Anyone ever use the feat: Shield Deflection?

[redoubt]

Looks like a solid defensive feat (very much like the one in Unyielding Sentinal.) But I spend very little time actively blocking so far (up to level 24), as such I don't see much point in it. Am I missing a place where this is worth taking?

I have two feats left to take (24 and 27) and am looking at Greater Two Handed fighting, precision, combat expertise, emp heal to pull from. Pure Pali Vanguard.

[EnziteBob]

Pretty sure that Shield Deflection and the Unyielding Sentinel's Block Energy stack so I would go with shield deflection and Precision.

[unbongwah]

Pretty sure that Shield Deflection and the Unyielding Sentinel's Block Energy stack so I would go with shield deflection and Precision.

They're separate effects: Shield Deflection provides a chance to ignore elemental dmg entirely, while US Block Energy absorbs up to 30% dmg; the latter also affects more than just elemental dmg. Not sure if it applies before or after MRR, though, nor whether it stacks with Absorption items.

That said, I found I very rarely used shield-blocking on my pre-U23 Dwarven Defender before TRing. And with MRR being so good on a S&B toon, I think Block Energy alone would suffice. So of the feats listed, I would say GTHF and either Emp Heal or Precision are better choices. To be honest, I'd want to have all three, but not knowing what the rest of your build is like, I don't know if there's something else you could swap out.

[vryxnr]

I haven't done much testing regarding the energy absorption et al, however, when I'm attacking and a shield bash goes off - with my character sheet open - the orb bonus (from the purple dragon shield) to my saves and resistances do get applied appropriately while the shield bash takes place... However, the buff icons for the various actively blocking feats and vanguard, etc, do not appear.

But for me, when I can see something coming (like Velah's fire breath, ballista fire from storm the beaches, magefire cannons from precious cargo, any placed explosive that I don't have time to run from), I will actively block to take the hit, and I'll either take barely any damage or no damage at all, so yay! (as a direct answer to the OP's initial question: Yes, I do use the Shield Deflection feat).



It would be very sweet it they would activate while making a shield bash though, like the dragon shield orb bonuses do. *dares to dream*

[redoubt]

They're separate effects: Shield Deflection provides a chance to ignore elemental dmg entirely, while US Block Energy absorbs up to 30% dmg; the latter also affects more than just elemental dmg. Not sure if it applies before or after MRR, though, nor whether it stacks with Absorption items.

That said, I found I very rarely used shield-blocking on my pre-U23 Dwarven Defender before TRing. And with MRR being so good on a S&B toon, I think Block Energy alone would suffice. So of the feats listed, I would say GTHF and either Emp Heal or Precision are better choices. To be honest, I'd want to have all three, but not knowing what the rest of your build is like, I don't know if there's something else you could swap out.

Feats:
B.Sword
Tower shield
shield mastery
Imp shield mastery
Imp shield bash
THF
ITHF
IMP Crit: Slash
IMP Crit: Bludgeon

Looking to swap out IC: Bludgeon. Might swap out TWR Shield and use masters touch scrolls, or I may just try that next life instead.

I haven't done much testing regarding the energy absorption et al, however, when I'm attacking and a shield bash goes off - with my character sheet open - the orb bonus (from the purple dragon shield) to my saves and resistances do get applied appropriately while the shield bash takes place... However, the buff icons for the various actively blocking feats and vanguard, etc, do not appear.

But for me, when I can see something coming (like Velah's fire breath, ballista fire from storm the beaches, magefire cannons from precious cargo, any placed explosive that I don't have time to run from), I will actively block to take the hit, and I'll either take barely any damage or no damage at all, so yay! (as a direct answer to the OP's initial question: Yes, I do use the Shield Deflection feat).



It would be very sweet it they would activate while making a shield bash though, like the dragon shield orb bonuses do. *dares to dream*

Thanks for input!

[Ralmeth]

I took this for a while to test out, and I was pretty underwhelmed. I wouldn't bother taking this feat if it were me. The issue is that the majority of the things that you would want to shield block during combat (ex enemy casters blasting you) have too fast or no tells, and this combined with latency makes it difficult to time a shield block...You could block ahead of time, but then you would have been better off just attacking said mob in most cases, IMHO.

As for your feat list, where is power attack and precision?

[unbongwah]

Feats:
B.Sword
Tower shield
shield mastery
Imp shield mastery
Imp shield bash
THF
ITHF
IMP Crit: Slash
IMP Crit: Bludgeon

Would definitely drop T.Shield for Master's Touch scrolls; and one of the Imp Crits (IC:B does nothing for shields, FYI). I'm on the fence about Imp Shield Bash; you pick up 30% proc chance from Vanguard enhs and shield bashes are on a 1-sec CD, so I'm not convinced an extra +20% is worth the feat on a pure pally. You can see my Sacred Vanguard thread, but my suggestion would be THF x3, SM+ISM, IC:Slash, b.sword, Power Atk or Precision, Overwhelming Crit, Emp Heal. That's 10 feats, which covers lvls 1-24, leaving lvl 27 free for whatever you want.

The issue is that the majority of the things that you would want to shield block during combat (ex enemy casters blasting you) have too fast or no tells, and this combined with latency makes it difficult to time a shield block...You could block ahead of time, but then you would have been better off just attacking said mob in most cases, IMHO.

The other issue I had was that Shield Deflection only applies to elemental dmg (acid/cold/fire/electric) and doesn't help against Force or untyped dmg spells. The only time I shield-blocked regularly was against the Truthful One once he went airborne.

[redoubt]

Can master's touch be debuffed?