These guys don’t seem to have a weak point. I was hitting them from the back and while they were climbing and I was still getting at least 3-4 attacks deflected before I could damage them.
Try pushing them to see if it opens up their shield
Yeah their HP seems ludicrous. They take a couple of weak spot hits even after losing their shields
I could be wrong but it definitely feels like they have the same amount of health as ragers, along with a shield that makes them way more tanky, and they aren’t considered elites? Its weird.
apparently they take 50% damage to the head? weird design if so, they dont really seem like their heads are especially fortified. sure they wear helmets but so other bruisers and elites and those don’t take less damage to the head
the shields themselves are also really durable. I chordclaw’d a cultist and got a blue hitmarker, didn’t even break. but yeah their HP is so high they should be a taggable enemy.
Needs a nerf, shield enemies in ratgame aren’t absurdly beefy like this.
it seems they’re kinda inbetween, beefier than the random shield non-elites in vt2, but not elite like a shield stormvermin
i think this concept would work if you could push to open them like in vt2, and they died promptly to well placed headshots. but like this they’re a bit too obviously just extra hp bars placed in here and there. it almost feels like the design intent was to add a bunch of bricks into enemy groups so it becomes harder to just mindlessly chop them down, but because the actual way to kill them IS to just mindlessly chop them down but you have go through their shield and then their big hp bar it doesn’t work.
i could just be missing the obvious way to counter them but right now they just feel like damage sponges, not very interactive
If they’re going to be treated as regular shielded enemies like in VT2 rather than Elites, then I think they should be toned down a bit.
I don’t know how the hell this is the only thread about this. They are the worst enemy in the game, and are incredibly annoying. What a shitty enemy to add to the game.
They don’t appear to really use the shield like bulwarks do and are just absurdly tough. No matter where you hit them it takes typically 3-4 FGS heavy attacks with 25 stacks DD to the head to kill them. I could understand if they had the shield up blocking attacks, but they don’t. It is as if their shield is entirely cosmetic but they just have crusher-level health.
that’s the 50% damage reduction to the head, but moreso the bad design of havoc being slog enemies. I can see why they didn’t want it to be too simple to hose them down over their shield with gunfire, since its a lot easier to do than bulwarks. maybe that conversation happened after giving them yuge HP.
Even if the shield is pushed aside, many weapons are still very difficult to kill him in a short time.
Next time they can try to make a shotguner with a shield:)
one of the few times i balance-side with fatshark here.
for how long have we been complaining about facerolling through the maps at a ludicrous pace?
one new chaff enemy, that in itself isnt really a threat if you move around and place yourself correctly, is keeping the player occupied for 4 swings more.
and thats suddenly a bad thing…how?
Their health might as well be on par with a Crusher’s (I’m serious). The short opening after their shield is pushed aside just isn’t long enough for players to deal enough damage to kill them. Even heavy attacks to the unarmored area on their back take a surprisingly long time to bring them down.
They should keep it as is, but put armour on him and call him an elite then it would make sense. A dude in cheese cloth having the hp of carapace is just weird
call him whatever you like, he’s a nice change of pace for the purpose he serves currently, thats all that matters to me 
I agree. They are (imo) well balanced beefy enemies that making CC builds a bit more viable. They really changed how I approach hordes now. I’d argue that they are meta changing enemies (but not 100%).
My thoughts are: This enemy is the equivalent of a skavenslave mook from VT2, but has the tankiness of a stormvermin with shield. It’s not an elite unit and it just feels wrong, like it’s too tanky for how common it is despite being a normal mook that can be one shot.
Nowhere is this more exemplified than with Chordclaw, an attack that can one-shot Crushers, and the shield user just ignores it (or feels like it.)
I’m not opposed to shield users in mixed hordes. My proposal would be:
Reduce shield health to something like 2-3 standard hits to kill from most weapons capable of 1-2 shotting the same enemy without a shield. Reduce the health to ‘can be one-shot if flanked.’ Look at it again.
Then, add a new shield unit that takes the place of the Stormvermin with Shield. Say, mauler. It’s about as tanky as the current shield users, give or take (balance to taste.) It can be just as common as current small shield users.
Basically, my problem is that they don’t make sense being as durable as they are and they’re disruptive in a way that feels spongy and kinda awful to engage. It has nothing to do with the raw gameplay intent of mixing up horde engagement, but I fear it’s just going to make flamethrowers even more popular because they, of course, bypass shields.