Shields | Dark Souls 3 Wiki

No balder shield 0/10

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You do not get the pleasure of calling yourself a pure strength user with a shield, unless you are using it as your only weapon

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OK I know I must be pretty dense but what do the large and small round shield icons that appear in the corners of some of the shield graphics mean? I'm assuming they mean something to do with parrying shields but why the two different sized icons and on opposite bottom corners? I've looked all over the wiki and I can't find a legend or other explanation. I know the straight sword icon means that it allows you to use your main hand weapon art without 2 handing.

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Pyromancer bane is fire infused black iron great shield +10. I did this and never again had trouble with midir fire or pyromancer pvp cheeses. I totally recommend it :)

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The Bonewheel Shield is hella awesome but I see nobody rocking it, which kinda sucks

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Where are the dragon head shields?

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+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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this is missing dlc sheilds

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Thank you

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Thxs

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Damn, I remember when this things were useful in the original, good times

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Shields be like

*Blocking noises*

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Why is valorheart not in here?

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DOOR SHIELD GANG

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Valorheart should be in both the weapons and shields section

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These really fell off once they made rolling cost less stamina than blocking all but the weakest possible attacks that you can just tank through. Was never a fan of shields and always two hand/ powerstance but making them almost completely obsolete wasn't necessary

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DLC shields are still missing

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follower shield is missing here

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So basically, upgrading a shield only improves the stability. If you infuse, not only does the shield's stability get reset to base value (less for some infusions), but it makes every other absorption aside from infusion element worse, making the upgrades worthless... Damn, DS3 hates shields so much, they only made the most obvious upgrade path the only one viable.

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Just wondering, aside from fashion and weight, what do you guys prefer in a shield; absorption or stability?

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Isn't there any info about the deflection values of each shield? I know some shields can deflect light weapons, but it seems there's no info about wich ones does it (or it's too well hidden).

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Please update for the DLC

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I will always hate the fact that the shield from Smoldering Ghrus is unobtainable

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If you pair a weapon skill shield with another weapon skill shield it does shield bash for some reason.

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Where are the doors ?

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The game puts the torch in the shields section, all Iʻm gonna say.

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As a side note, 75% of the shields listed here are trash

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glad to know putting every vanilla and dlc shields in the same page is hard to do

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Guys, learn to look around the page and read before saying the shields aren't listed. DLC shields are right at the top, they just don't have them on the main page. This is likely intentional. If anything that should narrow your search on this big list of shields! "For the shields in the DLC, see the Ashes of Ariandel Shields and The Ringed City Shields." Literally after first paragraph!

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Wierdly enough, out of all these shields only 15 are new to the dark souls series in the base game, not including dlc. Only 4 new standard shields, 6 new greatshields, 5 new small shields added. I counted the sunset shield as the mirrah shield, as they look too much alike, same with the kite shield (drangleic shield)

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Need to add in shields from the DLC

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Ethereal Oak Shield is not listed here.

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Of course one can always use a 100% block shield, but S H I E L D S A R E 4 S C R U B S

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dragonhead shield is not on the list

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does anyone know about a round shield that covers your entire body

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does anyone know about a gigantic shield that is round and covers your entire body

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I'd kill whoever modelled the shields, I go more hollow every time I see someone holding their shield with just a hand.

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Can someone explain weapon bouncing? As in, which weapons bounce off which types of shields?

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*****s

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Do you know if holding a shield with both hands reduces stamina spent while blocking? It seems logical for me. Also, it reduces strenght needed to use the shield, am I right?

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Blocking in ds3 is terrible so just wear a buff shield on your back. Additionally, all the tryhards will call you a scrub if you so much as touch a greatshield

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I'm glad that I got to see all this information. I've been able to know what items to save up for, and what stats I'll need for which item I'll want to equip. Thanks Wiki!

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what about the giant *****ing door shield

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Hey, trying to find a good shield to go with the black hand outfit, any suggestions??

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Is there a page with all shields that boost something If holded? I'm making a shield only playthrough and i hate the astatic look of the Weed-shield

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the fact that the giant door shield doesnt show up on first glance kinda ruined the whole co-op for me and my brother. we were under the impression there wasnt any Orma and Reeve's Greatshields like shields.

thanks wiki. gdg

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Ok, If your looking for the door great shields, the follower shield, or any other shield in the 2 "DLCs" click the highlighted DLC at the top of the page, where it tells you how to get to the DLC shields.

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wouldn't have hurt to implement a greatshield that isn't str based.

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I don't see the Giant Door Shield on the list

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Dark hand?

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im gay

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I really miss the catalysts shields not anyone of then in specific just to have one would be nice like a the sanctum shield I wish there was just one for each class doesn't even have to be great just usable

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I think the doors are in dark souls 2 only are they not.

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WOW

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Not sure where i would put this, but unlike the weapons where you only need half of the strength stat to use it while 2 handing it seems to go off of Dark souls logic where when 2 handing you act as if you have 50% more strength. Meaning you actually only need 39 strength to use moaning shield and so on and so forth.

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where's the doors?

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The small dragon shield from the second DLC is missing

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"offer a mediocre amount of protection"
u sure about that bud?

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What is the downside to using a shield you don't have the stats for?

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" Players cannot use their Weapon's Skill without first putting a Small Shield away or without two-handing their Weapon"
You should prolly fix that, as Warrior's Round Shield and Eastern Iron Shield both have Weapon Art instead of Parry.

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Hol' up, in the beginning of the game, some of the hollows with hoods have pikes, and what seems to be a round shield. Except, the shield is a bit broken and ragged. Is it a NPC-only item or is it obtainable?

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Right?

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No DLC shields ?

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why do i take damage with a 100% physical shield even when i put it up when i block a pure physical attack???

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does the page ever update? what a garbage info page

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โล่ประตู ละ??

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I can't add the *****ing Giant Door Shield for some reasons... The wiki doesn't let me edit the page..

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Missing the "Ethereal Oak Shield" from the first DLC which has 100 physical and 50 stability. Also slowly regenerates HP which makes it better than an average shield.

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What is the Lightest Infusable shield with "Weapon Skill"?

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where is the tower shields like the double doors

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I'm currently going through the game with a 10Str and 10Dex build. So I have 2 questions.
1: is there a shield with 100% physical in the game that I can wield?
2: if I don't have the stats to properly wield the shield does that affect damage absorption? Or just damage if I punch them with it?

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Been looking for a shield that will cast sorceries for its WA, kinda like the Clerics Candleholder or whatever it's called(straight sword). Any such thing?

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I am trying to remove the Large Leather Shield from my inventory but I can't find the section that has "shields" in it, please help!

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The Giant Door Shields aren't listed on this page.

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missing the follower shield.

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wish we can bash with shields that acts same as kicking just like lothrick knights and such

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