Congrats on finding time! Hmm... Cestus vs. Focused Laser Lens vs. Sir Reus's War Shield's "War Shield Bash"
Still, each has their place... Mainly a Block Strength vs. Delay Trade with the War Shield currently.
Your screenshot has the War Shield, so I assume you already took it into account... If the punch is literally Brill's Punch vs. a special Punch... Or if it fires as an automatic counterattack, that changes the calculus.
Congrats on making a good teaser screenshot, making me think!
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Huh, the enemies in the grove south of the Challenge Tower have random drops? I forgot that random drops happen in this game, I thought they were all 100% guarantees! Well that's me corrected. Wood Scorpions dropping Strange Materials. Huh. And Fairies dropping Tonics.