Shields are return as an item type found in Diablo 3III. Specific types of As in previous games in the series, shields are not yet knownprovide useful defensive properties, but they will be familiar to gamers plus a wide variety of magical modifiers.  The trade off comes from other RPGs; the substituting a shield for two-handed weapon, dual wielding weapons, or using one of Diablo 3 Team isnIII't reinventing this item types various off-hand items, such as [[orb]]s, [[mojo]]s, or [[quiver]]s that can boost damage and stats, without providing any defensive utility. 

Shields are much changed in function in Diablo 3. On the whole, they'll be far They are less effective defensive tools than they were in Diablo 2, since they block a much lower percentage of attacks, and only absorb a set amount of damage, rather than 100% of physical with a successful block. These changes are meant to provide a more compelling reason to upgrade your shield, and to make two-handed weapons and dual wielding more viable.

They still block attacksIn retrospect, but while their % chance to block varies (as most fans agree with the [[D3 Devs]] that blocking was grossly overpowered in D2), they only absorb a set amount of damageDiablo II. For example The bucklerIn that game, the weakest ability to use any shieldto completely negate up to 75% of incoming physical damage was unbalanced, absorbs 6and made dual-wielding or using a two-10 damagehanded weapon a far less viable tactic than going with a one handed weapon and a shield. Higher quality Diablo III's less powerful shields are meant to increase the difficulty while easing the difficulty spikes (players will take much more damage with a successful block. hits in D3, thus each hit doesn't have to be so potentially lethal)

This differs greatly The function of shields is quite varied, both from how they worked in Diablo IIand between different types of shields in Diablo III. For example, where any here are the basic stats for the lowest and highest base type of shield could block (absorb) 100% of any physical attackin the game, even huge hits from boss monsters that would have dealt hundreds of points as of damagebeta patch 10.

This change makes shields [[Buckler]]* 8-47 armor* +10-20% chance to block* 6-10 block amount* +2 max random magical properties [[Sacred Shield]]* 1000-1159 armor* +8-17% block* 240-320 block amount* +4 max random magical properties.  As you can see, the Sacred Shield has vastly higher armor, it's capable of absorbing much more realisticdamage per block, but also and it can spawn with up to twice as many affixes. However, the % chance of blocking is actually lower. Also, while the stats remain in flux, high level monsters can routinely hit for much less effective (mandatory) in Diablo 3 more than they were in Diablo 2320 points of damage, thus even when a player's Sacred Shield did block, it would not absorb anywhere 100% of the incoming damage.

The Note that shield functions and stats of have changed repeatedly during development. To the right you see the stats on a [[starting gear Buckler]] as of August 2010; it had a considerably higher % chance to block, at that point in development. 

At one point during their development, [[Monk]]s could not use shield. (Or many other types of weapons.) [[Bashiok]] offered an explanation of this in a pair of forum posts in early March 2010 <ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/blizzard-on-diablo-3-class-specific-weapons/ Class-Specific Weapons] - Blizzard, 11/3/10 </ref>

<blue>Bruce Lee would not use a shield, and neither would the monk.We have shields. Everyone but the monk can wield them. Of course that’s subject to change.</blue>

We have It did. A Monk was first seen using a shield in August 2010, during the [[Artisan Video]] and the Monk remains able to use shields. Everyone but as of the monk can wield them[[Diablo 3 Beta]].

It did. A Monk was first seen using a shield in August 2010, during the [[Artisan Video]] ==Shield Skills and he can still use them as of the [[Diablo 3 Beta]].Traits==

There are no known shield attack [[skills]] in Diablo IIIFormerly, like the [[Paladin]]'s {{iw|smite Smite}} from Diablo 2. The only known shield-related [[traits]] are a couple possessed by the Barbarian. These are subject to change as development continues.were:

Prior to the Traits switchoverEven earlier in development, before traits were introduced, the Barbarian had a Battlemaster skill called [[Shield Specialization]] that granted considerable blocking bonuses. Here are the stats for this skill, which is no longer in was removed from the gamein 2009.

In retrospectWhile there are zero It's widely-speculated that the sixth class, to be added in [[D3X]], blocking was overpowered will specialize in Diablo II. That a some sort of sword/shield gave your character up to a 75% chance to completely erase all incoming physical damage hardly seems fairtactics, and was certainly not realisticas that niche of combat is entirely missing from vanilla Diablo III. How can a weak Sorceress or Necromancer with a little wooden plate on their arm completely stop the damage from a massive polearm?