A buckler is a type of shield found in Diablo III. The buckler is the lowest level shield in the game, carrying on a tradition begun in Diablo I and continued in Diablo II.
A disproportionately large amount of info is known about Bucklers, since one was used as an example of socketing in the Gamescom 2010 Artisan movie.
Buckler Stats
Shields are much changed in function in Diablo III. They still block attacks, but while their % chance to block varies (as in D2), they also only absorb a set amount of damage. The buckler, as the weakest shield, only absorbs 6-10 damage. Higher quality shields will take much more damage with a successful block.
This differs greatly from Diablo II, where any shield could block (absorb) 100% of any physical attack, even huge hits from boss monsters that would have dealt hundreds of points of damage.
This change makes shields much more realistic, but also much less effective (mandatory) in Diablo III than they were in Diablo II.
Buckler stats.
The stats of a Buckler as of August 2010.
- Armor: 78
- Chance to Block: +25%
- Block Amount: 6-10
- Durability: 25/25
- Sell value: 1
This is presumed to be part of the Barbarian's starting equipment, since the sell value is just 1.
Socketing
The only item yet seen socketed, in the Artisan video from Gamescon 2010, was a buckler. It cost 24424 gold to pay for the Blacksmith to add a single socket to a plain buckler. This price, like all stats and figures revealed during development, is subject to change.
It's seen to the left, before and after having an Emerald socketed into the single hole.
