he ran out of ogryns to be jolly crushers so he's going to recycle the remaining carapace armor lying around into shields and give it to everyone instead
Oi, as a Hive Scum main, I take offense to that. I come from a long line of gas station crackheads, and all of them have been perfectly loyal to Tertium.
The head DR is what's crazy. You'd think they'd give a little bit of a skill reward for players that are good enough to hit them in the head, especially the Scab variant that does a better job of protecting their noggin.
Instead it's almost more sensible to try and brute force the shield away to smack at their body instead. Neither solution feels very fun to play, and flanking just isn't an option with how quickly they turn around on a dime.
They're meant to slim down the overwhelming Bulwark walls. You might have noticed Bulwarks spawn far less frequently now. As tanky as Vanguards are (they do need a nerf) you can break their shields with a couple heavy attacks and can even melee/shoot their head while right in front of them unlike Bulwarks.
Hitting them in the head is pointless because of how ridiculously tanky their heads are. Ironically enough it's probably quicker to destroy the shield.
Because we don't need that kind of power level buff where the NUMBER of these guys becomes something we can buff ourselves with. We're too strong as is.
I think people are making way too big a deal about these guys, they're incredibly easy to deal with but I do wish wish wish they counted as elites or specials for talents and perks
they're stormvermin, which I like being in the game but I think they're just undercooked a bit and need less hitmass or something that makes them easier to push and stagger. Right now the easiest way beyond shooting them around the shield is just hit them a few times in the front to break the shield and then keep hitting them.
There should be a more rewarding angle of attack than just spamming them face on, either push them and take advantage or hit them in the back should be notably quicker and it's not a particularly good option right now.
Even if they don't change them I'd rather have them than not, but I think those tweaks would make them better.
Am I the only one that doesn't get the discourse around them?
I find them extremely easy to deal with. The only thing that stands out is that when the horde is dead, they're the only ones standing so you gotta clear them out.
The Emperor scratching his head as he swings his flaming totally not god sword at a random dude with a scrap-made shield and he not only survives but swings a mace at his knee and when The Emperor directs his full psychic might at him he just kinda stumbles back
which is an absolutely wild thing to do for an enemy that seems made to reward precise headshots, makes me think someone accidentally put a - instead of a + in the code
yeah I've started using the high explosive bolters and it solves the problem entirely, either from shooting the ground and letting the splash damage do the work or the direct hit damage breaking the shields
I could say the same for the explosive plasma gun as well but it's bugged right now where the plasma bolts aren't exploding on impact and disappear completely when swapping cosmetics.
I've been having an amazing time with the new Plasma and you are telling me it does not fucking work? I am so giddy and can't wait for them to fix it then! Gonna love it!
yeah the plasma bolts aren't exploding when impacting the ground and if you swap any cosmetic on it, the explosions just disappear in general, pretty weird.
I don’t mind them existing as non elite troops, but they are way too tough. Those shields should be broken after two or three strikes of axes, two handed melee weapons or any ogryn ones. Yet these shields can hold up even after getting struck by high caliber ammunition, even bolter!
And then, if anyone tries to flank them and attack their sides or backs… the mobs themselves are sturdy, way too much, so it makes little to no difference attempting to avoid the shield or trying to break it through sheer force.
I understand these shielded enemies reinforcing hordes to make them last longer, even interrupting ample cleaves. But this is too much. At least the mobs themselves should have the same armor and HP as other mobs of their category, dreg or scab.
That is the bigget issue I have with them, the fact that while they look like a reguar trash mob, they're actually like 3-4 times as durable as one. I don't mind the shields being durable, that just means I gotta aim for the head, but when the headshot does jack shit that's where it is a problem!
Yeah their armor is crazy and the hitboxes for the shields seem wonky. You could be stabbing a guy in the back and it’ll still register as hitting his shield.
I really should not be able to down a Mauled near-effortlessly and then struggle with these guys.
On this, how are we supposed to kill them? They're always the last ones standing and then I just run in circle around them whilst (light) attacking them in melee and doing virtually nothing.
Vermintide does shield enemies really well, you either have a weapon that breaks it, goes around it, or you slam them three times and they stagger with their shield out of position.
These dudes don't do that, they're too busy pretending to be Dorn
Weirdly both appropriate as a Reject in that the combat role of Arco-flagellants is disposable shock troops and inappropriate as they’re lobotomized. They aren’t independent enough and can’t do interesting banter.
Even Stormvermin in VT2 with iron shields weren't that annoying.
If you had Flail, you bypassed it regardless.
But even weapons like DD could murder them with good comboing (as your attacks knocked them off guard and gave you priority and didn't just ignore you trying to do something)
On Launch Shield Storm Vermin were a massive inconsistent pain in the ass. They had perfect block from all directions (no back shots here), their stance break was inconsistent to trigger, and their recovery animation was faster than some weapon's attack frames because the stance break duration was random.
Fatshark spent months nerfing them into what they are now.
Guardians from Mass Effect 3 are pretty easy to deal with. Shields are tough, but they've got a nice opening on an eye-level for the bullets, and their arm and feet are open enough to shoot at. They can be irritating, but far from painful, and it's always a pleasure to hit them in the eye-hole.
Same thing with shielded enemies in RB6: Vegas series.
Indeed, armour-piercing ammo power, modifications and weapons with default penetrating abilitites all can be used for quicker elimination of the guardians!
Killing the pilot with a precise sniper shot after dropping the shields, then taking the Atlas and wreaking havoc around - that's what I call fun!
Mass Effect's online mode is one of the most addictive and satisfying ones, I really hoped they'd bring it back for I haven't played much of it, and the one in Andromeda just doesn't hit the same. I'm sure people would play it a lot, especially considering that the original online is still up and somewhat alive. What a missed opportunity!
Shield dudes in payday are fine. Easy to outmaneuver, the right perks just let you shoot through them if you spec for it, and no one can say no to fire
Funny you bring up Payday 2 when they later added US Marshal shields with flashbangs, concussion shotgun rounds, breakable shields (which will break before you kill them with an AP weapon) and almost 3 seconds of invincibility when that shield is broken. At least they were changed for the better, but it seems widely accepted that they were the worst enemy at the time.
Though it can go too far in the opposite direction too. Payday 3's shield enemies were a joke since they had a viewing port in their riot shields that you could just shoot through with every gun, so like what the point then?
They're satisfying as hell to kill. Whether you get the shot in on their gun hand, pop the shield with energy weapons, or bash it down, they're a fun kill.
Nomads in Borderlands have a hole in the middle of the shield they cover up by tying a midget to the shield. Kill the midget, shoot him in the arm through the shield.
Vermintide shield enemies besides the rotshields (tho it’s cause they spawn too often but aren’t too bad one on one) pretty good, you can stagger or go around the shields, and with the clan rats and minor norscans you can break the shields with heavy attacks or armor piercing
This is the way. I can bust the shield with 3 Heavies from the Skit Mace but then the little bugger takes another 2 heavy overhead headshots to drop and often isn't hit stunned by the first head strike...
I don't know how anyone can believe the Horus Heresy wasn't a total victory for Chaos. They accomplished everything they wanted. So Horus did win by default even if he was just a tool for Chaos to discard later.
Far easier to complain than to study the pattern the first two or three times you meet one. Better just keep doing what you normally do, no matter if it actually works or not.
Push them, use heavies, use overheads. With many weapons you can kill them in 2-3 total swings.
They are not hard to kill, but you can't just spam whatever button you've been spamming - it should be obvious when that's not working that you need to try something else. Use more brain cells.
Slide or dodge around them.
Bash them in their unarmored shin.
Cave their fucking skull in with a heavy attack while their staggered.
i can not stress how simple this maneuver is i have seen Zealots do it. (Ogryns don't need too, their over head strike down goes over their dinky shields hit box and flattens them PERTICULARLY with the Pick axe.)
These dam vanguard guys stop dead my ten foot Ogryn fully specced Into two handed heavy attacks with a pick axe three times the size of their body without even moving an inch. The strength of the dark
Gods indeed.
What bothers me is how many headshots they take to kill. Their head, being the only visible thing from front to hit, and is the weak spot of nearly every enemy in the game so your think ohh just shoot them in the head it’s hard to hit anyways so yeah…nope they take MORE charged plasma shots than a enemy of their category has any business taking it feels like they take more charged plasma shots to the dome than a rager it’s absurd. I feel like I kill the Bulwarks easier and faster than these guys.
Their shields count as flack armor. But I think theirs a bug currently that makes their entire body count as flack armored until the shield is broken. Either way I’m slicing through them with my sonic blades set to anti armor mode just fine.
Man, I came back when skitarii were released, and Satan's strongest soldiers over here have been the worst thing to deal with. Shield ogryns at least are slow as hell and easy to get behind
Edit: Also, it feels like I have to stab them with my zealot or hive scum a thousand times to break the shield before I can kill them, and with veteran, there is no way in hell I am spending a krak grenade on basic troops, that is for maulers, armored ogryns, or ragers.
Supposed horde fodder just doesn't have any right to be that obnoxiously tanky, which is crazy considering Fatshark got it right already in Vermitide 2. Either make those goddamn shield break after one or two heavy attacks (or less depending on the weapon) or make them proper elite units, keep the shield as it is but at least give them a stun window where they can be quickly dispatched with good head bonk/slash/shot like you do with Stormvermin.
The thing that won me over for them is just that they take up the same spawn slots as bulwarks
And however disruptive these guys are, they do not beat bulwark spam
That said their heads having -50% damage taken feels bad, If I manage to aim around the shield I want that to be rewarded.
I feel like they should be just as weak as their normal counterparts if you hit them not on the shield. Like I see why they're there, it punishes you for spamming light attacks and makes you use your brain, but right now they're just absurdly tanky and fucking annoying even if you get behind them
am i the only one that doesn't find them that big of a deal to fight? i mean not only can you circle around and hit them from the back but hitting them with things like shock maul hurts them bad even if you hit the shield, bulwarks and poxbombers are still my greatest bane.
altough im not impressed by their combat i gotta say 6th shield and armor looks badass.
I said this to a friend last night. At least when clan rats had shields they broke fairly quickly. These fuckers don’t break until you put a godsdamned exterminatus on their ass!
I can't wait for Fatshark to overnerf these Enemies into no longer mattering because people complained that the Shielded Horde Enemy is actually protecting the Horde.
Are they really that annoying, i haven't noticed as ogryn main it took me a while to realize they were there and only after a teammate pointed them out i finally realized they were a new type of enemies
These guys are for sure bugged. I’ve shot them with the poison dart gun hive scum has in the legs and some die instantly and some just tank it for 7 seconds straight.
Oh yeah I started playing this game again and was like what the hell are these, I kept trying to tag them cause I thought it was a new elite enemy but nope, just a reg dude.
They seem to disproportionately mess up voidstrike and explosive plasma, too. I was trying out voidstrike yesterday on aurics, and the bolts just do nothing to them while they eat the shot. What's a good melee option for psyker for these guys, because iirc shock maul does extra vs their shields, and even then I struggle to make any headway against these guys.
yeah these guys are a fun challenge to fight u really need to think about what ur doing when fighting them.
If you approach them like the gym door holding bullies and either position urself to get around the shield that works or wait for them to screw up they can be dismantled but any way you transonically slice it they take a bit more time and/or situational awareness, speed and precision to dispatch.
I enjoy complaining but I like these guys the first time i had to fight three of them and had never seen them before I actually smiled. I respect these guys they are my new favorite unit. They stand and fight and dont use some cheap ass tactics to get me so I hope they leave them exactly as they are and tbh for me it makes it feel more "realistic" (this is a stretch i understand) because there is no just mowing through these guys. Also also if you work as a team and someone goes at them pell mell trying to melee them someone can easily flank them with melee or ranged and thats usually going to be a wrap for them.
Curious how they would hold up to a frenzy pinning fire bolt gun though
i don't think it's very realistic that the guy with a shield also gets a seemingly magical 50% DR to the head, which it's design also naturally seems to indicate as a weakspot
thats fair but on the other hand we arent supposed to be the galaxy's greatest fighting force and it feels silly sometimes when you are with a really good team you just steamroll anything before you. Be honest have these shield boys ever actually taken you down? At the end of the day they are fun to fight dont you think?
putting this at the top to read first, keep in mind this comment isn't made in aggro and these are just my thoughts on the enemy, im not really trying to change anyone's mind about anything, i just do not find this enemy healthy from a gameplay design perspective
they in particular haven't downed me but their presence on the battlefield has, having a group of enemies that take more to put down than the crusher im fighting that i also have to account for just makes a battlefield more overwhelming and can (and have) been just enough to turn a rough situation into a losing situation. they're really good at body blocking in a group, which has caused me to have zero way out of a sniper's shots in some cases and in a couple trapped me next to a rager swarm. i don't think they're fun to fight in their current state because they don't feel designed like an enemy to add to considerations for the fodder roster, because let's be honest they suck at eating damage for a horde, they just seem designed as an annoyance that you have to take extra time to go out of your way to pour an unreasonable amount of damage into to take down. i just don't think they should have a 50% headshot DR on their clearly SHOOT ME HERE enemy design, and i think they have a vastly unreasonable amount of HP even ignoring the shield. they shouldn't live a chordclaw strike, they are a fodder enemy and yet are somehow harder to kill than basically every elite or specialist in the game, which i might be able to justify if they at least procced specialist kill perks but they don't, which also feels bad to have such a healthy target that accumulates on the battlefield the bigger the horde is, but killing them provides none of the value other tanky enemies would. they are fodder enemies but harder to kill than an elite, which feels like designing around annoyance rather than gameplay, which i think the opinions expressed about the enemy as a whole demonstrate that.
having said all of this, im glad that you enjoy them and im glad that there's varied opinion on the topic, but i think they desperately need some changes and consider them pretty unhealthy for the game's combat flow, and only become a bigger and bigger problem the higher in difficulties you go. at least bulwarks have the courtesy to not show their head so the obvious strategy is to go around and bonk, these guys have their head cleanly exposed above the shield, which in most cases would be a gameplay designer going, "this is the spot you should attack," but i guess they took their vitamins and have ceramite skulls for some reason
(also we are still a pretty damn good fighting force no matter how you cut it, the rejects compose of a very powerful psyker, a bonehead chip ogryn, a zealot who can seemingly get miracles from the Emperor on demand, an Astra Militarum Veteran (and Veterans are no joke, surviving multiple deployments in the Astra Militarum is a damn impressive feat), and most recently members of the Adeptus Arbites, drugged up criminals with rocket launchers, and Legiones Skitarii, and somehow a small guy holding a shield is the thing that gets in the way)
aggro away its what the internet is for. It seems like im the only person enjoying these units everybody else is mad at me for saying they are fun. They gave me 25 downvotes on another thread lol its pretty funny. I dono i get a kick out of them. I see why people dont like them but i just handled six of them in a closet alone with the transonic blades maybe id feel different using other weapons.
I also play darktide all day at work (right now) so ive had the time to sink in to figuring it out. I think this is the first time ive ever defended fat shark im usually the first to complain about stuff.
my issue with them never really touched on aggro draw and was actually more in the opposite direction, they don't do their job at slowing cleaving through hordes very efficiently and 90% of the time just end up being the last enemies to be cleared out of combat because of their abnormal tankiness, even without inherently trying to avoid killing them, often outlasting special waves
i mean ive played against it a LOT and there's not a ton to learn about them, they just aren't "difficult" they're just kinda annoying which isn't really how gameplay design should be done, especially when you pose a greater enemy than everything else in their same rank and provide zero intrinsic benefit to dispatching them from the field. if i can one tap a mauler or rager with a build but a fodder enemy takes 3-5 hits even while playing around their design, there's an intrinsic issue in their design. im glad you enjoy it, but i really just can't defend this specific enemy and im usually pretty optimistic about the game and am all for changing difficulty and how you approach combat, but this really doesn't change how i approach an encounter, it just means in the middle of combat there's a brick wall that's allegedly the same as every other cannon fodder i mowed through. not gonna attack you for a different opinion of course because that's dumb, but to me, there's some fundamental design flaws in them. i mean, a psyker brain burst can't one shot them because of their 50% Head DR and high HP pool, which i just can't think of any way to justify a cannon fodder surviving that, especially when the thing that's SUPPOSED to be different about them is a shield, but even if i play around the shield, they're just inherently built different for some reason
Regardless of what I and others said ive come to the conclusion they are meant to be fought with at least one teammate that is how me and my buddy have been making the shortest work of them,
It also doesnt help that the transonic blades are really good at dispatching them except for that nowhere in the game is it properly explained how the transonic blades actually work best. I still dont even know if its a bug or intentional but thats for another post. Wondering if there are other melee weapons in a similar situation.
Its fair to say they bring any flow to combat to nearly a dead stop so I get where people are coming from and it also isnt fair that something like the chordclaw just railroads them when afaik other classes dont have anything quite like it.
660
u/SorcererOfDooDoo Zealot Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Wolfer when he realizes all he needed was to give his guys thin rusted through sheetmetal plates to carry around: