Shield Ally

[Meauvena]

Sporadically throughout the boards I've seen various references to the Shield Ally AA.  I'm a raiding MT/OT Templar and a firm believer in SA and what doesn't hit/hurt the tank doesn't have to be healed.

 What concerns me is that I've seen differing opinions on what affects/modifies the effectiveness of SA, especially since I've put quite a bit of time and expense going after items that would increase my own Avoidance in hopes of relaying it to the tank.  I usually run around 40% avoidance in the MT group, depending on make-up.

The Big Question: 

Is the avoidance I pass on my Overall Avoidance (as the AA reads) or only my Block/Parry?

If it's only the block/parry percentages, remind me to thank Sony again for another half-arsed AA, and to retool my build, getting rid of the Agility stuff.

 Also, what is the name of the Shield Parry/Block % adornment??? I can only find the one for the primary/secondary weapon reposte/parry% one.

[Nalgia]

A good summary how to "use" Shield Ally is:

       http://www.eq2flames.com/templars/2...nformation.html

Your Overall Avoidence dont matter it is just your block value and %parry/riposte/block will work with SA.

Wearing +parry is of no use as clerics dont have parry skill.

[Meauvena]

I somehow missed that thread. 

I knew about the + to Parry/Block/Riposte vs. the % Parry/Block/Riposte.  Can't increase a skill you don't have in the first place.

The info regarding the range is a great heads up too.  I never really questioned it because I rarely am at the absolute max heal range...I like a little wiggle room for the tank instead of having to re-range when the tank gets moved a bit.

Looks like I'm tucking away my Agi gear for soloing.

Still need the Name of the shield adornment if anyone comes up with it.

Thanks,

[Zcore24]

Meauvena wrote:

I somehow missed that thread. 

I knew about the + to Parry/Block/Riposte vs. the % Parry/Block/Riposte.  Can't increase a skill you don't have in the first place.

The info regarding the range is a great heads up too.  I never really questioned it because I rarely am at the absolute max heal range...I like a little wiggle room for the tank instead of having to re-range when the tank gets moved a bit.

Looks like I'm tucking away my Agi gear for soloing.

Still need the Name of the shield adornment if anyone comes up with it.

Thanks,

The shield adornment name is the Lambent Balanced Strut...adds 1% block

[Arielle Nightshade]

If you can get your group Druid to use Tortoise Shell (end ability in the STA AA line for druids) Shield Ally will block an insane amount of damage.  The timing is tricky, since that ability stuns the druid, but if you can get it right - it's really incredible.  Top it off with the Cranberry Cockatrice +parry drink (Danak? faction (gah not sure) for Provisioners to make), and your ZW blocking will be pretty nice.

[Brutus2]

Ok, I have ready many, many posts here and on other boards where experienced Templars have praised Shield Ally.  I have never tried it because in looking at the description it just doesn't seem like it would do much.  I consider myself very good at playing my class but after reading so many people say how huge this ability is, I'm more than willing to accept that I must not be understanding it correctly.

I never thought of plate wearing healers as having avoidance worth anything.  So, the idea of an ability that has a chance to give my pitiful avoidance to the tank doesn't sound very useful.  After all, for it to work the tank has to miss their aviodance.  Then you have to win the chance to pass your avoidance and then you have to succeed with my lousy avoidance.  It just doesn't seem like that would happen very often.

But, as I said, it seems clear that I must be missing something because so many people whos opinion I respect say it's possibly the best ability we get.

PLEASE help me understand why people love Shield Ally.  Does it really proc that often?  My avoidance is 13.4% (8.2 base, 5.7 block, 0 parry, 0 deflection).  Now I know only block and parry matters and I know I can get adornments to increase my block and parry % (which I do not have right now) but even with adornments, a 6.7% chance to block is an awfuly low %.  I don't see how it works enough to make it so highly praised.

[LardLord]

Brutus2 wrote:

Ok, I have ready many, many posts here and on other boards where experienced Templars have praised Shield Ally.  I have never tried it because in looking at the description it just doesn't seem like it would do much.  I consider myself very good at playing my class but after reading so many people say how huge this ability is, I'm more than willing to accept that I must not be understanding it correctly.

I never thought of plate wearing healers as having avoidance worth anything.  So, the idea of an ability that has a chance to give my pitiful avoidance to the tank doesn't sound very useful.  After all, for it to work the tank has to miss their aviodance.  Then you have to win the chance to pass your avoidance and then you have to succeed with my lousy avoidance.  It just doesn't seem like that would happen very often.

But, as I said, it seems clear that I must be missing something because so many people whos opinion I respect say it's possibly the best ability we get.

PLEASE help me understand why people love Shield Ally.  Does it really proc that often?  My avoidance is 13.4% (8.2 base, 5.7 block, 0 parry, 0 deflection).  Now I know only block and parry matters and I know I can get adornments to increase my block and parry % (which I do not have right now) but even with adornments, a 6.7% chance to block is an awfuly low %.  I don't see how it works enough to make it so highly praised.

That's actually a great question.  The short answer is that, while the AGI line is pretty well balanced with our other AA lines (besides WIS) for heroic content, Shield Ally really shines on raids (in the MT group) and becomes much more useful than the other options.

The reason Shield Ally is invaluable on an MT (and sometimes OT) in raids is because it makes the job easier on all the healers in your raid.  When solo healing heroic content, SA might reduce the amount of damage you need to heal by about as much as adding (just throwing a number out there) 20% extra heal crit would allow you to heal.  So, SA would be worth roughly the same to you as 20% heal crit.  On a raid, you could think of it as though everyone healing the tank gets that benefit, so it's kinda like giving all your healers that extra heal crit.

That's probably a pretty terrible way of explaining it, though.  Basically, the amount of damage that SA blocks goes way up on raids relative to how much one cleric heals (and stuff like heal crits, spell haste, ect. can all be thought of as a percentage of what we heal).

[Brutus2]

Quabi@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Brutus2 wrote:

Ok, I have ready many, many posts here and on other boards where experienced Templars have praised Shield Ally.  I have never tried it because in looking at the description it just doesn't seem like it would do much.  I consider myself very good at playing my class but after reading so many people say how huge this ability is, I'm more than willing to accept that I must not be understanding it correctly.

I never thought of plate wearing healers as having avoidance worth anything.  So, the idea of an ability that has a chance to give my pitiful avoidance to the tank doesn't sound very useful.  After all, for it to work the tank has to miss their aviodance.  Then you have to win the chance to pass your avoidance and then you have to succeed with my lousy avoidance.  It just doesn't seem like that would happen very often.

But, as I said, it seems clear that I must be missing something because so many people whos opinion I respect say it's possibly the best ability we get.

PLEASE help me understand why people love Shield Ally.  Does it really proc that often?  My avoidance is 13.4% (8.2 base, 5.7 block, 0 parry, 0 deflection).  Now I know only block and parry matters and I know I can get adornments to increase my block and parry % (which I do not have right now) but even with adornments, a 6.7% chance to block is an awfuly low %.  I don't see how it works enough to make it so highly praised.

That's actually a great question.  The short answer is that, while the AGI line is pretty well balanced with our other AA lines (besides WIS) for heroic content, Shield Ally really shines on raids (in the MT group) and becomes much more useful than the other options.

The reason Shield Ally is invaluable on an MT (and sometimes OT) in raids is because it makes the job easier on all the healers in your raid.  When solo healing heroic content, SA might reduce the amount of damage you need to heal by about as much as adding (just throwing a number out there) 20% extra heal crit would allow you to heal.  So, SA would be worth roughly the same to you as 20% heal crit.  On a raid, you could think of it as though everyone healing the tank gets that benefit, so it's kinda like giving all your healers that extra heal crit.

That's probably a pretty terrible way of explaining it, though.  Basically, the amount of damage that SA blocks goes way up on raids relative to how much one cleric heals (and stuff like heal crits, spell haste, ect. can all be thought of as a percentage of what we heal).

I suppose I can see how that would be useful on a raid.  Even if it only procs occasionally, blocking all damage once and awhile buys everyone a little time to refresh spells or maybe get a debuff or two in.

As someone who mostly groups to run instances, how useful is Shield Ally?  Right now I'm specd in STR, INT and STA lines to add a little DPS to my groups plus heal crit and reduced cast time but healing is my first responsibility so if I'm missing out on a really big healing advantage I would gladly respec.

[LardLord]

If I remember right, the rule I've used for solo healing heroic content with Shield Ally is that 1% uncontested avoidance is roughly equivalent to 2% heal crit.  I emphasize 'uncontested' because, as you've seen if you've read the eq2flames thread linked above, that is the only avoidance that works with SA.  Normal avoidance from defense skill or AGI doesn't help at all.  Of course, that's just a rough approximation, and it'll vary a lot depending on the content you're taking on and your group setup.

In the end, that puts the AGI line pretty well in balance with the other Cleric lines for heroic content.  I don't think you'd be significantly better or worse off if you take the AGI line instead of STR, STA, or INT.

[Brutus2]

Good information. Thank you for your advice.

[Tyberi]

Any of the following affect SA:Riposte%Parry%Block%+defense+agility+Deflection , +parry, +dodge% do not affect it at all.You must be 19m or closer to the tank, the normal max cast range is 20m so you will need to get max range then take a couple steps closer.

[vladsamier]

I've had diminishing results with shield ally. Earlier in RoK, I was about 9-10% of the MT's avoidance, and now I am usually around 4-5% max... Our tank has gotten a few more +block % items and such is most likely the reason for shield ally being less effective.Since I was seeing the diminishing  results with shield ally, I went in on the  Limitless Staff of Growth, and I haven't really noticed an increase in healing needed to be done on our MT.

[quasigenx]

I still block 10% to 11% of the MT's blocks. Do you have a good shield? What's the protection on it? Also, the +parry% stuff (two fabled wrist adornments, 10 min food/drink help a lot. Also, there are 3 MC plate items that add shield block %, and one MC neck item that adds riposte %. I wear all these on the toughest fights.

[quasigenx]

Tyberion@Butcherblock wrote:

Any of the following affect SA:...+agility+Deflection...

FYI - I don't believe this is correct. AGI and +defense (mit) don't effect SA at all.

[Banadux]

I use shield ally and block/parry 11% to 12% in most raids on a zonewide avoidance report for the MT.  To the guy with the really low numbers in block and parry, you really have to get the gear to back the AA.  The gear that gives me the results above:Guard of Drelikus (903 protection I think it is) + 1% block shield adornmentwith 8 points in the AA right above shield ally this yields 16.5% block + 3% parry wrist adornment (two of these)Your total would be 22.5% avoidance usable for shield ally and you give 60% of that to the tank.The parry adornments are fabled T8 so that can be a bit expensive. 

[Tyberi]

quasigenx wrote:

Tyberion@Butcherblock wrote:

Any of the following affect SA:...+agility+Deflection...

FYI - I don't believe this is correct. AGI and +defense (mit) don't effect SA at all.

Yeah I meant to include those in the don't affect SA but didn't proof read before I posted and left last night, was going to do two columns and then scratched that and missed moving +agility and +defense.

[Sirenta]

quasigenx wrote:

I still block 10% to 11% of the MT's blocks. Do you have a good shield? What's the protection on it? Also, the +parry% stuff (two fabled wrist adornments, 10 min food/drink help a lot. Also, there are 3 MC plate items that add shield block %, and one MC neck item that adds riposte %. I wear all these on the toughest fights.

Well the MC neck item is from the new chromatic essence stuff, but 3 MC plate items???Do you have names, links, anything?This would be highly appreciated.Thanks in advance.

[Prrasha]

Sirenta wrote:

quasigenx wrote:

I still block 10% to 11% of the MT's blocks. Do you have a good shield? What's the protection on it? Also, the +parry% stuff (two fabled wrist adornments, 10 min food/drink help a lot. Also, there are 3 MC plate items that add shield block %, and one MC neck item that adds riposte %. I wear all these on the toughest fights.

Well the MC neck item is from the new chromatic essence stuff, but 3 MC plate items???Do you have names, links, anything?This would be highly appreciated.Thanks in advance.

It's the standard Incarnadine Vanguard stuff.  I'm not in game to check right now, but I believe it's the barbute, spaulders, and gussets.  (If not, it's the barbute, gauntlets, and one of {spaulders,gussets}.) The other effects on it are pretty worthless for Templars (STR/STA/AGI and +combat art damage), but if you're going for Shield Ally boosters, it's the cheapest 3% you'll get.

[Artist]

I am sorry for the stupid question. How you see that Shield Ally works? Is there a special line in log or something?

[Enoa]

It is logged:

You see "mobname tries to slash tankname, but YOU block"

Best way to assess it is with the avoidance report in ACT.   When you're done running a zone ... open the All tab and right click the tank whom you cast SA on.   Then select Avoidance Report.  All the stuff that say YOU block or YOU parry or YOU dodge is from Shield ally. 

Looking at a weekend run in PR, defiler healed 760 k and templar healed 630k while shield ally prevented ~ 350k damage.  (NOTE with Guard of Drekilis, block adorn, 6% total parry adorns, parry food and dodge drink)  Pretty nice for a passive ability.   It goes up even more in the absence of a brawler avoid transfer. 

Enoa

[tikasa]

2           3% adornments for your wrist

1           1% shield item T-6 Fabled

1           2% parry food

1           2% parry drink

3           1% MC armor

1           2 % Danak essence vial necklace

1           3% parry to a SLashing weapon     Cannot use =((

   16%  Unmitigated

I am at not at home right now to check, but does not the Stam line not add 8% to shield effectivness?  ( Yes I know that has nothing to do with Unmitigated )

[zaltar]

Battle Fervor 3rd skill in AGI line     8 points = 32% shield effectiveness . passive

[Ironcleaver]

Band of Runed Flesh (SoH) +2% ParryGame Link: aITEM 1070899508 -996045940:[Band of Runed Flesh]/aSupple Dogwood Staff (VP-Nexona) +15% BlockGame Link: aITEM -697348581 -1092999436:Supple Dogwood Staff/a[Note: Not the best for a templar using shield ally bit is an option for those looking for something different. The downside is that it is 2-handed.]The very first Marr Blessing gives +5% parry for 10 minutes. I also like Marr for that 75% heal + 5 stoneskin miracle.When looking at your avoidance coupled with shield ally, look at all the avoidance sub-categories (parry, block, exc..) each as their own pool totals; meaning do not add parry with block or the like. Once you have your block total, your parry total, and your riposte total; take 60% of those totals, then add up those totals. That should be what you're blocking for the tank. The 60% comes from maxing shield ally.The agility line adds 32% shield effectiveness, this boosts only the protection rating on your shield.Two shields to watch for:Guard of Drelikus (pretty rare off of Warlord Drelikus in Chardok - past red gate)aITEM 1181659325 508778374:Guard of Drelikus/aShield of Rainbow hues (pretty common in Fear)aITEM 8104710 -372881850:Shield of Rainbow Hues/a.

[Kendricke]

Ironcleaver wrote:

Band of Runed Flesh (SoH) +2% ParryGame Link: aITEM 1070899508 -996045940:[Band of Runed Flesh]/aSupple Dogwood Staff (VP-Nexona) +15% BlockGame Link: aITEM -697348581 -1092999436:Supple Dogwood Staff/a[Note: Not the best for a templar using shield ally bit is an option for those looking for something different. The downside is that it is 2-handed.]The very first Marr Blessing gives +5% parry for 10 minutes. I also like Marr for that 75% heal + 5 stoneskin miracle.When looking at your avoidance coupled with shield ally, look at all the avoidance sub-categories (parry, block, exc..) each as their own pool totals; meaning do not add parry with block or the like. Once you have your block total, your parry total, and your riposte total; take 60% of those totals, then add up those totals. That should be what you're blocking for the tank. The 60% comes from maxing shield ally.The agility line adds 32% shield effectiveness, this boosts only the protection rating on your shield.Two shields to watch for:Guard of Drelikus (pretty rare off of Warlord Drelikus in Chardok - past red gate)aITEM 1181659325 508778374:Guard of Drelikus/aShield of Rainbow hues (pretty common in Fear)aITEM 8104710 -372881850:Shield of Rainbow Hues/a.

Any item that gives +parry is useless for Shield Ally (as is any item that is two handed). 

Of the suggestions you provide here, be aware that the first three cannot help a cleric using Shield Ally:

Band of Runed Flesh (+parry will not help Shield Ally)Supple Dogwood Staff (2 handed item means no shield, which dramatically drops overall effectiveness - even with the +block)Marr Blessing (+parry will not help Shield Ally)

[Ironcleaver]

Um... Ok... Take a moment please and look at what I typed and what I listed, they are all percentages, which in fact dose work with shield ally including the Marr Blessing.Now I did make a mistake with the staff it is dodge and not block, my fault, but the rest of the post is still very much valid. Point taken here. But this is only 1 items of the 3 you listed as being ineffective.Now if you are stating that +2% parry (wrists) and +5% parry blessing, dose not work with shield ally but all the other +% items listed in the thread work, I'd like to know how you came to the conclusion that the Wrist and Blessing do not work? They are in fact percentages, just as I listed.

[LardLord]

Actually, +% parry does help Shield Ally.  Modifiers to the Parry skill do not help, but if it is a percent and not just a number, it'll help Shield Ally. 

The staff from Nexona will also work with Shield Ally since it gives an uncontested Dodge chance. 

[Hopefulne]

so with battle fervour giving me an extra 32% effectivness and the 1% block adorn for shields i got:

Shield of rainbow hues - 12.6% block.

Guard of drek - ~13.6% block

so the supple dogwood staff's 15% should be better than either of the 2 best shields available to temps. hmmmmm

[Ironcleaver]

Somethings off a pinch.With Guard of Drelikus, plus the 1% t6 block adorn, plus only 7 ranks in battle fervor: I'm sitting exactly at 16% blockThen if I take 16% x 0.6 (the 60% from shield ally) I get: 9.6% of incoming attacks in theory.Now, only looking at "You block" (ignoring parry, ect.. for now) in the tanks avoidance report from tonight, I see I blocked 9.74%, so the numbers checks out.With anything that is a "chance" of happening, the numbers will never be exacting, but they should be in the ballpark..

[Hopefulne]

hmm haven't checked in a while so i might be misremembering.(oops) Although you might also be wearing the other block equipment

SOE also has ninja nerfed the supple dogwood staff so the proc is 'a successful ranged' instead of 'a successful attack' YAY for decent crushing gear getting nerfed. /sarcasm

[Steeltoed]

The shield effectiveness/double attack AA does NOT increase your block % as far as I know. Leaving 7 points in it still kept me at 16.5% block with the guard equipped + block adorn.