Why only Shelter?

Damage from melee in the high end HM is rather high, in many areas surpassing 200 damage per hit. Displacement can eliminate that, and save Shelter some health for the next damage that does go through. It means that the spirits are up longer and you deal with small amounts of damage. While with union, you'll take almost no damage, but the spirits will go out much faster.

And, you got it with it being more hero friendly. Casting order matters less. Or you can just bring Weakness/Blind, which will last as long as you like and prevent any real melee damage. If you really want the blocking then Aegis is better than sucking up Shelter spawns with Displacement.

Or you can just bring Weakness/Blind, which will last as long as you like and prevent any real melee damage. If you really want the blocking then Aegis is better than sucking up Shelter spawns with Displacement. I usually combine Aegis with Displacement, and Blind is unreliable in that it's not guaranteed to hit every melee, particularly when they spread out. Extremely effective, but instead of shelter eating up hits, I have Blind partially preventing attacks, and then Aegis saving Displacement saving Shelter from eating up hits. End result is that melee does nothing and Shelter is there only for casters. The time displacement extends shelter is worth it.

However, I typically do the UW/DoA and other elite areas.. Which is a different circumstance. Margonite Vu's regularly hit for 100+ at full health, and at mid to low health 300-400 every hit, and a lot of it comes from skills (which weakness barely affects - and the multiplier from enraged which works on skills and attacks). Aatxe's can crit up to 600 pretty easily.

So I may be a bit biased. I typically need the melee coverage, because I can't spike entire groups down together while they're spread out - so I completely nullify the melee while I deal with casters.

I usually combine Aegis with Displacement, and Blind is unreliable in that it's not guaranteed to hit every melee, particularly when they spread out. Extremely effective, but instead of shelter eating up hits, I have Blind partially preventing attacks, and then Aegis saving Displacement saving Shelter from eating up hits. End result is that melee does nothing and Shelter is there only for casters. The time displacement extends shelter is worth it.

However, I typically do the UW/DoA and other elite areas.. Which is a different circumstance. Margonite Vu's regularly hit for 100+ at full health, and at mid to low health 300-400 every hit, and a lot of it comes from skills (which weakness barely affects - and the multiplier from enraged which works on skills and attacks). Aatxe's can crit up to 600 pretty easily.

So I may be a bit biased. I typically need the melee coverage, because I can't spike entire groups down together while they're spread out - so I completely nullify the melee while I deal with casters. Do we somehow know for sure that Aegis triggers before Displacement?

Edit: The strange thing is that block effects should stack multiplicatively, so there in theory should be times when Displacement fails to work but Guardian does and hence Displacement loses no life. Doesn't happen as far as I can tell from testing - it seems to lose life every time I block

Edit Edit: After 8 minutes of constant mantis attacks, I think it finally happened once, blocked an attack and Displacement didn't lose life (Guardian always applied after Displacement). I can't be absolutely sure it even did happen because my latency isn't that hot, but I can definitely say this - Don't depend on Aegis to extend the lifespan of Displacement. Weird, it should happen pretty often, 1 in 8 hits should be unblocked by Displacement and then blocked by Guardian, and 1 in 8 hits should be unblocked by Displacement and then unblocked by Guardian (hitting you).

Edit Edit: After 8 minutes of constant mantis attacks, I think it finally happened once, blocked an attack and Displacement didn't lose life (Guardian always applied after Displacement). I can't be absolutely sure it even did happen because my latency isn't that hot, but I can definitely say this - Don't depend on Aegis to extend the lifespan of Displacement. My experience playing with heroes is that they won't cast block skills on allies while Displacement is up, so unless the block skills are microed you will most likely never have both up.