Shields for war.

[kscombs093]

Just wanted to see if anyone had info on if using a shield is of any worth to a war. with the AA Shield block, fully blocking an attack, i would think this could be use full. anyone tested/tried it?

[Lumpa]

Hey Froggerr,

I don't know if its worthwhile, but I know how much block chance you get with the AA. According to user jsre in this thread, the ranks of the shield block AA give you 2.5%/5%/10% chance to block.

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=6506&p=38425

I'm also wondering about a similar question about shields. On #mystats you see your AC broken down into multiple parts like mitigation and avoidance. If you put a shield on you see an additional category called shield whose value is equal to the AC on your shield. What does that shield category represent?

[Argonas]

In general, shield ac affects mitigation ac by literally raising the ac softcap as well as applying its ac to the mitigation total.

Maybe that answers your question.

[Stickybuds]

i dont know about the technical details but i can tell you it will improve your surviablity.

You will lose 2 things, agro generation, and dps.

So as long as you can hold agro over your dps with 1 weapon. And you dont mind losing the extra dps from the war (which shouldn't be a problem since the other dps classes like ranger or wizard can deal more than enough extra dps that the war's dps doesn't even matter)

Really it comes down to can you hold agro over your dps with just your 1 weapon. If so, dont see any reason to not use a shield. If you need the extra agro until you get some better agro weapons or anger proc augs, prob best to stick with 2 weapons.

Also, some boss mobs are perma rooted, so as long as your are the closest one to the mob you will always have agro. These are perfect mobs to switch to a shield in offhand.

Regards,
Sticky

[kscombs093]

Thanks for the reply's! think i will try a shield next raid run. so far singal target agro has not been an issue vs my dps. doesnt most bash effects from shields cause a good amount of aggro as well?

[Mien]

You'll get some from shield bash. What you're probably thinking of is Furious Bash, which adds an additional amount of threat to bashes - something like five extra points per level of FB, if I'm recalling correctly. In other words, not much, but better than nothing.

[Brontu]

the #s for this are prolly a little off for THF but the mechanics should be similar if not the same regarding how AC works for each class and how shields affect ac

http://www.salutamus.com/forums/default ... osts&t=757

basically shields raise your soft cap - so you get the FULL amount of ac on a shield compared to effectively a % on the rest of your gear.

[kscombs093]

That is some great data, I wonder how much of that is the same for thf. And why more war's don't use shields.

[Thenrin]

That is some great data, I wonder how much of that is the same for thf. And why more war's don't use shields.

Primarily because most warriors do not think the little bit of ac is worth the loss in DPS / Aggro - a lot of that would be a carryover from Live EQ conventional thinking, where a warrior using sword and board had an extremely difficult time maintaining sufficient aggro to keep a mob on him. Each swing of a blade, dealing damage or not, generates aggro. By carrying a shield, the warrior gives up a lot of attacks; and therewith, a lot of aggro.

[Mien]

Classically, (by which I mean PoP-era-ish) warriors would go DW or twohander with the RZ sword until defensive wore off, and then swap in the board. At least, if they weren't going to just swap in another tank. The warrior donor probably makes a big impact here versus what could be expected from a normal T5-6 warrior going sword-and-board.