Shields | Dark Souls 3 Wiki

+5 Black Knight shield is actually good

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Time to do a shield only run because i hate myself

Tips appreciated

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my friendship with shields ended in ds1

in ds3, the roll is my best friend

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Blocking with shields allows you to protect yourself without being forced to reposition via a roll. Beyond that? I dunno how useful these are

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Damn, so many shields, yet I don't use any of them. Praise the Roll!

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**** the meta I'm going to go crack some ribcages with the dragonslayer greatshield WA

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Imagine using shields in a game thats combat is exactly like bloodborne

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Best aspect of shields is the ability to shield poke with spears and thrusting swords imo. Gives them a whole new dimension, not to mention the fact that shield bash is not a bad move for things like a committed Gael or Splitleaf WA punish. The biggest weakness is the stat requirement and weight of greatshields

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These don't get much use apart from oceiros's bullsht charge attack.

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63 shields in the entire game and you only see 5-8 of them regularly, 12 at best if you count some great shields. Dodging is so optimized, and it's easy to get solid defense with heavy armor while keeping below 70% weight, so medium rolls are still great even though you don't go as far. The point is to reposition, and since each roll cost less stamina than blocking weapons even as light as SS attacks, it's better to roll away. It doesn't help that most shields don't block 100% physical. Arguably that's for variety and/or flavor, nothing wrong with that. But in a game where bosses kill you in 2-3 hits, anything less than 100% block is trash. This mentality also made it into the end game meta. Because everyone is dealing so much damage to each other, people would rather kill & get killed in 3-4 hits than go on the defensive, which the main game has taught us is not strategically encouraged because big attacks break shield guard in 1-2 hits. In PVP, there are also the knight slayer ring, heavy weapons that break guard easy, WAs that break guard or bypass shields, or just kiting into backstab. They are still good in general, but in their effort to nerf turtles, Fromsoft really gave shields the short end of the stick.

TLDR, apart from buffing with MS/GMS which is kinda niche, shields become dead weight in a game where default rolling is so good, guard breaks are frequent, and there are plenty of strategies to negate shields. If ever Fromsoft hope to make shields fairly viable again, they could learn from Sekiro, and make a system, where if you time a block, you take less stamina damage, and if in PVP, the attacker uses more stamina per swing.

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63 shields in the entire game and you only see 5-8 of them regularly, 12 at best if you count some great shields. Dodging is so optimized, and it's easy to get solid defense with heavy armor while keeping below 70% weight, so medium rolls are still great even though you don't go as far. The point is to reposition, and since each roll cost less stamina than blocking weapons even as light as SS attacks, it's better to roll away. It doesn't help that most shields don't block 100% physical. Arguably that's for variety and/or flavor, nothing wrong with that. But in a game where bosses kill you in 2-3 hits, anything less than 100% block is trash. This mentality also made it into the end game meta. Because everyone is dealing so much damage to each other, people would rather kill & get killed in 3-4 hits than go on the defensive, which the main game has taught us is not strategically encouraged because big attacks break shield guard in 1-2 hits. In PVP, there are also the knight slayer ring, heavy weapons that break guard easy, WAs that break guard or bypass shields, or just kiting into backstab. They are still good in general, but in their effort to nerf turtles, Fromsoft really gave shields the short end of the stick.

TLDR, apart from buffing with MS/GMS which is kinda niche, shields become dead weight in a game where default rolling is so good, guard breaks are frequent, and there are plenty of strategies to negate shields. If ever Fromsoft hope to make shields fairly viable again, they could learn from Sekiro, and make a system, where if you time a block, you take less stamina damage, and if in PVP, the attacker uses more stamina per swing.

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IMAGINE USING SHIELDS OMEGALUL

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If they have altra great swords then why arn't there any altra great shilds.

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Because of how Bloodbournized DS3 has become, the overwhelming vibe I get is "Just dodge it, idiot. What are you doing, blocking that?"

Blocking and rolling both use stamina, and since stability in DS3 is shite (except for greatshields), might as well roll and do a roll-attack. Also enemies get way less staggered when hitting shields compared to DS1 and 2, and some of the more beast-like enemies will just burn through your stamina if you hold up your shield and wait for an opening.

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Anyone else find it stupid that stability is completely decided by the shield and not partially tied to a stat like STR or something? I guess it's for balance, but it's hilarious how you can go full Dusty Dodongo and hit like a train with a UGS, yet the moment you hold up a shield against the SS stance guard break, all that STR amounts to **** all.

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So the DLC shields have their own page, but the Sunlight Shield is here? You can only get that by giving Pickle-Pee a Mendicants Staff, which is from Archdragon Peak, a DLC.

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I just use the dark hands shield it feels like I'm using a energy shield from halo

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It's amazing how a tiny ring does more to protect us from backstabs than actual inch-thick slabs of wood/metal worn on the back.

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You are only permitted to use shields if you exclusivly use the Broken Straight Sword.

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Where the hell is the door shield.....

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Okay so which shield(s) deflect? Or is that mechanic even in this game?

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Hey so, if you two hand your weapon the character puts the shield on his back. Does that give damage resistance to attacks from the back, or is it purely decorative ?

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Wait, you can use pkcs to block so why bother using a shield? Aha! no one thought about this yet. Damn I'm smart.

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Wait, you can use pkcs to block so why bother using a shield? Aha! no one thought about this yet. Damn I'm smart.

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i love hosts that hide behind regular or even small shields thinking its a greatshield. a few r1s and i get a free riposte!

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