Buckler type shield vs Scutum type shield

[Unaki]

Sorry, I am a historic military buff and I kind of get annoyed with improper usage of terms when it comes to weapons. GLA/PLD use round shields and tower shields and CNJ/THM use decorative bucklers and targes.

Shield Swipe is your hardest hitting move for the lowest amount of TP and it also blocks the enemy's weaponskills for 6 seconds every time you hit with it. Rage of Halone hits harder but in order to do so you have to combo it off of Savage Blade. At 46 you get Bulwark, a skill that increases your block chance by 60% for 15 seconds so you could be able to use a tower rather effectively and still proc swipe in a long battle. If you already have a high block rate, say 150 you are already blocking a lot. Using Bulwark would increase it to 240 a whopping 90 point increase. Use it when you need to burn through a boss with a round shield and you will basically just be shield swiping for 15 seconds. At that point you won't need the threat from your Halone combo anyways.

[Ariyn]

-snip-

Shield Swipe gives very little emnity ... so you will still be needing the halone combo no matter how many shield swipes you do. The only threat from swipe is the dmg you do with it x2 with shield oath vs x10 dmg with halone

[Garnatian]

Shield Swipe gives very little emnity ... so you will still be needing the halone combo no matter how many shield swipes you do. The only threat from swipe is the dmg you do with it x2 with shield oath vs x10 dmg with halone

The point of the swipe is to keep DPS up while using a GCD on a low TP move to help with TP regen.

[Unaki]

Shield Swipe gives very little emnity ... so you will still be needing the halone combo no matter how many shield swipes you do. The only threat from swipe is the dmg you do with it x2 with shield oath vs x10 dmg with halone

Like I said, At the point where you would be swipe spamming you shouldn't need enmity generation because you should be using Shield Oath. I didn't say to forego the Halone combo entirely. Weave your combo between swipes if you are blocking more than 60% of your shots.

Early game i think the high block rate is the way to go. End game when you have higher block rates and such from stats you can mix and match your shields. I would probably go a high block rate vs trash and high mitigation vs bosses. Wont be able to find out till i can actually get in there and tank some end game stuff, till then just my speculation.

I still like round shields better for all situations. If a boss is going to be hitting me with a really hard attack I would rather mitigate 30% of the damage 65% of the time than 70% of the damage 20% of the time. Besides the PLD relic shield is a kite shield with the strength of a tower and the rate of a round so once you get that from the relic quest you won't have to answer that question.

Also, another reason in the 40s to run a round shield is your massive repertoire of mitigation; Rampart (20%/20sec), Foresight(20%/20sec), Sentinel(30%/10sec), Awareness(No crits for 25sec), Shield Oath(Permanent 20%).

[Duelle]

Early game i think the high block rate is the way to go. End game when you have higher block rates and such from stats you can mix and match your shields. I would probably go a high block rate vs trash and high mitigation vs bosses. Wont be able to find out till i can actually get in there and tank some end game stuff, till then just my speculation.

The thing is that this outlook only works if you have a mechanic that guarantees shield blocks, which we currently don't.

Maybe I'm the odd man out, but I feel that tower shiels are once again relegated as wastes of space like they were in FFXI. I know there's a whole real-life thing going on with shield design, but that doesn't mean much when you get more bang for you buck with one. Sure, you could waste stats and pump up block rate through other means, but that means you're not putting points into STR and VIT.

Besides the PLD relic shield is a kite shield with the strength of a tower and the rate of a round so once you get that from the relic quest you won't have to answer that question.

Ugh, if this is the case then history really is repeating itself. =/

[klops]

I'm currently using a round shield at 50, but I will say that the thought of Bulwark combined with a tower shield intrigues me. The 3 minute CD on Bulwark is the only thing keeping me from trying it.

[Tyrial]

I'm currently using a round shield at 50, but I will say that the thought of Bulwark combined with a tower shield intrigues me. The 3 minute CD on Bulwark is the only thing keeping me from trying it.

I've tried mixing my shields up when I had fairly equal options at the same time and neither myself or my WHM have noticed a large difference in the amount of damage I take. I've also noticed that on quite a few bosses Shield Swipe is basically pointless aside from the damage that it does as I hardly ever see the Pacify debuff show up. So for me the tower shield wins. I do plan on going with the relic as soon as I can get it though.

[Amas]

I'm currently using a round shield at 50, but I will say that the thought of Bulwark combined with a tower shield intrigues me. The 3 minute CD on Bulwark is the only thing keeping me from trying it.

At 50, I can't imagine not-using a Kite shield. The argument between round shields and scutums should only last as long as it takes to be able to equip Kite shields.