Is sword and shield a good option until end of game?

[Griever]

Or should I go with greatsword or colossal or other type of strength weapon?
I feel really solid with my trusted longsword and shield, and feel a little slow trying a greatsword. Heavier weapons feel impossible to use during bosses as the wind up is so long.I also love the longsword I found, because it gives me slashing and piercing movesets, which is so well balanced.

Another question...I'd like to try a magic character, which is more viable and fun, the faith/priest type of character or the more classic mage with sorcery? Sorcery seems like the usual Dark Souls blue bolts.

[GoreTiger]

Originally posted by Griever:

Or should I go with greatsword or colossal or other type of strength weapon?
I feel really solid with my trusted longsword and shield, and feel a little slow trying a greatsword. Heavier weapons feel impossible to use during bosses as the wind up is so long.I also love the longsword I found, because it gives me slashing and piercing movesets, which is so well balanced.

Another question...I'd like to try a magic character, which is more viable and fun, the faith/priest type of character or the more classic mage with sorcery? Sorcery seems like the usual Dark Souls blue bolts.

If you can manage to farm them, The banished knight set from stormveil will carry you threw a good majority of the game. Was my main setup through my first playthrough. Some of the bigger bosses you'll want to go lighter for more dodge stamina, But sword+shield matched with high poise is an EZ win with counter attacking.
Slap flame of the redmane on your banished knight sword and you'll knock mobs ezpz.

[C1REX]

Originally posted by BurlsoL:

There are many enemies where shields are not necessarily useful. The dragons come to mind.

Then there's Fallingstar beasts, lava worms, crystallians, red wolves, and most everything that does meaningful bleed, rot, or frost status buildup.

I agree about dragons. I definitely don’t agree about crystallians. Guard counters murder them hard. I use shields against all the others as well.

Having a shield doesn’t mean I can’t roll any more. Adding a shield means I can roll and block :) Just another defensive option. Guard counters are also fantastic and do massive poise damage.

[BurlsoL]

Originally posted by GoreTiger:

Slap flame of the redmane on your banished knight sword and you'll knock mobs ezpz.

Flame of Redmane got nerfed hard. Damage is decent, but the art itself does next to no stagger.

Originally posted by C1REX-PL:

Having a shield doesn’t mean I can’t roll any more. Adding a shield means I can roll and block :) Just another defensive option. Guard counters are also fantastic and do massive poise damage.

No, but it does tend to make you have a slower roll unless you pump endurance early because of the equipment weight.

[M.T. Fish]

Shield make some fights like the Draconic Tree Sentinel (shield counter him to death lol) easier and others like Malekith harder. Shield counters are a powerful tool in slugging matches and shield bash can be useful for staggering enemies. Blocking when walking through a door is useful as those little imps ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ might be around the corner.

Thop's barrier lets you deflect magic attacks (even some of the final boss' attacks) and still works as a parry too.

It's usually more of a tool than a crutch.

[2001 Space Oddity]

Originally posted by BurlsoL:

Originally posted by C1REX-PL:

Can you give some specific examples?
Do you mean that against some enemies shields aren’t good? Or you mean just specific attacks they have?
I really can’t think of an enemy where a good shield doesn’t help. Sure, some enemies have attacks that you don’t want to block but you can block other attacks.

There are many enemies where shields are not necessarily useful. The dragons come to mind. While the shield might absorb single hits, it does nothing against breath attacks and will usually knock you off balance unless you pumped heavily into stamina and have high poise. As attacks are slow, blocking becomes less effective than just dodging.

Then there's Fallingstar beasts, lava worms, crystallians, red wolves, and most everything that does meaningful bleed, rot, or frost status buildup.

May be fine when you're in the 400+ range, but below 120, most the things that pose any real threat would end up staggering you too easily if you rely on mostly blocking.

Blocking can work, but it is more of a skill thing because instead of just dodging every attack or just not being near it, you have to recognize attacks you can block verses what you can't.

My first playthrough was with a shield and halberd starting around level 35, it's not only doable, it's easy mode. I two-handed the halberd for enemies where a shield doesn't work well, but they actually work really well for most enemies in the game. I think I was around level 60 when I started using a greatshield with the golden halberd and I became an unstoppable tank.

I disagree that shields don't work on crystallians, you can block counter them to death and literally take zero damage. Red wolves mostly do physical damage so you can block it and dodge the spell attacks. Time your block-counters right and you'll break its stance.

Other enemies that people complain about like the giant crayfish, stormveil birds, crucible knights, banished knights (really every kind of knight) are all a piece of cake. Yeah you need to watch out for status build-up, but if you don't ignore the crafting system you'll always have some boluses ready. You learn to dodge grab attacks just like you would if you didn't use a shield.

You can also use ashes of war to change a shield's affinity, giving you more resistance to different types of elemental damage. A Haligtree great shield with Sacred affinity blocks almost everything Elden Beast throws at you.

[C1REX]

Originally posted by BurlsoL:

No, but it does tend to make you have a slower roll unless you pump endurance early because of the equipment weight.

Just manage your load to stay below 70% and your rolls will remain as fast.

[Xaelon]

I recently beat the game and I used brass shield the whole time with heavy armor and various melee weapons. There were a few bosses where two-handing my weapon worked better, but it worked great for the other 95% of the game.

That said you will need to use your dodge roll sometimes. Grab attacks cannot be blocked and blocking certain attacks from larger enemies and bosses will drain your stamina completely which can leave you in a very bad position.

So, can your run a shield through the entire game? Yes.
Does using a shield let you get through the game without ever using your dodge roll? No.

[Heimdall313]

Eventually you hit a wall.
Your one handed sword just does not do enough damage on common enemies, and medium shields (Brass Shield) gets you absolutely slapped against basically any boss or strong foe.
Greatshields, Lordsworn Greatshield can carry you surprisingly far but you'll need at least 32 STR before you get a greatshield that will get you past Altus Plateau. You either run Barricade Shield (easy, early to get) to avoid getting your stamina trashed on every hit, and thus lose out on offensive Ashes like Sword Dance (among many many others of course), or you run an offensive Ash and end up having to roll against most heavy attacks... and bringing into question the point of a shield.

Dodge Roll is just much, much better than shields in Elden Ring. The game wants you to dual wield and roll (or cast). Two handing and shields are basically hard mode in most cases.

[Tom]

Barricade Shield and halberd was my go to through the majority of the game. Only really dropped the shield for Malenia and that was when i found Blood tax is really good. Heals 10% of your max HP and hits 4 times so it can easily proc things that work on multi hits like winged sword or godskin cloth talisman. Pair it with a greatshield, guard counter to stagger then do a quick blood tax and whatever you were fighting is dead. Can also replace bt with rapid thrust found in limgrave, same move does more damage but cant self heal. Would recommend night riders halberd for the vertical swings and good str scaling or guardian swordspear for its unique fast moveset.

[5chneemensch]

Originally posted by Aertes:

I've finished the fame using only daggers, bows and whips, so I'd say almost any weapon serves well, or at least, any attribute choice will give you access to weapons you can use to end the game. I'm looking towards using shields too, am quite excited. Also, you can keep a sword and shield and also keep a heavier weapon to swap when needed. in fact, keeping a small selection of weapons for all situations seems quite useful here

There are many fantastic daggers in the game unlike in the previous ones and whips are broken.

[楊玄。杨玄。LangrisserWWE]

As long as you find it enjoyable.

[Raze]

I used a lordsworn straight sword and a greatshield for a long time, and it was viable.

Now I'm using a blood loss build with no shield, and I have to say, I miss that shield when I'm blocking hits with my face.

[RedEssence]

I beat the entire game using a brass shield and a lordsworn straight sword, and it is definitely a viable option, but you can really feel your damage falling off near endgame

[C1REX]

Here is an example how a good shield turns most regular enemies into a joke.
This shield is +0. My weapon is also +0. I should be at +10 at this point.
This would kill this enemy 3x faster.

https://youtu.be/3aF4xWT6_eI