Originally posted by D I V I T Y:

Originally posted by RequiemsRose:

It depends on your playstyle mostly. Smaller shields are great for parry reliant builds, tower shields tend to tank more damage. So if you prefer to parry and get the parry bonus by following up with an attack, you want a small one. If you prefer to stand there and face tank the damage until an opening presents itself (or can't quite time parrys correctly), tower shield might be the better option for you. Overall it can also be situational. I barely use shields at all yet I got a serpent scale shield around the iron age because I had to cross a plains to reach the main swamp I was farming and didn't feel inclined to repeatedly die to deathsquitos for being in the wrong place too early.

What about blocking bigger mobs like abominations or bosses? can they even get parried and do they take bonus dmg then?

Your shield has to be up for the task, as does your current health. You aren't blocking or parrying a troll with a wooden buckler at base 25 health, but it's totally possible to parry a troll with a better buckler and more health. If the bigger mob can overpower your shield and/or your current HP then you won't fight very effectively. The bigger/badder the mob, the better chance they have of overpowering your attempt to block or parry them. Some critters become super easy to beat with parrying, like greydwarf brutes for example (love parrying those with just my axe then beating them up), other critters recover so quickly that parrying is basically pointless. Like for Deer Jesus (the first boss I can never spell the name of correctly) I brought a tower shield to tank his thunder as I recklessly stabbed his flank with a spear, worked wonderfully. Still others, you might not want to even get in melee range in the first place so you might prefer slinking around somewhere safer while you take pot shots with your bow (totally not how I deal with The Elder, not at all )