Guide to Understanding Spirit Shields

[Iron adam]

There has always been a lack of understanding within the community on the exact function of spirit shields. There are several different misconceptions, such as the belief that the Elysian is a range shield. In this short guide, I am going to provide the proper information for each shield.

Regular Spirit Shield:
Being the weakest of the 6, there is not much use for this shield. This shield has no offensive bonuses. It is obtained as a drop from the Corporal Beast. There is no special effect.


Blessed Spirit Shield:
This shield is made by using a Holy Elixir on a regular Spirit Shield. This shield has no offensive bonuses. It has the Same base stats as the Spectral and Arcane. There is no special effect.


Spectral Spirit Shield:
This shield is made by using a Spectral Sigil on a Blessed Spirit Shield. This shield has no offensive bonuses. The Spectral is the best in slot for mage defense (+30), making it a good choice for tanking against magic attacks. There is no special effect.


Arcane Spirit Shield:
This shield is made by using an Arcane Sigil on a Blessed Spirit Shield. The Arcane is best in slot for mage attack (+20), making it a good choice for anywhere that mage is used. There is no special effect.


Elysian Spirit Shield:
This shield is made by using an Elysian Sigil on a Blessed Spirit Shield. This shield has no offensive bonuses. (Contrary to popular belief, it is not a range shield). It shares the same stats as the Divine Spirit Shield. The Elysian has a hidden effect that has a 70% chance to block 25% of the incoming damage from an enemy's attack. This equates to blocking an average of 17.5% of all incoming damage. The Elysian does not drain prayer points. This makes the Elysian a great choice for tanking and afking in PvM.


Divine Spirit Shield:
This shield is made by using a Divine Sigil on a Blessed Spirit Shield. This shield has no offensive bonuses. It shares the same stats as the Elysian Spirit Shield. The Divine has a hidden effect that blocks all incoming damage by 20%. (Not 30%, which is a common misconception.) When this effect takes place, prayer points are drained. This means that the Divine and Elysian are much closer in performance than many think.

As of today's update, the Divine Spirit Shield functions as an Elysian in pvp.




Summary:
Regular Spirit Shield and Blessed Spirit Shield aren't good for much. Spectral is for mage defense. Arcane is for mage attack. Elysian is for tanking and afking. Divine is for tanking. Elysian and Divine are equal in terms of dps for Range and Melee as neither of them have an attack or strength bonus.
In my personal opinion, the Elysian is better than Divine everywhere except Corporal Beast. The Divine drains prayer too quickly and it is not worth the additional 2.5% damage blocked.

[Makin income]

I like this guide, learned a lot.

[Jonas]

+20 for mage damage not +30 for Arcane. Also it's 15% reduced damage taken not 25% for Elysian.

[James]

Road2Mod

[Sam]

Tbf this guide is actually really useful and will help a lot of players, great work!

[Ensignor]

Someones been hoarding Elys

[Iron adam]

+20 for mage damage not +30 for Arcane. Also it's 15% reduced damage taken not 25% for Elysian.

Thx Arcane was typo. And that is mage attack, not damage. But Elysian actually is 25%. Here is some proof.

[Tezey]

And that is mage attack, not damage. But Elysian actually is 25%. Here is some proof.

So it's a bug? Unintented?

[Iron adam]

And that is mage attack, not damage. But Elysian actually is 25%. Here is some proof.

So it's a bug? Unintented?

Not a bug, Elysian has been 70% chance to reduce by 25% over all non-eoc versions of rs.
http://2007.runescape.wikia.com/wiki/El ... rit_shield

[Ruler]

This is actually really helpful, should be added to the wiki as well if you ask me.

The difference between divine and ely is that divine blocks it all the time. So I would say for high hitting monsters (corp, nomad, vene) divine would be better than ely, because you don't want to die obv.