Many Diablo 2 players find shields to be very useful equipment. When you use a shield, you gain a % to block all damage from an attack. Some builds may not require a shield, such as Assassins who can use two claw weapons but increase points in the weapon block skill and can still block, or Barbarians who have high defense due to their armor skill and iron skin and prefer to spread damage using two-handed weapons or one weapon in each hand. However, for most other builds, a Shield is something that could be the difference between life and death.

Requirements:

A shield with 3 sockets

Runes (in order): Ko + Ko + Mal

The statistics:

+20% faster hit recovery

+20% faster block rate

20% increased chance to block

+130-160% Enhanced Defense

+250 Defense vs. Missile

+20TB Dexterity

All Resistances +50-70

magic damage reduced by 7

Tier 12 Slow Missiles (60 Charges)

+20% faster hit recovery

Every time you get hit, there are several animation frames where your character can’t move, lock, or take any other action. With the boost from the %FHR mod, this reduces the frames for the hit animation, which is good because you can recover faster from a hit. The 20% FHR increase is a nice boost for melee fighters who require more FHR % to get past their target breakpoint.

+20% faster block rate

The same regarding the animation frames applies to the Lock as well. So with more +% FBR of items, you’ll reduce the animation frames involved in a successful block, freeing you from getting stuck in block crash.

20% increased chance to block

The chance of your character blocking an attack depends on several factors, but in general, you can improve your blocking chances by investing points in Dexterity to keep it at maximum level (75%). There are Skills that also improve your Block chance (ie Holy Shield, a Paladin Skill), and the shield with the ICB modifier will help increase your block chance.

+20TB Dexterity

A good mod for a shield, as it improves your block chance.

All Resistances +50-70

The massive increases to all resistances make Sanctuary a viable choice for a shield if your character is going to take on the legions of tough monsters on Inferno difficulty. Near Perfect Shrine (65% and up bonus) or Perfect Shrine will be a highly desired armor for any Diablo 2 player. Add an UM rune to it to get +22% to all resistances.

Summary:

Sanctuary is a good runic word for a shield. There may be other options that are more appealing to players, but a shield with Shrine can be a good placeholder for players who risk blocking (most players) and Resistances (all players!) seriously. .