THE PROS and CONS of different SHIELDS

[theseeker52]

I know, I could and have went to WIKI for the different the characteristics of shields. Right now,I'm like alot of people having a crest shield, but with havels ring and leveling up it opens the door for different options.Shielding plays a greater role in defense in this game than other games I've played, where you blocked with sword and let your armor take the brunt of damage.It would be good to hear what you think. Sometimes, reading something is not always the most practical way to go.

[Bones]

Depends on what you're looking for and how much weight you allocate for it. For most players you can break it down by weight to a few categories.
<2-Wooden round shields for magic defense (red and white for style), leather shields for fire/stability.
2-Heater is the clear favorite in my opinion but there are other good ones I'm sure.
3-Crest for magic (Crystal ring is higher resist but meh), Dragoncrest for fire, Effigy for lightning, Kite for stability.
4-Balder for stability (1 less than silver knight).
5-Silver knight for stability (decent magic/lightning as well), Black knight for fire (95% resist!), Iron round shield has high deflection otherwise reserved for greatshields.
I don't use more than that so don't ask me about greatshields.

[Hjelpmooglene]

I like using the silver knight shield for most enemies. 100% phy dmg reduction, 75% fire dmg reduction, 65% lighting dmg reduction, and it has good stability. For areas where enemies use magic based attacks, I use the crest shield. For low strength characters, I use the balder knights shield.

[EleventhStar]

Greatshields are very powerful and allow you to cheese a lot of mechanics by just blocking them. You always hear people say rolling > blocking but with a high end greatshield you often use less stamina blocking then dodging, while taking virtually no damage. There are still a handfull attacks, mainly grab attacks and overhead attacks that you need to dodge, but it's a lot less. Artorias and Havel shields respectively let you get 80 and 90%+ reductions on all magic types. Heavy deflection is also quite powerful and forces pretty much all non-boss enemies into a recovery animation.

The biggest drawbacks of greatshields are that they weight a lot and require high strength. This means they only really work with a strength build, and you often have to give up at least one ring slot for havels of fap ring to make it work. you can wear heavy armor for medium roll and light armor for fast roll without to many problems. You also cannot parry but that is not a huge issue seeing how heavy deflection also stuns enemies long enough to attack them, heck heavy deflection is seriously OP in general.

But you will find that for many enemies you simply do not need such a powerful shield. Once you know how things work grass crest shield becomes really nice for the stamina boost, and it still blocks for acceptable amounts on almost all bosses.

[theseeker52]

Originally posted by Clay Bones:

Depends on what you're looking for and how much weight you allocate for it. For most players you can break it down by weight to a few categories.
<2-Wooden round shields for magic defense (red and white for style), leather shields for fire/stability.
2-Heater is the clear favorite in my opinion but there are other good ones I'm sure.
3-Crest for magic (Crystal ring is higher resist but meh), Dragoncrest for fire, Effigy for lightning, Kite for stability.
4-Balder for stability (1 less than silver knight).
5-Silver knight for stability (decent magic/lightning as well), Black knight for fire (95% resist!), Iron round shield has high deflection otherwise reserved for greatshields.
I don't use more than that so don't ask me about greatshields.

Aye, m8, this post is not for myself only ,but for other folks who have questions about the best ones to use for all the different types of of builds and special situations, like Aoe damage.

[theseeker52]

Originally posted by EleventhStar:

Greatshields are very powerful and allow you to cheese a lot of mechanics by just blocking them. You always hear people say rolling > blocking but with a high end greatshield you often use less stamina blocking then dodging, while taking virtually no damage. There are still a handfull attacks, mainly grab attacks and overhead attacks that you need to dodge, but it's a lot less. Artorias and Havel shields respectively let you get 80 and 90%+ reductions on all magic types. Heavy deflection is also quite powerful and forces pretty much all non-boss enemies into a recovery animation.

The biggest drawbacks of greatshields are that they weight a lot and require high strength. This means they only really work with a strength build, and you often have to give up at least one ring slot for havels of fap ring to make it work. you can wear heavy armor for medium roll and light armor for fast roll without to many problems. You also cannot parry but that is not a huge issue seeing how heavy deflection also stuns enemies long enough to attack them, heck heavy deflection is seriously OP in general.

But you will find that for many enemies you simply do not need such a powerful shield. Once you know how things work grass crest shield becomes really nice for the stamina boost, and it still blocks for acceptable amounts on almost all bosses.

What about PvE verus PvP?

[EleventhStar]

What about PvE verus PvP?

Players have much more efficient ways to deal with shields then npcs do. But that applies to all shields.

Lag is what ruins it most though. You can phantom hit with certain weapons by attacking in specific directions to make it seem your attack comes from the side rather then the front, bypassing the shield entirely.

It works good vs inexperienced opponents though. Bonus points if you two-hand a greatshield to block doorways or narrow passages to troll people.

[GrimShins]

The only shield you need is Grass Crest, on your back, while you wield your Chaos 2-hander.

[AnKalameet]

This is a completely situational question revolving around how much weight is budgeted for your shield, how much strength is budgeted for your shield (the shields that require dex are gimmick shields--screw 'em) and what the enemies in the area are like. Generally speaking, Crest shield and Dragon Crest shield are the go-to shields for players with low strength/weight allowances, while Balder/Silver Knight/Black Knight shields are the go-to for players with slightly higher strength/weight allowances. Grass Crest Shield offers stamina regen and can be used to great effect in conjunction with Karmic Justice. The shields like the Effigy Shield and Sanctus are a little too situational and hard to obtain to see much usage. Crystal Ring Shield's a neat way to use the Moonlight Butterfly soul for non-intelligence builds and can replace the Crest Shield in some situations. Greatshields can be nice for non-parryable enemies/bosses, but in most cases are unnecessary (and are rendered mostly worthless in PvP against experienced players). Havel's L2/R2 buff is pretty neat. But it really depends on whether you want to min-max your build situationally as you fight different opponents or just want to pick a shield and stick with it. My personal favorite's probably the SK shield, but to each their own.

[theseeker52]

Thanks everyone! Your opinions with experience shed light on this simple ,but important topic.Defense does matter,it might give you that one last chance at defeating your opponent.

[Rawnrawn]

I primarily use the balder shield, sunlight shield (upgraded fully with fire so it blocks 90% fire damage) because a lot of enemies will use both fire and physical attacks but there are precious few enemies who use both magic and physical or lightning and physical combined, titanite demons and serpent mages being the exception. A good light shield I find is the wooden kite shield weighing just 1.5 but blocking 93% physical attacks. The iron round shield wielded by Shiva of the East deflects heavy weapons, I would suggest using it for the Capra demons you come across as their attacks are quite quick for such heavy weapons they wield. I am not well versed in the use of greatshields but I do use the eagle great shield for it's 75% defence against lightning. (upgraded fully in magic it protects you 70% from that as well) I heavily suggest using it against the sanctuary guardian, the wyverns and Ornstein.

That's all for PVE though, for PVP it's impossible to anticipate what kind of opponent you're going to face however some things are good to note:

#Anyone can use pyromancy and black firebombs so you might wanna expect that, as I said before I've upgraded the sunlight shield to resist fire to 90% so that's a pretty sure bet most of the time for me.

#People may use poison throwing daggers whenever chance is given so if your armour set is not sporting any good poison resist the spider round shield is a good option.

#The uchigatana is one of the most frequently used weapons in PVP, there are only a few shields which are immune to bleeding, the crystal shield being the lightest but the bloodshield raises your resistance to bleeding.

#Just because someone uses magic a lot does not mean they are resistant to magic themselves as is the case in PVE, the crystal ring shield protects against magic the most as well as giving you a ranged weapon to pay them back as they are charging up their spells.

I use spear and shield most of the time.
I hope this will prove helpful to anyone!