Shields

Alpha-2 Wreckage of Carphin Shield 3D renders. 3D model by Danny Shinwoong Kang.^[1]

Shields are a type of offhand item in Ashes of Creation.^[2]^[3]

Shields do not have their own weapon skill tree but instead have passive skills in certain archetype skill trees and in the active blocking universal skill tree.^[2]
Shields grant a static defense/damage mitigation value.^[4]
Shields may also offer additional value/block chances on a directional basis.^[4]
Shields cannot be dual wielded.^[5]^[6]

List of shields

This section contains potentially outdated information from Alpha-1 testing.

Item	Source	Rarity	Level requirement	Set	Cost
Carphin Shield	Drop			Carphin
Demonic Offering Aegis	Crafted items	Epic	15
Dented Shield	Vendor	Poor	2	Dented	25
Eldritch Lightguard	Crafted items	Rare		Eldritch
Kite Shield		Common
Lava Forged Defender	Crafted items	Rare		Lava Forged
Lorica Vindicta Shield	Drop	Common		Lorica Vindicta
Red Dragonscale Shield	Drop	Heroic	20
Shield of Briarhome	Crafted items			Briarhome
Sons of Fortune Shield		Rare	10	Sons of Fortune
Tower Shield	Drop	Rare

Shield abilities

Skill	Origin	Description
Absorption Field	Tank	A field of absorption.^[7]
Aegis	Tank	Instantly dispels all negative effects on the caster, then creates a protective dome behind the tank for 15 seconds, transferring 50% of all damage received by targets within the area to the tank instead. All targets within the cone also receive increased status effect resistance for the duration.^[8]
Barrier	Cleric	Sacrifice 25% of your maximum health and apply that much temporary health to target ally for 10 seconds. Does not stack.^[9]^[10]
Shell	Mage	Apply Shell to yourself.^[11]^[12] Shell: A protective magical shell surrounds you, absorbing (500%🢆) magical power in damage before breaking. Lasts 15 seconds.^[13]
Shielding Dance	Bard	Heal yourself and nearby allies for (50%🢆) (healing) every second and apply up to one instance of Shield to each target.^[14]
Wall	Tank	Summons a glorious Wall at the target location. Obstructs movement and blocks projectiles.^{[ citation needed ]}

Shield cosmetics

Gear slots

Alpha-2 Level 30 Mage character sheet UI.^[15]

We wanted to create something that would handle a couple of different roles, with obviously your equipment slots for what we call a "paper doll", which is that display of your character. Eventually it won't just be a image of your character, we hope to have the 3D character and be able to rotate around, look at what you're wearing. And then we wanted to support a couple of different features here, with some base stats; the equipment, which will show what equipment you have available to quick swap, so you don't have to have your inventory and the screen open; detailed stats for those people who want to get into all of the details; and then of course gear sets. So this is going to be able to swap to your sets of gear quickly; and being able to save different loadouts.^[16] – Colby Marchi

There are multiple gear slots in Ashes of Creation.^[16]

3 Back slots.^[16]
- 1 Ranged slot.^[17]^[18]^[16]^[19]^[20]
- 1 Cloak/cape slot.^[18]^[19]^[20]
- 1 Backpack slot.^[18]^[20]

3 Belt slots.^[16]
- 1 Mainhand slot equips a player's primary weapon.^[17]^[21]^[22]^[23]^[24]^[20]
- 1 Offhand slot can equip shields, spell focuses, sigils, and dual weapons.^[17]^[25]^[20]
- 1 Potion/Pouch/Scroll slot.^[19]^[26]

8 Armor slots.^[16]^[27]
- 1 Helmet slot.^[16]^[28]
- 1 Shoulder slot.^[16]^[29]
- 1 Chest slot.^[16]^[30]
- 1 Wrist slot.^[16]^[31]
- 1 Glove slot.^[16]^[29]
- 1 Waist slot.^[16]^[29]^[32]
- 1 Leggings slot.^[16]^[29]
- 1 Boot slot.^[16]^[31]
5 Jewelry slots.^[16]
- 2 Accessory slots.^[16]
- 1 Necklace slot.^[16]^[33]
- 2 Ring slots.^[16]^[34]
3 Artisan gear slots.^[35]^[16]^[36]
1 Artisan tool slot is used to equip gathering tools.^[37]
There may be a specific slot for musical instruments, but this has not been finalized yet.^[38]

Previously it was stated there were 16 gear slots.^[27]

Gear is not subject to inventory weight limits.^[39]

Active blocking

Tank active blocking with a Shield in Alpha-2.^[40]

The shield version would probably be better but you'd still be able to parry or whatnot with a two-handed weapon, or even maybe a dual wield.^[41] – Tradd Thompson

Cleric active blocking with a Shield in Alpha-2.^[42]

Active blocking is a universal skill that is able to be unlocked by all archetypes.^[43]^[44]^[45]^[46]^[47]^[41]^[48]

Stamina is a universal resource that is utilized by active blocking, active dodging, and sprinting universal skills.^[43] ^[45]^[47]^[49]^[50]^[42]

Different types of equipment are catered toward blocking different damage types.^[44]
- Shields are better for active blocking physical damage, but any melee weapon can also be used to parry with a lesser amount of mitigation.^[46]^[41]
- Sigils are better at actively blocking magical damage.^[44]

Q: How are you designing encounters around active blocking? Will it be situational use, or would I expect to be laying on my block keybind for most of the fight to prevent getting deleted by bosses?

A: It depends really on the type of adversary you're facing. Some of them are going to have indicators or tells that a big attack is coming. It's an animation wind up where you'll have an opportunity to use active block in very unique situations that are based on timing and additional mitigation for those incoming one-off attacks. In other occasions you'll be able to use it off of rotational cooldowns, or if you're waiting for a particular ability or you're during the use of your Aegis. There's different situations for when active block is a relevant use-case.^[51] – Steven Sharif

Some abilities may be able to overcome, surpass, or cancel active blocking.^[45]

If a player is in a state, such as an active block, or an active tumble state, there will likely be some types of abilities that interact with reacting to those types of states and will either overcome surpass or cancel out those states, particularly as it relates to not just active blocking, but also potentially passive blocking as well; and that would be something probably related to physical penetration values as a stat, or even CC breaks that could be relevant as well for those types of things. I think that's on the radar for the combat team.^[45] – Steven Sharif

Previously the developers had not finalized designs for active blocking and were leaning toward using more traditional buff-oriented universal damage mitigation for the MMO, and were also considering interaction between action-based blocking and a passive block stat.^[52]^[53]
- The Paladin's Might shield in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse had its own hit box and hit points (HP); that could actively block projectiles.^[3]