To clarify for the coral shield: You can fire left handed weapons unlike other shields, but charged weapons on Bipeds/RJs do NOT interrupt the shield charged weapons on tetra/tank legs interrupt the shield Why? No idea. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
On that note, the plasma thrower will stop you death in a track if you hit a wall/terrain with it on quad or tank legs while boosting. Might have something to do with how you can use those weapons on the move while biped/RJ can't.
Must be a bad case of weird tagging and coding. .....................or a glitch. Y'know. like the explosive thrower, even though it's a melee weapon, it lacks melee tags, making it unaffected by melee stats, just like how the coral shield is unaffected by PA interference because doesn't have energy tags.
People don't like shields becuse they reduce your overall DPS and stagger potential, but really they're an option for reducing your enemy's DPS and stagger potential
For me is the key bind issues as I feel uncomfortable holding it down and having to rely on direction of motion to dodge and I can changed it but it a hassle
They definitely _help_ since some mits are better than none, but unfortunately explosives are pretty good at just totally overpowering shields unless you parry them with some of the higher-mitigation ones like bucklers. Explosives have a way easier time with shields than Zimmermans did, especially since you can get free impact if you _miss_ with something like Earshot and its unholy AoE.
@@LEOTomegane If an explosive misses you and explodes behind you, only coral shield will mitigate that explosion, but at least that is an option. Still, yeah, explosives have pretty good impact to just blow through the defense.
@@kirinashia567 yep, as a shield user i genuinely preferred Zimmermans to these things because I didn't run the risk of eating a bar of impact for a shot that _missed._ The proximity airburst on the Majestic can do this too, which is even more of a pain.
How does IG Parry work against attacks that are Attacker-Side netcoded? Like Boost Kick, Grenades, and Bazookas for example. I'm aware that the hitbox registrations are completely depending on the player who's attacking me. So should I time my IG Parry based on when the attacks hit me on my screen, or should I just guess the attack timing based off my opponent's screen and preemptively activate my IG Parry?
@ap.1729 If you happen to run a bubble gun, you're already rough opponent regardless what you do. Double bubble is a reason to purge Scutum on spot as it won't do anything in the fight but get them staggered. Without bubbles, most consistent way is to play the long game. All the impact that Scutum takes is accumulated, so you can deal some and then dip out. If you're feather- or lightweight, you can abuse this hard as you can go reset your own bar before Scutum can reset theirs. If you're same weight or heavier than Scutum, you'll have to fight the stagger war fairly and find a way to win it. Damage doesn't matter at this point, you will almost always lose direct damage war when Scutum is up, unless you're running something like Lobster. Once you've actually managed to force opponent to drop the shield, that is your window to rush in and you MUST keep the pressure on from that point onwards. It is hard to reset Scutum under pressure and without they're just playing mech with missing shoulder weapon and lots of redundant weight and EN draw. Any kind of turbo stagger builds are also rough for Scutum, something like double Viento and double 10-cell. Missiles overall are pretty good at long range poking Scutum when they try to get away to reset stagger bar but that's more map dependant.
actually @ 1:30 the coral shield is only forced to undeploy by charged shots fired from tank legs or quads, charged shots fired from bipeds and RJs will not force the coral shield to undeploy
Ohhh interesting. Thanks for the info! Because of the high EN load required I've mostly ran coral shield on heavier setups so I've actually never noticed this.
Since patch 1.05, coral shield works differently now. Initiated Charged shots on left hand, don’t interrupt coral shield, regardless of your chosen legs.
I wanted the sword in my right hand and shield in the left but I thought about it and it actually makes sense.. you use the shield until you attack then you switch to the sword with the same finger.. it makes perfect sense.. sword attacks are commitments and they open you up to taking damage. The shield is a decent block on your way to delivering a sword attack and on retreat.. I like to use a grenade launcher as a nice follow up to a sword attack.. then retreat and fire missiles then repeat..
I find the su-r8 really funny to run with gills. It's main benefit is that you can just hold it up mindlessly and let the ig passively modify your quickboosts. Its just about the only shield you can hold while spamming qbs.
Really appreciate this one. Pulse shields are the newest equipment introduced and the stats leave a lot of guesswork to players. This whole time I've been thinking each shield had different surface areas based on the shape. 😂
You sure have been a godsend for building in this game - try as I might, my ADHD-addled brain has a tricky time parsing through so much data to try and understand how everything interacts. The booster breakdown was especially useful, as now my heavier builds don't end up constantly hosed down and ACS-stunned.
So I just read a super exciting game of tag, a quite unique game too. With lots of interesting foreshadowing and character building. Looking forward to finishing it, just wanted to drop by and say Im really enjoying the first few chapters!
This is the guide I've been waiting for since the game launched. Shields are heavily underrated, but a good shield user can exploit all the flaws in a heavily aggressive enemy build by evening the DPS between them.
You never cease to amaze, Mr. Chrightt! Looking forward to the Core overview, the Basho core seems pretty useful for certain builds even though its generator stats are pretty bad. Thanks for these videos, really helps a lot!
The Pulse Buckler with the highest IG impact dampening (VP-61PB) has been my best friend during the Zimmerman era, and will continue onward throughout the high ping explosives era
Holy crap I was never able to really understand shields but your video broke them down in a really easy way! Thanks! I’m gonna go make a pulse buckler build
I feel like shields really should get a decent buff in PvE. While in many Fromsoft games it is perfectly fine for fights to be more drawn-out, AC6 seems to be the exception. If you were fighting an equal opponent then yeah, shields would be great but on your first playthrough you have no clue what you are up against and some bosses simply do too much damage for shields to really be viable, as if you fail your timing it is almost always a guranteed death sentence
I know i haven't bought a book but i would love too make a recommendation for a video. I love your breakdowns and watch them as soon as the come out. I would love to see a break down of the speed stat. What classifies a light/medium and heavy weight, how does this affect passive dodging and lock breaking, what is the optimum and minium speed to help reactionary quick boosting. I hope this might be an idea you find as interesting as i do =) keep it up!! your hard work does not go unnoticed!
Only recently started touching on shields for an AC I had in mind that would be a bit like a knight of sorts. First one I tried was VP-61B and was amazed how much damage mitigation was on the initial guard. Tested the AC against Ibis boss and was shocked on just reducing the damage of one of the slash attacks into almost nothing
if you're using a charge up weapon in your left hand, the SU-R8 shield is really good, because you can charge your weapon behind the shield and fire often
Coral shield has been a life saver against missiles and charged weapons. When im aggressivley chasing on my lightweight/midweight. it makes all the difference against latent zookas.
Hey mate, love your videos. Very informative. Are you going to do a breakdown of all the CORES. Best one for light, medium and heavy builds. And energy supply and adjustment
It is a shame that shields aren't very good in PvE for most things. I kept trying to use them but I found that having two shoulder weapons is not only more efficient but just way more fun in general against most enemies.
Idk man, I had quite a lot of fun running the Scutum Shield, SPD Booster, and a high damage punisher melee weapon while trying to face tank literally every bosses and still come out as a victor 😂 (Yes, even with Ayre and Ibis. This shield is so damn insane when played correctly) But yeah I can see why this playstyle might not be fun for everyone.
@@TanegiHoneydew Scutum shield is fun - I use it to speedrun Explore the Depths 1 by just dropping on top of Nepenthes while tanking the barrage of lasers.
@@dangerwarg9682 Dual burst rifle and dual shotgun combo is so good for PvE that taking a shield is wasted DPS. It's all you need for S ranking everything.
Some points I didn't notice mentioned was how shields prevent all mini stuns e.g. kicks,/charged sword hits, and they also block all status. Thank you for summing up all the shield stats, I think I'll be looking at some of the other options more, as I've only really been using the two basic pulse shields with very low deployment costs.
It's funny to me how when I show people one of my fav builds they call out using a shield as a negative way quicker then they notice (if they do at all) that I'm using a Harris with Basho arms.
Damn I'm still hanging out for core/chest and arm videos. I mostly just use Elcano Formoza arms and core but I don't see that core used in many builds. I'll probably keep it for fashion/speed but I'd like to see your analysis of what they're good at and what I'm missing out on because of my preference.
So when will the pulse shield launcher be properly covered? Its got some really awesome techs with explosive weapons (You can intentionally shoot your own shield in order to detonate a round mid air) and is super underused. Shoulder video?
That one mech in the arena on e class who uses the shield and the bubble gun was messing me up bad.. the shield is apparently very effective at blocking gun damage.. I switched to some weapons I thought would beat him like grenade launchers and nothing hit him and I died without hitting him once.. then I switched to dual gattling guns and we both died at the same time.. it was unreal.. then I switched to all missiles and messed him all up and the other mechs in e class.. shields not so good at blocking homing missiles from all directions but very good at stopping gunfire.. seriously.. he was messing me up with the bubble gun dude.. the bubble gun...
I've always liked the idea of shields throughout this series, and these are the most effective shields have ever been, but I never get used to using them. I ran one in a build midway during my first run through the story and I would just forget I had it in my loadout 90% of the time. They have a lot of potential, but they require you to change how you play, so that's probably why my brain just never incorporates them when you're much more accustomed to quickboosting to mitigate damage.
They're at their most valuable when parrying really big attacks imo, which is not something you do often in pve. Pvp, though, is a very different situation for them. Since the shield is defender-side, it does a lot of work mitigating some of the more egregious netcode abuses, like Pulse Sword charges and kicks.
@@LEOTomegane I don't really know about that, as the game has a built-in warning system anytime a big attack is incoming. It's a literal que to shield up and then follow up with your own offense, rather than using that time to qb away from the danger and giving you less exploitable windows.
@Blakobness because you only have limited shield uses before it overheats, and the opportunity cost of quickboosting is quite low, in practice you tend not to have as many things that you would rather parry than dodge. I think the most I ever used it was during the NG++ final boss, where several of the third-phase melee attacks are quite wide and fast.
@@LEOTomegane I still just really disagree with that. Especially for a core that isn't working with a lot of energy capacity to spare where you might not want to use that extra energy to dash away from the danger, I think a shield could be utilized very well. I still think the shield is just a deviation from most people's typical playstyle which makes it more off-putting, and trading away an offensive tool. Every AC fight or boss has at least one thing that I could see worthwhile using IG to soak and capitalize on and with conservative shield usage, the overheat should never be an issue really,
Conversely, I basically always ran shields on my main AC, so when I DIDN'T have a shield I ended up unconsciously holding down L1 anyway, to my detriment
Pulse Scutum on Quad with Plasma Thrower, Ransetsu RF and Trueno, a build SPECIFICLY made to be a counter focused build Lightweights? Scutum + Plasma Thrower Heavyweights? Rf + Trueno
What do you think it’s recommended to run with either the shield scutum or coral shield? Cant use weapons that has stance like weapons that charge up as that will shut off the shield, and I don’t think melee is the play style with these shields so I’m thinking a kiting playstyle may be the play, but I’m still stump on what weapons to use.
Any high impact single arm weapons like the Shotguns, Gatling gun, Linear Rifles, Hand missiles, Laser Rifles and Pistols, Hand Guns, Stun Guns, Flame Thrower. You can kite With the long Range weapons and missiles , just bum rush with the Bullet Hoses, or some combination of the two using the High burst damage / stagger weapons for more measured engagements. Probably tetrapod ( for stagger resistance) or high mobility legs (for positioning.) Grid Walker Booster or other powerful booster since you won't quick boost much. Pulse Shield for when main shield is down or Assault Armor for countering charges by the enemy. Left hand weapon is either a long cooldown blade or a powerful weapon you won't fire often. Keep in mind what the video says about the differences in the Coral shield though since it gives you different weapon and leg choices. Back Weapons are either the Turrets or missiles that complement your right hand weapon. No cannons unless they have extremally powerful charges or long reload time ( still wouldn't recommend cannons since you need something high output the won't leave you vulnerable.)
Coral shield works great with gatlings. Their interests align: neither the gatling nor the shield wants you to quickboost, bc they're both interrupted by it. Scutum is best used with a stagger punish in the left hand, or at least some kind of charge weapon so your arm slot isn't totally useless when the shield is up.
I genuinely think the Scutum is broken, and I hope people don't start running it more because it's a pain to deal with. I run it with dual flamethrowers and it's cheesy as hell.
I know this is probably the wrong place to point this out, but you got the wrong data for the Joso on your spreadsheet - EN Capacity is at 2300 instead of 2200 - Supply Recovery is a 500 instead of 400 - Energy Firearm Specialization is at 72 instead of 52
PULSE BUCKLERS MY BELOVED There is nothing quite like using the lightweight PB to shrug off a double Stun Needle shot. It must be _wild_ to fire two of those and see them only deal like 2 impact. Also, I remember reading that the shields blocked status buildup, did you test that at all? I don't recall offhand if it's worked for me.
They do mitigate stat build up. Some might get slip past but I don't know if it's because it's not 100% resistance or those shots just simply hit from an angle outside shield's guard. But yeah, shield builds in PVP are extremely effective against electric/burn build.
@@TanegiHoneydew I'd thought it was something like they mitigate discharge but not burn, bc the burn weapons both coincidentally apply the burn with damage that goes around the shield, yeah.
Most shields are pretty bad if you don't IG at the right time, so they're definitely very parry focused. Even the held shields aren't exactly great in just any setup, so it definitely takes a lot more in AC6 to use a shield properly than say Elden Ring.
There's two things that weren't touched upon in this vid, one which i swear is a thing but doesn't show on stats: 1. Impact turns into Accumilative Impact. You can see this greatly on the Minigun vs Scutum, where the brief Impact is nonexistant but Accumilative Impact has greatly increased. 2. Unless i'm mistaken, there's a hidden durability to shields. Some outright break and insta-stagger the user way easier in certain conditions. VP-61S has solid durability on Initial Guard, but holding it out longer has made it fragile and break really easily. Compared to the Buckler that Iguazu uses, which is sturdy as hell. That shield has broken a lot when held too long even in a ditto match vs Iguazu, and meanwhile his shield stays up even after several Pulse Blade slashes, unless he got fully staggered by Impact. PA Interference also seems to hit durability harder. VP-61S's post- Initial Guard has broken incredibly fast against Maeterlinck's bubbles, even when my stagger bar wasn't close to full. With this in mind, VP-61S feels basically designed to keep spending it's many Initial Guards, even one after the other, rather than risk it breaking.
An important tech with shields is that if you use quick boost to reset your initial guard window, you can OVERRIDE THE HEAT LIMIT of the shield this way as the shield doesn't actually count as "put away" and therefore doesn't go into cooldown. This tech can really stretch the power of the SI-29: SU-TT/C.
I use the coral shield on a tank build that I based on White Glint’s take on “The Wall” that has appeared ever since DS1. What I’ve learned is that missile builds function well with shields, mainly because of the cooldowns and because people in PVP *really* hate missile builds, so I pop the coral shield while firing missiles to get people riled up. They do dumb things as result, which I can capitalize on. Basically everyone wants to play Bloodborne, yet I’m shield turtling like it’s DS1, and it drives them crazy lol.
3 shield mechanics not mentioned below: Hah i finally beat chrightt to the punch on a topic in one of my vids, and even had a mechanic not mentioned in the video, namely IG cycling. Memorizing and building muscle memory around the IG timing to artificially extend the IG window based on the number of deployments possible based on the heat build up. Another principle not really mentioned here, shields are for tipping trades, ie you want to pair shields with high instance damage/impact (ideally shorter than your IG window) , that do not require a firing stance. Lastly, one of the best uses of shields like the 61PB is blocking assault armor, allowing you to run another armor type instead of needing to counter with your own AA when they run it. Particularily useful with terminal armor lightweight melee builds. Alsi saves you the damage from their AA to secure the trade I just published a video demonstrating the V61PB bucklers 0.3s IG window being pushed to the max on an ultra mobile build so it should be appearing in an hour if anyone wanta to see what the PB is capable off on melee/shotgun ultra lights
Shields in AC 6 are hard countered by coral generator assault armour into instant shield overload and stagger. It's the only play that allows most Lobster pvp builds to beat a shield opponent.
tbh I can't see how it's a _hard_ counter. It requires specific generator choices + using a long-telegraph single-use action. Any light/middle build should be able to backstep out of an incoming AA very easily if they're paying attention.
@@LEOTomegane u can't assault boost or quick boost if your shield is up. If u drop your shield ur dead against a lobster build. Unless of course ur talking about hit and run missile bipeds
@mosh1337 Scutum is the only shield with 100% uptime anyway, but I can kind of see the point you're trying to make. I'm still not sure if I'd consider the AA to be a hard counter though; it feels more along the lines of the rifles being such ridiculously high power that they can drop an AC with only a tiny opening. That doesn't make the shield worse; in fact, that same AC would be dead far quicker if they didn't have a shield, due to the netcode behavior of laser weapons, regardless of an AA being used.
To clarify for the coral shield: You can fire left handed weapons unlike other shields, but
charged weapons on Bipeds/RJs do NOT interrupt the shield
charged weapons on tetra/tank legs interrupt the shield
Why? No idea. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
wack
On that note, the plasma thrower will stop you death in a track if you hit a wall/terrain with it on quad or tank legs while boosting. Might have something to do with how you can use those weapons on the move while biped/RJ can't.
Maybe it's EN usage
Must be a bad case of weird tagging and coding. .....................or a glitch.
Y'know. like the explosive thrower, even though it's a melee weapon, it lacks melee tags, making it unaffected by melee stats, just like how the coral shield is unaffected by PA interference because doesn't have energy tags.
Tetras and tanks can move still move around while firing charge shots, so screw 'em LOL
People don't like shields becuse they reduce your overall DPS and stagger potential, but really they're an option for reducing your enemy's DPS and stagger potential
Exactly this!
For me is the key bind issues as I feel uncomfortable holding it down and having to rely on direction of motion to dodge and I can changed it but it a hassle
@@animatoraoi3672 Same. An option for toggling the shields on and off with just a tap would be ideal, especially for the Scutum.
And quite a substantial reduction. Most shields will completely ruin the combo of high-impact weapons like Zimmermans.
This alone inspired me.😏
Something people should probably know: You can parry Assault Armor with the Coral Shield.
wait a damn second, youre right
I’ve done it on accident many times, never realised it was the shield
Yes, I've done it several times cuz I have a Coral shield on my flame thrower. Never even realized it cuz I couldn't see lol
You can do that with all shields, but you usually get staggered anyways; you still take less damage though.
Shields are really underrated. With how good bazookas are and how hard they are to dodge on high ping a single well timed parry can save you.
i doubt shields can improve my 3%win ratio 😢
They definitely _help_ since some mits are better than none, but unfortunately explosives are pretty good at just totally overpowering shields unless you parry them with some of the higher-mitigation ones like bucklers. Explosives have a way easier time with shields than Zimmermans did, especially since you can get free impact if you _miss_ with something like Earshot and its unholy AoE.
@@LEOTomegane If an explosive misses you and explodes behind you, only coral shield will mitigate that explosion, but at least that is an option. Still, yeah, explosives have pretty good impact to just blow through the defense.
@@kirinashia567 yep, as a shield user i genuinely preferred Zimmermans to these things because I didn't run the risk of eating a bar of impact for a shot that _missed._ The proximity airburst on the Majestic can do this too, which is even more of a pain.
How does IG Parry work against attacks that are Attacker-Side netcoded?
Like Boost Kick, Grenades, and Bazookas for example.
I'm aware that the hitbox registrations are completely depending on the player who's attacking me.
So should I time my IG Parry based on when the attacks hit me on my screen, or should I just guess the attack timing based off my opponent's screen and preemptively activate my IG Parry?
As Scutum user since day 3, I will always welcome more shield users to the cult.
its pretty awesome in 1v1s. put em on be able to hit me from the sides or lose
@ap.1729 If you happen to run a bubble gun, you're already rough opponent regardless what you do. Double bubble is a reason to purge Scutum on spot as it won't do anything in the fight but get them staggered. Without bubbles, most consistent way is to play the long game. All the impact that Scutum takes is accumulated, so you can deal some and then dip out. If you're feather- or lightweight, you can abuse this hard as you can go reset your own bar before Scutum can reset theirs. If you're same weight or heavier than Scutum, you'll have to fight the stagger war fairly and find a way to win it. Damage doesn't matter at this point, you will almost always lose direct damage war when Scutum is up, unless you're running something like Lobster. Once you've actually managed to force opponent to drop the shield, that is your window to rush in and you MUST keep the pressure on from that point onwards. It is hard to reset Scutum under pressure and without they're just playing mech with missing shoulder weapon and lots of redundant weight and EN draw. Any kind of turbo stagger builds are also rough for Scutum, something like double Viento and double 10-cell. Missiles overall are pretty good at long range poking Scutum when they try to get away to reset stagger bar but that's more map dependant.
actually @ 1:30 the coral shield is only forced to undeploy by charged shots fired from tank legs or quads, charged shots fired from bipeds and RJs will not force the coral shield to undeploy
Ohhh interesting. Thanks for the info! Because of the high EN load required I've mostly ran coral shield on heavier setups so I've actually never noticed this.
Since patch 1.05, coral shield works differently now. Initiated Charged shots on left hand, don’t interrupt coral shield, regardless of your chosen legs.
I would use shields more if i could use them on my right shoulder. Hotswapping melee weapons is just invaluable.
I wanted the sword in my right hand and shield in the left but I thought about it and it actually makes sense.. you use the shield until you attack then you switch to the sword with the same finger.. it makes perfect sense.. sword attacks are commitments and they open you up to taking damage. The shield is a decent block on your way to delivering a sword attack and on retreat.. I like to use a grenade launcher as a nice follow up to a sword attack.. then retreat and fire missiles then repeat..
Yay! i know shields arent popular, but i allways try to add them to my builds, thanks for the breakdown mate.
I realized i didn't have any builds using shields, so this is going to be super helpful it changing that for me =)
Same
I find the su-r8 really funny to run with gills. It's main benefit is that you can just hold it up mindlessly and let the ig passively modify your quickboosts. Its just about the only shield you can hold while spamming qbs.
Really appreciate this one. Pulse shields are the newest equipment introduced and the stats leave a lot of guesswork to players. This whole time I've been thinking each shield had different surface areas based on the shape. 😂
Wtf you talking about they had shields in Formula Front that was both passive and activated.
You sure have been a godsend for building in this game - try as I might, my ADHD-addled brain has a tricky time parsing through so much data to try and understand how everything interacts. The booster breakdown was especially useful, as now my heavier builds don't end up constantly hosed down and ACS-stunned.
So I just read a super exciting game of tag, a quite unique game too. With lots of interesting foreshadowing and character building.
Looking forward to finishing it, just wanted to drop by and say Im really enjoying the first few chapters!
Nice :D thanks for telling me
Thank you so much. I remember specifically asking for this and I really appreciate you taking the time to do this for us.
I needed this; I was just messing around with some shield builds today and this will help immensely with optimization. Thanks.
oh damn, i was just thinking about how useful a chrightt shield video would be. should be a great watch.
Thank god! I’ve been waiting for a shield video!
This is the guide I've been waiting for since the game launched.
Shields are heavily underrated, but a good shield user can exploit all the flaws in a heavily aggressive enemy build by evening the DPS between them.
It's also important to know that the coral shiel extend your hurtbox, wich can be not ideal against bazzoka spam
Crightt the realest for all these breakdown videos. Thank you sensei
You never cease to amaze, Mr. Chrightt! Looking forward to the Core overview, the Basho core seems pretty useful for certain builds even though its generator stats are pretty bad. Thanks for these videos, really helps a lot!
The Pulse Buckler with the highest IG impact dampening (VP-61PB) has been my best friend during the Zimmerman era, and will continue onward throughout the high ping explosives era
Holy crap I was never able to really understand shields but your video broke them down in a really easy way! Thanks! I’m gonna go make a pulse buckler build
I can't wait for your Core & Arms video guides. I know the effort you put in creating them is huge but damn, the wait is killing me 😅
great breakdown! thanks :D
I feel like shields really should get a decent buff in PvE. While in many Fromsoft games it is perfectly fine for fights to be more drawn-out, AC6 seems to be the exception. If you were fighting an equal opponent then yeah, shields would be great but on your first playthrough you have no clue what you are up against and some bosses simply do too much damage for shields to really be viable, as if you fail your timing it is almost always a guranteed death sentence
Thank you so much for this !!! Finally learned about shields
Very nice guide, thank you!
I know i haven't bought a book but i would love too make a recommendation for a video. I love your breakdowns and watch them as soon as the come out.
I would love to see a break down of the speed stat. What classifies a light/medium and heavy weight, how does this affect passive dodging and lock breaking, what is the optimum and minium speed to help reactionary quick boosting.
I hope this might be an idea you find as interesting as i do =) keep it up!! your hard work does not go unnoticed!
Only recently started touching on shields for an AC I had in mind that would be a bit like a knight of sorts. First one I tried was VP-61B and was amazed how much damage mitigation was on the initial guard. Tested the AC against Ibis boss and was shocked on just reducing the damage of one of the slash attacks into almost nothing
if you're using a charge up weapon in your left hand, the SU-R8 shield is really good, because you can charge your weapon behind the shield and fire often
Coral shield has been a life saver against missiles and charged weapons. When im aggressivley chasing on my lightweight/midweight. it makes all the difference against latent zookas.
Hey mate, love your videos. Very informative. Are you going to do a breakdown of all the CORES. Best one for light, medium and heavy builds. And energy supply and adjustment
Yep, for sure.
It is a shame that shields aren't very good in PvE for most things. I kept trying to use them but I found that having two shoulder weapons is not only more efficient but just way more fun in general against most enemies.
Idk man, I had quite a lot of fun running the Scutum Shield, SPD Booster, and a high damage punisher melee weapon while trying to face tank literally every bosses and still come out as a victor 😂
(Yes, even with Ayre and Ibis. This shield is so damn insane when played correctly)
But yeah I can see why this playstyle might not be fun for everyone.
@@TanegiHoneydew Scutum shield is fun - I use it to speedrun Explore the Depths 1 by just dropping on top of Nepenthes while tanking the barrage of lasers.
They're extremely good in PvE. And they're your best friend for S ranks.
@@dangerwarg9682 Dual burst rifle and dual shotgun combo is so good for PvE that taking a shield is wasted DPS. It's all you need for S ranking everything.
@@shepardpolska ............and?
Thank you for another very detailed breakdown, your videos shed so much light in some of the hidden mechanics of this game.
SI-29 buckler helped me headbutt my way through Snail Balteus before I finally learned his moveset well enough for subsequent playthroughs
Some points I didn't notice mentioned was how shields prevent all mini stuns e.g. kicks,/charged sword hits, and they also block all status.
Thank you for summing up all the shield stats, I think I'll be looking at some of the other options more, as I've only really been using the two basic pulse shields with very low deployment costs.
NICE!
Didn't really notice how diverse each shield is, AC6 did a good job of providing different shields for different situations
It's funny to me how when I show people one of my fav builds they call out using a shield as a negative way quicker then they notice (if they do at all) that I'm using a Harris with Basho arms.
Just yesterday i was looking for a comprehensive shield guide
You heard my prayer
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you thank you
Damn I'm still hanging out for core/chest and arm videos. I mostly just use Elcano Formoza arms and core but I don't see that core used in many builds. I'll probably keep it for fashion/speed but I'd like to see your analysis of what they're good at and what I'm missing out on because of my preference.
Btw any kick except tank true combos into hmmr
kicks true combo into the first-step melee from every melee weapon iirc. It's brutal with pulse sword.
@@LEOTomegane it hits harder with hmmr
@@LEOTomegane also I don’t thing it combos into slicer
Christ bless you, thank you this is really helpful
Would like a solid handheld shield that's built for sustained defense, but almost no initial guard
So when will the pulse shield launcher be properly covered? Its got some really awesome techs with explosive weapons (You can intentionally shoot your own shield in order to detonate a round mid air) and is super underused. Shoulder video?
That one mech in the arena on e class who uses the shield and the bubble gun was messing me up bad.. the shield is apparently very effective at blocking gun damage.. I switched to some weapons I thought would beat him like grenade launchers and nothing hit him and I died without hitting him once.. then I switched to dual gattling guns and we both died at the same time.. it was unreal.. then I switched to all missiles and messed him all up and the other mechs in e class.. shields not so good at blocking homing missiles from all directions but very good at stopping gunfire.. seriously.. he was messing me up with the bubble gun dude.. the bubble gun...
This games controls makes it hard to hold a shield like the scutum and get its maximum effect
Wish we got an actual physical shield on the left hand slot
I wish shields and melee weren't exclusive to the left side.
@@CantComplain3k That too. I'd kill for a Gigan mech
I wonder if this video will summon the patch notes that changes all of the shields
Thankfully patch notes aren't *that* fast.
I've always liked the idea of shields throughout this series, and these are the most effective shields have ever been, but I never get used to using them. I ran one in a build midway during my first run through the story and I would just forget I had it in my loadout 90% of the time.
They have a lot of potential, but they require you to change how you play, so that's probably why my brain just never incorporates them when you're much more accustomed to quickboosting to mitigate damage.
They're at their most valuable when parrying really big attacks imo, which is not something you do often in pve.
Pvp, though, is a very different situation for them. Since the shield is defender-side, it does a lot of work mitigating some of the more egregious netcode abuses, like Pulse Sword charges and kicks.
@@LEOTomegane I don't really know about that, as the game has a built-in warning system anytime a big attack is incoming. It's a literal que to shield up and then follow up with your own offense, rather than using that time to qb away from the danger and giving you less exploitable windows.
@Blakobness because you only have limited shield uses before it overheats, and the opportunity cost of quickboosting is quite low, in practice you tend not to have as many things that you would rather parry than dodge. I think the most I ever used it was during the NG++ final boss, where several of the third-phase melee attacks are quite wide and fast.
@@LEOTomegane I still just really disagree with that. Especially for a core that isn't working with a lot of energy capacity to spare where you might not want to use that extra energy to dash away from the danger, I think a shield could be utilized very well. I still think the shield is just a deviation from most people's typical playstyle which makes it more off-putting, and trading away an offensive tool.
Every AC fight or boss has at least one thing that I could see worthwhile using IG to soak and capitalize on and with conservative shield usage, the overheat should never be an issue really,
Conversely, I basically always ran shields on my main AC, so when I DIDN'T have a shield I ended up unconsciously holding down L1 anyway, to my detriment
do you have plans for a video about the stagger mechanic?
Please make build showing how to use these! I greatly want to add shields to my builds but I can’t figure out how to do so properly.
Pulse Scutum on Quad with Plasma Thrower, Ransetsu RF and Trueno, a build SPECIFICLY made to be a counter focused build
Lightweights? Scutum + Plasma Thrower
Heavyweights? Rf + Trueno
I just don't have enough fingers to maneuver and hold the button down at the same time, would it have killed FromSoft to have them toggle on/off?
I'll be honest, I'm learning a lot from you, through your videos, I appreciate the effort honestly
Imagine people using coral shield + laser meta/dual zimmermans like bruh. I wonder who gonna get staggered first
Honestly wish you could assault boost and shield bash with them 😢
What do you think it’s recommended to run with either the shield scutum or coral shield? Cant use weapons that has stance like weapons that charge up as that will shut off the shield, and I don’t think melee is the play style with these shields so I’m thinking a kiting playstyle may be the play, but I’m still stump on what weapons to use.
Any high impact single arm weapons like the Shotguns, Gatling gun, Linear Rifles, Hand missiles, Laser Rifles and Pistols, Hand Guns, Stun Guns, Flame Thrower. You can kite With the long Range weapons and missiles , just bum rush with the Bullet Hoses, or some combination of the two using the High burst damage / stagger weapons for more measured engagements. Probably tetrapod ( for stagger resistance) or high mobility legs (for positioning.) Grid Walker Booster or other powerful booster since you won't quick boost much. Pulse Shield for when main shield is down or Assault Armor for countering charges by the enemy. Left hand weapon is either a long cooldown blade or a powerful weapon you won't fire often. Keep in mind what the video says about the differences in the Coral shield though since it gives you different weapon and leg choices. Back Weapons are either the Turrets or missiles that complement your right hand weapon. No cannons unless they have extremally powerful charges or long reload time ( still wouldn't recommend cannons since you need something high output the won't leave you vulnerable.)
Coral shield works great with gatlings. Their interests align: neither the gatling nor the shield wants you to quickboost, bc they're both interrupted by it.
Scutum is best used with a stagger punish in the left hand, or at least some kind of charge weapon so your arm slot isn't totally useless when the shield is up.
only 2 minutes in but it would be cool there was a physical shield to assault boost with
I genuinely think the Scutum is broken, and I hope people don't start running it more because it's a pain to deal with. I run it with dual flamethrowers and it's cheesy as hell.
Plz do Kinetik weapons !! T-T
After adding a shield to a PVP build, i was quite surprised by how good it was.
I know this is probably the wrong place to point this out, but you got the wrong data for the Joso on your spreadsheet
- EN Capacity is at 2300 instead of 2200
- Supply Recovery is a 500 instead of 400
- Energy Firearm Specialization is at 72 instead of 52
Cheers, I think I forgot to update it for the new patch alongside the other generators.
Best way to use shields: Using something else.
please the melee I beg
People don’t tend to use shields, but the most annoying guy I ever fought in pvp was a coral shield user.
Can you use shields with the heavy tank legs?
They are so long i'm not sure that the shield would cover them.
Yes.
Yes. I have a tank leg build with the scutum, it is very hard to kill.
Nothing says you couldn't. ;)
Heavy tank and scutum or coral shield seems like a very good combo.
PULSE BUCKLERS MY BELOVED
There is nothing quite like using the lightweight PB to shrug off a double Stun Needle shot. It must be _wild_ to fire two of those and see them only deal like 2 impact.
Also, I remember reading that the shields blocked status buildup, did you test that at all? I don't recall offhand if it's worked for me.
They do mitigate stat build up.
Some might get slip past but I don't know if it's because it's not 100% resistance or those shots just simply hit from an angle outside shield's guard.
But yeah, shield builds in PVP are extremely effective against electric/burn build.
@@TanegiHoneydew I'd thought it was something like they mitigate discharge but not burn, bc the burn weapons both coincidentally apply the burn with damage that goes around the shield, yeah.
Ah....I should have known the coral shield would be exempt from being affected by PA interference. >.>
From Software games are all the same. Hide behind shield ftw.
Most shields are pretty bad if you don't IG at the right time, so they're definitely very parry focused. Even the held shields aren't exactly great in just any setup, so it definitely takes a lot more in AC6 to use a shield properly than say Elden Ring.
0.5 IG shields vs my 150 ping (I live in a second world country)
😭
How many hours do you have on the game? This is some serious dedication to the craft!
There's two things that weren't touched upon in this vid, one which i swear is a thing but doesn't show on stats:
1. Impact turns into Accumilative Impact. You can see this greatly on the Minigun vs Scutum, where the brief Impact is nonexistant but Accumilative Impact has greatly increased.
2. Unless i'm mistaken, there's a hidden durability to shields. Some outright break and insta-stagger the user way easier in certain conditions.
VP-61S has solid durability on Initial Guard, but holding it out longer has made it fragile and break really easily. Compared to the Buckler that Iguazu uses, which is sturdy as hell.
That shield has broken a lot when held too long even in a ditto match vs Iguazu, and meanwhile his shield stays up even after several Pulse Blade slashes, unless he got fully staggered by Impact.
PA Interference also seems to hit durability harder. VP-61S's post- Initial Guard has broken incredibly fast against Maeterlinck's bubbles, even when my stagger bar wasn't close to full.
With this in mind, VP-61S feels basically designed to keep spending it's many Initial Guards, even one after the other, rather than risk it breaking.
So which one of these helps me counter Zimmi Timmy?
I've been repeatedly booted from rooms for using shields, salty double zim or rocket rat hosts.
An important tech with shields is that if you use quick boost to reset your initial guard window, you can OVERRIDE THE HEAT LIMIT of the shield this way as the shield doesn't actually count as "put away" and therefore doesn't go into cooldown. This tech can really stretch the power of the SI-29: SU-TT/C.
What are you talking about? Quick boosting still increases heat. I'm seeing it happen right before my eyes
cant believe so many people are upvoting this obvious misinformation
the IQ level of average YT viewers are amazing
Your initial guard window is also how long you can hold the shield when you manually over heat it.
That's it that's the tech
I use the coral shield on a tank build that I based on White Glint’s take on “The Wall” that has appeared ever since DS1. What I’ve learned is that missile builds function well with shields, mainly because of the cooldowns and because people in PVP *really* hate missile builds, so I pop the coral shield while firing missiles to get people riled up. They do dumb things as result, which I can capitalize on.
Basically everyone wants to play Bloodborne, yet I’m shield turtling like it’s DS1, and it drives them crazy lol.
3 shield mechanics not mentioned below:
Hah i finally beat chrightt to the punch on a topic in one of my vids, and even had a mechanic not mentioned in the video, namely IG cycling. Memorizing and building muscle memory around the IG timing to artificially extend the IG window based on the number of deployments possible based on the heat build up.
Another principle not really mentioned here, shields are for tipping trades, ie you want to pair shields with high instance damage/impact (ideally shorter than your IG window) , that do not require a firing stance.
Lastly, one of the best uses of shields like the 61PB is blocking assault armor, allowing you to run another armor type instead of needing to counter with your own AA when they run it. Particularily useful with terminal armor lightweight melee builds. Alsi saves you the damage from their AA to secure the trade
I just published a video demonstrating the V61PB bucklers 0.3s IG window being pushed to the max on an ultra mobile build so it should be appearing in an hour if anyone wanta to see what the PB is capable off on melee/shotgun ultra lights
None of what you said is a mechanic........
That's just tips and tech, and you advertising yourself.
Shields in AC 6 are hard countered by coral generator assault armour into instant shield overload and stagger.
It's the only play that allows most Lobster pvp builds to beat a shield opponent.
tbh I can't see how it's a _hard_ counter. It requires specific generator choices + using a long-telegraph single-use action. Any light/middle build should be able to backstep out of an incoming AA very easily if they're paying attention.
@@LEOTomegane u can't assault boost or quick boost if your shield is up. If u drop your shield ur dead against a lobster build. Unless of course ur talking about hit and run missile bipeds
@mosh1337 Scutum is the only shield with 100% uptime anyway, but I can kind of see the point you're trying to make. I'm still not sure if I'd consider the AA to be a hard counter though; it feels more along the lines of the rifles being such ridiculously high power that they can drop an AC with only a tiny opening. That doesn't make the shield worse; in fact, that same AC would be dead far quicker if they didn't have a shield, due to the netcode behavior of laser weapons, regardless of an AA being used.
What does 'lobster build' mean ? 😅
@@Fatlumpthe1stthe LRBster (or larbster/lobster) is basically a heavy build, usually a heavy biped, using quad laser cannons to deal a ton of damage
How to properly use a sheild? Don't.
jk
shield user detected *cringe*
Most adaptable Zimmerman brainlet.
Did your high-ping pulse>harris>bunker combo get parried or something
@@ultraman5168 least offended fromsoft fan when you joke about their build