After playing NC MAX for a long period of time this is one thing i will certainly concede that needs to change for their ability to be on par with ZOE. In regards to the physics of shock waves this also makes a whole lot of sense, being behind a simple, single sided blast shield dramatically reduces to pressure from a blast wave, and thus the lethality. It shouldn't be 100% damage reduction but it should be at least 50-75% in my opinion, and works in tandem with flak armor. In the below video the first part is the arc where splash damage SHOULD be reduced, and the second part is when it SHOULDN'T be reduced. If you get hit detection from splash from 90 degrees (more or less) in front of you, the damage is reduced.
Are you implying that Aegis is ..OP? In it's 1st release version it didn't protect you from explosions you didn't face perfectly. It was so useless that players abandoned it for this kind application. It only returned with the block angle buff into ranged fights. If you remove the perfect absorb and reduce angles, then NC would need to switch back to charge! in open areas. As ZOE and lockdown offset distance penalties, this would just further increase the impotence of NC maxes at ranged fights. I've got personal stake on this.. my NC char is living lately on passive certificate income.. so whatever.
According to the most recent data Higby released, 27% or less of all NC players use NC Riot Shield. I was part of that 27% for about a day. I'm guessing the real figure is closer to 10-20%. Charge is superior in most situations. Riot shield is very situational, allows damage to bleed through, doesn't cover entire MAX, takes place of charge so you lose escape tool etc.
Aegis Shield seems like a very solid option at first, but after playing with it for longer periods of time, you will realize that it has so many weaknesses it's not really worthwhile, unless perhaps if you have a Engineer behind you to repair the 25% of all damage which will usually pass through from the front anyway.
I'm using the shield just because it looks cool, otherwise its not so useful as charge. Though I can shield myself from most explosions if you have the shield centered on them. I dont bother shooting AI mines when using ravens, I just poin the shield at the ground and walk on them. NC EOD at work
it used to have so much bleedthrough damage that it was useless, now it reliably blocks pretty much anything from the front, including C4s
When was this update? What was changed? I don't remember anything from the live patch notes. Was it Test only your referring to?
If I played an NC MAX I'd probably use the shield because half the time I use charge as an emergency button on my (TR) MAX character it uses up the cooldown/energy but I go nowhere and then faceplant a couple seconds later (which is why I just use Lockdown with Fractures - situational, but at least it functions when the situation comes up). Not sure what causes that. Might be crouching or sprinting related - doing something specific too close to when I press charge. Maybe my mouse button is just getting stuck down and firing, immediately interrupting the Charge - but that shouldn't drain all the Charge juice. I imagine part of the 'bleed through' damage is latency based - you're covered by the shield on your end, but on their end they have a clear shot around the shield at your MAX. No experience with actually using it to have a more solid idea.
I don't think this was ever announced. Not even as bug fix. It's just got fixed. Maybe it's unintended. In any case the shield started to work according to it's description about 3-4 patches ago. (not GU)
Adept is right, i'm not sure when it happened it was never announced, it just works now XD and nope not test, live its been working wonderfully for weeks!
