Bulwarks have problems. Let's fix them!

[grayswandir]

Both are fine, I guess. If you're going to do the ground slam though, I'd like a max range 3, radius 3. I like the lack of AoE being one of the defining "features" of Bulwark.

[elboyo]

We would also have to figure out how we want to deal with the direction of the push.

Would things always get knocked sideways or are we looking at pushing mobs directly back (resulting in another push if you are continuing through)?

It would be all sorts of cool to shove something into a wall (digging 1 space in) and then slam them into the wall behind it, possibly getting double damage from the skill. This would make it a better initiator and damage skill, but a worse escape skill.


For me, personally, I think that the enemies that scare a Bulwark (mostly magic/mind power users) will be easy enough to push through and escape from. The large, knockback resistant monsters usually deal physical damage with attacks, don't they? Bulwarks shouldn't need to run from those anywhere near as often.

[edge2054]

Both are fine, I guess. If you're going to do the ground slam though, I'd like a max range 3, radius 3. I like the lack of AoE being one of the defining "features" of Bulwark.

Yeah, I tend to agree. I think anything beyond radius three is pushing it on a technique based class.

Shattering Shout could be an exception but I think it should probably stay in a locked tree.

[Einzbern]

Not sure if is still being worked on or what, but I'm currently playing through with a Bulwark on nightmare and I'm enjoying it. I've only had 2 issues/bugs so far I think:

1.)The stamina regen from shield expertise seems to give a %? The talent description gives a flat amount but the actual buff says it gives a %.
2.)Last Stand's damage reduction from block value doesn't seem to be working correctly, or perhaps at all. With just about any shield and Last Stand popped, I should be taking 0 damage from almost everything, yet it doesn't seem to reduce damage at all.

[elboyo]

Been playing with the bulwark changes and I've noticed that if you kill something while you are already blocking, the block on kill buff will override the normal block. This lowers your block strength by 50% on any turn when you kill something.

Bulwarks are disgustingly strong against magic users now with their grand slam.

[elboyo]

Also, Last Stand is not blocking damage, even of the types that my shield can block.

[Einzbern]

I was going to wait to finish my Bulwark run before making a second post, but I ended up stopping.

1.)As noted, last stand's damage reduction doesn't seem to work at all. On the other hand, if it did, I feel it would be super OP. With the higher level shields it would make you near invincible. Even with some lower level ones I feel it'd still be too strong. Lower the % converted imo.

2.)Last stand gives you HP instead of HP below 0. This isn't really a huge deal though I think since it's pretty much the same thing AFAIK.