Alongside the release of the Bestiary League, we're introducing the long-awaited Spectral Shield Throw skill. The skill throws a spectral copy of your shield that shatters on impact, striking surrounding enemies with shrapnel. This is the first skill to use shield defences for damage.

The skill is unique in its method of dealing damage and so it has a lot of special stats to make it a flexible skill. You can focus entirely on Armour or Evasion for maximising its physical damage with the 2-3 physical damage per 15 Armour or Evasion, which is good for Tower shields, Round Shields, and Bucklers. The skill has additional critical chance from the Energy Shield of your shield, so you can increase its critical chance while also boosting damage by using high level Kite Shields or Spiked Shields. You can focus entirely on critical chance by using a Spirit Shield, and rely entirely on added damage. The skill has a large amount of Added Damage that grows as the skill gem levels, providing a decent boost that makes the skill still do damage even if your shield's armour or evasion is a little low. It's worth noting the skill doesn't benefit from Unarmed bonuses or effects that benefit weapons.

The unique nature of using a Shield for damage means you can use your main-hand weapon for its bonus properties, like the attack speed of Prismatic Eclipse or the additional chain from Ewar's Mirage.

On the subject of chaining, the skill has a number of interesting interactions with the various projectile modifiers available. Chaining causes both the shield and the shrapnel to chain, great for enemies clustered closer together when it bounces between them, but you do lose control of where the shield explodes.

Forking causes the shield to split into two shields when hitting an enemy, resulting in two shrapnel bursts. The shrapnel will also fork, letting you benefit from the forking twice!

Piercing doesn't apply to the primary projectile; This is to give the skill more reliable shattering. The pierce does apply to the secondary projectiles, making it great for ensuring the nova of shrapnel tears through every enemy in a large clustered group.

Boosting projectile speed will increase the range the shards travel, combining well with piercing to letting the shrapnel shred larger groups.

Only the secondary projectiles can be modified by additional projectiles, but the skill already has 8 additional projectiles, so additional projectile supports aren't required. Volley doesn't apply to Spectral Shield Throw.

Here is a video of these effects in action. Enjoy!