After maxing the Riot Shield, here's how to OWN!

[acidsnow]

Using the Riot Shield is NOT easy, and I consider you to be a God if you get a 1:1 k/d ratio!

...After unlocking everything for the Riot Shield (while playing Ground War) I thought I'd post a topic to help everyone else who's interested in being cannon fodder - errr, I mean useful as a shield guy.

Rule #1 Always use a "Handgun" as a secondary!
Swapping from your Riot Shield to a handgun is the fastest in the game! It takes less than 0.4 seconds to swap to a handgun, but it can take as much as 1.5 seconds to swap to some of the of the other secondary weapons! ...However, if you're going total support build, having a Stinger in your secondary slot will really help your team. However, a handgun is seriously recommended for S&D!

Rule #2 Always use these Perks!
Perk 1: Scavenger
Perk 2: Lightweight (or Coldblood)
Perk 3: its up to you...
...Perks 1 and 2 are pretty unarguable, you'll need Scavenger to replace your Stun/Flash grenades and you NEED lightweight so you can move faster. If you want to be a good shield guy, always use Flash Bang Grenades or Stun Grenades! Never use Smoke, (unless you're in S&D, if u want). The easiest way for you to level up as a Shield dude is to use Flash Bang's all over your enemy... I DOO-DOO you not - you can go X-20-X in a [Ground War] game if you use Flash Bangs to blind your enemies, because you get assist points when your allies kill an affected enemy! Always Flash/Stun spam as a Shield dude! You need Scavenger to be useful! And Lightweight will increase your MS from 80% of normal to 88%, and w/out mobility you are gunna die A LOT (moar)! You might think commando is a good 3rd perk, but it's really not; b/c you can't knife with the shield (you just bash them), so if you want to knife you got to swap to your handgun and then knife - which is probably just a good time to shoot at your enemy...

Rule #3 [almost] Always use the Blast Shield!
The Blast Shield will make it so Stun Grenades do not affect you. Always use the Blast Shield UNLESS you are playing HC mode. If you're playing HC, the Blast Shield will NOT help you against explosive damage WHAT-SO-EVER, it will ONLY stop you from getting stunned by Stun Grenades! ...If you want to take those Domination points you must be able to take a few Grenade Launcher rounds, and even Grenades so always use the Blast Shield, unless you play S&D then use w/e u want (I suggest claymores). In non-HC mode you can survive 2 point blank explosions with the Blast Shield; and if someone throws a Semtex on your shield you will NOT die because of the Blast Shield! ...For offense, the Throwing Knife is a good option.

Rule #4 Camp camp camp!
Your job as cannon fodder is to support your allies! ...There is NO need for you to charge into enemy forces! All you need to do is find a good ally/corner/fork-in-the-road that has A LOT of enemy fire, and defend it (camp). ...You do NOT need to run into the battle, in fact sprinting will get you killed 70% of the time. If you DO sprint near enemies always keep the enemy to your LEFT, this is because as you SPRINT you only protect the left half of your body. Remember to CROUCH as you deflect enemy bullets to protect your feet, and to try to look 10 degrees BELOW the center of your target this is to better PROTECT your feet! And keep in mind that ricocheting bullets can kill (I do not know if ricocheting bullets can kill your own team members in HC).

Rule #5 Deathstreak...
As you already know, a shield guy is gunna die - a lot! So picking the right Deathstreak is very important. ...If you're playing a HC gametype I suggest Final Stand, but if you're playing TDM or Ground War you should probably go with Martyrdom.

How to knife/shoot a shield guy whos protecting his feet (without stun/grenades)...
And finally here's how to kill a shield dude: if you plan to run up and knife a shield guy and you are both facing eachother always strafe to the left so you expose his right side.

Have fun dying, for a good cause

Attachments:

[ssog]

Nov 26, 2009 22:17:49 GMT -5 acidsnow said:

Rule #3 [almost] Always use the Blast Shield!
Always use the Blast Shield UNLESS you are playing HC mode. If you're playing HC, the Blast Shield will NOT help you against explosive damage WHAT-SO-EVER, it will ONLY stop you from getting stunned by Stun Grenades! ...If you want to take those Domination points you must be able to take a few Grenade Launcher rounds, and even Grenades so always use the Blast Shield, unless you play S&D then use w/e u want (I suggest claymores). In non-HC mode with the Blast Shield you can take 2 grenades and survive!

In my experience, the throwing knife is far more useful than the Blast Shield. Grenades are laughably easy to avoid with a riot shield- you can see the guy cooking and take him out with your throwing knife or pistol, and if they don't cook then you just walk past them. Grenade Launchers rarely kill me because people aim in front of me (where the shield absorbs it) rather than trying to loft t00bs over my head to explode behind me. The only real threat is semtex stuck on my shield (at which point I berserker-charge the enemy and take them to hell with me). Blast shield is useful, but not necessary. Throwing Knife, on the other hand, is a bunch quicker than a pistol swap, and enemies never expect it. They'll slowly back up, not even trying to dodge because they think you're helpless unless you run them down or switch to your secondary. Lots of easy kills.

[necromas]

The throwing knife is for offensive shield users that like finding solo enemies and killing em in 1 on 1 fights.

Clearly the OP is talking about defensive teamwork based riot shielding.

[dndead]

A decent S&D class I saw for the riot shield is as follows:
Riot Shield
Thumper x 2
Claymore
Stun or Flash (I don't really remember)
Scavenger
Danger Close
Commando
He went 10 kills, 2 deaths on Terminal, is one of the better riot shield maps IMO. But I don't see me ever doing that well with it.

[individual]

It's best to use commando for perk 3. Also, for perk 1, you can use marathon instead of scavenger. In fact, if you use the blast shield, then scavenger is practically worthless.

Whether the blast shield or throwing knife is more useful depends on how often they're throwing grenades\firing tubes at you.

[mw0swedeking]

but you don't WANT to be sprinting! And stuns/flashes will be great, you are a support class after all... here's a question, Does scavenger refill your throwing knife? I would guess it would, but maybe not since you can pick it up yourself. So scavenger is good. And one more thing (i'm pretty sure of) bodies can only be scavenged once, so you can go steal all the little blue gym bags full of goodies and keep your opponents from getting them, YAY!

[individual]

Sprinting is OK, because although it makes you vulnerable, so long as you drop to your crouch whenever you see anybody, you're fine.

[cptmacmillan]

I used the Riot Shield for about 8 hours or so on Thursday and the class that fetched the best results was:

Riot Shield
.44
C4
Stuns
Scavenger
Lightweight
Ninja

This is an _offensive class for SnD_. I feel that an offensive riot shield class works better than any sort of teammate support because enemies have no obligation to fire at your riot shield as opposed to fleshy meatbags behind you.

Now, for the class itself... you're using this as an offensive class to kill people. As soon as they leave themselves vulnerable (run away & reloading being the most common) throw a stun grenade and follow up with a C4. As with throwing knives, you can skip the stun grenades in some situations and get straight to the killing with C4. I choose the C4 over throwing knives because it just about guarantees a kill whereas there is room for error with knives. Make sure you detonate the C4 with doubletapping whatever you have bound to use instead of whatever you use to throw so that you keep your shield up. Resupply from every person so you can repeat stuns and c4. Shield bash when they don't leave themselves vulnerable to c4. Use the .44 when they're out of range of shield bash and using c4 isn't the best option - you can draw it and fire two shots very quickly.

Edit: Oh, and blast shield is one of the stupidest choices of equipment you could put with a riot shield in any event. Riot shields block explosives. The only explosives that will kill you when you've got a riot shield are stuck semtex and RPG-7s... both of which truck right on through a Blast Shield, too.

[necromas]

Nov 29, 2009 17:03:44 GMT -5 cptmacmillan said:

Edit: Oh, and blast shield is one of the stupidest choices of equipment you could put with a riot shield in any event. Riot shields block explosives. The only explosives that will kill you when you've got a riot shield are stuck semtex and RPG-7s... both of which truck right on through a Blast Shield, too.

So your enemies conveniently place all their explosives directly in front of you so you can block them without having to move or turn around and expose yourself?

It's not necessary to have, but it certainly matters, especially since semtex is so common.

I usually have an AT-4 or a grenade launcher on me, and I find it very easy to kill riot shielders that don't have blast shields, very rarely will I find it hard/impossible to find an angle I can fire the rocket/nade launcher at such that the splash damage kills them.

[dumdumpop]

Tactical knife with commando WILL go over a crouched riot shielder and kill. Just so you know the counter to the shields.

[cptmacmillan]

necromas:

First, the players you've been killing are bad. That's like saying that because I can knife people using riot shields riot shields are useless against knives. In reality the only way you're going to knife a _good_ riot shield user is if you sneak up on him or he is facing your teammate.

So your enemies conveniently place all their explosives directly in front of you so you can block them without having to move or turn around and expose yourself?

What the hell is wrong with moving? Moving does not expose yourself. Vs. grenades/claymores, you simply back up (that's normally the "S" key) until the grenade is in front of your shield, which will not expose you. Vs. launchers, you take the projectile with your shield. If they attempt to fire it behind you, at a wall by you, etc you intercept it. Launchers do not just appear out of nowhere - you can see them pulling it out, or in the case of a tube, equipping it.

The one time a blast shield is useful is when someone is running with the launcher already out and catches you off guard. It improves your chances of surviving greatly in one situation, whereas a knife, c4, or even semtex will increase your chances of killing greatly in almost every situation.

@dumdum: Are you absolutely sure? I've never seen that happen.

[playn]

just used the riot shield for the first (proper) time today for a few hours. i did pretty good, sat there, distracted enemies, guarded team mates from fire (by getting in the way of enemy bullets) and soaked up all their ammo
i couldnt count how many times a noob-tube or a grenade was shot/thrown at me, the blast shield definitely helped me survive but its useless if the blast from a noob-tube or a launcher goes off from the side of you so be careful and try to keep the explosions directly in front. sticking closely to a wall or large enough object (not too close) helps as it blocks off a side for you to try protecting and thus making your job easier. if theres more than one person shooting at you from a few different directions your best chance of survival is to keep moving backwards and if you come across a big object, go behind it but dont let them have a chance to hit your body while moving

[mannon]

Playing HQ with a riot shield I definitely found blast shield useful, but then you get lots of explosives spam from all directions in that. It's not really a 1on1 type of situation. Cold Blooded was also useful. I found I can hide in the HQ with my shields long enough to make a difference, especially if they just assume everything there is dead because they tossed in some explosives.

I will say, if you're on a console turn UP your sensitivity. It's very frustrating getting knifed simply because you were unable to turn fast enough. Even with it turned up that might be a problem so having those quick draw mags could come in handy.

Sadly I'm pretty lame on the quick drawing thing and I have a hard time aiming for a knife throw w/o my cross hairs, through a damaged shield. >,> Mebbe I should buy one of those dry erase markers. heh

[acidsnow]

Dec 3, 2009 4:10:31 GMT -5 mannon said:

Sadly I'm pretty lame on the quick drawing thing and I have a hard time aiming for a knife throw w/o my cross hairs, through a damaged shield. >,> Mebbe I should buy one of those dry erase markers. heh

The best way to get good with the Throwing Knife is to play a private match and run around by yourself throwing it at walls - targets you select for yourself. After a few dozen throws you'll understand the arch and speed at which the knife flies at.

[mannon]

My problem is generally more about not having any crosshairs with the riot shield and then the low visibility once it takes some hits. When I miss with a knife throw it's usually left or right, not vertical, though I haven't really attempted it at long range yet either.

I wonder if I can find some specific detail in the shield or in the cracks in it to use as a landmark for aiming. There once was a time I could aim pretty accurately with no crosshairs at all at long distance targets, but that was not on a widescreen HD TV, that was at 640x480 sniping with the pistol in Doom. ;p hehee

[noscreenname]

Best game I have had was like 6-18-8. So many assists from crowd control. If you ever take two flags in a domination game, you and a buddy go to the third (dont take it but just make it say "taking c" or whatever") and watch people get distracted by you while a buddy kills them from a flanked spot.

[ssog]

Dec 14, 2009 12:28:27 GMT -5 mannon said:

My problem is generally more about not having any crosshairs with the riot shield and then the low visibility once it takes some hits. When I miss with a knife throw it's usually left or right, not vertical, though I haven't really attempted it at long range yet either.

I wonder if I can find some specific detail in the shield or in the cracks in it to use as a landmark for aiming. There once was a time I could aim pretty accurately with no crosshairs at all at long distance targets, but that was not on a widescreen HD TV, that was at 640x480 sniping with the pistol in Doom. ;p hehee

I had some trouble with the throwing knife at first, too, until I did some private free-for-alls with some buddies and used my Riot Shield class for practice. The trick is to hold the bumper for a split second and aim before letting go (as opposed to just tapping the bumper). Sure, it leaves you exposed to return fire for a split second, but if you wait until they've stopped their initial burst of fire, it gives you plenty of time for a very rough aim, which is generally all that's needed for a quick kill.

[mannon]

I might try that, actually, but I tend to find hesitation gets me killed. ;p

I have a lot of trouble with Shield for other reasons too. Hell people just run around me and knife me. I did increase my sensitivity some, but I have a feeling that to avoid that I'd need to bump it WAY up considering with lag they are able to get further around me than I can see. I suppose I should aim the shield in front of them so they have further around me to run.

Unfortunately if I bump my sensitivity way up I'll be arse for aiming, much less quickly aiming with my mag or the knife. So I think I'll just focus on killing the guy before he runs around me. ;p

I need to use my Mag more so I can get akimbo. hehe

Besides I actually have taken the knife off my shield class at the moment, but that's just because I'm too arse with it to use shield in regular games, but it's perfect for HQ! So I have a blast shield instead. Sprint to HQ, put the shield down, and just hunker down and CAMP. hehe They usually have to actually come inside and up close to kill me, which gives teammates plenty of time to take them out, all the while I'm sitting there capturing the HQ. I get a couple mag kills too sometimes. ;p Actually I've gotten more shield kills in HQ. They come inside and don't see me because I'm usually CB, though now I've actually swapped it out and pulled out Scrambler, yes... Scrambler. But the whole point is to camp the HQ and it's the hotbed of activity anyway so I'm not giving away much by having it. Besides even if they find me, they still gotta kill me. Meanwhile my scrambler is fecking up the other teams and making UAV's less than useful. The Scrambler is actually more for my teammate's benefit than my own, but that in turn benefits me. I defend, they kill. ;p Now I wanna go play... heh

Anyway I think I just need to practice switching using my Mag and that should teach me how to aim with the shield up before I swap. I can probably take a little extra time aiming since people usually run up and then stand there like "Oh a shield!" for a moment before they decide how to attack you. ;p