I’ve put 3,000 hours into Darktide, and as a Korean player, I have to say this new shield enemy horde is absolutely ridiculous. They are way more troublesome than the existing shield units, and they’re just supposed to be a standard horde! Even after their shields are broken, they remain absurdly tanky, and their damage output is far from weak. I honestly don’t get why they designed such a frustrating enemy. Once the shield is broken, they should have the same durability as any other mob—why are these specific shield enemies so much tougher? It makes no sense.
Unless they cover them in armour and call them elites (which would make sense under their current conditions) then yes they absolutely need to have smaller HP on their body/head. The shield being tough is great though so I don’t think shield should be nerfed if they remain a standard horde enemy.
CHANGE YOUR PLAYSTYLE! I cannot believe how many players refuse to change how they play and cry about new enemies. These enemies by far the best ones they added to the game. Fighting hordes and smaller patrols feels so fresh with them around. Change yourself, not the game.
I have no issue with the playstyle. However, the shield-bearer horde remains too durable even after their shields are broken. This causes a significant imbalance in game balance. I welcome the introduction of new enemies, though.
Thats the point. We shouldn’t just mow down the horde with ease. It should be a threat just like specials or elites. These should slow us down to give the director more time to prepare the worst. These enemies doing that and I LOVE it. And IMHO they should add more hp to the othe horde mobs as well.
i just dunno why players cant mark the shield enemies. they should be considered as elites like bulwarks n maulers cuz shield enemies r much more tougher than poxwalkers n moebian 21 enemies even without their shields, but players just cant mark em
Guess I’ll bring in a POV I haven’t seen on a shield enemy thread yet: I don’t think they changed anything significant.
I ran 2 games solely to see what these guys did to the combat flow and it changed literally nothing about how I play, which was my biggest fear/expectation.
These guys would just still be left standing for a couple more hits than usual, always without their shield, after the rest of the horde was cleared around them. It was odd since it was new and they look like normal mobs without the shield. But they had no real impact on my play style.
Hard to pass full judgment until I’ve reached l30, but as I’m currently experiencing them - they do add a wee bit of panic depending on the situation (a tightly packed corridor with crushers etc).
But yeah they’re nothing radical.
Would be cool if they were turned into specialists and had stun rods…so there was less of them but if they got close then they’d briefly stun/electrify you.
Would be terrifying seeing one slowly approach through a crowd!
Yeah, if they had something special in their kit like the stamina drain debuff attack of the packmaster even just for one attack. Or if they were more aggressive with bundling up and pushing you like the shield rats in VT2, they might actually be something.
Let’s not repeat the plasma gunner situation. They’re mostly harmless and a single purg staff renders them a non entity. Lots of things go through the shield and there are a couple of ways to break them in one hit. Folks will adjust.
Indeed something that changes the dynamic would be better, beyond mOaR hP.
That said I’d probably struggle with that as I’m really not gelling with Skitarii at all. I’m at around l13 and finding it difficult to find anything fun in the gameplay.
With AuDHD I’m finding the talent tree very overwhelming. Feels like too many options. Maybe it’s just the layout that’s throwing me. It’s visually much more confusing to me.
None of the weapons “feel” fun yet. I’d prefer a melee style but the sword move sets feels like a constant battle with the move set itself rather than focusing on enemies, positioning and timing…and feels like ranged is rewarded much better but I’m not so into that.
This is all gutting as it’s by far the coolest class and the audio and art are excellent…but gameplay wise I’m really struggling to find a groove with this class.
I know I need to get to l30 but I thought I’d be enjoying it a lot more by now. Feels much more labouring than other classes. Overly complex I guess?
Turning them into elite/special would imbalance the spawns and talent buffs, so no ty. They don’t have any annoying abilities like bulwark so they really are just lil cultists.
Best way to kill a shielded enemy is from behind, so I like the added directionality to hordes. The added dynamic is a good example of making the gameplay more interesting without resorting to spam imo.
Also their shields break which is satisfying
Enjoying them so far, hope they stay interesting even through the inevitable tweaks!
I am waiting until I get Skitarii to 30 and start running Damnation/Auric again, I can’t judge their performance until then. I’ve noticed they’re chunkier against starting skitarii than expected but for all I know I just need to stack some weakpoint bonuses for the DMR.
I know this to be true…guess I’m just so bored of having to do this leveling up so many times haha.
Sorry for being a Debbie downer. I’ll reserve judgement. I’m 100% not enjoying the sword move set though unfortunately, which is really annoying as it’s clearly very powerful.
Edit: I’ve just unlocked the psyionoc blades which are much more my jam, although I detest having to switch between the 2 move sets. This game is way too twitchy to allow time to play a switching animation in the middle of a scrum. It’s why I totally avoided the scum blades and crowbar. The special should just activate the attack on press imo, like the arbites shock maul.
So yeah it seems everything has a big caveat with skittles.
agreed. After Shieldbrake tehy should be standard Infantry again!
