If you haven't already, you might want to invest skill points into it as you'll probably notice an improvement. I believe choosing an ultimate (getting your sprite to level 100) also helps.

I have the Seraphic Aura ultimate and I find that it offers a decent amount of protection. It's not perfect at absorbing damage but it's get great to have in some situations. It's not something that I'll use all the time but I feel that it sometimes gives me an extra second or so to rethink what I'm about to do. Breathing room, even for a short while, is always nice. Not having to hold a shield up to prevent shock spasm damage is also great.

The best (and most fun) uses that I've found for it are walking over spikes and walking through the row of lasers at the end of the Roarmulus Twins second depth.

Good luck trying to make it viable. :)

EDIT: Also, correct me if I'm wrong here but I think that status inflicting attacks cause more damage to a shield. Since Silversaps inflict both stun and freeze, it's going to be dealing a lot of damage.

Lumbers are just broken, that's it

Actually, my playstyles were sufficiently altered by the battle sprites. I am able to tank things using heart attack + any armor, the invisibility from maskeraith lets me play an assassin class, and drakon lets me run faster and play aggressively, or hang back and spam a bit more. Having the ultimates certainly helps a lot though, especially with drakon.

But I would agree that the invincibility shield needs a serious buff... like perhaps actually being invincible for a while. Or lasting forever until it took enough damage to break. Or perhaps it could like auto-shield the team mates. I can see it going in a lot of ways, several of which would require balancing.

I am in agreement that the shield is severely useless in comparison to heart attack. If the shield provided direct regeneration then I think it would be of the same value as heart attack toa single player, but in a team heart attack would result in more health being dropped for everyone.

But honestly, the shield lets you walk over spikes and has some ctr. at least you can use it for *something*. The ray of light on the other hand effectively does no damage due to invincitinks. Don't even get me started on violent heart attack/haunted haze.

We've had the abttle sprite update, and it was great. now could you go about fixing it? I'd rather have usable sprites than thirty-whatever new armours, of which only perhaps 5 or so sets will be used.

I'm really hoping that the update after the gunner update will be the 'balance/fixing' update. People complain about lack of content because there is a very clear array of blatantly overpowered weapons and armour, thus causing a lot of items to go unconsidered. Instead of adding new content, balance the content that is already there so that player actually utilize the entire game, rather than the stupidly overpowered minority of items.

This should probably be in the arsenal, since battle sprites are considered gear? (They might as well be, we don't interact with them at all)

@Batabii

Don't forget Redwoods being unable to inflict fire.

This is not necessarily a bad thing :)

@drachronos

Knockback is one of the few things VP has that Blitz doesnt, and incorporates into its entire strategy! And if you don't have knockback, the lumber will simply turn around and pound your skull in while you stand there reloading.

Trojans are interrupted by autoguns. Lumbers are not.

Teammates can break your cat shield.

Don't forget that one.

I to this day never understood the protective aura.

Does it give more defense based on what gear you have? If so just much more hits are you able to take before it breaks? For vogs sake a party member was able to break my shield with a stun vial. I don't even

I too hope there is a battle sprite update in the future. There are some things that definitely need to be worked on.

Basically, the shield begins with a certain amount of hit points and immediately counts down these hit points once equipped. I'm not sure how much it is, but depending on the specific attack (not the damage type) the shield is dealt, it will vary the remaining endurance. Say for instance, the shield gives 100hp, but a rocket puppy missile does 70hp damage. So, the hp timer is already counting down with all the running around a player does, and depending on if you have at least 70hp of the shield when it hits, you will be protected. If not, and the shield is under that 70hp, you burn.

Lumbers are the heavy artillery, slow but packing quite a punch. I'd say they hit as hard as a trojan's hammer, immediately putting the aura shield at critical levels (it gets very red). I may be incorrect, but i think it's only Lord Vanaduke's bash attack which the shield can't sustain from, even if equipped just a split-second before.

I might be totally incorrect or not far off, but i just cannot recall an instance, except with Lord Vanaduke, where my shield didn't endured "a single attack". I've always played with the notion that it works off hit points and not just a straight-forward countdown timer for the aura shield's endurance. And i use my pet (seraphinx) extensively, considering i am a pure bred team player that protects my team resolutely (given that the players show some effort to play smart to begin with). I've been playing 3 years and know quite a few really good players. But never met anyone that looks out for the team like i do. And my pet has been a big boost for towards that effort. :)

@ Glowupball
I believe they increase the speed of teammates' shield regeneration. Not so much protection for them. At least, i think so.

Why do you need it against the wheels? They only travel in straight lines. be patient and don't play in traffic.