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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alex319" data-source="post: 4447931" data-attributes="member: 45678">First of all, your math is a little bit off. You are correct that if enemy attacks deal 15 damage, and you are attacked on average once per round, then a shield (which blocks 10% of all attacks) means you take on average 1.5 less damage per round. You didn't take into account,however, that 1.5 additional points of [W] does not mean you deal 1.5 additional damage per round, because you don't hit every round. (Of course it could be more if you frequently attack with multiple [W] powers.)On the other hand, my comment about "offense being more important than defense" refers to the following fact - suppose that you and an ally both have AC 20 without a shield. If you take a shield that raises your AC to 22, then an enemy could simply avoid you and target your ally, so you haven't really reduced the overall damage to your party. Of course this is not always true (you could have marked the enemy, the enemy could be unable to get to your ally, etc.) but in general defense bonuses are worth less than offense bonuses due to this "target substitution effect."(Here's another way to look at this: if you had a choice between two minor action utility powers, one of which gave you +10 to attack for one round, and one of which gave you +10 to AC and reflex for one round, which one would you be more likely to choose?)</blockquote>