I'm pretty sure those with omega shells have noticed that your used to be prized possession that could pretty much block many things effectively is now pretty much crap thanks to the new pierce patch. Here is my example, I USED to be able to block an alpha wolver completely. Now it breaks the shield on the third hit like glass. Anybody else also agree?
Omega Shell Has been Nerfed!Q.Q
Sat, 06/11/2011 - 21:50
Sat, 06/11/2011 - 22:01
#2
not getting the point
The OS used to be a good shield now it kinda just sucks... you know how much it freaking costs to make one? It's a 5* shield, if i knew this patch would have been implemented i WOULD have gotten Owlite or Aegis
Sat, 06/11/2011 - 22:07
#3
Piercing Owlites
Grey Owlite doesn't block piercing, either, so it would shatter just the same (actually a little more quickly, because it blocks less of the normal component and has a little less health). If you'd have gotten that instead of Omega Shell, you'd be having just as many problems.
Sat, 06/11/2011 - 22:26
#4
And this is why it's not a
And this is why it's not a good idea to leave your defenses down. Try and have as much protection as possible, even if you need to switch around during Terminals.
A Shield that only blocks Normal is a pile of garbage. I figure people only made it before the recent patch due to it being a cheaper Shield to make since it starts at 4*, but it was always a bad investment because it was obvious that monsters would be dealing more damage types in later tiers. The game even says it's supposed to, it was just a matter of when they would be doing it.
It's not wise to plan for just certain/current situations in an MMO, you have to try and predict what might come in the future and go with that, that way you're not as vulnerable.
Sat, 06/11/2011 - 23:10
#5
I think the omega shell was
I think the omega shell was actually buffed overall. Before the gray owlite was the clear choice for everyone because elemental came from so many sources and normal damage was negligible to any shield that wasn't completely missing normal defense but now that piercing and shadow are better represented you can either gear to your style or get a jack of all trades master of none shield like the omega or the volcanic plate.
If you gun and bomb more and only have to worry about ranged attacks the grey owlite is still probably best since standard gun puppy type projectiles are what your shield is going to eat most of the time. If you're more sword oriented or you just run a lot of jelly palace a thorn or aegis or jelly shield will cover you best. If you do a lot of firestorm citadel or you really really hate devilite office spam a skelly or crest of almire will do you the most good.
The omega will break before any of those against its specific damage resistance but against the other two damage types it'll outperform a specialized shield.
Sun, 06/12/2011 - 15:32
#6
Actually,
Actually, before it was more durable and more overall effective as i said before it could block nearly everything effectively including the Alpha Wolvers. However it's now lost the ability to block both alpha and some what jelly piercing attacks.
Sun, 06/12/2011 - 17:15
#7
@NiteZ
Wolvers did only Normal damage before the recent update, they now do Piercing.
Omega Shell has absolutely no defenses to anything except Normal damage, so it's broken within a few hits by Piercing, Shadow, and Elemental. Normal-only shields are useless in the game.
Sun, 06/12/2011 - 17:51
#8
The point of the omega shell
The point of the omega shell isn't that it has a lot of normal defense, it's roughly the same as any other 5* with normal defense. The plate shield variants are the ones with a lot of normal defense. The omega shell has more health on its guard barrier than any other shield, that's what the heart bar on a shield is. And while that isn't as good at defending against a specific damage, like wolver piercing, it is okay for sucking up some hits from anything.
The shield isn't different then it was before there's just less normal attacks but in the grand scheme of things every shield with normal defense did about as well so an owlite with similar normal defense and just a little less health but a big chunk of elemental defense was better overall. Now the owlite having less barrier hp is an issue because not every attack that isn't elemental is normal damage, shadow damage and piercing damage go through owlite faster then it does the slightly beefier omega shell. It has a clear role as the just okay against lots of damage types but not great against any as opposed to before when it was just outclassed.
In your alpha wolver example, everything that isn't aegis or jelly or thorn breaks fast now. Depending on your depth or shield's star level the triple bite might break any other shield in 1 bite, but the omega can take 2 because it has a bigger hp pool to soak up hits from.
Sun, 06/12/2011 - 17:56
#9
Your shield isn't your
Your shield isn't your problem, it's your armor. Get some pierce resist ~baka~
Sun, 06/12/2011 - 18:16
#10
Your guard barrier is
Your guard barrier is actually completely defined by your shield stats, a shield with no piercing defense wont stay up longer because you're wearing piercing resistant armor that just reduces the number of health pips you lose when you're hit.
Sun, 06/12/2011 - 18:22
#11
What even DOES normal?
What enemies actually do Normal Damage. I heard that Lumbers do normal however if that's the only enemy then normal defense shields are rather useless since Lumbers tend to hit only once... and most shields can survive it in any case. If that's the case then I guess I'm complaining they add more normal damage to the enemy types. Having what used to be an alpha wolver blocker kinda blows.
Sun, 06/12/2011 - 18:30
#12
Gremlins, retrode melee hits,
Gremlin thwackers, retrode melee hits, lumbers, chromalisk's still sometimes use a non piercing tongue hit, trojans, slag guards, half of all damage in tier2, all damage in tier 1.
Sun, 06/12/2011 - 18:37
#13
Tier 3 isn't meant to be
Tier 3 isn't meant to be dealing much Normal damage.
Tier 1: Normal
Tier 2: Mix of Normal + Shadow, or Elemental, or Piercing
Tier 3: Full Shadow, Elemental, or Piercing.
They shouldn't change this just because a couple of things are now made more worthless than they already were. Like I said before, Omega Shell has always been a bad investment.
Sun, 06/12/2011 - 19:08
#14
If you can't afford 3
If you can't afford 3 different shields to swap for whatever stratum you're facing or you don't have a play style that avoids one damage type less then the other 2 than the omega shell is now the best investment. Like I've explained twice now.
Forget it has normal defense, it could have no defenses at all. It is irrelevant. It has the most health. HP. Pips.
Lets say a wolver does 3 damage with a bite and the average shield health is 3. thorn shield has 3 pips worth of damage absorption before it breaks, it prevents 2 damage with its piercing resist and takes 1 to it's barrier's health, your shield bubble changes color from blue to yellow. omega shell has 4 pips worth of absorption, it prevents no damage and takes the full 3, your shield bubble changes color from blue to red. skelly or owlite has 3 pips worth of absorption, resists no damage and takes the full 3, your shield breaks and you take damage.
No matter how you rotate the damage type, owlite is best for gun puppy shots followed by omega followed by the other things, skelly is best for develite office supplies followed by omega followed by the other things, the omega is always an alright choice, it is never bad.
EDIT: although with the lack of normal damage in t3 an argument can now be made for the dragon scale shield's piercing/elemental no normal resistances being the best all around but that's a different thread.
Sun, 06/12/2011 - 22:39
#15
Might as well
Well now that nearly EVERYTHING does piercing, elemental or Shadow, whats the point of having the omega shell in game anyways? By putting in such a shield they have griefed players like me who decided getting a crap ton of normal defense to boot. As I've said of Multiple times, it can't block anything, so what if it has a lot of hp, the fact that it breaks makes it worthless. A shield that breaks when it's not suppose to is completely worthless, and the fact that the developers even implemented it just means how much this blows as actinium said >.> even though it's SUPPOSE to be overall its not doing it's OVERALL job is what I'm saying. So yeah it can block some stuff but only to a certain degree, the reason I chose this shield was because it WAS an overall blocker that blocked everything effectively. But many of those pesky Pierce attacks tend to be... spammy and again the example is the Alpha Wolver which USED to be blockable. I'm mainly upset about the Alpha Wolver the fact that tier 3 ones are really painful and the fact that I can't repel them like I usually would have. OS is a good shield, it actually CAN block everything, just not Alpha Wolvers.. anymore, which is in my opinion, Alpha Wolvers are THE most annoying enemies possible especially if they have status effects.
P.S I might have contradicted myself of some sorts but oh well.
Sun, 06/12/2011 - 23:20
#16
Yeah, well...
Alpha wolvers break the Grey Owlite shield on the third bite too. Just don't let them bite your shield three times in a row. It's not worthless - the first lunge of an alpha is unavoidable much more often than the subsequent lunges; because they don't turn while they're rampaging, you can get out of the way.
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 11:48
#17
Patch needs balancing
Third bite? More often than not my Grey Owlite goes down on the second bite, when it used to be able to tank all three and then some. And sometimes if I've taken minimal damage, it goes down on the FIRST bite, especially if the alpha has some status that the shield doesn't defend against, like poison.
Like I've said, piercing damage is well and good, but Wolvers are doing way too much damage. Consider this theoretical situation: Let's say Skolver provides 50% normal reduction, 40% piercing reduction. Prepatch, a wolver bite does 100 normal damage; player takes 50 damage. Postpatch, wolver splits damage to 50 normal, 50 piercing. Player now takes 25 normal + 30 piercing for a total of 55 damage. This player is EQUIPPED for piercing, and yet he still takes MORE damage- in short, OOO has just cranked up the damage. Not cool, considering in T3, more than 50% of the damage is done as piercing (I think it's a 20-80 split?). I can understand if I take more damage than previous because my Vog Cub doesn't have piercing defense, but if I STILL take more damage than before while wearing something that is specifically supposed to defend against piercing, then the system is broken. Please tone down the damage a little, particularly on alpha wolvers.
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 12:07
#18
You are doing it wrong.
Uhhh, who the hell even wants to block Alpha Wolvers? Are you insane? Get the hell out of their way, like everybody else.
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 12:43
#19
^ Ahahaha. Outstanding!
^ Ahahaha. Outstanding! Thread over.
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 15:44
#20
Oh well
If OOO isn't gonna change something then w/e i guess most people can't actually block Alpha, I used to be able to block 2 shots then push away guess those days are over.
Tue, 06/14/2011 - 09:05
#21
Uhhh, who the hell even wants
Uhhh, who the hell even wants to block Alpha Wolvers? Are you insane? Get the hell out of their way, like everybody else.
This.
Also, you can shield knock them in between bites.
well OS never offered protection from piercing thats your problem it hasnt been nerfed