Can anyone tell me the point of Greatshields?

[Amins]

Seems like they really don't provide any benefits further than what you can get from medium shields. If you meet 100 percent physical damage negation, that's all that matters. Sure, some have a few more points of guard boost which is nice, but it doesn't really seem to justify the massive increase in weight. The only benefit I can think of is the few that have offensive ashes, but those have always seemed so inefficient to use for me. I get way more use out of a medium shield that I can parry with.

Are there any playstyles I'm missing that would benefit from greatshields that I couldn't just do with a medium shield?

[Garry]

you lose less stamina blocking hits

[Verienkeli]

Honestly, I haven't really used shields in Elden Ring, but greatshields generally have more poise. Also, there are playstyles out there. I've seen people beat the game ONLY using shields and greatshields are a large part of that build. So there's definitely a place for them.

[Amins]

Originally posted by Garry:

you lose less stamina blocking hits

Yeah, but it doesn't really seem like a significant amount. Plus, the increased load will just cancel that out.

Originally posted by Verienkeli:

Honestly, I haven't really used shields in Elden Ring, but greatshields generally have more poise. Also, there are playstyles out there. I've seen people beat the game ONLY using shields and greatshields are a large part of that build. So there's definitely a place for them.

I tried a double greatshield build once for fun. It's interesting and greatshields would be the only way I could see that working for the best. But that's more of a goofy challenge run than a optimal build.

[Verienkeli]

Originally posted by Amins:

Originally posted by Garry:

you lose less stamina blocking hits

Yeah, but it doesn't really seem like a significant amount. Plus, the increased load will just cancel that out.

Originally posted by Verienkeli:

Honestly, I haven't really used shields in Elden Ring, but greatshields generally have more poise. Also, there are playstyles out there. I've seen people beat the game ONLY using shields and greatshields are a large part of that build. So there's definitely a place for them.

I tried a double greatshield build once for fun. It's interesting and greatshields would be the only way I could see that working for the best. But that's more of a goofy challenge run than a optimal build.

Well, yes, it is a goofy challenge build. I never said it wasn't, but it's there.

There are also the people who are just coming into Souldbourne style games who've heard about their difficulty and immediately try to turtle-up. Like the people in DS1 who would get Havel's Set and immediately put it on thinking that much armor was their ticket to victory instead of learning attack timings.

[Amins]

Originally posted by Verienkeli:

Originally posted by Amins:

Yeah, but it doesn't really seem like a significant amount. Plus, the increased load will just cancel that out.



I tried a double greatshield build once for fun. It's interesting and greatshields would be the only way I could see that working for the best. But that's more of a goofy challenge run than a optimal build.

Well, yes, it is a goofy challenge build. I never said it wasn't, but it's there.

There are also the people who are just coming into Souldbourne style games who've heard about their difficulty and immediately try to turtle-up. Like the people in DS1 who would get Havel's Set and immediately put it on thinking that much armor was their ticket to victory instead of learning attack timings.

Funny enough, this was (and still is at this time) my first souls game aside from Sekiro and my first instinct was to forgo shields and play in a fast, aggressive style and try to dodge everything. Defensive play never felt the most optimal to me so maybe this question is due to my bias.

[Sonnenbank]

Well medium shields 100% phys are great for exploring and a lot better than Greatshields
but for bossfights its the other way round.

Medium Shields are almost completely useless for bossfights except for some very special situations like Malenias First flurry on waterfowl.

medium shields will poise break before the boss combo is finished.
So you need to dodge some moves of the boss
but if you have to learn the combo anyway to know when to dodge .. you can aswell just dodge the whole combo instead of using shield into dodge.

[Verienkeli]

Originally posted by Amins:

Originally posted by Verienkeli:

Well, yes, it is a goofy challenge build. I never said it wasn't, but it's there.

There are also the people who are just coming into Souldbourne style games who've heard about their difficulty and immediately try to turtle-up. Like the people in DS1 who would get Havel's Set and immediately put it on thinking that much armor was their ticket to victory instead of learning attack timings.

Funny enough, this was (and still is at this time) my first souls game aside from Sekiro and my first instinct was to forgo shields and play in a fast, aggressive style and try to dodge everything. Defensive play never felt the most optimal to me so maybe this question is due to my bias.

Well, in DS1 and DS2 the tank build was more viable (it was never my style, personally). Bloodbourne seems to have been FromSoft's pivot point to preferring the more aggressive, fluid style (I haven't had a console since the PS2, so I haven't gotten to play Bloodbourne yet; **** you, Sony). So maybe Sekiro put you ahead of the curve on that.

Tank builds can work in ER as well, but I think they're better as a silly challenge run as well (Iron Pineapple did a build were he was 100% encumbered through the whole game and beat it; the madman didn't even let himself use Torrent unless absolutely required to progress).

[Amins]

Originally posted by Verienkeli:

Tank builds can work in ER as well, but I think they're better as a silly challenge run as well (Iron Pineapple did a build were he was 100% encumbered through the whole game and beat it; the madman didn't even let himself use Torrent unless absolutely required to progress).

Jesus... That's impressive, but causes me physical pain just thinking about.

[Verienkeli]

Originally posted by Amins:

Originally posted by Verienkeli:

Tank builds can work in ER as well, but I think they're better as a silly challenge run as well (Iron Pineapple did a build were he was 100% encumbered through the whole game and beat it; the madman didn't even let himself use Torrent unless absolutely required to progress).

Jesus... That's impressive, but causes me physical pain just thinking about.

Me, too, but the video he put on his Youtube channel of it was kind of entertaining (he cut out most of the walking).

[El Fuerte]

*laughing in fingerprint shield*

[Amins]

Originally posted by Sonnenbank:

Well medium shields 100% phys are great for exploring and a lot better than Greatshields
but for bossfights its the other way round.

Medium Shields are almost completely useless for bossfights except for some very special situations like Malenias First flurry on waterfowl.

medium shields will poise break before the boss combo is finished.
So you need to dodge some moves of the boss
but if you have to learn the combo anyway to know when to dodge .. you can aswell just dodge the whole combo instead of using shield into dodge.

Honestly, my most recent Horah Loux fight got me thinking about this. I was doing a Bolt of Gransax run on NG+ 7 and was getting clobbered by everything he was handing out. Blocking attacks would leave me with barely any stamina left to counter with. I tried experimenting with different shields, but came up with not much better results. I compared stats and relative stamina consumption and just figured greatshields wouldn't make much of a difference.

[Boss]

Originally posted by Amins:

Seems like they really don't provide any benefits further than what you can get from medium shields. If you meet 100 percent physical damage negation, that's all that matters. Sure, some have a few more points of guard boost which is nice, but it doesn't really seem to justify the massive increase in weight. The only benefit I can think of is the few that have offensive ashes, but those have always seemed so inefficient to use for me. I get way more use out of a medium shield that I can parry with.

Are there any playstyles I'm missing that would benefit from greatshields that I couldn't just do with a medium shield?

I've rolled in every Dark Souls title. I've used low level builds. I've done the mage.

And I've also done Strength builds.

I don't meant to come across as rude, but it genuinely sounds like you don't know what you're talking about if you think greatshields aren't... well. Great. I give zero damns that I'm on heavy load in Elden RIng, because I might roll once per boss fight. At best.

The game has been a roflmao joke that has confirmed what I thought: mages are not easy mode. Strength builds are king of PvE, and the greatshield is ridonculous. Also, a majority of bosses become way easier if you ride their ass.

But to be fair, the reason why this isn't just good, but ridiculously strong is because of Guard Counter. IF you've got enough spare point for a colossal weapon (Zwei is very easy to use), you'll be doing outrageous poise damage to bosses guaranteeing multiple criticals.

[Amins]

Okay, after over 600 hours, I am just now finding out that upgrading shields increases guard boost... Maxing out Fingerprint Shield is a noticeable difference now. I stand corrected. All this time I thought all it did was increase attack power.

[Sonnenbank]

Originally posted by Amins:

Okay, after over 600 hours, I am just now finding out that upgrading shields increases guard boost... Maxing out Fingerprint Shield is a noticeable difference now. I stand corrected. All this time I thought all it did was increase attack power.

lol
;)

well glad you found out
i was gonna ask

Since Greatshields when maxed have a ton of Stamina and can block most 3-4 attack combos of most bosses.

Its an old video and i didnt practice for this run
i basically just put a Greatshield on and filmed it
-> i made many mistakes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcbmgwNPhlo&t=1s

So result is not too impressive
but it shows Greatshield can even beat Malenia

[Amins]

Originally posted by Sonnenbank:

Its an old video and i didnt practice for this run
i basically just put a Greatshield on and filmed it
-> i made many mistakes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcbmgwNPhlo&t=1s

So result is not too impressive
but it shows Greatshield can even beat Malenia

Pretty amazing you can just tank her first Waterfowl wave and be in a convenient spot to have her whiff the other two. A shame she can still recover health from shield hits, though.

Now I gotta try a proper strength tank build.