Elite Buff: Shielded 2

Internal engine status effect. Standard elite variant of Shielded at tier 2. Grants the elite enemy 5 Shield stacks that refresh at the start of each round, at the cost of -20% max health.

At 5 Shield stacks, this mid-tier is relatively easy to break through with focused attacks. Damage-over-time effects and Marked bypass Shield entirely. The Shield refreshes each round, so burst damage within a round is more effective than spreading attacks.

The -20% max health trade-off makes Shielded elites squishier once past the barrier. Boss variants at tier 2 have 8 Shield stacks instead. The Shielded modifier scales from tier 1 (3 stacks) to tier 4 (9 stacks) for standard elites.