I disagree that the armour system ‘doesn’t work’. The stats based system of the first game was much less inventive and strategic, as the stat-dump mechanic ended up playing the game for you: you didn’t have to think, as it was done for you with dice rolls behind the scenes.
A stun at the moment 100% stuns when the related armour is down, a stat-dump issue can be fixed by scaling offence vs defence stats as you level. Using elemental effects to increase chances of stuns etc also allows for strategy. In the first game I found myself far more going "Well I can definitely stun target X, but Y is more of a threat with lower stun chance" then working out with the partner who can stop which target. In this I find myself going "well, that target has no magic armour, time to throw all my wizards at it", meanwhile the physical damagers go and do their own thing. You're right it is chance based, but you need to consider your options and use tactics to increase your odds. A lot of RPGs use this sort of system, because it works.
The new armour system may be flawed, but it at least forces you to think. Should I target physical or magical?
More magic armour > physical + physical based CC. More physical armour > Magical + magical based CC. No thinking needed, just get a flow-chart.
I also disagree about the new shields, for the same reasons mentioned above. The armour regen ability for shields can strategically turn the tide of combat in spectacular ways. There was one memorable fight I had within the keep inside a room with a character being converted to a silent monk (can’t recall the names of the enemies here off-hand). It featured at least one shield and sword guy: at one point, I had him CC’d, with his health whittled down to nothing, and his magical and physical armour at zero. So I focused my attacks on the more dangerous enemies around me, considering this guy a goner. Then he gets up, does the shield regen, and gets healed by some other lad – suddenly he’s back in the game, and a significant threat just because I failed to pick him off
Until you can control aggro, shields are useless. There's absolutely nothing stopping the AI targeting someone else. The regen is okay at best - a support mage can do better though, as can pots. You also sacrifice a huge amount of damage, why use a shield and kill an enemy in 5-6 turns, risking him changing target or popping off some CC, when a 2-hander can beat someone down in 2-3?
1. Make normal damage ineffective against armor – That will force you to use CC to remove armor, which then becomes mandatory to have. It will promote stacking CC skills on your characters. Probably not a good solution.
You're right, not a good solution.
2. Making armor only work against CC, but not damage (can then be renamed to something else) – Probably the better solution, and also makes much more sense. If you want to CC something, you use CC skills, not damage. Can then also have dedicated skills for removing “Armor” – They will remove more of it than the CC skills, but won’t do any health damage or CC.
Almost makes it pointless to use CC then, depending on how much armour/char you get. Murder would be the best CC.
The solutions to the armour issue so far still don't fix the "burn down and CC" issue. Either the armour needs a serious re-work (if it's to remain anything similar to what it currently is), or the CC needs a serious rework, or better yet, both need a rework.
