Shields and defenders are kind of in a terrible state, necromancy just dealt the deathblow to defenders, and frankly the only shields that anyone ever uses anyways are just spirit shields because they're literally one of two shield types that have any passive effect.

This update would suggest a complete revamp of the defensive ability system as well as a brand new system to make the traditionally sword and board an actually viable option and in defenders rewarding skill. buckle up, it's going to be a long one (and i needed to do this before my warrior's guild revamp idea)

** please note all ideas in this outline are of course, not final nor have been reviewed by Jagex, and are more like a general suggestion and will obviously require changes, reworks and other adaptations to be balanced like anything in an MMO **

Contents

• overview
• Retaliation system
• Evolving bash
• ability reworks and tank armor changes
• Shield changes and passives
• Defender changes and passives

Overview

the general gist of this idea is this;

1. add a unique "Currency" to shields akin to necrosis that can only be gained while using a shield or defender type offhand and only held while equipped with either one
   1. this currency (aka the retalaiton system) will provide unique access to defense abilities
2. update bash to be the "bread and butter" of defense, providing a reasonable bump in dps and numerous support abilities if chained correctly
3. rework other defense abilities to bring them in line with modern standards, this includes higher levels of provoke, and altering the base function of abilities like reflect
4. alter shields to be more generally viable as defensive tools (they do mitigate but it often sucks)
5. change defenders to be a high skill high reward offhand

Retaliation system

Retaliation would be the core of this system, Retaliation would be an adrenaline like effect creating a small but separate bar/overcast bar something like this;

https://preview.redd.it/119doxaemtic1.png?width=691&format=png&auto=webp&s=5c81046394959b4ab6c1463e6ad750c937747d4b

Retaliation would provide 3 major benefits;

• allow you to use defense thresholds and ultimates without adrenaline cost giving you more adrenaline to use on main combat abilities
• slightly increase your damage soak (if wearing tank armor) based on gauge fullness
• allows you to conserve adrenaline in tight spots as it will act essentially as a second adrenaline bar when using defensives if you don't have enough gauge to pay, so for example you could have 50% adren and 50% retaliation and be able to use barricade, though it would be hard to time given the ways it's gained

retaliation stacks would be gained in the following ways

• executing evolving bash combos (varies in% some consume gauge to execute fully)
• taking a hit (1%-5% per hit taken based on the damage dealt)
• executing a 1h ultimate or threshold (5%)
• or by using natural instinct and other ultimates to gain it back during attacks
• naturally starting with 10 if using any rank of TURTLING over 2 OR if wearing 3 pieces of Tetsu, achto, Sea singers, or Death lotus
• naturally starting with a baseline of 5 if using any tank armor

that said there are some rules to gaining stacks;

1. your shield/defender must be equipped for 15 seconds (does not have to be in combat)
2. you cannot gain stacks in ways you would normally not gain adren (i.e. attacking damage immune creatures)
3. You cannot gain more than 30% retaliation when using a defender, the price of a better offense.
4. unequipping your shield or defender instantly removes ALL stacks of retaliation (or maybe rapidly depletes them, i'd like to not encourage switchscape so.. i lean towards all vanish into the wind)

Evolving bash

this is the core of the dps part of the rework; evolving bash.

upon hitting level 25 in defense you'll unlock your first bash evoltuion, each time you use bash the ability will change, similar to how equipping melee changes dive to bladed dive. This ability will provide unique effects depending on shield but each one retains a simple effect independant of if you have the guage to use its enhanced effects;

every time you use an evolving bash, your next 1h ability will deal 100% more damage

but like everything in this world of ours, it's a tactical choice.

Using this genuine boon will increase damage but will reset you back to bash I and trigger an ability cooldown, OR you can use an enhanced bash follow-up imedately, greatly increasing DPS while using a shield or allowing you to focus on survival.

Further, bash 1 will only grant its 1h boost once every 10 seconds (bash's cooldown) so you'll need to pick when you want to use it but will grow in power if you've used it at the right time

the full chart will look like this

players would chose, enhance damage immediately, or hold out for a more powerful chaining effect

a more detailed explanation is provided here

Bash type	cost/gain	choice of effects	level
bash 2	no cost, gain 10% retaliation	your next 1h ability deals 115% damage for holding off on using it	25
bash 3	10% retaliation bar	your next 1h ability will do 130% ability damage, you will siphon 25% of the damage of bash 3 as direct health	40
bash 4	20% retaliation bar	same dps boost as before, activating bash 4 will activate "defensive stance", a portion of damage dealt by 1h abilities (lets say 10%?) will be siphoned as an auxiliary health pool akin to crystal shield. all damage dealt to you will flow into this pool for 30 seconds. with proper timing you can essentially double your lifepoints for a short while. this has a universal timer cooldown of 2m before it can be called on again.	60
Guillotine	50% retaliation bar	gouge your opponent's throat with your shield inflicting a heavy bleed and reducing the damage they can deal to you by 25% for the 15s duration of the bleed. stacks with debilitate and any damage dealt by guillotine will be siphoned directly into your auxillary health pool from bash 4	90

defender parrying

but what of defenders i hear you ask?

well unlike it's shield brothers defenders reprisers and rebounders instead follow a simpler path, they gain some access to their shield abilities as described in the next segment, but instead they have parry windows.

The way it works is pretty easy too, defenders will nullify a hit heavily if timed correctly and add a really good amount of damage back into your hit, but it requires (somewhat) precision timing. Bash does not evolve while held with defenders, instead if performed correctly you'll instantly reset the cooldown or greatly reduce cooldown.

while worn this parry ability replaces bash as an ability.

here's how it'd work

• within 3 ticks of a hit landing - 50% of damage to be taken is added back into your next attack, you take 5% of what you would have taken. parry's cooldown is instantly reset
• 4-5 ticks of an attack landing - 15% of the damage to be taken is added to your next attack, you take 90% of what you would have taken
• 6 ticks or more - miss, parry does the same damage as a normal bash and you take no damage reduction

this makes defenders extremely rewarding weapons to skilled players, if you know your windows you can drastically boost dual wield's damage, but mistiming will make it middling

ability reworks and tank armor reworks

Abilities

name	rework/additon	retaliation cost (if not using adrenaline)	why
Riot	allows you to make 3 strikes with your shield/defender, first at 90% of armor rating, second at 120% of armor rating and the final at 160% of armor rating, greatly decreasing in accuracy for each strike delivered. ends immediately if any strike misses. If all 3 strikes connect the target has its defense dropped substantially (Say 20%?) for 30 seconds	20%	a support ability to be combined with ingenuity. greatly boosts your potential damage output over time but at a price that if any of the hits miss you'll be wasting retaliation guage
devotion II	Allows a chaining of devotion, costing only retaliation the second time around	30%	lets you soak up even more damage, playing into that tank mentality
Corrupt	must have unsullied unlocked as they will be unlocked together, forces you and your target to the maximum level of corruption stacks ANYWHERE in game. if using soul link this is shared by 20% to allies within 5 tiles	50%	unsullied is kind of a terrible ability, this makes both useful as you can pop one then the other for a massive damage boost
debilitate	debilitate allows you to generate retaliation directly from attacks (25% of adren gains), deals 150% of weapon damage	40%	just makes it a little more helpful as often debilitate is only used rarely to lower the damage of an unlucky AG double beam or if you mess up during rakshka pools
Leg sweep	new stun ability, independant of the dominant style, binds and stuns the target dealing 150% of armor rating as damage and lowering their damage by 10%. paring this with debilitate will boost damage taken reduction by 65%	5% retaliation or 10% if using adrenaline	new stun
Natural instinct	increases retaliation gains by 100% too if wearing a shield, allows defenders to charge to 50% retaliation gauge temporarily, retains adren gain boost.	100%	not much to say about this one, needs to be adjusted for the new system
running block	allows you to instantly move to a location of choice like dive, upon arriving erect a safety zone reducing allied damage by 10% and increasing retaliation gains by 5% for 15 seconds. if a shield dome is active on the site it will override the shield dome, extending its duration by 10s and absorbing its properties. this can only be done once every 5 minuets, otherwise shield dome will override running block	50%	a support ability, protect yourself and friends, it can be used to soak up massive damage in group activities like raids and AOD and frees up the dome caster
cease	forces the target to stop attacking you for 5 seconds alongside its natural effects. has no effect in pvp and targets will begin to regenerate hp rapidly	0%	used to escape a fight or unwinable situation if afk training
Shield throw	replaces provoke when using a shield, a long range attack on all styles that forces agro and deals 100% of armor rating as damage. generates 10% retaliation if using a shield (5% defender)	0%	allows players to be more dedicated as a "tank" pulling aggression off friends and familiars
Rejuvinate	regenerates up to 40% retaliation once used based on damage taken while regenerating hp	100%	follows that idea of "less supplies used by mitigating more damage"
Immortality	splits the effect in 2, a 30s period of 50% damage reduction (and -20% damage from you the playeR) and a 60s duration where if you are knocked down you will revive, it will also consume any retaliation guage left to heal you by 1000 lifepoints per 10% consumed. the 30s and 60s period start concurrently. cooldown is increased based on how many times the gauge is plundered to heal you	100%	makes this ability much more forgiving to use and viable to use as it will legitimately heal a massive amount but, is a last resort as the more successfully you heal the longer it takes for the get out of jail card to recharge.
revenge	adds 10% damage per stack of revenge, generates 5% retaliation per attack taken. at the end of its cycle it will deal the total number of stacks *10 as direct typeless damage to your target. dealing all 10 stacks adds an additional 15%	30%	revenge is kind of useless as it currently stands, it does too little to be noticeable and is genuinely just a waste of adren on shields. this gives it a use as essentially a battery, forgoing reduction to get recharged and deal a spike of damage
preparation	attacks taken generate retaliation stacks AND damage taken during its active period is reduced by 10%,	0%	n/a
Phalanx and barricade	barricade unchanged, upon cast it becomes Phalanx, when cast all nearby allies take 85% reduced damage but you lose complete damage immunity. this applies to familiars as well	100%/0%	support ability, greatly reduce allied damage taken but lose immortality
Intercept	cast on a target, right click to configure the ability. It will either cast resonance on your target OR divert. forces your resonance and divert into cooldown	15%	another support ability, save an ally's life or intercept a terrible blow. great for teaching players

tank armor

This would probably the simpler of the two, you've probably been wondering how tank armor will help you, well to put simply

• tank armor enhances all shield damage reduction by 5-15% inherently based on tier capping out at t90 (i.e. t90 and 95 reduce damage by 15% but bronze only 5%)
• adds 1 second to the parry window (making them easier to use)
• and the prior benefits in above sections

further your armor rating is what will be calculated for the damage of bash and parry + shield value -25%

• for example using tempest gives an armor rating total of 1843
• using a malevolent kite shield tier shield gives 491 armor
• this gives you a total damage rating of 1751 which would put you just below par for dual wield given you still give up a lot of abilities for a shield

Shield changes and passives

a fairly short section, i've made a chart as all shields after t60 will have a special attack (And some new passives for some). these enableable effects can't be fed to an eof BUT can be fed to the leviathan ring for a similar effect to the eof. This enhancement will require 1 alchemical hydrix to enable.

enableable special attacks

shield	special attack	new passive	reasoning
Dragon	Rageful bash - instantly forces bash to move to bash 4 for no cost to the retaliation guage	rage of dragons - wearing a full set (or 3 parts) of dragon armor will bump defense rating to level 68	seems thematic, will allow the armor to serve further use
Necronium	Necrotize - increases	n/a	n/a
Bane	Targeted bash - replaces bash 1 dealing more damage but not generating any stacks of retaliation	become up to 10% more resistant to a target as you take damage	suits bane i think
Elder rune	Elder knowledge - Guillotine deals even more damage, but all bashes have a longer cooldown	when worn with full elder rune its defense becomes on par with t92	n/a
spirit shields	Attune - costing 50% retaliation gauge it disables spirit shields normal drawback (prayer drain) and boosts mitigation by 15% more	n/a	they're mostly fine as is but this will keep them from becoming trash
dragonfire shields	hellfire- discharge a blast of dragonfire scoring a guarenteed critical hit and reducing their defense to dragonfire based attacks, this does a large chunk of damage with a 60s cooldown.	shields can continue to absorb dragonfire, once fully charged once you may "overcharge it" to increase its defense level up to t88. this increases the damage of hellfire by 25%, you will never drop below the normal "max charge" unless manually discharged	the ultimate paring for enchanted Dstone ammo, gives them an interesting high risk use as you can either have a greatly increased
Crystal shields	Grace - halves prayer drain and increases the effectiveness of protection prayer by 10/20% (reg/attuned)	crystal passives from armor and agility cause this to trigger more often	n/a
DG shields	Force stability - unleashes a damaging blast of energy forcing the shield to use a pre selected shield (must have fed the shield to it to unlock) passive	chaotic effect, will randomly pick the effects of lesser shields and passively deploy them	n/a
Malevolent shields	mimics the effect of any prior shield as long as one is fed to it, cannot overcharge for dragonfire shields. When worn with power armor it treats it as tank armor for inherent shield bonuses. without any shields fed to it, they will instead simply unleash a blast of energy akin to the chaotic variants.	enhances DOT attacks by 10% in both damage and duration	n/a

Defender changes and passives

Defenders will now split into two trees, please refer to the following diagram before continuing to the passives section for boss won defenders

https://preview.redd.it/hryi6442vtic1.png?width=815&format=png&auto=webp&s=e0d93460a14075765c27869e2a6016f9e9ea1331

Essentially, you'll be able to keep making a ranged/mage/melee varient of defenders via mining and smithing. This has the usual drawbacks though of not being augmentable but allowing you progression never the less

where it gets interesting however is the masterwork defender, Both the elder gwd (a jas for mage, zuk for melee, and wen for ranged themed defender/repriser/rebounder) this tier once crafted (with an exorbitantly long crafting process like all masterwork gear) will unlock the elder gwd tier and ONLY that tier.

The elder Gwd tier would require a pre requisite kalphite defender, but it will allow you to go back and at least acquire the kalphite tier and skip Nex/Barrows if desired.

This all culminates in the Divine defenders/reprisers/rebounders, gilded versions of the elder godwards defenders made of both masterwork and elder anima tainted defenders.

defender	passive effect	creation
void deflector	acts as a low level defender, can mimic the effects of any higher level defender while using void IF that defender is owned (right click to toggle) and acts as 1 part of void for the set effect. can be upgraded twice, at superior elite it will mimic any OWNED void helmet allowing you to get away with just body/legs and defender.	bought, not used in the creation of the divine defender
Barrows	Wightborne - allows you to use any barrows set effect without weapons or shields, you may sacrifice a brother's (or sister's) set to gain 5% of that set effect's power without wearing barrows equipment	unchanged
Nex	lantern enhances ancients damage by 10% (30% if an enhanced ancient staff is owned), defender increases the damage and crit chance of assault by 30%, snapshot fires a 3rd shot for the repriser	unchanged
necronium defender	slightly increases damage dealt (10%) at half health	dragon defender + 8 necronium bars, can be upgraded multiple times like any m/s rework gear
Baneful defender	inherently increases damage against your targets the more times you've killed that target within (X) time period	a max tier necronium defender + 10 banite bars, can be upgraded
Elder rune defender	increases defense as health falls lower similar to deathguard, only activates for your last 10% of health though. greatly increases parry damage at low health	a max tier Baneful defender + 16 elder rune bars
Masterwork defender	treats TMW, elite sirenic, elite tectonic as tank armor for bonuses. Trimming this defender both unlocks it for the divine defender and unlocks its second passive which increases parry damage by 10% (20% with armor spikes equipped)	a max tier elder rune defender + 8 masterwork bars, can be trimmed to unlock its second effect in the usual way
Elder GWD defenders	Jas increases the duration of spell effects and the activation of spell passives, Zuk activates a weaker form of berserk when taking damage increasing damage by 10% without loss of accuracy, Wen creates "perfect vulnerability" for enchanted bolts, meaning higher activation chance AND if conditional like pearl or Dstone allows them to activate without penalty	Any kalphite defender + 10k anima from an elder GWD boss, you must then slay that boss with an "imperfect" form of the defender in your inventory or equipped.
divine defender	allows you to select the buffs of ANY prior tier defender from the metal.	combine a chaotic splint + 10m gp and the masterwork and EGWD defenders.

External link →