Hi! Hellswaffle here, this is my first suggestion on this forum, I've been playing a dual sword's man for some time on my main account for a while, and realised how there is a shortage of offensive shields, With only Swiftstrike Buckler and Barbarous Thorn Shield , otherwise being useful, I feel that there needs to be more, shield mastery is a big thing in Spiral Knights, with animation cancelling and overall evasion of damage, I wanted to keep the ability to block some damage while still having an actual use in very low and high tiers, as I've noticed that very early on in the game the shields are only useful in short term situations, in a game where you need to fight many enemies in short bursts.
A new shield for a full sword build, this would be more of a utility than anything like an average shield.
-Starts at Tier 2.
-The defence system in Spiralknights is very much vague, so I will be using Antistone's guide to let you understand what the stats are more accurately
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/User:Antistone <---
Check out the guide and give him a big thanks for letting us understand more clearly what Spiral knights defence truely is!
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The Tier 2 shield would be called "Capsizer's Cog"
Appearance:
A large wooden cog, approximately a 1/3 of the circumference (as the height) of the tallest knight package with 8 small teeth around the edges.
In the hollow middle there is 2 small chains nailed onto the inner circle and the other ends wrapped once around the Knight's hand.
Stats:
Normal Defence = 1 bar (7.6%)
Health = 2 bars worth.
Abilities: Using the "shield bash" ability is replced with "Throw!", dealing 120% worth of Shield bash damage, the knight only moves 50% speed whilst throwing,
-This shield is only thrown 4 blocks away horizontally, then pulled back in vertically dealling no damage and nocliiping through walls and enemies, but following the hit box of the ground even up/down hills, on the way back.
-The projecttile moves at 6 tiles per second (Reaching it's destination before returning in 0.75 seconds) both to the destination and back.
-"Throw!" takes 0.5 seconds to charge up, where the knight pulls their left side backwards before releasing the shield outwards.
-The Projectile Shield counts as 0.8 times the width of a tile, stopping completely if hitting a wall, taking the rest of duration to recuparate before bringing it back, the player is stopped in place until the cog is fully dragged back if this occurs.
-This hits switch cogs (Purple to yellow and red to green stationary objectives.) while horizontal but not while vertically drawing back.
-Using "Throw!" uses up all shield energy, takes 4 seconds longer to begin recharging, and must be at full shield charge (undamaged) to use the ability.
Crafting path:
5 Blue shards
3 Scrap metal
2 Gremlin gizmos
3 Simple orbs of Alchemy
Description; "It isn't always such a good idea to charge in now is it?"
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The Tier 3 shield would be called "Swashbuckler's Saw"
Appearance: Wooden ring with iron welded around the edges, now with 10 metal teeth slightly curved anticlockwise
Stats
Normal Defence = 2.5 bars (17%)
Health = 3 bar
Abilities: "Throw! II" Throw now deals 130% of shield bash damage, now has 5 tiles of range and can pull in the nearest item at the end of the range.
-"Throw! II" now pierces through 2 enemies before either hitting the 3rd enemy or a stationary cog.
-The shield cannot pierce through stationary cogs, instead returning immediately.
-"Throw! II" can now drag one usable item drop from the floor, this only applies if it has only pierced up to 2 enemies not the full three,
and the item must be the full 5 blocks away (When the shield comes back vertically, it will drag the item closest to it back with it as it twists)
-"Throw! II" Can also apply the item return affects ALL items.Includes item drops (Vials e.t.c), craftable drops (Ghostbell e.t.c) and Vitapods.
-All other effects of "Throw" are otherwise unchanged.
Crafting path:
10 Blue shards
4 Scrap metal
3 Gremlin gizmos
1 Force Dynamo
3 Advanced orbs of Alchemy
1 Capsizer's Cog
Description; "You can trust the one with the "Shield", when it's over there, Promise."
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The Tier 4 shield would be called "Gashing Glaive"
Appearance:A pure steel ring, with 12 tiny serrated teeth, with a yellow/green line (Respectively) around the middle inbetween the edge then centre.
Now with one slightly larger chain wrapped around the forearm and hand.
Stats:
Normal Defense = 5 bars (32%)
Health = 4 bars
Abilities: Throw! III Now pierces through more enemies, deals 135% of shield bash damage with 6 tiles range, and the weight makes it hit enemies on both trips there and back!
-"Throw! III" pierces 4 enemies and returns after hitting the 5th person.
-"Throw! III" only deals 50% shield bash damage if it hits an enemy twice
-"Throw! III" now only has a 2 second bonus delay on shield recharge.
-All other unnoted affects are unchanged
Crafting Path:
25 Blue shards
5 Scrap metal
5 Gremlin gizmos
2 Force Dynamos
1 Silver coil
3 Elite orbs of Alchemy
1 Lvl 5 Swashbuckler's Saw
Description; "When the going gets tough, stop hiding behind a shield and USE it!"
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The fifth and final Tier would be called "Xenkara's gift".
Appearance: Now the steel shield has a grip instead of a hole / chains, a circularly ended triangle with yellow,green then red (Respectively) toward the centre.
2 Electrical links connect the shield to the knights on each side of the shield's grip. With a thin glint of electricity all around the edge.
The shield has the single pointed area of the equalateral triangle towards the fingers, and is face single point upwards whilst blocking from the direct angle correlation of the grip.
Stats:
Normal Defense = 5 bars
Health = 7 bars
Abilities: Throw! IV Is much quicker, has 8 blocks of range, picks up 2 items, and always deals 10% of hit enemies maximum health as normal damage.
Now has a slight chance to deal strong Electrical Damage.
-"Throw! IV" has its shield bash damage bonus REPLACED with the maximum health damage bonus on hit of target.
-"Throw! IV" only deals a bonus 10% of current health to bosses/ minibosses (Including the Trojans and other huge mobs like red lichen colonies *not orange*, but not lumbers or anything smaller)
-"Throw! IV" Has only a charge time of 0.25 seconds, and the Shield travels to the end destination and back within 0.75 seconds.
-"Throw! IV" now doesn't stop you if it hits a wall, but deals no damage (Electrical chance is unaffected) on the way back if this occurs.
-"Throw! IV" goes through breakable blocks, but can only go through up to 3 before returning only 5% max health as damage and no base damage (Electrical chance is unaffected) on the way back.
-"Throw! IV" can pick up items, no matter if it hits a wall, but it can only do so whilst on the way back.
-"Throw! IV" does not become horizontal, but instead returns to the user glowing slightly more.
-"Throw! IV" deals the same damage coming back.
-"Throw! IV" also deals the base damage of a shield bash + the bonus.
Crafting Path
5 Scrap metal
5 Gremlin gizmos
2 Force dynamos
1 Silver coil
1 Plasma cell
3 Eternal orbs of Alchemy
1 Lvl 10 Gashing Glaive
Description; "Who needs defence when your shield glows anyway?
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Other.
The Tier 2 /3 of the Cog line deals weak knockback on hit of an enemy, the Tier 4/5 deal no knockback.
Up to the Tier 5, the Cog line are affected by Charge time reduction (by 0.05 Each time, up to 0.3 less seconds with maximum CTR)
In Tier 2 missions, the Xenkara's gift deals the least damage, because of the lower natural health on enemies.
All tiers of the shield must have full charge to work, but the tier 4/5 only need 2 seconds bonus time before they start to recharge.
The recharge rate on the Cog line is the same as all other shields.
All of the shields of the Cog line are the same width.
If you could even read all of these stats and abilities in the cluster of text, thank you! Please comment on this so I can improve original ideas.
Don't make damage based on percentages, especially since you mention it does work on bosses/minibosses. Dealing a set amount of damage is fine, as it can scale through tiers like all other sources of damage.
I like the idea of new types of shields. From what I read it looks like it's a boomerang shield bash? Sounds useful!
I would say, however, that the shield should not deal any status other than stun, and should deal knockdown rather than knockback. There should also be no delay between starting the attack and pushing the button - beginning to throw it is fine but a charge up period is eh.
Shield bash damage percentages should probably go as follows:
2* - 120%
3* - 135%
4* - 160%
5* - 195%
Have this shield bash root you in place for its duration and you've got something that I can see myself using. I'd reckon we could get a few different damage resist types and call it a day.