spectral shield throw

Are these shields finally viable?

I wrote this waaaay back in March 2017.

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PUCivilEngineer wrote:

Would be nice to scale "shield charge" with something other than weapon damage. You guys think it's a good idea to scale the damage off a combo of shield armour/evasion roll + weapon damage? Would be a cool new mechanic and give reason to equip rare shields with high armour and evasion rolls again.

Maybe I'm just bais because I crafted this...

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imLuCaSsS wrote:

I'm a ST fan and can't wait to test spectral shield.

Cons: Crafting a good shield for this skill may be kinda annoying. Flat ES, lots of armour, block chance, etc. Shaper shield probably.

You're forgetting that this league is the league of crafting. We can make anything we want lol..

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BeoWulf981 wrote:

OK Now how do you boost its dps? Thicc Jugg with Brass Dome/Determination?

I dont think any increases to armour will do anything for damage, its just looking at the raw ar/ev/es on your shield, unmodified by boosts to those defences from tree or auras etc.

Its a projectile attack, itll scale with modifiers that will scale projectile attacks with whatever damage u have. Added damage to attacks, increases to specific damage types like physical or whatever flat ele you add to it etc, global crit/multi.

The gem has Attack / Projectile tags

Facebreakers wont work, they require the skill being used to have Melee tag, and to be able to be used with unarmed, which is why the likes of molten strike doesnt work with facebreakers.

Doryani's fist will work, where it has "to attacks" on the electric damage affix is what makes it work as shield throw is an attack where you can use it without a main hand weapon equipped.

Another possibility would be a shaper stat stick scepter with gain cold & fire ontop of ele damage with attacks and an implicit elemental damage increase. The damage and attack speed of your main hand wont affect shield throw.

Basic attack speed will be 1.44 plus whatever is gained from the tree and gear affixes.

Both the initial hit are projectile attacks, so like ST/Spark, projectile speed will affect your range of the initial throw

Support gems like ancestral call or melee physical damage wont affect it as they are melee supports, but physical projectile etc, and ele damage with attacks will work, it will be similar to setting up a bow attacks support gems.

Mirage archer wont work as that specifically requires a bow.

Not sure how Volley will interact with it if at all, It wont add initial projectiles to the 'explosion' as the support gems description states only the initial source gains projectiles, nothing created from another source will gain projectiles, however shield throw states that supports adding projectiles dont apply to the initial attack, only to the 'explosion' after impact, so seems the two would block each other out from working together at all.

Rigwald's Curse... Not entirely sure how this will work either, it is an "attack" gem, and if you have no main hand equipped, you will be considered unarmed, so personally i think it will affect the base crit, and allow you to pick up claw nodes to affect Shield Throw.

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PUCivilEngineer wrote:

Are these shields finally viable?

I wrote this waaaay back in March 2017.

Very viable, your looking at like 400 phys for the tower shield on level 1 of the gem (no idea how much the flat bonus scales up with levels), that is pretty decent for a one handed with 20% more attack speed.

Much depends on the scaling of the move itself though

Does "#% increased defenses from equipped shield" affect Spectral shield throw?

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BigMikk wrote:

Does "#% increased defenses from equipped shield" affect Spectral shield throw?

no, its just the base stats on the shield, no modifiers to those stats effect it, just local rolls on the item that effect the implicit defences above the top line on the shield itself.

Isnt It better to Go Full es shield inquisitor and added elemental damage with abyss jewels, auras and support gems?

Also touch of anguish claw on main hand for extra chain.

This can be extremelly powerfull crit build, like wands.

I was wondering which Class/Asc would be good for a spectral Throw build.

If we are assuming Doryani can work, let’s go elemental attack/projectiles
-Ranger/Raider

If we go for Crit Inquisitor is the obvious but lame choice.

Hmm my gem setup would be something like
Spectral Shield Throw
Elemental dmg with attacks
Multistrike? (If it works) or Ancestral Call
Physical to Lightning
Elemental Focus

Then Maybe Crit or Gmp/SLower Proj for Swapping

At first glance, I'm not sure how to scale this gem wise. You probably want to add projectiles to the burst, and you DEFINITELY want to chain but you can get that other ways outside of the support. Physical projectile attack damage is probably a no-brainer.

Beyond that? Faster attacks looks kinda mediocre if you have any attack speed. Full conversion so you can use WED/pen? Or maybe crit damage. Depending on your build you might be hurting for support options.