what offhand shield to use

[Prof. Cabbage]

i dont know anything about shields in this game, shouldd i use a small shield for parrying or a large one for blocking? also which specific shields are good?

[MrRaggaedeman]

Small shields

Buckler:
Decent parry tool. Dont block anything larger than a rapier and even then only block one attack, not more or youre going to suffer

Round Shields:
Decent as parry tool. Not good at blocking. Good at looking good.

Medium shields

Crest Shields and Knight Shield:
Not to great but 100% phys. resistence can help out in certain situation. Again never block more than a single attack and nothing that is best weilded two handed.(activly using it in Pvp is a written invitation to get guard broken)

Grass Crest Shield:
Equip it, put it on your back, enjoy slightly better stamina recovery.

Shield of Want:
(and silver serpent ring) WHOO so many souls!!!

Kite shield:
Decent. cant parry but being able to throw out weapon arts one handen can be useful

Sunset Shield: Looks Good!

Big Shields

Curse Ward Shield.
Same as the Kite Shield only blocks better. Weapon Art out of nowhere!!

Yhorms Greatshield
Block almost everyting. Treat your stamina nice and you can even block a greatsword guardbreak. But MOST importantly: get some poise

Bonewheel Shield:
Do you want to suffer?

Dragonslayer Greatshield:
Get two of them and you can become a clam!

Havels Greatshield:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezAJeaCySV4

[GERONIMO]

but... you have almost 300hrs in this game... seriously?

there really isnt much to know about shields. for blocking higher stability and lower weight = good. find one that fits your build

for parrying use whatever you like the timing of. fist weapons/small shields/parrying dagger are the best parrying tools

*edit - what he said^^^*

[Mini]

Leather Shield or any of the painted roundshields.

[Skeleton]

Originally posted by GERONIMO:

but... you have almost 300hrs in this game... seriously?

I almost never use shields either; across the entire series I've only ever used Sanctum Shield in 2, and a pair of small shields on my most recent build in 3.

Mainly using an Eastern Iron Shield for the additional versatility of 1h WAs, and the 80% phys. block is good for denying both katana running attacks and Gotthard's roll attacks.

Sacred Bloom Shield is the same weight, but has spell parry and 80% magic block so I swap it in as soon as I see the setup for a soulmass + spear combo.

[The Fountaineer 🖋]

Greatshields are always my go to.

[Prof. Cabbage]

Originally posted by GERONIMO:

but... you have almost 300hrs in this game... seriously?

ive played this game a bunch but ive never looked into shields, i just use the small leather shield or 2handed things

[ChaoticGamer]

Originally posted by GERONIMO:

but... you have almost 300hrs in this game... seriously?

try a player who played 1k hrs. Someone screen shot it of their time being 1k hrs. No joke

[Vash]

Parry shield: leather shield probably
medium shield: kite for setups
pve: artorias'
no shield? caestus/parrying dagger

I don't like shields but those are probably up there.

[Nitron]

Nobody saying anything about Black K***ht shield? Isn't that a Direct upgrade of any medium shield? WA instead of parry? Medium shields don't parry. Incredibly good stability and resistances

[Call Sign: Raven]

Originally posted by Nitred:

Nobody saying anything about Black K***ht shield? Isn't that a Direct upgrade of any medium shield? WA instead of parry? Medium shields don't parry. Incredibly good stability and resistances

"Medium shields have a very tight parry window." I fixed that for you.

In terms of shields, it sounds like you are talking PvP, so I'll break it down for you.

Small Shield:
Best for parrying, but takes some time to learn the timing, and a lot of people are getting good at throwing off people who rely on parrying. Mainly, people use these as parry tools if they aren't interesting in blocking too much. Best when combined with either Simple or Blessed infusion.

Medium Shield:
I actually like this shield class the best. I find they have very good stability, and the variety of shields is nice. A lot of them can be infused. My absolute favorite is to infuse the Kite Shield with Blessed. You only lose 5% damage reduction, and you get regeneration. It's been my saving grace during PvP. The Black Knight Shield is also extremely useful, due to having the highest stability out of all the medium shields. It's definitely a top tier shield and I'm surprised more people don't use it.

Great Shield:
If you use these, just go with the Greatshield of Glory, and get ready to annoy the ♥♥♥♥ out of people in PvP.

To make matters worse, if you cast Magic Shield on the Greatshield of Glory, and have it at least +3, you won't lose any stamina for blocking any attack. It's incredibly cheesy, and works great in PvP and on bosses. Try it!

That's my two cents on shields. Hope that helps!

[Nitron]

Originally posted by Harrison Ford:

Originally posted by Nitred:

Nobody saying anything about Black K***ht shield? Isn't that a Direct upgrade of any medium shield? WA instead of parry? Medium shields don't parry. Incredibly good stability and resistances

"Medium shields have a very tight parry window." I fixed that for you.

In terms of shields, it sounds like you are talking PvP, so I'll break it down for you.

Small Shield:
Best for parrying, but takes some time to learn the timing, and a lot of people are getting good at throwing off people who rely on parrying. Mainly, people use these as parry tools if they aren't interesting in blocking too much. Best when combined with either Simple or Blessed infusion.

Medium Shield:
I actually like this shield class the best. I find they have very good stability, and the variety of shields is nice. A lot of them can be infused. My absolute favorite is to infuse the Kite Shield with Blessed. You only lose 5% damage reduction, and you get regeneration. It's been my saving grace during PvP. The Black Knight Shield is also extremely useful, due to having the highest stability out of all the medium shields. It's definitely a top tier shield and I'm surprised more people don't use it.

Great Shield:
If you use these, just go with the Greatshield of Glory, and get ready to annoy the ♥♥♥♥ out of people in PvP.

To make matters worse, if you cast Magic Shield on the Greatshield of Glory, and have it at least +3, you won't lose any stamina for blocking any attack. It's incredibly cheesy, and works great in PvP and on bosses. Try it!

That's my two cents on shields. Hope that helps!

Yeah that's what i meant. Even Black knight shield highly benefits from the spell

[TrueArchery]

I heard that you can buff Blessed shields with (Great) Magic Shield, is that actually true?

[Artek [General]]

Small Leather, Buckler, Target Shields - best parrying tools, crap at blocking (however: Target shield has the highest physical damage absorption and stability of them all, Small Leather is well-rounded, and buckler absolutely sucks for blocking, but weights less).

Any other small shield that is capable to parry is a good multi-purpose tool that can both block and parry with Lewellyn shield being the best at it (60% damage absorption against most damage types and a decent stability of 59 at +10).

Medium shields: some of them can parry but the parry windows are small and are very hard to land. Most of the time - they are better for blocking. The best medium shields will be:
1) Any of the Blue Enchanted shields (based on which unique damage type you really wanna blok - Lighting, Dark, Fire or Magic),
2) Silver Knight and Lothric shields that are both the heaviest parry-capable medium shield in the game. Stats difference is small and it's mostly about fashion when making a choice.
3) Piercing shield, which despite looking like a small one, has a very decent physical damage absorption and stability (85% and 65 stability at +10) for its low weight of 3,5 i believe?
4) Black Knight shield which is literally the HEAVIEST medium shield in the game with stats that can rival greatshields. Uses weapon's skill though.

Greatshields are the greatest blocking tools, but weight a lot and have pretty pointless shield-bash most of the time for which i cant find a good purpose except for smacking bosses time to time.
The best greatshields would be:
1) Twin Dragon shield - one of the lightest greatshields that provides decent damage absorptions with a good stability
2) Wolf's Knight Greatshield - extremely block-efficient greatshield that is also relatively light (10,5 kg)
3) Havel's shield - the ultimate blocking tool, but weights a lot as a result, obviously.

Everything else is sidegrades / downgrades and fashion.