Who is the best Countering-Tank

[Oliopro]

So I'm trying to pick which character would be the best character to equip firefly to and then use the heat to counter as many attacks as possible. Of course you want the character to be able to survive so just getting the best counter-rate isn't the only consideration. I'm mainly looking at the shield users for their good defense and the bonuses to counter they get with a successful shield Block.

We ignore Cecile and Nicolas because they have no free rune slots. This leaves, Fred, Mua, Sharon and Twaikin.
When it comes to shields we can either use the Mangosh: Def +19, Counter-Attack +50% or the entire Guardian Set: Def +87, Lightning Resist 20%, Water Resist 20%, Wind Resist 20%, Counter-Attack +50%. Picking the Guardian set means we don't get to choose other headgear or armor.
In the case of not picking the Guardian Set, Mua and Twaikin would pick Windspun Armor and Flame Casque/Horned Helm (I don't know if you can only get 1 horned helm or not)
Fred would pick either True Thunderbolt Leather/Dragon Scale (Once again, I don't know how many Dragon Scales you can get) and wear a flame Casque
Everyone would equip the Counter Ring and the Firefly Rune. Mua and Sharon would also equip the Counter Rune.

Now the interesting part of this. Sharon. Sharon gets access to the Feathered Band and the Master Garb. This armor has a much lower def value then the other characters can field but you get +1 to counter-attack and Parry from this.

All of these assume you've selected the title captain with Jefferson. (Counter-Attack +1)
Fred 1-HdG: Flame Casque Armor: Thndblt Leather Shield: Mangosh Acc: Counter Ring Runes: Firefly
= Def +150, Pwr +15, Acc +1 +10%, Flm Res +30%, Lgh Res +30%, Counter-Atk +1 +50% Skills: Shield Protect: S, Counter-Attack: D +50%
Fred 2-HdG: Flame Casque Armor: Dragon Scale Shield: Mangosh Acc: Counter Ring Runes: Firefly
= Def +160, Pwr +15, Acc +1, Flm Res +30%, Heal 10hp per turn, Continue-Atk +1, Counter-Atk +1 +50% Skills: Shield Protect: S, Counter-Attack: D +50%, Continue Attack: E
Fred G-Guardian Set Def +87, Lightning Resist 20%, Water Resist 20%, Wind Resist 20%, Counter-Attack +50% Acc: Counter Ring Runes: Firefly
= Def +90, Lightning Resist 20%, Water Resist 20%, Wind Resist 20%, Counter-Attack +1 +50% Skills: Shield Protect: S, Counter-Attack: D +50%

Mua 1-HdG: Flame Casque Armor:Windspun Armor Shield: Mangosh Acc: Counter Ring Runes: Firefly, Counter
= Def +178, Pwr +15, Acc +1, Flm Res 30%, Spd +15, Holy Dash +1, Wd Res 30%, Counter-Atk +1 +100% Skills: Shield Protect: B+, Counter-Attack: D +100%
Mua 2-HdG: Horned Helm Armor: Windspun Armor Shield: Mangosh Acc: Counter Ring Runes: Firefly, Counter
= Def +186, Dmg +1, Spd +15, Holy Dash +1, Wd Res 30%, Counter-Atk +1 +100% Skills: Shield Protect: B+, Counter-Attack: D +100%
Mua G-Guardian Set Def +87, Lightning Resist 20%, Water Resist 20%, Wind Resist 20%, Counter-Attack +50% Acc: Counter Ring Runes: Firefly, Counter
= Def +90, Lightning Resist 20%, Water Resist 20%, Wind Resist 20%, Counter-Attack +1 +50% Skills: Shield Protect: B+, Counter-Attack: D +100%

Twaikin 1-HdG: Flame Casque Armor: Windspun Armor Shield: Mangosh Acc: Counter Ring Runes: Firefly
= Def +178, Pwr +15, Acc +1, Flm Res 30%, Spd +15, Holy Dash +1, Wd Res 30%, Counter-Atk +1 +100% Skills: Shield Protect: B+, Counter-Attack: D +50%
Twaikin 2-HdG: Horned Helm Armor: Windspun Armor Shield: Mangosh Acc: Counter Ring Runes: Firefly
= Def +186, Dmg +1, Spd +15, Holy Dash +1, Wd Res 30%, Counter-Atk +1 +100% Skills: Shield Protect: B+, Counter-Attack: D +50%
Twaikin G-Guardian Set Def +87, Lightning Resist 20%, Water Resist 20%, Wind Resist 20%, Counter-Attack +50% Acc: Counter Ring Runes: Firefly
= Def +90, Lightning Resist 20%, Water Resist 20%, Wind Resist 20%, Counter-Attack +1 +50% Skills: Shield Protect: B+, Counter-Attack: D +50%

Sharon-HdG: Feathered Band Armor: Master Garb Shield: Mangosh Acc: Counter Ring Runes: Firefly, Counter
= Def +72, Counter-Attack +2, Parry +1, Counter +100% Skills: Shield Protect: B, Parry A, Counter-Attack: C +100%

So the question boils down to this. Would Sharon be able to survive to take advantage of her superior counter-rate over the other characters and if she can is the other characters counter rates low enough for that to be a draw. If not Sharon then what combination is better. I see it as a question between Fred's S rank in Shield Protect and Mua's 2 free rune slots. Our alternatively is there another non-shield character who can take advantage of the counter ring and firefly better than these choices.

[eldrasidar]

having the highest available shield rank seems to make the most difference in terms of countering. An S gives an insane bonus to shield blocking and makes for the most likely trigger for the character following up with a counter. If I remember correctly, you only counter normally after repelling a hit, which for most tanks is highly unlikely, cause they are heavy armored, and most don't have high speed or repel skills. As a result, the counter attack skill itself is fairly useless to them for straight up countering.

Parry is an alternative to Shield Blocking. The difference between the two is that a high level shield-blocker will nearly always shield block, but will only counter about half the time, while a high skill in parry will nearly always counter attack if they parry, but are substantially less reliable when it comes to initiating a parry in the first place. adding in counter-attack as a skill benefits the shield-blocking more than the parrying as a result.

To see how parrying works out, you might want to look into Percival and Thomas. Percival has a B+ in counter and an A in parry, whilst thomas has an A+ in parry. Percival's high counter essentially mimics the effect of the mangosh and counter runes and as he can get boosted to an A+ in counter giving him a 150% bonus to countering after parrying. Thomas on the other hand can get an S in parry with master garb, and can then just equip a counter rune and firefly rune. If you were to test these two characters out, you would find that Thomas ends up parrying and countering far more than Percival. The fact is, that the difference between A and S in parrying success is a ton. You go from parrying 30% of the time to parrying 75% of the time. The fact that Percival can gain a massive bonus to countering rate after parrying is nulled by the fact that he doesn't parry over 2/3rds of the time. Where Percival will be better than thomas though, is that he'll be in heavier armor, and thus won't get damaged much when he doesn't parry.

Seeing as Parry is a mostly unreliable skill(unless you are augustine or thomas), It's better for our tank to focus on shield defending as a method for generating counter attacks to do damage. In order to reliably activate shield defense, a character needs at least an A (65%). The Chaos Shield gives a +1 bonus to shield protect. Using that shield, Twaikin and Mua can pick up A's, Nicholas an A+, and Cecile an S. and Fred already has an S to begin with. Now you initially dismissed Cecile and Nicholas from your list of tanks, because neither of them have a free slot to equip the firefly rune. I would say it is worth considering them, as with skunk runes and blue ribbons, a player can simulate the same effect as a firefly rune. This is what I'd expect from each of the Shield Bearers:

Sharon: in spite of her above average speed, her low skills will make her less effective in the role of a tank, as you'll sacrifice too much durability on her in order to just barely make her as effective at countering as other characters naturally are.

Twaikin: Twaikin's most noticeable advantage will be his magic resistance. He has the highest natural magic defense stat, and can take gold emblems to raise his B+ magic resistance. As far as countering goes, he will block as much as Mua, be slightly less consistent at countering after, but will hit harder when he does.

Mua: Should be considered the average counter attacker of the bunch. he'll counter nearly always after blocking, but won't block as much to begin with as others. Being able to take counter and firefly runes makes him the easiest to work with as well.

Nicolas: If equipped with a Mangosh, Nicolas will be identical to Mua, except he'll hit harder when he counter attacks. If equipped with a Chaos Shield, he'll shield block much more, but counter attack slightly less on average.

Cecile: Cecile is the heaviest hitter of all the shield bearers, will shield block very consistently and counter just as consistently while equipped with a mangosh.

Fred: Will block almost all the time, and will counter consistently too, his damage will be slightly higher than Mua's, but lower than everyone else's.

[gildedtalon]

My favourite of the shield bearers is Sharon, but not for tanking, for damage dealing

[Oliopro]

Thank you very much eldrasidar, your post was very informative. I kind of expected Sharon to be a miss I just wanted to be sure. Leaning towards giving the counter ring to either Fred or Cecile.