Shields/Fire

For Shield Defense I would take everything but One with the Shield.

OK, a quick rundown on the basics:

Deflection and Battle Agility are your defensive toggles. Deflection covers melee, and also has smash/lethal resistance, and Battle Agility covers ranged/AOE and has some defence debuff resistance. Both essential picks.

True Grit is a passive max HP boost and resistance to energy/negative/fire/cold/toxic damage types. Again, this is an essential choice, although not one that you have to pick up as soon as it's available.

Active Defence is clicky mez & knockback protection and also gives defence debuff protection. The def debuff protection can be enhanced using HOs (membranes and enzymes in particular) and the power will stack with enough recharge to give even more debuff protection. A vital power, which should probably be taken by the early teens at the very latest.

Against All Odds is a toggle self damage buff and enemy damage debuff aura, and is also your taunt aura (and a very good one), and one of the very best powers in the set. Surrounded by enemies this will give a significant boost to your damage dealing potential. Worth taking as soon as it's available if you can.

Phalanx Fighting is a passive defence boost that gives more defence when you have teammates close by. Extra defence for no endurance cost makes this too good to miss, although it can be pushed back till later as you will most likely be choosing prereqs for travel powers and stamina when it becomes available.

Grant Cover is another toggle giving AOE defence debuff and recharge debuff resistance to you and nearby teammates, and defence to your teammates but not to you. This is one of the only potentially skippable (in my opinion) powers in the set. The debuff resistance in particular and the extra def for teammates are both nice, but if you have a tight build and tough choices to make then you might not find room for this. It can certainly be taken late if you do have room for it however.

Shield Charge is, well, it's shield charge. A teleport nuke with knockdown and no end crash or other downsides, take it as soon as it's available. It's worth mentioning that shield charge is currently doing considerably more damage than it was originally intended to do, and will be looked at by the devs.

One With The Shield is Shield's tier 9 power, providing a max HP boost, a fair amount of damage resistance to everything but psionics, a recovery boost and some extra mez protection, with a manageable end crash when it wears off after 2 minutes. Like most tanker tier 9 powers, this can be a great power choice in the right situation, although it is often skipped, especially on IO'd builds.
I took this power levelling and kept it even after respeccing into a final IO build, although I don't need to use it very often. It's very useful in situations like tanking Lord Recluse when he's being buffed by his towers in the STF, or in the final fight against Romulus in the ITF when he has his auto-hit damage nictus beside him.


Summing up, you wouldn't go too far wrong taking everything in shields, but if you're looking for powers to leave out, One With The Shield and/or Grant Cover are the best candidates, especially on a well planned IO build.

Thanks Alot, I read something about how Phalanx Fighting was interfering with Against All Odds, is that still true? Or was that an old issue. (think I read it on scrappers guide)

Couple Slotting Questions:

Generally speaking (no IO sets), I noticed Deflection accepts both Resist and Def enhancments, my gut tells me to slot for Def (typically 3 Def, 1 end) is it worth it to slot for resistance?

Same with True Grit, do you go 3 Heals, or 3 Heals 3 Resist?

And finally, do you think its woth it to put a taunt in Against All Odds, because it seems like it will only be 1 slotted with an end redux.

Never heard of that, must be a very old issue.

Yes, though I think defense should be your first priority. Using common IOs only, I'd probably do 3xDefense, 1xEnd Red, and 2x Resist, but make sure the two Resist IOs are level 50s when you can slot them.

The latter. And even if you're not getting heavily into sets, I'd recommend getting a Steadfast +Def at least. Then you can slot it in True Grit along with 3 Heal IOs and 2 Resist Damage IOs.

AAC is plenty "taunty" without slotting for it. If you've got the influence to spare, you can slot two Membrane HamiOs in AAC for the defense debuff resistance. If that's out of your price range, (it's certainly out of mine!) then a single end red will do fine.

Hmm, sounds like the guide writer thought there could be a problem getting foes near you to feed AAO while having allies near you to feed Phalanx Fighting. Not a bug per se, but it does complicate getting the most out of both powers.

So no, that has not changed, though as far as I know it's not something that most Shield players worry about much. And keep in mind that if you build to soft-cap defense without the ally component of PF it's much less critical to surround yourself with teammates for the additional defense. My guess is most Shield players count on the base 5% defense only, and if they happen to get more occasionally, it's just gravy.