2.2 Best Shield

Hi guys!

I really can't decide if keep using my Holy Shield Animus or start farming Leviathan Ex to get the Tidal Wave Shield.

The Holy Shield gives me parry and it has a block strenght greater than Leviathan's one, but the latter has a really good block rate.

Any advice? What do you prefer?

Both have advantages depending on the scenario.

Use block strength against hard-hitting single targets.
Use block rate against piles and piles of adds all hitting you at once.

I prefer Weathered Noct/Noct till I can get in and grab a High Allagan from T8.

Just my 2g

Syn

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Originally Posted by Duuude007

Use block strength against hard-hitting single targets.
Use block rate against piles and piles of adds all hitting you at once.

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I would personally put those the other way around. I would use high block rate on potential hard hitters, because it makes the incoming damage profile less volatile and easier to deal with. High strength shields block for more damage for sure, but I think it's more important whether you actually block or not that one specific attack. Personally I just use Tidal Wave for everything, but then again I don't play tank in coil.

If you're looking at Tidal Wave vs Animus, the block rate is around 36% vs 25% and mitigation -21% vs -28%. (Rate tested in i90 gear on 2000-4000 hit samples.)

The Holy Shield Animus is the better "all around" shield. It's a jack of all trades that's good in nearly every situation. The Tidal Wave Shield and Noct Shields are both great in specific situations and not always so great otherwise.

Tidal Wave: Great for weathering many attacks at once and taking on bosses with specific attacks you really want to block as often as possible(ie. Twintania's Death Sentence). Block Strength vs. Block Rate is questionable for this shield, as you will block more often than you parry but your blocks will prevent less damage than your parries. This is the shield I'm currently using until I can get me an Animus or High Allagan Shield.

Noct: Great for tanking a single target who doesn't have insanely spiky attacks. Bulwark mitigates the low block rate and makes this shield utterly fantastic for the duration. Uncomfortably spiky when weathering many attacks.

yea i like my animus shield and its fairly easy to get, drop 3k myth for 2 books and go upgrade if you already have the 12 atmas

for me, I go with Tidal wave shield, as it block more and allow me to spam more shield swipe ;).
I swap it for high allagan Kite shield. <---- best shield in 2.2,

Hit bulwark with noct and watch that blocked(-39%) spam fly! With bulwark up, noct blocks about 40% of damage about 80% of the time, or approximately a 30% damage reduction over the duration.

i feel way more comfortable since i got the wave shield. less spiky in dmg inc, nevertheless which content i play (bosses or srs farming myth at bray). i tested all 3 shields (weathered noct, atma/animus and wave shield), i've no parses to offer to show you the real numbers, but it def. feels like the dmg inc is more steady than spiky. for me, the noct shield got only one pro: with bulwark up its basicly like another sentinel, which could be nice at hard hitting abilities (like death sentence back then at t5 or maybe at t9 - dunno for sure, since i'm at t8 atm)

Yea but

Higher block rate= moar block chances = less opportunity to parry....

There are a few threads spread here and there that go into block and parry, etc., etc..

Depends on your build I guess. I parry and block a fair amount, and bulwark is banaynay with Noct, and actually gets used. Bulwark is less effective with some other shields and is used less taking up a slot.

Just my thoughts on it though.

Best way is to get them ALL, and perform your own tests ^^

Syn

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Originally Posted by Synestr

Best way is to get them ALL, and perform your own tests ^^

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^this

even if you have ressources from ppl posting this and that, tryin to tell you whats the best. i prefer to test it myself and since all 3 type of shields arent that hard to get, you can do that, too. get all of them, run with every type for some time (not only one bossfight, or one trashpull) and try to figure where you need the extra sentinel, or a high blockrate or both even.

@synestr
i hate parry, its a mitigation chance after dodging/blocking an attack (not at the same time), which lowers its value for me as a pld (for warris its a different story tho, for them parry is a lot more worth). i tested it myself and others did, too. the difference of 470 and 570 parry isnt that big when it comes down to mitigation. where as 25% vs almost 40% blockrate is a huge difference.

@ks3v3n - I see what you are sayin there. For me, having around a 42ish% chance to parry an attack mitigating 13% is cool, when RNG doesn't allow me to block mitigating 38% of the incoming dmg. The way I look at it is i have three tiers of dmg mitigation. Tier one is block / dodge (1st check). Second tier is parry (second check if block/dodge are missed). Third tier > punchies to the face (checks fail-eat it son!). ^.^

I like what you said about the 25% vs the almost 40% blockrate. It is a good point that I don't think many tanks fully understand. If you choose to go with the 25% then bulwark becomes invaluable and need to do a little work to get parry up for it to be beneficial. If you choose the 40% route then there really is no need for bulwark as it's benefit is diluted a bit and parry is still a valuable asset.

Just my views as a fellow pld. I think tonight I will go home and test some things.

I will be switching back to a kite shield as soon as I can get my hands on that High Allagan....a ways off for sure.

Syn

noct shield is great, especially with bulwark. on t9 right now and its working great, due to the way I'm cycling CDs. as everyone said, it depends on the fight. but id say just hang on to the animus for now. its pretty good all around. i got the noct bc i didn't plan to do animus but i eventually gave in. animus is kinda like t8 shield but not quite as good. the t8 shield is the next shield you should shoot for. if the noct wasn't a higher ilvl, i would probably roll with the animus, but again, it depends on the fight. bulwark with noct is very good for nael's ravens beak :) although if i get the t8 shield, I'm most definitely going to use that

TLDR High allagan>Noct (110)>animus>tidal

Noct, because of the high block strength.
Here's the deal with wave shield. I parry for about the same amount of mitigation as a block with the wave shield, so having higher block chance which lowers the use of my parry is just meh.
While if I use Noct I actually take a lot less dmg when blocking thus worth it over parry and it makes my bulwark simply amazing for its duration.

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Originally Posted by Snowaeth

Noct, because of the high block strength.
Here's the deal with wave shield. I parry for about the same amount of mitigation as a block with the wave shield, so having higher block chance which lowers the use of my parry is just meh.
While if I use Noct I actually take a lot less dmg when blocking thus worth it over parry and it makes my bulwark simply amazing for its duration.

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Perfect example of block and parry complimenting each other.

The best shield is High allegan, there is no competition. It is also the only i115 that drops out side of t9 and t8 is pretty easy. So i wouldnt spend time grinding on sold for noct shield or holy animus unless u want to. Using Oil on Noc shield is also a terrible idea when oil can go to more useful places like DPS if u want to beat t9.

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Originally Posted by NightReach

The best shield is High allegan, there is no competition. It is also the only i115 that drops out side of t9 and t8 is pretty easy. So i wouldnt spend time grinding on sold for noct shield or holy animus unless u want to. Using Oil on Noc shield is also a terrible idea when oil can go to more useful places like DPS if u want to beat t9.

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Well that's the thing, do you expect to gain the HA shield soon or not?
In my static I play bard, yet my PLD is my 2nd choice.
With the drop chance and 2 tanks in line before me I do not expect to have that shield for months to come, thus picking up Noct shield once I continue gearing out my PLD is a very solid option.

Also the amount of people that are clearing 2nd coil past t6 are not that huge yet and there are still plenty that haven't even set foot in t6 yet for whom even having a chance at seeing the shield drop is non existent for now.

I personnally prefer the Noct. I prefer less block but more efficient ones. It gives you more rng but can save some trouble if you're lucky.

Anyway the main reason i'm using Noct is Bulwark. Us paladin are using lots of Def CD, this Noct shield makes your bulwark so good (almost a new sentinel regarding the mitigation but a sentinel that lasts 50% longer 15 seconds).

I'll take T8 shield when i'll down it ofc but for now i'm better off with Noct shield mainly due to this new "Sentinel" CD :) Not to mention that it gives parry and acc

I'm not a fan of the less parry argument against buckler type shields like Wave. It's true your overall long term mitigation may end up being lower due to less parries, but ultimately long term mitigation isn't as important to me. Burst, or constant high damage, are the only things that should really ever be killing a tank. The higher the chance to reduce that damage the better, even if it's for a slightly less amount. Steady damage rather than spikes is also much easier on your healers.

All three types are viable and it really depends on what you are aiming for, but for me a buckler type is the preferred choice in most content.