Lolz I was just walking through Sea Serpent Grotto and I came accross this ??? as rdm/nin. Being nosy I clicked it and then started walking away after is said something like you feel a chill down ur spine. rdm 67/ 33 nin as im walking away I see "One of your shadows absorbs the dmg and disappears." Im like @.o Turn around to see this thing. First instinct was to run like a little girl thinking it was the same Squid from the boat (Mhuara = Selbins) Until I saw miss miss shadow miss miss.
I turned drew swords and atk it Shadows kept me safe for a while then (recast timer) I see this thing start a ws im like stoneskin should cover it. WHAP 701 dmg @.@! I did realize something that I dont know if anyone notices but After it does that your next 3 hits connecting are all critical. I do use a Kidney Dagger normally but was using Garuda's Dagger to test it. Also when it uses this move it doesnt atk for 2-4 seconds it just stands there.
The aoe move when it spins around Apparently doesnt effect shadows and rarely does more than 30dmg (im rdm we take alot). It also has a Berserk move Which I say 2 dispel for all those rdms out there <.< because not only does it increase its atk and lower def. but it increases its Double atk rate. It went from 2/13 hits double attackin 2 7/13 I did hit for more but shadows also lasted alot less. I hope this saves you from the death I faced.
i fought the nm solo, as NIN65/THF32. He didn't hit me at all with any melee attack. Evasion Bonus from THF, plus the evasion torque, i think gave me the edge.
Only time i took damage was from his TP skills that AoE. Cross Attack didn't touch me. takes away 2 shadows.
at the end of fight it got me down to 60% health from the AoE alone.
Got this shield a few months ago and it was definately worth it. I got a chance to test out the shield while doing CoP 2-3 as PLD. Equiped with Buckler Earring, the +8 Shield skill (with capped shield skill) made a big difference tanking mobs.
I was blocking with shield little over 50% of the time if that gives you any idea how awesome it is.
As for the NM fight, I was soloing it as a 75PLD/WAR. I kept Defender up at all times while using an Earth Staff for Spirit Taker. Not a bad fight, but long for PLDs.
I beat the Nm at 67 PLD/war so it is kinda tough battle cause he did get me into the red but herc ring helped me out there... just was a long @** battle but massively fun in my eyes...
I believe that SE had a specific purpose in mind with this buckler. If you notice, a majority of the new equipment in game is lv40 or lv50 and a majority of that is rare, ex or both. SE is trying to get ppl to go into the CoP areas that are lv40 or 50 capped without handing the gilsellers more ways to make money. This particular shield is quested and cannot be done so by some basic lv30 job. In fact this NM for the quest cannot be soloed by a lv45 thf which a lot of gillsellers are now. If you are in a lv40 capped zone then this item is very nice indeed because you get a +5 over your capped shield skill.
Great observation, I've been thinking the same thing with regard to alot of the newer CoP items. I use my JSE and a few other pieces I got through CoP quests during 40 and 50 ballista and PM's as well as {expeditionary force}.
I just tried to get this shield from the quest and the NM isn't worth the hassle for this shield. I can understand a Pld using this shield for the extra shield skill since the Kite shield is what def:8? I think it'd be a good shield til the next shield for Pld but don't quote me on that..i'm a Rdm main. BTW, I died trying the NM solo(lvl 64 RDM/BLM) but did win once my 75 Whm friend(Thanks Hesper) and her lvl 75 Nin friend showed up. I would say a lvl 60 Nin can solo it but that's it..no other melee jobs can and sure enough, mages can't but i didn't try the sleep, nuke, sleep2 strategy.
Well... this isn't the greatest of shields, but it's alright. It's nice to have as a backup to switch to in case you are in dire need of a miraculous shield-block.
And all of us who have shields have prayed for that at least once in our playtimes ^^
It's also nice that it is level 40, so anything capped at that level you can use this on.
Unfortunately, this shield is a buckler type, and so the shield block activation rate is much lower than a kite shield or larger shield type (courtesy of the update when they changed the shield blocking system. So I doubt the +5 skill will be better than just having a bigger shield.
Er..it's the other way around. The smaller the shield is the more it blocks. Bucklers are the smallest so you'll block a lot more with them.
On the other hand the larger the shield is the more damage it absorbs when you do block. Tower shields will absorb a ton of damage, but won't block as much. Bucklers will block a lot more, but only absorb about 30%. Kite shields have medium block rate and absorb about 50%.
This particular shield looks like it might be made for keeping your shield skill up to par since it can fall behind easy with how fast you level at 40. Lots of blocks from it being a buckler, +5 skill for even more. Lots of blocks, lots of chances to skill.
Ah, thank you for the helpful info. As someone who doesn't exactly tank (at least not on purpose), I had no idea about the details of the shield block mechanic changes.