[arkaine23]

Just wondering... I noticed PLDs have found block rates to be:

Size 1 > Size 3 > Size 2 & 4 which makes size 3 the best choice for damage reduction.

Damage reduction by size was determined to be:

Size 1 22%
Size 2 40%
Size 3 50%

+1%/2 defense rating on the Shield.


RDM's have lower Shield skill than PLDs, but if the shield size correlation to block rate is linear with skill, it shouldn't matter that our skill is lower, because the block rates would follow the same order by Shield size. There are a couple of Size 3 Shields we can wear, notably Acheron's Shield which is defense 26 and also has +10 Shield skill. Depending on how close the block rate between Size 1 and 3 is, Acheron's could actually reduce more damage over time than Genbu's.

I ran some made-up numbers with a 14% difference in block rate favoring Genbu's and it only came out 3-4% better overall damage reduced over Acheron's. If the Block rate difference was more like 9% in favor of Size 1 Shields over Size 3, Acheron's would be about even with Genbu's. Just made-up numbers mind you....

Block rate Genbu's vs Acherons
50% vs 36% damage reduced 26% vs 22.6%
50% vs 41% damage reduced 26% vs 25.8%

It also depends on how damage gets calculated for Genbu's on a block, given it has two layers of % reduction. I just added them together for simplicity. Also, Genbu's gets more advantage the lower the block rate is, due to reducing damage 10% even for non-blocks.


I'd welcome any block rate by shield size data from RDM with capped skill (or above) vs EM and higher mobs. I'll do some of my own testing when I can make the time for it.
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Hmmm, someone on Alla has suggested Genbu's is a size 2 shield.

Difference would be ~39-42% reduction on blocks if size 1 or ~60% reduction on blocks if size 2. Should be fairly easy to confirm either way given what we know about shield damage reduction.
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Also, PLD forums here gave some block rates of size 2 vs size 3 in a sticky, recorded over 700-800 attacks.

Size 2 rate was 35.5%
Size 3 rate was 42.9%

Plugging those rates in, I can estimate averaged damage reduction and Genbu's and Acheron's Shield become nearly even. I doubt RDM will see those actual block rates vs EM+ because our skill is lower, but I do believe we'll see size 3 proc more often than size 2, and it's likely Genbu's and Acheron's will still be very close in overall damage reduction because of the higher block rate for size 3 vs 2. Unless its a size 1 like wiki says....

[Armando]

Genbu's is indeed Size 2 for some reason, despite having the model for shell shields. It's pretty much the best non-Aegis shield in the game.

I saw that thread on Allakhazam where someone supposedly found a damage reduction formula for shield block, but there wasn't much data provided and its results conflicted with my own so I dismissed it. My own data (which was found by recording the lowest and highest damages with and without shield blocks, and comparing them) was that Size 1 reduces damage by 25%, Size 2 by 45%, Size 3 by 60% and Size 4 by 75%. Proc rates (in descending order) were Size 1 > Size 2 and 3 > Size 4.

On the other hand the person that supposedly found the formula claims to have gotten his results by comparing average damage taken. The idea that Defense affects the damage reduction on a shield is extremely dubious since my own tests found a clean pattern in damage reduction despite the fact that the shields used had widely different Defense numbers, and that I saw no difference in damage reduction between a Mahogany Shield (Size 2, 4 Defense) and Master Shield (Size 2, 8 Defense.)

An interesting side note is that I couldn't find any difference in block rate between Mahogany Shield and Master Shield against DC-T mobs, despite the 10 Shield Skill difference. I also didn't notice greater shield block rates on mobs far more than 10 levels under me. To me, this means that shielding rate is relative to what you're fighting, and that for a mob of a given level, once you reach a certain amount of Shield Skill, your shield block rate is capped. Because of this, I wouldn't expect shielding rate for a RDM with capped shield skill fighting EM-T mobs to be much different from that of a PLD's fighting the same mobs.

Also, PLD forums here gave some block rates of size 2 vs size 3 in a sticky, recorded over 700-800 attacks.

Size 2 rate was 35.5%
Size 3 rate was 42.9%

Actually, Size 2 had a proc rate of 38.4%. They're more or less the same if you ask me; the difference in proc rate between Size 1 and Size 2/3; and Size 2/3 and Size 4 is pretty marked.

[arkaine23]

I threw out the numbers that were his size 2 vs TWTBWW.