Mage without MS?

[LemmingofGlory]

Can fast-blocking be offensive? Somehow hit the opponent? Or was that Lava Maw just depressed?

Fast-block just speeds up the block animation. It's valuable for the occasions when your mage does happen to block something.

Re: Shield choice. The best +Magic you can get on shields is "Brilliance", so you could go looking for something like that. It does involve item-hunting in Cats/Caves, though. Personally, I always valued fast-block more because mage block animation is dangerously slow otherwise. This makes Stormshield and Holy Defender nice, because on the rare occasions that a mage blocks something he shouldn't be made more vulnerable by having to hang around his attacker for longer than is necessary.

-Lem