Today I started heating my Grand Flourish for Grinclin Assault and having turned to the hispter side of swordswomanship, I've been experimenting with new techniques and stuff recently. Today, it was BTB+Grand Flourish. Very fun to do but that's beside the point. I wish to discuss something else.
When switch swinging quick weapons with small range, shield bumping can turn into a problem because well, you need to be close to your enemy. There's a solution to that, though: Proto Shield. It's a proto! It's a shield! It's Proto Shield without shield bumps. I'm thinking this would be extremely helpful vs enemies that keep close (Greavers, Wolvers, etc.) as it will allow for even greater interruption by throwing more attacks that hit. Of course, you naturally lose something on using the weakest shield in the game.
- +2 DI or +3 ASI, depending on whether you use Swiftstrike or BTS.
- Your ability to shield bump (that's the point), meaning your control over enemy position is greatly reduced.
- Your ability to use the shield as an actual shield. While Swiftstrike is indeed weak, it's respectable enough in T2 and actually able to take a bit of damage in T3.
What I wonder is whether it would all be worth it. I'll definitely be one to try and I shall report results sooner or later (probably later).
List of swords that would benefit from having no shield bump:
- Toothpicks. Notable knockback but only 1.25 tiles of range.
- Mid speed three hit swords (Brandish and such). Terrible reach but no knockback.
- Cutters. Same as above, except they're faster. Do note that switch swinging doesn't fill much of a purpose with these (see post #7)
- Warmaster Rocket Hammer. You don't even need to be switch swinging WRH to benefit from Proto Shield. Having no shield bump is extremely helpful when cancelling out of the dash of the hammer. Do note that it would act just like a Sealed Sword if you don't use the dash at all, though.
List of swords that would not benefit from having no shield bump:
- Troikas and SSs. Their reach combined with knockback means shield bumps seldom happen and grabbing ASI from Swiftstrike is worth a ton.
Ones I have no idea about
- Winmillion. Shoots projectiles but has the melee range of a Brandish. No idea about this one.
Interesting- I might have to give this a go. But I honestly have no idea about this. Yet.