Shield Power Question

I have a character who I use as a tank, and I'm always trying to improve his ability to go toe-to-toe with enemies in the game. He's already outfitted in Meteoric Iron Plate, and uses a Bludgeon & Shield.

I have Defensive Stance, Fortify Defense ,and Glancing Blow. From the Shield tree, I'm using Deflect and Charge (to move that heavy Plate armor around!). My question is, does it make sense to add Testudo (for the added DR) and Dig In (for the added Avoidance)?

 

Nope ....

Testudo is a support skill. The tank actively needs to build agro. You can't hold the buff of Dig In ... which i think is pretty worthless personally. Testudo is usually provided by the Healer. Your better off on focusing on Strength and Sheild power as they greatly reduce the amount of damage taken during a block.

Also for Tanking ... Sword is best. Rend is ridiculously efficient at holding agro.

 

ah-ha That's exactly what I needed to know. Thanks for the advice!

 

Those are exactly the skills I use for my tank. Other than improving your equipment (which I always try to continue to do), you look like you have the right build to me.

 

Just focus on inmates with shield. Nothing else is worth giving up valuable slots on those bars IMO.

 

Except "Charge" is very handy, imo

 

Charge is great for light armor users... it's great for giving them the equivalent of a body slam. Deflection is also a must ... Boulster Balance is Great if your fighting NPC's that CC ... Shield is over all pretty good.

 

Flame shield!

 

That would really be a cool artifact. A Flaming shield that takes a portion of your block strength and does damage on block .... or Maybe a Spiked Shield ? Does 5-10 Damage on blocked melee attacks !!

 

Best comment Ive seen in a while! I have tried shields and would love to but I only have 3 bar slots for any kinda of defense buffs (and such) and probably 10 more that I need to rotate into those 3 slots. Shields add a ton more that I dont have any space for.

 

This depends on if you have high STR.

The block formula uses the DR of the shield multiplied by a portion of your STR. Stand your Ground Innate provides a further multiplier. If you have adequate passives Block is ridiculously powerful. Defensive Stance also gives a massive boast towards this. Either way Shield is pretty amazing.

Also .... You can block quite a few magic spells. Ice arrow / Stone Arrow / Chain Lightening / Lightening / Flame Arrow. I Think the touch spells can be blocked also.

 

+1

Deflect is my fave defensive skill overall.

 

Curious, How high of STR?

 

It's a multiplier .... so the more the better.

With my 257 STR i can reduce 300 damage dragon hits to 10's and 0's . I would have to dig up the formula... but it heavily favors STR and shields with high DR. Shields like the Shield of attraction have very low DR .... so they are not nearly as good. Shield of the wicked king has the highest DR and is amazing... 8 Dr i believe. When the Stand your Ground innate came out for shields. It was the greatest day since sliced bread. Then when everything switched to the Weighted system. a block weight of 15 is HUGE. God forbid having a block rate of 100....

With out digging up the exact formula ... from what i remeber it is sheild DR * (STR/8) * Stand your Ground.

So 5 DR sheild ... (257 str / 8 = 32.125) and Stand your ground which at GM i think is 100 % more block power. equals 321 blocked damage before your Armor is counted in. This is why Light armor spec with Block is SO powerful.

 

HTF do you have 257 STR? Most I can get up to is 207 with buffs. Are you using the Brittle Brawn ring or something? I'm GMed in most of the STR skills.

 

I'm gonna go ahead and guess he has very high earth attunement and possibly even the str of earth buff/enchant on his chest piece?

 

Bacanial Belt is 14 str.... Nefarius Hood is 26 str. Brittle brawn is 40 str if you use it ... Str of earth is 30 with out spec ... with spec it's pretty easy to get it to 60+. Really getting that much STR is not hard.. I think @Sara Dreygon has over 307 STR now with full STR gear

 

@Cryodacry So naked, I'm at 80, 60, 60. Can you tell me what your stats are?

Yeah and I only have the Brittle Brawn Ring.

 

I cannot as i am at work. But also don't forget the Passives from heavy armor. There are tons of ways to get your str that high ... anouther one is bezerkers stance ... thats an easy 40 str.

 

I suck with Berserkers Stance, but with just the ring on I can get my STR top 234, but I'm not willing to sacrifice the health for it, unless I change out to a White Iron set or something. I could make a set just for tanking but eh... I like the DPS and Focus Constantan and Bronze give me.