Shields

[Tman]

Unfortunately i don't have a ss of my ifrit run parses, but the hoplon appeared to block roughly 10 more swings then a vintage kite +1. Since ifrit swings hard and slow, these blocks may not be worth it as they may have come early in the fight where the blocks are not needed as much as say, after HF where everything goes crazy. it may also have been due to bad use of aegis boon on my part with the vintage kite. i'm under the assumption that the kite's are for bosses since u can meld em with defense, where as hoplon is for strongholds where mobs are not lvl ?? and you can block more often because of this.

the hoplon may prove more valuable when 1 is tanking many mobs at once. while the block % will not directly increase with more swings, the probability and chance for more blocks will increase, in essence more swings at u = more chances to block but the block % itself doesn't increase. i have yet to fully test it on fights with numerous adds.

i only reference the hoplon as its a balanced shield, the buckler is iffy at best, while the block is high it does not block much damage, and until Eva gets fully tested i put no value on that stat even when coupled with 2 earrings. the point of blocking should be to take a shield that cannot have defense materia and block frequent enough and block enough damage to equate to the same as the defense lost from not melding 2-3 materia in terms of damage mitigation. 3 may be a bit too high, but should someone be lucky enough to meld 3-5 then yes by all means that shield should trump any other known shield.