Hey Jon, The new SoC is good but.... (in General)

Please make it work for magic and physical.

Then it may have a decent shot at being used.

True, I'll second that request.

/signed

Why do people need it for magical? The combo of AMF and mage shield do something along those lines.

It's never bothered the mage shield being only good for one thing. I say leave it to what it does.

JW,

To make it worthwhile.

As I see it, from the top ranks mind you, there are equal mages and tanks. Esp at the very top. At least who I fight.

The MgS is far superior then the SoD in almost every way.

Given they are both power shields, even TOA tanks cannot use it.

Therefore something needs to happen to make it a viable option.

Otherwise people would be very smart to just use the MgS. The SoC given no advantages on other characters except perhaps some enchanters in front, but then they will never use the special ability of retaliation.

If you played a tank now, you would see how pitiful the SoC really is and how much better, far better, the MgS is at all around fighting. And the MS is far better if your concentrating on tanks.

If the SoC blocked up to 40% of damage, then it is a good alternative to the MgS.

However, even at +32, it will block only 8-10%. It costs about 30M to get it to +32.

So, as discussed in a prior thread, what would you rather have?

30% magic or 8-10% physical?

Easy choice for all around gameplay, even if you do not attack many mages, due to farming.

Now if the SOC worked for magic and physical, then you have a nice choice.

40% magic or 8-10% magic and physical with the chance, if you hit and use a hammer to do reflection damage.

That is a choice I would like to see.

Sorry for the triple post but:

A Mage Shield [0] (+46) worth $15,877,243 owned by Windwalker (Yanki)

Take the 10% away per the new changelog and your at about 40% magical reduction for 15M.

I still don't see why it needs to be changed. Ok, so it might not be as 'useful' as a mage shield. But making something one size fits all is just screaming out 'make me indispensible'. Especially as it doesn't have a penalty to spells.

And what happens to the poor old mage shield then?

The mage shield can be used if you do not use a mace, or if you concentrate on mages. Or do not use AMF.

But right now, the SoC is next to useless. Just look at the ones out there now. I have the highest and nobody else bothered to make one even medium high.

There is useful, then USEFUL, then useless.

The SoC right now is useless.

Mage Shields get put on Walls... I like this idea, because otherwise changing to a MoD/SoC is a terrible idea unless your tank is losing to tank teams. In which case the least of your strategy problems is with tanks.

I do take some of what I stated back.

It does have a use on enchanters. With no penalty, it can lower physical damage by about 10%. However, enchanters typically die quickly in battle and I do not know if a new item that only helps enchanters is something to get excited about.

Do you want it to be a rather cheap mageshield without the penalties?

And how do suggest this to work?

Have you not read my posts Henk?

It will absorb/block magical damage like physical.

For 32M you get +30 which is about 8-10%. A far cry from the 40% MgS we now see. But having it work vs both magical and physical may make it a useful item.

I am trying to find a way to actually make the SOC a useful item.

If a small penalty is involve, that would be OK by my and only my point of view.

However, as it is now, it is a paperweight. Very good idea, just there are better options.

And I know what is to come next... "Just nerf the MgS more".. yada yada yada.

I have to agree with ranger on this particular topic. Even if you nerf the MGS into oblivion, you're still looking at the Mithril Shield and Buckler of Mandos being more useful for... well, just about anything. The MS will mitigate more damage for less investment, and the BoM is immensely useful for ST tanks.

Essentially, half the use of the SoC is being wasted, because it's restricted to only one weapon type, and only one type of damage absorption. Expand the SoC to include DD, and expand the damage return to include all weapon types, then you'll have a useful new power shield.

I would not go so far as to have it reflect for every weapon. Remember edged weapons got a nice boost with the new cap and other item for PTH.

However making it work for magic and physical will help it a lot.

Now if you make it work for the RBF........

Ranger, Ranger, Ranger, you do make me laugh. We have a new shield; one that not only defends against physical damage but it allows a hammer wielding tank to return that damage on top of it's own. It even stacks with bloodlust's new component. It could have been designed for you. We might as well call it Ranger's SoC.

Nothing is ever going to be good enough for you unless it's all things is it?

JW,

Have you asked how it works for me?

Using it that is?

I lose 3 people off my fightlist. And another 2 mages are freaking close.

Yes, it was perfectly designed for me... to LOSE.

But thanks for noticing how 'good' it is for me. Yes, lose the MgS and its 44% magic protection for gaining 8% physical protection. And I hit a bit harder with my MH.

Still laughing? Please show me a tank who will use the SoC and keep his score the same. Over the MgS or even a MS.

Still laughing? I think not. Best to look at the real stats and gameplay before going after me.

Not every suggestion I make you should take the opposite approach. Once in a while I make a good one.

"Ranger, Ranger, Ranger, you do make me laugh. We have a new shield; one that not only defends against physical damage but it allows a hammer wielding tank to return that damage on top of it's own. It even stacks with bloodlust's new component. It could have been designed for you. We might as well call it Ranger's SoC.

Nothing is ever going to be good enough for you unless it's all things is it?"

First off, the issue ranger has had isn't dealing damage, it's actually landing hits on evasion minions. The SoC doesn't help that in any way, shape, or form.

Secondly, as I said earlier, everything that the SoC can do, various other shields can already do, and do it better. The MS absorbs more damage, the BoM inflicts more damage, and the MGS absorbs magical damage. And considering most minions serve one purpose or another, and not all at once, the use of this hybrid piece is extremely limited. It's an attempt at a "hybrid" shield... without the actual hybrid part. (I.E. It does several things at once, but only does them within a severely limited scope)

After some testing with Rangers big old SoC, it became clear this shield is lacking in a few areas.

Against the VB its quite useless, more so that the snicker snacker eats right through it.
Against robfs it even more useless, it doesn't stop any damage at all.

At its best it only reduced a 80k blow to 70k blow. Which is quite pathetic, this shield does need a boost. Make it react to magic and robf damage.

The only good thing about this shield is its 0 penalties. perfect for mages and enchanters alike :)

Armageddon is here.

Henk and I agree on something!!!!

lol, Greyfeld, where did evasion come into this? Lets leave that out for a while shall we?

Ranger, I'm not taking the opposite view purely for taking the opposite view. I am still laughing though. ;)

I am, however, wondering why we need this particular item to be less....narrow in it's focus. Broaden it's focus the way you're suggesting and that's instant redundancy for the mage shield isn't it? Because, even if it's damage absorption factor is less, it has far less penalty for use.

Personally if I was to move more to what you're talking about I'd suggest making the mage shield a mage version of what the SoC does. Then you have to choose between one or the other. Mix in Greyfeld's suggestion of broadening the weapons that can be used to reflect damage, add the ability for mages to do the same. Then get rid of the mage shield altogether.

SoC (physical) AND SoC (magical). We have way too many options available to us at the moment after all the 'special items'. Too much choice possibly. Lets get some of the more difficult thinking back into strategy.

So has this turned into another "nerf" the MgS?

It already had its nerf this month, 10%.

So let us move past that and try to make the new shield useful.

Sometimes an item too narrow in its focus is just plain useless.

Especially when 3 other shields are much more useful.

Please do not try to tell me that the SoC is better used then the MgS, MS or BoM. I do not think anyone that plays a tank will use one over the other options.

----lol, Greyfeld, where did evasion come into this? Lets leave that out for a while shall we? ----

I only commented on evasion, because your comment about ranger not being happy was based completely and utterly on his complaints on evasion, and missed the point of his current issue with the new shield. So please, understand what I am saying before you point your finger and say I'm going off topic.

----I am, however, wondering why we need this particular item to be less....narrow in it's focus. Broaden it's focus the way you're suggesting and that's instant redundancy for the mage shield isn't it? Because, even if it's damage absorption factor is less, it has far less penalty for use. ----

Wrong, because the sheer massive numbers the MGS has over the SoC is what will keep the MGS in rotation. No matter what you say, having 400% (just using the numbers that have been thrown out thusfar... 8-10% on the SoC, and 40-ish% on the MGS) more damage reduction is going to still keep the shield useful for the teams that focus on reducing DD.

----SoC (physical) AND SoC (magical). We have way too many options available to us at the moment after all the 'special items'. Too much choice possibly. Lets get some of the more difficult thinking back into strategy. ----

Part of critical thinking is having to decide between many difficult options. Currently, SoC isn't a difficult option. It's a no-brainer. Junk your SoC and pick up something more useful.

Where did I suggest nerf the mage shield? I like the mage shield plenty just as it is.

No, what I'm concerned about is that, by making the SoC work against mages, you would be making the lovely mage shield a bit...redundant.

Oh well. It's been a little while now since I played a tank. Maybe you're right and I should actually try it in your situation.

The jury's still out in this corner on the SoC. I'll wait and see how it turns out on a particular strategy I've heard is in the pipeline. ;)

"I only commented on evasion, because your comment about ranger not being happy was based completely and utterly on his complaints on evasion"


Not true actually. Evasion's so....yesterday. And if you were to look back over our exchanges over the...years now...there are far more subjects than evasion for me to base that comment on!


;)

Honestly, the SoC gives the biggest edge vs other tanks. But in this case, the "edge" is a bit subjective, because you could get more damage out of the BoM, or more mitigation out of the MS. SoC is kind of the balance between the two.

However, Tanks have never had problems fighting other tanks. You get more PTH, play with evasion, up your dex, increase or decrease your AC as necessary. It's mages that tanks have always had a problem with, which is why the MGS is so popular. Since this is the case, having an anti-tank SoC that only benefits other tanks is sort of redundant, considering that's absolutely NOT what was needed, when it comes to improving the fightlist for said tanks.

It might be a little more useful to more people if it could simply be used with a tattoo. I know that goes against the Power Shield motif, I'm just saying.

JW,

Look at it this way.

Using a +45 MgS for about 15M vs a +32 SoC for 32M. Assuming money not really an object.

For the MgS you get 40% magic reduction. Nothing vs tanks.

For the SoC you get 8% (on average) physical reduction. Nothing vs mages.

One advantage, rather nice, is that the SoC has no restrictions. But I counter to you that almost every tank who is not ToA will not have DD/ED/EO spells. Yes, perhaps there is the straggler, but most do not. Unless single minion and then if they use a tattoo, they have to use a MS or non rare one.

Given the 5:1 ratio of damage reduction on the MgS vs the SoC vs each type of damage, one will have to fight 5x more tanks then mages to see a return to make them equal.

Now if you only fight mostly tanks, you will be setup for tanks and mages will kick your butt and farm you to death. Something not a lot of people wish to happen. But some do and the SoC is great for them.

Now take the SoC's extra benefit, the return of "stored" damage.

It has a host of negatives:
1) You have to hit. Something not all tanks can do.
2) You have to use a mace type weapon. This is less a negative as MH's are the predominant weapon out there.
3) You have to wait till melee to actually hit. With no MgS, FB really hurts and CoC starts in the last missile round and does a lot of damage. This is where the MgS really helps. Letting melee tanks live to melee.
4) Missile using tanks really do not need its special ability due to the fact they do not use maces/MH's due to ENC loads now in the game.

So I am proposing, and some others are chiming in to have it work vs physical and magic.

Then it will work 8% vs magical and 8% vs physical. Not really a "poor man's" MgS as it is 1/5th as good.

Compared to the 40% MgS it still is less protection overall, and mace users have to still try to live to melee to get its special ability.

Others have asked for it to work vs the RBF as well. IMO that is a great thing, making it work vs all 3 types of damage but that may overpower it a bit, but likely not with the increase in RBF damage that occurred this month.

To summarize:

If the SoC worked vs both physical and magical, then I would really consider using it. The RBF is not a problem for me so that is a moot point.

But I know if it worked vs all 3 types of damage, others would have a nice conundrum on using the MS, MgS or SoC.

That is choice, where as Greyfeld eloquently put it there is not really one now.

j'bob,

If it can be used with a tattoo, it would be the only shield TOA users would equip.

Not much of a choice needs to be made there.

And JW is 100% correct. If/when I see something in the game that is unbalanced, I voice (figuratively speaking) my opinion on it.

If people agree, great. If not, some great debates have occurred.

But I do understand your point JW. I think the numbers/stats, can prove mine.

But then again JW,

Even if the SoC helped reduce magic damage by 8%, I seriously doubt i would be able to use it. As a large part of my strategy is surviving to melee.

The MgS lets me do that vs all the magic spells. I do not think the SoC will.

What good is doing tons of extra damage if your dead before you even swing?

I think other tanks will find the same.

I agree that as it stands it's not ideal for you, even though I do suspect it was created with you in mind! But I still think, despite how many might be in circulation that making it an all singing all dancing item would have an impact on the mage shield.

I do agree that making it work against all the types of damage out there would be...overpowered. But, actually that I might approve of. Sort of. To an extent. Maybe.

How about some temporary changes Jon? Lets see what it does in the form Ranger suggests.

Agreed with what Ranger said. Signed!

The SoC absorbs damage and then adds that absorbed damage as bonus damage on the minion's next attack with his MH (basically; if you have SoC, your minion's going to using a MH). After 5 rounds of being blasted with DD spells (compounded with the already affected missle weapons) that bonus damage for the first round of melee is going to be devastating.

Moreover when melee rounds come, I assume that Decay is a much more commonly abused in the higher ranks than where I'm at. While I'm not exactly sure how Decay works in actual play (theorically, it neatly slices hp through the middle; but after AMF, AC, and magical damage reduction, I don't have a clue), (10%*1 million damage Decay) another 100k bonus damage sounds just a wee bit daunting. Should this be taken into account?

But on the other hand, drastically increasing the physical damage reduction rate (to make SoC not useless) would either undermine SoM or MS. Making the SoC work for magic seems to be the only alternative. Or the SoC can be a ToC, if you know what I mean. Just some thoughts I had, as I was reading through this thread and furthering my understanding of all things CB.

"After 5 rounds of being blasted with DD spells (compounded with the already affected missle weapons) that bonus damage for the first round of melee is going to be devastating."

The SoC does nothing for all that magic damage you take.

it does not absorb it or return it.

It does for missile damage, but one would be better off using a MS for its AC vs the SoC. Especially if one wants to live long enough to try to attack in melee vs archers/SOD/xbow users.

"The SoC does nothing for all that magic damage you take.
it does not absorb it or return it."

With the SoC at it's current state, no. What I meant was if your suggestion is take into effect.

Ah, true.

But then again, a melee tank has to:

1) Live though all that magic damage without a MgS and its 5x better magic protection.

2) Hit your opponent.

At least though, it would be something to consider.

Also,

I would assume Decay is unaffected by the SoC as it is by the MgS and TOE.

Only AMF seems to work vs Decay, even AC does nothing.

Okay, the Decay part was more troubling to me than the "first attack" part, but since you clarified that up, this suggest gets my vote. /signed.

one thing that i really respect in jon is his ability to come up with interesting items that inspire new strategies. i am troubled by the constant desire of many in the game to modify the items to fit current strategies instead of being inspired to create new strategies to maximize items capabilities. this mindset seems to have gotten worse as xp has become so valuable at the top and i guess that is understandable.

for this reason i am against this change and furthermore would be shocked if jon went along with it. just as with the robf, i would say give it some time. if it still needs balancing after people have time to come up with new strategies around it, then buff its current abilities rather than turning it into something else entirely. forcing tanks to pick targets and make a choice between mages or other tanks is exactly what rock, paper & scissors is about no?

"So, as discussed in a prior thread, what would you rather have?

30% magic or 8-10% physical?"


Interesting. But I think there's something missing -- the MS.

MgS - Lots of magical blocking
MS - Moderate magical blocking, moderate physical blocking
SOC - XXXX of physical blocking

The logical extension of this is that the SOC will have "lots of physical blocking", right? But as you point out, this is not so.

Further, we have this:

MgS +46 = $15,877,243
MS [20] +55 = $15,618,000

MgS - 40% magical
MS - 13% physical, 10% magical

Plus the kicked.... The MS allows a tattoo.................

kicker*

NS,

In many threads past, I compared the MgS, MS and SoC. The SoC fails in almost all attempts to use it, or even as some say "base a strategy on it".

However, Just because I cannot, does not mean it cannot be done.

I hope someone smarter then me can.

For NS from the changelog items 2 thread:

Well there are a lot of negatives about the new shield:

1) You have to wait till melee to be able to absorb/deal the damage. That alone is 7 rounds into most battles.

2) No AC.

3) No protection vs magic.

Now here is my thinking about it:
Using: MgS +35 = 2.5M NW, MS +42 = 2.5M NW, SoC + 24 ~ 2.5M NW.

Typically I fight 1/2 mages and 1/2 tanks, give or take.

So the MgS works 50% of the time for about 35% magic reduction (given an average cost). Has little dex/skill penalty. Cannot be used with a tattoo.

The MS works 50% of the time vs tanks and 50% of the time vs mages. The benefit is (say for +42) 9% vs tanks and mages. Remember the benefit of its AC gets magnified by a TOE. And more AC on a wall with a TOE works much better. Higher dex/skill penalty CAN be used with a tattoo.

The SOC works only vs tanks. A typical upgrade of +24 lowers damage before the TOE also by 6-8% It does give back absorbed damgae which is a plus. It grants no AC so it does nothing vs magic. No dex/skill penalty and cannot be used with a tattoo.

So it all depends on what you want:

35% magic reduction 50% of the time = 17.5% effective usage

9% damge reduction both physical and magic = 9% effective usage

6-8% physical damage reduction 50% of the time = 3-4% effective usage + dealing damage on next hit-if you can hit that is.

Since a mace using tank has to try to live in order to try to hit to try to deal the absorbed damage, your better off using either the MgS if you fight more mages, or perhaps a MS if you fight all characters.

Perhaps and only perhaps if you fight melee only tanks and no missile users, the SoC may be better.

Also, remember that if you have PL/TSA HP battery, you will not absorb any damage unti lthat battery is dead and your minion takes actual damage, which may delay the cool feature of the SoC.

Therefore, I give the hypothesis that the new shield, while tres nice, is about as useless for most tanks as AG's are to mages. Good in specialized situations but most of the time, other items are better (ie NSC).

wouldn't it be the best choice for a tank-busting tank strategy?

The number at the time were based on the old AC.

The MS now at +42 without SS skill does 7%. Still better then the SoC NOT counting its special ability.

Dude,

Your certainly right.

I pointed this out in many of my posts about it.

It can have a very specific use.

Likely not vs missile tanks as you would use the MS to try to live long enough to start attacking and letting them miss with the missile in melee penalties. You likely will not need the SoCs extra damage since you will be hitting and they will likely not.

So it can be extremely well used in a melee tank vs melee tank battle. No taking damage waiting to attack and with a MH can deal tons of damage.

However if your entire fightlist is not comprised of melee tanks, and your not one yourself, the MS or MgS is a far superior choice.

okay, i just wanted to verify since you made this statement.

"The SoC fails in almost all attempts to use it, or even as some say "base a strategy on it"

that makes it seem totally worthless and i think that it is quite worthwhile given the right strategy. the mixture of facts and hyperbole can be confusing at times.

Dude,

Right now, with apologies to Jon (I think it has the potential to be a nice item), the SoC has the same place as the Mithril Cuirass.

Someone, somewhere can base a strategy on it. However to do so will have to sacrifice a lot to gain a little.

In almost every situation, even melee tank vs melee tank battles, the MS or MgS would be superior.

However, I am not the all knowing strategy guru of CB. Never thought I was. But in my mind, I cannot think of a strategy where it is more useful then the other 2 or 3 rare shields.

Please, someone come up with one. I really want to see it. If it is good, with my MH, perhaps I would copy it.

With a huge TOE to reduce magic damage, a very high AMF (5M), ethereal chains to reduce evasion, and a ginormous MH, it really does seem to want to be the perfect item for my type of character. A mace wielding melee tank.

However using it over the MgS results in 3 losses and 2 near calls. With the MgS, mages are much easier.

I will give you, with the SoC, some tanks like Freed become very easy. But they were before. Perhaps on a Koy vs Koy type of battle, it will be outstanding, and maybe the balance tipper. But to lose 3 to gain 1 is not a good trade-off.

perhaps the item is not for the destination but the journey then? i would counter that basing item design choices in cb for the top ten is probably not a good trade-off either, nor should it be expected. there are many more players moving up through the ranks than there are in the top.

specialized strategies that have limited but higher score targets are crucial to getting a good challenge bonus and growing at a steady pace throughout the game. we need items for that in the game as well as good utility items that are more usable by more strategies no?

Certainly Dude,.

I am sure one can say that about any rare. I guess even the MC has its place.

I think this will be just as useful. Not that many use a specialized melee tank only strategy to take full advantage of the SoC. And fewer have only a melee tank only fightlist.

But I guess perhaps 1 or 2 people may want to take that type of journey. I guess we should leave the SoC as it is for those people. And forget about the rest who would consider it with a buff. From the lowest to the highest characters.

Of the many people I conversed with in chat, they cannot come up with a good use for the SoC. Even those outside the top 10, or even 50.

I hope someone can to prove me wrong.

I've just added two tank teams to my fightlist, by adding a +14 SoC to my mage. Doesn't seem too shabby a result for simply adding it to my team. But then again, my team is pretty strong against mage teams already.

JW now try adding an MS and see if it's better. You didn't have a shield there before right?

No, you're right I didn't: I'll try and see...

Ok, I'm not going to get scientific on you all, I'll leave number crunching to the experts. But I get similar results in damage against one of the tanks I've added; the SoC is a +14, the MS is a +54. Without either of the shields I lose against them. The MS just pips the SoC in terms of reduction. But it's a small (and I mean tiny) margin.

The MS is about 13 million NW, the SoC is about 300k.

I'm starting to realise though that I was probably on the tip of winning against this particular person. It only needed a small amount of damage reduction most likely. Especially after the changes last week.

It is interesting to me that the difference in performance isn't much. But the MS does have reduction against magic going for it. Not that I need that.

It's probably fair to say that you should all ignore me in this post until I'm absolutely certain of what's made the difference!

im pretty sure SOC could be used together with VA and a hammer weapon to form an effective "extra HP if you survive to melee" but otherwise ... i would agree it suxs pretty much atm

"QBRanger, June 22 10:20 PM EDT
For NS from the changelog items 2 thread:

Well there are a lot of negatives about the new shield:

1) You have to wait till melee to be able to absorb/deal the damage. That alone is 7 rounds into most battles. "

If you read the thread you'll see that you absorb the damage from the start of the battle. The only aspect of it that requires melee is the hammer wielder dealing out that damage in reflection.

But that aside; after sleeping on it, I can't see why not make it work for magic and physical. One more bit of magic reduction in the game doesn't hurt.

i would prefer the physical aspect to be strengthened rather then adding magic resistance... we already have a sheild that does both... MS

Through a battle there are on an average more physical hits than magical(as tanks are hitting multiple times per round).
So MS and SoC finds use more than MGS.
Don´t forget this.

That's actually a really good point. Multiple hits stack up pretty fast.

It's actually no good to you if you're running evasion either. You want to be hit while you're wearing this.

"I hope someone can to prove me wrong."

i have no idea yet if anyone will either, in all fairness though it may take more than a week for this to happen!

if by next changemonth, only 1 or 2 people are actually using the item as you foretell, then i have great confidence that jon will choose an appropriate method of making it more useful. i just don't see any reason to jump to conclusion after a few days.

And of course I will come back to penalties. This shield doesn't hit my DD for SEVEN percent unlike the MS. That's a pretty big hit when you've a DD that's sitting at nearly 3.5 million...

JW,

Yes, It absorbs from round 1, but you cannot use its "special" ability until round 7. The return of damage. I should have been clearer on it.

And Dude,
Perhaps that is what will happen.

But due to past changemonths, it seems we go from something being underpowered to overpowering. Reference the RBF and evasion on that.

All I am suggesting is making it worth something now. Instead of being a 3 month paperweight.

I seriously have no idea why your so against a change for it, given the fact most of the community, even those that standardly disagree with me are for it.

But the again,

Perhaps yours is the voice of reason and mine is the voice of haste.

I think all the discussions have been noted by Jon and we shall see what happens.

OK,

Using a +26 named SoC on my wall vs Freed and this:
SoD of Dee's Pair [5x8500] (+262) worth $251,588,541 owned by Freed (The End of Deus)

Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [267700], The Grid [63618]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [328396], The Grid [68815]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [277516], The Grid [64000]
Cloudscape regenerated 136,000 HP
The Grid regenerated 120,000 HP

Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [274030], The Grid [65357]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [194622], The Grid [57973]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [183819], The Grid [65790]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [378661], The Grid [72223]
Cloudscape regenerated 136,000 HP
The Grid regenerated 120,000 HP

Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [349591], The Grid [72334]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [143406], The Grid [54650]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [371815], The Grid [82839]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [208265], The Grid [59111]
Cloudscape regenerated 136,000 HP
The Grid regenerated 120,000 HP

Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [231371], The Grid [60746]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [338657], The Grid [73591]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [168021], The Grid [57964]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [178158], The Grid [61928]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [228784], The Grid [66814]
Exacerbation cries "cluck cluck cluck!"


Using a + 53 named MS, about 5M more NW but that is only +1 or 2 to the SOC difference:

Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [107592], The Grid [56111]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [332865], The Grid [79349]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [112906], The Grid [54405]
Cloudscape regenerated 136,000 HP
The Grid regenerated 120,000 HP

Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [144841], The Grid [70778]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [127215], The Grid [68018]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [145963], The Grid [62495]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [127461], The Grid [59400]
Cloudscape regenerated 136,000 HP
The Grid regenerated 120,000 HP

Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [123787], The Grid [58505]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [135962], The Grid [67745]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [145105], The Grid [66552]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [140343], The Grid [60450]
Cloudscape regenerated 136,000 HP
The Grid regenerated 120,000 HP

Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [128989], The Grid [62540]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [177602], The Grid [65580]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [135304], The Grid [70537]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [233627], The Grid [76347]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [121162], The Grid [49132]
Cloudscape regenerated 136,000 HP
The Grid regenerated 120,000 HP

Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [296114], The Grid [77370]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [142446], The Grid [71796]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [295492], The Grid [73728]
Exacerbation's explosive shot hit Cloudscape [294058], The Grid [79688]

So, is the SoC useful? Apparently not as a damage reducer vs the MS, but it does have the advantage of no penalties. I do use a TOE and that may make a difference as well.

But without magic protection as well, why bother with it? Use a MS and take the penalty, live longer to deal damage.

i think you would have better luck asking for a buff of its current abilities rather than asking for jon to add new abilities. after the power shield change though i wish you much luck as i would equip one in a heartbeat.

Well it needs some sort of buff.

More physical damage protection or protection vs both types of main damage.

Either way, with the changes to power shields, I do not see tattoo using minions rushing out to equip the SoC.

In fact, even GL agrees this shield is lacking.

Yup.

It's just not good enough. +20 to get on average a 5% Damage reduction? And seeing as the biggest defense for Physical Damage is Evasion, it suffers from the old CoBF flaw.

Magical damage hurts when it hits, and a MGS is a god send. But with a tiny Damage reduction, your best bet is to just dodge those hits, rather than try to take just to power up your shield by a tiny amount.