Shield Skill

[rasheedwaters]

I've been playing pld for quit awhile and my shield skill is lagging behind. Is there a way to lvlin my shield skill?

[Sano's]

hm... their isn't like a way that u can instanly just go out and be like, hey if i kill this monster my shield skill will raise... i'm in my early 30's and from my experince as long as you tank, and keep tanking, it will rise slowly and steadly, along with parring... shield/parring skill is not like evasion, where after you lvl u instantaly start to gain +1 or +2 from getting hit, just be paitent and it will raise.

oh and when i do shield bash and stop a boumb toss... it raises +3 alot of times... go figure

[Jaxon]

You can fight monsters (not VT or IT ones) that makes you block with your shield often to raise it.

[Lyonesse]

You need to fight mobs that are roughly a handful of levels below you to really raise your shield skill. Easy cons are usually a good idea to do this on. I raised my shield skills from 0-50 on my WHM fighting Tomb Bats while hunting the Crypt Ghost. My WHM was at the high-20s at the time so it was roughly 6 or so levels below me. The same can be done for parry.

[Macht]

Everyskill you can raise but to do it gets a little tricky the higher you job level is. What you have to do is treat the skill level sort of like it's the job level and fight monsters that would be around even match for that level.

So for example if your job level is in the 30's and a skill is lv. 1 then the monsters you should try fighting to get it to raise faster would something like rarab's in the E and W Sarutabaruta areas. Those rarabs would con as even for a lv. 1 job but as worthless to a lv. 30 job.

As long as you fight what would about be an even - tough match in that manner it'll raise faster. Once you get it capped it will raise much easier like the evasion and other skills. The hard part is getting it capped.

[Macht]

Everyskill you can raise but to do it gets a little tricky the higher you job level is. What you have to do is treat the skill level sort of like it's the job level and fight monsters that would be around even match for that level.

So for example if your job level is in the 30's and a skill is lv. 1 then the monsters you should try fighting to get it to raise faster would something like rarab's in the E and W Sarutabaruta areas. Those rarabs would con as even for a lv. 1 job but as worthless to a lv. 30 job.

As long as you fight what would about be an even - tough match in that manner it'll raise faster. Once you get it capped it will raise much easier like the evasion and other skills. The hard part is getting it capped.

[BrotherRaven]

Hmm well I am a 55 PLD/WAR and my shield skill is only 120 (130 with my AF Boots on). It is an A skill I believe so it should be somewhere in the 170s with my 1HS. So clearly it lags behind from plain leveling. So how do you raise it? I have a few questions about that...

a) Should I wear +shield skill items so I have a better chance to blocking so more chances of raising the skill?

b) Any other strategies for raising shield? Maybe a Brd song?

c) Anybody know what stat (if any) Shield Blocking is based on?

When I do raise my shield skill it is usually 0.5 or 0.4 but it doesn't happen every time I block. Any suggestions would be great

[Lyonesse]

I'm pretty sure AGI plays into block/parry rates as I've noticed quite a difference at level 45 with +4 AGI. So nab a pair of wing earrings to help out with it. It's also not a bad idea to just go back and solo dc or easy con mobs because more often than not, they'll still raise your Shield skill. I typically gain 5 shield levels per XP level but that's slowed recently (only 3 per level as of late).