Shield of Faerieland is the most practical option for full-Air defense.

Having only been released back in 2012, Shield of Faerieland is one of the more recent Hidden Tower releases, and it helped fill a void in many battle armouries: cheap, useful Air defense.

Previously, Ring of Weightlessness and Shield of Soaring were the only options available to most players for full-Air defense. Both of these options offered little additional defense, and Ring of Weightlessness actually caused damage to the user if it blocked Air icons.

The odd Tornado Ring and Jhudoras Wand have been around forever, but both of these Air-blocking Dual Duties are exceedingly expensive.

So while Shield of Faerieland is a pricey 12,000,000NP in the Hidden Tower, it is still the best bet for full-Air defense for most users. The 5 Fire icons and 5 Physical icons of added defense may not be tremendous, but they are still enough to make Shield of Faerieland the strongest full-Air shield.

In the Hidden Tower metagame, Sword of Ari is the most common victim for Shield of Faerieland, but the popular Sword of Reif and Ghostkerbomb will both be slightly maimed as well. Although no longer a common sight, Pirate Captains Cutlass will also be cut to 5 icons against the Shield of Faerieland.

Looking further out, Ghostkersword will also be tamed to a measly 3 Dark icons. The Physical defense may not seem like much at first glance, but the reality is that it can truly come in handy against snuffing all these weapons.

Weapons like Kelpbeards Trident, Sword of Thare, Grapes of Wrath, and the Pea family will often accommodate the weapons mentioned above, meaning Shield of Faerieland won't be a long-term solution. Still, it does the job it is designed for well enough.

In 1-Player, Shield of Faerieland becomes less practical. Other Hidden Tower shields like Hubrid Nox Memorial Shield offer more total defense, good for stopping the diverse offenses 1-Player challengers throw at the user. Shield of Faerieland will do best against Air-heavy 1P opponents DFM Pteri and Black Pteri as well as HT-sword-wielding Giant Ghostkerchief and Kastraliss.

In L97, Shield of Faerieland is an uncommon sight, largely because its Physical defense is less useful. The full-Air defense can stop only the Air icons of Rancid Battle Dung and Barbat Throwing Star, but shields devoted to blocking the Earth icons of these weapons perform better. The Fire defense is nice, but Faerie Tabard and {{Frozen Cyodrake}} do the job better. Between Ghostkershield, Faerie Tabard, Frozen Cyodrake Shield, and Pirate Captains Hat, Shield of Faerieland has no niche left to fill in L97.

Outside of L97, Shield of Faerieland is a nice shield. It isn't the best shield, but if you want full-Air defense and can't spend a fortunate, this shield is your best bet.

Rated on March 30, 2014

At a Glance (2/3):
This shield blocks 100% air plus 5 fire and physical. This is the strongest, air-blocking shield available.

In-Depth (3/4):
In today's rainbow-sword hidden tower metagame, Sword of Reif and Sword of Ari are the two strongest elements to fight against because they are the two safest elements to use; this shield single-handedly stops them both. This is great to use with Faerie Tabard because, although it also blocks air and fire, it's not as good at doing so as SoF is. This makes this weapon a great compliment to F-tab, which lacks the strength to cut down the combo alone. This weapon is also fantastic paired with Kings Lens. It covers k-lens' vulnerability to fire and air. Combine these three defenders, and you have a defensive answer for anything your opponent throws at you.

From there, all you need is jedi-like reflexes to capitalize on your opponent!

Price (1/2):
9-10 mil is what this shield goes for currently. Considering it's place in a defensive battler's wishlist, the fact that it's weaker alternatives, Shield of Soaring and Ring of Weightlessness, are hard to find and sell for a price that's close to this, and that the next best air-defenders are Jhudoras Wand and Tornado Ring (both even harder to find, not to mention expensive!), I'd say it is rather appropriate.

Bonus (1/1):
This weapon originally REFLECTED air damage instead of fully blocking it, and priced at a ridiculously low price (like ~4m or so?). But shortly after release, TNT decided to not only debuff it (yes, I consider this a debuff. reflecting damage is always better than blocking because it hurts your opponent more), but bumped the price up to 11m in the Hidden Tower.

You know what else? months beforehand, I recall a weapon idea thread, where participants talked about cool weapons to see in the Battledome. Somebody said, "I wanna see an air reflector in the hidden tower!" and lots of other people agreed. Apparently, so did TNT... initially....

Granted, this is still a great weapon to have, but it could have been oh so much better, especially for today's Hidden Tower level metagame.

Final Score: 7/10

Rated on September 22, 2013