Any advice for using shields?

Ive just spend the last 2 weeks training my top glad to use a shield. He's a lvl 50 spite, previously duel wielding bastard swords, fight parry-slash style.

Currently stats are: 148, 84, 97, 90, 76, 86, 88.

Im not looking to make him a tank, just i was wanting to make him a defensive fighter who can prolong the fight whilst making the most of his bleed damage. I've just equipped him with a tower shield, and so far it's massively reduced his effectiveness. I was wonder do i really need to buy a whole new set of equipment to get the right stats? Or are my skills wrong? And is a bastard sword ok for bleed damage or would an exotic weapon be better?

Currently my skills are (i know they're a bit all over the place): 10 blades, 9 shields, 8 sig move, 8 SotC, 10 finishing blow, 10 grat violence, 4 barrelling attack, 8 brute force, 7 devastating power, 8 blood drunk.

I know its an offensive skill set up, but i was hoping to have a mix of offense and defense using my shield, barrelling attack, sig move to slow down the fight whilst grat violence and and other offensive skills helped deal the damage.

Any tips would be much appreciated. Thanks

Create distance is an absolute must for a defensive glad, you'll be hit a lot less... Last stand also helps a lot, and should be available when you have finished training Barrelling attack, Brute force and blood drunk.

Finishing blow is not really useful for a defensive glad, I would drop it... Same for devastating power...

Is a well made shield theatric actually competative though? Cant say ive ever seen one when looking through the blood games fights.

I ran a defensive shield theatrics on early lvls, did quite well until I was forced to go offensive to counter ragers, and she hasn't used a shield since.
You can always have a shield in the vault to change over when the need for defence calls.
Shield size do seem to affect your mobility though, especially if your glad is a spite, I'd try a buckler or a kite shield first and not touch a wall shield for the small-sized races.

P.S. shields don't work against ragers, so don't bother trying.

Seems like a waste of time to equip a shield when it means an automatic loss against 1/3 of all enemies you'll encounter. With 2 swords i actually beat most rages, and if i parry-slash, i tend to beat most theatrics, especially those with slower weapons. It's just wars i have trouble with, but it's not necessarily an automatic loss...

I didn't think the size of the races made any difference? I thought it was the size stat? My little spite is pretty big (78) and in terms of encumberment he holds the shield fine. Doesn't seem to increase his blocking at all though.

I think for this guy im gonna admit i wasted a lot of points in shields and go back to the usual build. I may start a pure defensive theatric when the nxt good slave comes along... or maybe 'd be better off with a war for that. who knows?

Cheers for the help tho guys

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P.S. shields don't work against ragers, so don't bother trying.

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100% incorrect. If you are losing against ragers all the time it isn't because of your shield, it is more likely your build and strategies.

I run a defensive theatrics with a shield and do quite well. The key is to have the right build and strategies. Ragers will wear themselves out if you pump the defense, have a shield and use show off, create distance is a help as well because you'll stop one of their attacks as well. Good armor is key since you'll need to take hits and it doesn't hurt to have a nice size for extra health.

There is no one ace build that beats all other builds just like there is no crap build that loses to all builds. Keep experimenting, there are a lot of things that go into a successful gladiator.

Ah, guess I was doing it wrong then... :p