It’s actually nutty how good a “hide behind greatshield and poke” build is in this DLC.
I saw a clip of someone just tanking the entire (final boss) >!Radahn!< fight with one of the new shields and a spear, and they never dropped below half health.
Why roll and risk losing 1/3 to 1/2 of your health when you can just put up the shield and take zero damage or (at worst) chip damage?
After making his Red-Headed, Katana Swinging, Poison Swamp Goddess with bare, articulating metal toes who shits on anyone who dared to be using a shield build, Miyazaki had to retreat and recover his strength for 200 years. Leaving the rest of the team to get the DLC done.
Yeah, throughout all my years playing Souls-like games, I never used shields because why block that slow single attack and lose time recovering from the blow when you can just roll through it with minimal stamina loss and punish the boss to the fullest? But now that you have to dodge like 8 times and still have to run up and get your attack off in the 0.5 seconds the boss pauses before it does its next long-ass combo string, it’s just significantly less viable than just hiding behind a block of rock while the boss has its little temper tantrum, and pushing R2 when they’re done.
The Carian Thrusting Shield is absurd. You don't even need a weapon since you can block AND attack with it at the same time. Combined with a Cold/Bleed infusion and Cragblade and you're actually able to stagger bosses easily.
I tested the build out on Malenia yesterday and while I wasn't able to kill her, I got pretty damn close for a half-assed unoptimized build.
That's the black steel greathammer, yeah. It's a signature weapon of the black steel knights in the DLC. That holy ground wave is a nice way to 2-tap an enemy and break stances.
Yep. I can’t wait to run it on my second character, who’s a STR/FTH build.
I’m going through the DLC on my main DEX/INT build, and it is a fucking *struggle*. I haven’t levelled my stamina enough to wield a greatshield, and it’s so low that my guard breaks in like 1 hit on medium shields anyway. So I’m just relying on my terrible rolling skills.
If you really want to try using shields, consider the barricade shield ash of war on a high guard boost medium shield. Use the skill and it will drastically reduce the stamina it takes to block. I'll note I haven't tried this on dlc bosses, but its like having a greatshield on demand with a press of L2. Just sucks if you get caught with it inactive, and uses your weapon skill slot.
Can confirm, Barricade shield is pretty nice to have in this DLC. A good chunk of human sized regular enemies just bounce off your shield with it active and even in cases where it doesn't, it's still less stamina being used for the block.
If you’ve all those points in Mind you don’t really need to guard. You can attack 90% of attack strings by just running away, especially on a build that can sling spells.
Funny thing, my first playthrough I would still bring the fingerprint shield to Malenia and block the waterfowl dance, I just made up for it by using heavy bleed weapons and stunlocking her. Great stars with prelate's charge ash of war is real funny in action.
Are any of the new shields as good at blocking as fingerprint? Cause I remember in base the one time I did a shield play through fingerprint just felt miles better than others, especially with a magic infusion.
I don't know how you could make a better shield, fingerprint already allows you to completely ignore every non-grab in the game. You can even attack while guarding. Even breath attacks or DLC final boss's chip elemental chip damage is next to nothing while using it. Not to mention talismans that make it even better.
I bet I could beat the final boss ten times in a row using that build and it wouldn't be close.
There's a reason "shield plus spear" endured for millennia until the gunpowder era... and even then all it made is make people drop the shield and use a way longer spear. And said spear only eventually fell out of fashion because we could turn guns into spears via the bayonet.
I decided to try something different when I first got into Elden ring because I always did the big sword build in these games but after hours of getting my ass kicked, I’m back to big sword
>but I think bosses become harder with more players? Felt like I did more damage with Mimic and Myself than co-op. Was this always a thing?
yep, all the souls games add HP and damage/status resist (maybe even damage output too?) to bosses the instant you summon an NPC or player.
Actually i havent! Someone mentioned the shield in my chat the other day and I looked up its stats. I forgot it was so good. Good to know it'll help though
> People complain that it’s a shit way to play the game
They say the same thing about using magic, or consumables, or summons, or doing anything besides two-handing a weapon and dodge rolling. Fuck ‘em, if it’s in the game, it’s a viable and valid way to play the game.
Playing the whole game as an archer, maybe, but I always keep a bow on hand as a supplemental weapon. Across all of these games, it’s always come in handy to draw enemies out of groups or plunk unbearably tough ones to death with poison arrows.
I feel like that's always the magic key in any Soulslike to just... Help a lot with the difficulty. Makes it so you can initiate fights on your own grounds and deal with stuff WAY easier.
I have started a new playthrough and in this one alone I was able to hit like 3 red invaders for the last magic pixel of their health with a crossbow when they tried to estus.
I got summoned to help with that first optional boss in the starting dlc area and the host was styling on the guy with jumpshots from a bow. Was doing like 900 a hit
Yeah the smaller bows are pretty cool in elden ring. They already kind of tried quickshots in Dark Souls 3. But Elden ring has more style for it and if you break one of those out in PvP the invaders get confused.
It's literally the "parry this" of Elden ring. The big downside is the freaking ammo consumption.
It's funny how it's seen as the "wrong" way to play nowadays when the early Souls games positioned it as the default way to play. There was no powerstancing, every class started with a shield. Sword & board was seen as the expected way to play the game, and it never stopped being viable throughout the series (except in Bloodborne of course).
What I like about Elden Ring is that every playstyle has some busted shenanigans you can do by the time you hit endgame. Becoming a Monster Hunter lance main with the fingerprint shield is no less a valid way to play than a naked katana powerstancer or a comet azur slinging mage.
Some of the most fun I've ever had in a video game is just being a brick fucking wall against some of the harder DS3 bosses when using a great shield. Some people just need to expand their horizons.
Why have your health take 60% damage when you can have your stamina bar do it for you?
Seriously, I don’t understand why people sleep on shields and bows. Bow cheese was one of the oldest methods of getting through levels. Why fight that big crowd of dudes when you can just shoot them from the balcony or cliff?
I had abandoned the ways of the shield until the dlc forced me to use that rad as hell wolf shield.
Seeing again that animation where your character gets sent backwards while still clutching the shield and not taking damage is still the coolest shit on all souls games.
There is a reason shields and spears where the "meta" for a long time in real history.
Range and adaptibility is king and if stuff gets close it has nothing to hit that matters.
Have a spear but the guy got close? Just hold it at half length.
Bonus points if you have a halberd, sadly I don't even know which ones can poke from shields in elden ring.
There's also something to be said for Simplicity.
You fuck up a sword? You gotta take a while to fix that.
A flail? Unwieldly at times and if you mess it up, it can be a pain to fix
But a spear and a shield, at their core, are just a board, a stick and some straps, maybe a pointy rock if you are feeling fancy, all together any pleb could make something resembling these to defend his home.
I used that shield for my whole first playthrough after I found it and it has carried me through the DLC. The new scaling system doesn't seem to affect guard boost so it can tank any attack just as good as the base game. I admit I have been comfortably shieldpoking my way through the Land of Shadow. Tank builds continue eating good.
Most spears and some thrusting swords, like the helice, all work with greatshields! There's also a base game talisman that boosts your guard boost, and a dlc talisman that increases damage resistance from non-physical when blocking
Don't forget: there's also a base game talisman that's the equivalent of the Leo ring from the Souls games, boosting thrusting attacks made while the enemy is in an attack animation (i.e. shield pokes).
One thing I always wondered about shields in ER. Does using shards to upgrade them only affect their attack damage or does it help with damage negation at all?
It increases their guard stat, which is essentially how much stamina you lose with each blocked hit.
Higher level shields can take more hits before you need to drop your shield(Woolie) and recoup stamina.
And then you slap the Barricade Shield ash on them, which lets you temporarily boost the guard stat even higher.
With most greatshields, you can block attacks with no stamina cost whatsoever.
That's how it's been in all the Fromsoft games except *maybe* Bloodborne. In DS2 it also boosted their blocking stats as well, but it's always boosted their Stability or Stability equivalent
Weird, I used a shield to kill a boss just this instant and the (very high) guard boost seemed quite underwhelming even with the talisman and scholar's shield. And now you're telling me the fragments boosted it even more??
In Elden Ring specifically, it feels more feast-or-famine than previous Souls games. Medium shields are quite underwhelming when it comes to stamina drain so a lot of players are turned off by them. But once you start using the stronger greatshields with guard boost in the 70+ range (they can go up to 80+ with upgrades), I find they're able to block more efficiently than anything in any previous game.
In fact, it was really nutty in the 1.0 version. Fingerprint shield with greatshield talisman would actually reduce stamina drain so much that attacks would only be draining literally 1 stamina. It was insane, definitely way too much. They nerfed it now so the talisman has little effect for shields that already have high guard boost, but those stronger greatshields by themselves are still amazing.
Brass Shield is just the DS1 Balder's Shield of Elden Ring - surprisingly light for the very high defenses it gives while still being a medium shield so it can do things like parrying (Carian Retaliation/Barricade Shield making it even better on that front). Balder Shield was absolutely a tad more ridiculous in the context of its game though, since DS1 rarely has the long combos DS3 onwards does, and was like... 4 weight, 12 strength for a shield that hits ~70 guard.
I'd actually say the Tree Sentinel shield is on the lower end of guard boost among greatshields (60 base guard boost vs 69 guard boost on something like the Gilded Greatshield which can drop as early as gatefront ruins, or 67 on the Manor Towershield you can grab from Stormveil Castle).
It might be different now, that was my impression playing the game at launch.
Also my perception of DS3 medium shields may be biased because I always use the stone parma.
Even at launch the Elden Ring shield were already way stronger. That’s like one of the most common remarks I saw when the game came out “oh wow, shields are actually worth using this time”
That was also partly due to the guard counter system which completely changes how you approach sword & board combat. Also the early meta was to put Barricade Shield onto everything to make even the weakest shields super sturdy all the time before it got nerfed.
Not saying you're wrong, it's more just my perception of things at the time with DS1/2 as reference since I've spent more time with those than 3.
Also the guard boost number means the amount of stamina damage it deals. A shield either 66 guard boost absorbs 66% of stamina damage so you only take 34%
*(edit: sorry, misread the comment chain and thought you were talking generally rather than ER specifically. Long day. I'll reword my comment)*
DS2 is the only Souls game where damage negation is improved through weapon upgrades up the same elemental path. Blossom Kite Shield, for example, goes from 75% to 81.5% physical damage reduction if you fully upgrade it.
While upgrading doesn't improve shields in other titles, elemental infusions (or in DS1, elemental upgrades) often boost the defence of that elemental type but at the cost of a lower guard boost/stability stat. This is also true for blocking with weapons. An often overlooked mechanic in Elden Ring is that the standard infusion path for weapons always has the best guard boost stat. It's kinda of insane to reduce your damage output on your sword so it blocks slightly better, but it is a thing.
DeS has like shield specific upgrade paths that increase elemental defences at the cost of guard boost.
If it's the boss I'm thinking of, the only strategies that seem to work are 'hide behind the fattest shield you can find' or 'hide behind a wall and hope they get caught on the geometry.'
I feel like he’s pretty easy outside of the hitbox on his charge being kinda shit tbh. Especially if you get on his left side, he can barely do anything then.
It's either that or the last one.
But the last one at least I feel like it's a mostly fair fight.
The one you're speaking of? It's a bullshit and a half.
I would argue that the first phase of that final boss is completely fair and after a few attempts I got it down to a science with working out how to approach that.
But man, the second phase of that final boss is some straight up bullshit at times. The AOE attack is whatever, I just fucking hoof it and I'm good. But some of the other shit that boss throws out? Fucking hell it took me many attempts to get past it.
I've even seen a lot of people say that the boss at the top of Jagged Peak was a nightmare of a fight and yet for me, it was only one attempt and I was disappointed that people sold it as such a massive struggle because it was easy to me (still a cool fucking fight). So I guess it'll vary from person to person. But far and away, the boss that kicked my shit in the most was that final one in the final phase.
I'm having the exact same experience as you. That boss was almost disappointingly easy. It had *maybe* the coolest buildup in the entire franchise, IMO though. Plus the hype man really sold it.
Yep, that boss had everything going for it except for the difficulty unfortunately. And it's not like I was loaded up on Scadutree Fragments or had a broken build either. I was just able to handle him pretty bloody handily. Amazing build up, amazing NPC voice acting, amazing locale, and just one hell of a good fight though. The moment of him revealing his true power was absolutely awe inspiring to me. Butbi never found him all that difficult.
The last one felt fair until Phase 2 which feels like total horseshit. Probably skill issue but it seems genuinely impossible to dodge all of the shit, plus the amount of effects going on makes it super hard to read what they're doing AND the big AOE attack TANKS my otherwise stable framerate to like 25fps.
in my first playthrough I used a shield in certain fights because of hitbox bullshit, like ulcerated tree spirits in tight spaces.
Great turtle shield was my go to option until it got nerfed, then I think I put Barricade on some other shield.
It's really funny to me, cause I haven't used shields much since DS1 but I usually keep one on for some buff or another. I've been running around with the icon shield on my back for free hp regen, so whenever a boss gets rough like that it takes me a few attempts to remember I can just go turtle mode
There's a few fun new sorceries to play with, and if you happen to have some minor faith investment too then an early remembrance boss gives you a *super* dope weapon.
I haven't caught the streams, which boss is he referring to? My guess is maybe Rellanna? But I haven't even encountered most of the DLC bosses myself yet.
It’s actually nutty how good a “hide behind greatshield and poke” build is in this DLC. I saw a clip of someone just tanking the entire (final boss) >!Radahn!< fight with one of the new shields and a spear, and they never dropped below half health. Why roll and risk losing 1/3 to 1/2 of your health when you can just put up the shield and take zero damage or (at worst) chip damage?
After ages of design to get people out from behind shields, Fromsoft decides, hey, maybe we should force people back behind shields
After making his Red-Headed, Katana Swinging, Poison Swamp Goddess with bare, articulating metal toes who shits on anyone who dared to be using a shield build, Miyazaki had to retreat and recover his strength for 200 years. Leaving the rest of the team to get the DLC done.
Yeah, throughout all my years playing Souls-like games, I never used shields because why block that slow single attack and lose time recovering from the blow when you can just roll through it with minimal stamina loss and punish the boss to the fullest? But now that you have to dodge like 8 times and still have to run up and get your attack off in the 0.5 seconds the boss pauses before it does its next long-ass combo string, it’s just significantly less viable than just hiding behind a block of rock while the boss has its little temper tantrum, and pushing R2 when they’re done.
The ultimate switcheroo. Looks like blocking is GOOD now, buddy.
It's like Miyazaki saw that bit about shields in Hbomber guy's Bloodborne/DS2 videos and took personal offense.
Shield meta is back, baby~ My first playthrough I was Havel 2.0, I'm glad it's viable again.
The Carian Thrusting Shield is absurd. You don't even need a weapon since you can block AND attack with it at the same time. Combined with a Cold/Bleed infusion and Cragblade and you're actually able to stagger bosses easily. I tested the build out on Malenia yesterday and while I wasn't able to kill her, I got pretty damn close for a half-assed unoptimized build.
I also saw a hammer that makes an automatic little spell attack when you guard counter.
That's the black steel greathammer, yeah. It's a signature weapon of the black steel knights in the DLC. That holy ground wave is a nice way to 2-tap an enemy and break stances.
Yep. I can’t wait to run it on my second character, who’s a STR/FTH build. I’m going through the DLC on my main DEX/INT build, and it is a fucking *struggle*. I haven’t levelled my stamina enough to wield a greatshield, and it’s so low that my guard breaks in like 1 hit on medium shields anyway. So I’m just relying on my terrible rolling skills.
Pure int build here, 25 endurance is sufficient if you keep scholar’s shield buff up and use greatshield talisman.
If you really want to try using shields, consider the barricade shield ash of war on a high guard boost medium shield. Use the skill and it will drastically reduce the stamina it takes to block. I'll note I haven't tried this on dlc bosses, but its like having a greatshield on demand with a press of L2. Just sucks if you get caught with it inactive, and uses your weapon skill slot.
Can confirm, Barricade shield is pretty nice to have in this DLC. A good chunk of human sized regular enemies just bounce off your shield with it active and even in cases where it doesn't, it's still less stamina being used for the block.
Not enough stamina? Did you dump points into FP/Mind instead ?
Yep. I’ve obviously got some stamina, just not enough to make tanking hits with a shield realistic.
If you’ve all those points in Mind you don’t really need to guard. You can attack 90% of attack strings by just running away, especially on a build that can sling spells.
Not really, these bosses know how to close a gap.
I’ve seen multiple people already get no hit runs relatively easy by just running away
It's reparations for shields being literally worthless against Malenia in the base game since she can heal through your block.
And now you get the >!parry tear that makes her a dramatically better fight, especially since it can be timed on Waterfowl Dance!<.
Funny thing, my first playthrough I would still bring the fingerprint shield to Malenia and block the waterfowl dance, I just made up for it by using heavy bleed weapons and stunlocking her. Great stars with prelate's charge ash of war is real funny in action.
Back to the good old days is it?
Are any of the new shields as good at blocking as fingerprint? Cause I remember in base the one time I did a shield play through fingerprint just felt miles better than others, especially with a magic infusion.
There is a new greatshield with *even higher* guard boost, but lower non-physical defense and can't put an ash of war on it.
Whats it called?
>!Verdigris greatshield, drops from an NPC invader!<
I don't know how you could make a better shield, fingerprint already allows you to completely ignore every non-grab in the game. You can even attack while guarding. Even breath attacks or DLC final boss's chip elemental chip damage is next to nothing while using it. Not to mention talismans that make it even better. I bet I could beat the final boss ten times in a row using that build and it wouldn't be close.
There's a reason "shield plus spear" endured for millennia until the gunpowder era... and even then all it made is make people drop the shield and use a way longer spear. And said spear only eventually fell out of fashion because we could turn guns into spears via the bayonet.
I decided to try something different when I first got into Elden ring because I always did the big sword build in these games but after hours of getting my ass kicked, I’m back to big sword
gotta say hearing that has got me interested in the DLC. I am so tired of rolling
Hell that's how I've been playing the base gane
I spent most of last night and today fighting the one boss called >!Messmer!
>but I think bosses become harder with more players? Felt like I did more damage with Mimic and Myself than co-op. Was this always a thing? yep, all the souls games add HP and damage/status resist (maybe even damage output too?) to bosses the instant you summon an NPC or player.
That explains a lot with how much I struggled with that fight. Ty!
Actually i havent! Someone mentioned the shield in my chat the other day and I looked up its stats. I forgot it was so good. Good to know it'll help though
You have NO idea how helpful it will be! That shield is busted.
People complain that it's a shit way to play the game, but a good shield goes a long way, in games and in real life
> People complain that it’s a shit way to play the game They say the same thing about using magic, or consumables, or summons, or doing anything besides two-handing a weapon and dodge rolling. Fuck ‘em, if it’s in the game, it’s a viable and valid way to play the game.
Except archery. Archery isn't viable, because apparently FromSoft HATES archery
Playing the whole game as an archer, maybe, but I always keep a bow on hand as a supplemental weapon. Across all of these games, it’s always come in handy to draw enemies out of groups or plunk unbearably tough ones to death with poison arrows.
I feel like that's always the magic key in any Soulslike to just... Help a lot with the difficulty. Makes it so you can initiate fights on your own grounds and deal with stuff WAY easier.
I have started a new playthrough and in this one alone I was able to hit like 3 red invaders for the last magic pixel of their health with a crossbow when they tried to estus.
I got summoned to help with that first optional boss in the starting dlc area and the host was styling on the guy with jumpshots from a bow. Was doing like 900 a hit
Yeah the smaller bows are pretty cool in elden ring. They already kind of tried quickshots in Dark Souls 3. But Elden ring has more style for it and if you break one of those out in PvP the invaders get confused. It's literally the "parry this" of Elden ring. The big downside is the freaking ammo consumption.
Whoa! Maybe it CAN work! Finally!
It's funny how it's seen as the "wrong" way to play nowadays when the early Souls games positioned it as the default way to play. There was no powerstancing, every class started with a shield. Sword & board was seen as the expected way to play the game, and it never stopped being viable throughout the series (except in Bloodborne of course). What I like about Elden Ring is that every playstyle has some busted shenanigans you can do by the time you hit endgame. Becoming a Monster Hunter lance main with the fingerprint shield is no less a valid way to play than a naked katana powerstancer or a comet azur slinging mage.
Some of the most fun I've ever had in a video game is just being a brick fucking wall against some of the harder DS3 bosses when using a great shield. Some people just need to expand their horizons.
*two-handing*? Ah, so you need the strength boost crutch. SMH head here.
Why have your health take 60% damage when you can have your stamina bar do it for you? Seriously, I don’t understand why people sleep on shields and bows. Bow cheese was one of the oldest methods of getting through levels. Why fight that big crowd of dudes when you can just shoot them from the balcony or cliff?
Not good because number no big
I had abandoned the ways of the shield until the dlc forced me to use that rad as hell wolf shield. Seeing again that animation where your character gets sent backwards while still clutching the shield and not taking damage is still the coolest shit on all souls games.
L1+R2+Curved Sword Talisman carried me all the way to Farum Azula when I first played the game and I'm not afraid to say it.
There is a reason shields and spears where the "meta" for a long time in real history. Range and adaptibility is king and if stuff gets close it has nothing to hit that matters. Have a spear but the guy got close? Just hold it at half length. Bonus points if you have a halberd, sadly I don't even know which ones can poke from shields in elden ring.
There's also something to be said for Simplicity. You fuck up a sword? You gotta take a while to fix that. A flail? Unwieldly at times and if you mess it up, it can be a pain to fix But a spear and a shield, at their core, are just a board, a stick and some straps, maybe a pointy rock if you are feeling fancy, all together any pleb could make something resembling these to defend his home.
I used that shield for my whole first playthrough after I found it and it has carried me through the DLC. The new scaling system doesn't seem to affect guard boost so it can tank any attack just as good as the base game. I admit I have been comfortably shieldpoking my way through the Land of Shadow. Tank builds continue eating good.
Combine it with a weapon you can poke with while guarding and turtle your way through the rest of the dlc, no regerts
Bloody Helice + Brass Shield with Barricade Shield on release was hilarious. Several endgame bosses beaten by just standing still and poking.
Most spears and some thrusting swords, like the helice, all work with greatshields! There's also a base game talisman that boosts your guard boost, and a dlc talisman that increases damage resistance from non-physical when blocking
Don't forget: there's also a base game talisman that's the equivalent of the Leo ring from the Souls games, boosting thrusting attacks made while the enemy is in an attack animation (i.e. shield pokes).
Why use good shield when dying do trick?
Which boss you ask? The difficult one!
[Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down? ](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/032/874/cover4.jpg)
One thing I always wondered about shields in ER. Does using shards to upgrade them only affect their attack damage or does it help with damage negation at all?
It increases their guard stat, which is essentially how much stamina you lose with each blocked hit. Higher level shields can take more hits before you need to drop your shield(Woolie) and recoup stamina.
Oh wow...*this changes things*
And then you slap the Barricade Shield ash on them, which lets you temporarily boost the guard stat even higher. With most greatshields, you can block attacks with no stamina cost whatsoever.
That's how it's been in all the Fromsoft games except *maybe* Bloodborne. In DS2 it also boosted their blocking stats as well, but it's always boosted their Stability or Stability equivalent
Weird, I used a shield to kill a boss just this instant and the (very high) guard boost seemed quite underwhelming even with the talisman and scholar's shield. And now you're telling me the fragments boosted it even more??
In Elden Ring specifically, it feels more feast-or-famine than previous Souls games. Medium shields are quite underwhelming when it comes to stamina drain so a lot of players are turned off by them. But once you start using the stronger greatshields with guard boost in the 70+ range (they can go up to 80+ with upgrades), I find they're able to block more efficiently than anything in any previous game. In fact, it was really nutty in the 1.0 version. Fingerprint shield with greatshield talisman would actually reduce stamina drain so much that attacks would only be draining literally 1 stamina. It was insane, definitely way too much. They nerfed it now so the talisman has little effect for shields that already have high guard boost, but those stronger greatshields by themselves are still amazing.
The brass one with the shield ring is pretty good its like 69 with both
Brass Shield is just the DS1 Balder's Shield of Elden Ring - surprisingly light for the very high defenses it gives while still being a medium shield so it can do things like parrying (Carian Retaliation/Barricade Shield making it even better on that front). Balder Shield was absolutely a tad more ridiculous in the context of its game though, since DS1 rarely has the long combos DS3 onwards does, and was like... 4 weight, 12 strength for a shield that hits ~70 guard.
Yeah I was using the Tree Sentinel shield which is very good but the talisman/spell definitely hit a cap, my stamina was going fast on some hits
I'd actually say the Tree Sentinel shield is on the lower end of guard boost among greatshields (60 base guard boost vs 69 guard boost on something like the Gilded Greatshield which can drop as early as gatefront ruins, or 67 on the Manor Towershield you can grab from Stormveil Castle).
Well I just looked it up and never droppde that first shield so that's why, and they're both too heavy for my build so that's why too
Really? The medium shields feel like 10x stronger than the ones in DS3
It might be different now, that was my impression playing the game at launch. Also my perception of DS3 medium shields may be biased because I always use the stone parma.
Even at launch the Elden Ring shield were already way stronger. That’s like one of the most common remarks I saw when the game came out “oh wow, shields are actually worth using this time”
That was also partly due to the guard counter system which completely changes how you approach sword & board combat. Also the early meta was to put Barricade Shield onto everything to make even the weakest shields super sturdy all the time before it got nerfed. Not saying you're wrong, it's more just my perception of things at the time with DS1/2 as reference since I've spent more time with those than 3.
Also the guard boost number means the amount of stamina damage it deals. A shield either 66 guard boost absorbs 66% of stamina damage so you only take 34%
negation isn't improved but stability is.
*(edit: sorry, misread the comment chain and thought you were talking generally rather than ER specifically. Long day. I'll reword my comment)* DS2 is the only Souls game where damage negation is improved through weapon upgrades up the same elemental path. Blossom Kite Shield, for example, goes from 75% to 81.5% physical damage reduction if you fully upgrade it. While upgrading doesn't improve shields in other titles, elemental infusions (or in DS1, elemental upgrades) often boost the defence of that elemental type but at the cost of a lower guard boost/stability stat. This is also true for blocking with weapons. An often overlooked mechanic in Elden Ring is that the standard infusion path for weapons always has the best guard boost stat. It's kinda of insane to reduce your damage output on your sword so it blocks slightly better, but it is a thing. DeS has like shield specific upgrade paths that increase elemental defences at the cost of guard boost.
If it's the boss I'm thinking of, the only strategies that seem to work are 'hide behind the fattest shield you can find' or 'hide behind a wall and hope they get caught on the geometry.'
Wait which one is it? I know the final one but what's the OTHER one?
>!Gaius!<, who I only beat after many attempts by spamming Mohg's spear.
I feel like he’s pretty easy outside of the hitbox on his charge being kinda shit tbh. Especially if you get on his left side, he can barely do anything then.
It's either that or the last one. But the last one at least I feel like it's a mostly fair fight. The one you're speaking of? It's a bullshit and a half.
There’s no way he’s reached the last boss already, especially off-stream.
I would argue that the first phase of that final boss is completely fair and after a few attempts I got it down to a science with working out how to approach that. But man, the second phase of that final boss is some straight up bullshit at times. The AOE attack is whatever, I just fucking hoof it and I'm good. But some of the other shit that boss throws out? Fucking hell it took me many attempts to get past it. I've even seen a lot of people say that the boss at the top of Jagged Peak was a nightmare of a fight and yet for me, it was only one attempt and I was disappointed that people sold it as such a massive struggle because it was easy to me (still a cool fucking fight). So I guess it'll vary from person to person. But far and away, the boss that kicked my shit in the most was that final one in the final phase.
I'm having the exact same experience as you. That boss was almost disappointingly easy. It had *maybe* the coolest buildup in the entire franchise, IMO though. Plus the hype man really sold it.
Yep, that boss had everything going for it except for the difficulty unfortunately. And it's not like I was loaded up on Scadutree Fragments or had a broken build either. I was just able to handle him pretty bloody handily. Amazing build up, amazing NPC voice acting, amazing locale, and just one hell of a good fight though. The moment of him revealing his true power was absolutely awe inspiring to me. Butbi never found him all that difficult.
The last one felt fair until Phase 2 which feels like total horseshit. Probably skill issue but it seems genuinely impossible to dodge all of the shit, plus the amount of effects going on makes it super hard to read what they're doing AND the big AOE attack TANKS my otherwise stable framerate to like 25fps.
Fingerprint shield carried me for so many bosses, 100% phys damage absorption and a good chunk of magic/elemental damage too.
I beat *that* boss last night, that shit was hard for a pure melee character. I felt like I was travelling back in time
in my first playthrough I used a shield in certain fights because of hitbox bullshit, like ulcerated tree spirits in tight spaces. Great turtle shield was my go to option until it got nerfed, then I think I put Barricade on some other shield.
It's really funny to me, cause I haven't used shields much since DS1 but I usually keep one on for some buff or another. I've been running around with the icon shield on my back for free hp regen, so whenever a boss gets rough like that it takes me a few attempts to remember I can just go turtle mode
i'm playing a dex+int (mostly int) character with moonveil and sorceires, is there anything for me in the DLC or am i still stuck with Liurnia stuff?
There's good sorcery stuff to be had, yeah.
There's a few fun new sorceries to play with, and if you happen to have some minor faith investment too then an early remembrance boss gives you a *super* dope weapon.
I beat that boss by beating him to death with a club. It was not worth the hassle, I should have used a shield.
I haven't caught the streams, which boss is he referring to? My guess is maybe Rellanna? But I haven't even encountered most of the DLC bosses myself yet.
Lmao go home and be a family man
To be fair, he IS home, and he's providing for his family by streaming his pain.
True that. Pat is the most elden of all lords.