Shield Charge

Been playing a shield marauder lately and I find this skill to be a fun novelty but not much more than that. It's in a good spot damage-wise, but it's too finicky to use reliably. I often bump into small pieces of terrain, wasting the attack, and striking mobs that are on the edges of doors is impossible since the wall will always be hit. Another big problem is that in a heat of battle it is difficult to properly target a mob, more often than not I end up charging into the air slightly besides the mob. A big factor in this is that it's tricky to target individual mobs properly when the screen is cluttered with them.

Thus, I'd suggest making it easier to properly aim with this skill. While I suppose there's little that can be done in regards of hitting small pieces of terrains and doors, I have a suggestion to make actually hitting the target much more reliable: make the attack strike in a cone originating from the point of impact, similarly to how Ice Shot does it, but with a wider and shallower cone. I wouldn't turn the attack into an AoE - I'd keep the maximum number of hittable targets at 1. The cone would just enable for smoother aiming, or rather making sure that something is actually hit instead of hitting thin air. The ideal solution would be for the mob closest to the point of impact to be hit, but if that can't be calculated efficiently, I guess that hitting a random target withing the cone would be better than nothing. The cone doesn't really need to be deep at all, just wide. Perhaps not even a cone but a full (small) sphere.

Does this skill benefit at all from Attack Speed or only Movement Speed?

It's maddening to get stunned in the middle of a shield charge. Maybe reduce incoming damage by a multiplicative 70% while charging?

Help me understand how this skill works!

This is my understanding so far: you cast it on a target unit or point.
If the target is a point, move towards that point with increased speed based on attack speed and movement speed modifiers until you reach the target point or until you reach any obstacle that is in between your starting and finishing point, including destructible rocks or corners on walls. No damage will be dealt to any unit. Any unit that would have had a pathing conflict with the caster is instead knocked back.

If the target is a unit, treat the spell the exact same as if it were targeting a point. If the targeted unit does not move at all between the starting time and ending time of your spell, the unit takes appropriate damage and gets the appropriate stun. The targeted unit has a zero percent chance to evade the next hit it receives from you unless it moves before being struck. The targeted unit will be knocked back by the next hit it receives from you unless it moves before being struck.


Thoughts?

Hey guys,

Just found something I thought was weird with Shield Charge.

So I was playing a templar in The Cove (Act 1 normal) and found that if I shield charge out of a tar pit left behind by the zombie things (I forget what they are called) I will be slowed as if I was still in the pit until the pit disappears.

Only able to test this with Shield charge as I don't have the ability to test it with other movement skills.

My main problem with shield charge is that if you get slowed it becomes totally useless.

This is what makes Leap Slam and Flicker Strike so much better than Shield Charge as gap closers (not to mention the fact that you can ignore barriers with them).

Another major issue with this skill is the fact that it cannot miss. This leaves it open to abuse and misuse. People just spam it at close range for the guaranteed hit and don't use it as a gap closer, which is not how it was intended to be used.

Also, why is there even a knockback to the main target on this skill? As a gap closer (primarily used to get closer to ranged enemies) the last thing I want is to push them out of melee range.

And finally, I agree that enemies that are pushed aside should take damage. It just doesn't make sense any other way.


In conclusion, to make Shield Charge a competitive gap closer, the following changes should be implemented:
- Add immunity to movement speed reduction during charge
- Add damage to pushed aside enemies
- Remove the knockback to the main target
- Remove "cannot miss"

knockback does not interrupt.
knockback helps by giving this skill "some" benefit for players that DO just hold the button and wait for things to die. normally it'll give no damage increase as damage boost depends on distance traveled.

I stand corrected. But it doesn't change anything about the points I made.

As it is, this skill is not used as a gap closer, but as a melee skill that gives guaranteed hits and a knockback.

This is not what it's supposed to be used for. This skill is intended to be a gap closer. And in order to compete in that category - that is, with Leap Slam and Flicker Strike - it needs something as powerful as their "barrier-ignoring" abilities, while still staying a gap closer. As I see it, the only thing that would achieve this, is immunity to movement speed reduction during the charge.

i don't want to agree or disagree on that part else i'd be a hypocrite on either direction =p