Thread: Tips on Guardian Heavy Shields.

What are the best few 75 heavy shields right now? Ive read that some guards switch out full amour sets depending on the instance/role, can someone explain how they choose which set to use when?

Hi!

Regarding the first question, there's a couple good shields out there nowadays. We have the regular theodred rep-gated crafted shield, then there's Heronamath, dropping from ToO T1. There's Medliamath, which drops from t2 but is rather underwhelming, as there's also a recipe dropping in ToO called the 'Combat Shield recipe', which results in probably the best currently realistically available heavy shield there is, the Tempered Combat Kite Shield of the Defender. Yes, gorgeous name.

Beside those, there's another shield dropping from the Saruman t2 (challenge?) chest that's basically all the strongsuits of these seperate shields combined into one, making it totally epic. And nigh unreachable for mere mortals.

To answer the second question, I'm not sure what you mean. Switch out entire sets? I'd only do that when I'm heading into the Ettens for the audacity gear, or into solo-mode when I swap in all my Overpower gear. I do always have a whole lot of gear in my bags though to swap in just for certain occasions. Big bad raidboss? Swap in some extra finesse to avoid those nasty resists. Foundry with a good group? Slap on crit-gear to get thousands of litanies off and never worry about aggro.

I also swap in my Draigoch set everytime I use warrior's fortitude, but I don't think that's what you meant

These are examples of a good shields:




But this is currently the best shield in game:



It only drops in Saruman t2 CM

and here's a link for 2 more: http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/7700/medliamath.jpg and http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/9725/heronamath.jpg couldn't img it as only 4 codes can be made in 1 post.

Originally Posted by Fyrexiel

Hi!

Regarding the first question, there's a couple good shields out there nowadays. We have the regular theodred rep-gated crafted shield, then there's Heronamath, dropping from ToO T1. There's Medliamath, which drops from t2 but is rather underwhelming, as there's also a recipe dropping in ToO called the 'Combat Shield recipe', which results in probably the best currently realistically available heavy shield there is, the Tempered Combat Kite Shield of the Defender. Yes, gorgeous name.

Beside those, there's another shield dropping from the Saruman t2 (challenge?) chest that's basically all the strongsuits of these seperate shields combined into one, making it totally epic. And nigh unreachable for mere mortals.

To answer the second question, I'm not sure what you mean. Switch out entire sets? I'd only do that when I'm heading into the Ettens for the audacity gear, or into solo-mode when I swap in all my Overpower gear. I do always have a whole lot of gear in my bags though to swap in just for certain occasions. Big bad raidboss? Swap in some extra finesse to avoid those nasty resists. Foundry with a good group? Slap on crit-gear to get thousands of litanies off and never worry about aggro.

I also swap in my Draigoch set everytime I use warrior's fortitude, but I don't think that's what you meant

Thanks! that answers my first question perfectly, now for the second one...i guess i meant how does a guard know which armor piece to use when, and when the best choice is just to use a full set?

Sorry if this sounds confusing!

Some guards switch sets to gain the bonuses that a particular raid set offers.
For example, the draigoch 5 piece armor set gives a huge increase in the morale and heal that you get from Warriors Fortitude, so some guards switch to that set just before they use Warriors Fortitude.
Switching in the middle of combat though is only advisable if you have a keyboard that can do macros, as it is too cumbersome to equip 5 or 6 pieces of armor in the middle of combat when we you to use a certain skill.

I pers. like this one here :

Shield of the Swift River
http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Item...he_Swift_River

Originally Posted by Vysion34

Some guards switch sets to gain the bonuses that a particular raid set offers.
For example, the draigoch 5 piece armor set gives a huge increase in the morale and heal that you get from Warriors Fortitude, so some guards switch to that set just before they use Warriors Fortitude.
Switching in the middle of combat though is only advisable if you have a keyboard that can do macros, as it is too cumbersome to equip 5 or 6 pieces of armor in the middle of combat when we you to use a certain skill.

what type of keyboard would be able to do macros?

Almost every gaming keyboard these days

Originally Posted by Guardian995

What are the best few 75 heavy shields right now? Ive read that some guards switch out full amour sets depending on the instance/role, can someone explain how they choose which set to use when?

Shields are still all about stats.
The best stats for tanking are (* = until cap):
1. Incoming Healing*
2. Tactical Mitigation*
3. Vitality
4. Morale
5. Physical Mitigation*
6. Parry*
7. Block* (note the order - harder to find parry than block on guard items, so parry is slightly better)
8. Might
9. ICPR
10. Power
11. Evade*

So, shields with heavy amounts of healing, vitality, and morale are going to be pretty epic.

Originally Posted by Reillan

Shields are still all about stats.
The best stats for tanking are (* = until cap):
1. Incoming Healing*
2. Tactical Mitigation*
3. Vitality
4. Morale
5. Physical Mitigation*
6. Parry*
7. Block* (note the order - harder to find parry than block on guard items, so parry is slightly better)
8. Might
9. ICPR
10. Power
11. Evade*

So, shields with heavy amounts of healing, vitality, and morale are going to be pretty epic.

This order is highly subjective, and obviously dependant on the rest of your gear. If your morale is already over 20k buffed, I'd definitely not pick raw morale over anything else that isn't capped, tbh

Originally Posted by Fyrexiel

This order is highly subjective, and obviously dependant on the rest of your gear. If your morale is already over 20k buffed, I'd definitely not pick raw morale over anything else that isn't capped, tbh

well, really it needs to be weighted, right? because if I have to choose between 100 might and 100 (or even 150) morale, I'm choosing the might every time.

Originally Posted by Menko

But this is currently the best shield in game:



It only drops in Saruman t2 CM

wow that is sexy.



i'm currently using the defender and have no regrets.

as for switching out armor, i switch out for more or less of certain stats that i do or don't need.

for example, tactical mitigation is (mostly) useless during the trash pulls in orthanc, common mitigation is entirely useless for the saruman fight and any other boss fight

for saruman, anything that boosts my threat isn't really all that necessary since i'll have a massive headstart on anything. if anyone does pull aggro, it'll be from the rings (and there isn't much i could to change that anyway), so the extra threat to shield-blow is a bit unnecessary.

i don't switch out entire sets usually... i'll have at least 4 piece of laigathel. i'll switch out shoulders occasionally for extra tactical mitigation (GR crafted shoulders), or swap out two pieces for the lumaethwe for the 2-set +34 vitality +183 morale set bonus (instead of the 5-set bonus), etc.
i used to swap out shield for certain things too, but once i got the heronomath (and now the defender), i don't really swap anymore.

Originally Posted by Reillan

well, really it needs to be weighted, right? because if I have to choose between 100 might and 100 (or even 150) morale, I'm choosing the might every time.

Fair enough. It's hard though acknowledging normalized values to different stats though, I guess.

Previous poster made some great points about when to switch gear, and why.

EDIT: Although I assume the poster meant Laingarth and not Laigathel, which is our brilliantly underwhelming OP set if not, then hm, weird.

Not as good as some of the ones listed above but there are some shields in the lorebook too. Mostly the crafted ones.

I'm disappointed that the ones mentioned about are not in the lorebook.

Originally Posted by BitzM

Not as good as some of the ones listed above but there are some shields in the lorebook too. Mostly the crafted ones.

I'm disappointed that the ones mentioned about are not in the lorebook.

they're all in there. their stats are horribly wrong and sometimes it's hard to search for them, but they're there.

About the shields, personally, i prefer the Heronamath over both the crafted ones whose recipes drop from saruman. It's better than the Tempered Combat Kite Shield of the Sentinel and have both incoming healing and block rating ( although the block rating is significantly lower than in the Tempered Combat Kite Shield of the Defender, there's no need for more because one can easily get over the cap of block rating). I would only trade my Heronamath for the Thalionamath.

Originally Posted by Reillan

they're all in there. their stats are horribly wrong and sometimes it's hard to search for them, but they're there.

What good is the lorebook then if the stats are all wrong? Crazy