Opinions on shields and the star veil.

Mark The Devourer

Official Terrarian
Hello again, everybody. I have recently developed an obsession with Terraria defense, armor, accessories, and builds, and as such I crave knowledge and discussion.
Today, I would like to talk about shields and the star veil. I'll get the star veil out of the way first before we get into the meat of the discussion.

There are of course other accessories that increase invincibility frames, or accessories that instead give you a dodge chance. The Master Ninja gear is one great hard-mode option that comes to mind, but I don't need any dashes! I love using mounts to free up accessory slots. The BoC is a great accessory to use, but it will eventually get phased out later on in the game. The same thing goes for the worm scarf for that matter. Great accessory but gets replaced later on. The star veil seems like a really strong and fun, AND good-looking accessory, but how good is it really?

Ok, with that out of the way, whaddya think of sheilds? The Sheild of Cuthulu is sweet, but I replace it the moment I get a good hard-mode mount. Again I'm a huge fan of mounts like the witches broom and gelatinous Pillon; meaning I don't use dashes all that much. Hell, in early hard-mode I use the BOHB over wings because I'm weird like that.

That leaves us with the defense-focused shields; which are the rest of them. The Ankh shield and The paladin shield and its upgrades which include the heroes shield and frozen shield.
To me, the ankh shield is a curious case. In my previous pre-labor of love update, getting the ankh shield was so God damn frustrating. Like holy hell was it un-fun. Thankfully the devs blessed upon us shimmer and getting it has made getting it ten-fold easier. This also makes it more justifiable to get, as the immunity to the debuffs offered were somewhat questionable when you had to spend so much time grinding for the damn thing. I've seen some people go so far as to call this thing essential, to downright near useless. But it does give you an extra +4 defense which is more than the obsidian shields +2 defense. Honestly now that I think about, shimmer indirectly buffed this thing (in my opinion). Making it it easier and more justifiable to get. Plus it's just nice to have around and you never know when the immunity to debuffs and the extra defense may come in handy. I give it a thumbs up, but only one thumb! I still have flash back to farming possessed swords and axes to get the damn Nazar, and don't even get me started on the other Accessories needed for this damn thing!

Anyways, with that out of the way, lets talk about the paladin shield and it's upgrades. It is a well Known fact that paladins are in fact bad-:red: and easily one of the coolest fictional classes/warriors ever created. Just ask my man Gerald Lightseeker. He knows what's up! Anyways, the paladins shield is not nearly as PTSD inducing as the ankh shield, but is by no means an easy task. Once you've killed enough paladins (one of the most dangerous enemies in the post plantera dungeon) You'll get your hands on a paladin shield. It's main purpose is to support your squishier friends in multiplayer, but we're not here for that! We're here for that sweet sweet 6 defense (and another awesome looking accessory.) The paladins shield has two upgrades. One that I've seen a lot of people praise, and another that I have seen... Let's just say a lot less praise for.

The frozen shield combines the frozen turtle shell and the paladins shield into a truly formidable defense accessory. It not only gives you 6 defense, but also a 25% damage reduction when under 50% health. Sweet! Not much to say here except that it's really good. One of my favorite combos in the game is berserkers glove and paladins shield, but I've already sung my love and praise for those things more than enough already.

Finally we have the accessory that made me want to post this thread in the first place (well, this one and the star veil)... The Hero's shield. The heroes shield is much simpler to craft, only requiring a mere flesh knuckle to craft.
I have heard a couple things about this shield: Not a lot, but of those few things they weren't very positive. I've heard a couple people say that this is a bad accessory and is worse to the frozen shield. I mean, I guess. If I had to choose one I would %100 go for frozen shield, but does that make the Hero's shield "bad"? It doesn't hurt you or handicap you in anyway, and it gives you a whopping 10 defense. The most of any accessory in the game! How could it be "bad"? Ok or mediocre, maybe. The main thought against the Hero's shield I have is that it doesn't give you 14 defense (6 from the paladins shield and 8 from the flesh knuckles apparently equals 10 and not 14), and that using the berserker glove and the frozen shield gives you more defense overall and frees up an extra accessory slot. Although while writing this thread and reading/watching many terraria tank guides I have realized two things.
One: This accessory is not for the average player. It's for the tank who wants to go the extra mile in maxing out defense. The kind of people like that like to stack shields or just like defensive terraria builds like me. And for that purpose, it's great!
Two: this accessory CAN get 14 defense if you get it to warding. If it had 14 defense at base plus warding it would give you 18 defense, which sounds a liiiiiiiiittle too much for just an accessory slot.
I have watched one video were the person suggested that instead of the flesh knuckles, you could use the beserkes glove for the Hero's shield making it a combination of the two accessories, but I don't know if that would be too good, too bad, or just right of a change.

Alright, that's my post over with. It's a bit long winded, but I tried to break it up into sections to make it easier to read. Hope you found it interesting!

edit: Here is the video I was talking about!
It's a really fun watch and I highly recommend it. I do like the idea of the "beserkers shield" as that would (presumably) allow me to stack the new beserkers shield with the beserkers gloves stat wise.
 
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