I see there are four different types of shields; Buckler, Kite, Heater, and Tower Shields.I would assume the Buckler type shield would be optimized for parrying, given the description of the Buckler shield.And Tower Shields optimized for maximum defense and shield bashing.But I am unsure on the differences between the Kite and Heater type shields.(Strangely, Palatine Kite Shield and Cleric's Kite Shield have "Kite Shield" in their titles, but are placed in the Heater Shield category)Also is there an actual difference in parry frames with the different types of shields?

can you addit "special" for that list?

Do these stats come in effect when we are blocking with the shield or it is just eqquipped

After some testing, I can confirm that there is indeed different parry windows between the shield categories and the Buckler class has the longest parry window among them. Now, if I had to order them from best to worst it would be like this => Buckler > standard Shield > Kite Shield / 2-handed weapon / fist . Just keep in mind that I don't have the actual numbers of frames, so take this with a grain of salt.

I'd like to thank my friend, the Blade Wraith of the Village of Smiles, for its cooperation and helping me figure this out. May you rest in peace you beautiful bastard.

With tower Shield you can do bashing insted of parry use it to stun enemy that blocking with or without shield, i try it to the heavy armored guy in salt alkymancery while he was blocking i bash my tower shield agains his shield and he got stun after that you can use your finishing move or something by pressing O (sry bad english)

Would love if there was some way to tell what shields have special properties, like they do with primary weapons. The Ashen Effigy for example, has "extra spikes". Would be nice if that would show up here.

Blocking with Fists or Weapons results in using a hidden shield. This shield has 40% poise and 50% damage reduction to all types.

Parry time is defaulted to 0.2 seconds, Bucklers have 0.3 instead, and Tower Shields are set to 0.0 with a bashing animation.

maybe this is obvious, but it seems that the best (and arguably only ones worth using) shields are the ones that have 100% vs one or more damage types. such as the phoenix rondache vs the kraekan wyrm the umbral shield vs the witch of the lake and the final boss etc...