Issue With Shield Handle

I recently bought a shield handle of fortitude for 6k from somebody (they seemed rather quick to get rid of it) and when I attempted to use it on my Gothic Defender it didn't work. I asked her about it and she merely said,

"lol i gess it can't be customized, unlucky"

So I try it on my 5 other shields.

Nothing.


None of these are uniques, they're all whites, with nothing at all on them. Can somebody help me out here?

Could be wrong here, but I don't think you can modify whites. Try a blue or purple shield if you have no golds.

Ah, okay, that makes sense. I have only about 4 platinum left, wonder if I can get myself a gold Gothic Defender.


At the worst, I'll have to go farming.

Whites can be modified, they turn into blues.


Only shields from inscribable areas (i.e. Nightfall and EoTN) can be upgraded with shield handles. Shields from Prophecies and Factions cannot be upgraded.

Gothic Defenders are a Factions item, so they're not inscribable. In order to use that shield handle you'll need an inscribable shield. The only place an inscribable Gothic Defender could possibly drop is the Urgoz reward chest (and maybe the deep? I'm not sure. But it doesn't make sense to drop a kurz item in a luxon elite mission.... anyway, I'm waffling) or the Zaishen chest in the Battle Isles.

A quick search suggests that if one was to be found, it would be in the region of 100+ ectos.

I have had the same problem. This drives me nuts! Can't seem to figure out why a shield can't accept an upgrade or what makes one take it and another not? I have tried to add fortitude handles to gold shields and they won't upgrade so it isn't the color...

I think I have figured out how to tell if a shield will be upgadeable or not though. I try to salvage it and if it says warns me that it will be salvaged into only "crafting materials" then I assume it can't be upgraded. Of cource this wouldn't work for a white shield...

Well that sucks.

Are there any strength shields that would look nice with Kurzick armor in Nightfall? It doesn't have to be pitch black like a Gothic Defender, but something dark would be nice. Silver or white would work too possibly, if I get Elite Kurzick.

To find out if an item is inscribable or not it will say "Inscription: <whatever the inscription is>" if it's inscribable but currently has no inscription on it, then it will say "Inscription: None".

If your shield does not have the word "Inscription" in the description anywhere, then it is not an inscribable shield, thus cannot accept the handle mod.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Shield#Strength_Shields
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Shield#Tactics_Shields

Has nice tables on what shields you can get from where. Have a look in the NF + EotN sections. Each item should have a picture on its respective page. If it doesn't, you can probably find one via the search feature on these forums

Even if it's uninscribable, if it's from NF/EoTN it can be upgraded with a shield handle.

It would seem that the Bonus Mission Pack shields are also inscribable and upgradeable.

Thanks for all the help guys. I'm going to have a tough time settling on what kind of shield I want to grab. Most of the ones I like are in Factions. >.>


Edit : Ah great. A bunch of the nice shields are tactics, lol.