Venetian Shield (Final Fantasy XII)

The Venetian Shield is a high-ranked shield in Final Fantasy XII that boosts the wearer's physical and magickal evade by 25 at the cost of making the wielder weak to Lightning. It is the only shield that offers equal amounts of both types of evade besides the secret and invisible supershield Gendarme added to the Zodiac versions.
Wearing multiple pieces of armor that all give the same elemental resistance does not stack, but certain different types do:
:Weakness + Halve = Normal damage
:Weakness + Immunity = Immune
:Weakness + Absorb = Absorbs double
However, there are no equipment that halve or absorb Lightning damage (besides the secret Gendarme that can't be equipped with the Venetian Shield anyway), only couple that provide immunity.
==Obtain==
===Original===
In the original PlayStation 2 version, the Venetian Shield cannot be bought from shops but sells for 6,900 gil. It is found in a treasure in Cerobi Steppe's Crossfield (50% chance to appear, 50% chance for gil, 10% chance the item treasure is the Venetian Shield with the Diamond Armlet equipped ) and Subterra's Umbra - North (30% chance to appear, is always the Venetian Shield).
The Venetian Shield is made in the bazaar in the "Brilliant Shield" set by selling two Ancient Turtle Shells (from "boss type" tortoise enemies, and a rare poach from Silicon Tortoise), two Ring Wyrm Livers (from Shield Wyrms) and one Undin Halcyon (from Undin Entite).
It is also available through the Hunt Club sidequest on the Phon Coast by giving Blok 12 Rare Game trophies and Atak and Stok 5 each; the Venetian Shield can then be purchased from the Shifty-Eyed Merchant's store nearby for 20,700 gil.
===Zodiac===
In the updated Zodiac versions, the Venetian Shield is not sold in shops, but sells for 6,900 gil. It is found in a treasure in Cerobi Steppe's The Northsward (10% chance to appear, 80% chance for gil, 5% chance the item treasure is the Venetian Shield with the Diamond Armlet equipped) and is still made in the bazaar in the "Brilliant Shield" set with the same items as before. It is no longer available through the Hunt Club.
==Use==
The Venetian Shield is a high-ranked shield that helps the wielder evade both physical and magickal attacks. At this point in the game two-handed weapons surpass one-handed ones, and most times it is not worthwhile to sacrifice the increased damage from a two-handed weapon to be able to equip a shield, but Venetian Shield is good for offering both types of evade in one equipment piece. In the Zodiac versions, the Venetian Shield can be used by the jobs Red Battlemage, Knight, Foebreaker and Shikari; the Foebreaker, with their axes and hammers, can keep equipping shields until endgame, though in The Zodiac Age each character can unlock two License Boards, and so the Foebreaker may also have access to a better two-handed weapon by this point.
The Venetian Shield makes the wearer weak to Lightning damage. This can be offset by equipping something that immunizes against Lightning on the same person: Rubber Suit, or the Diamond Armlet in the Zodiac versions.
The Venetian Shield can be equipped by characters with one-handed weapons or no weapon in their available hand. It adds to the wearer's physical and magickal evasion. Shield Block augments also add +5% to both physical and magickal evasion per augment purchased. Magick evasion does not block status effect spells (the player needs to use Shell to halve their chance unless they can get immunity from equipment). Equipping a shield negates the Brawler augment, even if the character is still attacking bare-handed. Some enemies, especially all the toughest bosses and marks, have Ignore Evasion as a passive ability, which causes their attacks to ignore all blocking and parrying. However, no enemy ignores Magick Evasion, making Venetian Shield a worthwhile equipment piece to wear still, although many of the most powerful magicks are set to always hit.
The chance to block granted by gloves and shields and Shield Block licenses is checked separately to, and before, the evade from one-handed weapons. If the shield block fails, the game checks for the weapon block, and if that fails, the game checks for parry.
==Citations==
Category:Armor in Final Fantasy XII