Types of shields

[BlaiseArath]

This is an awesome piece of information and a nice introduction about shields' appearances, thank you for your contribution =)

It should also be noted in real life, Tower shields were often the size of your body, or at least cloth to its length/Significantly longer than other types. in XIV, all shields are roughly the same size. but as far as stats go, in XIV its like this

Round Shield: High Block Rate, Low damage reduction
Kite Shield: Medium Block Rate, Medium Damage Reduction
Tower Shield: Low Bock Rate, high damage reduction.

I think the thread linked earlier goes into the math but to me, shield values are just big empty numbers and I equip the one with the highest Item level \o/. However, there are differences worth noting, so give that other thread a ready (its only like 3 posts)... its interesting to me to see how "Block Rate" works. (Personally, I hate when MMOs use arbitrary numbers for something that could easily be a % value. why have "Block Rate: 413" when you can just say "Block Rate: 38%"... but maybe I'm just a cranky old man .___________.)