I think it would look better if it was changed to shadow defence. It's a bit weird that a shield with the same general texture and design as the rest of the armor set suddenly provides a different form of defence. Is anyone else with me on this?
Snarbolax armor provides shadow defence. Who agrees that Barbarous Thorn Shield should provide shadow defence too?
Mon, 04/22/2013 - 07:55
Mon, 04/22/2013 - 08:19
#2
When OOO wants something to have crappy defence, they put piercing on it. That's why BTS has piercing defence.
Mon, 04/22/2013 - 08:29
#3
these threads agree with you
This idea seems to come up every few months:
Dark Thorn and Barbarous Thorn Shield Should Have Shadow D!!!
Mon, 04/22/2013 - 11:52
#4
nope
snarby family theme is pierce damage > snarby shield has pierce resistance
RJ family theme is pierce damage > jelly shield has pierce resistance
Vana family theme is shadow damage > crest has shadow resistance
the shield fits as it is. and before someone says it, YES vana does not have the undead weaknesses and really has no classification, but he is still listed under that family
Mon, 04/22/2013 - 16:56
#5
Only if it drops the piercing defense. Also they need better piercing shields then.
Mon, 04/22/2013 - 17:15
#6
One line should give pierce
One line should give pierce (keeping colors from the first two shields and stats from the original BTS) the other could give shadow ( keeping the current design with different stats)
Mon, 04/22/2013 - 21:26
#7
@Randomzz
RJ family theme is Jelly, which resists pierce damage. therefore shield has pierce res.
Vana family theme is Undead, which resists shadow damage. therefore shield has shad res.
Snarby family theme is Beast, which doesnt resist pierce; it resists elemental.
so... by that logic, BTS should be elemental, so I've kind of defeated both of our arguments in a sense.
But my argument is simply that the shield shouldn't be an odd-one-out, not what is most realistic stat for the shield to have.
Mon, 04/22/2013 - 21:40
#8
It should have only normal IMO.
It's rather OP as it is, and is more in line with swiftstrike buckler than anything.
Mon, 04/22/2013 - 22:04
#9
@ watermelon
Beast deals pierce, jelly deals pierce, undead deals shadow. I'm not talking about what the family resists. and really it's the "odd one out" because OOO made a snarbolax set with shadow def AFTER they made the snarby gear with pierce damage/resist. So it's the armor out of place :P
Tue, 04/23/2013 - 00:18
#10
@Randomzz
You make a point about the armor being out of place, but the BTS being pierce came out odd to begin with.
And since it's the shield we're talking about, it should be about what the family resists, not what they deal.
Beast deals pierce, therefore WEAPONS based on beasts should deal pierce. Beast resists elemental, therefore ARMOR based on beasts should resist elemental. At the same time though, Snarbolax appears to be a mix between shadow elements and beast family, so I'm saying it would be appropriate for BTS to have shadow def.
Sat, 05/04/2013 - 14:57
#11
My 2 cents.
The damage boost makes it worthwhile in and of itself so you could always do something like halved piercing defense + equivalent shadow defense. It'd give defensive shields their own niche.
Sun, 05/05/2013 - 18:42
#12
I may have the answer
It is probably due to balancing issues... (lol balance on spiral knights, but yes allow me to explain):
Almost all the shields included in sets (with a few exceptions) have the same resistances and aesthetics as the helmet and armour, see this list and the sets that have pairing shields: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/List_of_sets
As it is, the Barbarous thorn shield should have normal/shadow defence, matching the rest of the set, but that will mean that the user would have +damage: max on swords, without any trinkets. And comparing that to the other class/wep specific attack bonuses of sets that have no pairing shield (Shadowsun, Bombastic) means that sword users would have a +2 advantadge on normal/shadow gear compared with the other 2 classes (well yeah, bombastic is normal/elemental, but you know what I mean, a plus of very high on the set). So instead of rethinking the whole bonus in the shield to balance it, the just slapped piercing defense in it and made it a pseudo-pair of skolver set.
Sun, 05/05/2013 - 17:40
#13
Sun, 05/05/2013 - 18:38
#14
Oh yeah, the exceptions
I forgot about them, thanks for reminding, I'll update the post.
But aside from those exceptions, the point still remains, as to make the Barbarous thorn shield have normal/shadow defence, it would require to all the other weapon specific bonuses sets to have their very own shield to match the ''natural'' +6 bonus of that set (i.e a shadowsun shield with normal/shadow defense with +2 gun damage increased, and so on) and... heck, that would be a lot of shields... it's too impractical in terms of balance.
Sat, 05/11/2013 - 18:27
#15
Well then...
Will the only few norm/pierce shields actually compare against elemental/shadow shields? BTS an IPS are the only two decent norm/pierce shields. Everyone will go for IPS AND ignore skelly and CoA. Thanks for the unbalanced change.
Edit: -1 so CoA is kept alive
Would be an interesting concept, actually. Although the BTS itself has pretty much uses in itself against bosses for example the Royal Jelly, although it would be incredibly strong for runs like Firestorm Citadel and so though, which is the place where literally people probably use it most at as the attack boost. So I would say, debatable.
-Vert