So is it official? Shield resists mean nothing?
I just want to make sure, because I can't really search the forums for every admin post and there's nothing I've seen anywhere that answers this question.
Not only are status effects unapplyable while shielding anyway, but even the glitch (I'm assuming) that lets Greavers put their status affects on you through shields is UNAFFECTED BY SHIELD RESISTANCE.
So there really is no point to these shield resistances, right?
Is this confirmed? Because my friend has Omega Shield, and it doesn't seem to do any worse against fire than my Grey Owlite.
IIRC, shield resist adds to your characters total resist. like another piece of armor. you dont need your shield up to gain resistance to said effect. only 'shield health' is used once shielding (shield breaks over more hits - slightly useless, imo, because a max hp shield blocks only like 2 out of 3 alpha wolver bites)

Shield resists do not add to your character's overall resist. I use a wise owlite shield and when I look at my overall character stats I have no shock resist at all and only the low fire resist from my armor's UV.

I've noticed my Heater Shield (freeze resist) can take about 2-3 more hits from Slush Puppies compared to other Gun Puppies.
Greavers cheat and status you through your shield with their haze. For other monsters, you shouldn't get statused as long as your shield can hold up against their attack. :P
interesting Icee, so essentially status effects on shields ARE useless, considering your shield wont ever, itself, be set on fire, frozen, shocked etc AND 3RD disabled shielding-damage prevention from fire and shock, atleast now i can see why owlite shields really arent as popular as they should be...

Owlite shields are so popular because of the Elemental and Normal defense. These were the most common damage types in T3 (I'm not sure if that stays true after the update.) Heater shields would be also common if it were easy to get UVs for them but it was very expensive to mass craft.
Also the status effects aren't useless, in Firestorm Citadel there are tons of enemies that can inflict fire as a status, shields with that resist can take more hits than a shield without it. There are also lava squares, fire pits, flamethrower puppies, all of these are affected by the fire resist on the shield. Quicksilvers are probably another reason why the shock resist is useful, but mainly the fire and elemental defense.

http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/7219
read last post, it's an admin quotation.
Certain attacks that inflict those status effects might do less damage to the shield's health.
The one example that comes up in my mind is that people say Plate shield can withstand lumbers better because it has stun resist.