Pandamonium is Too Hard! (Rant)

[Martyr]

I went to the Collusseum to fight Wizards and Captains, even though it's a rare battle.

I found a Quartz Armor, which is okay defence w/ good Evade.
I also figured out which Diamong Armor is my Good Evade Diamond Armor.

Question 1: Will shield level help my evade if I'm not using a shield? (Like, if I use a shield to up my levels, and then drop the shield at lv. 10 or 16 or whatever. Will it add a basic amount to my evade? I know that HAVING a shield will then add to def and evade, but I just want to know if there's a side effect of having just the level of shields high that also adds to the evade.)
Question 1-B: Since my Evade seems to rise with levels in my weapon of choice, would it offer better evade to gain levels in more weapon skills? (I don't think so, because, in that case, Lionheart's evade would be naturally MUCH better than it is... but tell me what you know. Please.)

Question 2: Do Wizards ever drop ASPL (The spell that steals MP)
Question 3: Do you have any other suggestions for hunting for decent armor drops from monsters.

I think I can go to Pandemonium and actually hunt Ribbons and Defenst Gauntlets by killing Lamia Queens, but let's face it. If I'm going to wander through Pandemonium, I'm not leveling or item hunting anymore. I'm trying to beat the game, so it isn't very useful to do that.

It sucks that paramekia Castle is gone. Are there any other high level dungeons? Even the Mysidia tower is a joke to me now.