Curse

removed · Jul 03, 2008, 03:41 AM // 03:41

What is the most useful shield insc for a para? People say Hail to the King and Down but not Out are useless, but I think they have some merit. Luck of the Draw seems to be the most popular, though.

Thoughts? What inscs are best for motivation/leadership etc?

cellardweller · Jul 03, 2008, 03:48 AM // 03:48

keep 5 (+10 vs each element and +10 vs piercing) and pick whichever is most appropriate for the zone you're about to walk into.

If you don't have room in your bags for all these - I'd suggest +10 vs fire - thats the most common midline damage that you'll see in PvE.

removed · Jul 03, 2008, 03:55 AM // 03:55

What's most useful for high danger areas (i.e. DOA and FOW)?

Elemental or physical armor?

Shaz · Jul 03, 2008, 04:09 AM // 04:09

For general PvE, I use +10 vs Fire and 20% less Blind in 2 of the slot, as fire is usually the biggest damage in PvE.

Elemental is better as physical usually get shutdown with weakness, blocking, etc.

cellardweller · Jul 03, 2008, 06:04 AM // 06:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by avisotin

What's most useful for high danger areas (i.e. DOA and FOW)?

Elemental or physical armor?

DoA is different in each of the zones (city=lightning, veil=fire+cold, gloom=cold+fire+earth, foundry=earth, citadel=lightning). FoW is mostly fire with a bit of Air and water chucked in.

distilledwill · Jul 03, 2008, 08:48 AM // 08:48

Yeah, Id go a +10 vs Fire and a +10 vs Piercing. Damn Kournans...

*pines after a "-2 phys damage whilst under the effects of a shout or chant" insc*

Ben-A-BoO · Jul 03, 2008, 09:08 AM // 09:08

You need several shields like the above posters said.

I would favor fire (AoE) and a blind shield, If you don't wanna spent time and money on a full set (+10 AL vs. various types of damage + 20% Blind & Cripple reduction = 7/8 shields).
I recommend though to get a full set for at least the command line. Don't bother with any inscr. that's gives physical damage reduction, they are by far inferior to any other mod.

You also might consider to get your hands on blue req 7 / 15 AL shields for command. Come in handy if you don't wanna spec high in secondary attribute lines that you aren't using much, due to godly pve-only skills.

For DoA (and late Nightfall) you want one of the shields with + 10 AL vs. Demons aka The Stygian Defender or The Stygian Aegis. They are not that pricey anymore.

There is a collector in Eye of the North for a req 9 insc. Motivation Shield (Aureate Aegis) with an inherent + 30 HP mod. You only need 5 stone summit emblems for them, which are easily farmed doing Killroys repeatable solo dungeon. The collector (Marduc Snakeslayer) is just around the corner.

Hope that helps.
Good luck and have fun.

Richardt · Jul 03, 2008, 01:35 PM // 13:35

I feel that luck of the draw is mostly useless-alot of people look for it in a shield though.

Someone once pointed out that having a 20% chance of -5 damage is equivalent to having -1 damage all the time. When you compare the damage negation through having a +10 armor vs. X, it doesn't really do a whole lot. I use two shields-my general PvE shield has +10 armor vs. fire (as others pointed out this is your most common source of damage in PvE) and a reduce blind set-the shield has a 20% reduce blind inc. and a pair of gloves with a rune of clarity. The reduce blind set is mostly for various areas in EotN where the enemies like to throw blind around alot.

If you're running Imbagon, alot of people will say that a req7/AL15 shield is the way to go. However, you'll do just fine with a req9 (you will be doing a little less damage as your spear mastery will have to be lowered, but you can make up for it with damage buffs or using a major rune).

zwei2stein · Jul 03, 2008, 01:50 PM // 13:50

I wonder ... does noone use +1att/20% Inscriptions?

Motigon gets +4~5 on Ballad/Song of R effect each fifth cast, so it changes to ~+1hp per cast longterm.

Meh, that sounds as impresive as -5/20%. :-/

The Meth · Jul 03, 2008, 03:38 PM // 15:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by zwei2stein

I wonder ... does noone use +1att/20% Inscriptions?

Motigon gets +4~5 on Ballad/Song of R effect each fifth cast, so it changes to ~+1hp per cast longterm.

Meh, that sounds as impresive as -5/20%. :-/

Yeah, the problem is that enemies hit once every second while you cast that once or twice a battle. If -5/20% is bad, +1/20% is the worst mod to ever be put on a weapon. Only good if you are maintaining enchantments or something and can recast it until you get the benefit, basically turning it into a +1/100%.

Franco Power · Jul 03, 2008, 08:47 PM // 20:47

If you only want to buy one shield then I'd go with -20% blind

removed · Jul 04, 2008, 02:22 AM // 02:22

I don't understand why the -20 blind is so popular... blind is only a problem in select areas of the game. Even if you are blind, it's only temporary, so you can either wait for a monk to heal you, or spam your non-adrenal skills.

I think I'll go for +10 vs. fire and a standard +30hp on all my shields, motivation and command.

Richardt · Jul 04, 2008, 06:32 AM // 06:32

Just about every area has a monster that will use blind.

However, several areas and Dungeons take this to the extreme. While you can load up on condition removals, you need to keep in mind recharge and energy costs. Thus in a place like Shards of Oor where each group has at least 1 blind bot ele, a reduce blind combination set of shield inc. and rune of clarity comes in handy.

And if your healers are busy healing, they're not removing that blind off of you-so either you got to bring a set to reduce it, or bring a skill to take it off of you.