How does shielding in PvP work?

Partyof5

I thought I understood how shielding worked in PvP, but my latest attempt in that area left me confused and frustrated.

In the last PvP event with Iron Fist I made it up to 797 points. I thought I would reach 800, but I took a battle when I was at 777 for what said would get me 29 points. I ended up getting 20 points, but that is another rant.

I took an 8 hour shield at 735 points with 7 hours to go. Went to bed. Woke up at 4am with 1 hour left. I see I had been attacked twice, but kept at 735. My rank with 20 minutes left had dropped from 60 to 97. I figured I needed to break the shield and win another couple rounds or I would fall out of the top 100. So I break my shield with 20 minutes left. Win first battle but net loss on points due to attacks while I was fighting. Take another fight and win, net loss of 50+ points due to attacks. I gave up with 4 minutes to go and ended up 150th.

While shielded I can still get attacked, which led me to believe others can still see me, I just don't lose points if I'm attacked and my team loses. I feel that's not entirely true because as soon as I dropped my shield I was attacked faster than I could win fights. 7+ hours sheiled - 2 attacks. 20 minutes unsheilded - at least 6 attacks.

The PvP system really seems stacked against players like myself who are sitting at a 3* roster and trying to get to 800 points or top 100 in order to get the 3* cover. Why does it allow me to be attacked by 3 or more other people in the time it takes me to complete 1 battle? I understand I'm more of a target for the OML and fistbuster crowd, but I have no chance under this setup.

TxMoose

shielding removes you from active queues. however, your attacks will still have retaliation nodes that can be hit and anyone who queued you while you were unshielded could hit you - both at any time they get around to it. any time your score sits above your team strength, speed is absolutely crucial when you break shield. when I was a 3* player right before I had a usable 4*, and before baking was a big thing (meaning taking on full teams), my hops were down to 1 match per hop or I'd get hit. that was many months ago and for 3* players now I'm sure its even harder with more 4*s and 5*s out there. cycling your queues (while you're shielded) to find the easiest team you can find with the highest points possible is key. it costs some iso, but my guess is that the cover at 800 (and later, 1K) is worth more to you than some iso.

also, any time you break shield in the last few hours of an event, there will be piling on. all the late joiners are climbing and there is generally tons of activity. it might be counter-intuitive, but playing more in the 6-11 hour window before event end might do better for you. lots less activity, but there should still be some points out there. (note: there is also a smaller spike in activity in the 8-hour mark). those activity spike times are sometimes good times to get a good queue if you're shielded at the time.

BigBZ32

What happened to you is totally valid.

So, you shield and got hit twice. Those two players that hit you had you queued before you shielded. They hit you while you were shielded and your shield saved you. No one else who didn't have you queued while not shielded would not see you.

I take it you're a 3* player. So, when you unshielded for the last 20 minutes, that left you open for everyone to see. Being that it was the end of the slice, you have a ton of players climbing last minute that were able to see you and attack you all at the same time. Around 800, you're really only safe for maybe 1 or 2 fights after coming out of a shield. You can search the forums on the intricacies of shield hopping.

If you don't have the scariest of rosters, you will be targeted. All I can suggest is climb early, climb hard, and climb fast to 800 and shield.

mohio

You seem to understand it pretty well and have quickly concluded the same as a lot of people here on the forums. There have been several calls to overhaul PvP scoring, or at the very least limit how much you can lose in a short amount of time. Just to recap to solidify it for you...

1) You fight others that chose the same end time as you only.
2) The points gained is determined by how many more points they have than you at the time of beating them, not fixed as the score preview given to you in game.
3) "Losers" under 1000 only lose a fraction of the points gained by the "winner", but over 1000 points gained and lost are equal.
4) Shielding protects your score and removes you from being queued. However your opponents can still retaliate against you if you hit them and people can have you queued previously and still hit you during this time.
5) Unshielding pretty much immediately puts you back into the active pool to be queued. This is why you must be very fast on your "hops" and reshield quickly or else people will eventually find you and hit you.

Just as a general tip, you want to avoid hopping right around natural shield times (8 hours remaining, 3 hours remaining). Many people time their climbs to be in this range so they can save on HP use, and they tend to be very active. Also, the final 3 hours is just generally highly active no matter what. If you must hop in this time frame, the longer you wait, it's likely the worse it will be as far as attacks coming your way after unshielding.

woopie

Going out in the last hour is not wise unless you have strong 4/5*s. Heck, unless I have a few cc's lined up, I don't even go out to climb in the last hour and I have a 420 OML and the key 4*s champed

Phumade

Interesting post. Lots of questions here.

In the last PvP event with Iron Fist I made it up to 797 points. I thought I would reach 800, but I took a battle when I was at 777 for what said would get me 29 points. I ended up getting 20 points, but that is another rant.

---basically you need to consider the point values to be estimates. The longer you wait to fight a old que(anything over 15min is considered old, because that person may have fought over 4 different matches during those 15 min.) Those interim battles affect their score with in turn their value to you. This cuts both ways. I.e. you can que a 10 pt match and 4 hours later when you hit it, it could be with 75pts and vice versa. That said, you will quick learn which names can keep their scores and which names will fluctuate in points.

So I break my shield with 20 minutes left. Win first battle but net loss on points due to attacks while I was fighting. Take another fight and win, net loss of 50+ points due to attacks.

So the last 30 min is super intense. everyone is using there best teams and boosting when possible. Even the 5* god whales get sniped in the last 30min. Honestly, If you haven't que'd up your cc ahead of time. It will be impossible to makeup significant pts, in the last 20min. At most, focus on a 1 match hop inside of the last 15 min. Always assume that if someone can que you, they will attack you.

While shielded I can still get attacked, which led me to believe others can still see me,

--- Not entirely true. They already had you que up on their screen. Shield PREVENTS players from queuing once the shield is established. However, everyone who already has you on their event screen will still be able to start the fight. This is why you see either bounces or a defensive win. If I was to start the game after your shield has been established, I would not be able to que you.

With that said, while your shield. Your completely free to skip and setup your targets for when you unshield. this is what most high level players do. They setup their targets for their next hop while shielded. and once unshielded. They only hit the targets they have already defined. Very few people have the roster quality to just float or que and hit targets on the fly.

I just don't lose points if I'm attacked and my team loses. I feel that's not entirely true because as soon as I dropped my shield I was attacked faster than I could win fights. 7+ hours sheiled - 2 attacks. 20 minutes unsheilded - at least 6 attacks.

--Many people often wonder why when they are shielded they get no attacks, but literally 2 min after shield drops waves of attacks come. The reason for this is because shielding hid you from the view of everyone who DID NOT have you prequed at the time of the shield. As soon as your shield broke, the entire shard population can now see and target your team.

Why does it allow me to be attacked by 3 or more other people in the time it takes me to complete 1 battle?

the problem here is that the community actually plays the game in a very different fashion than how D3 thinks the game should be played. You can easily mitigate the multiway attacks, but you need to spend some time learning how the community plays the game, so that you can organize your shields and hops effectively. Join a top 100/50 alliance. Those players can easily suggest very simple things that will boost your scores and lower opponent difficulty.

brisashi

I've long been annoyed by this fact with shielding. You could very well be wasting your HP since you don't know if you have been attacked.

Shielding should cause a forced sync with the servers and have a confirmation to buy the shield so you know your dispayed points are accurate.

Stax the Foyer

It was explained pretty well above. But a little-known fact is that shields can behave slightly differently in different shards.

For example, if you're in Shard 3, what happens is that you put up a shield, and then you don't lose any points when [Player Name Redacted] hits your shield 5 times in a row.

grunth13

Stax the Foyer wrote:

It was explained pretty well above. But a little-known fact is that shields can behave slightly differently in different shards.

For example, if you're in Shard 3, what happens is that you put up a shield, and then you don't lose any points when [Player Name Redacted] hits your shield 5 times in a row.

Is that how top 3 in an alliance score over 1200 more than the #4 in that alliance?

acescracked

Along with the good suggestions above...if you hop last 3 hours and you have a 3* roster you will need to boost. Use those all AP and AP boosts. You need to be very fast last 3 hours when hopping.

Btw, I have 11 champed 4*s. I get hit sometimes when hopping last 3 hours as well. Unless you spend tons of $$ your roster will always be an easy target to someone.

cardoor

OP, here is a different answer. As soon as you un-shield you are moved to the front of every single active players queue. You want proof -good luck, but the only time I lose 160 points in the time span of one match is right after I drop my shields (and that is the extent of my evidence).

DCUDCU

Join a pvp event with 1.5 hours to go - ie don't even select your slice until then.

Most people who play competitively won't be in it as we are trying to get the final points, not placement often(ie 1K+ is more important to me than more redundant 3* covers for top 25).

That plus PVE and tokens are the only way to build up.

Ruinate

DCUDCU wrote:

Join a pvp event with 1.5 hours to go - ie don't even select your slice until then.

Most people who play competitively won't be in it as we are trying to get the final points, not placement often(ie 1K+ is more important to me than more redundant 3* covers for top 25).

That plus PVE and tokens are the only way to build up.

A slice is the slice no matter what time you join. Even if you're in a bracket with 499 nice people who want to be BFF with you, you're still going to be playing with everyone else who joined that time slice. If you're looking tasty, someone will bite you. Does not matter when you join.

DCUDCU

Ruinate wrote:

DCUDCU wrote:

Join a pvp event with 1.5 hours to go - ie don't even select your slice until then.

Most people who play competitively won't be in it as we are trying to get the final points, not placement often(ie 1K+ is more important to me than more redundant 3* covers for top 25).

That plus PVE and tokens are the only way to build up.

A slice is the slice no matter what time you join. Even if you're in a bracket with 499 nice people who want to be BFF with you, you're still going to be playing with everyone else who joined that time slice. If you're looking tasty, someone will bite you. Does not matter when you join.

Yes. But most people who actually want to play don't wait until there is 1.5 hours left in an event to make a run for 1K. The odds of having a not full slice if you join that late are much higher. I used to do it, and really if you want placement for 3* covers that is the only way unless you have 4*/5*.