Aegis Shield (Final Fantasy XII)

The Aegis Shield is a high-ranked shield in Final Fantasy XII that boosts the wearer's physical evade by 13 and their Magick Evade by 50. It is the only shield that offers more Magick Evade than physical Evade and also excels at this role, and so together with the Shell Shield is good against magick-using opponents. The Aegis Shield is metallic for the purposes of the magnetize debuff present during the Vinuskar (though only available after this point in the game) and Ultima boss battles.
==Obtain==
===Original===
In the original PlayStation 2 version, the Aegis Shield is bought for 9,600 gil from Balfonheim Port. It is found in a treasure in Lhusu Mines' Site 6 North (northernmost area where the player must cross through a hidden passage; 50% chance to spawn, and when it does, it will always be the Aegis Shield ), and Subterra's Abyssal - South (50% chance to appear, 50% chance for gil, 50% chance the item treasure is the Aegis Shield without the Diamond Armlet equipped).
It very rarely drops from Pandora in the Necrohol of Nabudis, and can be rarely stolen from the Pandoras in the Lhusu Mines.
===Zodiac===
In the updated Zodiac versions, the Aegis Shield is not sold in normal shops, but sells for 4,800 gil. It is found in a treasure in Cerobi Steppe's Crossfield (20% chance to appear, 50% chance for gil, 5% chance the item treasure is the Aegis Shield with the Diamond Armlet equipped) and Giruvegan's The Aadha Water-Steps (always appears).
It still very rarely drops from the Pandora in the Necrohol of Nabudis, and can be rarely stolen from the Pandoras in Lhusu Mines, and now also rarely from the Deathgaze in Trial Mode Stage 65, and uncommonly from Disma in Trial Mode Stage 88.
Aegis Shield is now a reward for the hunt for the Vyraal.
Aegis Shield is available from the Hunt Club sidequest on the Phon Coast; after giving Blok 15 Rare Game trophies, the Aegis Shield can be bought from the Shifty-Eyed Merchant's store nearby for 57,600 gil.
==Use==
The Aegis Shield is a high-ranked shield that helps the wielder evade both physical and magickal attacks, but it excels in Magick Evasion; the only shield to offer more Magick Evasion is the secret and invisible Gendarme shield added to the Zodiac versions. Though 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, Aegis Shield may be one of the few exceptions for how well it performs in its niche.
In the Zodiac versions, the Aegis 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.
A powerful combination for maximizing evasion on a character is to equip the Main Gauche with the Aegis Shield to have both physical and magick evade with the downside that the character will not be able to do much physical damage, and so may be better in a spellcasting role. However, in the Zodiac versions the new secret Gendarme shield surpasses this setup.
The Aegis 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 Aegis 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.
==Etymology==
The shield in Final Fantasy XII features a face surrounded by six snakes, representing Medusa, in Greek mythology described as winged human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those who gazed into her eyes would turn to stone. The Greek hero Perseus beheaded her and thereafter used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield.
==References==
Category:Armor in Final Fantasy XII