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DeliciousSamosa's avatar
DeliciousSamosa
5 years ago

Let's talk about shields.

Shields are essential for team-based games such as BfN. But to no-one's surprise, some shields work better than others so I wanna discuss every shield and how well they do in team fights/chokepoints (Grab a drink, this post is huge!)

Citron's Peel Shield.

Arguably the best in the game. Huge health pool (600HP) gives it amazing offensive and defensive properties. Because of it's adequate surface area and damage absorption, it can be used on attack to help Plants push forward and force defenders to fall back. On defense however, it's not as great as on attack. While it can take a huge beating, it's surface area is simply not big enough to defend as many teammates as possible. A notable con is it's blind spots. Citron is completely defenseless anywhere that's not in his FOV. I'll set this scenario - A flanking Soldier uses a ZPG behind the unwary Citron, who is respectively vanquished by the Soldier. His team is now vulnerable to attacks. Smaller * include that of which Citron can't attack while using it; teammates can provide cover fire for the Citron so that isn't a problem (unless he is being bombarded by Zombies). It also takes some time to recharge to full health but Citron has very high HP so he could manage a while without it. It's biggest pro is that Citron moves with it. As I mentioned before, a large, moving shield is SO great for moving teams through chokes and onto objectives in team fights. The movement is initially slow but there are upgrades and Rose's Arcane Enigma that negate this. Other pros are as I mentioned before are it's high health and decent size. In conclusion, Citron's shield is great! Make sure you use it only when you need to as that health doesn't regenerate very fast.

Corn's Shogun Guard

Well... it's a Personal Shield to start off so it's low health pool (75HP) is respectable. The reason I don't think 75HP is good enough is because the shield doesn't completely protect Corn. Most players will notice his lower body is his weak spot which is left exposed by the shield so they shoot there instead of at the shield, completely negating the shield's functionality (the shield can catch a few bullets from the weapon's bullet spread). It only has 2 small pros - Corn can move and shoot while using it. Because the shield has small HP, he these pros don't go very far at all. * include slow recharge when destroyed, low HP, small protection surface area and low movement speed. In conclusion, all I think Corn needs is either a shield HP boost or bigger shield.

Super Brainz' Alpha Better Shield

For a personal shield this is a much better than Shogun Guard, correcting almost every problem that the latter had. It has a faster recharge, faster movement speed, more HP, bigger surface area. With the Extra Special upgrade, you can even attack with shield up! A significant con is how defenseless he is when it breaks. When it does break, SB is literally a sitting duck waiting for death. Hyper Jump Thump will not always close the gap between him and enemies Cacti and other longer ranged plants have a huge advantage. When it breaks, being able to deal huge damage to him while he literally cannot touch them. However it's recharge is pretty fast as I said before. In conclusion, his Personal Shield is good as it can move him through chokepoints quickly and safely. The only bad thing is that SB's character design limits can screw him at chokepoints and team fights if it breaks.

Space Cadet's Asteroid Shield

Another Personal Shield, intended to protect the Space Station and fellow Space Cadets. 125HP is good but what's busted is there are 3 of them making for 375 total shield HP. These shields also have good surface area so they can protect the Space Station from almost every direction. They can also shoot through the shields which is a nice pro. A con is the shield's very long recharge time. Space Station has a huge hitbox. It's also a top-priority target to Plants so straying without shields against many Plants is dangerous. A smaller con is that it can't defend from above and below. Garlic Drones can take advantage of this and when using Crater Maker, Plants can shoot at the weak spot. In conclusion, these shields are good at protecting Space Station but there could be a few improvements. 

All Star's Dummy Shield

Others would argue that this shield is the best in game (In my opinion, Citron's is better). What's funny is that this shield is like the opposite of Citron's shield. This shield can't move whereas Citron's can which is a con. This shield shield has an easy counter (the Dummy) whereas Citron isn't easy to counter which also a con. This shield has lower HP which isn't ideal for a defense shield in a team fight. Now, everything that this shield does right. Massive surface area which is amazing for defense and offense. The shield has a long duration and a respectable recharge time. This shield has no blindspot (This is the one feature that every other shield doesn't have) which is also amazing. This shield excels in temporarily protection teammates in chokepoints. It suffers in team fights from huge focus fire and priority. In conclusion, this shield can contest for best in the game for it's amazing defense properties.

A side note is that shield physics in this game. Splash damage that isn't directly absorbed by a shield still does damage to the shield user which odd. For example, if a Peashooter outside of Dummy Shield's dome shoots Pea Cannon to the floor and a Zombie is inside that dome, they still take damage which doesn't make sense. I hope this is fixed soon.

Which do you think is better? Citron's offense shield? Or All-Star's Defense Shield? Lemme know 😉

4 Replies

  • TheSprinter85's avatar
    TheSprinter85
    Hero
    5 years ago

    @DeliciousSamosa  I use shields a lot and I think they are a great feature in this game, so I'll provide some of my feedback about these shields myself. I've used each one multiple times before, so I will give some feedback on each of them.

    Citron's Peel Shield: It is not an ability, but you can't attack while using it. It has a lot of health, and the aim of it is to protect you and your team. However, while your shield is active, you move really slow. If you are by yourself, you can't do a whole lot with it if under heavy fire, as using the shield negates your ability to fight back. However, as the shield is wide and has a lot of health (the most of any shield) and you can take it with you, it is handy in a lot of situations. The shield plays a large part in this character's role, to protect you and your team is one of Citron's main roles, as a tank. 

    All Star's Dummy Shield: It is an ability, and you can attack while using it. It has decent health, and you can easily provide you and your teammates some cover using this ability, especially under heavy fire. However, the centre of the dummy is very vulnerable so you need to be cautious of plants that get close to your shield. But it has the unique ability to shield attacks from all directions, making it less likely for you and your team to get flanked. The shield plays a large part in this character's role, like Citron, to protect you and your team. As he is a tank, this shield is designed to protect your team. even though it has less health than Citron's. It also has a long cooldown and goes away on its own if some time has passed and it has not been destroyed. However, it is much larger and you and your allies can fire your weapons and use your abilities while in the shield, and All-Star gets two character upgrades for his shield at Master.

    Super Brainz Alpha Better Shield: It is not an ability, and you can't attack while using it. It has moderate health, and it has a unique ability where you move faster while your Shield is active, meaning you can close gaps faster. It also has another unique ability where the shield regenerates instantly after destroyed or you deactivate it. You can use this to get somewhere more quickly without needing to use your Hyper Jump Thump ability. Despite it being a personal shield, it can still be used to some extent for team shielding, and you can use the shield to negate critical hits you would take, especially against Cactuses. But the main use of the shield is to close the distance towards enemies relatively safely. 

    Space Cadet Passenger's Asteroid Shield: It is an ability, and you can attack while using it. It is moderate health, and you can use it to protect most of the station you are attached to. A fully loaded station can have up to 3 of these active at once. A Space Station is already very tanky on its own, so by having passengers attached, and with shield, you become almost an invincible moving fortress. However, once a shield is destroyed, there is a moderate cooldown before the shield can be reactivated. These shields are designed to exclusively protect the attached Space Station. But it can somewhat be used to protect the whole team, because the plants are likely to attack the loaded space station first anyway. The Cadet that uses the shield can rotate it to block attacks from different directions. 

    Shogun-Guard Corn's Shield: It is not an ability, and you can attack (among other stuff) while using it. It has low health, but it has the unique ability to be active while attacking, reloading and when activating the Butter Beacon ability. The shield is very versatile. The Shogun-Guard shield you get is not an ability, but it comes with the Shogun-Guard upgrade and costs 5 points, so it is expensive nevertheless. Despite the shield having very low health and not covering all of your front, the upgrade itself gives you an upgraded primary weapon which is more accurate and damaging, giving a higher DPS (at the cost of speed and ammo). So having the shield is a nice added bonus. It is also handy as you can negate critical hits as well with it if you activate it at the right time, including from Snipers.

    THE BEST SHIELD: Either Citron's or All Star's, as their shields have high health and are designed for team protection.

    Thank you all for reading! 🙂

  • Gormey's avatar
    Gormey
    5 years ago

    Only shield I have a problem with is space station.  Even after nerf it's still a lobby killer for two or more cadets.  Every other day I see a group join team vanquish and play space station to clearly have a laugh and kill the lobby and even the best players are helpless.

    Very frustrating.

  • TheSprinter85's avatar
    TheSprinter85
    Hero
    5 years ago

    @Ninja2Blade  Good point. Having the Shogun-Guard shield active negates critical hits as well as hopefully reducing the damage that you take. It's understandable that it has very low health and that it's a personal shield, but it has some really good uses (you can block a full ZPG with it, I've tried), and I find it very handy to have especially in 1v1 situations and when reviving allies. You can pull it up at any time without the use of an ability. It's my favourite shield type in BfN so far.

    @Gormey  I've teamed up with Space Cadets often. I've found that, from my experience, the shield is very overpowered and still should have a nerf by my opinion. A station can have up to 3 shields (for a total of 375 shield health, 125 per active asteroid shield) so reducing the health of these shields further (to 100 health or something) would probably be better. You shouldn't be able to easily dominate lobbies using loaded space stations.

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