Are Shields Worthless against AN Attacks

[shatner]

If you are facing something that does AN damage, about the only thing you can do to prevent that damage (barring elemental immunity) is to not get hit. If the attack is ranged, a shield might help, with the bigger the parry bonus the better. However, if it is a melee attack, does a shield do any good?

Normally you would want as high a defense as possible to prevent getting shanked by a duskdagger, for example. Well, a blacksteel kite shield raises your defense nicely. However, if the attack would have hit if it weren't for the shield, my understanding is that the hit still lands but you get to add your shields considerable protection to your own. Which is great against anything except an armor-negating attack. In fact, since most shields offer a defense penalty, you are actually making yourself more vulnerable to AN melee attacks by equipping them.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

I ask because I had my pretender fight a dream horror once and he was horror marked and diseased as a result of the battle, despite a very considerable amount of defense. Now the easiest explanation there is just bad luck but I wanted to see if I was worsening my luck by bringing a towershield to the fight.

[Corinthian]

In short. Yes.

It does bypass shields. Even projectiles bypass shields if they are AN. And projectiles normally dont even roll for damage if they are blocked.

Arrow Fend still works I think. And Mistform still works once. Luck and twist fate will also protect you.

[Stretch]

Wait, projectiles (like from Piercer) bypass shields if they are AN? I thought there was a bug where that didn't happen and tower shields could still block AN bolts.

[Corinthian]

Possibly in earlier versions of dominions, but not in the current. I have tested Piercers earlier and they always damage tower shielded troops.

But keep in mind that most tower shielded troops are size 2. If there are only 2 of them in a square then there is a 33% chance that the bolt will hit the third, non-existent soldier.

[Knai]

There are some edge cases. The Shield of Gleaming gold is still useful against melee AN Attacks, due to the awe effect. It doesn't matter if the attack is AN if they don't hit you with it first. The Vine Shield is good for basically the same reason, though it gets there through entanglement and not awe. Then there is the Lucky Coin. However your bog standard shield, Black Steel shield, Barrier, etc. are all basically worthless against AN. In some cases, they are actively counterproductive.

[JonBrave]

...Sheesh, this game is complicated.....

[Soyweiser]

http://z7.invisionfree.com/Dom3mods/...?showtopic=601 Read here.

[Knai]

Originally Posted by Soyweiser

http://z7.invisionfree.com/Dom3mods/...?showtopic=601 Read here.

Sombre needs to reread the opening post. It explicitly asks about melee weapons. "However, if it is a melee attack, does a shield do any good?"

[Radio_Star]

Originally Posted by Knai

Sombre, thanks for being kind enough to correct a gross misconception held by a group of people who basically spit on you not too long ago. Still, your information, while good, was not the information we wanted, so kindly GFY.

I imagine he didn't answer the point of melee vs shields because the answer is obvious if you think about the mechanics for a second.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=43615#5 There's a link if you need a refresher.

In short, shields increase defense and should the attack roll fall beneath the natural + shield defense, the shield's prot value is then added to the prot value of the unit.

In shorter, you're asking if shield prot helps against armor negating damage.

In shortest, l2p.

[rdonj]

Knai, the second post of the thread discusses AN projectiles, so sombre doesn't really need to re-read the thread, especially since that question had already been answered.

As an aside, you guys would know these things if you modded more!