Shield/Defensive Based class?

[Hodl Pu]

How about a class that focuses on the shield? It does not have to use, but it was skills dedicated to shield use. I just think it would be interesting to see a character with utilizing the shield in a way other characters can't.

Shield Talent Tree (Consists of Offensive/Defensive skills
- Defensive Stance- Character puts up his shield, lowers attack somewhat and can only walk, but GREATLY increases chance to block. The animation would look like the picture below this post. It must be activated like similar to how an Aura must be active, but only affects the character.
- Smite - Similar to D2, maybe better
- Shield Plow - Like charge, but charges THROUGH a mob (not a single target), splitting the mob down the middle by pushing demons aside. Does Damage to what ever was in the characters way.

Attack Skill Tree
- Skills dedicated to weapon use
- Some can be used when Defensive Stance is active, some can't
- Would make player have to utilize switching between offense and defense at specific moments.

(Can't think of a third tree, so I just thought of w/e)

Defensive Skills or Magic Skills
- Passive skills that aid the character
- Or magic skills for magic use, depending on if the character even has an element of some sort.

[LaZeR]

There are 2 main problem with this often brought up idea:
1. How many Shield skills can you actually invent?
2. If you have a Trees "dedicated to weapon use" you can hardly call it a Shield-based char.

This is basically the Paladin, with a switch between a Sword focus on a Shield focus. An interesting idea for rehashing the old Paladin with little actual change or originality.

As I said in previous thread that have come up with this, I actually like this idea. It's very viable and sit between crazy original to redoing D2 chars. Somewhere like here (depanding on his other Trees and Skills):

<-crazy original--WD------original--Wizard--Shield using char-Barb----redoing chars->

P.S
It can be called The Guardian ^^ I like this name.

[PahaLukki]

Imho the game will be boring if it does not incorporate any sort of sword/shield hack n slash. And by hack n slash I really mean hack n slash, not whirlwinding and leaping around.. The barbarian of D2 never quite captured the warrior of D1 in any sense. They were totally different to play, as the barbarian is so all out offense and incapable of holding ground.

For shield, you could think lots of "aura like" or maybe even timer-lapsed stances that only affect yourself. For example wider body blocking. A small plow-like arrow would appear at your feet and extend to your sides a bit to indicate the width of your now increased radius of body blocking. This would help in using doorways, stairs and others to fight, which are of varying size in 3D environment (and body blocking is often difficult to do).

However I think the arcane warrior is a better idea.. Would give teleport and thus telekilling. Also firewalls and other good melee advantage spells.

[Technomancer]

I agree with Lazer in that I'm not sure how many shield skills you can really make. Could maybe have some crazy setup where he can dual-wield shields, though. (! ;)) I've tried to come up with shield based skills for a couple classes now and it's been pretty slim on my end. That Shield Plow skill is all kinds of awesome though, I feel dumb for not thinking of it!

Oh, I just remembered something I heard somewhere that I can't find anywhere!! I remember seeing somewhere that character facing could impact how well a shield functions, where the shield would be more useful if attacked from the front and less effective when attacked from the back. I may have dreamed all that, but maybe someone remembers more clearly than I do. If that's true, then it could add a few more shield skill possibilities.

[knightmawko]

you could make something out of this, with work but not as much as some people make it sounds, shield bash, shield leap, turtle up, etc etc, I could think of more and if you want me to I can probably make a palpable shield tree for this class.

But I can't think of another tree without making it more arcane then a shield barer. Call it something like a Rampart, or an Aegis, or a Warder, something a with a bit more ambiguity, then add a magic tree that involves defensive spells and sort of, walls and cage spells, then maybe some passives and stuff, summoning a large shield, stuff like that.

[lone_wolf]

shield skills well there are a few that you could use if you take insperation from other games and such.

Shield charge aka attack enemies in a straight line
Shield spin aka aoe damage around the player
shield throw (anyone that has played a force shielder at higher level in cabal would know what i mean).
Shield ray aka shot a ray of energy out of the shield that hit enemies in a straight line. (also something that exists in cabal).
Shield stun aka smack the monster with the shield to stun them temporary.

Passives could be to increase the % blocked, damage the shield attack does,defence, resistance, stun lenght etc.

im sure we can come up with even more in this thread

[Fegon]

I´d like to see (and i know that i´m pretty much alone in this) the D1 warrior class return to D3. Could be Called Fighter or Knight, something simple like that. I know chanses for this is zero with blizzards "this class is AWESOME!!1" policy. But i would like it.
Just a well balanced, tight allrounded melee class. Could have some shield masterys, better defence, better block etc, no magic hammers or auras. Just a char that can hold his ground and have some minor magic skills with skills in the line of zeal and bearserk.

Yeah i know, that will happen. suuuure..

[Chorkstain]

I´d like to see (and i know that i´m pretty much alone in this) the D1 warrior class return to D3. Could be Called Fighter or Knight, something simple like that. I know chanses for this is zero with blizzards "this class is AWESOME!!1" policy. But i would like it.
Just a well balanced, tight allrounded melee class. Could have some shield masterys, better defence, better block etc, no magic hammers or auras. Just a char that can hold his ground and have some minor magic skills with skills in the line of zeal and bearserk.

Yeah i know, that will happen. suuuure..

*sigh* Sorry to tell you but they already released a melee class, the Barbarian! He's pretty much just like, sweet at melee combat. In fact he has just about all of the abilities you mentioned! Pretty cool huh? :wink:

[Kalara]

Oh, I just remembered something I heard somewhere that I can't find anywhere!! I remember seeing somewhere that character facing could impact how well a shield functions, where the shield would be more useful if attacked from the front and less effective when attacked from the back. I may have dreamed all that, but maybe someone remembers more clearly than I do.

I think you might be referring to the way Blizzard designed the shield skeleton. I think I remember a video that talked about them being more vulnerable from behind or after a skill like Ground Stomp is used.

[Fegon]

*sigh* Sorry to tell you but they already released a melee class, the Barbarian! He's pretty much just like, sweet at melee combat. In fact he has just about all of the abilities you mentioned! Pretty cool huh? :wink:

*sigh* Not realy what i ment.
when i think of Barb i mostly think whirldwind, frenzy leap, stuff like that. pretty cool stuff. :thumbup:

[Hodl Pu]

Awesome ideas :)

The reason I added the Weapons Tree was based on the fact that Diii did not wan't to restrict people to a specific weapon. So I added that in, to occupy the strange builds.

he can also have a summon that can be learned at high levels.

Spirit of Aid
Looks: It would look like a golden soldier with no legs, so it would be floating around.
Function: It would stay within close proximity and ALWAYS be behind you facing the opposite direction that you are facing with respect to twirling skills.
Purpose: To defend your back using simple attacks and skills. Can probably kill a few monsters on it's own, but not huge mobs.
Restrictions: Consumes quite a bit of mana, and has a reasonable cooldown to prevent spam summoning.

The summon can die if hit too much (Overwhelming mob), so don't rely on him too much :)

[Technomancer]

There's a shield skill I came up with for my Phase Knight that I thought was one of the cooler shield skills I've made:

Rebuff: Passive. When attacked in Melee, has a chance of lashing out at attacker with shield, knocking him back and doing damage.

It's basically just a reactionary Smite. I think conceptually it makes for a better defensive skill than offensive. If foes get too fresh, you can automatically push them back to give yourself some space.

[knightmawko]

*sigh* Sorry to tell you but they already released a melee class, the Barbarian! He's pretty much just like, sweet at melee combat. In fact he has just about all of the abilities you mentioned! Pretty cool huh? :wink:

*sigh* sorry to tell you but they already released a second melee class, the Mokn! He is pretty much like, sweet at melee combat. Infact he kills demons and doesn't afraid of anything. :highfive: