I have a couple things I'd like to bring up in this topic. First, there are four kinds of damage in the game, right? Normal, (red) Elemental, (green) Shadow, (purple) and Piercing (yellow) - in order from what seems to be most to least commonly encountered. And at least according to the Wiki, there isn't a shield in the game that will defend against more than two of the above types of damage. Now, my assumption of how shields work is this: When hit by an attack the shield is has a defense against the amount of damage the shield takes is lessened, so in turn it can absorb more hits and thus protect you longer. Right? So a Dread Skelly Shield is great for fighting Zombies and Phantoms, which deal Shadow damage, but is good against most things because it has a good Normal defense as well. So a shadow attack that would deal 4 bars of damage would deal say 2 bars (numbers pulled out of my butt) to a blocking Skelly shield, since it has a strong Shadow defense. But a Gunpuppy dealing elemental damage to a Dread Skelly shield should be maximally effective, breaking the shield down much more quickly because the shield is not equipped to handle Elemental type damage. And of course, how quickly your shield breaks is dictated by the amount of health the shield has, with defending against the right types being more effective than those that aren't.

Everyone still with me? Do I need any corrections yet?

Okay, going on the assumption that what I have said above is correct, then the best solution is to have a shield for every situation. Most effective, but until you're rolling in crowns, not necessarily the most practical. So when choosing a single shield, how does one go about it? Would it be better to choose a shield with low health but higher defense against a certain damage type, or to ignore damage type for more shield health? There's no data as far as I know to test this out, merely feeling it out based on in game observation. Compare for example the Stone Tortoise shield vs the Wise Owlite shield, but popular 4 star shields. The Stone Tortoise has maximum health, but only a Normal damage defense, while the Wise Owlite has less health, less Normal defense, but a good Elemental defense. Without a better understanding how how much "health" a shield has, and how much the amount of type defense plays into it, again I can only go off observation about what is and isn't effective.

Which brings me to what got me thinking about all of this. Recently I acquired a Wyvern Scale Shield as my first 4 star shield. I chose it for a couple of reasons. Like any 4 star shield, it's high in health, so it ought to hold up under some pressure. Also, it's a damn good looking shield. Most importantly however, it has a good Elemental and Piercing Defense, to help ward off Gunpuppy storms, Retrodes, and maybe help a little with Brambles and Spike Traps. Lastly, I chose it because it I thought would complement my Salamander Suit armor, which grants Normal and Elemental defense. And as a side note, my armor works beautifully- I've noticed in many combats after being hit the damage I take seeming much less than I did before when I was wearing Solid Cobalt. However, and I'll preface the next statement by saying I could do further comparisons; my Wyvern Scale shield is disappoint. For all of its health, I find it breaks quite easily, even when taking elemental damage, 4 or 5 bullets from Gunpuppies and it's leaving me hanging. I understood when I selected it that it had no Normal defense, but even against damage it's supposed to defend against it's just... weak. It seems no more effective, and sometimes -less- effective than the previous shields I was using; the Swiftstrike Buckler and the Horned Owlite shields, both 3 stars shields with significantly (or so the bar rating would lead me to believe) less health. But both do however have a Normal defense however. So, wrapping this up, does it really come down to that lacking Normal Defense? I don't think that can be all of it, since even against types it should be strong against the Wyvern Scale doesn't seem to measure up. I'd really love to hear from others who have used a Wyvern Scale shield, as well as any additional info anyone has on how shields work. Thanks. Oh, and this is all based on T2 monsters, I have not been running T3 yet.

TL;DR - QQ, Wyvern Scale Shield, why u no block good?