The thing with carapace buckler is that, unless your block skill is very low but your actual player skill is high, it's extremely rare to gain any real benefit out of it with the amounts of damage that current enemies are capable of dealing. Very few enemies deal 200-300 damage. If the power levels in the game will continue to climb in ashlands and deep north, it may become more valuable as it becomes more necessary to maximize the amount of damage you can parry, but at the same time new shields will eventually become available.

I like the appearance of carapace shield more. A spare looks very good over my fireplace.

Unfortunately round shields are almost useless. Buckler outclasses regular shield in parry aspect, while tower shield is better for blocking damage. The only shields that actually worth it are wooden shield (as the very first option player gets) and black metal shield (since it's the only option players have for Plains)

Originally posted by Facewound:

Unfortunately round shields are almost useless. Buckler outclasses regular shield in parry aspect, while tower shield is better for blocking damage. The only shields that actually worth it are wooden shield (as the very first option player gets) and black metal shield (since it's the only option players have for Plains)

Very much not so.
1) carrying 2 shielsds to parry and block depending on situation is less slot efficient than one round shield for both cases.
2) Because of how armor actually works, in most parry cases you get into significant diminishing returs, meaning food matters much more than the exact max number of parry armor a shield can give.
3) in cases where you fight many enemies, parrying one guy and blocking the rest (assuming multiple attacks within short times span) can be the same or better on round shield because again of how armor is counted (the lower it is the more important the difference - blucker having less block outweights having more parry)
4) actual brakepoints for creatures, for example plains without really good food and/or parry skill can give bronze blucker trouble, in which case upgrading to anything iron is enough. Like it does not matter if it will be blucker or banded, the combat result will be the same in almost all usefful situations.
4a) if you do normal progression it really does not matter which shield you have as long as you have one.
5) Banded is cheaper than iron shields.
6) As for just blocking, rounds offer much lower speed penalty at small increase to stagger costs. You could argue blocking a lot of attacks will drain less stamina on a tower but then try jumping / running / dodging and it equalizes that too vs round shields.

It really depends on the use case... and yea, shields like round silver are pretty useless, but thats not because "round suck", that shield does not even have an equivalent tower or blucker for actual comparison! Its just that the moment you get it there is no new enemy that would make you want to use it on vs previous level round.

Multiple diametrically opposed points of view, all of them correct by their own math/theorycrafting... sounds like this is balanced well. Good job, devs!

Interesting choices make for interesting games.

All parry is the same ease-wise, except of course tower shields which can't parry. So yes, you trade bonus for damage protection. Note that if you get staggered your parry will fail, and that damage protection decreases your chance of being staggered. Also note that the carapace shields parry bonus is the same as the black metal shield.

I went for the shield for its appearance. You might be able to parry high rank seeker soldiers with the buckler better, but I'm not sure if there's any other practical benefit. It's mostly a question of playstyle. Parry enthusiasts should go for the buckler.

Carapace Shield: Regular block with level one shield and 0 skill in blocking negates 96 Damage. If you manage to parry it negates 144 damage (block armor x parry bonus 1,5)

Carapace Buckler: regular block with level one buckler and 0 blocking skill negates 78 damage. If you manage to parry it negates 195 damage (block armor x parry bonus 2,5)

A level 2 buckler with succesful parry will negate 210 damage, which is the highest possible amount rn in the game, compared to a level 2 shield wich will parry 153 damage.

Personally i go with the shield since it's more reliable when fighting multiple enemies.
But really the choice is up to you and your preferred playstyle.

The difference in blocking with a parry isn't that much better, if you miss however, the buckler is way worse. Shield is the better option.

Well ♥♥♥♥ me, all this time I thought parry bonus was a damage bonus in riposte, but it's just block armour multiplier? Urgh. Might as well just tower shield, meh.

Originally posted by FissionChips:

Well ♥♥♥♥ me, all this time I thought parry bonus was a damage bonus in riposte, but it's just block armour multiplier? Urgh. Might as well just tower shield, meh.

Parrying staggers them and allows you to crit them, which the tower shields lack. The parry bonus multiplier however has nothing to do with crit damage.

in the end - the buckler is superior when facing against one or two creatures AND you're a boss at timing the parry (while facing them).
The shield is superior against a larger swatch of enemies because continuous holding block absorbs more dmg; and is still quite effective if/when you time the parry.
Also I think the shields have higher "block power" which I think stuns them longer if parried successfully - but honestly it's nominal effect in the end as I usually kill most creatures shortly after parrying.

If your playstyle includes a lot of parkour and taking advantage of terrain to limit the number of creatures that can engage you at one time, the buckler is the way to go.
If your playstyle is more about blocking and staying protected until you get your stamina up and can make good attacks, the shield is the way to go.

My playstyle is more the first but I choose to go shield because i am nearly always with my wife and/or our two close friends and I tend to do the shield obstruct while she pelts with arrows. But when by myself, I excel with the buckler.

Great comments, thank you for the details

I don't see you mention what weapon you're using, which can make a difference.

I prefer the buckler with the sword because it matches my fighting style and (IMO) works well with the sword. The sword is all you need against multiple weaker enemies (0-star seeker for example), and maybe with a 1-star thrown in, since it hits multiple enemies, and will usually stagger them. If it's a stronger set of multiple enemies, I prefer to maneuver to take them on in smaller numbers.

For stronger enemies (starred soldiers / 2* seeker), I like the extra parry bonus, although I don't know if it really matters. I really don't want to rely on a block against those, so I try REALLY hard to get the parry. :-)

I've also been playing mostly light armor lately also, which also makes a difference. Missing the parry will be even more punishing,

The buckler parries better, the shield is better if you're just holding block.

I use the shield. You can still parry with it and if you miss the parry it has better block.

The buckler parries better, the shield is better if you're just holding block.

I use the shield. You can still parry with it and if you miss the parry it has better block.

All parry is the same ease-wise, except of course tower shields which can't parry. So yes, you trade bonus for damage protection. Note that if you get staggered your parry will fail, and that damage protection decreases your chance of being staggered. Also note that the carapace shields parry bonus is the same as the black metal shield.

I went for the shield for its appearance. You might be able to parry high rank seeker soldiers with the buckler better, but I'm not sure if there's any other practical benefit. It's mostly a question of playstyle. Parry enthusiasts should go for the buckler.

Carapace Shield: Regular block with level one shield and 0 skill in blocking negates 96 Damage. If you manage to parry it negates 144 damage (block armor x parry bonus 1,5)

Carapace Buckler: regular block with level one buckler and 0 blocking skill negates 78 damage. If you manage to parry it negates 195 damage (block armor x parry bonus 2,5)

A level 2 buckler with succesful parry will negate 210 damage, which is the highest possible amount rn in the game, compared to a level 2 shield wich will parry 153 damage.

Personally i go with the shield since it's more reliable when fighting multiple enemies.
But really the choice is up to you and your preferred playstyle.

The difference in blocking with a parry isn't that much better, if you miss however, the buckler is way worse. Shield is the better option.

Well ♥♥♥♥ me, all this time I thought parry bonus was a damage bonus in riposte, but it's just block armour multiplier? Urgh. Might as well just tower shield, meh.

Originally posted by FissionChips:

Well ♥♥♥♥ me, all this time I thought parry bonus was a damage bonus in riposte, but it's just block armour multiplier? Urgh. Might as well just tower shield, meh.

Parrying staggers them and allows you to crit them, which the tower shields lack. The parry bonus multiplier however has nothing to do with crit damage.