Hey there! Neo here.
I am getting closer and closer to that Chaos set, which makes me realize that my Defence and resistances are about to go down the drain. In order to counter this, I chose a very defensive weapon to get good at, the Pulsar line, in hopes that it would keep most beasties at bay, but alas, I am still getting used to it. I imagine that someday, fearless with a swiftstrike buckler, but today is not that day.
In the mean time (And for those trap riddled levels) what would be a good shield to invest in? In order to advance to the next series of quests, I need a four star shield anyways, and it's not like I am going to go through the trouble and cost of making one and then just sell it. I have look at many options, and here are the ones I have gotten it down to:
Omega Shell Line
Dragon Scale Shield Line (Bonus - is on fire and looks sweet.)
Grey Owlite Shield
Crest of Almire (<-- Very hard to get but is likely best.)
For those who don't know, I will go through them quickly!
The Omega Shell offers nothing other than normal damage and health, but has the highest of both for the game.
The Dragon Scale Shield offers good elemental and piercing defence as well as poison and fire, but no normal defence (Not sure how that factors in!)
The Grey Owlite Shield offers good elemental and normal defence as well as fire and shock, the two scariest status (besides stun/freezing if you're on your own, maybe.)
The Crest of Almire is basically the Grey Owlite Shield, but with shadow defence instead of elemental. Unfortunately, you need to do FSC runs for it or buy it for huge amounts in the AH. Not so attractive there.
So, thoughts? I am sure Bopp is going to come and tell me there is a post for it somewhere, but I just love to hear from you guys instead of reading old posts xD (I actually do do my own research, but there are often gaps inbetween updates, either new monster threats, value shifts, new items, meaning that asking it outright is usually the best, especially if you are doing dicey sets like full Chaos!)
Thanks very much!
-Neo
I believe the general consensus for the best defensive shields would both Grey Owlite Shield and Crest of Almire. They both protect against the most vicious statuses, shock and fire as well has giving you a sturdier shield to defend against the more dangerous enemy attacks, shadow and elemental.
Omega Shield from what I'm told only looks good on paper. While it has a lot of health, it only provides defense against normal damage, which isn't good considering the majority of enemies do split. Status resist on shields is also pretty important so if you want a shield that's step up from this, you'd get Volcanic Plate Shield instead with incredible normal, elemental, fire, and stun resist.
Dragon Scale is bad because it has no normal defense, a big deal against majority of enemies. Plus there isn't any enemy that deals both elemental and piercing damage at once making it very weak unless the damage is pure elemental or piercing. However, the one place that it shines over every other shield is C42, but you could just use Grey Owlite alternatively.
If you want more insight on the Omega and Dragon Scale shields, you could check an old discussion here that explained their uses more specifically.