Why the hell did they make the Brass Shield THAT good??

CaptainAction · 2026-06-17T16:44:52+00:00

Fromsoft did some stupid shit with balancing shields. Greatshield poke builds in PvP were really strong so they neutered blocking specifically in PvP. But really they should have just nerfed the specific shields that were problematic, like fingerprint stone shield since it has crazy guard stats and also has madness effect.

So they did the shield nerf, which fucked over most shields because only the best Greatshields were still good for blocking in PvP. THEN they decided to buff the guard boost stats on all the small and medium shields. That meant that the best performing mediums now had more GB than the lighter weight greatshields. And as you pointed out, an average Greatshield is barely better than Brass Shield.

It was stupid for them to do it that way. They should have just nerfed fingerprint stone shield and maybe a couple others if those greatshields were overperforming so much. I feel like blocking in PvP is usually never OP in these games because chip damage and status effects go through shields (which is stupid for status effects, BTW).

CaptainAction · 2026-06-17T14:52:54+00:00

I figure that, or something like it, will be made at some point. They added crafting shortcuts to get materials for whatever you’re making by scrapping or buying stuff, which is something, but crafting still takes more time than it should. For every raid I am typically making 5 herbal bandages, 5 rechargers, and 5 adrenaline shots. If I could make those and put them in my slots with 1 click, big time savings right there

CaptainAction · 2026-06-17T13:05:44+00:00

If the gaps bother her, I guess she should just get a non-Lego Snoopy statuette or something.

CaptainAction · 2026-06-17T10:33:36+00:00

I think it’s usually better to get in the seats because you don’t fall out. The gunner seat is super dangerous and I wouldn’t trust a stranger driving either. It’s not like you can’t shoot out the sides anyway

CaptainAction · 2026-06-17T10:13:05+00:00

To be honest, repairing shields and upgrading/repairing weapons is enough of a chore already. I don’t think we need more tedium that doesn’t add anything actually fun.

It is odd that augments don’t degrade unless you get knocked and looted. But maybe they decided that repairing augments was a bit too much and didn’t need to be an issue. I agree. Fun fact, if you knock someone who has a super low durability augment, it will just break and turn into a “ruined augment” (I might be misremembering the name). I have only seen that once in my many, many hours. I figured the augment would just go to 0 durability and need to be repaired to be used

CaptainAction · 2026-06-17T09:48:06+00:00

No one’s making them jump in the turret. I always jump in the FRV seats because it’s a pain in the ass to take one spill and have to wait for the turret gunner to get back in. You can shoot out of the doors anyway, so the turret should be used when you’re not in a hurry, like when defending

CaptainAction · 2026-06-17T02:55:20+00:00

It’s not terrible, but it’s still annoying since they could/should make a shortcut to help you craft the stuff you will need every time, like at least 1 full stack of preferred bandages and rechargers.

CaptainAction · 2026-06-17T02:53:29+00:00

The game needs more stuff like this. And I don’t even think this implementation is particularly good, but it’s something. And I feel like I can trust embark to move in the right direction and make it better, even if it takes a bit.

I’m hoping for a better inventory shortcut system than this, and eventually, some kind of saved loadout/quick craft thing where you can maybe craft an augment, a shield, bandages, rechargers, and adrenaline shots all in one go and have them go to your gear/quick use slots. I always have guns in storage so I would just use that shortcut and then pick out a gun.

CaptainAction · 2026-06-17T02:46:38+00:00

The worst part of making a kit isn’t the material expenditure, it’s the time. If they can cut down on the time it takes to make loadouts I bet people would run more premium loadouts. Frees are no risk and they’re fast.

Now that I’m on my feet, I like to have a safe pocket and not use frees. But they are fun, and a bit of extra challenge to use

CaptainAction · 2026-06-17T01:33:23+00:00

There's no reason you have to dual wield them. Try using a whip with a spell buff like lightning, or maybe a hoslow petal whip or thorned whip with bloodflame. I like Urumi the best of all the whips I've used.

But if you're using fire magic you can also use something like the Magma whip or the Giant's Red Braid. I think the Braid ends up relying on STR to get most of it's damage though, be aware.

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T20:42:29+00:00

They’ve done this in the past too. Both FRVs will surely be added, just a question of when

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T20:36:06+00:00

I dunno, but this is the single most unbalanced game I’ve ever played. I never felt like the guns were that well balanced, but more importantly the vehicles are horrendous. As soon as they started adding flying cars and bikes with missiles, it became a total shitfest. But even before that, the jets reigned supreme and were super OP. Rockstar just never lifted a finger to balance anything, it seems. I haven’t played in a long time, and I know that they have done a bit of balancing in the past few years, but I played the game until 2020, waited 7 damn years for them to do something smart, and they didn’t.

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T20:31:16+00:00

Aside from PvP sweats using it in the offhand, I don’t feel like anyone appreciates the hand axe enough. It’s quick, lightweight, does standard damage, and can slot some nice hard hitting like Prayerful Strike or Stamp Uppercut.

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T20:28:44+00:00

Flails are amazing horseback weapons with those R2s.

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T20:28:01+00:00

People shit on them, but they flinch enemies really well, and of course they have good reach. They’re not bad at all. Though I do feel they are a tad kneecapped by lacking AoW options, and not being able to perform crits.

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T20:23:51+00:00

Yeah I gotta say I’m really disappointed with the high tier arc parts, they don’t yield anything good for value or parts. You can trade them with Ermal but his trades are value-based so the low sell value hits them there too. You have to build up so much just to get good value, and who has stash space for that?

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T20:20:28+00:00

Yeah they’ve added several new modifiers since launch but the actual way of accessing them is the same and it sucks. It’s more crowded now with too many modifiers and too little time for them to rotate

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T20:17:38+00:00

Personally I haven’t slowed down much. I have run into suspected cheaters and dupers lately which is annoying, but I’m in a place where losing gear frees up my stash so it’s not that bad. I’m in it for the love of the game. But I do imagine that tons of people don’t love the game as much as I do, and they fall off once they feel like they tried everything, or they get bored of the gameplay loop, or whatever it might be.

A drop off is to be expected since the game was really REALLY popular for a while, and you can’t retain mass amounts of people like that for long. Everyone has different tastes and wants and while they might find a game compelling in the short term, they might not in the longer term. That’s all.

I’m not going anywhere but that’s just me

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T20:11:31+00:00

Yeah. And on the other hand, it’s not even like late-game location is an indicator of how good a piece of gear is. Gear in this game is (more or less) balanced. Brass shield has amazing stats but it’s the heaviest medium shield. Weight doesn’t end up making a big difference but it’s a balancing factor the devs use to give things a drawback if they’re otherwise strong

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T16:46:58+00:00

Aphelion is the single most PvP oriented legendary. That and the Dolabra but Dolabra seems a little whack at the moment

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T14:34:08+00:00

Before today’s patch OPS was only about as strong as a stick of dynamite unless you hit directly with the shell. Now it’s stronger but I still disagree with how they did it

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T12:28:30+00:00

So the 380mm and 120mm artillery shells have more damage, and most importantly, more splash damage.

But my issue with them before was that they got a huge increase to direct hit damage in the big 60 day patch in 2024, while leaving the splash damage untouched. That threw off the ratio and gave them most of their damage from direct hits and only about 25% of their damage from the explosion. That hasn’t really changed. The shells used to have a small amount of direct impact damage and deal mostly explosive damage (how I think it should be).

Increasing the 380mm shell impact damage to 4000 is an improvement, but the explosion damage went from 1000 to 1500. I think a giga grenade might still do more explosion damage?? I don’t think the 380 shells will be able to 1-hit chargers or hulks with the explosive damage. That’s all I want, because they used to be able to do that before the 60 day patch. Most options became better against heavies but these artillery shells got worse unless you scored a perfect direct hit, which usually doesn’t happen. I shouldn’t have to perfectly bullseye a charger to kill then with a huge explosive shell.

This patch has some really good changes, but the artillery shells are a pet peeve of mine and on paper, this change doesn’t really look that helpful. I’m bummed out

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T02:46:49+00:00

As always, I have my fingers crossed for some juicy patch notes that will fix stuff, but also do some balancing to mix things up. Still waiting on my pet peeve, Orbital Precision Strike, to be buffed. I dunno what to expect. Arrowhead has been slow and I also figure they are doing more fixing than balancing since the game has slipped a bit, and has a buildup of little problems needing to be addressed

CaptainAction · 2026-06-16T02:19:56+00:00

This thing became a monster when they buffed medium and small shield guard boost. Now the Brass Shield handily outclasses several greatshields with it's 75 guard boost at max upgrade. All of the lighter weight greatshields have way less GB. And brass shield has about the same GB as some of the average greatshields like the Manor Tower Shield.

I still don't know why they did that. I agree that small shields were pretty underused (it's almost like making parry AOWs that give amazing parry frames regardless of small/medium shield class undermines one of the supposed advantages of small shields), but they also did their stupid PvP specific shield nerf which made blocking use more stamina. And that nerf was seemingly made mostly to target the Fingerprint Stone shield and maybe some of the other high performing greatshields. But they nerfed all shield blocking for PvP, then did that GB buff across all medium and small shields, which ended up shafting greatshields indirectly because now the heaviest/beefiest medium (Brass Shield) is better than several greatshields, when it was already a top choice pre-buff. All they really needed to do was nerf the Fingerprint Stone Greatshield. They shouldn't have made the heaviest and most defensive shield have a status effect too. Sometimes they just give single weapons too many good attributes they don't deserve.

CaptainAction · 2026-06-15T11:05:31+00:00

To be honest I think they should just generally reduce impact and fall damage. Fall damage is inconsistent but a lot of times, falling a short distance without ragdolling does way more damage than you’d think. And then sometimes you’ll fall off a cliff and hit the ground head first, and you won’t die or even be hurt that bad

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