Fencer Archive

Ever play Warcraft 3? Remember how footmen can shield themselves at the cost of moving extremely slow? It's an ancient tactic of sieging in a stationed, ranged opponent by sacrificing speed for high defense versus ranged assaults.

Fencers, and even brawlers in general, should get this. There should be some skill our item that allows us to shield ourselves against long range attacks as long as we move slowly.

Shields should cause long range shots to miss frequently (10% accurate), and accuracy increases the closer a marksman is to the shield (up to 80%). Damage is still taken if the shot is made after the accuracy modifier, but only minimal damage (10-30).This damage should increase the closer the marksman is to the shield.

This forces ranged players/npcs to come close to melee in order to deal any significant damage. It gives ranged an incentive to run TOWARDS melee, instead of kiting away. They could stay at a "comfort zone", but they would still be close enough to lunge or burst away the moment the shield is taken down.

The penalties of using a shield? 70% reduction of running/walking speed. Running should be as slow as walking. Shield should also not defend versus other melee (melee versus melee balance purposes, although this could be reconsidered if it adds to the game somehow).

Is this unbalanced? Would this give too much power to melee? No. Why?

It makes melee slow, yet impregnable only at short distances which melee should be good at. It forces ranged to play at fair grounds and minimizes their greatest asset: distance.

Kind of a good idea, but all the ranged players would call that skill "Lame" and just not duel us anymore if we use it...

Well, in all fairness, what advantage do ranged have except at distance? Aside from pistoleers, the other ranged classes would probably get chopped to bits as it stands, if anyone can ever get close. Honestly, I think this would unbalance PvP greatly towards melee. Besides, sieging a ranged opponent only works if they're stationary or they can only move back. If they have wide outdoor environments and they're as mobile as people in SWG are, its effect is mitigated. So, honestly, I'm not sure if it's a worthless addition or if it's greatly overpowered.

Besides, why would classes have a shield ability? TKA's rely on personal toughness, Fencers rely on speed, PIkemen can't really carry it, only Swordsmen I could see logically using it...*shrug*

How about this thought:

Riot Shields

They could be made of various materials that gave various resists. A low end version may only give very low resists of perhaps 10% or so. At the toehr end of the scale, the good ones could give nice high (50%+) resists against energy, or perhaps quested or faction versions would have an armor rating higher than 1. This is before the damage gets applied to anything behind the shield, including armor. Like armor, it only applies when the protected body area is struck. For purposes of the riot shield, the protected area would be considered the "front" of the character. Strikes form the back would be completely ignored.

The up side is obvious... greater defense from the front when the shield is used.

The down side, riot shields are large and cumbersome. Of shields, they are the "2handed" version. So to equip this shield would be at the expense of equiping your sword.

This would allow us some reasonable protection while closing the gap to our attacked from the said attacker; but once we do, we would have to unequip it and equip our weapon to make the attack. It think this is pretty fair.

~Lyahpar

La Femme Fencer

Mental note to self:

Must start using the preview function to catch typos in posts before submitting them, since you cannot edit posts here.

~Lyahpar

La Femme Fencer

We should steal those uber Gungan reflective shields from Episode I...

-Greven

There were these rangers called Artillian Rangers I think in the RPG game. They had an energy shield. Too bad they were all force sensitive but it shows shields have their way in SW

good suggestion Raphayl. The basic idea is to allow us to close the distance of between melee and ranged no matter what, whether giving incentive for ranged to come to us, or giving melee a away to get close enough by running faster/slowing ranged down.

In regards to it being too unbalanced, ranged still can kite melee under a shield, but it makes it far less effective at great distances such that melee have absolutely no chance of reaching them. In my opinion, no range is not a marksman's ONLY advantage. There is also running, knockdown, bleeding, low ham costs, etc. Taking away part of a marksman's range advantage can only do so much, but its enough to start a fair fight melee vs ranged.

Great idea! I think, though, if this was put into the game, the shield would probably wear out after a certain amount of hits, or justdecay extremely fast. The shields would maybe wear out after 30 hits or so, and then you would have to buy a new one. If this was the case, the shields would probably be around 4k or 5k, which these days is not very much.

This is a great idea and I hope it gets put in the game!

Very good idea. It has its advantages and disadvantages and that makes it believable.

On the other hand though as a fencer I still wish we would dodge more than have to use shields.

You should mention the idea in our next issues thread.

Sorry but I think shields are a horrid idea...people already tote personal deflector shield generators, adding a shield will only seem to make us a flavor of the month ultimate tank class.

Why not train up a ranged weapon? you do have enough spec points to be a master at two professions...or even enough weapon to get your enemy to follow you behind a nice rock or inside a building whereby you can use your close range weapon.

Just a thought.

I think the idea of making equipment a way to balance a class is a bad idea. In all fairness, shields are an interesting and even fun idea.However, we have to have base skills that don't negate the ranged user's clear advantage and in turn make them useless against us. Just allow us some fighting chance to overcome that advantage (the distance)if we put our mind to it. Better skills, new skills, no one can say for sure what will be that magic item that gives us a chance AND doesn't make the ranged users completely helpless against us

Kudos and forever RAR!

Rooksarii, Fencer and Smuggler of the Watchkeepers, Radiant

I agree with that rooksarii. Although I didn't say speficially an item to balance things out. I did say, an item or skill or a combination of the two. Something like "take cover" for rifle lines except a melee version would suffice.