Ive dont plenty of searching and cant quite find the answeres I'm looking for. I have 2 main questons about my BM. Currently sitting at 40 R2L0.

Before hitting for I was specced CD at lvl, swords at a few under lvl and dumped some into sheild just because I will use sheild in my final spec. When I hit 40 I respeced out of sword and into peirce, but at the same time i decided to bump sheild up close to lvl. My thought is that by 42 I want sheild and CD to be @ lvl for slam > Posi styles in Wilton. However, this left my peirce extremely low for my lvl. Before respecing I was able to solo high orange with ease. I could chain yellows 2 or 3 in a row before resting. After respeccing I am even having trouble with some single yellows. I have to rest after each fight and my dmg output seems really low. Is having low peirce really that much of a gimp at lvl 40? My CD is still at lvl. My gear isnt that bad, and most dmg stats are max. Dex is at max, qui is max, str is max. Am I doing something wrong? Should I have waiting till 50 and just purchased a respec stone? I want me 50 spec to be 50CD 42Sheild 39Peirce and rest parry. Should I have max point in CD/Peirce until 50? Or is having 42 sheild in Wilton actually worth it?

My second question is why do I always see high lvl, and high RR BM's using small sheilds? BM's have the ability to use medium sheilds but I never ever see any BM using medium. Is it a stat thing? Is dmg higher on small sheilds?

Thanks in advance for any advice!!

You could try 31 Pierce 34 CD 42 Shield at 43 or something like that to help bring your Pierce up. BMs use small shields for quicker Slams and less endurance usage.

I wouldn't bother with shield for Wilton. The only shield spec worth it is the 42 slam. As you noted, you have to really cut back on pierce spec in order to get it, and it kills your damage. For Wilton just practice positional styles and let the Hero's use their shield for slam. Use your 42 shield spec for Thid so you can keep pierce at a reasonable level. By level 47, you can have 42 shield, 45 CD, 34 Pierce, which I would say is a decent spec for Thid. Even if you just use CD styles, you still need to have a decent amount in pierce for damage as you have discovered. Your only way to do this is just buy a respec stone now and get it fixed.

As for why you see people using small shields, it is for the speed of the shield. If you're only going to use it for slam and not for blocking, you want a fast shield in case your slam misses and you want to try it again. The fastest shields are small shields.

Hope that answers your questions.