Petra Shields

[Ermengardi Atkisson]

CYPRESSTexas, March 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Petra Automotive Products, the fastest growing premium automotive products manufacturer in the world, is proud to announce the launch of several maintenance products designed to protect the unique needs of today's passenger cars and trucks. By using these enhanced products manufacturers, service departments, and independent shops will be providing premium fluids and engine products resulting in more satisfied customers and better running vehicles.

"New demands on engine oils, high-performance gasoline direct-injection (GDI) engines, turbocharging, and advanced electronics are designed to squeeze out every bit of power, fuel economy, and emissions performance possible in today's vehicles. At Petra we are continually pushing the envelope of vehicle maintenance products in order to keep pace, and often ahead, of these changes," said Arnold Gacita Sr., Founder of Petra Automotive Products.

Petra Automotive offers a complete lineup of over 360 premium automotive service and car-care products available through over 1,900 automotive dealerships in the U.S. and distributes to 37 countries worldwide.

Petra Automotive Products is family-owned and headquartered in Cypress, Texas, just outside Houston. Since 2010, the company's mission has been to create automotive maintenance products and services that facilitate superior vehicle performance and provide world-class customer service through automotive dealers, auto chains, and independent vehicle repair facilities. To date, Petra has created over 360 offerings and is the fastest growing premium automotive products manufacturer in the world, delivering Petra branded products to 37 countries worldwide. Since its inception, Petra has continued to build product strength and value by offering innovative warranty programs and vehicle maintenance training. To learn more, visit www.petraautoproducts.com or call 1-888-Petra-61.

Before reading on, please note that the following weapons are a matter of personal opinion and are listed in no particular order as each weapon brings their own unique qualities that are entirely dependent on your own playstyle.

One major factor that may play a part in your decision to stick with the Varin's Axe is the fact that switching and upgrading weapons in Assassin's Creed Valhalla isn't exactly easy, as you'll quickly learn that materials to upgrade weapons aren't super abundant, so unless you're doing a ton of wealth locations you may find it hard to upgrade a variety of weapons.

Depending on your playstyle, we paired the Varin's Axe with the Sarcophagus Shield, as it allows you to block any attacks you fail to parry, while still remaining fast as the Varin's Axe increases your speed after each hit for up to 10 times.

Despite having already impressive mobility, when coupled with the Brush With Death skill (Raven), you'll be nearly impossible to hit once you have perfected your dodges, as your heightened senses will make others around you move slower for a short time period.

While this Perk is active, simply sit back and watch as you absolutely annihilate most of the enemies encounter, as you'll receive an added bonus of increased melee damage thanks to the Yngling Seax's Perk that sees all damage after a dodge increased for 2.5s.

Located in the Dhustone Quarry of the Sciropescire region, the Sarcophagus Shield is among one of our favorite go-to shields to use. With impressive stats across both Attack, Block, and Stun, it will be challenging for enemies for hit through the shield or even knock you down when using it to block.

Despite sharing similar stats with the Sarcophagus Shield, the Plank and Buckler Shield's Perk offers the ability to Increase Heavy Damage when parrying. This can make for a very powerful combination when pairing the shield with a weapon that deals consistent Heavy damage such as the Blacksmith's Hammer - which we will explain in more detail in the section below.

When combining the shield's Perk of Increased Heavy Damage when Parrying and the Blacksmiths Hammer's ability to have Heavy Critical Hits Knock enemies on the ground, it's hard not to imagine the powerful combinations on offer. Such a combination could play out as parrying an attack and following it through with an even heavier attack that will send your enemies flying backwards.

While you will need to keep this weapon upgraded as you progress throughout the game to keep it relevant with other weapons, it is still highly recommended to run the Sepulcher Axe through to the mid game - at the very least.

As the name suggests, the Spinning-Death Flail is arguably one the most satisfying weapons we have had the chance to use so far in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Despite its visual appeal, the Spinning-Death flail can really pack a punch, especially should a Fire Bomb drop when performing a successful Heavy Finisher Hit.

To further our claim of the weapon's greatness, the Spinning-Death Flail also has surprising low weight, which allows you to dodge and evade any incoming attacks quite easily. You will even notice that enemies will more often than not struggle to dodge your attacks as the AoE on the Flail is considerably large.

Next up we have the Fafnir's Fang, a trusty early game spear that can pack some damage when fully upgraded. While admittedly against spear to begin with, the Fafnir's Fang really started to grown on us when it was combined with a pretty nutty combination that will likely surprise many players.

As crazy as it may sound, running dual-wielded Spears is actually a thing - a really good thing at that. When pairing the Fafnir's Fang with the Fyrd Spear you are able increase both your speed while dodging and the Critical Chance when surrounded by up to five enemies.

It's no secret that Bows don't exactly hold up all that well against the melee weapons in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, but thankfully you aren't put in a position where you will have to choose between the two weapon types as your Bow will always be with you.

While there are plenty of bows to choose from, we found the Petra's Arc to be one of the most useful, due to its unique weapon Perk that increases Critical Damage when full Health, making it our go to weapon for any stealth situations.

When combined with the Wolf skill that allows you to manually control your arrows, it's hard to pass up the Petra's Arc, especially when faced with situation that you would much rather deal with from afar.

The following 4 weapons are all created by the Isu, the first civilization, and many of these mighty weapons have passed down into myth and legend. They boast extreme power and ability - but you won't be able to find them until endgame, or even after beating the main story, so be warned.

What makes Odin's Spear, Gungnir, so powerful is the sheer reach advantage as the weapon's unique Perk extends the Spear's reach by a force field. This means that Odin's Spear has the longest reach in the game and has a massive AoE.

The build that you choose to run with Odin's Spear is entirely up to you, but I think we can all agreed that no matter what you pick, the combination is going to destroy anything that crosses its path.

Mjolnir is a slow hitter for a one-handed weapon, but beyond boasting extreme damage output, it also uses the power of lightning to deal a major amount of stun damage with almost every hit - stunning both your target and anyone around.

In fact, it's guaranteed to deal stun damage to everyone after a finishing blow, which makes it perfect for combining with increase stun damage runes to quickly perform stun finishers on even the most mighty enemies.

Of all the mythical weapons however, it takes the most time to obtain, as you'll literally have to do almost everything in the game - including wiping out the Order of the Ancients - just to be worthy of wielding it.

It's main strength lies in its ability to do even more damage the farther you are from a target, making it a great sniper tool even as a Hunter Bow. Even close-range enemies will fear its huge damage output, but put some distance on a tough target and they'll go down with ease.

The bow has been expertly hidden, and required some of the sharpest minds of Assassin's Creed fans to decipher the ancient Isu language and find clues in the Collector's Edition just to find it's resting place - and how to reveal it using Excalibur at just the right time.

Dura-Europos: The only intact surviving example of a Roman scutum is a painted rawhide and wood shield from the early to mid-3rdC CE found at Dura-Europos in Syria. Along with many of the objects from Dura-Europos within the World Between Empires exhibition, their home institution is now Yale University Art Gallery. In her essay for the Dura-Europos: Crossroads of Antiquity volume from 2011, Yale University conservator Carol Snow remarked on the colors on the shields found at the site:

Layers on the other shields were found to contain gypsum and lime white ground, red and green earth pigments, carbon black, vermillion, and indigo over a substrate of pine, presumed by Professor Samuel Record of Yale to be Aleppo pine. These shields were cleaned mechanically in the field to remove burial dirt, and the paint was consolidated with polyvinyl acetate, the same synthetic resin that Pearson used on the wall paintings.

Only a few years ago, the Dura-Europos wooden shields underwent extensive x-radiographs and x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy in order to decipher the pigments that should be used for restoration. Particularly impressive is the analysis done on the Roman parade shield found there with scenes from the Trojan War. Technology is clearly allowing for polychromy to be reimagined in new and important ways. But these myriad objects from Dura-Europos (along with the frescoes in the exhibition), also remind viewers of the vibrant color of antiquity outside of the city of Rome.

Architectural elements are often overlooked for more sensational figurines, frescoes, and epitaphs within museums, but I loved thinking about how white, red, yellow, and blue pigments covered the ceiling and walls in the structure. When most people in the U.S. think of Petra (if they do), it tends to be as the ubiquitous color of sand captured in movies like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In reality? Nabatean statues and architecture were often painted in vibrant colors at Petra, just as they were most other places in the ancient Mediterranean.

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