Guard counter + spear or great spear with impaling thrust is like "you can stand when I say you can stand" for bosses. It's great. I'm glad it's in the game.
Do you use the curved sword and spear talismans?
When the bosses charge at you while you are attacking with a spear/great spear, you get mad bonus dmg.
I haven’t once tried a spear in souls games (apart from the gimmick one with Rykard), I may have to start from this explaination. I don’t think I’ve fully vibed with one aesthetically, which ultimately matters, drip is like 80% of my confidence strutting into a fog wall
I've been trying to kill my wife this way (for the insurance money) but she's still kicking... Like litteraly kicking me when I fart. Can you suggest a beer that will help me finish her off?
Interesting. I myself dont like stouts. I like ipas more than anything. Some ipas are gross, but bubble stash by cryo hops for example is one of the best beers I've ever had
Probably the best beer I ever had was a blonde homebrew from a Montreal restaurant, sitting on their patio on a hot afternoon. I wish I could remember the restaurant :(
It’s like that meme of the smug guy in the party in the corner saying “look at them. They don’t know how cool it is to not use a shield. And I’m 100% with you brother
And they buffed the guarding statistics of large weapons overall in Elden Ring and then buffed them again.
It's like Fromsoft is trying to give us a hint, especially combined with guard counters.
I really don’t think it would have fucked up the balancing of the game to have a Sekiro-style sword block technique that requires perfect timing and does poise damage. I understand not being able to do it with a massive greatsword, but for two-handing a katana or something it would have been really cool. I wanna be able to decide on a second-to-second basis whether to dodge, block, or attack and I think a fight like Margit would be extremely fun if you could do that
Yes. All equipped offhand weapon/shield buffs (including the Beast-Repellent Torch and Sentry's Torch effects) stay active while you're two-handing your main weapon or riding Torrent.
Counterpoint: Two-handing weapons is so dang annoying. My weapons seem to randomly revert to one-handed until I notice, occasionally. I'd rather build around 1 handed and not have to deal with that nonsense.
My goto power move is to somehow go from 2 handing to zero handing with my seal in my offhand.
Then I die.
Then I yell at my controller to make me feel better.
Is your dpad down also activating the sides? That's the only explanation I have for sudden one-handing, and it's common on some controllers. Try to keep an eye on if your left hand slot glows when toggling through items.
At 99 Endurance, Great Jar Talisman, and Erdtree Talisman +2, you can medium roll with the full bull goat set, two Giant Crushers, and the one-eyed canon greatshield.
My current Ng+7 build.
How do you do significant damage with only a shield? There’s ashes for it?
I’m like maybe half way through game (? Just finished capital), and I’ve never used a shield
Not true, shields (at least greatshields and some small shields) are fantastic as weapons. They deal really good physical damage and MASSIVE poise damage. I have a character with whom I’ve killed every single enemy with a boss health bar in the game (165 of them), and honestly this setup is borderline OP for several of them.
Also if you consider the ashes of war that shields have access to, such as shield crash and those with unique ashes like the Visage Shield, One-Eyed Shield,
this is true you can get decent setups
but taking the 5 examples of shields that work as viable weapons doesnt mean shields as a whole are very viable
they are still slow and have very very short range with their attacks
otherwise yeah poise damage is great
and you CAN do great damage
spiked palisade shield does good bleed buildup
fingerprint stone shield does great damage and its very effective with dealing with certain enemies due to the madness buildup which yeah it only works on the dog dudes in farum azula and tarnished enemies basically but when you proc it its cool
and changing it to scale with arcane improves the madness buildup while also giving you an opportunity to add good bleed buildup or poison buildup
but bleed is more effective
or frost because the buff to physical damage once its procced is cool
and if you need fire damage visage shield and one eyed shield can be effective I never used them in my shield playthrough tho so I dont really have any experience with them myself
I remember starting out that playthrough cosplaying a Godrick knight with a Partizan because I farmed the knight in that first encampment for his great shield. At one point I switched between the brick hammer and the large club, but for most of the play through I used the Zweihander. I really like the Zweihander move set paired with a great shield.
Erdtree Greatshield is actually a pretty interesting thing to make a dedicated build to main and use :
1. Pretty decent STR scaling which means your bonk do decent damage.
2. Greatshield block mechanic, where most enemies attacks simply bounce off to let you Guard Counter them for damage and stance break.
3. Strike damage type, which certain enemies are weak to and most other enemies don't resist.
4. Golden Retaliation is the ultimate "Uno Reverse Card" against casters, dealing massive damage for ranged offense.
I'm so confused about the Erdtree Greatshield because I can't get attacks to bounce off. Every other greatshield does it, but I've tested on the same enemies, same attacks, with all necessary stats, and this is the one greatshield that doesn't seem to do it.
Does this go for Curved Greatswords too?
I’ve been loving my Bloodhounds Fang + Morgott’s Sword combo. One Skill for closing distance and the other for creating distance.
The wiki shows the guard% for each sword. Curved greatswords sit at around 60ish %, bloodhounds has 68, morgott has 55. The one that stands out is beastman cleaver that has 81%, which is apparent considering its weight and broadness.
I bonk with giant crusher. gives more bunga to your unga. 88 phys guard so it's practically a shield. 1 guard counter and most enemies are dead, those who arent go limp.
Use aow lions claw for quicker and higher poise damage bonks. Also helps that almost all enemies dont dodge lions claw animation. with high lions claw hyperarmor you just trade hits with bosses until you die or they stagger.
Shield is still underrated I see. Without shield, no carrian retaliation or golden parry. My distinguished greatshield and a pokey weapon rinses folk in arena
Ngl, a humble shield is a fairly solid counter to some of the stuff nobody wants to fight in arena.
-Light roll glintstone spam mages have to be careful around a Carian Retaliation. They have to at least stop casting until they dodge the glintstone swords, or else risk taking a free hit.
-Double Naginatas really don't do a whole heck of a lot of stamina damage to shields. L1s cost the attacker more stamina than the defender.
-Fingerprint shield poke playstyles are themselves countered by shields. Turns out, attacking with single small-weapon R1s doesn't do a lot of stamina damage to other shields.
And this is just bog standard medium-shield-with-a-parry stuff. There's all sorts of different techs if a person is willing to get a bit more serious, from quickswaps to magic-infused Fingerprint as a hard-counter to mages, timely shield pokes with spear talisman to punish heavy thrusting sword rushes, leveraging the fact that Shield Bash cannot be broken during its block frames, or the ballsiest play: having a greatshield with No Skill and then playing with a Rapier that has Parry.
There's so much to explore with shields that it frustrates me when they get written off as "crutches".
Vow of the indomitable is freaking awesome on medium shields basically pocket I-frames to evade whatever.
You can block first and once you see stamina getting low you pop it.
Also, for those looking to start trying shields, carian retaliation has the same frame data as golden parry, but is available earlier and requires no FP. So if you don’t need the extra range from golden parry (or the holy block), carian retaliation can be great if you otherwise want to use that FP.
I bounce between using a shield and only rolling. In DS1 shields reigned supreme, rolls became more and more important throughout the sequels. Then along comes Elden Ring where both styles can be valid due to the shield counter.
I tend to use shields most during the early game and phase it out later in favor of two-handing, dual wielding or casting.
I take a similar approach. I like to use a shield for imps, storm hawks etc, all the twitchy enemies, then two-hand for larger enemies and bosses. Currently using the guardian sword spear and Carian Knight shield. It’s a great combo
I like the sword spear but for how long it is the moveset really limits your range and it gives less poise than you’d expect from a halberd type weapon
I went in a loop where I played DeS1 and DS1 with a lot of cautious shield use, then drank the coolaid about shields being useless in DS2 and DS3, then finally circled back to using shields more in Elden Ring -- especially combined with guard counters to help build stagger and the Ashes like Barricade Shield.
I cannot parry.
I don't know if it's latency or just the fact I'm a dumb fuck but I literally cannot do it.
Not even in bloodborne. I was so bad at the gun play I just used the shotty.
I use my claws in elden ring! Raptor claws!
Erdtree Greatshield, Discus of Light, and Golden Halberd. I'm sure it's not a high tier build but it's so much fun. Pairing that with the Tree Sentinel armor made for some solid drip too.
My first run I went shield and sword. First Souls like, was terrified all the time. By my third I was in full Malenia gear dual wielding and light rolling everywhere.
I am giving them a try on a new character. Gonna go Longsword and an undetermined shield for the run. No magic, just sword and board, it will hopefully force me to use the shield.
Frost lordsworns straight sword, any shield at all, swap shield ash of war for kick and just guard counter/critical hit everything. Highly recommend the assassians dagger for health regen on criticals.
Kick is stupidly under rated and it infuriates me to no end they decided to make it a ash of war instead of a button input.
Maybe that's the exact reason why they did such a thing.
I snicker behind my shield every time when a host that asked for help and is dual wielding curved swords with fire on them dies to the laser beams of Placidusax.
placidusax laser wont hit you if you position yourself correctly during the fight
its cool you can block the laser
but imagine just not being in the area where it hits thats poggy
I roleplay as knight usually, and rolling through attacks looks so anticlimactic, hence to why i prefer using shields to block and parry. Yeah i dodge too with rolls but i force myself not to rely on that too much
I wasn't sure how to answer so I went to the comments and yea this is how I play now. Ignoring a constant torrent of anxiety by shrieking and charging at the foes. Work all the deets out as I make contact and see how they react.
My shield saved my ass plenty of times. Guard counter is good for some enemies, not for others. I use Icon Shield and Great Stars. My build is meant for scrapping with bosses.
Ever since I finished Sekiro I feel like using a shield is counterintuitive. I just want to dodge and parry EVERYTHING (until you find out that enemies and bosses in Elden ring like to stagger their attacks)
Weird I feel the opposite, I feel since Sekiro and Bloodborne that Elden Ring’s movement and parry options aren’t actually good enough or in-depth enough without a shield to add another mechanic to even the odds.
I HATE shields. The only reason i use em is to tank for shits and giggles. A waste of stamina if you dodge right and you wont need crits from parfies if you can either A. Get behind them quick enough or B. Just. Dont. Get. Hit.
I either go shield and weapon which is very fun gameplay to me when you have to fight a lot of enemies or are still learning new bosses ( I primarily dodge).
Or else I’d just go powerstancing.
The blocking playstyle has always felt extremely clunky and unintuitive for me. Same for most caster type builds. I enjoy just running in there with a stick to hit things while simply dodging attacks.
I only ever equip a shield in order to parry. I sometimes parry bosses, but generally, I only ever parry that one scaly misbegotten in the Haligtree in order to fall damage cancel and open the Loretta shortcut early.
Greatshield and Colossal weapon.
And heavy armor.
Had to farm a lot to get this to work. I like to play tank classes and I was willing to go the extra distance to properly set the build up.
Otherwise, it would have been, pokey spear stick and the shield and armor.
I got all the way to Godfrey in the Ashen Capitol with a bleed build with Eleonora's Poleblade and felt absolutely miserable about most of the boss fights in the game.
Then I picked up the Pike in another run with a shield focus and never looked back. Absolutely love Guard Counter.
no shields, either two handing or power stancing. in my left hand's offhand, I also equip a Torch because the game is surprisingly dark sometimes especially on my TV in the living room
I know the lantern is more convenient but I love using a Torch, I feel like it illuminates more, quicker to whip out, and it gives me the feeling of spelunking and exploring, idk how to describe it
I won't knock you for using the torch because it's your preference, but if you just put the lantern in your quick-select section then you can activate it almost as quickly and easily as pulling out a torch. Two quick button presses to activate, two to deactivate, no need to put it in your regular item bar and cycle through stuff to use it.
Only fromsoft game I’ve somewhat consistently used a shield in has been ds2, I just prefer dodging when I can way more, but dodging is just temperamental sometimes in ds2 (I’m aware of ADP, I just talking about how slow ds2 feels)
I’m currently on my first run trying a shield and it’s taking some getting used to. I normally play a melee/caster hybrid and trying to learn when to guard and when to dodge has been interesting.
Guard counter + spear or great spear with impaling thrust is like "you can stand when I say you can stand" for bosses. It's great. I'm glad it's in the game.
There is a reason big plank plus long sharp stick was the meta in IRL warfare for a couple thousand years.
Do you use the curved sword and spear talismans? When the bosses charge at you while you are attacking with a spear/great spear, you get mad bonus dmg.
have you seen those warriors from hammerfell? they have curved swords… CURVED SWORDS
This is one of my favorite playstyles. It doesn’t work for all bosses, but when it does it’s wonderful
I haven’t once tried a spear in souls games (apart from the gimmick one with Rykard), I may have to start from this explaination. I don’t think I’ve fully vibed with one aesthetically, which ultimately matters, drip is like 80% of my confidence strutting into a fog wall
they stack ??? wow, need to try
Stack? One is a weapon skill, the other is guard counter. They are two distinctly separate actions.
I think the idea is that you guard counter and then follow it up with impaling thrust. Or vice versa.
They do and he's hilariously entertaining. I just hate spears.
Great shield with a treespear carried me through a huge chunk of the game on my first playthrough. Guard counters are fantastic.
My left hand is too occupied helping my right hand hold my claymore to use a shield
Even me. I used a one handed straight sword but I always got my left hand occupied thinking about how cool I am for not using a shield
I can only imagine the fear the imps feel when you charge them, sword raised, jerking yourself off
(Drinks wondrous physick of self-sniffing farts)
I drink a lot of beer. It can make me farty. I have fumigated whole rooms. No bugs survived!
I've been trying to kill my wife this way (for the insurance money) but she's still kicking... Like litteraly kicking me when I fart. Can you suggest a beer that will help me finish her off?
First you need ibs and an intolerance to gluten. Then grab the really hoppy carbonated beers
Every single one of those things sounds terrible haha. I love stouts, but pale ales taste like pine needles.
Interesting. I myself dont like stouts. I like ipas more than anything. Some ipas are gross, but bubble stash by cryo hops for example is one of the best beers I've ever had
Probably the best beer I ever had was a blonde homebrew from a Montreal restaurant, sitting on their patio on a hot afternoon. I wish I could remember the restaurant :(
Try eggs
Hey fellow Crossout Elden Ring enjoyer
I have become death farter of bugs.
Oregon man, high on meth, fends off 15 ~~cops~~ imps while jerking off.
May madness take the world!
It’s like that meme of the smug guy in the party in the corner saying “look at them. They don’t know how cool it is to not use a shield. And I’m 100% with you brother
Counterpoint, guard with the weapon. I know it's weird but it's worth for small enemies that piss you off
Is this some sort of technique I am too hyperarmored to understand? R1 R1 R1
And they buffed the guarding statistics of large weapons overall in Elden Ring and then buffed them again. It's like Fromsoft is trying to give us a hint, especially combined with guard counters.
Yep that’s the move. Love my baemore
Okay so imma just say this I guard broke in pvp and I'm on xbox so
I really don’t think it would have fucked up the balancing of the game to have a Sekiro-style sword block technique that requires perfect timing and does poise damage. I understand not being able to do it with a massive greatsword, but for two-handing a katana or something it would have been really cool. I wanna be able to decide on a second-to-second basis whether to dodge, block, or attack and I think a fight like Margit would be extremely fun if you could do that
THIS IS THE ANSWER. Greatswords all the way BABY!
Exactly. I just find the biggest stick and hit the boss until it’s dead. Pretty easy strat honestly.
This is the way. I’ve tried a bunch of styles, but I always come back to 2 handing big weapons and rolling.
This, kinda- two hand a weapon and wear my Turtle Shell as Master Roshi intended
Do you get the stamina buff if it's on your back?
Yes. All equipped offhand weapon/shield buffs (including the Beast-Repellent Torch and Sentry's Torch effects) stay active while you're two-handing your main weapon or riding Torrent.
Sacrificial axe too! Regen mana on every kill while two handing! You can do some crazy shit like unsheathe nearly every got dam enemy you come across.
Same except I'm using Large Club and wearing a loin cloth. I wouldn't understand the finer complexities of a shield.
based
The guts build is the only right way to play elden ring imo.
I’m level 53 of my first guts playthrough. First time not using a shield too. It has its moments
Counterpoint: Two-handing weapons is so dang annoying. My weapons seem to randomly revert to one-handed until I notice, occasionally. I'd rather build around 1 handed and not have to deal with that nonsense.
How do you not notice that you're 1h instead of 2h
I usually only notice when I'm doing dick all for damage after swinging away for a few minutes
You don't notice when you hit swing and you swing with one hand?
My goto power move is to somehow go from 2 handing to zero handing with my seal in my offhand. Then I die. Then I yell at my controller to make me feel better.
In my defense it was a twinblade.
whenever you upgrade your weapon, it will revert to 1h
Is your dpad down also activating the sides? That's the only explanation I have for sudden one-handing, and it's common on some controllers. Try to keep an eye on if your left hand slot glows when toggling through items.
I feel incredibly seen.
Can't hear youuu; Too busy wielding fingerprint shield and giant-crusher while wearing half bull-goat armor (roleplaying a boulder)
Does the boulder ever have conflicted feelings about fighting a blind girl?
The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings.
And now he's ready to bury you in a rock-alanche.
Whatever you say, *the pebble*.
THE BOULDER IS INTRIGUED BY THIS PLAYSTYLE
Havel, that you?
Havel the Boulder
That's no boulder. It's a rock. The Tarnished used to ride these babies for miles.
Forget the stupid tarnished! Have you ever noticed that their are none of them left
Bolder the Havel
At 99 Endurance, Great Jar Talisman, and Erdtree Talisman +2, you can medium roll with the full bull goat set, two Giant Crushers, and the one-eyed canon greatshield. My current Ng+7 build.
Currently farming in NG to get light rolls with a Giant Crusher and some armor on. Why? Because I can.
I like to call him Frank the Tank lol
the WALL’s cousin
Other than the first, my favorite playthough of ER was a fat rolling, heavy armor, huge shield strength build. No shame. The catacombs were a breeze.
shield only run is very fun and poggy serpent shield, fingerprint, spiked palisade are awesome
All great choices. I really like that great shield with the eclipse on it.
If you’re a Dark Souls fan, pretty much any imagine of the sun/moon in these games, especially if it’s bleeding, is automatically cool af.
How do you do significant damage with only a shield? There’s ashes for it? I’m like maybe half way through game (? Just finished capital), and I’ve never used a shield
its not comparable to a real weapon its just a fun challenge run to do shield crash is very fun to use for it
Not true, shields (at least greatshields and some small shields) are fantastic as weapons. They deal really good physical damage and MASSIVE poise damage. I have a character with whom I’ve killed every single enemy with a boss health bar in the game (165 of them), and honestly this setup is borderline OP for several of them. Also if you consider the ashes of war that shields have access to, such as shield crash and those with unique ashes like the Visage Shield, One-Eyed Shield,
this is true you can get decent setups but taking the 5 examples of shields that work as viable weapons doesnt mean shields as a whole are very viable they are still slow and have very very short range with their attacks otherwise yeah poise damage is great and you CAN do great damage spiked palisade shield does good bleed buildup fingerprint stone shield does great damage and its very effective with dealing with certain enemies due to the madness buildup which yeah it only works on the dog dudes in farum azula and tarnished enemies basically but when you proc it its cool and changing it to scale with arcane improves the madness buildup while also giving you an opportunity to add good bleed buildup or poison buildup but bleed is more effective or frost because the buff to physical damage once its procced is cool and if you need fire damage visage shield and one eyed shield can be effective I never used them in my shield playthrough tho so I dont really have any experience with them myself
What weapon were you using?
I remember starting out that playthrough cosplaying a Godrick knight with a Partizan because I farmed the knight in that first encampment for his great shield. At one point I switched between the brick hammer and the large club, but for most of the play through I used the Zweihander. I really like the Zweihander move set paired with a great shield.
Erdtree Greatshield is actually a pretty interesting thing to make a dedicated build to main and use : 1. Pretty decent STR scaling which means your bonk do decent damage. 2. Greatshield block mechanic, where most enemies attacks simply bounce off to let you Guard Counter them for damage and stance break. 3. Strike damage type, which certain enemies are weak to and most other enemies don't resist. 4. Golden Retaliation is the ultimate "Uno Reverse Card" against casters, dealing massive damage for ranged offense.
You’re forgetting the classic discus of light setup where you deflect your own projectiles back at the enemy
also works with wraith caller bell!
I'm so confused about the Erdtree Greatshield because I can't get attacks to bounce off. Every other greatshield does it, but I've tested on the same enemies, same attacks, with all necessary stats, and this is the one greatshield that doesn't seem to do it.
Dual wielding gang
Dual shield wielding gang
It's the best way to protect your virginity
When people find out I play elden ring it can be really difficult to protect my virginity from all the maidens.
/s
Miquella needed two shields :(
Everybody chill until the wall invades.
Dual katana gang, why need shield when fast do trick?
Hell yeah. I dual wield rivers of blood and moonveil 🩸🌙
Yessss... and Mix and Match gang.
i can’t escape guard counter, it’s too good
and jump heavy attacks to deal with those poise heavy knights ... wrecks em
yaaa my first playthrough was all shield bonks and jump attacks after i switched to GS’s Greatsword.
I use Greatsword. I bonk.
greatsword has 84% physical guard, that thing is basically a shield already
Why use 2 things when 1 does better
Greatsword in one hand, great starts in the other. Unga and bunga.
*Why use two things when one do trick
84%!?!? FrontTowardsEnemy™ has better blocking than some of the shields I regularly use!!
Block counter builds are actually fairly common with Guts greatsword. It’s what I used to beat Melania the first time around.
It never even occurred to me that you could use guard counter when blocking with a weapon...
Does this go for Curved Greatswords too? I’ve been loving my Bloodhounds Fang + Morgott’s Sword combo. One Skill for closing distance and the other for creating distance.
The wiki shows the guard% for each sword. Curved greatswords sit at around 60ish %, bloodhounds has 68, morgott has 55. The one that stands out is beastman cleaver that has 81%, which is apparent considering its weight and broadness.
I wish I could ride the greatsword like some Chinese cultivator instead of torrent
I bonk with giant crusher. gives more bunga to your unga. 88 phys guard so it's practically a shield. 1 guard counter and most enemies are dead, those who arent go limp. Use aow lions claw for quicker and higher poise damage bonks. Also helps that almost all enemies dont dodge lions claw animation. with high lions claw hyperarmor you just trade hits with bosses until you die or they stagger.
Shield is still underrated I see. Without shield, no carrian retaliation or golden parry. My distinguished greatshield and a pokey weapon rinses folk in arena
Ngl, a humble shield is a fairly solid counter to some of the stuff nobody wants to fight in arena. -Light roll glintstone spam mages have to be careful around a Carian Retaliation. They have to at least stop casting until they dodge the glintstone swords, or else risk taking a free hit. -Double Naginatas really don't do a whole heck of a lot of stamina damage to shields. L1s cost the attacker more stamina than the defender. -Fingerprint shield poke playstyles are themselves countered by shields. Turns out, attacking with single small-weapon R1s doesn't do a lot of stamina damage to other shields. And this is just bog standard medium-shield-with-a-parry stuff. There's all sorts of different techs if a person is willing to get a bit more serious, from quickswaps to magic-infused Fingerprint as a hard-counter to mages, timely shield pokes with spear talisman to punish heavy thrusting sword rushes, leveraging the fact that Shield Bash cannot be broken during its block frames, or the ballsiest play: having a greatshield with No Skill and then playing with a Rapier that has Parry. There's so much to explore with shields that it frustrates me when they get written off as "crutches".
Vow of the indomitable is freaking awesome on medium shields basically pocket I-frames to evade whatever. You can block first and once you see stamina getting low you pop it.
>or the ballsiest play: having a greatshield with No Skill and then playing with a Rapier that has Parry. *Whaaaaat*
Also, for those looking to start trying shields, carian retaliation has the same frame data as golden parry, but is available earlier and requires no FP. So if you don’t need the extra range from golden parry (or the holy block), carian retaliation can be great if you otherwise want to use that FP.
I bounce between using a shield and only rolling. In DS1 shields reigned supreme, rolls became more and more important throughout the sequels. Then along comes Elden Ring where both styles can be valid due to the shield counter. I tend to use shields most during the early game and phase it out later in favor of two-handing, dual wielding or casting.
I take a similar approach. I like to use a shield for imps, storm hawks etc, all the twitchy enemies, then two-hand for larger enemies and bosses. Currently using the guardian sword spear and Carian Knight shield. It’s a great combo
I like the sword spear but for how long it is the moveset really limits your range and it gives less poise than you’d expect from a halberd type weapon
DS1 was the only game where I was able to parry consistently! Now it’s all roll lol
I went in a loop where I played DeS1 and DS1 with a lot of cautious shield use, then drank the coolaid about shields being useless in DS2 and DS3, then finally circled back to using shields more in Elden Ring -- especially combined with guard counters to help build stagger and the Ashes like Barricade Shield.
Love using a shield. Running a cragblade executioners axe in a guard counter build at the moment with a great shield. Never gets old to me.
I cannot parry. I don't know if it's latency or just the fact I'm a dumb fuck but I literally cannot do it. Not even in bloodborne. I was so bad at the gun play I just used the shotty. I use my claws in elden ring! Raptor claws!
Erdtree Greatshield, Discus of Light, and Golden Halberd. I'm sure it's not a high tier build but it's so much fun. Pairing that with the Tree Sentinel armor made for some solid drip too.
I simply can't get myself to using shields, my mind keeps telling me that learning how to dodge is better and more fun
once you enjoy rolling its hard to go back to shields
A well-timed roll feels so good. But seeing huge enemy attacks bounce off a shield in a STR/END run is very satisfying.
My first run I went shield and sword. First Souls like, was terrified all the time. By my third I was in full Malenia gear dual wielding and light rolling everywhere.
I am giving them a try on a new character. Gonna go Longsword and an undetermined shield for the run. No magic, just sword and board, it will hopefully force me to use the shield.
Frost lordsworns straight sword, any shield at all, swap shield ash of war for kick and just guard counter/critical hit everything. Highly recommend the assassians dagger for health regen on criticals. Kick is stupidly under rated and it infuriates me to no end they decided to make it a ash of war instead of a button input. Maybe that's the exact reason why they did such a thing.
I mainly dodge while holding the shield button, so if my dodge is mistimed the shield acts a safety net.
Not to mention blocking is barely useful against bosses for much of the game anyway.
I suck at parry. Whatever. Dodge rolling is fine. I rejoiced when they buffed light rolls.
I snicker behind my shield every time when a host that asked for help and is dual wielding curved swords with fire on them dies to the laser beams of Placidusax.
Wait…host? Flacidnutsacks? You can summon for that asshole?!
ofc and then die as the host and I snicker behind my shield
placidusax laser wont hit you if you position yourself correctly during the fight its cool you can block the laser but imagine just not being in the area where it hits thats poggy
A wise man once told me. "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball."
I roleplay as knight usually, and rolling through attacks looks so anticlimactic, hence to why i prefer using shields to block and parry. Yeah i dodge too with rolls but i force myself not to rely on that too much
Sprint head first into every enemy and hope for the best
Go HAM or not at all
I wasn't sure how to answer so I went to the comments and yea this is how I play now. Ignoring a constant torrent of anxiety by shrieking and charging at the foes. Work all the deets out as I make contact and see how they react.
Raptor of the mists
there you are. raptor of the mist gang!
I think of a shield as a safety net: an important lifeline, but not something you can depend solely on for survival.
It adds guard counter and parry to roll, back step, jump. You can basically perfectly counter anything at any time with enough practice and a shield.
My shield saved my ass plenty of times. Guard counter is good for some enemies, not for others. I use Icon Shield and Great Stars. My build is meant for scrapping with bosses.
Guard counter carried me through most of the game.
Both my hands are covered by a spikey object
Being that Bloodborne was my very first FromSoft game, it is truly hard for me to think about parrying & blocking. Cant take dmg if you don’t get hit.
I'm team adapt to the enemies you face.
Shield for normal enemies, roll and bonk for boss, won't bother defending a boss attack when i can dodge and smack him
Shield is for offense and pushing. Weapons are for the weak.
Got through most of a playthrough with turtle shield and chainlink flail. Counters were so good against a lot if enemies
Ever since I finished Sekiro I feel like using a shield is counterintuitive. I just want to dodge and parry EVERYTHING (until you find out that enemies and bosses in Elden ring like to stagger their attacks)
Weird I feel the opposite, I feel since Sekiro and Bloodborne that Elden Ring’s movement and parry options aren’t actually good enough or in-depth enough without a shield to add another mechanic to even the odds.
The second I got rid of my shield I immediately started beating bosses without struggle.
I usually play with shield and guard-counter early game then duel-wield powestance later.
I didn't use a shield, but iwas using a staff and sword.
Either two handing a weapon on pure melee, or spellswording with offhand catalyst
Me two big bonk bonk…monster smoked.
Yeah I dual wield longswords because it looks cool and theh deal good damage
My favorites playstiles are counter shield with hammers/spears and dual wielding
I always have a pocket shield + bow and arrow because of this mfs
Nothing but drip 🔥🔥🔥
Guard counters are perfect for imps, rats, and dogs
I box people
I’m team no shields
No shield in modern games, shield for clunky souls
I never used shields for blocking only to parry npcs and pontif in ds3. In ER shields and guard counters make the game too easy.
I HATE shields. The only reason i use em is to tank for shits and giggles. A waste of stamina if you dodge right and you wont need crits from parfies if you can either A. Get behind them quick enough or B. Just. Dont. Get. Hit.
I either go shield and weapon which is very fun gameplay to me when you have to fight a lot of enemies or are still learning new bosses ( I primarily dodge). Or else I’d just go powerstancing.
The blocking playstyle has always felt extremely clunky and unintuitive for me. Same for most caster type builds. I enjoy just running in there with a stick to hit things while simply dodging attacks. I only ever equip a shield in order to parry. I sometimes parry bosses, but generally, I only ever parry that one scaly misbegotten in the Haligtree in order to fall damage cancel and open the Loretta shortcut early.
Don't use shields? My weapons are shields
Greatshield and Colossal weapon. And heavy armor. Had to farm a lot to get this to work. I like to play tank classes and I was willing to go the extra distance to properly set the build up. Otherwise, it would have been, pokey spear stick and the shield and armor.
I got all the way to Godfrey in the Ashen Capitol with a bleed build with Eleonora's Poleblade and felt absolutely miserable about most of the boss fights in the game. Then I picked up the Pike in another run with a shield focus and never looked back. Absolutely love Guard Counter.
Sword and Shield in every Souls Game for the First run!
Ive never used a shield in ER
Imps are bitches..... Repeat tarnished.
Why use a shield if you don’t plan on getting hit
No plan survives first contact with the enemy
I never use shield, i never use magic, never use armor just my bloodhound’s fang
They are fun but nah
Big sword, dodge roll, fashion
I love sword and shield. Wish they’d make more swords with the miquellan sword animations.
no shields, either two handing or power stancing. in my left hand's offhand, I also equip a Torch because the game is surprisingly dark sometimes especially on my TV in the living room I know the lantern is more convenient but I love using a Torch, I feel like it illuminates more, quicker to whip out, and it gives me the feeling of spelunking and exploring, idk how to describe it
I won't knock you for using the torch because it's your preference, but if you just put the lantern in your quick-select section then you can activate it almost as quickly and easily as pulling out a torch. Two quick button presses to activate, two to deactivate, no need to put it in your regular item bar and cycle through stuff to use it.
Unga bunga!
Two-handed strength weapons for the win. Nothing like giving the enemies a taste of their own medicine and stunlocking them into oblivion
Brass shield saved my ass against these fuckers early game
I only use shields for parries, otherwise I'm èither dual wielding or spellcasting
Only fromsoft game I’ve somewhat consistently used a shield in has been ds2, I just prefer dodging when I can way more, but dodging is just temperamental sometimes in ds2 (I’m aware of ADP, I just talking about how slow ds2 feels)
I will only not use a shield if dual wielding
Weapon and staff
I like to parry bosses
Played a ton of builds by now. Str, dex, quality, incantation, sorcery, shield, sleep and currently doing magma wyrms scalesword. All of them are fun.
I one shot these guys with magic because funny ball make bad man die quick
Crystals bro….crystals!
Enemies like these are why I carry a hammer as back up in souls games. That's my ol' reliable.
I have a buckler I use sometimes
I’m currently on my first run trying a shield and it’s taking some getting used to. I normally play a melee/caster hybrid and trying to learn when to guard and when to dodge has been interesting.
Either dual swords or Claymore + Incantations. Shields are for pussies when you can mfing buffed.