There's no crushing damage. There's no slashing damage. There's no piercing damage either. There's only physical damage. Sure it might say otherwise in combat log, but it's meaningless. They're physical damage all the way down.
Three shields you see around enemies (or yourself) show where they're protecting themselves. One on each side is normal and an extra shield represents a 33% bonus, 3 shields stacked means attacks that hit there does 66% less damage and no shields means all hits do extra 33% damage. Enemies stack them if you keep hitting the same side, this inevitably happens in melee. Behind also counts as unprotected so you'll always do extra damage from the back.
You should just leave your own shields be except in very few boss battles.
What Cins just said.
I will just add that you must always pay attention to your target's shield, because you will have to use your combo accordingly in order to maximize your damages output, and hence your aggro if you're a tank.
change shields in pve when you see your getting too many hits on one side or another, your shields will flash yellow on the side you get hit...
cavern of malice is a good example where you put shields all to the right side cause sisters and mobs hit you always on that side, meaning also a tank can fight them on frenzy stance or no stance, using defensive its not mandatory unless low on health...dunno know for sure but heard crabs (the smaller ones, not main boss) in ardashir fort hit on front/top, must confirm first...
for pvp, its more important depending on the class your against...
for example, whenever i see ranger as enemys, i play with shields full right side cause that where they hit most of the time but also good against zerker barbs and sins when they hit from behind
Actually no there is still all those damage and even mitigation(hover over your mitigation in stat tab<just no way to buff slashing mit more then poison for example LoL @ stinky poision gear tanking:P). its from old days where they where still seperated but its funcom so its done quik and dirty wouldnt suprice me if some mitigation/weird hits etc are coming from this old weird "fix"
OK, easy to see what camp you are in with the way you chose to word your reply. I then took it from that that the link you provided would show evidence that would back up your stance, however, after reading it, it appears your opinion is based on little more than hearsay.
I was expecting some hard evidence in your link and saw nothing more than another players opinion.
Does anyone have any hard facts they can present to the newcomers out there that would put this discussion to bed once and for all?
Great video. It really helps explaining and de-mything the question..
[/sarcasm]
As explained in other threads: one shield in the direction you are hit = +0% mitigation, 2 shields = +33% mitigation, 3 shields = +66% mitigation. No shields on a side you're hit on = -33% mitigation.
I haven't bothered to test if the diminishing returns hits you on the way, but I guess so, and it's really not relevant.. Moving your shields in PVE is (these days) really not needed except for frenzy-tanking in Cavern Of Malice..
Last edited by Ekorn; 24th March 2013 at 03:04.
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