Shields in Blood Gods

[Kreegan]

The shield-bearers are pretty much extinct nowadays. The main reason for this, as I see it, is that the entire Shadow & Myst school practically ignores the shields either with bleeding, or with endurance draining while certain builds in the Arms & Armour school - mostly Rages, some Theatrics and even certain Wars - have a generally good performance against heavily defensive gladiators for years which is all the more visible at the moment. While I've never really been a huge fan of the sit-on-your-ass-and-delflect-attacks-until-the-opponent-drops-from-boredom type of strategy which was relatively widespread at one point (and is now succeeded by sit-on-your-ass-full-stop strategy used by the Trixters), the obsolution of an entire class of weapons makes the game less varied and... colourful. This needs to be addressed. What'd you say?

[weaw]

...the obsolution of an entire class of weapons makes the game less varied and... colourful. This needs to be addressed. What'd you say?
It's true. What could i to say else ...

There are two moments which makes a shield not usable, in my opinion.

1. Shield is a specific item which does nothing except Defense stat boost in global. While it's a weapon, it's not a weapon, but only a method to create additional gear slot. And this slot can not be used otherwise than to Defense buff.
It makes shield usage ... static.

2. Since defensive mechanics was changed with dodge and, later, even with regeneration, the role of Defense is strange ... The role of the shield has greately decreased.

If we dream, there could be an active skill to work with a shield only. And a good position for it could be the War Cry position (Or Down & Dangerous as a variant).
I think both defensive and offensive types of that skill are in demand.
It could be something like Dirty Tricks if defensive, except not through blinding but through something else.
It could be something like Hamstring (or exactly renamed / moved Hamstring) if offensive.

The other way is to increase the shields damage.

And the third way is to make a skill, which allows to use off-handed passive gear (Let's say "ring", "totem", never mind) instead of off-handed weapon. This skill could be used by many builds, and so, there could be a different types of that "ring", but not only "Defense Ring".
So, for example, Iron Jaw (Arms & Armour) and Sweep (Shadows & Myst) could be replaced with that skill.

[Aphexii]

Shield are in fact to static, no active or passive skills which only affect shields. The only skill that mentions shields is "Intercepting Guard" and works just fine without it :(

Im currently testing theatric with shield in BG and all Kreegan said is true. (shadow&myth school working around shield user, Rages and some Wars ignoring your shield)

If we are in dreamland territory, I would wish some active skills that work only with shields. Something like "Entangle", we need just one skill with different effects for each size of shield.

Something like:

"Holding you Ground"
Gladiators fighting with a "Wall Shield" will be able to withstand the mightiest attacks, absorbing all damage done by "activated skills".
Gladiators fighting with a "Buckler" learned to use the momentum of incomming attacks to redirect the blow just enough to avoid certain death and counter with a quick answer.
Gladiators fighting with a "Kite Shield" know how and when to switch out of defense into offense, surprising the opponent with a shieldbash.

Detail:
Wallshield works like "uncanny dodge", only on activated skills to balance it and 2-3 turn cooldown. Very defensive.

Kiteshield works similar to "riposte", only activate when you parry/block an attack and dealing a medium amount of damage back. Maybe 2-3 turn cooldown. Balanced between offense and defense.

Buckler could work like counterattack, only activate when you parry/block an attack and dealing an additional attack that turn based on the number of parrys/blocks, maybe only extra vanilla attacks to balance it with 1-2 turn cooldown. More offensive than the bigger shields to justify the low base defense.