Gold’s Guide to Shield Master

Created by Gold Zephzellian

Summary

The ultimate defense in human history, Shields are a simple, but practical design. Now… what if you WEAPONIZED it? That’s the Shield Master’s shtick.

The Shield Master excels at making shields effective weapons, whilst making them better defensively as well. This is a strong combo, enabling solid, sustainable offense and defense. It’s very straightforward, but very effective. However, this deep focus comes with a few downsides. Shield Mage is needed to use non-Maneuver Abilities without a tax, it has to use Shields to get its benefits, it requires a lot of upgrades to be viable in both worlds (though less than it used to), and it suffers low damage initially.

Despite this, the Shield Master can make Shields into a very effective weapon.

Sub-Archetype Statistics

Ease of Use – ★★★★☆

Offensive Ability – ★★★★☆

  • Single Target – ★★★★☆
  • AOE – ★★☆☆☆
  • Disabling – ★★★☆☆

Defense – ★★★★☆

  • Passive Defense – ★★★★☆
  • Active Defense – ★★★☆☆
  • Healing – ★★☆☆☆

Support – ★★★☆☆

  • Offensive Support – ★★☆☆☆
  • Defensive Support – ★★★★☆
  • Miscellaneous Support – ★★☆☆☆

Skills – ★★☆☆☆

  • Social – ★★☆☆☆
  • Physical – ★★★☆☆
  • Mental – ★★☆☆☆
Use this Sub-Archetype if you want to…
– Be quite good defensively without sacrificing offense.
– Have a strong offensive core that can be scaled reasonably well.
– You want to build around something a bit more unique.
Consider avoiding this Sub-Archetype if…
– You want to use other weapons; Shield Master only really works if you use just Shields.
– You don’t want to have to deal with major Upgrade costs to make Shields viable as defense and weapons.
– If you want to have a bit more freedom with your 1AP; Shield Master generally has the one thing it likes here.

Features

Tier 1 – Offensive Shield

Your Manouver Abilities used on attacks made with light shields cost 1 WP less. Whenever you attack with a medium shield, your Evasion increases by 2 until your next turn. Whenever you attack with a heavy shield, your Armor increases by 2. Also, choose one: Either you can attack with shields as if they were a ranged weapon with a range of 10m/40m, or the attack rolls and damage of your attacks with shields increase by 1.

Choose one benefit:

  • +1 to Attack Rolls and Damage with Shields.
  • You may attack with Shields as 10m/40m Ranged Weapons.

Additionally, attacking with a Shield confers the following benefits, depending on the Shield:

  • Light Shield attacks can use Weapon Maneuvers for 1 less WP.
  • Medium Shield attacks grant +2 Evasion until your next turn.
  • Heavy Shield attacks grant +2 Armor until your next turn.

Here it is! The feature that makes Shields into a very viable weapon! This feature is pretty loaded, so let’s break it down.

Firstly, you got a choice between better offensive stats or the ability to attack from range without an Ability. Unlike the previous version of this Sub-Archetype, the choice isn’t nearly as clear cut; both have their upsides and downsides. I think there’s absolutely merit to both, with the offensive stats giving you effectively a 2 Upgrade head start on your offense, and the ability to attack from range allowing you to be more flexible with Weapon Maneuver usage. 

The second benefit depends on what Shield you use, and that’s a pretty good excuse to discuss which Shield you should use! Each has their use:

  • Light Shields are the most evasive of the three types. They’re the lightest of the three shield types, and provides a bonus to Evasion Cap, which is really useful in combination with Light Armor. It probably has the weakest Greater Talent of the three, but a weak Parry that follows up with an attack is far from bad. It also has the lowest base damage of all Shields, making it the hardest to get up to speed. In terms of the benefit granted, cheaper Weapon Maneuvers is a great boon, providing additional incentive to go for more powerful Weapon Maneuvers here.
  • Medium Shields are the most aggressive of the three types. Boasting a moderate weight and no Evasion Cap bonus nor Penalty, this can be used with all armor types comfortably. It boasts probably the single strongest Greater Talent amongst the Shields, offering a free critical hit chance against a target on a miss, so long as you are Defending, synergizing nicely with a feature we’ll see soon. However, that Talent provides no defensive benefit, and you still have a bit of work to get that base damage up (though not as much compared to the Light Shield). The extra Evasion granted on attack synergizes with the Greater Talent very well, and allows it to get into people’s faces quickly.
  • Heavy Shields are the most armored of the three types. While they are the heaviest and require 2 hands to properly wield, they also boast a negative Evasion Cap, useful for avoiding Dexterity investment. They also boast the highest base damage of the Shields, requiring little investment to get up to speed. Their Greater Talent improves your Armor whenever you Defend, synergizing nicely with a feature we’ll see soon. It comes with all the usual downsides of Armor, but it’s still quite good when played to its strengths. The extra Armor provided by the benefit leans even harder into that Armor identity.

Overall, you’ve got a fair few choices to make with Offensive Shield, and all of them can be quite good! Your choices here will define your career in the future, so choose wisely!

Tier 2 – Bash and Block

You can use the Defend action with 1 AP less until the end of the turn if you use the Attack or Flash Attack action and only attack with shields.

If you take the Attack or Flash Attack Action and attack with only Shields, you may use the Defend Action for 1 less AP (1AP by default) until the end of your turn.

Here it is! The second piece of the defining puzzle for Shield Master! How would you like to Defend and Attack at the same time? Well, Bash and Block gives you that!

This is obviously very strong; being able to maintain offense (with any Attack Path!!!) alongside a potent defense. Granting your defenses the extra dice edge can be the difference maker in many scenarios. Defending also opens up a world of Synergies we will discuss soon, promise!

This does have a pretty crucial downside, though, and that’s the fact that doing this will eat your whole turn’s worth of AP by default. Oof. Fortunately, Multi-Action can help ease this, but having to spend 1AP to defend also means being Stunned, Shocked (potentially), Restrained, or Expert Tainted will prevent you from executing this, making immunity to them tantamount to your long-term survivability.

It also requires attacking exclusively with Shields to trigger, meaning other weapons can’t be used if you want to make use of Bash and Block. This is something that will continue to be exaggerated later, so it’s better to focus on singular Shield usage now.

Despite these flaws, Bash and Block is still one of the strongest features Shield Master has. Use it well!

Tier 3 – Spiked Shield

You can add half the Tier of a shield you wield to all attack damage and attack rolls made with that shield.

Half a Shield’s Tier is added to its Attack Rolls and Damage.

Eyyy, finally an alternative means of scaling your Shield’s offense! It’s about time! This is actually an amazing means of ensuring your Shield helps keep up on the offensive front, and scales very well, providing an effective 2 Additional Upgrades per 2 Tiers. That’s basically 1/1! Fantastic. 

It gets even better, too, if you have a Crafter on your team (which can be you!). It can allow you to get higher Tier Shields sooner, and thus, make better use of Spiked Shield! It’s superb, and considering you should be attacking with Shields anyway, this will be of massive help.

A quick note; you can avoid putting offensive modifiers on Shields with this Feature; as your offense will scale just fine without any. If you do, though… you will quickly become horrifying.

Tier 4 – Block and Bash

When an enemy targets you while under the Defend action’s effects, you can make one attack with a Shield. This attack is performed before the effect can hit you.

While you are Defending, whenever an enemy targets you with an effect, you may make an attack against them with a Shield, coming before the effect goes through.

Didn’t already have enough incentive to make use of Bash and Block? Well, Block and Bash hopefully will! Free, RP-less counterattacks while Defending is a superb boon, and counterattacks that come before their effect is even better, potentially killing the target before they get to act! Like always with alternative sources of attacks, Weapon Maneuvers cannot be applied to this attack, so you’ll need to keep this in mind, but it’s still superb stuff, thanks to boasting no cost. Also, Multi-Attackers will hate you. I hate this as a Swashbuckler lover, but that’s neither here nor there…

Tier 5 – Perfected Guard

The Armor, DR, Evasion, and Evasion Cap modifiers of shields you wield are doubled.

Double any Armor, DR, Evasion, and Evasion Cap granted by Shields.

I AM THE DEFENSE!!! Perfected Guard is your pinnacle, and provides absolute absurd bonuses to any defenses your Shields have got, effectively making them even better defensively than they already were. This is a pretty straightforward feature, so there isn’t much more to say! Enjoy it, champ!

Synergies & Tips

Synergies

  • Path of Attack: A top tier and straightforward Path option that synergizes with this Sub-Archetype incredibly well. You’ll be attacking a lot with your Shields, so making them hit harder is pretty much always a good thing.
  • Path of Maneuver: Just like Path of Attack, Path of Maneuver is an amazing option, since it amplifies the potency of your Shield Attacks. I’d recommend using a Light Shield if you go this route; the 1WP discount on Weapon Maneuver Abilities is great here.
  • Path of Flash Attack: Surprised? Yea, this is actually quite solid as a Path option, even after the rework! Flash Attack can still trigger Bash and Block, which, when combined with Multi-Action, leaves you 2AP spare to do whatever you want with. Opens up a ton of fun build possibilities, just by its very nature.
  • Multi-Action: Kind of a non-negotiable for modern-day Shield Masters; it ensures you have 1AP even after Bash and Block, allowing you to be far more flexible.
  • Defend Attack: Holy moly, Defend on a successful attack?!? Awesome tool if you want to spare the 1AP from Bash and Block, but it’s expensive and comes online rather late.
  • Shield Greater Talents: As mentioned back in Flexible Shield, your Shield choice will dictate which of these you have access to, but they’re all great, and generally help you in a wide range of ways.
  • Weapon Master: You focus on Shields, and they’ll often be a better weapon than anything else you could wield! Weapon Master will give you a ton of tools if you are okay with sticking with only a single Shield type (answer: probably).
  • Gladiator: The new Sub-Archetype in town is rather good for Shield Master, with Reactive Shield being available here as a great option, but you can’t really go wrong with any of the options.
  • Reactive Shield: I’d be remiss not to mention this, considering you literally use Shields. 1RP for a single Lesser Talent is a steal.
  • Shield Basher: Multi-Wielding Shields is fun, but comes with a nasty -2 to attack rolls. This can fix that, though paying the tax hurts.
  • Summon Weapons: You don’t have access to this naturally within Bulwark, but if you can get your hands on it, it can summon Shields too, and often make them really good. It’s especially great in combination with Spiked Shield.
  • Valiant Defender: You’ll be taking the Defend action quite frequently, and this’ll help keep your buddies safe if they stick close to you! Great if you want to lean into the more defensive nature of Shields.
  • Reflective Defense: Oh hey, the old Tier 3 of Shield Master now exists as a Greater Talent! It’s just as good as it was in the past, and serves as a great way to make a reactive Shield Master build.
  • Shield Mage: If you want to use non-Maneuver Abilities frequently, this is non-negotiable to remove the 1WP tax.

Tips

  • Quick Defend is a great Ability, but isn’t as useful on Shield Master as it used to be, since you have a reliable source of 1AP Defends already in Bash and Block. Can be useful if you want to do something else other than Attacking, though!
  • Just like before, a side weapon in early game before you get your Shield online can be a potentially worthwhile investment, since your Shield can struggle a bit in early game for damage. It’s not as bad as it used to be, but it’s still worth consideration.

Sub-Archetype Build Showcase

Note: These builds were made very shortly after the update. The Character Sheet wasn’t fully updated yet. I might get around to getting these up to date later, but for now, know that these are still faithful to the game’s rules, and that you might have to remove certain modifiers once the character sheet is updated.

Simple Build

This simple Shield Master is intended to be a good introduction to the offensively defensive style; investing in a Medium Shield, Counter Block, and Lightly Armored Assassin to become a slippery devil of a Shield Master who’s hard to hit, and hitting them is often ill-advised, since it’ll often provoke a counter that’ll get them hit for critical damage and make them more likely to critically hit. Even if you do get hit occasionally (which is unlikely with Parry and Bash and Block); your good Vitality ensures you’ll be able to keep going, with Inspiring Attack and Rejuvenating Attack making it difficult to put you or your buddies down permanently, even if they aren’t the most consistent. You also have decent damage with Versatile Grip, Path of Attack, and a single stack of Greater Potential on your Shield, making your damage surprisingly good, even outside of critical hits.

This build doesn’t have a particularly crazy accuracy; only +10 to hit, which isn’t bad, but it isn’t anything crazy either. It also suffers the usual Martial problem of low WP, and has no ranged options. Still, this is a great way to get used to the toolkit, and is a fun build to play throughout leveling thanks to no real weaknesses

Experimental Build

This Shield Master is focused on a Path of Flash Attack, Ability-centric style of play. It’s basic gameplan involves spending 2AP to do whatever you want with, then spend 1AP to throw the Shield at an enemy, then following up with a Multi-Action Bash and Block. Alongside Weapon Charges, your damage is surprisingly good, if a bit WP heavy, and Tracking Fire ensures your damage is consistent to boot. Caster Affinity and Perseverance Master provide the much needed extra WP and Abilities needed to make this plan work. The Ability toolkit primarily focuses on Cold Damage, and applying Freezing to do a devastating Frost Shock when needed. It also has surprisingly good Armor based bulk, even if it isn’t anything super crazy.

This build can struggle with WP, though Effective Recharge does help, and both Elemental Ray (Cold) and Frost Shock cost 3AP; there just wasn’t enough room to fit No Time To Stop, which is a shame, because it would be fantastic here. Still, this build is very simple by Path of Flash Attack standards, and serves as a great introduction to that sort of playstyle.

Dogger 2.0 – antonioguak

For our first submitted build, we got this goofy goober of a Shield Master, primarily focused around bulk, ally defense, and Reflective Defense, a pretty cool Greater Talent that works well with Shield Master by default. Thanks to a mix of Path of Defense, Durable, Towering Shield Defense, and Hardened Armor, this build is really hard to bring down, easily being able to pull 18 Armor on the regular, which does wonders for taking weaker weapon attacks on the regular. Reflective Defense acts as a way to punish weaker attacks, but it’s less of a damage dealer and more of a defender with Taunt and Pull Chain alongside Multi-Action.

If I had to critique this build at all, it would be that the stat spread could definitely be more aggressive (Dexterity probably isn’t necessary here, and another stat could help a ton) and Pull Chain is a bit weird with Valiant Defender, though it does pair well with Guard Stance. Additionally, the gear didn’t have the correct upgrades, so I mainly just slapped on some extra Armor and DR Power to help the core Abilities land (those being Pull Chain and Taunt). All in all, though, the concept here is a fun build, and one with some great potential to grow. Thanks for the submission!

Conclusion

Overall, the new Shield Master post 3.0.0 is very fun and very effective. If you wish to read the old version of the guide, you can find it here. Thanks for reading! If you have any fun builds that could help show off Shield Master more, feel free to send them to me on Discord at goldzephzellian!