Why is the Vortex shield what everyone wants? What makes it better than say a a Zakarum Shield, Sacred Targe, gilded shield etc.
Not arguing, just curious as to what I am looking for.

im guessing they want most possible def.

but sacred targe has best block %

if im wrong im wrong.

Was mostly when you could ebug
Now theyre pretty much all equal
You trade more def for more points needed in dex to reach max block

I have a non eth 35 all resist vortex shield. Like will my smiter suffer noticeably with this base, or will it be just fine?

Ideally youll want an eth base with higher res

If you can get away with an exile vortex swap on your v/t without having to stat extra dex it’s the best one

Unfortunately it’s like 185 Dex or so though, but you do swap wisp to Raven vs a barb so, it could work

Personally I don’t reach that amount of Dex vs barbs as I swap my shadow dancers for gore rider vs barbs, which is more important than the extra defense vortex gives as opposed to ST

This post was edited by Stefbef on Apr 16 2026 06:05pm

Thanks for the info on Vortex. Seems mostly PvP. ST seems best to me per stat and block (60 vs Vortex 49)

Back in like 2005 I though eth CV on merc. Then found out its cuz Larzuk always gives 'em 4 sockets. CV WSM 10 vs T/GT -10

highest smite damage and highest defense goes to Vortex shield.

The only thing is that Vortex is also the highest str req for shields.

So you dont get str that high then its not a big deal other elite pally shields will still have high def. But Vortex is the only one that will reach 1k if eth high roll.

Back in the day eth stuff would be ebug'd and defence was higher....then out of blizzards direct ignoring of actual QOL bugs, they fixed ebugging with D2:R. Typical blizzard hating on players, since they refuse to fix bugs that negatively impact players and only fix the ones that benefit players.

This post was edited by Josiah on Apr 16 2026 07:08pm

You know what... at the end of the day fixing ebug was good because it made superior eth valuable, which correlates with the rarity.

True