Best unique (or rare) shield for a High Elf

[gogoblender 3,071]

Is?

 

lol, that's me asking here I was thinking that the Eternal Block could be good...but I'm not sure anymore. This whole chance thing of evading and blocking...if it doesn't work...the girl takes damage.

 

Sometimes a lot of damage.

 

What about the others out there. I think I may be looking at a turnaround in my def philospophy... the HE is a bit more squishy than I thought, and I"m not so hot into putting that much work in defense... I really want to squeeze out a bit more damage from her before Niobium at least... my shield knowledge is kinda sparse. I keep looking at Stalwart and sighing... man, such HUGE armor values...but only one socket...

 

That single socket makes me cringe o_O

 

Does anyone have some good info... maybe strategies for me?

 

 

gogo

[Dobri 55]

Rare shield with 2 sockets, Chance to Reflect: Close Combat and XP per kill. I sport one on the level 78 pyro and I can't believe my luck I actually found one...

 

Since HE is squishy, one must think of alternate options to protect her. This usually means big reflect for starters and/or a big armor rating. The next best thing is shield lore for the extra defense and the additional chance to block at mastery. The final nail in her defenses is her damage

Edited August 29, 2010 by Dobri

[S-P 6]

I would go with Stalworth Safeguard, that one gives you some bonus armor against elemental damage and decreases secondary effects and an increase to survival bonus. That or Glacial Defender the damage mitigation bonus is pretty good.

[Ryanrocker 200]

For niob, I feel that the glacial defender is one of the better choices. Entire chunks of damage are simply thrown out the door with the mitigation. Although, it only has one socket

[Spunky 16]

Kira's Wall would undoubtly be the best choice with it's mitigation and block ranged/melee based on Shield Lore, but as the drop rate of it is almost non-existant that's not a shield to aim for unless you're ready to farm the guardians for years to obtain it.

Edited August 29, 2010 by Spunky

[Dobri 55]

Damage mitigation is good, but it has to be of a meaningful value in order to actually do something. 10-15% damage mitigation means almost nothing. 20% is acceptable, because it is 1/5 of the damage, 30%-40% is good, 50%+ is excellent. Since the High elf cannot achieve these values, she must compensate with whatever else she has in her arsenal - reflect, chance to block, constitution, spell resistance and such.

 

Let's not forget that chattius has proven that in order to reduce the damage in niobium, you need 8 times that damage in armor value. If anyone is hoping that Stalworth + Robe of Innocence is going to manage to do this for a high elf, he/she needs to forget all about that, unless he decided to completely underpower him/herself and went for wicked +type armor % defense modifiers or artamark stars. She will get squishier by the minute and all you can do is pump up reflect, chance to block, spell resistance, hit points and damage. Damage is the best source of defense for pretty much any caster.

[gogoblender 3,071]

I love the points of view here guys, thanks. I'm learning a lot of about which shield would be contributing what.

Dobri, so far what I'm disttilling form what your're saying.. HE has no chance of using Pure armor to blow off damage in Niobium... and damage mitigation is too difficult to get...

 

Are you propounding all or nothing def strategies... ...like chance to block, reflect, evade....

 

These chance mods make me kind of nervous with the HE...she doesn't have a super fountain of health like the Dryad with Golden Glade Touch.

 

I really like what you said here about her damage being the first nail. Hmmm, I'm gonna bring about back some focus on that... just need some more levels....

 

 

gogo

[Dobri 55]

Well, gogo, you must always be nervous with a HE.

 

Let's analyze her defenses. What does she have?

- Close Combat Reflect

- Shield Lore

- Constitution

- Spell resistance

- set items that provide only a single type of damage mitigation

- torso that provides a sizeable amount of armor

- crystal skin provides a pretty generous amount of armor, but since my PC is low end and can't survive a few nimbuses on the screen, I'm unsure how much

- grand invigoration to boost the in-combat HP regen

 

Now, what can you do to make her last? Exploit what she has to the best of your ability is the answer. This means fight in areas where close combat enemies are the most, keep your skin buff up at all times, find a few unique amulets with close combat reflect, get a shield with close combat reflect and try to push it over 60%. Shield lore mastery it a few items should handle the amount of hits that do get through, and constitution mastery, boosted by grand invigoration should handle the rest, if you get it to a decent level.

 

Right now the level 78 pyro chick runs with about 55% close combat reflect, over 700 hp/s in-combat regen, some block close combat and the guardians aren't doing much to her - keeping in mind that they have the highest hit/penetrate ratio. based on that I can safely assume I can deal with any area with close combat attackers with ease.

Edited August 29, 2010 by Dobri

[r00ster 1]

Simpy get a RARE shield with in WHITE text: "chance to block: close combat" with shield lore.

This block % will scale with the level of SHIELD LORE SKILL.

 

Get a ton of all skills.

You are now immune to melee attacks (check F menu beside 'Weapon' listing, your aiming for over 200% block close combat to be relatively 'immune').

 

Mod expulse to strength > pentagram > protection.

 

Raise the level of expulse (however you please, read runes, gear etc, whatever) so that the block spell (aka combat arts) is over 100% per cast (again, check F menu aside 'Combat Arts').

You are now immune to combat arts, and almost immune to detremental effects/damage over time.

 

Put expulse in a combo. I.e. expulse > blazing tempest > meteor.

 

Go sit in dragon fire and watch nothing do nothing. Or a main quest boss, or something!

 

Note, you need a lot of all skills now to achieve the shield lore thing. Kira's wall also has this 'scaling' modifier for both ranged/close combat, which is why its by and far the best shield in the game period. Nothing even compares to it.

 

Cheers,

[essjayehm 58]

I think the rare shield Rooster meant will have the scaling "Block Chance: " ie with "nothing" after the colon.

 

That one should block close combat, projectiles, combat arts and root effects.

 

Also, if you shop enough, you can find one with both a "hard" value for Block Chance: and with "scaling" Block Chance: ; that is to say a "double-modifier" on the Block. Although it's probably better to find scaling block chance with sockets rather than the double-mod block chance 8|

 

Although Dobri's shield sounds like a pretty good one, too!

[Dobster 39]

I agree with r00 on the rare shields with scaling CC block. Later the armour from Stalworth becomes worse than the block. Rare shields can have cool mods later on and still keep the huge CC block chance with 2 sockets.

 

 

If you are OK with the unlock items then Grunwald's Protection is an awesome shield. Scaling CC block, ranged/knockback block and 2 sockets

 

[Spunky 16]

Hmm, a unlockable rare shield? I thought all unlocks where uniques.

[Dobri 55]

Wow. Gotta check this shield out.

[Dobster 39]

Hmm, a unlockable rare shield? I thought all unlocks where uniques.

 

I think something got a little screwed up as it has the name and stats of a unique

 

If you have a niob shopper to spawn it then this shield will last a long time. The CC block does scale with the shield lore skill even though it is shown in blue text. A rare shield with CC block and +XP might but be better to level with but this is probably the second best shield in the game(if you don't mind using the unlock items).

Edited August 30, 2010 by Dobster

[gogoblender 3,071]

I agree with r00 on the rare shields with scaling CC block. Later the armour from Stalworth becomes worse than the block. Rare shields can have cool mods later on and still keep the huge CC block chance with 2 sockets.

 

 

If you are OK with the unlock items then Grunwald's Protection is an awesome shield. Scaling CC block, ranged/knockback block and 2 sockets

 

 

 

And there we have it

 

The shield

 

Bless you Dobster

 

*joins herd of players on way to niob to unlock the shield*

 

 

 

gogo

[Dobster 39]

hehe, glad you like it gogo:)

 

I just wish I could spell the word * runs off to edit posts*

[larvi 0]

Off topic but what is an unlock item? I'm not familiar with that term, is that something in the community patch?

[Ryanrocker 200]

Off topic but what is an unlock item? I'm not familiar with that term, is that something in the community patch?

 

Part of the items that you can get using the Unlock Codes

[Dragon Brother 619]

Lol...I dont have that shield in my list of unlock codes. Any chance of a PM form anyone who does?

[Ryanrocker 200]

Lol...I dont have that shield in my list of unlock codes. Any chance of a PM form anyone who does?

I gotcha

[gogoblender 3,071]

Any chance of a PM form anyone who does?

 

hahahah

 

yeah second me in on that too please who ever has this?

 

Larvi unlock weapons are here if you want to look at them, and there is a thread somewhere around on this forum where you can post a request to have someone send them you via pm:

 

http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php5/Sacred_2:Unlock_Items

 

 

 

gogo

[Ryanrocker 200]

yeah second me in on that too please who ever has this?

 

You got 'em

[Dragon Brother 619]

Cheers ryan

[gogoblender 3,071]

Thanks Ryan

 

 

gogo

[r00ster 1]

I agree with r00 on the rare shields with scaling CC block. Later the armour from Stalworth becomes worse than the block.

 

Well, normally I think it depends on build and class type with shields.

However, elf as others state, is very squishy.

 

I am however, really studying smith arts after seeing spunkys gear, and think that it may be possible to make every char have the necessary 8x armor values quite easily, without sacrificing any damage.

I need to test the critical smith rune vs the whet first though.

 

There are as Dobri states, a few ways to mitigate a few things, but the best defense is again as stated, avoidance.

 

Like a Stalworth will make an SW incredibly beefy with his armor values etc, while it might slightly help an elf, it's better just to block everything, and take the odd big hit that gets through.

 

Overall, elfs defense pretty much lies in 2 combat arts;

 

Expulse and Shadow Step.

The two modded properly are a must for survival in high levels with elf.

 

One to make the elf the supreme kiting machine, that stuns on kiting, heals all hp each teleport, and remains invisible... its almost as good as shadow veil.

The second, to protect from attacks that wil outright kill the elf in about 1-2 hits in high levels, as well stack fear. Can just sit in the circle casting while everything runs around.

 

These two spells offer the best overall protecton for the elf, and are mandatory castings in higher modes.

It's interesting, elf starts out the gate as one of the fastest leveling characters, until defense becomes a necessity.

Then, having to always cast these spells to have proper protections does slow the progress considerably. What are we to do though? can't leave it defenseless...

 

NOTE: I am finding now with the nerf of all skills/all Combat Arts that elf may no longer be a suitable bargainer, if you wish to play it and do boss runs etc as well. If you plan to just grind xp, it's ok, but Delphic Lore might be needed to ensure combat art protection.

 

EDIT* Basically, with an elf I notice that some spells are actually making it through expulse, because I am unable to raise it high enough now with gear, sockets, etc.

 

Cheers,

Edited August 31, 2010 by r00ster