Who wants a good looking whm shield with good stats?

[Mightyg]

I know I do. What stats would you be interested in for a shield?

refresh +1
converts damage taken to mp
fast cast
haste
crit defense bonus
magic attack bonus
cure potency
enhances afflatus misery effects

[MDenham]

I'd take one with something odd, like "Enhancing magic potency +10%".

Congratulations, your haste is now 16.5%, your Stoneskin caps at 385 before other gear (and each of those other 'Enhances "Stoneskin" effect' pieces gives another 3), your regens are better, your Aquaveil is better, etc. etc. etc.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

I'd take one with something odd, like "Enhancing magic potency +10%".

Congratulations, your haste is now 16.5%, your Stoneskin caps at 385 before other gear (and each of those other 'Enhances "Stoneskin" effect' pieces gives another 3), your regens are better, your Aquaveil is better, etc. etc. etc.

Healing is WHM's forte, Enhancing is COR and BRD's.

[Economizer]

I know I do. What stats would you be interested in for a shield?

refresh +1
converts damage taken to mp
fast cast
haste
crit defense bonus
magic attack bonus
cure potency
enhances afflatus misery effects

White Mage has a slew of Refresh Gear, so I'm not so sure that's a good idea currently. Converting damage taken to MP seems a little tank based, and generally White Mages don't want to take damage, but if your focusing on the melee side using shields, that's interesting. Still, like an Afflatus Misery buff (it needs one since Auspice was nerfed so hard), you generally won't be using shields while meleeing so the Afflatus Misery buff would have to be party based. Magic Attack Bonus only really would help with Flash Nova, since a Light Staff is better then adding all but the most extreme amounts of MAB. That said, like Cure Potency (Genbu Augment), Magic Attack Bonus (Harpy Shield) is already on a shield.

For Haste, unless you are trying to cap it for recast reduction, White Mage can already cap Haste without sacrificing a weapon slot, and using a shield instead of a second club while doing melee would be pretty unusual.

Healing is WHM's forte, Enhancing is COR and BRD's.

To be honest, the shield should be for all jobs.

Better yet, a shield that gives a 10%-15% boost to all magic would be better, but that's more in line with the multipurpose elemental shield I've been clamoring for for ages. Again, all jobs would be a better tag, but considering the lack of more impressive shields with increasing levels, exclusivity is the least of my concerns when it comes to getting a new shield.

All jobs could probably use a better party based shield, especially as we reach higher levels. It sucks having every person who remotely thinks about sitting in the back for half a second get pushed to having to hold a staff forever.

[MDenham]

To be honest, the shield should be for all jobs.

I don't know about all jobs, but I could get behind it being the eight-job "odd round shield" combo (WHM, BLM, RDM, PLD, DRK, SMN, BLU, SCH).

---

As an alternative, since someone seems to have objections to a WHM being able to pump up their Barspells and other enhancing magic that COR and/or BRD do not get equivalents to... a shield that grants a unique spell would be nice. Maybe Holyja (300MP, AoE, affected by Afflatus Solace, increases light-element damage similar to other -ja spells, base damage roughly on par with tier-3 -ga spells), since I doubt we'd see that any other way.

[Economizer]

I don't know about all jobs, but I could get behind it being the eight-job "odd round shield" combo (WHM, BLM, RDM, PLD, DRK, SMN, BLU, SCH).

I don't understand why BRD and COR, both jobs that are given daggers and the occasional sword, should be forced to use a 51 staff while others get to use a weapon they're more proficient in, and a shield. Especially when Summoner, which is a definite Staff job, gets to use something that boosts magic casting.

Not limiting it by jobs would mimic the elemental staves more, for a real upgrade for jobs that don't have access to the magian staves too. Of course, stats like Ranged Attack +10, or PDT-20% wouldn't be on it, so perhaps some people would still use the staves, but still, the idea.

While I disagree with baring something like pumping up enhancing magic in a powerful way being given to White Mage (but not exclusively), I don't think that a unique spell, especially an offensive spell, would really be neccisary to make better shields White Mage can use. There are a slew of things that can be done, and at this point, I hardly care if the shield is exclusive or not.

Although since the topic is coming up, this reminds me of a thread Kingfury started, where he posted the proposed the incredibly broken Hardlight set:

Hardlight Armor (set + weapon):
Only the most war-tempered White mages dare to dawn this shinning war-mage armor. Unlike anything ever crafted for light-cloth wearing mages, the Hardlight armor masterfully combines plate, and durable cloak to allow the perfect balance of the highest protection and maneuverability. Along with these unique armor pieces are the crowning jewels to the sets effectiveness, the Hardlight Hammer and Shield. Forever changing the way a WHM deals with enemy aggression, the Hammer and Shield make it incredibly difficult to keep it’s sights on the mage with searing light from relentless Flash.

And since the forums now allows embedding images, I'll post the picture of the shield's stats, cut from Kingfury's concept art:

Shield, 95 WHM. 35DEF. Converts 5% of damage to HP and MP. Enhances "Flash" Effect. Physical Damage: "Light Spikes" effect.
You might like the concept, although I feel it is a bit much, and for the melee White Mage, dual wield will continue to be a hard thing to give up.

[MDenham]

In the case of COR, I'd feel more comfortable with providing them with a sword or dagger that improves roll effects than a shield. (A shield feels to me like you're trying to force, or at least heavily promote, COR/BLM as the standard job combination, which is just weird.) For that matter, it could provide a bonus to Quick Draw as well.

Bard is a little harder to set up. I'm tempted to say that a set of daggers with various song types (for example, "Carol +10%") would be a better idea than just a generic "Singing/Wind instrument/String instrument potency +10%" set of shields, even at the expense of promoting BRD/NIN (or, probably more likely, BRD/DNC). (For that matter, the instrument ones would be useless to have as All Jobs anyway.)

I dunno, though. (Also, that Hardlight set is crap. Not enough attack+, too much INT+. )

[Mightyg]

I think we can all agree though at the very least our shield options are visually ugly as sin. I would seriously kill/let my party die for a few new skins on a shield actually worth equipping.

[Mirage]

I know I do. What stats would you be interested in for a shield?

[ ] refresh +1
[ ] converts damage taken to mp
[ ] fast cast
[ ] haste
[ ] crit defense bonus
[ ] magic attack bonus
[ ] cure potency
[ ] enhances afflatus misery effects
[x] all of the above

In all seriousness though, it would have to do one of the following to be considered good enough to actually use:

The shield had an enfeebling/enhancing magic bonus that makes a wand + shield outperform elemental staves for enfeebs and enhancements (barspells are boosted by elemental staves, IIRC)

The shield+wand will allow more more cure potency than surya's staff +3 (or enough to let you easily cap it, thus letting other stats on the shield become relevant)

The shield has more -damage taken than genbu's, making it a "oh shit i can't die now" piece.

The shield has awesome DD stats that makes it outperform dualwielding, for the whmelees out there.

Or lastly, the shield offers another +1 refresh.

Maybe something like this would be good:

Def: 20
Shield of Awesome
Cure Potency +7%
Spell interruption rate -15%
Damage taken -13%

or

Shield of pretty damn good

Def:30
Refresh +1
enfeebling magic +15
Enhancing magic +15
Fast cast +5%

[MDenham]

Enhancing magic isn't boosted by elemental staves, unfortunately. This is why I went with my original suggestion.

Ideally it'd be just "White magic potency +10%", but that seems like it's going a little too far.