- For the enemy in Borderlands 3, see Hoplite (enemy).
Hoplite is a seraph turtle shield in Borderlands 2 manufactured by Pangolin. The Hoplite can be obtained as a drop from Pete the Invincible in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, or from the Seraph Vendor in the Badass Crater of Badassitude in True Vault Hunter and normal modes.
Special Effects[]
Alone a mere soldier, together an unstoppable phalanx. – Very high shield capacity. Further increases shield capacity and decreases movement speed for every Hoplite user in the party.
Usage and Description[]
The Hoplite is an advanced Turtle Shield similar to the Fabled Tortoise, offering a much higher capacity at the cost of movement speed. Unlike the Fabled Tortoise this movement speed penalty is variable based on the number of in-game characters wearing a Hoplite, potentially providing a larger penalty than the legendary shield but in most cases resulting in a lower movement penalty. While the movement penalty from a Fabled Tortoise is immediately apparent, the movement penalty from a Hoplite worn by only one character in the party is far less severe and even difficult to notice.
If examined based on the stats listed on each shield's item card, the Fabled Tortoise would seem to beat out the Hoplite in terms of shield capacity. However, the Hoplite's listed 20% capacity boost for each character wearing a copy does trigger when only one copy of the shield is worn, meaning that the Hoplite effectively has at least 20% more capacity than what is listed. This gives it a higher effective capacity than the Fabled Tortoise in all cases, almost fully double the capacity when worn by four characters simultaneously.
In other regards the Hoplite mostly equal to the Fabled Tortoise, the two shields having identical recharge delays, recharge speeds, and parts restrictions. The only advantages the Fabled Tortoise has over the Hoplite are its lower penalty to character health (approximately 15% less than that of the Hoplite), its enhanced movement speed when depleted, and its lower movement penalty compared to the Hoplite when worn by four characters at once. These apparent advantages are mostly moot though, as its lower health penalty is negated by the lower shield capacity, its high movement speed on depletion is only minimally effective to begin with, and the Hoplite's vastly increased capacity when worn by four characters more than makes up for any movement penalties incurred. For almost all tactical concerns the Hoplite can be considered the superior shield
Notes[]
- Due to its high capacity the Hoplite is one of the shields that most dramatically illustrates the hidden cap on shield capacity increase calculations. Many effects which boost the wearer's shield capacity by a certain percent will result in a much lower boost than expected (not including the Hoplite's own 20%-per-person capacity boost). See the appropriate section of the Shield article for more details.
- The Hoplite can spawn with a Torgue capacitor, granting explosive damage reduction to its wearer, but can't spawn with any other forms of elemental resistance. Furthermore, the prefix is not displayed.
- The Max Health penalty may not appear on the item card due to a bug, as seen in this example; however, the penalty will still be applied.
- The Mechromancer's Sharing is Caring skill also applies the 20% buff allowing for increased shield capacity when Deathtrap is active.
- Currently any Overpowered (greater than level 72) variants of the Hoplite is usually unusable, as the shield's inherent health penalty may reduce the wearer's maximum health to zero if the player does not have an exceptionally large health stat. Though this will not directly kill the wearer, any damage taken in this state will put the character into fight for your life, even damage which is fully absorbed by the shield.
- Due to the health penalty from the Hoplite reducing a wearer's health to zero, there is an exploitable bug when using Maya's Immolate skill. If Maya is downed, then revived, her health will become zero with an empty bar, keeping Immolate active.
Trivia[]
- A Hoplite was a lesser soldier of the Ancient Greek city-states. Hoplites were primarily armed as spearmen and fought in a phalanx formation.
- The flavor text references the phalanx, an Ancient Greek military formation composed of tightly packed infantry.
- The Hoplite uses the same skin as the Fabled Tortoise.
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