shieldsFollow

As long as the DD doesn't put you below 490, I'd keep it. Cough up some arc dust for 18 stam. :D Also don't underestimate hit rating.

Even if this upgrade drops you below 490, you want this shield. If you drop below the cap, then get out there and quest or do regulars for more def. It's easy to get above 490 def in blues these days. Gem and enchant for it if you have to.

Never turn your nose up at a definitive up-grade.

Edited, Jun 12th 2008 8:30am by kingpatzer

not sure why you would see 2% drop in parry and dodge. parry should have dropped about 0.4% and dodge should have actually gone up by about 1/2%.

in basic terms, it takes 18.9 dodge rating for 1% avoidance and 19.7 defense rating for 1% avoidance. so the change in shields results in an overall loss of 0.266% avoidance (1.218% - 0.952%) as well as 2 stam.

in exchange, you get +72 block value & +13 hit rating (big threat increases), and well as 1161 extra armor. the armor alone easily makes up for the avoidance and stam loss - go ahead and vendor your old shield.

however, sitting at 492 defense and less than 13k hp, i would have gone for the stam enchant on the bracers.

no.

the drop in defense rating would have resulted in 0.4% less parry, but dodge rating should have gone up by 0.55% due to the added dodge rating of the new shield. he should not have seen "a couple percent" loss in both dodge and parry.