Shields are an item type found in Diablo III. Specific types of shields are not yet known, but they will be familiar to gamers from other RPGs; the D3 Team isn't reinventing this item type.
One thing that is new about skills in Diablo III can be gleaned from the Barbarian's Battlemaster skill, Shield Specialization. Here are the stats, as of October 2008:
- Shield Specialization
- Passive Skill
- Max Rank: 15
- Description: Increases the Barbarian's chance to block with a shield and the amount of damage he can block.
- Rank 1: +8% chance to block, +6 damage blocked.
- Fury cost: None
Note that description; this skill increases the chance to block and the amount of damage blocked. That makes it sound as if shields in Diablo III will now block a % of the time, but will only block some amount of damage. In Diablo II, a shield completely absorbed all physical damage from an attack it successfully blocked. It sounds like this will not be the case in Diablo III, and that makes for some interesting dynamics. Certain types of shields might absorb 10 damage, others up to 20.
In retrospect, blocking was overpowered in Diablo II. That a shield gave your character up to a 75% chance to completely erase all incoming physical damage hardly seems fair, and was certainly not realistic. How can a weak Sorceress or Necromancer with a little wooden plate on their arm completely stop the damage from a massive polearm? If the Diablo III system works as Shield Specialization makes it sound, the use of shields should be much more interesting in D3. It would make two-handed weapons more viable, for one thing, since a player wouldn't be giving up 75% damage reduction by using them.