Shield options

Hello all!

There has been a lot of discussion as to which shield is better bla bla. I'm not looking for that discussion.

What I want to know is, what shield do you use and for what content do you use it? We are in a interesting position in that we have many options for our off-hand.

I'll start. Numbers represent Block Strength/Block Rate

Weathered Noct Shield 304/119: I love it. I use on bosses, the block rate is ok, not as bad as some state, to me anyway. Missed blocks generally turn into parries, so there is some steady mitigation there. This shield shines with bulwark for sure. At times just for S&G's I'll pop bulwark and awareness, it's fun.

Allagan Round Shield 181/181: This is also a great shield. I use it for speed runs when performing long/large pulls. For me it seems to flatten out the dmg a bit.

No onion shield yet but I bet that would be pretty nice for speed runs too.

Holy Shield Zenith...it's just shineyz now.

That's my 2g. Share yours!

Syn

Pro-tip: The place where noct shield works best is speed runs. This is because there is better mitigation overall with Noct shield (since you benefit for parry more), but it is usually spikier due to lower block chance. With so many hits coming at you in SR though, it doesn't matter if you have only a 22% block chance, it will be consistent, hence suppressing the only disadvantage of the Noct shield.

I use Noct too and i love it, for everything. But wether it is better for Coil and single target tanking is the question; if you already use it for that, use it for SR too, since it is where it is at its best :)

Nice,

I started full timing noct when I first got it. I like it a lot. I started to use allagan round for speed to see if there was any difference and saw a small change. Your words though encourage me to put the weathered back on and parse it again.

Don't forget that only mobs in frotn of you will be blocked. Mistakes in positionning will have 10 times more impact that what shield you use if you do any :)

THIS!! Any new tanks I run into either through Low level DR or in PF groups, I like to share that bit of knowledge when I see them position mobs behind them. Question on that, might have been answered already. When running through a move, i.e. slipstream, and the tank still gets hit, it is calculating position as in front of the tank or behind. Since a lot of times when tanks run through mobs they then have their back to their "back" but how does the game calculate that?

Are they taking a hit with no chance to block or is it considered still in front of the mob with a chance to block?

Well, if you got hit from a frontal attack while you were running through, it means you were still in front when the hit registered (and if you see otherwise it is just delay). Most likely then, you should be able to block it -- wouldn't be the case if block possibilities are computed after the hit is registered, but that seems extremely unlikely.

Shield blocking only needs correct facing for auto-attacks. Any other attacks that are blockable my be blocked from any direction.