Sword and Shield

[Davitron3000]

I have just reached 300 Shield Skill and I was wondering if this is high enough
for me to try fighting Sky Gods with sword and shield. I have only used Earth
Staff for Gods and I was hoping my days of swinging a stick were done, lol.

I am working on getting a Keonig helm and a Boxer's Mantle so I can push my
skill to 315, but these are probably down the road. (Seiryu is not being nice)

If anyone has experience with this please let me know. I am kinda scared to
just "try" it b/c my LS works hard for our pop items and I hate to risk it.
Oh, and this is not a Earth Staff versus Sword and Shield debate, I want to
use sword and shield on gods so I just wanted info from those that do.
If there is already a thread talking about this, sorry, and please point me
to it.

~Thanks

[Paladin X]

Re: Sword and Shield

Me personally, im waiting for a couple of things to happen before i start using Sword and Shield full time on HNMs/Gods.

My shield skill right now is 301, which i feel is too low. Im going to wait until i get a Koenig Schallar and the Knight's Earring so it can be 311. I dont think i would tank a God with a shield skill of lower than 310 (although it does vary from race to race since AGI also effects shield blocking rates).

Im also meriting to upgrade my AGI (3/5 so far), which to me is more beneficial than upgrading VIT, since all of our end game gear adds nothing but VIT.

Once im done meriting for AGI and when I get the equip i need to put my skill over 310, then i'll start S+S tanking.

[Davitron3000]

Re: Sword and Shield

Thanks Paladin X for the response. I actually had planned on trying to get to 310
shield skill before I was going to try tanking Gods with S+S, but it will be a while
before I can get to that skill level, it so I was hoping someone would come on here
and say "I tank Gods with a shield skill of 300 and it rox!!!"

Do you see a significant increase in your shield blocks with your merits in AGI?
I have some merits in shield but I never really thought about putting them in
AGI because each upgrade is expensive. I just got a Sattva Ring, but I really didn't
pay attention to see if I was blocking more...

[Mephisto]

Re: Sword and Shield

uhh... you'll be fine on gods with sheild 300 o.O

[Paladin X]

Re: Sword and Shield

It really depends on what lvl the mobs are you fight whether or not you will see a difference in shield blocking rates.

When I am fighting T-VT mobs, i usually wear a Breeze Ring (AGI+5) and my AF Breeches (AGI+3), and along with the 3 AGI from merits I see a huge increase in my shield blocking rate (which now equates to a faster TP gain, gotta Shield Mastery).

While i have never used my shield against Gods/HNMs, I dont think +11 AGI would make as much as a difference, because their base stats are just so much higher than any XP mobs. I would most likely ask for Quick/Swift Etude to help out a bit.

[Darkarcher]

Re: Sword and Shield

I was tanking Genbu and Suzy just yesterday with sword shield. Shield skill = 302
Genbu, need to make sure you get erase after he does one of the bash moves (Def down) But other than that i was blocking every 3 hits for 90 dmg + additional 150 or so. Non-block was about 170-250. I'll take sword/shield any day for the extra bonuses you can get.

[Davitron3000]

Re: Sword and Shield

Thanks Darkarcher, that was what I was looking for! I went ahead and tried sword
and shield out on Kirin's summons yesterday and I was very happy with the results.
(I know these aren't as strong as the real Gods, but I thought it would be a great
place to try it out)
Also, I got bound kiting Kirin so I turned to face him and got 2 shield blocks in a row
I have a feeling my Earth Staff will be collecting some dust...

[Davitron3000]

Re: Sword and Shield

Just wanted to update this for anyone interested in tanking Gods with a Sword &
Shield. Saturday I duo tanked Suzaku and did fine. My shield skill was 300.
(I can't parse anything so I don't have actual numbers, I just know I used Sword
& Shield and survived).

I got my Boxer's Mantle on Sunday so I can't wait to use it against a God/HNM!

Happy Tanking!