Tried upping the BR and got no where apart from blowing 1.68m on tabs and elements (I'm basing this on the price I could sell the elements, not what they cost me).
1. 14-14
2. 14-14
3. Failed
4. 14-14
Seeing as it took me 11 weapon elixirs to get my blade to +2, I can't see much point in trying to get the shield to +3, even though shield elixirs only cost 30-35k. I'd probably just end up breaking the shield.
I'm only lvl 31 and, from my point of view, I've blown a fortune on alchemy already! Unless I stumble across a pile of 50m gold I think I'll just quit alchemy until I'm on 8th degree items.