Greatshield bash > kick?

All of my prior builds with shields have always used ones that can parry, but I recently started using a greatshield. The bash on it seems to be pretty effective at staggering people, and I have been using it as a substitute for kicks. It fires more reliably (sometimes my kick attempts end up being regular R1s) and if I use it unlocked it is pretty easy to direct at circling BS fishers and even cancel BSs since it does a bit of damage unlike a kick. But nobody uses bashes -- are there other drawbacks vs. a kick, like maybe less staggering on high poise people, shorter range etc?

I just think they're kind of slow. But that's just me.

I dont ever use shields it against my creed but if you wear orange charred ring your kicks do flame damage

thorn leggings also add damage to kicks, and the egg haed attack staggers on hit (it has a narrower hit box though...) try a bone wheel shield maybe, its bashes are brutal. or try a pierce/spiked shield i think they stagger people...

LOL, trust me there is a major downside compared to kick. I agree they come in very handy, especially to punish bs fishers(same as kick but causes damage). I found out the hard way today, you can get parried by doing a shield bash. I knew this, but didn't quite know the extent. I remember i parried someone 2handing a spiked shield, but i didn't realize you could or just how easy it is to parry just a normal shield bash. I actually think it is very stupid you can get parried like that, cause shield bash should be something you could use to punish a parry spammer. But, no you get parried. Lame....

Yeah, I just had that happen to me over the weekend, somebody parried my greatshield bash. Thankfully it was another summon so no biggie, but it made absolutely no sense and looked idiotic. He actually parried a giant shield with a smaller shield. Ok.

99% sure you can parry a bash, you can't parry a kick so a kick is a bit safer

EDIT: i guess if i read the whole thread first i will see it was already stated...

The recovery time from a shield bash is very long. If you misstime or your opponent dodges then you're left wide open for counter. Furthermore, you can't follow up attacks with a bash because of the recovery time, your opponent will just have rolled away before you can take advantage of the stagger.

Not worth swapping a parrying shield for a greatshield just for the bash. Do so if you wish to turtle or if you're using the Bonewheel shield as a weapon.

Other then then the fact that they can be parried, which really annoys me(i agree with befowler, it looks idiotic when someone parrys your huge giants shield with a heater). Other then that, i think they are pretty underrated. Great stability is a good thing, cause you can block a bunch of hits and still have plenty of stamina to roll away or stunlock them. Also the bash would be great, cause they cause decent chip damage and are a good way to not be super predictable with punishing bs attempts. Like you can use a kick sometimes, then switch it up and use your r1 unlocked, or use the shield bash. All viable, and it's good to have more then one way of going about it.

does parrying a huge giant shield look at more retarded then parrying Smoughs hammer or any other super huge weapon

They all look pretty dumb, but what struck me with the greatshield was that the parry animation itself didn't even catch the edge of my shield bash because my shield is so wide -- unlike a weapon swing, the bash is slammed almost directly forward at the target. It was like someone parrying an incoming wall by rubbing the edge of their own shield against the middle of it. Somehow that made me stagger and stand there like an idiot for the riposte. At least with a weapon you could pretend the guy blocked your wrist or the hilt or something, but here there was literally nothing they could reach but the center of the shield.

One other thing about greatshield bash:
Rapiers. You can just turtle behind a shield and poke with a rapier. And greatshields are great for turtling. But, you can't kick with rapiers. So you can use the bash instead.