Help Arrives for Shield Defense

The #1 complaint about Shield Defense from open and closed beta was that the set felt quite squishy, especially solo. I experienced it first hand at various level ranges and I agree with this assessment. The set is rather squishy.

In my opinion, the feeling of squishiness came from two basic factors: the +Health power comes too late in the set, and the plethora of -Defense powers critters in the game throw around willy-nilly (I have no idea why they thought so much -Defense was needed by critters in this game) remove most of the 22% or so of Defense you're depending upon for survival. Combine the two, and you end up with a very squishy feeling, espeically pre-level 28.

Luckily, Castle is on the job and I think he nailed it:

Shields changes:
1) Altered Level availability of True Grit (earlier in the set) and Phalanx Fighting in all versions of the Sheild Defense powerset.
2) Increase +Health in True Grit from scale 0.75 to scale 1.0
3) Add Scale 1.0 Resist to Smashing and Lethal damage to Active Defense, and scale 1.0 resist to Energy, Negative Energy, Fire, Cold and Toxic damage to True Grit. In all cases, that brings the total resistance provided to scale 1.5.
4) Make Grant Cover affect the Caster, except...
5) Add additional Defense Debuff Resistance to Grant Cover. This is the only aspect of the power which would apply to the caster -- the Defense only applies to allies still.

This addresses exactly the two problems I identified with the set very nicely. It'd be nice to see the Endurance cost of the set lowered as well, but we'll see.

Starting from a clean slate, the way I would have gone about doing Shield Defense would be: The set would have 24% Typed Defense (to everything but Psi) and 37% Resist (to everything but Psi). The set would give Allies within 12 feet 3% Typed Defense and 5% Resist. 75% Defense debuff protection (none for allies). A team of 8 shielders would be quite impressive, and the set would solo quite well.

The way they are doing Shields in open beta is a bit...over-engineered IMO. But workable. Especially with the upcoming changes. When it goes live I'll definitely be rolling a Shield/Super Strength/Pyre Tanker. Having tried a Shield Tanker in open and closed beta, they actually feel very Scrapper-like thanks to the extra damage the set has.

Me liking a Tank. What hath Shields wrought? ;)