Upgrades

It has -1 protection. . . What. . . I'd rather -1 defense. And overall it's only 13 defense. (15 if the second artisan is correct, why are there two.) So ya, if you're a human or elv, Avon Shield is better. If you're a Giant, Vales shield is better POST-zero update.

How does the vales shield get changed?

EDIT: And on a related note, do you recall what r1 shield mastery gives? I've been looking at that page for a while but nobody has added the info in yet.

The Vales Shield itself isn't changed, but Shield Mastery categorizes shields into three categories. Small Shields (Round Shields, COmposite, Etc), Light Shields (Kite, Avon, Demonic), and Heavy Shield (ONLY vales shield, which is Giant-only). The difference from Light to heavy is more significant than the base stats of vales to demonic or avon. So ya, what shield mastery varies depending on the shield, but generally it gives defense, magic defense, protection, magic protection, and MAYBE a bit of autodefense, I don't remember.

Yea, making vales shield the only heavy shield makes no sense. Pretty much a slap in the face to elves/humans no matter which way you look at it. I would think demonic shield would be heavy shield also. But NA might be different from other servers. We'll just have to wait and see.

Oh I didn't realize they were splitting up the shields. As for vales being the only heavy - that's odd. If only for the fact that an avon shield is nearly as thick (and on a giant it's just as big) as the vales. Strange they'd create one category just for that one shield. I bet the crappy tikka shield (giant-only as well) isn't even heavy.

I knew what shield mastery did, but I just wondering if you knew how much exactly. Oh well.

Yea, I artisaned it 10 times total and I pretty much got those ranges. Why there are two different artisans I will never know, but I did my research.

Looked around, and somebody on this wiki said what they were on his user page.

• Small Shields: Composite Shield, Targe Shield, Heater Shield, Round Shield
• Light Shields: Valkyrie Shield, Avon Shield, Kite Shields, Tikka Shield
• Heavy Shields: Vales Shield

(I bolded what I find to be the best in its category.) What bothers me is that an easy to get shield, like the Vales Shield which is sold at NPCs, is heavy, but the Composite which is difficult to obtain is small, not even light, just small.

Edit: On a side note, he didn't say Demonic was in any of the three categories, and I can't find my source saying it was Light and not heavy. Also, not sure where the Guard Cylinder and Rebis Guard Cylinder lie in all this.

I've heard from a few different people the guard cylinders do not count as shields and don't benefit from shield mastery. Not too sure about tiny humans/elves being able to use charge though.

You can use charge with guard cylinders as a non-giant, also, Defense is boosted.

Confirmed, both Guard Cylinders are boosted by both Guard Cylinder Master and Shield Mastery. As for if they're considered small or light shields, that is unknown.