I love playing with shield, but I’m starting to experiment with other things. With that said, the times that I have found plonking down the shield useful are very few and far between.
A bit too much I agree, but I had more rounds with psyker doing nothing else than BB and nothing else (sic…) than being game changers…
What I meant is that ogryns are good. I LOVE my ogryn and we DESTROY hordes with BB slaughterer / confident strike. And the current « bug » on can opener give me a blast with my Ripper gun MKV. But why bother bringing a subpar shield that will bring NOTHING to the team other than an immobile armless giant piece of meat when you can have the best melee hordes melter ?even if you don’t want to use BB, ogryn’s other weapons bring more on the table…
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“Shield is good on a player that knows how to use it” is a really common phrase when shielgryn comes up.
But the best shield tactics is to be mobile while providing CC. If you can do that then play with a better weapon.
The only time standing still and blocking is a good idea is vs Daemonhosts. And everything else Shieldgryns claim are either not true, not good, or pointless.
Increasing the game’s difficulty wouldn’t make the shield better, either. It needs a rework and a departure from the vermintide 2 shield design. It needs damage and it needs mobility. And by mobility I’m not talking about dodges or dodge distance, I mean actually being able to move at a reasonable pace while attacking and blocking.
Also, the block frames need to better reflect the character animations, there’s too many windows where you can be damaged during certain animations where the shield is clearly in front of the character.
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Shields were good in VT2 though, I always loved making elf players eat crow when they crumbled ages ago while Bardin bullies the gaggle of pactsworn to death and gets 3 rescues. None of that carried into the one shield weapon here. Its also laughable how bad most advise on how to use it is. Don’t ever throw heavies at hordes, the only possible upside of the shield + club is the very slightly better cleave damage distribution than a club (and only on lights 3 and 4). Yes, it can crowd control elites but so can every other weapon. You’re Ogryn, who can floor a lot of taggables with light or heavy attacks alone. And whatever argument you could make for it being a good distraction is gone vs power maul. Those Ogryns actually control the entire room while not achieving damage, so they at least perform that function. Shield gets nothing.
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Just use the power maul. Its actually good. No BB. But good.
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I tried the power maul and the stagger was awful, but that could be me doing it wrong. I was also very annoyed that pressing the charge button after a strike but while the animation was still playing would not start the charge immediately when the weapon was in its ready state. This is just getting down to muscle memory but I could try it again. The cleavers are up next though.
So. I love the shield. However, I am currently working through other weapons to get proficient with all of them.
I have never really been on forums, and I have only had people complain once in-game, but I never recall any of these types of discussions in Vermintide (but I never frequented those forums). I have seen good people playing absolutely every class and some really weird weapon combinations.
… if only the crafting system was not such utter garbage then it would be easier to experiment with blessings and different load outs. Oh well 
I will gladly take pointers and discussions about improved gameplay. Start hurling personal insults or something similar then I really cannot be bothered. I’ve had the fortune to play with some stellar groups here and it’s amazing fun, we finish damnation run even with an Ogryn carrying a shield.
You missed a cesspool that didn’t go away until WoM came with content hard enough to justify the shield. It was the difference between one dwarf wasting his time trying to stagger 4 already dead Stormvermin on Legend versus that same dwarf staggering 30 Stormvermin on Cataclysm because the team could not kill all of them in 0.002⅛ seconds.
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I was playing a psyker for a while and it was a good time but I kept hoping a shield Ogryn would join the team so I could ask him hold down a demon host to get that sweet sweet penance. That psyker penance fit is legendary! But alas I haven’t been so lucky.
Then it occurred to me that it is probably better to give than to receive so I got to work and leveled up a shield Ogryn to help my siblings get their drip. I went in knowing the hate that shield Oggies have received (and rightly so) for plonking down and being useless rocks. I was surprised to find out that the shield is actually awesome! A heavy attack does a shield jab that sends crushers sprawling. A light → heavy combo does a collosal swoosh that sends hordes flying which is especially great on maps like the smelter or vigil station where you can send them strait into the abyss. I can only think of maybe a couple extremely niche use cases where bracing is actually useful.
I’ve only just reached 30 and have lousy gear levels so I haven’t tried damnation yet. Maybe I’ll change mind there but so far I’m loving it.
The Paul, just like the Beatle, is great and flexible, I think the mistake some make make (IMHO) is trying to use a powered-up attack on everything, including hordes. You can chain heavies for hordes/mixed, use lights as the situation warrants and use the zappy attacks for singling out stuff that need extra damage or advancing+ big staggers; it opens up bulwarks nicely.
Broken record, but skullcrusher and confident strike is your friend here. The Paul has the added benefit of triple regen when standing still (should be moving, but uno-reverse bug, still there afaik), use it w/ 3x 30% tuff regen curios and Lynchpin+Towering Presence.
It may take a couple of days to get used to it but it puts the shield to shame.
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I had to revive a couple guys in the sight line of a sniper, and the ogryn plopped his shield down right after i got him up and it let me get the other guy up without the sniper killing him. That was helpful.
You can also charge it while sliding to avoid the pointless movement penalty.
Why didnt you just shoot the sniper first?
it was in an unknown location behind some sort of cover, and they were an inch away from bleeding out so they would’ve died in the time it took to locate and kill it
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Totally valid use case. I wish we could just have the shield have infinite range block for ogryn without the plant. It would tremendously improve the weapon. Frankly it demands more damage but I’d take improved aggression oriented mechanics.
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If you r EU-Servers i’d be more than happy to aid you with the demonhost penance …
I extend that to everybody - just PM me
Not to be a downer, but it actually doesn’t really seem to block doorways. Many times I have seen poxes just walk straight through a planted shield ogryn because they were aggroed at the people behind him.
Same with enemy fire and snipers. Ogryn planted his shield in front of the sniper laser, and it went right through him (for no damage) and hit me instead.
tbh, until they fix the planted shield collision or at least add a reliable way for the shield to grab aggro (like Ironbreaker’s Ult in VT2), I am probably gonna avoid using one myself. Hell there is already a datamined blessing that’s supposed to aggro enemies you hit, but it’s for some reason not in the game yet? That would be a decent start.
And yes, there are probably Ogryns who make the shield work on Heresy and higher, but in my own experience those are unfortunately few and far between. For every decent shieldogryn, I meet a couple more that are just turtling in a corner, when they could be helping us smashing the horde instead. 
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I out myself now: I use every weapon on damnation (including the shield), i’m playing what i just right now want to have fun with.
But i onlyy use it in a bleed-build and mostly only the heavies, rarely lights with “confident strike”.
Special: well for DH as they target you no matter what, once you managed to get their attention.
For everthing else the special does not help a lot as after a few shots the aggro went of the Ogryn.
And perhaps I’m not smart/good enough to block my way up to shooters to bind them in meelee, but everytime i try it, my stamina is depleeted way before I reach my target…
thats true that if u are not the one targeted by the ennemy most of the time they go right trough. It didnt happened for the sniper shot luckily for my tm but happend mostly with Bulkwark. So you hit them and then they start colliding with you.
What i noticed strangely, and im not 100% cause when u deploy the shield u cant c nothing. But its that tm doesnt actually use you to protect themselves. They go around and target things that are…irrelevant. 3 round in row…no one killed the sniper/bomber/flamer…wich are as you all know a pain if not dealt with quickly. I planted my shield so most of the fire was on me…but they decided to kill the poxwalkers degs and slabs instead of the bomber/sniper etc…
Might have been because they had no line of fire and a lot of things going on…but still…annoying. not to say we wiped.
That is because if the enemies that have aggro on them will hit them even if they stand behind you.
The Ogryn body is bigger than the shield. And the shots go right trough the Ogryn body into them if they are not 100% in line with the enemy and the shield.
Next thing is, that melee mobs just walk into you and attack them.
The idea of the Shield is good on paper. But without a wider deflection area and with collision that prevents enemies from walking trough it, it is not worth using.
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Wait a minute
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Jep. There are sooooooo many that think they would generate aggro by planting the shield. They don’t even realize that the Team gets gunned down around them, because they only see the slit in the shield while they chill behind it.
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