Instead of providing a passive armour bonus, how about tying it into the tactics line to provide a % chance to block/evade melee and projectile attacks. This makes a bit more intuitive sense as shields are meant to prevent a blow from landing not to absorb it. Something along the lines of for every point invested in Tactics you gain a 1.5% chance to block/evade. At a nominal 9 points this would provide a 13.5% chance. Additionally against AoE type spells it could provide a passive 1.5 armour increase for each point invested (this would make it close to what it already was).
Maybe there could be a few more skills related to shields as well in the Tactics line. Something like:
Barb Shield (preparation): 10e, 2s, 30s
For 10 to 45 seconds any foe striking you with a melee attack suffers from bleeding for 10 seconds.
Shield Thrust (attack): 10e, 0.5s, 60s
You hit target with shield causing no damage but knock them down (max 2s) and push them back 5 feet (this attack has a 0.75s ‘aftercast’).
Shield Wield (skill): 5a
For 5 seconds you follow-up your next attack immediately with a shield bash that does an extra 5 to 25 damage.
Shield Spin (skill): 10e, 1s, 20s
All adjacent foes are interrupted if they are attacking
“Vengeance will be mine!” (shout): 10e
For 5 to 20 seconds you gain 50% more adrenalin whenever you suffer damage.
Maybe there could be some different insignias/inscriptions that reduce a specific condition’s duration by up to 30% (I seem to recall seeing them in pve but not pvp) or the hex-reduction mod (20%) be made available to shields.
I think this would add some more options without making shields overly-powerful. Thoughts, ideas, criticisms, suggestions?
S
