Best 10 Unique Shields in Path of Exile (PoE)

Path of Exile allows for a great number of customizations and unique builds for your characters. With every new patch and fresh item tweaks, players discover new combinations that allow them to dominate the Wraeclast.

Even with the frequent updates and changes, there are some items that are evergreen and will likely not lose popularity with future updates. This is why we’ve decided to help you get better familiarized with your defensive equipment and created a list of the 10 best unique shields in Path of Exile.

Replica Mistwall, Lacquered Buckler

Replica Mistwall’s main advantage is the combination of evasion bonus and spell-blocking capabilities. It comes with a “120-150% increased evasion rating” and the “+75% Chance to block spell damage if you have not blocked recently” traits alongside a small chance to avoid physical damage and minor fire and cold resistance improvements.

Be careful not to have the popular Acrobatics keystone active if you equip this item as its chances of blocking spell damage will drop to around 50%. What you can do instead is build up on evasion and then use the Iron Reflexes keystone passive that converts all of your evasion into armor.

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Prism Guardian Shield

Although Prism Guardian gives out some pretty nice buffs, it isn’t for everyone so research it carefully before equipping it. Its leading advantage is that it reduces reservations for socketed gems by 25%, but with a catch. When you have it equipped your socketed gems will no longer cost and reserve your mana, instead, they will now drain and reserve your life.

This unique shield is recommended only to those with tanky builds that have a big health pool with great HP regen and solid defensive stats built up. You can buff up the 25% reservation reduction with reservation efficiency nods from the Passive Skill Tree or other items that add to the same effect.

Magna Eclipsis, Pinnacle Tower Shield

With Magna Eclipsis you will get a massive boost to your evasion, maximum life, and armor. But, what puts it on this list is the Elemental Aegis, one of six Aegises that block elemental damage. Elemental Aegis is exclusive to the Magna Eclipsis which gives you a protective buff that soaks up elemental damage so your energy shield or your HP wouldn’t have to. Once it absorbed enough damage it disperses and resets after 10 seconds.

You can pair Magna Eclipsis with the Anointed Flesh passive skill cluster for maximum elemental resistance.

The Immortal Will, Archon Kite Shield

The Immortal Will can be also called the dream of every channeling spellcaster. Even though it offers some pretty solid defensive capabilities and even mana every time you successfully block, its main power lies with the Greater Harbinger of Focus. You will get the skill that allows you to summon the Greater Harbinger of Focus minion and Harbinger is no joke. He will create some pretty great buffs for you while you channel spells. Those buffs will reduce damage taken, make you immune to stuns and elemental ailments, and prevent curses.

To boost you up even more, the Immortal Will adds 50-70% increased damage to any channeling skills you use. This unique shield can definitely change your gameplay once acquired and make you much stronger.

Redblade Banner, Painted Tower Shield

We can safely say that the Redblade Banner is mostly built for melee heroes since its bonuses help boost Warcry skills that improve the attacks of the caster and taunt enemies to attack him. The shield gives a 50% increased Warcry cooldown recovery rate that greatly reduces the CD of all your Warcries. Pair it up with the Warcry mastery cluster in the Passive skill tree and you will be unstoppable.

The even stronger buff of Redblade Banner is the “Warcries have infinite power” trait. Usually, each Warcry has its own requirements and its power will depend on the number and types of enemies around you. The infinite power buff allows your Warcries to always provide you with their maximum power.

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The Surrender, Ezomyte Tower Shield

The Surrender, despite its name, is a shield that puts you on the offensive. Its most significant traits grant you a massive armor bonus, 130-170% increased armor and +1500 armor each time you block an attack, and a powerful counter-attack with level 30 Reckoning skill.

Having in mind that Reckoning offers an effective AoE attack that is triggered every time you block and that at the same time, you get that massive 1500 bonus armor, it is only natural to choose the Block Chance and Attack Damage with Shield nod from the Passive skill tree. This will simultaneously add to your block chances while adding 8% of damage to any attack skill as long as you have a shield.

Apep’s Supremacy, Vaal Spirit Shield

Aprep’s Supremacy is one of those items that give and take at the same time so if you’re not cautious this item can ruin your build. It will add up significantly to your chaos damage and turn Physical damage from bleeding into Chaos damage. Further, you will have a +25% chance to be poisoned and poisons on you expire 50% slower.

To make up for these nerfs, the shield adds significantly to your energy shield and gives a 30-50% faster start of energy shield recharge which can prove crucial in many fights where you are focused down rather quickly. Pairing this item with a Shield Mastery nod is a great choice since it gives an additional 1% Critical Strike Multiplier per 10 Maximum Energy Shield that is greatly increased with Apep’s Supremacy.

The Squire, Elegant Round Shield

When you equip the Squire you will be getting more benefits than you might have expected. Firstly, it greatly adds to your armor and evasion (100-150%) and increases your block recovery by 120%, essentially giving you a chance to block more attacks.

The second great thing about the Squire is the socket bonuses. It has 3 white sockets, adds 5-8% to the socketed support gem quality, and allows socketed support gems to support skills from your main weapon. The last fact is the most OP one as you can create quite a killer with support gems from both your main weapon and this shield. However, make sure that your main skill is eligible by checking the list of supported skills before getting this shield.

Atziri’s Reflection, Golden Buckler

Atziri’s Reflection is perfect for any spellcaster out there since it gives a major boost in intelligence, energy shield, all elemental resistances, and evasion. It further helps you by keeping you out of reach of any curses and if Hex is applied to you, it will affect you, but it will also be inflicted on the caster. Thus the name Atziri’s Reflection.

Atziri’s Reflection is more than great as it stands, but if you happen to invest in curses yourself, and have picked most of or all nods from the Curse Mastery cluster in the Passive skill tree, you will be pleased to hear that their effect will be increased by 15-20% when carrying this item.

Aegis Aurora, Champion Kite Shield

Aegis Aurora is probably one of the most loved shields in the game when it comes to heroes that use energy shield builds. The basic stats of this shield give you 300-400% increased armor and energy shield, 10% of all elemental resistance, and 5% to maximum cold resistance.

But, what makes Aurora the best item for energy shield users is its ability to “replenish energy shield by 2% of armor when you block”. So each time you block an attack, the amount equal to 2% of your armor will immediately refill your energy shield. This mechanic is boosted every time you boost either armor, energy shield, or block chances. So this ability to buff up your character by increasing only one or all of these is what we love the most about this item. Block Mastery cluster and Armour Mastery cluster would be great aims for anyone using Aegis Aurora.

We hope you liked our article about the best unique shields in Path of Exile. See more Path of Exile lists in our pieces about Path of Exile Classes Tier List and the 5 best builds in the game. Follow Gamer Journalist on Facebook and get fresh gaming news every day.