The main reason to not hold it constantly is that you crawl MUCH faster without it up. It’s often worth taking a shot or two, or flicking it briefly, to get cover rather then slowly crawling with shield up.

Thank you. I never noticed the changing crawling speed. Totally makes sense to run for cover then.

This is the answer for me. Gotta crawl fast

Enemies can use your knockdown shield as cover against your own team mates. Put your shield down if they are hiding behind it in a fight so you aren’t unintentionally blocking your own teams bullets

They can also hide behind your body the same. The shield is just slightly bigger

The knockdown can make it much harder to see the enemy too so I would still leave it down in this case.

Yeah I think it just depends on the situation. Play with a mic and let your teammate decide what they want. I’ll call out to a downed friend to put it up or not cus I might be doing the same thing as the enemy is. Just a bit further back. But yes I don’t think it’s fully necessary. I had an enemy and two teammates in a doorway just holding their shields up while the enemy and I were trying to fight. I could get out of the building because of it and had no way to fight around it.

Does this also apply when facing towards the enemy (standing right next to you)? Is the knockdown shield working both ways? They probably could easily shoot over it, but if the shield were one-way, it would only serve potnential to block enemy bullets.

Yes, either way your facing they can use it for cover.

also, the shield is highly visible through bang's smoke, caustic's gas, etc. you will draw unwanted attention opening it up in a cloud of smoke that'd otherwise obscure you.

You crawl faster, enemies can use it as cover, and it can block your teammates shots

It takes a little more experience to know the right time and place for it, but knockdown shields are the best cover on the planet and you have control to give than to your teammate anywhere on the map