The game requires at least one 5* shield to beat the mission mode, but because of the stark requirement for radiants, most of my own shields never see past level 4 because "what's in it for me? miniscule shield defense?"
Heck even shield defense UV's are a joke.
So at what point do stop heating shields?
Is there really a difference between level 10 and level 4 ( which is the first level to demand 42 Rads)
Glacies thoroughly studied the effects of shields, and concluded that you should not heat your shield at all. (Also, damage UVs on shields are worthless. And by the way you can't get status UVs on shields from Punch.) Here are the two threads, which I found through Google.
if you don't want to heat, just buy a 5 star off auction. I never heated any shield. I just bought my 5 star, finish hall of heroes, and then bought a swiftstrike (theres no point in heating them if some shield bonuses stay the same at 10 anyway)
Heated it to level 10 since I had extra rads from farming. No prize box tho :/
But if I was tight on rads, shields get no heat.
If you have lots of 2-, 3-, and 4-star fire crystals, then you might as well heat shields at those star levels, just for the chance to get Forge Prize Boxes.
You only get prize boxes at 3* and up. This is shown in the table under the wiki page for Heat.
Right. I forgot about that when making my post. Thanks.
So heat 3- and 4-star stuff if for no other reason than to get Forge Prize Boxes.
I usually stop at level 5 (on rare occasions, less than that), as that's when they gain a marginal benefit in defense, though shields in general gain little benefit from being reinforced through heating or applying unique variants; commonly noticable with a strong variant on them, such as a high, or even maximum, increase in a defense attribute (not status) it doesn't protect against. However, shields that get a UV that applies a generous increase into something it protects against (like "Increased elemental defense: High" on my Grey Owlite Shield), can see some noticable changes when used in the Clockworks.
Pretty much forging heat into your shields forces it into a placebo effect, is all I'll say. It may seem like it's helping to strengthen it, but in the long run, sometimes that is not always the case.
Here's a list of mine:
Aegis is only at that high of a level because I was heating it before the Forge was implemented, but nonetheless, many of my shields aren't even at level 5, and I kind of regret forging them thus far. The only temptation of doing so was the chance of a radiant forge prize box, which contain many essentials I desperately need (I only have 5 sparks).
But this raises another question... for shields that do not have an innate ability (such as the Bristling Buckler line granting a low damage bonus with blades, but then the Barbarous Thorn Shield changes it to "medium".), would it be for the best to heat a 4* shield to level 10 and keep it that way? Or ultimately just craft it into its 5* variant and leave it vanilla?
Straight-Line Said "hall of *#(%"
GM!!!GM!!!!!
Edit: Please don't quote language that should be filtered. Thanks!
I usually dump my radiants in my Blitz Needle for CTR, but I do dump Glowings into my Swiftstrike Buckler (which I'm still leveling up, mind you).
if theres nothing else to heat just heat your shield
i just heat everything I own to level 10 anyways because I have to complete everything I start
When do I stop heating my 5* shield?
Lvl 10, because I have enough radiants to handle upgrading all my gear.
When should most players stop heating a 5* shield if they dont have all their other gear heated?
Lvl 1. In fact, it is often cheaper to just make another 4* shield and bring it to level 10 than heating a 5* shield.
4* and 5* shields have identical HP. Lvl 10 4* beats out its 5* version until about lvl 7-9.
Weapons are at the top.
Getting armor to lvl 5 is right after.
Shields are at the bottom of the list for heating.
I bet Devs would have nightmares if they had to play their own game and not be able to heat their gear up in a timely manner.
I've still got 20+ 5* gear from the 2013 forge update that's never heated.
But this isn't about Radiants or how hard they are to get.
This is about how dev's wanted to extend gameplay, and here we all are trying to circumvent one of the biggest time sinks known to MMO's.
And this is what we got.
You rang?
If shields had a universal passive effect of +1 HP for lvl 5 and up, and a +2 HP for lvl, 10 this would certainly incentivize players to heat shields more. As for me I just heat the item in my inventory that needs the least amount of Rads (I broke this rule with my DA but it more than helps farming Rads if I can spam DA charges in FSC more than ever).
devs wanted to extend gameplay [by making radiants so rare]
Is that really why they made radiant fire crystals so incredibly rare compared to all other resources? There could be quite a few explanations for it.
@Dahall
Just because Straight-Line has a different idea of what a hero is doesn't mean that you should hate on them XD
(this spot is saved because ill probably make a comment here later
theres a thing I dont like)
I forget where it was discussed Fehzor, but someone mentioned making materials more rare, especially the 4*-5* ones. That would have extended the search side of crafting items as opposed to the endless gameplay extension of heating gear. Plus it would have added a market for merchants selling and searching for mats to sell. The only problem is that pets need 5* mats and materials to level up, and making the more rare would make pets the new "radiant sink".
Orbs were made more rare to extend that part of the search, and that seems to work out sort of fine. (still getting 5* orbs in Stratum 3, but no 3* or 4* orbs in Stratum 5 is a mess, but bygones be bygones. New players need more 5* orbs to progress than endgame collectors need 3* and 4* for crafting)
So it falls upon the less game breaking of the three gear crafting/leveling up, by which means making fire crystals the most wanted resource.
Have you played the game from the beginning to end again? Even I had some trouble heating up some sets when I was trapped in lower tiers; We can't interview new players to see what they think though. I think that fire crystals was simply the easiest way to extend gameplay artificially with 5* crystals being most apparent and unavoidable endgame factor.
Yeah, you'd definitely have to take pets into consideration. My thought was that instead of making materials more rare, you would increase the cost of materials on all recipes. This also helps to negate the bit where everyone has fat stacks of materials laying around.
I'm also fine with orbs being a thing, I just think that they should be more carefully balanced and considered as materials that happen to only drop from treasure boxes rarely. Specifically-
If running all the same level -> Too many materials from that level, not enough orbs = players can't just grind in one place
If running all different levels -> Too many orbs in general, not enough materials from any one level = players need to seek out materials
This is a bit like being pushed down a never ending stairway, but that's where programming can come in to bridge the gap between what needs to happen and what statistics dictate is going to happen instead with a flat rate.
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I have not played through the game a second time, mostly due to time constraints and my own heating/other issues/goals on my main account. I don't think it would be the same either though. It's like I know too much. I wouldn't be discovering things, or getting better at the game for the most part, because I've already mastered that area and explored all of the gear there. Instead, I would have a clear roadmap of exactly what to do, where to go, how to heat things, who to talk to, drop rates... you name it. New players just don't have that kind of thing- I know I certainly didn't when I was new.
Rather, I like to go back and see what newer players are doing, what they need, things of that sort. I'll never know what they're thinking and feeling entirely, but it's interesting to get a glimpse of it when I can.
Mathematically speaking, I'd say stop at lvl 4. You need over 3 times as many crystals to go from lvl 4 to lvl 5 than you do to go from lvl 3 to lvl 4.
Practically, you're probably safe with just a lvl 1 shield.
It's important to keep in mind that the amount gained scales with the amount spent- getting a weapon from level 9 to level 10 is much better than getting a weapon from level 1 to level 2. I haven't looked into it, but I would be surprised if shields worked differently.
I always thought what they did with Shield Charging and the Tortodrone Shields was one of the biggest steps forward in making things actually special instead of use Equip A for Situation A and B for B etc, they made Shield Charging fun and useful and you wanted to do it to see that awesome animation. Unfortunately they never did more with this amazing idea except make it a one off, if all shields in the game gave you some sort of buff or special attack for shield charging I feel Shields would end up being a much bigger piece of equipment in peoples arsenal and add a bigger depth to the game in the fact that we would now actually choose a shield that fit our play style best instead of Barbarous Thorn Shield, Swift Strike Buckler, or Crest of Almire and ignoring every other shield in the game because they're considered sub-par. (Imo and from what I've seen ingame most others)
Like for example they could finish up the crafting tree for the Swift Strike Buckler and on Shield Charge with the shield you get a 10 second MSI increase, or a Shield Charge for the Barbarous Thorn Shield gives the user 5 seconds of damage reflection, small things like that, though small would add a huge layer of depth to shield choices and what you want to bring for what instead of just, this shield has Shadow and Normal Resist so I'll only use this and never think about it again.
Oh and on topic just make a 5* Shield that will cover most missions and don't bother heating it. As everyone else has pretty much said shields see minimal increase from heating and wasting any Radiants to rank them when you have other priority equipment is pointless. I ranked my Grey Owlite Shield from 1-5 and saw no difference at all, and I doubt I would see any difference for 5-10 either.
I haven't gotten a single new 5* shield since the radiant drought but I would stop heating them at level 1.
I stop heating 3* and 4* shields at level 10 because I have a huge amount of glowing and shining fire crystals and I want the forge prize boxes.
Shields should get more shield bash damage and better stun at level 5 and 10.
I have never had a problem with radiant fire cyrstals.
I have never bought radiant fire crystals on the depot with energy nor do I buy them on the AH.
Secret?
1. Add a bunch of people on your friend's list and jump into their group at level 27 and 28 (even better if there's danger room)
2. Level 27-28 arena farming
3. Jump into Vanaduke groups at level 27-28
If you spent most of your time on level 27-28, you will NOT have radiant fire crystal shortages. You also collect a ton of Eternals at the same time.
Current inventory = 2059 Radiants, 34 Eternals
Redmania, do you craft a lot of Perfect Mask of Seerus? I'm going out on a limb here, just because sometimes that's fun to do.
@bopp that reminds me I need to join more OCH parties
51 radiants and I always forget to craft masks
glad i made my shields long before the forge update :)
if you know how to dodge like a boss you only need a switstrike and never use anything else :D
Most of my tortoshields are at level 3 or 4 I think, but that's because investing 27 radiants for 3 levels is nothing. After I have to start spending 30 for a level I start being put off.
But this is also because I have so many things I'm heating right now. I have all 4 tortoguns, a few gunner update guns plus my iron slug and neutralizer, at least 3 bombs, at least 4 helmets and 3 armors... Shields are just at the bottom of my heat train. After I get everything else heated sure, I'll keep leveling up my shields. But it's a slow process.
Heating shields? I haven't done that since 2011.
I go mostly (pfft mostly, everywhere) with SSB. Last shield that got some heat was Tortodrone one. Stopped at LVL4. Yeh, shields are worthless waste of radiants if you don't go with it everywhere, like swordsman with BTS.
I don't heat my 5* shield. I would rather save up those rare radiants for weapons instead.