PLD Esoterics spending.

[Sapphidia]

Hold off on the shield. Just get the sword and then work on other armor parts.

It's my belief that it's actually a downgrade from the Ravana Hive Scutum. The Ravana is a Tower Shield and has 28% damage reduction on its blocks. The esoterics is a Kite Shield, so whilst it has much higher block rate it has i believe only 21% damage reduction.
Whilst it might end up mitigating slightly more passively, Sheltron makes the Hive Scutum better in my mind - being able to use it to mitigate a predictable big hit like a Ravana Blinding Blade for much more.

Shield stats are comparatively low too. You're much better off getting the shield after you've got a full esoterics armor set, and maybe not even then as long as you have the Hive Scutum. And sure, you need both sword+shield to upgrade to the i210 variant later, but you need to be killing Alex 4 Savage to get the upgrade part, and if you're doing that the MUCH better Gordian sword/shield will be available.