For the love of all that's holy, why no shields on our backs?

[SolarCenturion]

there may very well be a topic or more about this already but the forum search function is just the worst. They did such a good job letting us put weapons on our hips and backs, why not shields? I mean... I don't know why it didn't even occur to me until tonight. Doesn't it seem like that's almost mandatory for a shield slinger?

[bAss_ackwards]

Are you asking for shield draw/stow functionality? Might be a little bit tricky with how main hand weapon draws work.

 

What I am more interested in is using Shield with some blast sets. Like an AR/Shield build. 😄

Edited Sunday at 02:44 AM by bAss_ackwards

[biostem]

36 minutes ago, bAss_ackwards said:

What I am more interested in is using Shield with some blast sets

All ATs that currently have access to shields have APPs/PPPs with blasts in them, not to mention the origin ranged attacks, sorcery's, experimentation's, and force of will, and that's not even counting the various ranged prestige or other such temp powers, so the precedent is there - just exclude the ones that might be too kludgy to work well, like archery and possibly dual pistols.  AFAIK, AR & BR would have the shield on the off-hand, so shouldn't conflict too badly...  But, yeah!  Would definitely love shield defense for Sentinels!

 

Just taking a quick look - All 5 powers from Dark Mastery for Scrappers & Stalkers are ranged attacks - If we then take the snipe & hold from Soul Mastery to keep with the dark theme, that's 7 distinct dark ranged attacks that already work with shield-users.  If you tallied up all the others from the various epic sets, it's pretty much already done...

Edited Sunday at 01:13 AM by biostem

[biostem]

37 minutes ago, SolarCenturion said:

They did such a good job letting us put weapons on our hips and backs, why not shields?

In a sense, it wouldn't even be that difficult - if you toggle a shield power on, it's on your arm, and if you turn off all your toggles, it's on your back - so it wouldn't really conflict with combat.  I can't remember;  if you had all the toggles turned off, but clicked active defense, does that place the shield on your arm?  If so, then that would have to apply as well...

[UltraAlt]

7 hours ago, SolarCenturion said:

why not shields?

 

uh ....

 

[Scarlet Shocker]

We have Longbow and Vanguard and Arachnos on our backs already. We don't need some bald one-eyed coot giving us a mother****ing hard time too! 

[Maagic]

Shields are meant to protect your FRONT 😄

[Biff Pow]

I'd love the shield on my back even if it was just an emote for standing around looking cool.

[srmalloy]

On 9/20/2025 at 6:01 PM, biostem said:

In a sense, it wouldn't even be that difficult - if you toggle a shield power on, it's on your arm, and if you turn off all your toggles, it's on your back - so it wouldn't really conflict with combat.

Tell that to the character tooling around, say, Founder's Falls with their shield on their back -- and therefore all of their Shield Defense armor powers turned off -- when they eat a couple of sniper shots. If there were going to be an external mechanism to make your character put their shield on their back, I would fold it into, say, the 'Only Affects Self' power from the S.T.A.R.T. vendor, special-casing the Shield Defense set to put your shield on your back when the power is active. It would be somewhat complicated by the fact that some of the Shield types have an animated 'power up' sequence, and would have a different appearance when shut down than when active -- for example, the energy shield starts as a small disk on the character's wrist that extends two bars that spin up to form the energy barrier of the shield; why would you have the deactivated form on your back where you wouldn't have it immediately available if you needed it? This would create two types of 'inactive shield' appearances -- one, for a shield whose appearance was essentially static, and another one (or more) for shields that went through some sort of animation when a shield armor power was activated, and so wouldn't be stored on your back. This complicates things, and I'm not the one who gets to make the decision whether putting in the work to make it happen is worthwhile.

[biostem]

37 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

Tell that to the character tooling around, say, Founder's Falls with their shield on their back -- and therefore all of their Shield Defense armor powers turned off

Well, if you chose to disable all your toggles, then that's on you.  If you're traveling in a dangerous area, logic would dictate you turn said powers on...

[biostem]

12 hours ago, Maagic said:

Shields are meant to protect your FRONT 😄

Oh absolutely... while actively wielding them.  Just like how you stow your weapons on your back or at your side when not...

[SmokinIndo]

On 9/20/2025 at 7:22 PM, SolarCenturion said:

there may very well be a topic or more about this already but the forum search function is just the worst. They did such a good job letting us put weapons on our hips and backs, why not shields? I mean... I don't know why it didn't even occur to me until tonight. Doesn't it seem like that's almost mandatory for a shield slinger?

 

Stowing swords/axes/guns on our character's backs is all about Rule of Cool. I suspect the reason devs chose to ignore shields is because the shield is ALWAYS equipped on our toon so long as a power is toggled.

With weapons, the character unequips the sword/axe/shield when the power isn't active. Players wanted their weapons visible all the time, which is why they asked for it to be stowed.

I have a shield scrapper and she looks way cooler with her shield in front of her than on her back. I'm fine if shields never get the option to stow.