I run around with a Heavy Plate shield with full heat. That's four stars of pure Normal defense, and a whole bar of it. So when it takes a wolver or gremlin on the first level below Emberlight (four star tier) only two hits to fully break my shield and hurt me, I can't help but think shields are broken in general. If I understand correctly wolvers and gremlins deal Normal damage. That should be absorbed by my shield, since I have the most effective shield against that damage type.
What am I missing?
P.S. I'm not looking for strategies on how to defeat wolvers/gremlins. Wolvers are easy to deal with once you figure out that they tend to warp behind you. Gremlins can be shot with alchemers then gutted while they're down (a process which mysteriously consumes all your potions and pills). I'm looking for a discussion on shields, which I haven't seen a lot of on the forums.
"Shields have defense and health, just like a player. When a shield blocks, any damage that gets past its defense degrades its health, which regens over time. Once a shield reaches 0 health it breaks. So even if the shield has no defense against a certain damage type, it still has a wall of health that can absorb the damage. Obviously if the shield does have the right defense less damage gets through, taking more hits before breaking." - Nick
I think the main problem with shields is twofold.
Personally, I think the shields are working well as they are. They're discouraging heavy turtling, which is nice. But I think that during PvE, not having a surefire defense against attacks when you need it is frustrating.
The balance needs to come from a bit of both of those pools.
Monster damage needs to be distributed a bit better amongst groups, since having five or more monsters spawn when it only takes two to three of their attacks to kill you is overkill.
In groups, the advantage shouldn't come from always having a meatshield with more health than you to rush in and attack the next group while you fire away from behind. It should come from being able to co-ordinate attacks so that health loss is reduced to a minimum, which is difficult when there's no benchmarks for gear or easy way to use any weapons in a combination. As well as defend in unison to push away more aggressive monsters allowing for an opportunity to attack.