Dredge Stoneguard

General
Stoneguard are arguably the most powerful Dredge units. They sport huge shields, heavy maces, long movement range and a powerful Armor-damaging active ability. Stoneguard have high Armor and Break making them the Dredge alter-ego to Varl Shieldbangers. They are very hard to take down due to their exceedingly high hit-points and are usually dealt with using Armor-bypass damage abilities like Bloody Flail, Slag and Burn, Impale or Sundering Impact.

They come in three ranks: regular, Defender and Colossus. The higher ranks distinguished by different colors are encountered later in the game or in the Hard difficulty setting. Watch out for that purple-colored giant!

Passive Ability: Splinter
When a Dredge with the Splinter passive receives an Armor-break attack equal to or larger than 3, then all adjacent Dredge (of whichever class) suffer 1 Armor damage. This Armor damage is transferred in a domino-like effect along a 'chain' of adjacent Dredge.

Active Ability: Kindle
The Stoneguard kneels and smashes its shield on the ground creating an out-stretching shock-wave. All adjacent units, allies or enemies, receive 1 Armor damage and are knocked back up to three tiles, receiving an additional 1 Armor damage for each tile they are knocked back. This ability can cause up to 4 Armor damage to a unit and affects up to eight units leading to a tremendous damage output! Notes:
 * Unlike the Battering Ram ability, Kindle cannot push units through other ones. So, blocked units received less damage.
 * Stoneguard AI (version 2.1.65) use of Kindle is many times questionable, often leading to more Armor damage to its allies rather than its enemies!