash. But I digress, Unstable Core is a topic for another thread... anyway...

I would be interested in hearing the development teams thoughts on Blazing Shield and it's current utilization. As a Templar Tank, Radiant Ward is the obvious go-to in PvE, while the Blazing Shield morph is very under utilized in all content. Comparatively, Radiant Ward does similar damage, but produces a vastly larger shield!

Radiant Ward

• 42.6k Health -> 27.4k shield w/ ~12 enemies nearby
• Deals 3771 damage to each enemy
• Costs 3800 Magicka

Blazing Shield

• 42.6k Health -> 15.8k shield w/ ~12 enemies nearby
• Deals 3718 damage to each enemy after shield is fully hit down by enemies
• Costs 4060 Magicka

Does the development team see strong usage of the Blazing Shield morph? Similar to how Empowering Chains for DK was seen as under utilized. I would love to see Blazing Shield reworked a bit to improve its PvP usefulness.

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My thoughts

1. Blazing Shield costs way too much for what it does. 4100 Magicka is too expensive for a crappy shield that also does crappy damage. You put the shield on, it immediately pops, and does like 1.5k damage in PvP... such a terrible investment.
2. It's hit by Battle Spirit twice. The shield is reduced by Battle Spirit, limiting the potential damage output, but then the damage itself is reduced by the opponents Battle Spirit reduction. This is a big PvP issue with any skill that stores up damage, then bursts damage out later. PoTL has a similar issue and ZOS didn't know how to fix it, so they just reduced the damage cap.
3. Living Dark is just better. For Living Dark, you get the WHOLE 12 second duration AND it costs 400 less Magicka. You end up getting WAY MORE value from Living Dark. Granted it doesn't do damage, but the damage from Blazing Shield is so pitiful that the movement speed debuff is more useful.
4. Compared to Radiant Ward, it isn't as satisfying to use. Radiant Ward shows the number of enemies that boosting the shield. With Blazing Shield, its really hard to tell if the opponent was in the range to count, or even if they took the damage. The animation is just weak IMO.
5. The shield scales too low for PvP. Increasing the shield by 4% per enemy really isn't that good! PvP is too fast paced and spread out. You would be lucky to catch 3-4 players in the AOE, given a paltry 12%-16% shield increase... we're talking something like a +500-800 damage shield increase on a 5k shield when you apparently have 3-4 opponents within 8 meters of you... IN PVP. That's just not worth the effort.

Keep in mind that Radiant Ward actually seems to deal MORE DAMAGE, on activation, AND GIVES A BIGGER SHIELD, even in PvP with Battle Spirit, thanks to the +20% scaling per opponent hit. AND, Radiant Ward costs less... smh

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ALTERNATIVE!

It seems to me like Blazing Shield should scale the damage shield in a different way from Radiant Ward. Both are trying to scale the shield based on opponents nearby. The Radiant Ward morph seems more applicable to large groups and Blazing Shield could be more applicable to large, boss enemies. Perhaps the damage shield's increased strength could be based on the Max Health of the largest enemy nearby.

New Blazing Shield

Create a tether of solar rays to a nearby enemy with the highest Max Health and gain a damage shield that absorbs up to 4800 damage for 6 seconds. This portion of the ability scales off your Max Health. The shield's strength is increased by 20% of the Max Health of the tethered enemy, up to a maximum of 100k Health.

While tethered, the enemy takes 30% of the damage the shield takes. The tether is broken if the enemy moves 8 meters away from you, or if the shield ends.

Wait, has my tank been using the wrong morph all this time? o.o

Mansquito

If harbinger tanks were still a thing and this could somehow synergise with that sort of build or approach, then great. But I do agree the skill is absolutely useless at the moment.

Billium813

StarOfElyon wrote: »

Billium813 wrote: »

Ohh Blazing Shield, what a let down. Both Blazing Shield and Unstable Core have been critically over looked over the years and nerf'd into oblivion. Hell, the Templar NPCs in the game that use Eclipse don't even use the REAL Eclipse that players have; they get access to the OG Eclipse cause the latest version is so trash. But I digress, Unstable Core is a topic for another thread... anyway...

I would be interested in hearing the development teams thoughts on Blazing Shield and it's current utilization. As a Templar Tank, Radiant Ward is the obvious go-to in PvE, while the Blazing Shield morph is very under utilized in all content. Comparatively, Radiant Ward does similar damage, but produces a vastly larger shield!

Radiant Ward

• 42.6k Health -> 27.4k shield w/ ~12 enemies nearby
• Deals 3771 damage to each enemy
• Costs 3800 Magicka

Blazing Shield

• 42.6k Health -> 15.8k shield w/ ~12 enemies nearby
• Deals 3718 damage to each enemy after shield is fully hit down by enemies
• Costs 4060 Magicka

Does the development team see strong usage of the Blazing Shield morph? Similar to how Empowering Chains for DK was seen as under utilized. I would love to see Blazing Shield reworked a bit to improve its PvP usefulness.

---

My thoughts

1. Blazing Shield costs way too much for what it does. 4100 Magicka is too expensive for a crappy shield that also does crappy damage. You put the shield on, it immediately pops, and does like 1.5k damage in PvP... such a terrible investment.
2. It's hit by Battle Spirit twice. The shield is reduced by Battle Spirit, limiting the potential damage output, but then the damage itself is reduced by the opponents Battle Spirit reduction. This is a big PvP issue with any skill that stores up damage, then bursts damage out later. PoTL has a similar issue and ZOS didn't know how to fix it, so they just reduced the damage cap.
3. Living Dark is just better. For Living Dark, you get the WHOLE 12 second duration AND it costs 400 less Magicka. You end up getting WAY MORE value from Living Dark. Granted it doesn't do damage, but the damage from Blazing Shield is so pitiful that the movement speed debuff is more useful.
4. Compared to Radiant Ward, it isn't as satisfying to use. Radiant Ward shows the number of enemies that boosting the shield. With Blazing Shield, its really hard to tell if the opponent was in the range to count, or even if they took the damage. The animation is just weak IMO.
5. The shield scales too low for PvP. Increasing the shield by 4% per enemy really isn't that good! PvP is too fast paced and spread out. You would be lucky to catch 3-4 players in the AOE, given a paltry 12%-16% shield increase... we're talking something like a +500-800 damage shield increase on a 5k shield when you apparently have 3-4 opponents within 8 meters of you... IN PVP. That's just not worth the effort.

Keep in mind that Radiant Ward actually seems to deal MORE DAMAGE, on activation, AND GIVES A BIGGER SHIELD, even in PvP with Battle Spirit, thanks to the +20% scaling per opponent hit. AND, Radiant Ward costs less... smh

---

ALTERNATIVE!

It seems to me like Blazing Shield should scale the damage shield in a different way from Radiant Ward. Both are trying to scale the shield based on opponents nearby. The Radiant Ward morph seems more applicable to large groups and Blazing Shield could be more applicable to large, boss enemies. Perhaps the damage shield's increased strength could be based on the Max Health of the largest enemy nearby.

New Blazing Shield

Create a tether of solar rays to a nearby enemy with the highest Max Health and gain a damage shield that absorbs up to 4800 damage for 6 seconds. This portion of the ability scales off your Max Health. The shield's strength is increased by 20% of the Max Health of the tethered enemy, up to a maximum of 100k Health.

While tethered, the enemy takes 30% of the damage the shield takes. The tether is broken if the enemy moves 8 meters away from you, or if the shield ends.

Wait, has my tank been using the wrong morph all this time? o.o

Honestly, I'm having a hard time trying to find the applicable scenario to use Blazing Shield. It's JUST bad and Radiant Ward is JUST better, period. ZOS, please fix this.

Luckylancer

Kisakee wrote: »

Mashille wrote: »

Beffagorn wrote: »

Play your fun draining 70k HP tank but never expect it to be a competitive build, because it never should.

I'm not saying a 70k heath PvP build should be viable. I'm just using it to showcase how thoroughly useless Blazing Shield is as an ability.

Only in PvP. And only if you ignore that you're gaining a damage shield too. Which scales with the number of enemies hit. Your logic is flawed in multiple ways.

OP is right. Skills should not double dip with PvP debuff. This is a big mistake by devs as nearly no game double dips effects like these.

mmtaniac

It's templar skill ,templar skills are weak to make sure the templar is good punch bag for other classes. If im not right than why templar have only one thing good enough it's his healing.

Vanos444

I wish ZOS could change the animation for jabs. It currently looks, feels, and performs like a wet noodle.

bachpain

It is another highlight to the direction developers take to the game. Seek and destroy, not balance.