Area Defender Feat 4

You can use your shield to protect yourself from explosions and other area attacks. You can use the Shield Block reaction while you have your shield raised and you would take physical damage from an area effect, even if that effect isn't an attack, in addition to its usual trigger. When you do, if you're between any allies and the source of the damage (the origin of a line or cone or the center of a burst or emanation), you prevent damage to those allies up to the shield's Hardness.

You can use Area Defender to Shield Block area effects that deal energy damage if you can Shield Block when you would take energy damage from an attack, such as with the Energetic Defender feat or a shield with the blocking trait.