Upgrades

Well ya but here's what I'm thinking, if it can get at least 1 protection and 7 defense or just 2 protection, it's better than an Avon Shield. (And any other current shields, this is assuming Prot>Defense.) If it can get at 6 defense and 2 prot or 3+ prot, it'll be better than the Akule shield in G18. And I forgot where my source was so I can't find it right now but thanks to r1 Shield Mastery, Vales Shield became significantly stronger than existing shields so unless this shield's upgrades are pretty significant its not worth crafting or hunting for considering how difficult it is to obtain compared to how easily you can blacksmith a shield of avon (people make it sound harder than it is, especially since G14 has been nerfed to death) or how you can simply buy a Vales Shield for 80k from an NPC.

Doesn't Prot get nerfed in G18?

Yeah overall protection is a bit nerfed I believe. They had to with the increased defense and everything. That and the ease of getting some protection from the new masteries.

As long as protection still lowers crit chance by the same amount I'll be happy though.

I think it does considering you get a massive amount of defense from masteries/stats...I don't keep up with the skill/stat renewals so it's a completely foreign concept to me.

It gets nerfed to an extent but its still better than defense in my opinion, unless you're nearing the 50% mark (which isn't necessarily 50 prot). In which case you start looking for magic protection instead, if not first. > .> Defense and magic defense are a stat to worry about assuming you have way too high protection or you're looking for the endgame armor or shield.