Shield or No Shield?

[drinkturps]

In D2 max block was pretty much a must for the majority of characters. Is it so important now?

Shields can offer a nice defence bonus but I'm seeing that certainly for DH, WD and Wizard that using the class related off hand items can really make a huge bonus to your DPS.

For those at higher levels how are you handling it? Shield or no shield?!

[omgmir]

Shield always.

I'm not seeing the 'huge bonus to dps' from offhand that you're seeing.

The biggest damage increase you'll get from your offhand is from +main stat, and you can just as easily get that from a shield as from an off-hand.

[Raesene]

I've been mixing it up between characters. I do tend to use shields more for melee, they seem to gain more use out of it.

[Paladuck]

Shields are no longer as important as they were in D2 for several reasons:

1) Blocking is a straight percentage now and there's a maximum block amount. You can no longer achieve 75% total block.
2) The off-hands can have very good stats. In addition to adding to your main stat, off-hands add straight damage as well. This is critical because killing speed is no longer linked to +skills for caster but is dependent on these stats.

I started out with shields only because I was holding onto my beliefs from D2. I ditched it for a pretty sweet Wizard source and I'm doing fine at 54.

[SlowMoe]

I never use a shield, but only because I am ignorant on the subject. The problem is I can't tell how effective they are and I have never felt inclined to "test it out." I haven't looked at shields a lot, but the highest chance of block I've seen is 12% (lvl 32 barb) and it always seems the DPS of an offhand (even for melee) is far greater than the damage reduction the shield gives.

[Malentros]

I would imagine using a shield is something decided upon on a case by case basis. Some considerations:

1) Quality of the best offhand vs. best shield in terms of primary stats (by this i mean +str/vit/int/dex, etc; both can be compared equally on this basis), and

2) ...on +dmg on the offhand vs. +armor/block on the shield. For example, if the shield and off-hand have similar primary stats, and the +dmg from the offhand adds 10% more dps, but the +armor on the shield adds 20% more mitigation, there's an difficult trade-off between damage and survivability to consider.

3) Playstyle: are you building on the premise of killing everything before it gets to you and kiting if its a tough elite, have great reactions to avoid unnecessary damage, and have a couple of good defensive abilities to save you (i.e. diamond armor/teleport, vault/smoke screen, spirit walk, etc.) ? Then an offhand for the extra damage works right into that. Alternatively, perhaps your dps isn't very high (don't have access to a good enough weapon yet, int too low etc.) and you have to tank a bit more than you like, your connection might be laggy, your reactions aren't the greatest? More armor could be the difference between life and death.

In summary, consider the item primary stats and the advantages of +dmg,vs. +armor in the context of your current playstyle. Note that if your playstyle changes (all of a sudden you get a great weapon...) perhaps your choice changes too.

[kar]

Bumping this for more responses. Thus far I'm using a shield and wand for my wizard (NM), but I'd like some feedback from you Hell+ hc ranged characters. It sounds like the glass cannon, high dps approach is favored in the higher difficulties?

[rberacha]

35 DH Bow + Quiver. Act II NM

My current quiver has 71 DEX 48 VIT IAS 11% and socketed with Perfect Amethyst for more VIT.

[JCBN]

Using shield in Inferno atm.
But only until i find a superb offhand with lots of nice stats and dmg.

[JomDarbert]

Bumping this for more responses. Thus far I'm using a shield and wand for my wizard (NM), but I'd like some feedback from you Hell+ hc ranged characters. It sounds like the glass cannon, high dps approach is favored in the higher difficulties?

I have a 60 Barbarian and a 60 Demon Hunter in Act1 Inferno. Through the end of hell, I found that mitigation was totally viable (especially on the Barbarian). For myself, the shield's blocking component was pretty lackluster; what really made shields attractive was the huge pile of armor, which can be hard to come by (especially for ranged classes).

In inferno so far, I'm terrified to fight normal zombies outside of town. I will say that my Barbarian can take a few more hits, though not many. Until Blizzard re-tunes Inferno damage to be less "spikey", I would guess that damage avoidance is best whenever possible.

If you're looking for more detailed information on where your mitigation is coming from, check out the spreadsheet we put together:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...3TWc0Unc#gid=0