I think the pguard damage update that recently happened was pretty cool. It helped most things, but it didn't seem to solve everything. The most notable problems are elite lanterns, elite frostlings, and smashie. I'm not sure where the "problem's source" lies. It could be enemy damage. It could be project shield damage. It could be projectile shield pguard damage. It could be the shieldbox. It could be AI itself. I don't know what the right thing to alter would be. But something should get altered.

The main issue with the elite lantern jack and the elite frostling is that they throw out 5 projectiles at once at weird angles. These projectiles are thrown out quite rapidly, and the damage they do is absolutely enormous. Due to the weird nature of the trajectory, it is very easy for someone to reflect 3-5 projectiles at once, depending on range and peculiar angles at long distance. If you're unlucky, you can Pguard N projectiles but get hit by a projectile coming from a weird angle while shielding -- cutting a noticeable portion of your HP and potentially killing you. The problem, in addition to the weird angle damage thing, is that the game does not allow pguarding of *multiple* projectiles at once. (At some point, it does become physically impossible for you to mash the shield button that fast.) The projectiles that follow after the first reflected one will also be reflected, but their shield damage will be normal. Because of this, elite lanterns and frostlings can easily break your shield and kill you in one go, depending on your HP (let's say about half) and your shield HP (rip you if you don't have a strong shield or if you've been pguarding/guarding a lot). I actually lost a run to this today with an elite frostling. And other runs have been lost in the past for similar reasons. Some of the projectile enemies play an unusually annoying game of keepaway. They're ranged, so if they're supposed to do that, I understand. But close combat builds rely on being able to engage enemy X while reflecting projectile Y because of these annoying keepaway games. It's rather unfair to then put players in situations where Pguarding literally results in death. Players should not be restricted merely to quickly blinking through the projectiles before the enemy runs away and massacring the guy, hoping the other enemies don't reach you and hit you too soon.

As for Smashie, it still seems like he can break the present shield in hardmode if you pguard all the projectiles. Again, that kinda defeats the whole point of pguarding everything; and it isn't fair. This is especially the case since, the way the fight is now, you're screwed if you never pguard during the fight, especially if you're melee.


As I said earlier, I'm not sure how to address the problem. But it definitely needs some reworking. Some ideas...

1) Change the projectiles.

This can be done in a few ways. The elite enemies can throw the same number of projectiles as their regular counterparts, but with greater speed and damage. This is kind of already how elites work, but with more projectile numbers. Maybe just remove the extra number of projectiles. I suppose the damage done could be increased if seen fit (but this means obliterating players' HP...maybe not a good idea).

I do think changing the number of projectiles could potentially fix Smashie. There's only so much you can do to pguard damage reduction before you made pguard damage reduction insane. Ya boi Smashie is already doing noticeably more damage in hardmode; he doesn't need an insanely large number of snowballs to hurl at the opponent.

2) Change projectile shield damage on successive hits after a pguard.

The way the game works now, you can pguard attacks. If another enemy hits you after a pguard, you keep "reflect status", so to speak, but you take regular shield damage. I think that's a fair thing to keep in the game. Most regular players likely won't be able to mash their shield button rapidly all day, meaning they'd fall into a lot of nasty scenarios. However, maybe a change could be made specifically for projectiles. If all projectiles that successively hit a shield post-pguard only did pguard damage, then we'd have a lot less problems. The barrage of 5 projectiles would pretty much never break shield (unless it's super low, obviously). And smashie would be a bit less ridiculous. However, regardless of the chosen solution, I still think Smashie needs to be changed so that a full perfect pguard does not even come close to a shield break. But that's a different story.

*) Change the shieldbox.

I don't know how the shieldbox looks. But obviously there's some reason why you can get hit by those 5 projectiles while pguarding. Elite lanterns and elite frostling are not the only ones with this problem. Season Mages also have this problem to a significant degree (to the point where it's almost always foolish to shield left or right). The shield box could be made large enough so handle all of those weird angles. It might make the shield a bit stronger, but if the 5 projectiles and weird angles (and weird season mage hitboxes) desperately need to be kept, then its only fair to expand the shieldbox so that the player does not take unfair damage. Bear in mind that this problem involves getting hit while shielding. It's separate from the shield damage issue. I reckon this problem is a "necessary to fix" thing.
 
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