On my original knight I got VPS for FSC and it worked on pretty much everything. Out of curiosity, how's the omega shell? It looks rather well rounded. How's it compare to anchient plate, etc?
Omega shell good?
Statuses don't really matter on shields, the resistance only saves you from a status affliction from shield-breaking hits. So if a fire attack breeaks your shield, you won't get burned if you have resistance. At least that's what I've observed. I don't think status resistances factor into how many hits your shield can take.
How well does normal defense play in to blocking specialized? It's just that I'm not sure if the defense/hp trade-off is worth it.
Yes, studies suggest that status resistances matter a lot to how long a shield lasts. In contrast, damage protection seems to matter very little, including damage UVs. Health matters, which is why some people like Omega Shell. You'll have to read the studies.
Search Google for something like "glacies shield site:forums.spiralknights.com" (without the quotation marks).
Really? I suppose I don't block a lot.
I found that source; status resistance actually defending shield HP as opposed to just blocking status affliction makes VPS look good. It seems that it blocks stun swings better than omega shell, but that omega seems to do better than non-stun shields. So I'm guessing that status > HP bonus > defense. I read a comment somewhere stating that you couldn't get status UVs from punch, is this true?
Compare a 5star status resist shield to one that doesn't resist it easily by taking both and shieldwalking through a wisp one resists.
You will notice that status resist shields take no damage from the wisp while the unresisted ones take damage.
Add this bit on to every attack and you can see how a statusless shield can fall short.
You are correct, punch won't give status resistance to shields. Therefore the only way to get them is via crafting.
Which is kinda bummer, cuz even though I have my #swag pen(piercing+elemental+normal) max bts, it hardly makes any differnce... But nowaday's I'm using the bk set like almost everywhere, so swiftstrike all the way!
The thing about it is that it has more shield health than do other shields, but doesn't resist anything special. This makes it the best defensive shield for things that you cannot predict.
Ancient plate and other normal shields don't have the same shield health, making them worse at tanking specialized damage.. as such, they are only really good when resisting their specific damage type- for instance, a pure normal attack that comes with stun and fire is best resisted by volcanic plate shield.