Get a swiftstrike buckler and focus on armors and weapons

The Stone Tortoise is an impressive 4* shield; it can take as many hits from damage sources as some 5* shields can. The Omega Shell is no different. A player would do just fine without ever upgrading to Omega Shell.

Yes, it is unfair - in favor of Stone Tortoise! ;P

By "no different" do you mean Omega Shell is exactly the same as Stone Tortoise, or it's ST on steroids and nothing else?

From what I can gather from that comment is that either the ST is OP, or the OS is UP. But then again, my "substantially" might be a lot smaller than yours.

Thin, your description of ST v. OS is nearly identical to my opinion of the Vile Striker and the Dread Vile Striker.

I don't think the Stone Tortoise needs a nerf because it is still outclassed by specialized shields. What makes it overpowered is that its health roughly compensates for lack of special damage defenses, so it completely outclasses the Mighty Defender and Blackened Crest, and outclasses Heavy Plate, Rock Jelly, Scary Skelly, and Wise Owlite against enemies that don't inflict their resisted statuses. We need a buff to the previous two shields, not a nerf to Stone Tortoise.

By the way, my research has shown that Omega Shell holds up remarkably well against fire grates, though not as well as GOS.

Won't sustain against Vana's mace that for sure. Status puts a heavy dent in shield health if not resisted.

Then omega shell became useless because they nerfed the mace.

The OS became useless because they nerfed the mace?!

I hope you missed a word there, because that... looks odd. Or... did they nerf the mace's damage and stick fire on it or something?

Makes sense, but when Flamearc said they nerfed the mace, do he mean the mace itself had no status and/or Elemental damage? (I.E., it only did Normal) Or did he just make a mistake and meant buffed?

For example, why take OS which has no special defense (e.g. elemental) and status when other things can last just as well?

For the Lulz. And because the player is a Mario addict, and wants to pretend they're Bowser with their CTR High Combuster and Fire resistance: MAX! Volcanic Plate set.

On a less serious note, no, I have no idea. Chances are a person'd get it for their collection of shields, perhaps for a challenge run, but little else.

Do you hear yourselves? If the Omega Shell defends just as well as other shields, that would make it overpowered. Why get three specialized shields when just the Omega Shell will do the job of any of them?

But it doesn't defend "just as well." Status-based attacks will destroy it faster than they will most other shields. That's probably why the OS can't take a mace hit anymore.

Say, would anyone happen to know how the omega shell acts when given status UVs? Does it become the greatest thing, or do they not help it much?

A status UV ought to make it "the greatest thing." Check out my shield damage data, specifically that on Dread Skelly vs. Crest of Almire on fire grates. The difference is substantial, so I can only imagine what the Omega Shell would be like with just half a max bar (=max UV) of status resistance.

@Xutak: Omega Shell shouldn't be breaking very fast under normal usage. According to the data, it should survive better than other shields against sub-optimal damage sources (e.g. GOS vs. elemental+freeze), and it should be competitive with other shields against optimal damage sources (e.g. GOS vs. Firo Knights). It won't be perfect, but it should perform better than usual. I'm going to guess that you're expecting more of it than you should, because it's a pretty durable shield when used properly.

Eh, I already have a volcanic plate shield. I'm thinking of getting a shock one. It shall be the greatest thing ;D

Yes, please update that damage data for me; I'd appreciate it. :D

Volcanic Plate will be less useful against pure non-normal damage sources than Omega Shell. How much less is yet to be determined; that'll be my next assignment. I own both Volcanic Plate and Omega Shell. Frankly, Volcanic Plate is downright AMAZING in the Vanaduke boss battle. It stayed intact long after I was certain it would break; once, it took a mace hit, slag charge, and shadow fire in quick succession without breaking. I was very, very, SEERUSLY impressed. Omega Shell could never do that, no matter what UVs you slap on it.

That's kinda my point, though; the shields that are tailored to the level will survive much better than the Omega Shell. The CoA takes zombie attacks better than OS; the GOS takes gun puppy and map hazard attacks better than OS; Volcanic Plate takes spike wheels and mace hits much better than the OS. Heck, even (or should I say especially?) Dread Skelly takes zombie attacks better than OS.

But the OS will take zombie attacks about as well as GOS, fire grates about as well as CoA, and spike wheels about as well as either of those two. And that's really my point about the shield - against sub-optimal damage sources, the OS performs as well or better than other shields.

I really don't think UV, which are RANDOM, should have ANY bearing on whether a shield/weapon/armor is bad or good.

Many weapons have a specific damage bonus by default. But just because you can get the same bonus from a random UV doesn't necessarily make them useless.

I'm still debating whether to upgrade my stone tortoise, and this thread is very unsure about whether it's worthwhile or not.

@Larry

I really think that UV, which are RANDOM have SOME bearing on whether a shield/weapon/armor is bad or good.

Many weapons have a specific damage bonus by default. Because you can get the same bonus from a random UV makes them useful.

There is no reason not to upgrade to 5* other than that it isn't going to be that good, provided that you aren't pressed to upgrade something else at all first. If you've already got enough stuff though, you might as well.