Holy Shield of the Tiger

[weakwarrior]

Bolty, in his guide, says that the best shield you can get is a holy shield of the tiger which can be bought between levels 18 and 21. He must be talking about a tower shield, since on any other shield the holy prefix will not get you better ac than a perfect awesome shield of the tiger 150/20/50. However, Wirt will not sell you a tower shield until you are level 20, so, in fact, you can only usefully buy a holy tiger at levels 20 and 21.

[Nystul]

True enough. But not everyone has a perfect awesome tower shield of the tiger to begin with. So if Wirt happens to offer you a holy kite shield (with high base AC) of the tiger when you are level 19, it might be useful.

[FireIceTalon]

Bolty, in his guide, says that the best shield you can get is a holy shield of the tiger which can be bought between levels 18 and 21. He must be talking about a tower shield, since on any other shield the holy prefix will not get you better ac than a perfect awesome shield of the tiger 150/20/50. However, Wirt will not sell you a tower shield until you are level 20, so, in fact, you can only usefully buy a holy tiger at levels 20 and 21.

I believe this is true as well. Lvl 20 is supposedly the best overall for such shields though ive never really tried shopping one which i explain below. Its also a great lvl to shop Obsidian Mammoth items and swiftness bows, in particular the much coveted Massive Swiftness.

Interestingly, I never cared for high AC shields. Ive always preferred Emerald Tiger over Holy/Awesome Tiger. Using a resist shield on warr frees up a jewel slot for mana, and with a nice plate you get plenty of AC anyway, usually enough to avoid being hit often long as you have enough dex for your block. Using a Holy Tiger I would think would give only minimal protection more in hell/hell, and at the cost of mana and/or having a less flexible setup on your char....so ive never really sought one one of these shields.

[weakwarrior]

I believe this is true as well. Lvl 20 is supposedly the best overall for such shields though ive never really tried shopping one which i explain below. Its also a great lvl to shop Obsidian Mammoth items and swiftness bows, in particular the much coveted Massive Swiftness.

Interestingly, I never cared for high AC shields. Ive always preferred Emerald Tiger over Holy/Awesome Tiger. Using a resist shield on warr frees up a jewel slot for mana, and with a nice plate you get plenty of AC anyway, usually enough to avoid being hit often long as you have enough dex for your block. Using a Holy Tiger I would think would give only minimal protection more in hell/hell, and at the cost of mana and/or having a less flexible setup on your char....so ive never really sought one one of these shields.

A couple of things. At level 20 or 21 (from level 16 on, in fact) you can also buy an emmy tiger. I bought a 48/9/48. I was level 19 when I found it, and I was also hoping for a holy tiger. I actually saw 1 on a base 10 shield. I didn't yet know that it wasn't possible to find the holy tower tiger at that level. Grrrr Bolty (I hope I'm not banned from this site now).

The best level to shop, is 21, not 20, as far as I understand. Let me elaborate. Here are the items you might want to shop for in that general level - let me know if I missed any.

Crimson/garnet shield of brilliance.
Massive Swiftness.
Obs mammoth.
Emmy tiger.
Holy tiger.

The hardest one is massive (qlevel 20) swiftness (qlevel 10). The reason being that you need to be able to get both qlevels at the same time. According to Jarulf Griz will sell you 2 items at clevel -1, to at clevel, 1 at clevel +1, and 1 at clevel + 2. You can buy a massive swiftness at qlevel 20 or 21, so at clevel 21 you have 4 slots to buy it in, which is better than any other clevel (if you are willing to settle for a brutal swiftness then you would do better at 19 where you could buy it in any of the 6 slots, and 2 of the slots could offer the massive swiftness as well).

Since brilliance is qlevel 11 you can buy it in any of the 6 slots at clevel 21, and garnet is qlevel 20 so at 21 you can buy it in all 6 slots, whereas at 20 only in 4 of them. At 22 you would only be able to buy brilliance in 5 of the 6 slots.

The other 3 items are from Wirt. When going from 20 to 21 you allow any qlevel 42 item to be sold, but since there aren't any you don't add any new possible items to Wirt's arsenal. On the other hand, you do rule out, in terms of items that can be prefixes or suffixes on shields, armor or helms: cobalt, crystal, garnet, deflection, and harmony. Admittedly, you might want an obsidian harmony, but you would do better shopping Griz for that anyway. In fact, your chance of finding an emmy tiger is pretty good (relatively :)), since there are now only 8 possible prefixes for shields and 2 suffixes that he can sell you - and, for the most part, you don't care about the base shield (or at least not so much, and anyway emmy tower tiger is beyond the price limit and he won't sell gothic till qlevel 23 when tiger is out).

[FireIceTalon]

A couple of things. At level 20 or 21 (from level 16 on, in fact) you can also buy an emmy tiger. I bought a 48/9/48. I was level 19 when I found it, and I was also hoping for a holy tiger. I actually saw 1 on a base 10 shield. I didn't yet know that it wasn't possible to find the holy tower tiger at that level. Grrrr Bolty (I hope I'm not banned from this site now).

The best level to shop, is 21, not 20, as far as I understand. Let me elaborate. Here are the items you might want to shop for in that general level - let me know if I missed any.

Crimson/garnet shield of brilliance.
Massive Swiftness.
Obs mammoth.
Emmy tiger.
Holy tiger.

The hardest one is massive (qlevel 20) swiftness (qlevel 10). The reason being that you need to be able to get both qlevels at the same time. According to Jarulf Griz will sell you 2 items at clevel -1, to at clevel, 1 at clevel +1, and 1 at clevel + 2. You can buy a massive swiftness at qlevel 20 or 21, so at clevel 21 you have 4 slots to buy it in, which is better than any other clevel (if you are willing to settle for a brutal swiftness then you would do better at 19 where you could buy it in any of the 6 slots, and 2 of the slots could offer the massive swiftness as well).

Since brilliance is qlevel 11 you can buy it in any of the 6 slots at clevel 21, and garnet is qlevel 20 so at 21 you can buy it in all 6 slots, whereas at 20 only in 4 of them. At 22 you would only be able to buy brilliance in 5 of the 6 slots.

The other 3 items are from Wirt. When going from 20 to 21 you allow any qlevel 42 item to be sold, but since there aren't any you don't add any new possible items to Wirt's arsenal. On the other hand, you do rule out, in terms of items that can be prefixes or suffixes on shields, armor or helms: cobalt, crystal, garnet, deflection, and harmony. Admittedly, you might want an obsidian harmony, but you would do better shopping Griz for that anyway. In fact, your chance of finding an emmy tiger is pretty good (relatively :)), since there are now only 8 possible prefixes for shields and 2 suffixes that he can sell you - and, for the most part, you don't care about the base shield (or at least not so much, and anyway emmy tower tiger is beyond the price limit and he won't sell gothic till qlevel 23 when tiger is out).

Mhm if this is the case I should probably lvl my 20 mule to 21 then. Not that i shop much for items anymore, but I guess it would serve me better if I was to do so on a day with too much time on my hands.

Emerald Tiger tower btw, IS purchasable at Wirt, but the Emerald prefix I believe may go no higher then 44% on such a shield. I use an Emerald Tiger Tower 42%.50 life on my warrior, and I calculated that my shield would cost just a couple thousand gold under Wirt's price cap.....my shield however, was picked off Black Jade. I found another one recently (though a small shield version) off Red Vex, that my Arch mage is now using.

[weakwarrior]

Mhm if this is the case I should probably lvl my 20 mule to 21 then. Not that i shop much for items anymore, but I guess it would serve me better if I was to do so on a day with too much time on my hands.

Emerald Tiger tower btw, IS purchasable at Wirt, but the Emerald prefix I believe may go no higher then 44% on such a shield. I use an Emerald Tiger Tower 42%.50 life on my warrior, and I calculated that my shield would cost just a couple thousand gold under Wirt's price cap.....my shield however, was picked off Black Jade. I found another one recently (though a small shield version) off Red Vex, that my Arch mage is now using.

Correct about the price cap. You can get 44/50, 45/48, 46/44, and 47/41 all under the price limit (thanks to langolier's site). Btw, did I really spell 2 as 'to'. :blush:

One other thing, I said if you would settle for a brutal swiftness you should shop at level 19 - in his qlevel 18 spots he can't sell a long war bow, so best to shop at 20 if you are o.k. with a brutal swiftness (although he can only sell it in 5 spots).

[the Langolier]

...

Good information, nice post.

[weakwarrior]

Good information, nice post.

Thanks.

[Nystul]

Bolty, in his guide, says that the best shield you can get is a holy shield of the tiger which can be bought between levels 18 and 21. He must be talking about a tower shield, since on any other shield the holy prefix will not get you better ac than a perfect awesome shield of the tiger 150/20/50. However, Wirt will not sell you a tower shield until you are level 20, so, in fact, you can only usefully buy a holy tiger at levels 20 and 21.

SirRempert: So you're *sure* this is the best shield for a warrior?

Wirt: Dude, it's right here in Bolty's guide!

[weakwarrior]

That's hilarious! I assume you are wearing a Demonspike coat so that you have enough cash to buy an emmy tiger if one is offered? Also, how do you generate those pictures? Good luck finding the tower version.

SirRempert: So you're *sure* this is the best shield for a warrior?

Wirt: Dude, it's right here in Bolty's guide!

[Nystul]

That's hilarious! I assume you are wearing a Demonspike coat so that you have enough cash to buy an emmy tiger if one is offered? Also, how do you generate those pictures? Good luck finding the tower version.

That's actually a pure level 21 warrior. If he needs an extra 20 or 30k, he can scrounge it up in the catacombs. I'm sure the novelty of looking at ruthless club of gore and such will wear off long before I find any "ultimate" item, and I'll move on. So far, he's bought a holy shield of tiger (kite base 14), an obsidian helm of the lion, and a king's broad sword. Those are darn nice items for a level 21 warrior, but nothing truly superior to what you could get from Gris.

What I'd really like is the obs/mammoth headband.

Hitting the PrintScreen key during the game generates a screen shot in the Diablo directory in PCX format. You might need some basic image viewing or editing software to look at them or convert to jpg.

[danifilth]

Thanks for the good information on wirt shopping weakwarrior ;-)

I assumed some players maybe interessted on what the rarity of the certain items is:

Crimson/garnet shield of brilliance 1 in 360 games
Massive Swiftness 1 in 1800 games
Obs mammoth 1 in 720 games
Emmy tiger 1 in 2520 games
Holy tige 1 in 720 games
Emmy Heavens 1 in 2520 games

I dont know if you can calculate the rarity concerning shopping from ingame formula
However these numbers are based only on my personal expirience (but should give you a gerneral idea)

[Belix]

Considering how difficult it is to get any specific item you want from Mr. One-Leg, One-Item, I'd say the odds are better you might just happen to find one through the regular course of battle. And as others have mentioned, given the relative ease of getting a solid Awesome Shield of the Tiger through Griswold, the amount of time to result ratio doesn't seem worth the slight benefit.

Not to say you might not find him selling one while you're shopping for other goodies, but the Merciless bows and Godly/Whale hats don't start showing up until level 30, when it's too late to spot a HSoT.

[Nystul]

You can get emerald items through the regular course of battle, but not the holy or mammoth items. There is no doubt that for some playing styles, an obs/mammoth hat (or even armor) or a holy/tiger shield could be the *ideal* item. Unfortunately you can only shop for them at those relatively low levels, so it has to be a dedicated effort if you are ever to get them. And it it totally NOT worth it in terms of the power gained compared to time taken (you could get a new sorcerer to level 50 faster than shopping one of these items, I suspect). If you were to get the item, your increase in power over a common "great" item like obson or awe/tiger wouldn't even be noticeable. But somehow just trying to get lucky can be fun for a certain period of time (apparently much longer time for some people than for me!).