Oh, I see.
Resaling and class issues aside, would an Alice Valkyrja Shield be better anyways? I rarely resell my items.
Well, I was thinking using a Penomena in areas such as Juperos. On the other hand, Executioner as well as Penomena (since Ice Titans and Snowiers are apparently Formless) may also be useful in Ice Dungeon. But would a Penomena +7 Stone Buckler be fine too, on the account that both these creatures are also Large? It sounds a little uneconomically viable to waste it on a small portion of the monster populace, though. But lets just say for overall defensive sake. How would it be then?
That's one of those it all depends on the situation.
Valkyrja Shields are very desirable WoE shields due to the MDEF they provide and the elemental reductions as they're the main types used in WoE with water/fire elemental SQIs, Nib, cursed water, etc). It gives +5 MDEF, so it works well with the Maya card. And it also works well for Toad, so you don't completely lose all the MDEF on the shield slot while protecting yourself.
So while they may seem like one of the best shields, they are for the above purpose, but it doesn't make them as good in PvM. As of right now, Stone Bucklers really are the best for that right now. They've become popular fast, and you're seeing less slotted Guards/Bucklers now even though they're still sufficient. Even if you don't have a swordsman type, if nothing else, you get the reduction in damage against large monsters, and you almost always run into some type of large monster on any higher level monster maps.
I wasn't sure what class you were playing, but my guess was HP and/or caster based off my general impression of you; it appeared astute as indicated by your reply below. The MDEF will help a little, but you'll already have plenty of your own as either a HP / caster type from stating INT. So that leaves the Add a 20% resistance against Water, Fire, Shadow and Undead Property.
And what I say from here comes from personal experience. I made a few +4 Valk Shields on Ratemyserver's test server to try them out against MvPs and the like. I felt like I preferred the greater defense overall because Fire Property was ultimately the main one I really found use for in general PvM play. Water was not really at all. Shadow some. Undead not really at all again. I'd personally preferred the extra defense in the end. I could see it being desirable in WoE, but I wouldn't personally use them as tanking shields.
I'd strongly advise you give it a go on the test server if you're still wavering here. Even though they don't have SQIs on the test server (obviously), you can still modify your stats to simulate like you have them on and basically recreate your character anyway and try whatever situation you want.
I'd advise an Alice Stone Buckler in the end for the extra damage reduction against large enemies since some of the MvPs that can be annoying are large. A guard would still be sufficient, but the little bonus is still nice. From there, smart swapping whether with a GTB (for Earthquake) or with Ghostring armors/elemental armors (or at least an angeling / bathory set) will still reduce those pesky elemental / neutral damage hurt skills even without a Valk Shield. Even if you don't resell your items I personally don't think the +4 Valk Shield would be worth it as such.
If you were to plan on doing Juperos a lot I might advise getting a Penomena, but I'd say only for that. You could potentially use it with Ice Dungeon as well, but the monsters in Ice Dungeon aren't that bad by themselves. You could tank them without much effort just fine on a HP since the large monsters don't attack at a high ASPD rate (unlike the Gazetis); the other caster classes can take blows here and there as long as it's not continuous with energy coat on. Caster classes primarily only really bother with Ice Dungeon; they really don't have much trouble there. I only used a Tirfing for most of my time there. And my frail wizard / sage / soul linkers from when I started earlier on would do okay. I tried an Executioner eventually, and it worked nicely though against the Snowiers/Ice Titans. But I don't see 5% more damage reduction or 10% more with a Stone Buckler being all that necessary.
The only real annoyance there is the Gazetis, and they're demon/medium.
So you could get a +7 Penomena Stone Buckler and use it in both places; it'd be nice to get the racial + the reduction from them being large monsters together. But that's just there. In Juperos you'd mostly be getting the equivalent of a Penomena card in a +7 Guard except against Apocalypses.
However, it's one of those you realize Ice Dungeon's experience isn't that great, and they don't hurt that much. So in the end I went with an Executioner over a Penomena in the end because it would work against Anubis as well since Sphinx 4/5 provided more useful experience.
I personally never advise racials anymore unless you're going to continually spend a great deal of time on that map, or they hurt at a relatively fast rate (like the dragons in Abyss).
