Shield hit boxes are huge, everyone I know gets blue ticks hitting bulwarks from behind, or when staggered. It’s like their entire mesh is covered in a huge invisible shield. Not reliable at all.
Its a bit stranger than that, it appears that there is a check around 180 degrees wide (originating from the shield) to see if you are in front or behind the bulwark. If you are just on the edge of that check, anywhere you shoot will be a blocked hit. If you move just a bit closer to where you are considered “behind” then you are free to hit anywhere on the bulwark’s body and register a hit (aside from the shield) even where just previously your shot would be blocked.
This being the way it is creates a very poor experience from expectation and reality point of view where the player should logically be able to hit and how blocking mechanically works.
When staggered this whole element is removed and instead just the shield hitbox remains to block. Its also important to keep in mind that the bulwark’s arms and feet are considered carapace armored and will still ‘blue spark’ on weapons that dont have good effectiveness on carapace.
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They copy-pasted the Shieldvermin behaviour over to this Bulwark, when basic testing is enough to tell it doesn’t fit or feel good at all on a target this big.
The Bulwark shield covering an entire 180 degrees in front of him is considered working as intended. If you believe you’d rather it wasn’t the case, I highly recommend making a thread in the Gameplay Feedback subforum.