Early Personal Shields

[Ixidor]

I've been doing this build for a while (since it was patched) where I rush for an early Personal Shields at 400 minerals, and I've been having a lot of success in lane with it so I thought I'd share. I don't really see ppl ever abusing this item, on a very rare occasion I'll see someone with it but usual not right away in their build order. Here's what the item does currently btw:

Personal Shields
[list]- Costs 400 minerals
- Hero gains 150 shields; does NOT scale with hero level. When outside combat for 3 seconds, shields will regenerate rapidly at +20 shield per second. Shields also benefit from armor and damage reduction bonuses.

So one thing that could happen a lot when laning against Zerg, TvZ, as a Terran you're doing okay but then they come back with their Nydus & Broodlings... next thing you know you're getting thrashed, just constantly chipped away with broodlings + Q shit, and you find yourself taking costly trips back. This is where this item is so amazing, you can completely tank their burst or afford to take more risks-- 150 effective "life" is nothing to scoff at early on, considering your hero might only have 400 health, that would technically boost you from 400-->550; and the best part is the 20 shield/sec regenerate out of combat, in like 7 seconds you've already regenerated all your shields back, this is excellent for baiting heroes early to waste energy or even pulling some turret diving stunts to get a kill. I've had it where opponents get me into red and I run, then completely underestimate the regen and try to chase me to get kill to realize I already regenerated ~100 shield back and get killed. Give it a try, then sell the item off later on when you're like lvl 13+ when it loses its prestige. Think about it this way though, you used to have to be lvl 20 to get the full 150 shield and didn't even get that regen value in the past, and now you can get that value when you're like lvl 3. Give it a try and see if it improves your laning.

Pce,
ixi

[[Kill Streakers] ArtVandelay]

I would like to see a numbers comparison vs putting that into say level 2 armor (I know cost is not same, but close).

I am bad at HA math.

[Ixidor]

To answer your question, it's basically no comparison.

I think the question would be a little closer to evaluating Hardened Shields vs Lvl 2 Armor. But to compare to Personal Shields, it's not really the same 'cause there's a lot of factors:

There's a difference between 'sustain' vs 'reduction'. So there's a reason why life regen prioritizes armor early on, it's because much of the laning is going to be focused on the creep and getting in chip damage. Ideally, the damage you're dealing is to chip them down to force them out of lane and deny experience, however there's really nothing you can do to prevent a hero from just "walking away". Now since they can retreat to their bunker there's really nothing you can do to further their damage. So while you have Personal Shields, as long as you don't take further than 150 damage, you theoretically have a net damage of 0 against them. This really screws over burst heroes that'll have to burn up to 2-3 spells to get 150 damage out of you just for you to back off and heal it up in seconds.

The ~25% damage reduction from rushing lvl 2 armor, not only being 100 minerals more which is relevant early on, lets just hypothetically say your hero has 400 life early on so you'd be preventing up to 100 life total in damage at most. However, you'll probably buyback usually if you take a good 300 damage (assumption). In comparison, with Personal Shields you may have taken 150 shield damage several times over before going back to base-- ie. if you allowed 3 full recharges, you technically had an effective life total of 400+ 450 = 850 life total that Lane before going back to base. This far outweighs any small amounts of damage you spare, 'cause early on it's more about sustain. When you start to break out of the laning phase it's still relevant, but if teamwork starts to be more relevant I'd sell off and start working on your Late Game survival package for team fight shit. Sometimes this is like lvl 12, or maybe lvl 17, you gotta be the judge, but it's usually when I get 2v1 ganked and killed and you realize the shield is no longer pulling its weight, you be the judge though. Word

[[Kill Streakers] ArtVandelay]

yeah, obviously early lane sustain is much different (with regen on shields). I meant more like when people start jumping lanes for ganks, how do they compare on one time soak.

Does anybody use Protective Shield at all? It would have to be early game, but not really sure the use for it (unless you want to just quick push your creep to take out a nydus or pylon (warp point) early).

[Ixidor]

"Protective Shields", 200 minerals, aoe 15% dr. I dunno, that's a different situation. Long story short, no I don't see much value for it early game. There's maybe fringe scenarios like Ghost vs Ghost mid on Desert, cast on yourself and creep to deny against EMP. It used to be descent with medic dom early on, but that's pushed back so late now it's not really a factor.

ANYWAYS,

I meant more like when people start jumping lanes for ganks, how do they compare on one time soak.

The amount of damage you "soak" would have to exceed 150, which early game the example I gave, would basically be all your life total. Also, another important factor as you add some armor in mid-game, your damage reduction from armor applies to Personal Shields which gives you even more value for sustain. Long story short, no forge upgrade will out-value Personal Shields early game.

[mustardtiger]

Does anybody use Protective Shield at all? It would have to be early game, but not really sure the use for it (unless you want to just quick push your creep to take out a nydus or pylon (warp point) early).

Protective shield is a good item all game long. Any time you get into an engagement, pop it and you take 15% less damage for 20s, which is probably the whole fight. 40s after it wears off it's ready again, probably in time for the next engagement. If you're in one teamfight every 60s, it can be up almost the whole time you're in combat.

It's a very good item on tanks. Shields is especially good on firebat because you lack energy.

[[Defy] Consilience]

So one thing that could happen a lot when laning against Zerg, TvZ, as a Terran you're doing okay but then they come back with their Nydus & Broodlings... next thing you know you're getting thrashed, just constantly chipped away with broodlings + Q shit, and you find yourself taking costly trips back. This is where this item is so amazing

That's a good use of the item. I'm definitely doing that vs early zerg from now on. Brood poke so annoying.