I think it's pretty obvious that the devs at ZOS intend to rework shields. However, as yall can tell, a cast time is a terrible way to go about it. Instead of forcing magicka users to suffer with having a delayed defense, add a cooldown similar to Bolt Escape and morphs and dodge roll.
I say this because it'll force magicka users not spam shields but not force them to have a delayed defense. May I say that every other build in the game does not have a delayed defense. Anyways, I want to make an example of dodge roll. It's essentially damage mitigation by avoiding it rather than absorbing it. However, you cannot keep dodge rolling, as the cost increases by 33% with roll , until it costs too much. Same with Bolt Escape and morphs, but with 50% cost increase. Why not just do the same to damage shields, and I mean all damage shields, to be fair. With that, shield users will still have their instant defense. However, they cannot spam it too much in a short time or it'll eat up their magicka.
I'll do some maths. On a sorc wearing 5 light armor pieces (10% cost reduction) and along with their 5% cost reduction, Hardened Ward costs 2984 magicka. Let's say the average sorc has at least 40k magicka. On live, the sorc can cast this 13 times, give or take with recovery. Perhaps a couple more times with higher magicka recovery. If the shield had the same cost increase as roll dodge, 33%, if the shield is cast within 4 seconds, it would cost ~3968. Third cast within 4 seconds of that would cost 5277. The more the sorc casts Hardened Ward within the cooldown, it would just cost a buttload. Then the sorc wouldn't be to continuously cast that shield so fast, as it would eat up their magicka. If the sorc uses Harness Magicka AND Hardened Ward too much, then their magicka goes bye bye in a blink of an eye.
If the cooldown were implemented instead of the cast time, I honestly would go for Empowered Ward, as it costs less and gives me Minor Intellect, which is more magicka recovery.
Please do consider this. Dodge roll has no cast time but a cooldown, so why should shields be treated differently.
Edited by WuffyCerulei on September 23, 2018 7:14AM "Buzz Lightyear toy isle shot" Stormcalling/Animal Companions/Assassination PVP build hater
Bring Back Pure Class Build Power