What is INT shield?

In simple terms, INT shield is a modifier which increases a player's damage resistance to magical-based attacks (in terms of classification) by a given amount. The higher your INT, the higher your damage resistance to magical attacks. It is important to note that, very few enemies exists in PvE that deal magical damage and thus, this mechanic can only (for the most part) be observed in PvP combat.

Why does it exist?

Back in December of 2011, it was announced that a new class called 'Troll Spellsmith' was going to be released. Throughout the release it had become apparent just how demonstrably overpowered the class was in a PvP context, specifically in the 1v1 mode (which had been released 8 months prior).

In response to this the AQW development team introduced the concept of INT shield. This was done without any warning, announcement, and was generally unnoticed for a short time. This is not the first instance, however, that the team have decided to make changes to the underlying gameplay mechanics without announcing them.

Up until May 2013, there was in fact no cap in place for a player's damage resistance, simply because there was no need for there to be a cap, as classes prior to this would barely attain a damage resistance upwards of 30-40%. However, this would all change with the release of 'Blood Titan', a class that could reach a combined total of 120% damage resistance, under passives and skill effects. Alongside the obvious inherent flaws of such a broken class, other complications arose such as talon twisting abuse. For those who are unaware, talon twisting is a scroll which relays a portion of the damage taken under its effect to your next attack, since talon twisting's formula is based off the damage received prior to any modifiers, one could essentially tank a hit from Nulgath, and then deal upwards of millions of damage on to a target by changing rooms. Due to the increase of players abusing this exploit AE decided that the best way to handle said issue was to set the player's damage resistance to a cap of 80%. And thus, a new cap was born.

As aforementioned the change went unnoticed for a period of time, mainly due to the fact that its inherent effect was actually quite small. This in fact is crucial to understanding the motives behind the introduction of INT shield, as it was in fact, most likely, intended to be a long-term solution as opposed to an immediate.

To put it plainly, INT shield disproportionately favours offensive-caster classes, which is the class model with the highest base INT in the game. Since INT increases both your magical damage output, and your resistance to magical based attacks, you're left with a system that benefits a particular class model more so than others. For classes like UOK, which already have huge damage negation potential as it is, stacking INT shield on top of that creates an absolute caster-tank. In reality, INT shield should have been utilized in such a way that benefited only physical based classes, as these were the classes that struggled the most against these long range powerhouses. Over time this has tilted the PvP meta in very subtle, but significant ways. It is important to note that this all spawned from a time in the AQW PvP meta where most classes were physical based, and therefore, it was these classes that struggled the most against casters. INT shield was introduced presumably to counter this over time, which it has done to a certain extent, giving physical classes more of a fighting chance in PvP however, the existence of a scaling Mag Out seems to undermine the value of INT Shield. The easiest way to appreciate the significance of INT shield is to try and visualize the current state of the overarching PvP meta if all caster classes were given an additional 12% all out buff, and then consider what the implications of that would be. I say 12% because that is how much Mag In protection the average physical based class with full luck enhancements at level 90.