Fiona questions

[Toothpicks]

I've been using the small shield for it's DPS but is there any advantage to using a Large shield? I see high levels using them in raids constantly and I don't understand why they would choose that over the small shield.

I've also been using a sword because it's faster and has multi-hit smashes for relatively low stamina but I always end up getting hit when fighting the trash mobs. Got any tips for me on how to handle them? I use the shield dash focal point on groups and the Ivy Sweep when I dont have SP. Videos would be helpful as well.

Thanks

[Kruger Dunning]

Large shields usually give you a pretty solid boost to your defence stat over small shields
They use less stamina when blocking
They don't get knocked out of heavy stander or get pushed around like small shields do which allows them to block entire heavy combos from raid bosses and then be right up against the boss when the combo stops to get their hits in.

To put it simply, heavy shields give Fiona a crazy amount of survivability.
And sometimes when you're doing a hard raid with a big group of people, surviving and being able to revive or protect your teammates beats doing more damage.
And with abilities like taunt they can sit behind their shield and soak up boss attacks all day while the rest of the party attacks them from behind.

With all that said, I greatly prefer small shields. Counter attacking is too fun.

As far as your other question goes, don't be afraid to block and counter even small enemies.
You can block projectiles and stuff too.
If the problem is that you're getting caught mid combo and getting hit then Fiona's skill Shield Deflection will allow you to interupt a lot of your own attacks to do a quick block, then go right back to your combo with bonus damage on the next smash.

I hope that helps.

[Toothpicks]

It helps a lot. Kinda just reinforces my opinion of small shields but it's good to know that I'm not missing anything. Just finished getting my NH longsword and Small Shield too.

One more question though. I have yet to be able to solo SG because willy's gas attacks won't allow me to hit him. Is there any way to counter that? I looked up videos but I could only find one where the gas was like in the air far above the player so it didn't hit her anyway.

[Kruger Dunning]

I'm actually having troubles with the same thing
I have noticed that it seems like you can actually block the gas, and if you block it once you'll be immune to it for the rest of the clouds duration.
(You can even counter attack off the gas which I thought was hilarious.)