PVM Fireclaws bear weapon question

[MukTuk]

I've got a FC Bear at level 26 so far, but I'm still unsure about what I should use for his weapon by the end-game. Right now, I have two options (because I have not much else available): a 6xShael Great Axe, and a 6xShael Phase Blade + Shield.

Both weapons reach a 4fpa Fireclaws, and but have some upsides and downsides to them.

The Great Axe has a minor dex req of only 39. That should allow me to get away with a small investment and pump the rest of my points in Vit, getting me a high life. With 2 Ravens (425 AR total), a few +AR charms, 20% from Jalal's, 410% from slvl 26 Fireclaws, and 179% AR from slvl 23 HoW, I'm hoping that I should have enough AR to get away with this, though I'm not sure yet. Seeing as I have no Oak Sage, the extra life would be quite welcome.

The Phase Blade has the advantage of letting me use a shield, but at the kinda hefty cost of needing 136 Dex to equip. While this may do wonders for my AR, its not going to help in keeping a low-block rate. It seems to me that general consensus is that you don't want to be blocking beacuse bears have slow block recovery, and the more you're blocking the less you're attacking and killing things. And I find myself agreeing with this, on my Fury Wolf I wouldn't dare think about using a shield. If I'm using the phase blade, I may as well use a shield. If I'm using a shield, its probably going to be for one thing only - resists. So I'm looking at two options, a 3-PDiamond Kite Shield or a 2-PDiamond Moser's, as the Moser's is the only decent resisty shield I have. This gives me another dilemma to think over.

The Kite Shield has lower block-rate of 28% and block recovery of 12f, but the Moser's has 25% Faster Block which means 8f, at the cost about double the block-rate at 57%.

I ran a few numbers for the block-rates I'd have with 136 Dex at some levels, and they're rather higher than I'd really like. I don't expect to have large amounts of Defense either, so monsters will be hitting me near constantly.

Level 54 = Mosers 63%, Kite Shield 31%
Level 65 = Mosers 53%, Kite Shield 26%
Level 80 = Mosers 43%, Kite Shield 21%

So, I'm wondering what would be better for spending less time total in block recovery, the slower but less frequent kite shield or the faster but more blocky Mosers?

Hell, will it even matter? With a slvl 15 shockwave most things won't even be in a position to attack me, so its only the champions/bosses that will have any business actually trying to hurt me, so maybe the issue won't even be an issue. Blocking may even be useful in some cases, like exploding dolls, so its not exactly that bad.

So, what do you think? High life and uninteruptibile slaughtering with the Great Axe, or higher accuracy and resists of the Phase Blade with a bit of unavoidable slow-down? I guess all it really boils down to is whether blocking is good or bad. I'm still not sure >.>

[Doppel]

Moser has 30% faster block and 25% increased chance of blocking, plus you have shaels to further increase the speed of blocking by 20% for each one of them. (Moser has two sockets)
So with 1 shael your blocking speed will be 7 frames and with 2 shaels your blocking speed will be 6 frames.
You could thus even go for full block wich would also help your ar wich you will have trouble in for being a bear. (although FC adds lots)
Another alternative is Stormshield although that requires high str, with SS you can reach a 7 frame blockrate with one shael.
Another alternative is Whitstan's wich has a HUGE 55% increased chance of blocking and a rather big 40% faster blockrate.
Do not shael it though, cause you reach a 7 frame blockrate with or without a shael (ofcourse you have block amulets too, and you have guardian angel wich is exelent when wanting higher max resist and faster blockrate).
You can even add in Guillame's for an added 35 bonus to life.

Also don't forget certain magical shields with faster blockrate and increased chance of blocking and for example 3-4 sox. Hard to find though.

Imo, there are even lots of more shields, like for example blackoak wich will eliminate your dex problems (close too) and add in some juicy mods apart from that.
Or what about Lance guard? Low block plus faster hit recovery plus 20%deadly strike (wich isn't really of any use here, lol) plus life plus damage taken goes to mana plus low reqs, whats not to like?

Go pb imo.

[phool]

A high pdr, no shield, setup is probably ideal. Bear in mind you will inevitably have a pretty high block rate, probably 30-35%, however low the block on the shield itself, so you still need 40+ fbr even if not going max block (~136 dex req on pb =/). I forgot this once and tried to use spirit monarch, was a really bad idea. With pdr and maxed res however you can almost forget about hit recovery altogether... even a 7 frame block recovery/hit recovery (this is as good as you'll get) is pretty unbearable when you could have killed 2 enemies in that time.

I'd definitely go shaeled+pdiamond'd mosers with the shaeled pb over champion axe. That way you don't actually lose anything except some vita and gain some nice res as well as a chance to negate incoming damage. Up the mosers for some free extra block and def, the str req won't be an issue. Add a 2nd shael for 6 frame recovery if going max block (probably worthwhile). A jmod with something like 1-2 shaels and 3-2 5/5s would be the godly option I guess.

Use 4 shaels and 2 ias/ar jewels if you can, with a little effort you can get even pretty high ias/ar jewels for cheap. I've been able to get a 90 ar for lem at times and at others not been able to buy a 65 ar for pul, very variable values.