Shields

I noticed there are new shields at Sergeant Third Class Rank which are purchasable for 5000 seals. They have the highest block rates (increases chances to block) in the game. It would be nice to figure out how block rates scale to each other and the percentage of increase. To see if these new shields are worth it. Has anyone did any parsing of block rates?

Gridanian Buckler

Block Rate 168
Block 71
Evasion 15

Lominsan Lantern Shield

Block Rate 126
Block 86
Attack Power 15

Ul'dahn Hoplon

Block Rate 131
Block 107
Dexterity 2

Shields before the patch which were top tier:

Canopus Shield

Block Rate 94
Block 122
Strength 2
Piety 2
Evasion 4

Vintage Kite Shield

Block Rate 92
Block 120

I'm trying to get my hands on an Ul'dahn Hoplon but grinding away @100 seals a leve will take a while...

Unfortunately i don't have a ss of my ifrit run parses, but the hoplon appeared to block roughly 10 more swings then a vintage kite +1. Since ifrit swings hard and slow, these blocks may not be worth it as they may have come early in the fight where the blocks are not needed as much as say, after HF where everything goes crazy. it may also have been due to bad use of aegis boon on my part with the vintage kite. i'm under the assumption that the kite's are for bosses since u can meld em with defense, where as hoplon is for strongholds where mobs are not lvl ?? and you can block more often because of this.

the hoplon may prove more valuable when 1 is tanking many mobs at once. while the block % will not directly increase with more swings, the probability and chance for more blocks will increase, in essence more swings at u = more chances to block but the block % itself doesn't increase. i have yet to fully test it on fights with numerous adds.

i only reference the hoplon as its a balanced shield, the buckler is iffy at best, while the block is high it does not block much damage, and until Eva gets fully tested i put no value on that stat even when coupled with 2 earrings. the point of blocking should be to take a shield that cannot have defense materia and block frequent enough and block enough damage to equate to the same as the defense lost from not melding 2-3 materia in terms of damage mitigation. 3 may be a bit too high, but should someone be lucky enough to meld 3-5 then yes by all means that shield should trump any other known shield.

I've been using Lominsan Lantern Shield and haven't observed a really noticeable increase in block rate. It's there, it's a little better now that regular attacks aren't all we can block, but I really just rely on Aegis for the most part.

http://www.picamatic.com/show/2011/1...4_400x300.jpeg

not a parse of my fight as tank, but a tank who uses the uldahn hoplon with a vit/dex build. vit and dex in every materia slot. ifrit's dps on him should b in the ballpark of 76 which is a tad higher then on me, i stack defense. the blocking % isn't all that great, when you figure in aegis boon is on a 45sec cd timer, and he used it every chance he got, keeping it on cd the whole fight pretty much. that means worst case scenario aegis accounted for 20 blocks, of his total 21, however human error figured in, i'd say aegis would have accounted for 15 blocks at best.