Couple questions.

As newbie as this sounds, exacaly what does +ing a shield really do? is it worth it? and also which is the top 4 that are the best?

Higher stability if normal or crystal, or better resistance to certain elements if taken to shield to lightning, magic, or other things. It allows shields to be upgraded for better base damage as well. However, shields can not be upgraded with high scaling Elementals, such as occult, chaos, and enchanted. Same as a crossbow.

Acidic_Cook wrote:Higher stability if normal or crystal, or better resistance to certain elements if taken to shield to lightning, magic, or other things. It allows shields to be upgraded for better base damage as well. However, shields can not be upgraded with high scaling Elementals, such as occult, chaos, and enchanted. Same as a crossbow.

Cook explains why to upgrade well. As to what shields are best, well thats kinda subjective.

Grass crest, target, crest, dragon crest, iron round, GSoA, bks, sks all will get high number of votes in a poll, it all depends on how you want to play, the type of build, the amount of weight you have spare. All of these factors are important when deciding a shield. And ofcourse dont forget the plank shield its awesome!

Then again you could ditch the shield and rock a dual wielding toon.

The divine path gives magical attack to the shield, but doesn't increase magical defense. I'll give you the top 4 according to shield type and personal opinion. My favorite small shield is the Effigy shield. For medium shields, Grass Crest shield and the Sanctus. For heavy shields, the Greatshield of Artorias.

My favorite shield is the skull lantern.

I like Havel's Greatsheild, it will be perfect for my PVE strength build.

Grass Crest Shield and Eagle Shield. Eagle shield+15 has 84 stability at 6 pounds...yummy.

Eagle shield all the way if you actually want to block things. It's bordering on broken as Joel said. I rather like my Silver Knight shield for parrying.

Eagle shield is the best stability to weight ratio, upgrade that badboy on the regular upgrade path and your foes will cry when they you coming.

If you want medium shields (shields that parry), some good ones are grass crest shield, crest shield and the black/silver knight shields.

Upgrading a shield up the normal upgrade path is 100% worth it. Nothing better than being able to block any attack in the game with ease (particularly with the great shields though)

Some personal favorites:

Heater shield - lowest weight shield that has 100% phys dmg block. +15 also gets up to 68 stability, or you can go fire +10 for 84% fire resistance to help against pyromancy. Due to low weight it is commonly used to parry on low end / mage builds so be wary of any player using this who isn't obviously a starting Warrior character.

Spider shield +15 - low weight (3.0) but good stability (70), great against poison arrows and poison status weapons like a buffed large club.

Fire sunlight shield +10 - 90% fire resistance, plus it looks awesome. Huge size seems to help a bit with dead anglers although that may just be a superstition of mine.

Finally, it's hard to go wrong with silver/black knight +5 or balder shield +15. They're fairly interchangeable in terms of weight vs. stability, with the black knight the heaviest but also having excellent fire protection. The balder +15 is the lightest (4.0) and also has the lowest stat req (str. 12) but a sweet 75 stability. You can get a black knight shield to drop off the black knights in burg/parish if you get lucky, but it's usually easier to farm up a balder or buy it in Sen's.

Try a crystal balder shield.

Just to add my two cents: For PvE it's good to have an array of upgraded shields that can be applied to the various situations you will be in, i.e. Crest against magic, Dragon Crest or Black Knight against fire, Spider against poison, etc. I do use the Eagle Shield mostly. As mentioned above, it does have the best defense/stability/weight combo. For PvP you need something versatile that fits your build or maybe no shield at all.