Crafting Guide: Basic Shields
Introduction
This guide will teach you how to craft shields with either high Life or high Energy Shield and features information on how to add “Life” or “Energy Shield” recovered on block to these items.
Crafting in Path of Exile can be extremely complex and rather daunting for new players. The video below outlines the most basic information you’ll need before diving into crafting specific items.
The Finished Item
The finished item that you should have at the end of this process heavily depends on whether you’re looking to make a high Life-based shield or a high Energy Shield.
You can check the full crafting process below, or skip straight to the TL;DR summary
The Base
The choice of the base will differ depending on whether you are playing a Life-based build or an Energy Shield-based build. For an Energy Shield base, you should go for a 
Titanium Spirit Shield, while for the Life-based version you can use any base item you want. For the latter, you may consider a high armor or evasion shield, depending on your preferences. Here’s a LINK to view all base shields available in Path of Exile.
The item level you’ll want to go for with an Energy Shield focus is a minimum of 86, which allows the highest tiers of Energy Shield modifiers to roll on the item. For Life-based, you’ll normally want a minimum of 84-85 as that’s the cap for the elemental resistance rolls to reach tier 1 while the Life roll is capped at a much lower item level.
If crafting a high Energy Shield item, you will want to prepare the base by first making sure the item has 29-30% Quality. This is done with 1-socket Resonators with the 
Perfect Fossil, which will reforge the item and change its Quality. Once you are satisfied with the Quality, you will move on to the actual crafting process.
Crafting Process
The crafting process is extremely straightforward. For an Energy Shield focused approach you’re going to want to spam 1 socket resonators (
Primitive Chaotic Resonator) combined with a 
Dense Fossil. You do this for the purpose of getting 2-3 higher tier Energy Shield rolls and then you can always apply the 3rd prefix modifier via your bench-craft. In the best-case scenario, you’ll have 3 prefix Energy Shield providing modifiers, allowing you to bench-craft increased quality of the item which will further increase the ES you gain from the shield.
For a Life-focused version the process is mostly the same, however, instead of a Dense Fossil we’ll be using the 
Pristine Fossil. The main focus is to stop at a higher Life tier and with other modifiers you’ll be satisfied with such as resistance rolls or armor/evasion if that’s your focus.
ES or Life On Block Process:
For “Energy Shield on block” you can use a Shaper or Crusader base and for “Life on block” you can use a Shaper base or Warlord base item. This will allow for the specific modifier to roll when you’re using the appropriate fossil for your craft.
TL;DR
- Decide if you’re going for a Life base or Energy Shield and pick an applicable base shield.
- If you’re going for either high armor or Energy Shield, bring the quality to 29%-30% using Perfect Fossils in 1-socket Resonators.
- Use Dense Fossil or Pristine Fossil with 1-socket Resonators until you hit desirable modifiers. You can either keep these or bench-craft the item to finish.
Final Notes
As much as I love making guides, it is very crucial in a game like Path of Exile that you play the game the way you enjoy playing it. This guide details my most effective approach to crafting the best items.
I hope you found the guide useful and I wish you all many 
Divine Orb drops!
