Need help with offensive shield build

[Blunderboss]

I notice that I almost never used shields on my non chanter characters, and most of shields in game seem really underwhelming so I’m looking for a bruiser build that would use shield but still deal good damage, preferably shield and spear but I guess other weapons are fine too. 

Three shields that come to mind are best offense akola apex ward and winter tide bulwark but I am wondering if they will do any damage at all on potd later in the game

[Boeroer]

The best offense isn't very good. It also comes very late. Akola's Apex Ward is nice but you need to have -3 reputation with the Huana faction and bring down the captain+ship then. Also the retaliation effect is a bit weak.

Problem with most bashing shields is that they don't scale their offensive capabilites. So dmg, PEN etc. always stay the same.

I'd say the best one (offensively) is Tuotilo's Palm since its stats scale with Transcendent Suffering/Monastic Unarmed Training which makes it pretty unique. Preferably you'd use this shield with a Monk.

[Kaylon]

The most offensive shield builds are soulblade/trickster or soulblade/monk using Sun and Moon & Tuotilo's Palm. They allow you to spam Soul Annihilation with the speed of a dual wielder.

Edited October 15, 2019 by Kaylon

[Boeroer]

Yeah. The dual head is quite nice for a Soulblade since the first one dumps the focus as raw dmg and the second one already replenishes your focus.

You can also spam other primary attacks with this setup to avoid the rel. weak bash but still use the bonus recovery of dual wielding. E.g. Force of Anguish, Forbidden Fist or Torment's Reach. 

[Kaylon]

Yes, other abilities can work too, but are less reliable. Force of Anguish targets fortitude, Torment's Reach isn't sustainable and Forbidden Fist can't be easily spammed.

[Boeroer]

Sure, I just wanted to be clear (for other people who might read this) that it's not a special advantage of Soul Annihilation alone but is the case with all primary attacks in combinaton with a bashing shield.

So in order to keep up this effect (circumventing the bash but still profit from the shorter recovery time) you can even alternate between different primary attacks if you wish. Luckily the Monk has several alternatives. Funny somehow that the Monk turned from a Full Attack guy in PoE to a Primary Attack dude in Deadfire.  

By the way I consider the fact that Force of Anguish targets Fortitude instead of Deflection a nice feature. It's a good alternative against enemies who have lower fortitude than deflection (for whatever reason).  

Edited October 16, 2019 by Boeroer

[Ancelor]

 I use magran's blessing currently and I like it (I also like the shield's design)

[Blunderboss]

 monk with flail and small shield is cool concept definitely gonna try that, however I was looking at Last Defense and it has 8 base pen and + 2 more from enchant 10 pen is something legendary swords have wondering if i could make it work on shield and spear build with some additional PEN buffs / armour debuffs it does not have to be completely op, but has to handle itself on potd with deadly deadfire light, maybe focusing more on cc and tanking, will probably use soulblade/monk then another guy with spear and shield either last defence or retaliation shield from huana negative, these shields coming later in the game is not an issue since my hirelings will have them already on them  at lvl 4

Edited October 16, 2019 by Blunderboss