If you are looking for a good piercing shield with decent status defense, then SK is not a game for you, plate shield is good overall since it is a nice starting shield and can be made into volcanic plate shield, ideal for FSC. If you are really desperate for a piercing shield, try drake scale shield or wild shell (if the event is on), scale shield being very versatile and tortoise have the other two crucial status resistance.

About tortoshields:
You will not notice the difference at all unless you are playing a bomber with those Kind of bombs that are at the brink of beeing slower than enemies or whose are below enemy Speed in first place. If the 'movement Speed decrease' wouldn't be written there, then no one (unless some hardcore testers) would notice a differene.

Tortoshield bash ability:
basicly it is a fast-useable stagger mistbomb that you can use each few seconds. It depends highly on your playing style though if and how useful this will be.

I in my case love to have that 'additional weapon' with me while fighting stuff like wolvers, kats or devilities (Gorgomega). But use with care. you also wouldnt let enemies gangbang you if you would use a mist bomb.

Additionally to that, it has a obviously larger area of effect than most shields and deals good knock back. It also delivers great box opening abilities (you can open the 7-box-rooms with one single toto bash)

But I would not rate the Yellow Tortoshield if you go against most Jellies. Jellies tend morely to stun you than poisioning. And shock jellies (what I believe) deal morely elemental+shock damage instead of pierce+shock.

My recommendated shields would look like this:

Defense:
-Acient Plate Shield: Does not Need Orbs or previous items and got the highest amount of normal defense. Definitelly get this one (10x Vana)
-Grey Owlite: shock+fire+ elemental resistance - this shield can eat a direct hit from vanaduke's mace and it is also the best choice in Roarmulus Twins, another Boss, and it grants also very nice protection inside the danger Mission 'Ghost in the Machine'
-Omega Shell has most health, that is known. Unfortunally there is no data yet, that compares Omega with other shields so I do not want to give a statement here.
-Dragon Scale Shield: has piercing+elemental+fire+poision. Therefore it is perfect in the Danger Mission 'Compound 42' where almost all other shields lose completally. But the missing normal defense makes it a horrible General choice since Monsters do almost always partially normal damage.
-Crest of Almire: good shield against kats and devility inside shock or fire themed Levels
-and more. Actually there are no shields that are 'completally useless' but certain ones are highly specialized to where you use them.

Offense:
Barbarous Thorn Shield: If you are a swordie, then this is a good Shield - until you get hit. Its
lack of Status can be a real Problem if you try to block a projectile with a shield just to end up getting that projectile right through the shield and causing the Status anyway. This is exspecially unpleasant in frost themes sinceyou can't run away from the next hit. The pro side of this offense shield is its normal defense due to the act that this shield reaches 5 stars. But if you do not use swords at all, then you should rather get a defensive shield or if you are more experienced the SSB

-Swiftstrike Buckler: This fragil Little Thing gives a huge attack Speed Bonus. No shield that you should use when you try to actually defend against something. But when your skill Level reaches the Point where you do not Need a shield at all, then this one offers arguably the best offense. Keep always in mind that it is only a 3 star shield.

-Tortodrone Shields: Their offense come with their shield bash ability that can used from Point blank or from distance to spread stun and knockback. But Keep in mind that each shield bash will cost you half of shield energy and that you Need to Train where you will end up and/or have your dash ready. Torto shields can be used defensively, too, as pure defending shields.

In conclusion: Before you get an offense shield, make sure to learn the Monster behaviour in this game and start with a shield that has at least partially normal defense. Once you know how to Keep your shield unboken even in tight situations, you can try out offensive ones.

Also remember, that -however good you may be or become - that if you start to lag, get delays or face a new Situation, you are better with a shield that can compensate These things. Namingly: Defense shields.

The original poster does not say that he's looking for a piercing shield, but recent posters have interpreted it in that way.

As I argue in post #1, if you're "looking for a piercing shield" then you have probably mis-chosen your priorities in planning equipment.

I'm not sure what thread you are mentioning, could you send a link? I remember saying I can solo DaN with a grand tortodrone set (ask some of my friends and they could confirm), and can beat vana with a savage tortofist (the party members I was carrying werent friends so if you want to get nitpicky you can pull a politician and say "no proof so its not possible", and I dont do vana unless I'm helping people so I haven't been there in like a month) but I dont think I was ever challenged to anything
(If you want to challenge me I won't be able to make any recordings, the temporary computer I have can't run sk and calculator at the same time, let alone a video recording software, and my laptop still hasn't shipped yet)
I do remember the being hated thing though, you're talking about the "universally despised" thing right? That was more of an acknowledgement than a complaint, being hated is better than nothing, and Ik I'm not getting any positive reputation here so ill keep what i have

I'm just pissed at people who assume tortodrone items are useless, theyre very good pieces of gear if some actually had them and took the time to learn them, thats only for guns too, the shields have unique defenses and a hardly noticeable debuff that doesn't affect most playstyles at all

On topic:
I'd say if you're still progressing in the game, ironmight plate is a solid option, it only gets its pierce at 5*, so keep that in mind
stat-wise, it has a bit less pierce than royal jelly but it has more normal and health, so it can tank against more enemies (it doesn't have sleep, but thats useless anyways so its not really a factor unless you're one of the optimists who actually think that it will be readded)