Divine spirit shield

Divine spirit shield

AKA?	DSS
Release date	15 September 2008 (Update)
Members?	Yes
Quest item?	No
Tradeable?	Yes
Lendable?	No
Equipable?	Yes
Stacks?	No
High Alch	1,200,000 coins
Low Alch	800,000 coins
Destroy	Drop
Store price	Not sold
Examine	An ethereal shield with a divine sigil attached to it.
Weight	2 kg

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For the Lucky version, see Lucky divine spirit shield.

A detailed image of Divine spirit shield.

The Divine spirit shield was released on 15 September 2008 along with Summer's end. It requires 75 Defence and 75 Prayer to wield. Players with 90 Prayer and 85 Smithing can attach a Divine sigil to a Blessed spirit shield to make a Divine spirit shield, granting 1800 Smithing experience. In addition, you must have completed Summer's End to make or wear the divine spirit shield. Alternately, you can ask Brother Bordiss to attach it for 1,500,000 coins after completing Perils of Ice Mountain.

Bonuses

Hover over image for type												A player wielding a divine spirit shield. A player wielding a divine spirit shield.
Attack bonus
0	0	0	0	0
Defence bonus
+63	+65	+75	+2	+57
Other bonuses				Slot
0	0	0%	+3

Special Bonus

The Divine spirit shield comes with a special bonus that reduces 30% of any damage a player takes if the player has sufficient Prayer points. 50% of this 30% is deducted from the player's Prayer, while the rest is ignored. The formula for the reduced damage is: $DamageReceived*0.7$ and the formula for Prayer drain is $\lceil (DamageReceived*0.3)/2\rceil ,\,where\,\lceil x\rceil \,represents\,the\,ceiling\,function$.

For example, if an opponent were to hit 500 LP of damage on a player wearing this shield, the damage would be reduced to 350 (since $500*0.7=350$), and the player would lose 75 Prayer points (since $\lceil 150/2\rceil =75$). The damage reduced by this shield is therefore limited to 2 times one's current Prayer points, e.g. a player with 750 Prayer points can have 1500 Life points of damage reduced from any attacks.

This shield stacks with Protection Prayers multiplicatively, not additively. The prayer drain and damage reduction act before Protection Prayers. For example: when fighting against a player, the shield reduces damage by 30% and then a protection prayer reduces the remaining damage by 40%. In this way, exactly 58% of the damage taken is protected from, and 15% of the original damage is reduced from the defending player's Prayer points.

This shield has the exact same defence bonuses as the Elysian spirit shield; however, their special effects differ slightly. While the Elysian spirit shield has a 70% chance of reducing damage by 25%, this shield will ALWAYS reduce any incoming damage by 30%, assuming the player has sufficient Prayer points. This means that an average of 17.5% of all damage received while wearing the Elysian spirit shield is negated, whereas 30% of all damage from the Divine spirit shield is negated and 15% is deducted from the player's Prayer points. In this aspect, the Divine spirit shield is the more powerful shield, yet more tedious to use. The price to pay for its constant reduction of damage is the loss of Prayer points, which can be expensive. However, the cost of restoring the Life points saved often make up for the Prayer potions or Super restore potions used, especially in PvP situations.

When comparing the two bonuses it shows that, assuming the Elysian spirit shield special bonus reduces the damage on average by 17.5% it is cheaper in use than the Divine spirit shield when using normal prayer potions to regain lost prayer points even at level 99 prayer. This calculation was made based on prayer potions costing 6573gp for a 4 dose prayer potion; sharks were used to calculate the amount of money saved in the first place. These calculations, however, rely on the expected damage reduction of the Elysian spirit shield; there still is the chance that the Elysian's effect will not occur at those times where it would be most useful (such as a claws special attack). For this reason, an Elysian spirit shield is preferable for low-risk combat situations (such as general training), while the Divine is better for high-risk situations (such as PvP).

As 15% of the unreduced damage is drained from prayer, assuming no prayer use, the shield has the potential to absorb 1500 damage at the minimum prayer level of 75 before depleting available prayer points.

The penance aura from the loyalty reward program will help counteract the effect of the prayer drain on the shield. For instance if you are to take a massive 1000 lp of damage then the amount of damage actually taken is 700 LP and the amount reduced is 300 lp. This will drain 150 prayer points. However, after the damage is taken you are restored 20% of the 700 damage taken which results in 140 prayer points being restored, so the actual net loss is only 10 prayer points. Utilising this strategy one can make the Penance aura one of the most effective combat related auras in the game. (Using the Penance aura, the prayer drain becomes 1% of the damage.)

Trivia

• On 1 February 2010, the spirit shields' appearances were changed to match their inventory pictures. The Divine spirit shield's colour was changed to a more vibrant green. Previously the Arcane spirit shield and Divine spirit shield were close to the same pale shade of green.
• The Divine spirit shield was the first non-discontinued item to reach a Grand Exchange price of higher than 1 billion coins.
• Divine refers to things which come from a supernatural power or deity, such as a god, being sacred or holy.

• The sigil itself is a green color when not attached to a blessed spirit shield, however when a divine sigil is attached to a blessed spirit shield the shield is tinted green and the sigil fades out to white. This gives the appearance of the power of the sigil flowing into the shield.