Skilling Shield Up

Currently with gear / 2 shield merits my shield skill is 238. I am using a Light Bukler, Koenig Head, Boxer's Mantle, AF feet. Any suggestions as to where i should skill it up? Or what I should do while I'm trying to skill it up? Thank you

Boyada tree

link a few mobs and face it so your shield procs

sub /dnc so you don't die

Thunderz- Great advice.

Add in a Shield Torque or Fortified Chain if you can afford it. Depending on what you are main handing you can try a Sinfender (about 10K max) also.

Forgot to add that in my list lol >.< I will take a look @ the Sinfender thanks

I helped my friend level EVA last night. We went to the Den of Rancor (the entrance with the Pucks and Lizards), and he just aggro'd like 6 Pucks, targetted a lizard (to skill parry) and myself and his mules just cured him until he was capped. Would be the safest to have some healing magic friends tag along, no matter where you go. Also Den of Rancor right by the mandies has a zone right behind it, so that's nice if you're about to die.

Edit: He had a lot of -damage gear on and subbed BLU for cocoon. Also used Phalanx II on him and my cures did stoneskin sooo.... friends are nice. :3

Use this idea and maybe change SJ to /RDM for stoneskin and phalanx. You'll hardly take dmg. Aggro the mandies since they're MNKs.

If you are really having a hard time, try to get a Sipar from Adamatoise or Aspidochelone. It has the highest Activation of any shield in the game, even with 0 skill (Approximately 90%) but absorbs almost no damage. Sub RDM or find a SCH buddy to Stoneskin-Phalanx you, and you're set.

Ok, think I'm going to try the Den of Rancor idea but I would still like some input. I really don't ask for help often ><;

As of now I'm in Valley of Sorrows using a AGI- setup (-20 AGI and -31 evasion) with Aboubeur's, due the curent Master on the AH above the price I want to spend. I am currently at 242 /257. I have max shield merits, an Erlking's with +3 (Using Club of Trials) as well as Shield Torque and of course AF feet (using Stumbling Sandals).

My question is this, what can I do? My situation is this, WAR and NIN are my only subs, level 5 RDM so thats out of the question. I'd perfer to do this solo but I'm sure if I asked I could get help. I also posses no PDT- set but NQ darksteel isn't that costly and would probably take a few days of straight farming to get, although if I can get away with not using it that would be nice, I don't have much room to carry it with me.

Thats about all I can think of right now, any help at all would be very appreciated.

Go to the boyahada tree, top level. Pull Korrigans to the Cloister zone, pile on as much +shield gear and -eva as possible, let the korrigans beat on you until you cant take it anymore, then zone, rest, rinse and repeat.

You dont need a bunch of -pdt gear, and you dont need any sub other than war, use defender to reduce what little dmg it tiwll reduce, spamm reprisal as much as you can to maximize shield procs and you'll be fine.

Didn't even think of that. Thanks for the info~

edited for stupidity, I blame the raptors ><;

Den of Rancor off the puks but its nice to have Rdm friend to give ya a hand. Grab two or three and sit back and be bored.

This sounds like a good plan except you might not want to use a -agi setup as it supposedly help with shield block rate to.

Aye, but then again it's a rumor as well, I have never seen any truth to it.

I actually put in 5 or so skill points and then it just stopped at 242. Also another thing is that shield only procs when evasion and parry checks fail, so thats the reason for -AGI

Might just be me, but in bohyada tree skillups were slow as hell.

I've been skilling mine up on cape terrigan Greater Manticores with whm npc. Can do a page while you're at it for extra bonus, even if it is slow. PLD don't really evade them so it's not a problem and they're not as difficult as some may think. If needed, could always duo FoV with friend and skillup while you're at it. Just let them know you're wanting hate. (Would suck to have someone ripping hate off you while skilling shield)

What level is your NPC? Mine is about 48ish and her MP doesn't last that much (go go NQ healer!) But that doesn't sound all to bad. Riddle just comes off as a possible nightmare if soloing, more so the way I am doing it.

I'll probably end up sampling the ideas thus far and any that come after. This is something I would really love to finish before the update and it has been negelected to long.

Thanks to those that have posted and any that come after~

Not pld but I would do 20 or so mandies in the tree on rdm/blu at a time.

Worked pretty awesome. Worked so awesome that this happened. Started at like 100 and like 1 hour later both shield and parrying were around 170 lol

I capped my shield in dynamis.

My healer is currently 62 or 63, I can't remember. Easy as hell to level them up to 60 or so. My NPCs MP doesn't last ages either, but it is set to soothing healer and a couple cure5s can really help you out. If your NPC is 48, it will level hella fast just spam killing EP mobs in Cape. Just gotta fight mobs like 10levels above npc and they get what? 200xp per fight? I haven't "xp'd" my npc in ages, I just pop it now and then for skilling/NMs.

Also, just to add as a note, I do this as /dnc or /blu when I solo, so not sure how solo viable it would be /warrior. I've only ever done it once with /war and that was duo'ing with a dnc friend.

Skilling shield, no matter what mob you choose, is going to be slow. So to those skilling it be prepared for several hours (depending on how much you need) of being beat on. I personally went the /rdm + boyadha tree + crabs route. Even with martial master I was lucky to see a single skill up per fight. Merits, shield torque, sinfender, koenig head, master shield, AF feet, and a buckler earring are all wise choices. However, if you're using /dnc you might want to stick to a joytoy for survivability. Especially if you intend to pull multiple mobs.

I personally skilled up shield in sky by killing dolls. PLD/RDM with Koenig Schaller, Shield Torque, Boxer's Mantle (or a Cavalier's Mantle for the - evasion), Buckler Earring, Master Shield, AF feet, and even a sinfender (a lol1k on my server), and I can't imagine how your shield wouldn't cap out quickly. Was lucky and could 3 skill ups per mob. /RDM is great because shield procs even with stoneskin and reprisal is calculated before stoneskin. Bar, enspells, and enfeebs can be really helpful, and if you do despot dolls, you can easily zone in case of emergency. Most dolls are EM to T, and EM are a joke to Solo.

*edit - Even though Sky does not get access to the kupopowers (like Martial Master), I still found skill ups coming much faster than killing Korrigans in the tree /with/ martial master.

You could ask a RDM friend to phalanx2 you while you pull tons of mobs. Don't engage either so you won't parry. Some PDT gear helps but isn't necessary.

PLD/rdm or pld/dnc + Rdm add a brd if u want for non-stop action :P
Buckler Shield Go to Boy Tree after first waterfall drop otw DA(Blk Mandy Area), aggro all the Crabs & Mandys then stand there while RDM spam cures u, can engage if u want 2kill aswell.

Ok so I did the Korrigans to the Cloister zone thing and it actually worked out decently. Ones I could actually pull were DC but I was seeing the skill points fly none the less.

I'd like to improve on this as I was getting my rear handed to me badly. Is there some fairly easy gear to obtain or that I buy that might make it easier? I also noticed that swapping into a full defense I could last a bit longer but at the cost of losing lots of skill ups.

Also does that stupid steelshell on that path annoy anyone else doing this? Didn't help that it kept coming back as a T and nearly killing me when I tried to solo (stupidly in the evasion - setup)

edit* Did it again with some friends, worked perfectly. I could only handle 2 at once but got crazy skill ups and only got killed once out of it (fking goob) Anyhow thanks to everyone who replied!

instead of making a new thread bumping this one, what is the ideal shield for skilling up now that they nerfed sipar? thanks in advance

Any size 1 shield and the appropriate food for your skill range (Saltena > Elshena > Montagna as you go up). I used Bloom buckler.

purely for skill ups any of the buckler shields should do. Smaller shields block more frequently but for less dmg. Find some mandragora mobs and go to town of them.

Not a PLD but my guess would be one of these 2, light buckler probably better being size 1

Light buckler

Master shield

easiest way to cap shield is abyssea altep mandys. i went pld/blu, yes pld/blu the best sub for pld. with atmas, pro shell cocoon ect your def goes to about 950 or so. keep up phalanx, and pull every mandy there. evrey single one. pin yourself in a corner, and cast phalanx every so often. they wont even deal 1 point of dmg to you. i went from my capped 75 shield skill of 276 to 361 in 1 hour.

Ochain >_>

Or Aegis and the skillup food & Reprisal/Pallisade om nom nom works just as good