(Tower) Shield and Balance

[lucasphi]

Hi there,

I have a dwarf that uses tower shield and I was getting REALLY tired of getting triped by air elementals. As soon as I steped near them, i got blown off... And that happened freaking time. And I looked at the other players and that was only happening to me, and I had like 25-30 balance.

So, I was trying to figure out why that happened to me and not to them. And I realised that I was the only one wearing a (tower) shield. So, I equipped a great axe and surprise surprise, I didn't fall a single time fighting the air elementals.

So, here's my question: Do tower shields (or any other kind) affects your ability to stand? Cause I'm trying to build a tank but it's really hard to mantain agro if I cannot stand on my feet.

Thanks

[-Zyxas-]

Hi there,

I have a dwarf that uses tower shield and I was getting REALLY tired of getting triped by air elementals. As soon as I steped near them, i got blown off... And that happened freaking time. And I looked at the other players and that was only happening to me, and I had like 25-30 balance.

So, I was trying to figure out why that happened to me and not to them. And I realised that I was the only one wearing a (tower) shield. So, I equipped a great axe and surprise surprise, I didn't fall a single time fighting the air elementals.

So, here's my question: Do tower shields (or any other kind) affects your ability to stand? Cause I'm trying to build a tank but it's really hard to mantain agro if I cannot stand on my feet.

Thanks

Not sure, from your "testing" it sounds like there's some effect, but what I highlighted: bosses don't trip you or knock you over for the most part (conjoined abishai devastator overruns but only if you're too close), and you don't need to hate tank trash and you SHOULD be using that greataxe. If you put ranks and wear an item for it, intimidate gathers trash nicely if you still want to collect trash (even though casters and dps can easily take care of almost all trash and aggro management is almost never necessary for it).

[Malison]

So, here's my question: Do tower shields (or any other kind) affects your ability to stand? Cause I'm trying to build a tank but it's really hard to mantain agro if I cannot stand on my feet.

Shield's armor check penalty applies to your balance, but the real issue here is with air elementals. Characters holding shields simply do not succeed a check to stay standing against an air elemental. It's a publicly known issue, and it's not a problem with anything that you would actually be tanking.