Best Thaumaturge Shield

Would someone kindly help me understand shields, stats and how they work etc., and which shield is best for thm.

Specifically, I see alot of thm's running around with bladed lantern shields. Currently I'm using just a vintage square shield, mostly because of the +3 macc. While I understand that each shield has it's own magic potency and accuracy, what I don't know is this active only while the shield is raised? Typically, as thm, I seldom ever raise my shield.

I apologize in advance for this noob question. I tried to get a better sense, exactly how this works on the gld forum, but didn't find what I was looking for.

Thanks.

It really depends what you intend to use your shield for.

On the one hand if you solo a lot, you may want a shield that actually helps with dmg absorption. This is why you see people with Bladed Lantern Shield.

On the other hand you may just want a shield as an offhand to increase stats and basically serve little other function. This is where the Thalassian Targe is your best bet.

Just for clarification on this, for the (inherent) stats of the shield to be active, does the shield need be raised? Further, is the +3 macc of the vintage square shield, or the +7 atk of the bladed lantern always active?

The bonuses are always active. Hope that helps.

And there I was thinking people used the bladed lantern shield just because it looked awesome. :p

And should you equip a shield appropriate to your shield rank or your current class (Thm/Con/Gla) rank? I've asked this question before but didn't manage to find a certain answer.

It's based on shield rank. Also, the coolness looking factor does play a role haha.

I personally use the vintage square shield for the +3 magic accuracy as well.

Anything to bump up magic accuracy as a THM makes soloing NM and mobs up to ~67 cake.

Also, I wouldn't worry about using a defensive shield, because THM truly doesn't need any extra defense on mobs up to ~63, and past that rank, your shield won't be high enough to be blocking anything anyway. :P

Do you have to have your shield raised to gain the stats from the shield during combat?

No, I believe I answered that earlier lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Archadius

No, I believe I answered that earlier lol

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I believe you did too

To clarify, it does need to be raised to gain the benefits of additional defence/damage reduction, but it does not need to be raised to get your bonus points in piety, dex etc.

Thalassian Targe (or a m.acc shield) if you need it for hitting another tier of PIE (or need more m.acc).
Shield of the Savage (or any 85block shield) for everything else.
If you only use shield with Aegis/Deflection, the only stat that really matters is Blocking.
If you don't hold it up at all, just use it for whatever bonuses it gives.

Shield of Savage is horribad... Shield skills only stay active for 18 seconds. That's even with Self Pres. Stick w/ Bladed Lantern. Negligably lower block rate, but higher yield rate means that the skills stay up for 24 seconds instead of 18.

Healing = Thal. Targe
Nuking = One of the wooden square shields
Solo/Tanking = Bladed Lantern Shield