Shield to EX Shield

[Arlieth Tralare]

As explained to me by Magikarp and Dipstick, Shields can cancel into special attacks and other shields. Therefore, it is possible to perform the following against multi-hit attacks:

[Shield] xx EX Shield xx any normal attack

Partially taking out the guesswork in a Shield situation while combining the offensive advantages and options of EX Shield, this technique has some potential for abuse. If anyone would like to contribute by posting the number of hits of the most popular attacks that people use with their characters, I think it'd be a good way for us to explore avenues of the game that haven't been explored yet.

Stupidly enough, you cannot cancel EX Shield into block. You gotta keep Shielding. Yeesh.

[IamtehSEX]

does it have to be a normal attack or can you throw out another ex-shield?

[Arlieth Tralare]

an EX shield is fine, too.

[IamtehSEX]

cool beans... gotta try this out cuz i hate it when i get caught with a stupid shield.

[Dipstick]

Just to be a nit: Shields are not considered a special attack. Successful shields are special and shield cancelable. If a shield was considered a special attack, you could cancel nearly every normal in the game into a shield, which would lead to... not a whole lot.

[Hintalove]

In ver b arcade you can throw out of regular shield I'm fairly sure.

[Choco]

This is something I've been wondering about for awhile, but just keep forgetting to ask! I might want to make a new topic about this, but I don't want to if I don't have to.

When it comes to directly shielding something, does what direction you're holding make a difference in frames?

For example, is there any advantage to 5D over 4D and 2D over 1D?

[Zaido]

how would there be anydifference since there are only 3 different shield animations? Jump Shield standing shield and crouchign shield? how woudl holding a direction help increase the speed??if there is wtf?? i did not know that   

[Choco]

I'm wondering actually if there's any disadvantage to using blocking directions while trying to shield :|

[Arlieth Tralare]

Doesn't make a difference, Choco.

[Sp00ky]

It actually does make a difference when you are shielding in the first place. If you hold block before shielding and you shield too late at least you block successfully. After you shield the first hit though you are commited.

[Zaelar]

It doesn't affect the shield, it's just generally a good idea to hold back when you go for one for that reason.

[XAQshinor]

funny little thing i noticed about shielding, needs to be tested/confirmed though.

i dont think shielding has a hitbox behind your character, for instance

if im Arc and i jump straight over v.sions head, my back is facing her. now if
she jumps up with j.c and i try to shield with my back facing her, ill end up getting
hit. this has happened basically whenever i do this, same thing on the floor too.

someone should hit the lab to do some testing >.>

[Zaelar]

I've seen successful backwards shielding, but it might have just been a fluke.  I don't remember what was shielded though.

[XAQshinor]

yea veteru answered my question already, it has to
do with ur hitbox changing during shielding animation.

[motoh]

I'm fuzzy on something stupid again, but here goes:  What's the difference between shield and EX-shield?

~M

[Alfonse]

A Shield is done by holding down the D button and drains magic circuit gradually as you hold it down.

An EX-Shield is done when you hit D just as an enemy attack is about to connect. It grants meter instead of draining some 

[linalys]

I'd tell you to look at the wiki but oh well... uh I guess I can't tell YOU that huh?

Shield happens when you hold D longer than X frames, Dippy or someone had an exact amount of how much circuit was drained while doing this and exact frame count.  Shields do not count for a last arc and cannot be normal cancelled.  If you do not cancel these, they have recovery time that's usually long enough for someone mashing 2a to continue mashing and hit you before you recover. 

EX Shield is when you tap D.  These count towards a last arc and can be normal cancelled.  These recover faster I think and are pretty much what you want to do every time. 

They both gain circuit on shielding, was 5% last time I checked. 

EX shield scales 60% then 45% normally.  Normal shield is 70% 45%.

EX shield when shielding a 5a low does 60% then 45% proration. That's normal, like normal ex shielding you don't get the scaled decrease until AFTER you hit a button.  If you last arc like this you'll be okay. 

Now, ex shielding a 2a high goes straight to 45%.  You don't even have push a button for this to happen.  The game instantly slaps down the proration, if you last arc like this your damage will suck.  The game will set prorate to 100% and then it'll drop to 45%.  Even normal shielding is subject to this penalty. 

[Alfonse]

^ *respect*

[Soniti]

Now, ex shielding a 2a high goes straight to 45%.  You don't even have push a button for this to happen.  The game instantly slaps down the proration, if you last arc like this your damage will suck.  The game will set prorate to 100% and then it'll drop to 45%.  Even normal shielding is subject to this penalty. 

Thanks a ton for this explanation, now I finally know why some of my last arcs and ex-shield->combos do shit for damage and others do decent damage I also tried to attribute it to reverse beat for the combos, but the amount of damage it was doing (as you said, approx 45%) was waaaay too low for reverse beat. Oh well, I'll still take whatever damage I can get 

[Irovax]

I noticed that my prorate also dropped to 45% when my Ren Last Arc'd ((air EX Shield)) a Warakia 2B. ;-;

[noradseven]

I personally love this and its really not that big of a deal being commited the hardest shield is the first one then its not that hard, and yeah arc-driving or even using bar that much after a large shield combo, normally not the best of ideas, but depends on circumstances.