How useful are elemental shields?

[Malenfant]

I haven't started playing yet, since I'm still planning my party, but I'm wondering if there's any elemental resistance I should prioritize while playing.

My Battlemage is going to be specializing in Fire and Air, so that's two elemental shields he'll be able to cast. For my Alchemist, I'm considering dipping into the Concentration pool to prolong dual-wield bear-form, and I have 3 skill points to spare, so I was considering spending those on a Magic school to grab a third elemental shield.

What resistance is more useful in the mid-to-late game? Ice or Poison? Are high resistances in any of these actually useful for the party?

Thanks for the advice!

[Batty]

You will definitely want fire shield for late in the game. But, there is more than one way to get it.

I never used shock, frost, or poison shields. An argument for poison shield in mid-game can be made but I think you can get by without it (maybe ). I don't know if shock shield works against air attacks other than lightning, if it does, then move it to #2. I rank importance:

1. Fire - late
2. Poison - mid
3. Frost - early/mid
4. Shock - mid

[Malenfant]

Thanks for the response! I think I'll go Poison resist, then. Apart from a useful shield, it will net me a ranged hit on the Alchemist without needing to pick any other spell schools, and there's good synergy with the dagger that requires Earth Magic.

[Neutronium Dragon]

I'd say that frost is still useful at the end. While there aren't as many creatures using it, some of the named enemies do, and they do it in a big way.

Specific party compositions might also alter the priority: it's a bit of an outlier, but an all-lizard party might have absolutely zero use for poison shields.

[Drakkan]

I did not use any shield spell playing on hard difficulty, so i think it says all there are of course some places, where some resistances could be quite handy and make you life easier, but overall no real use as for my opinion.

[Spathi]

Fire shield for the crystal mine fire elementals is all I used on hard1save, just in case they come too fast. The ones in the castle were easier to hit and 4 ratlings had high resistances b4 the end.

Poison would be the most useful, but u would have to cast it all the time, which could get annoying, it was easy enough to just let them get poisoned and have some spare heals or antidotes.