Eskuche,
I'm a creative person, random things don't take work
Incendax,
#4 Stairmaster: Right. You just repeated what I said
#16 Republican Tanks
Shields aren't primarily about elemental resistance. Any good shield will block over 50%--and with a few points--it goes up to bock 80% of every hit. Even my mage shield block rate is 70%-- my tank having 24ap max, and 24 recovery points per turn. AP cost per swing 1h is 2, or 3. Additionally the shield provides a separate item for main stat improvement, AND skill improvement.
One I use regularly is 54% block rate, +3con, +3 lucky charm, all resists at 25% or above.
So, shield provide the following that 2h does not.
1. Stat increases. This increases damage, and equipment you can wear. +3 constitution added 3 AP. That's a whole extra attack.
2. Skills increases, this increases offense rating (chance to hit--up to 10% even), action points (yet more dps), and hit points.
3. Additional elemental resistance. (minumum 25% for each one)
4. Up to 80% chance to block every single attack.
5. With high resistance, mages will heal you with every attack, the higher the resistance, the more healing.
All combined, the 1h+ shield, is the very obvious winner.
Regarding first and second half importance of resistances:
The resistances provided per essence scales with level. So the first half, the resistance percentages are negligible. Say, 5-12% per element. The second half, it goes up to 25%. Which means on a good shield, you're looking at about 25-40% resistance per element.
And in terms of DPS--mages annhiliate with AOE capacity; those are primary DPS. The greatest 2h tank is 10% the offensive power of a mage. (say...casting meteor shower, and doing an easy 16000 damage, or more, with 8ap.)
So..yes, Republican Tanks is the way to go.
