Shield speed

[Wizard_of_chaos]

Does the shield's speed makes you take the shield from your back faster or does it only makes that when you block, it blocks faster when you already have it in you hands? (or both?) What does the speed of the shield changes?

[Ganner]

There is a lot of debate about what it actually does, for the most part people think its the time it takes for the shield to be active when blocking, or drop when performing a swing.

[MrShine]

yeah unless it's changed I believe these are the main things you should know about shield skill:

1: The higher the shield skill the less delay there is from the time you hit right click to the time you can block
2: Once you reach 100 shield speed it is effectively the same as manual blocking.  AFAIK there is no benefit from having 100+ shield speed
3: Shield speed has no impact on swing speed/in fact you attack just as fast with or without a shield.  Animations look different with/without a shield but that's about it.

[Leshma]

I haven't played as one on my main for more than a year but... it only gives you speed boost (actually removes speed malus and makes it just like manual blocking, as MrShine said) when you're raising your shield to block incoming strike. Putting it down isn't affected AFAIK. Nor is putting it on your back or equipping it.

[RibaldRon]

2: Once you reach 100 shield speed it is effectively the same as manual blocking.  AFAIK there is no benefit from having 100+ shield speed

So... why are there shields that have over 100 speed by default?

Is there some way to lose shield speed, like having too much equipment?

[CrazyCracka420]

yeah unless it's changed I believe these are the main things you should know about shield skill:

1: The higher the shield skill the less delay there is from the time you hit right click to the time you can block
2: Once you reach 100 shield speed it is effectively the same as manual blocking.  AFAIK there is no benefit from having 100+ shield speed
3: Shield speed has no impact on swing speed/in fact you attack just as fast with or without a shield.  Animations look different with/without a shield but that's about it.

I think that is all correct, but I'm pretty sure polearms swing slower with a shield equipped than if you had two hands on the polearm.  But you get more thrust reach with a shield than if you were using 2 hands on the polearm (you don't get any reach added due to animation).

[MrShine]

So... why are there shields that have over 100 speed by default?

Is there some way to lose shield speed, like having too much equipment?

Huh, didn't think there was one, but I see steel shield has 103.  No clue then... well I still think that's what it does, but I'm not sure if having 100+ speed gives any benefit then.

I think that is all correct, but I'm pretty sure polearms swing slower with a shield equipped than if you had two hands on the polearm.  But you get more thrust reach with a shield than if you were using 2 hands on the polearm (you don't get any reach added due to animation).

Technically I think that's the modifier for using a polearm/2h as a 1h, not that the shield itself is slowing things down.  For example 1 handers have no difference in speed when used alongside a shield.

[San]

I think shield speed is roughly equivalent to weapon speed in terms of blocking (mostly guessing though).

I don't know about others, but I do notice a tiny difference when blocking with a 103/104 speed weapon like the short falchion compared to even a 100 speed weapon, so I would guess it would still be faster for >100 speed shield.. Although 100 is plenty fast enough.