Reinforced vs Nirnhornd Which is better trait for the shield?

AvalonRanger · June 2022

Reinforced vs Nirnhornd Which is better trait for the shield?
Simple question. I want to gather information from experienced players.

tsaescishoeshiner · June 2022

For a gold shield: Nirnhoned gives you 252 armor, Reinforced gives you 272.

I don't play tanks, but for PvE, I've seen people say sturdy is the best. 4% block cost reduction adds up more than 250 armor. For PvP, you have a lot more options depending on your playstyle.

If you want to study up some more, I just used two pages from UESP. Specifically, Online:Shields and Online:Traits

fred4 · June 2022

I always think putting Sturdy on the shield makes the most sense in PvE. You will mostly be on that bar when you're blocking. If you're using a mix of traits, e.g. not all Sturdy, you will most likely want the other trait(s) active on both bars, but Sturdy is sufficient on the 1H+S bar. In case you're watching something like The Tank Club (YouTube), they'll tell you as much. Sturdy is an effective and necessary trait for a tank. You reduce block cost from something like 1.7K to 750 by running all Sturdy. That is a huge deal for a tank. I personally think reaching the resistance cap also has some merit, but they don't even think so, mainly because Reinforced / Nirnhoned gives you so little resistance. 250 resistances = approx 0.4% added damage reduction (as long as you are below the 33K cap). Blocking, on the other hand, is the single most-effective damage reduction in the game. Resistances are capped at a max of 50% damage reduction. Blocking naked reduces damage by 55% and probably more than 70% with 1 Hand + Shield. I don't know the exact figures, but in other words Sturdy is much more valuable than that tiny resistance bump, unless you're wearing Gaze of Sithis.

In PvP I favor Impen. I like using a "stand up" defensive trait on the shield, but I may not be blocking. I may just as likely be on retreat, possibly sprinting. In that case I reckon Impen gives me the most value. It's all pretty marginal, though.

PvP magsorc is an exception. A shield adds magicka to your back bar from the enchant. If I was on a mag-stacking / shielding build, I might use an Infused shield.

AvalonRanger · June 2022

fred4 wrote: »

I always think putting Sturdy on the shield makes the most sense in PvE. You will mostly be on that bar when you're blocking. If you're using a mix of traits, e.g. not all Sturdy, you will most likely want the other trait(s) active on both bars, but Sturdy is sufficient on the 1H+S bar. In case you're watching something like The Tank Club (YouTube), they'll tell you as much. Sturdy is an effective and necessary trait for a tank. You reduce block cost from something like 1.7K to 750 by running all Sturdy. That is a huge deal for a tank. I personally think reaching the resistance cap also has some merit, but they don't even think so, mainly because Reinforced / Nirnhoned gives you so little resistance. 250 resistances = approx 0.4% added damage reduction (as long as you are below the 33K cap). Blocking, on the other hand, is the single most-effective damage reduction in the game. Resistances are capped at a max of 50% damage reduction. Blocking naked reduces damage by 55% and probably more than 70% with 1 Hand + Shield. I don't know the exact figures, but in other words Sturdy is much more valuable than that tiny resistance bump, unless you're wearing Gaze of Sithis.

In PvP I favor Impen. I like using a "stand up" defensive trait on the shield, but I may not be blocking. I may just as likely be on retreat, possibly sprinting. In that case I reckon Impen gives me the most value. It's all pretty marginal, though.

PvP magsorc is an exception. A shield adds magicka to your back bar from the enchant. If I was on a mag-stacking / shielding build, I might use an Infused shield.

Hmm, very interesting information. Thanks.

"....unless you're wearing Gaze of Sithis."
"Gaze of Sithis lose guard damage mitigation, and become zero value." In game explanation say like that.
Actually say, I still can't fully understand those meaning. Because, when I'm in guard position with Gaze of Sithis,
I can still reduce damage than no guard posing. Why?

Amottica · June 2022

For PvE - Sturdy or possibly infused.

Sturdy on all small pieces of armor and infused on all large pieces. The shield is a large piece but it is your choice.

The added damage reduction from reinforced or nirn on any pieces is to small to deal with.

fred4 · June 2022

AvalonRanger wrote: »

fred4 wrote: »

I always think putting Sturdy on the shield makes the most sense in PvE. You will mostly be on that bar when you're blocking. If you're using a mix of traits, e.g. not all Sturdy, you will most likely want the other trait(s) active on both bars, but Sturdy is sufficient on the 1H+S bar. In case you're watching something like The Tank Club (YouTube), they'll tell you as much. Sturdy is an effective and necessary trait for a tank. You reduce block cost from something like 1.7K to 750 by running all Sturdy. That is a huge deal for a tank. I personally think reaching the resistance cap also has some merit, but they don't even think so, mainly because Reinforced / Nirnhoned gives you so little resistance. 250 resistances = approx 0.4% added damage reduction (as long as you are below the 33K cap). Blocking, on the other hand, is the single most-effective damage reduction in the game. Resistances are capped at a max of 50% damage reduction. Blocking naked reduces damage by 55% and probably more than 70% with 1 Hand + Shield. I don't know the exact figures, but in other words Sturdy is much more valuable than that tiny resistance bump, unless you're wearing Gaze of Sithis.

In PvP I favor Impen. I like using a "stand up" defensive trait on the shield, but I may not be blocking. I may just as likely be on retreat, possibly sprinting. In that case I reckon Impen gives me the most value. It's all pretty marginal, though.

PvP magsorc is an exception. A shield adds magicka to your back bar from the enchant. If I was on a mag-stacking / shielding build, I might use an Infused shield.

Hmm, very interesting information. Thanks.

"....unless you're wearing Gaze of Sithis."
"Gaze of Sithis lose guard damage mitigation, and become zero value." In game explanation say like that.
Actually say, I still can't fully understand those meaning. Because, when I'm in guard position with Gaze of Sithis,
I can still reduce damage than no guard posing. Why?

There was a bug whereby blocking with Gaze of Sithis still reduced damage in the Ravenwatch PvP campaign. I believe this was fixed months ago. When you block with Gaze of Sithis, it still looks like you are blocking and you can still prevent yourself from being stunned or knocked back by a boss attack. You do, however, take full damage from the attack.

fred4 · June 2022

Amottica wrote: »

For PvE - Sturdy or possibly infused.

Sturdy on all small pieces of armor and infused on all large pieces. The shield is a large piece but it is your choice.

The added damage reduction from reinforced or nirn on any pieces is to small to deal with.

I think by and large Infused has also gone the way of the dodo. We all got 5K extra health in PvE recently, due to base game changes. I would consider Infused on a magicka-stacking PvP build, which are also a dying breed, and not much else.

Infused was a thing 6 or 7 years ago. Back then stacking max stat was viable. Shields scaled from it. Power of the Light scaled from it. CP gave us +20% stat. The latter made building for stats competitive with building for weapon or spell damage. It matched the +20% you get from Major Brutality / Sorcery. If you were a stam DK, you built for max stam at one point, because Battler Roar scaled with that.

These incentives are all gone. Sturdy got adjusted. Well-Fitted got buffed. If you're worried about your small stamina pool as a magicka PvP character, you wear Well-Fitted or Sturdy. You don't wear Infused. If you're a tank you wear Sturdy. If you're a DD, Divines and Thief is still your go to option. If you're a healer and you wear a proc set, well OK, you may go the high magicka route. I don't know what ZOS were thinking with that one, though. In order to stack magicka you have to go pretty hard into that direction with sets like Ancient Grace, Alfiq or Necropotence. That doesn't leave much room for a healing proc set. That extra 1K spell / weapon damage they gave us recently at base, that was probably the final nail in the coffin. You want to use skills / sets that scale with weapon / spell damage, not magicka. That gets amped up by Major Sorcery / Brutality. You care about that and you care about amping up your mundus. You care about mobility in PvP, e.g. Well-Fitted most of all. You don't care about eeking out max stat. If you do, there are ways to balance your PvP build with attributes, Hakeijo, or you might wear something like Death Dealer's Fete. Divines, Sturdy, Well-Fitted. Those are the traits I most likely use these days.