Shields Keep Breaking

[Northlight]

<p>We have a guardian in our group who's shields continually get damaged then eventually break while adventuring.  I believe the majority of them have been tower shields, but not positive.  I had a paladin in the group last night with the same imbued lvl 62 tower shield that never took extra damage.  The rest of her gear is fine.  Does anyone know why her shields are always breaking?  Is it a Guardian issue?  I do not have a guardian toon, so I apologize if this has an obvious answer.</p>

[Vildainn]

<p>Your guardian friend prob sounds like shes spamming some abilities its pretty clear in the description.</p><p>Hope this helps <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Lvl 58 Ability Tower Of Stone</p><div>Allows the guardian to use a tower shield to absorb all damage they would have otherwise received if the damage was greater than 10% of their total health for up to 3 hits. Each time this effect is triggered, the shield suffers damage. Upgrades to this ability decrease the amount of damage received by the shield</div><div>Basically she should only be using it if its a VERY dire need or he sets up a macro to swap a crappy shield then use tower of stone then swap to the good shield saving the good one.</div>

[Rahatmattata]

<p>Use a good shield with tower of stone. If you need to use ToS it's because you need to not take damage and a good shield will help with that.</p>

[Northlight]

<p>Thanks so much!  We've been trying to figure this out for a while!</p>

[Vlahkmaak]

<p>You DO NOT want to use a good shield with Tower of Stone.   What you want to do is buy 5 or 6 master crafted shields of what ever tier you are in and use them.  Since Mastercrafted shields are crap and you would not want to use one anyways the repair cost to them is negligible over your good shields. </p><p>Create a macro using the Tower of Stone ability to equip your crap shields so that the MC shields absorb the damage strike - you then re-equip your good shield thus saving a tone of PP on repairs.  Also, advise your guardian friend to only use ToS to avoid big hits, near certain deaths, and timed aoes you know are incoming (harm touches, major spike damage etc.).</p><p>If your friend is just trying to proc a free stone skin then Sentinel Sphere is more appropriate skill to absorb potential hits and make the healers life slightly easier - provided it is not used at the wrong time.</p>

[Rahatmattata]

<p>Do use a good shield. The repair bill is more like 10g for a fully broken legendary shield... if that; not tons of PP. Don't go using your best shield and busting that up, but when your HP is in the red and you pop ToS in an emergancy you want to have a good sturdy shield in blocking for you and be avoiding as many hits as possible buying your priests time to cap you off... or you can just be like Vlahkmaak here and throw down a flimsy piece of cardboard to take your 3 blows and be done cuz you're too cheap to spring for the extra 60s per hit. It's your character (or your friend's or whatever).</p><div></div>

[Vlahkmaak]

<p>Go ahead and break all fabled shields you own if you like.  Their is a HUGE differnce between repair costs for MC and fabled shields.</p>

[Brook]

<p>Does your friend know how to read? Its no wonder some folks get the rep of bad tanks.</p><p>I mean of all the crap descriptions of abilities we get that one is pretty clear what happens.</p>

[Moralpanic]

<p><cite>Vlahkmaak@Venekor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>You DO NOT want to use a good shield with Tower of Stone. </p></blockquote><p>This is absolutely stupid.</p><p>You WANT to use a good shield with TOS. TOS only has 3 triggers, so the better the shield, the more chance the shield will block without using a trigger.</p><p>Just make sure you carry some backup shields.</p>

[Vlahkmaak]

<p><cite>Moralpanic wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Vlahkmaak@Venekor wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>You DO NOT want to use a good shield with Tower of Stone. </p></blockquote><p>This is absolutely stupid.</p><p>You WANT to use a good shield with TOS. TOS only has 3 triggers, so the better the shield, the more chance the shield will block without using a trigger.</p><p>Just make sure you carry some backup shields.</p></blockquote><p>The main purpose of ToS is to block that massive spike hit.  So you equip a MC shield /usea macro'd  into ToS - you carry 5-6 MC so that it rotates through all of them.  You then Hot Bar your Savage Wall or what ever shield your using so you can re-equip your good shield.  Thus all damage goes to the MC and you have a good shield on for the blocks.   Worst case my avoidance drops fro 80% to 77% with a MC shield - still a good chance to block all incoming damage.</p><p>You don't need to carry back ups becuase your good shiled will never suffer damage unless you die.   At best you carry shields for different resistances you might need if seeking to boost a particular resist but only if you are not suffering avoidance loss for the resist.  Bring a mendor bot to repair your good stuff and stay in top form at all times.  Let ToS destroy your cache of MC shields.  You only need to block the spike damage then re-equip good shield. </p>

[Rahatmattata]

<p>There is no reason to be busting up 50 shields. Usually I don't even break my main ToS shield, and on occasion when I do, I have another decent "ToS B" shield. Your overall avoid dropping from 80% to 77% means nothing. How much block% do you lose? Anyway there is no reason to use a crappy shield with ToS. If cost of repairing a shield is really that big of a deal, just go kill solo mobs until you loot 2 or 3 adept1s to vendor.</p>

[Terron]

<p>If the situation is dangerous enough that I want to use ToS then it is dangerous enough that I want the best shield protection I can get. I would not risk the group/raid wiping just to save a few gold.</p>

[RafaelSmith]

<p>I use the macro approach with a stack of 5-6 shields of the same type....the level 77 MC ones. </p><p>I have my stoneskin procs going to its own channel.....once ive seen the TS triggers used up....I hotbar swap back to my good shield.</p><p>I only have 1 good shield for tanking.</p><p>Its not a matter of repair costs.....I could care less.....its a matter of not having to stop the raid so I can pop a mendor bot.</p><p>Or ending up with a destroyed shield bid way thru a tough fight.</p>

[Rashaak]

<p>I have two shields, both Legendary. When one breaks I use the other one. I make plat easy enough so it's not biggy repairing...</p>

[Kimber]

<p>I carry 4 Tower Shields 2 LG and 2 MC.  I swap em out when they break.  When both LG are broke I start looking for the mender and use the MC till I get there.  I carry the extra MC one for oh crap instance like a very long group PvP fight on the way to the mender tbh.  I was in a group in KJ headed up into City of Myst ( only had one LG sheild and one MC at the time )  Broke the first sheild 3/4 of the way up finished out and headed back down and flew into Jin with about 20% left on the shield and guess who was there thats right nice lil group of Q.  No biggy lets get em fight ensues got hit by some big spike damage hit ToS it procs off some more spike damage 2 times and my shield breaks.  So now I carry 2 MC at a min they are the back up for all else.  Like some of the prev posters say though dont bother changeing out for the MC ones to take the hit over the LG or Fable ones the rep cost is not that much tbh you can make it up with one quest most of the time, or buy killing a few trash mobs in the right area.</p>