Short Sword & Shield (Tank/CC) Quick Guide

Playstyle Summary

The Short Sword & Shield is a durable frontline bruiser specialized in soaking up damage and locking down enemies with crowd control. Unlike its Longsword cousin, the Shortsword has no self-heal, but it compensates with higher burst defense and CC. This build focuses on tanking and team support – you charge into the fray with heavy armor and the Ironsides buff to become almost unkillable, disrupt the enemy formation with shield attacks, and create openings for your team.

Your damage is modest, but your value comes from holding ground, absorbing pressure, and stunning or knocking down foes so that allies and units can clean up.

Core Playstyle Highlights

• Frontline Bulwark: Can face-tank bursts of damage thanks to Ironsides – while active, you’re virtually impervious for a few seconds.
• Crowd Control Machine: Nearly all your skills have CC effects. You can repeatedly knock down, stun, or stagger enemies with shield charges, bashes, kicks, and even a thrown shield.
• Objective Holder: Excels at holding chokes and objectives. You thrive in tight spaces where your AoE knockdowns hit multiple targets and your durability lets you stall enemy advances indefinitely.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

• Toughest frontliner: With Ironsides, you can survive bursts that would kill other classes – for about 8 seconds, you’re nearly invincible.
• Excellent Crowd Control: You bring multiple knockdowns and stuns on short cooldowns.
• Great Team Utility: Ideal for holding choke points and objectives, as you can stand your ground and buy time for your team.
• Strong in Tight Spaces: In narrow alleys, gate breaches, or on supply points, a Shortsword excels – forcing enemies to clump, so you can hit many with your shield bash and ultimate.

Weaknesses

• Low Damage Output: You’re not a damage-dealer – Shortsword has one of the lowest personal DPS among classes.
• Cooldown Reliant: Your tankiness is burst-based. While you’re godlike during Ironsides, once it’s down, you’re vulnerable.
• Short Range & Mobility: You must get in close to be effective.
• No Self-Heal: Unlike Longsword & Shield, you cannot heal yourself or allies; sustained fights or chip damage wear you down once Ironsides isn’t active.
• Limited Kill Potential: With low damage, enemies may sometimes ignore you to focus on higher threats.

Skill Rotation

Basic Rotation:

1. Pop Ironsides before engage.
2. Shielded Charge → Knockdown.
3. Follow up with Kick or Shield Bash.
4. Use Barricade or basic attacks to stagger.
5. Throw Shield to interrupt from range.
6. Thunderstruck Ultimate for massive AoE CC.
7. Disengage when Ironsides ends.

Abilities:

• Ironsides: Signature survival skill.
• Shielded Charge: A gap-closer with a knockdown effect.
• Shield Bash: A high-damage shield slam.
• Throw Shield: A ranged stagger/poke attack.
• Thunderstruck Ultimate: A massive leap and knockdown ultimate.

Detailed Rotation (Tank/CC Engage):

1. Buff Up: Activate Ironsides right before diving into a dangerous group. This prevents you from being immediately CC’d and guarantees survivability on entry.
2. Charge In: Use Shielded Charge to crash into the enemy front line, aiming for a cluster where your charge will knock the primary target flat and stagger others, instantly disrupting the enemy formation.
3. Follow-up CC: Quickly follow with a CC ability (e.g., Kick for stun/debuff or Shield Bash for damage and stagger) to keep at least one enemy permanently CC’d.
4. Team Convergence: Your allies or unit should be moving in; apply Barricade on a tough enemy hero or shield unit to weaken their defenses.
5. Ultimate: When the moment is right – usually right after your charge or initial combo – use Thunderstruck to launch multiple enemies into the air. This is excellent for interrupting enemy ultimates or peeling enemies from a teammate.
6. Disengage & Reset: As your Ironsides timer runs out, retreat toward your team or behind your unit’s shield wall to avoid being caught with your skills on cooldown. Once your cooldowns reset, you can engage again.

Set Guardian

Main Stat: Thoughness
Secondary: Health
Bonus: Blunt
(Purple set is usable but not recommended.)
Your weapon should favor high slash damage—ideally with additional high blunt damage.

TL;DR

• Role: Ultra-tanky disrupter; a meat shield and crowd controller rather than a DPS dealer.
• Playstyle: Initiate fights by using Shielded Charge and Thunderstruck to knock enemies down, pop Ironsides for survivability, and let your team follow up.
• Survivability: Ironsides grants temporary invulnerability (~8 seconds); use it at crucial moments. Your high baseline armor keeps you durable, but you’re not immortal.
• CC Arsenal: Rotate multiple CC abilities (Shielded Charge, Kick, Shield Bash, Throw Shield, Thunderstruck Ultimate) to continuously stagger and disrupt enemies.
• Weaknesses: Low kill potential and no healing – if caught alone or during cooldowns, you’re vulnerable. You excel best when working as part of a team.