Bakaryu is the Halberd player! Pt with him at P Ava before, almost every rounds 2mins plus. He is good and shock me at how good is Halberd at P. Ava.
I am one of them waiting for modestia to drop...:( but i got 2h and add instead...still no modestia
You should try farming at Hard. Book shield drop there easier in my opinion. Got around 5-6 when i was farming there b4 very hard open.
Personally from my own exp and opinion, i hope you didn't start off with katana character. I started with katana, it is very hard to get party...