Weather Noct/Noct Shield

[Lord_Zlatan]

Is this shield worth looking into for a PLD?

I do not have the Onion or Allagan shield, just the Holy Shield Zenith. I am aware that the High Allagan shield is BiS (?) but thats a bit out of reach for me at the moment.

Should I go spend the tomes on the Weathered Noct shield and eventually upgrade it, or should I look into other options.

Thanks for your input.

[Blazer]

Weathered and upgraded Noct Shield are the best for paladin until High Allagan.

[Donjo]

The Weathered Noct Shield is a Tower Shield, meaning that it has a high block strength and a low block rate. For this reason, and mostly because of the abysmal block rate, it is generally considered to be explicitly inferior to any other option out there. This is in comparison to a Kite Shield(balanced block strength and rate) and a Buckler(low block strength and high block rate). Of the new shields available to you in 2.2, here's where they fall:

Tower: Noct Hoplon(100-110)
Kite: Holy Shield Animus(100), High Allagan Kite Shield(115)
Buckler: Wave Shield(95), Tidal Wave Shield(100)

I'd recommend that you first try your hand at getting a Wave Shield from Leviathan. Farming for a mirror to get to Tidal Wave is your choice, but the Holy Shield Animus is the best 100 you can get right now statwise... if you can stomach the grind. Granted, you can upgrade the Shield to Animus with a mere two books. Keep the Holy Shield Animus until the Allagan Shield is within reach. The Noct Hoplon should probably be avoided entirely.

[Lord_Zlatan]

Thanks for the info. Im at work right now and can't check but does the un-weathered Noct Hoplon get better block rate than the weathered version?

[Casper]

This is so so SO wrong.


Block strength versus block rate is a matter of compromise.

Please understand that, as blocking is decided before parried, the more you block, the less use you get out of your parry. This means that tower shield actually offer more average mitigation than others ! If you actually compute the total block + parry Damage reduction for levi i100 shield versus weathered noct, you will see that the first one will provide 10.3% DR, while the second will provide 11.5% DR. The difference is as much as having 70 or 80 more parry. It is NOT negligible.

On top of that, bulwark add a flat 60% to your block rate. Due to this, it is about twice as more potent on a weathered noct shield than on a levi shield; in the first case it will be better than rampart, while in the second it will be way closer to a foresight in potency.

That being said, a tower shield is going to make you block less often for more DR (duh), which means your incoming damage is going to be more spiky. This is worse for your healers, who will have to heal you more at times and less at others instead of a constant amount, which is easier. It is also worse for potentially one shotting combo, like death sentence, since you don't care about overall mitigation, you just want to mitigate part of it, no matter what, to survive.

My take on it is i would use more shield rate on twintania if i main tanked and was feeling a bit low on health, but would use weathered noct on everything else. This shield is bananas. I would understand someone wanting to flatten their incoming damage curve, but saying it is the best choice no matter what is flat out wrong.

[Casper]

Just want to point out also that the "abyssmal" block rate of the weathered noct is 21%, compared to 28 or 29% for holy shields versions. Sure, there is a difference, but abyssmal is a tad much.

[Lord_Zlatan]

This shield is bananas. I would understand someone wanting to flatten their incoming damage curve, but saying it is the best choice no matter what is flat out wrong.

saying what is the best choice, block rate shields?

[Casper]

saying what is the best choice, block rate shields?

Yes. This was the answer given at first, no ? always pick the highest rate shield because tower shields have abyssmal block rate and are too unreliable.

[Lord_Zlatan]

Yes. This was the answer given at first, no ? always pick the highest rate shield because tower shields have abyssmal block rate and are too unreliable.

yeah, i was just making sure i understood your post 100%.

The reason I am bringing this up is because with the lower rate on the Noct Shield (which I want for vanity but don't want to waste tomes on so I was hoping it would be useful), I was hoping I could get stronger blocks and then maximize parry (after all block checks first, then parry, then no mitigation) to fill in the gaps.

However, the problem I am having is 2 fold...

The parry thread (after reading it several times) has me confused as to how much parry actually benefits me, especially since the acc cap set (that I checked on XIV DB) has us net losing parry (by about 20 i think). So in the end I am thinking that the noct shield won't really be that much of an upgrade since I am losing block rate and parry at the same time considering a lot of the gear loses parry.

Maybe my interpretation of it is all wrong. But I don't think that the Noct shield will be a good stopgap (without altering the way I play out in fights) until the High Allagan shield.

[Pizzaparty7]

Remember that new gear has more strength on it so your parry and block will stop more damage. To compensate for this, SE seems to have itemized the gear for slightly lower rates. You will be spikier over short durations but mitigate slightly more over time.