I had a level 44 Fiona a while back, when the end-game was Laghodessa and boats required tokens, and I came back once after a couple of years to see how the game had unfolded, got Fiona to about 62 or so. The game has changed so much since then, I've decided that the only way I can experience the game correctly with all of the changes implemented is to start over. So I deleted that Fiona (after an item transfer) and started over. I'm Level 6 now with no more 70k Meditation AP to my name.
I have yet to decide what style of Fiona I want to play later, but I'm leaning more towards hammer and large shield, for a number of reasons. For one, I remember 30+ bosses being harder to defend against with a small shield, since many of them had long strings of smash attacks that would cripple a small even with Heavy Stander. Hammer also had easier smashes to land from what I remember, namely Butterfly Swing and Stigma Hammer. Amaranth Kick required some precision IIRC.
But the big reason is...
...I do NOT like Counterattack.
I prefer a more defensive playstyle, studying my opponent, blocking and waiting for a safe opportunity to attack, like Dark Souls. I do not like the brute force approach, nor do I like to play aggressively or offensively. I also have poor internet (Frontier Wireless DSL) and I don't want to have to worry about latency screwing up my attempts at a Counterattack in Hero Mode, resulting in a one-hit kill.
So I want to play a more defensive, tank-style Fiona that gets in the enemies face, sponges their attacks (blocks it head on or just eats the damage with massive defense), then lands a couple of hard-hitting Stigma Hammers or Beetle Crushers. For this, I want to use a large shield so I can more reliably block smash attacks and long attack strings in general, with a focus on Heavy Stander and Iron Defense to maximize survivability with a large shield.
So, what do I need to make this work, and how does it fare in comparison to a Sword/Small Fiona?
Comments
I had used Large shield + Hammer for a few weeks in the beginning, and i had no problem soloing raids below lv 70 with it. I even started a lv 70-79 Jugger solo on lv 70 and gave up after 30 minutes because i couldn't finish him in time. With Small shield it's no problem because of the extra damage.
And DS is a wrong example because there is no given playstyle there. However if you want to play efficiently you'll need to get used to parry+riposte and backstabs and use both shield and dodge. Also there is no time limit, latency and screen freezes that can screw up your playing.
Dark Souls was a bad example because I do all of the things you've listed and then some. I have close to 2,00 hours in that game on my Steam profile, and have completed several SL1 runs, so I know that game intimately.
https://steamcommunity.com/id/76561198012352069/games/?tab=all
But it's certainly not a game that I can just brute force or face tank. Defense matters so little beyond NG, you must block or evade if you want to survive, even if you're pushing 50 Vitality.
Stamina management is everything in Dark Souls.
Yes.
Extremely bad since small shield basically does everything better than large shield and is also easier to use.
Small shield blocks every attack in the game just like largeshield ( the difference being you get knocked back with small shield if you use heavy stander to block a smash attack ) but red attacks and neamhain attacks ( which require perfect block or heavy stander for largeshield too ).
I think smallshield would fit your playstyle too and give you more options with counterattacks ( even though you don't like them there are situations in which you can't do without them ).
Well, I do have a set of 54-60 gear left over from my old Fiona. How far will it get me before I need to upgrade it?
Holy Defender +6
Save the Queen +5
Shining Will +5 (full set)
The way you describe it, it sounds like the game is just trying to rush you to end-game.
It's going to only be even moreso after the Rise update from everything I read.
To throw my 2 cents in, just recently got back to the game too, but been a hammer Fiona since lvl cap was 44 back then. Been hammer since I always enjoyed the feeling of the higher risk/reward and agree that sword to me just felt really kind of derp with just counter and amaranth. Deflecting everything is tons more fun and satisfying to me, especially when you get to land a full charge deflect buffed stigma and see those high numbers fly.
Gotten over a week to get used to more of the changes since last playing over 1.5+ years ago, and with the block buffs again since then. as aforementioned above really for large shield the only perk to it anymore is iron defense and the higher base defense. I still carry one around (partly since I love the look of more large shields over small shield). Still good to have that extra def especially when you're learning new battles, along with certain bosses I use for when I feel like they don't attack consistently enough in your direction for you to be able to utilize the extra offensive capabilities you get with small shield. Pretty much for the sandbag type bosses. Other than that small shield > large shield for sure.
I've been messing a bit with sword again too just cause of the (new to me) Ein Lacher update, and yeah with hammer you definitely have to work for it a lot more to get the same damage output as sword nowadays with the buffs they've given on counters and amaranth. I'm still finding going around now though that I can still manage to top in S3 raids with my current stats at least, so I wouldn't say that hammer is complete garbage as some people seem to make. You'll definitely need to put the work in and get the stats for it. Namely you'll need a lot of speed and crit to get the full effectiveness out of it. Speed is huge for hammer especially since a lot of your DPS will be coming from spamming as much of the butterfly + full charge stigma combo while trying to deflect a lot midway to get that extra smash damage boost.
If you're interested, just to show off hammer capabilities still with enough experience and practice, here's actually a solo I did when I was last playing (that still seems to be amongst the faster clear times for Muir) and using large shield at that. My current stats are pretty much the same as what I had in this video, and same hammer still too.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=-brepAHq66g
Crimson Rage Set
Northern Pike Set
Blood Prince Set
Laghodessa Slayer Set
Shining Will Set
Then whatever the Lv70 and Lv80 sets are for Fiona.
Same for Evie.
Scarlet Witch Set
Sweetie Bear Set
Broken Ash Set
Rose Drop Set
Wonderland Set
Completely understand. I don't like the direction they're going too in trivializing anything that isn't endgame. The general impression I get from the upcoming Rise update is 90+ or bust. They're straight deleting a chunk of low level content from the game. It's like here, we're going to hold your hand and give you as much as we can to make the MMO journey portion of the game to endgame as easy as possible.
Guess it's the fate though of games when they're low on player base and need to lower that new player entry barrier to make them want to keep playing.