Melee: Unique Shield Guide

"

Incompetent wrote:

Saffell's Frame sounds like a good idea on a strong Evasion build (Eva + Enfeeble + Blind), as these builds already have very strong protection against attacks. It's also incredibly strong on a build that invests a lot into Immortal Call. For the 'tons of armour' builds though, it's really hard to do better than Aegis Aurora.

Saffell's is quite amazing with IC. Add any combination of Bringer of Rain, Stone of Lazhwar, Rainbowstride, Lightning Shield, and/or the Templar's 12% spellblock node, and you need at most only half a dozen shield nodes to cap your block chance versus spells. The ability to stack over 100% of block chance applied to spells is very powerful :)

Daresso's can similarly enable the same, with added protection against elemental attacks, which IC does not protect from. You needn't even build low life to use it-- it'll kick in and save your ass mid fight, often enough to allow regen/leech the second it needs to recover from a crit.

Both options can be almost or as tanky as Aegis if built properly, but the drawback is they trade those extra shield block nodes for buff/skill duration to push IC up to a more sustainable duration.

Edit: Also Prism is great for % auras as well. With 20% reduced reservation from the skill tree and a lv20 reduced mana, it takes a 40% aura down to 15.6% from 22.7% with just the reservation passives and reduced mana (doubled via blood magic gem). This shield could theoretically allow you to run every aura in the game.

I think the unique shields in this game are mostly very well designed. The few I don't like are Kaltenhalt (nothing special about it), Atziri's Mirror (it's unique feature Curse Reflection doesn't really help in any way) and Chernobog's Pillar (bit too weak, 50% conversion instead of 25% would make it interesting).

Currently playing around a lot with shields, and I love it. Started a full evasion char in Standard to play with a friend, and despite having almost no gear I only died two times (2x Barracks mass Arc + Shield Charge :( ), with only a little over 2k life. That's way less than I am used to from playing hc, yet it works surprisingly well. Dunno if it is the monster accuracy change, or me having Acrobatics and 50% block chance (Perandus shield), this char can facetank all bosses in the game prior to maps. o_O

Oh, and Aegis Aurora is great, I love it. :P

"

got4close wrote:

You're forgetting 3 interesting shields

For low life

For the 40% block (and life)

For the obvious bonus (and elemental res) : Aegis Aurora (I can't direct link this one as it is kinda expensive and rare, also WTB).

The title says melee. No melee build uses low life.

"

Navac wrote:

"

got4close wrote:

You're forgetting 3 interesting shields

For low life

For the 40% block (and life)

For the obvious bonus (and elemental res) : Aegis Aurora (I can't direct link this one as it is kinda expensive and rare, also WTB).

The title says melee. No melee build uses low life.

Blood Rage.

Thanks all for the feedback! Got some interesting information in the replies.

I just bump it so it will not be forgotten.

What about the Chernobog's Pillar? I don't rate it particularly highly but it has an interesting effect. My personal favourite shield is the Lioneye's Remorse, just gotta transfer a good looking skin onto it ;P

Prism Guardian is made to be run with tempest shield+curse on hit+ any curse you like.

rathpith is one really underestimated melee shield.. i wouldnt switch it witch my 2,6k evasion shield.. because it has extreme spellblocking, combined with good old rainbowstrides and the spellblock passiv node, it can nearly give u max spellblock without any problem..

"

Navac wrote:

The title says melee. No melee build uses low life.

since when ?