Shield Charge

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BaggerX wrote:

Just wanted to summarize my issues with this skill. Most of these have probably already been mentioned, but I figured I'd just run down the current issues in one post.

--Geometry hangs--
This is really frustrating. You often get blocked by some invisible thing which stops your charge for no apparent reason. This occurs most frequently in caves, but also very frequently in dense forest/jungle areas and other indoor locations. Need to allow the character some leeway in clipping through some of the geometry. Doorways are another especially bad area, where you'll often stop almost on top of your target, but not actually hit them.

I think this is not necessarily a bad thing. This skill is pretty powerful in it's current state. It needs some drawbacks to look at when skill balance is brought up. This is a drawback I can certainly live with, as a little re-maneuvering is not that big of a deal if it means keeping the core functionality of the skill intact.

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--Misses when mob moves--
For a skill that claims to never miss, this is just weird. If I charge at a mob, and that mob moves just a little, I'll often completely miss. Why doesn't my char change direction a little to hit them?

Do you want mobs to always hit you whether or not you've moved?

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--Sometimes misses visually but still does damage--
Sometimes it seems like my charge stops short or misses in some other way, but then still does damage. At first I thought this was just lag, but it's happened many times, even when I wasn't experiencing any noticeable lag.

One of several server/client issues which will hopefully be ironed out over time.

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--Doesn't break objects--
If I charge through pots/barrels/etc they should break. It seems weird that I just pass right through them.

I agree. This should be fixed at some point.

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I love this skill, but it would be soooo much better if these issues could be fixed. It's just really wonky right now.

I think this skill is borderline OP as is. Some of the changes you're suggesting would make it a super skill that would have to be nerfed at some point.

Potential bug that I believe is related to SC.

Last night I was pinballing around in the Dark Forest and after clearing out a horde of baddies I'd notice one stuck in a tree with low life. I could no longer interact with the stuck mob. I couldn't attack it, either with physical or ground slam, and it didn't try to interact with me. It just stood there fused into the tree. This happened to both a big spider and one of the bandits.

I believe they were probably pushed into that position by me running past them with SC. I was kind've spazzing out going from enemy to enemy for minutes at a time, so I can't say for certain.

Just wanted to confirm that the impossible-to-hit enemy bug is still in effect. It is easy to recreate. Just hold down the shield charge attack button on a big enemy. I swear 2-3 attacks out of 5 will be without effect, except the game shows all the animations and plays all the sounds. Incredibly frustrating and it makes the combat feel sloppy.

I'm also annoyed about the pathfinding of this skill. I am not sure if it's intended to be as.. brainless as it is right now, but.. Many zones in Path of Exile are inside. Almost all of these inside zones are ruins or caves. Ruins and caves are always full of obstacles (debris, stalagmites, whatever).

This means, for a big part of the game, shield charge users are at a huge disadvantage since we get stuck on everything.

I don't know if it is intended or not, but personally I don't like it. Not so much because it makes the skill much less usable, but mostly because it feels so stupid to see my marauder charge into some small outcropping from a wall while 10 skeleton archers are happily chipping away at my health. I wish he would automatically take that 2 inch step to the side to avoid the obstacle instead of getting stuck everywhere.

Another thing I would like to suggest: whenever you miss your intended target, could you please remove the boom sound and explosion effect at the end? If it misses, shouldn't it just end with the character decelerating until he/she stops? It would look much better than exploding against thin air.

Just my 2 cents.

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crl775m wrote:

Potential bug that I believe is related to SC.

Last night I was pinballing around in the Dark Forest and after clearing out a horde of baddies I'd notice one stuck in a tree with low life. I could no longer interact with the stuck mob. I couldn't attack it, either with physical or ground slam, and it didn't try to interact with me. It just stood there fused into the tree. This happened to both a big spider and one of the bandits.

...

This bug is known, check here:

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Monsters can sometimes be knocked back into walls, off cliffs, onto cave edges etc. by skills such as Shield Charge, Frost Wall, Heavy Strike, Sweep, and Leap Slam.

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mkreku wrote:

Another thing I would like to suggest: whenever you miss your intended target, could you please remove the boom sound and explosion effect at the end? If it misses, shouldn't it just end with the character decelerating until he/she stops? It would look much better than exploding against thin air.

Also known in part (its on the same page):

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Shield Charge does not play a sound if it does not hit a target, but still plays the effect.

What confused me at the beginning was that I had to actually highlight an enemy before hitting the button otherwise it will always miss. Even when you run straight at an enemy! It feels like it should have an small area of effect around the place where you stop and effect enemies in that area. I agree with this skill becoming OP then so maybe nerf the damage a bit.

When standing in a slowing ground effect (Tar) and casting shield charge to quickly move to the next mob and leave the effected area. The slowing effect remains for the entirety of the shield charge even once outside the area.

Logically you should return to normal movement speed once outside of the effected area even though the spell was cast while under the effect.

not a big issue but really hinders mobility when its most needed.

It would be nice if this skill had some kind of synergy with Tempest Shield, since you're wacking monsters with a huge electrified board of steel.

Chance to blocks(%) chance of doing Tempest Shield's electrical damage on hit.

At the limit,

Chance to blocks(%) chance of doing Tempest Shield's minimum electrical damage on hit.

Well at the moment im using shield charge succesfully on a tanky oriented marauder build. Linked with added fire damage gem. The damage is ok for a skill that does not miss. The issue is that it does miss.

If i try to use the skill on point blank it keeps on missing the target at least 2/5 times. It gets really frustrating when my build was focusing around getting tanky and staying in a big mob of enemies and i have to run out all the time to make shield charge hit.

I love it, been using it all the time.
I think it is good the way it is without any smart pathing algorithm, I like that it sometimes misses - it makes the fight more exciting :)

I was kinda hoping your move speed would affect it's damage instead of distance.

Honestly as already suggested making SC end with a tiny aoe cone, so tiny that you would practically be able to hit only 1 monster, 2 if they stack up might fix the issue with SC missing when the monster moves a pixel into the wrong direction.

The problem atm is that the enemy might move left or right perpendicular to your path and you will miss, while he can run away as much as he wants in a straight line and you will mostly hit him.

Its the inconsistency in hit/miss that bothers me.