What I think should happen with the Demoman’s Shields

Let me be frank, I’m a Medic main so I’m going to be a tad biased here, but I’M the person who’s always being targeted by these damn sword-swinging bastards and whenever I need a good bit of explosive work done, all I can ever find are more of these damn medieval wannabes. Just because you have a grenade launcher, doesn’t mean you’re an explosives expert. You have the same, if not less explosive power than a damn Soldier if all you have is a grenade launcher, a shield and a fancy sword. Oh and let’s not forget that these damn Demoknights are taking the place of the Pyro, being masters of close range, close quarters combat. Why try and hit people with wonky fire and melee physics when you can just hit them with wonky melee physics alone and do more damage?

All that being said, the Demoknight is a sub-class that can actually be used. Unlike Battle Medics and Fat Engineer Scouts (Fat Heavy Scouts have the health pool to be able to actually take damage, Gun Spies work fine if you can actually aim), Demoknights actually can get some stuff done. So I don’t really want to see Demoknights utterly destroyed and nerfed into the ground and generally only used as a joke thing. And I don’t really mind being killed by a Splendid Screen or a Chargin’ Targe Demoknight since I can generally avoid them.

The biggest problem currently is that the Tide Turner does what the other shields do but a billion times better. It does way too much. It’s an obnoxious git. Why take the other shields when you’re more mobile as a Scout with the Tide Turner? What we need to do is chop up all the pros and cons for each shield and hand them out fairly.

What are the pros? We have:

• Turning while charging
• Shield Bash
• Shield Bash at any distance
• Resistance to explosive damage
• Resistance to fire damage
• Immunity to afterburn
• Refill charge after a kill

Out of all those, the only one the Tide Turner is missing is the Shield Bash at any distance and the immunity to afterburn. And the resistances that the Tide Turner has are HIGHER than those for the Splendid Screen. Way too much blue, not enough red. So what’s my proposition? Make it so every shield has its niche. The Targe is for tanking lots of damage, the Screen is for those who kill by bashing and the Tide Turner is for movement and escape. BUT all of these shields should have some degree of control. A quick note, the numbers here are just guesses, they’d have to be tested before being used.

The Chargin’ Targe
30% Fire Resistance
30% Explosive Resistance
30% Bullet Resistance
-50% Afterburn Duration
Can control direction up to 90 degrees
-15% Melee Damage

The Splendid Screen
15% Fire Resistance
15% Explosive Resistance
+50% Shield Bash Damage
Can deal charge impact damage at any range
Can control direction up to 150 degrees

The Tide Turner
Kills while recharging refill 100% of your charge meter
Full control while charging
-15 health

Hopefully, these all even things out a bit. You still have some control on all the shields, but the removal of the resistances on the Tide Turner means you’re not as much as a tank, forcing you into a more Scout-like hit and run play style rather than just charging in as if you’re Ubercharged. The Targe on the other hand allows you to be a literal tank, so you can charge in and distract while an Ubercharge comes around the corner. The Splendid Screen combines aspects of both, allowing you to more easily get picks and escape, but without the full mobility of the Tide Turner or the full tankiness of the Chargin’ Targe.

Basically, we just want to spread the insane power on the Tide Turner and give some of it to the other shields. Whether my idea is a good one or not, I don’t know, but since we don’t have a weapons testing system, who knows?