Heavy Equipment Recommendations

As of now my plan is something like DGM or DGC and the Havel's with pretty much no DEX investment. You think I'd be better off throwing some DEX in the mix? I know how good the Stone GS is. I have another build that uses the Havel's and I was using the Stone GS when I was still leveling my STR to 50. When I switched over to H'sGS I hardly noticed the difference in defense. I've been thinking about throwing some FTH into the mix too. With maybe just like 1 or 2 attunement slots for some kind of personal range AoE and possibly buffing. I'm either going to do that or just dump those extra points into VIT and END and invest in some pyromancy. Whether or not I want to buff is going to be the deciding factor.

I'm definitely opened to suggestion. I'll post my current stats if that'd help too. Playing like this is kinda making me feel like a noob. It's just completely alien to how I've always played. I generally go with faster lighter toons.

then go full havel with DGM. just unlock as much as you can and geat a heavy xbow too for runners. something like this http://mmdks.com/8w5

I'm sure this question is going to get me a slew of answers, but once your poise is in range of 100, does it really make a huge difference to go any higher than that? You're most likely not going to be getting stunlocked with 100 poise anyway right?

I've got a general idea of how the whole poise thing works, but I know some of you guys have it down to a science.

BTW that last one is more like what I've been thinking. I've never really played with one of these generators before. I've seen em a bunch of times but I've never been much of a min/maxer. Kinda always just leveled the way that felt the most right and geared my toons towards a general idea of how I wanted them to function as opposed to laying out such a set plan. It's actually helping more than I thought it would

you actualy want more than 100 for a tank since a damn falchion can stun you within seconds with that poise if you go toe to toe against it. its about in about two secs it can hit about 4 times which is a total of 124 poise needed to take those hits.

So I should aim for 125ish or higher? No wait, that makes sense. I didn't even realize what I'm wearing now, which is only one piece of heavy armor, is close to 100. I haven't even gotten to where the heavy stuff is yet.

I have a strength build that I use which I believe I had 50STR, 50VIT, 40END and I only upgraded DEX to 9 or 10 just to use the dragon weapons and I was still under 120. So it does not have to go to 150 to use unless you want to use the black knight weapons or magic or miracles. As for the weapons I use both the DGM and the DGA as my primary weapons and switch between a great shield or grass shield depending how I'm feeling that day. The DGA is great for it's damage but against BS fishers its no match because it has poor traking so thats when I switch to the DGM for the wide attack range. I've used the Demon's great hammer also because it looks cool but the great club does better damage and weighs half as much (From should have fixed this in an update:()

Yeah I'm actually starting to have second thoughts about the DGC. I was just screwing around with my Grant build trying to decide what I wanted to do and I think I've decided I'm not a huge fan of the clubs. I think out of all of them I like the Large Club the best. As of now, for my new toon, I'm considering the Greatsword, the DGM, and the Murakumo. But I'm planning on trying out the Golem Axe and the Gravelord GS too.

What's a good shield for tanking that's not a great shield? I originally was going to go ultra heavy and just not care about fat rolling, but the more experience I get playing with this toon the more I'm feeling like I just can't allow myself to do it. It's such a detriment. So I've been keeping myself mid rolling up till now. So with heavy armor, a heavy weapon, and a heavy GS, it's going to be pretty much impossible to keep myself mid rolling, especially with a ring slot taken up by the wolf ring for tanking. So I think what I might do is try to go with a medium shield instead. Up till now I've been alternating between the Grass Crest and the Tower Shield. Any recommendations for a more permanent selection that's a nice middle ground between them and can be helpful for tanking?

Oh also, I'm now pretty much eating my words in the biggest way possible. I think I am sticking with the Zweihander. I've tried out a few different heavier weapons, and I'm yet to find anything I like as much, or feel as comfortable with. Although the Stone Axe is really fun to use too.

PlasticandRage wrote:What's a good shield for tanking that's not a great shield?

Silver Knight Shield has great stability, although it's a little on the heavy side. Balder Shield is a solid choice and the Iron Round Shield is unique in that it deflects attacks like a greatshield but also can parry attacks.

Doesn't the deflection not affect PvP interactions though? I tried the Balder Shield, it's usually a bit of a go-to shield for me, but I can't do it ascetically this time. My big torso and gauntlet armor clip through the shield and it looks terrible. May be silly to some, but matters to me. Silver Knight over Black Knight you think?

I like Silver Knight over Black Knight for a variety of reasons unless, of course, I'm up against a lot of pyros. As for the deflection thing not working in PvP, that's news to me, I'll have to look into that.

i would go with either balder or silver/black knight shields. iron round shield is pretty good too.

I'm pretty sure that's what it says on the wiki. I was actually using it with my last toon, my INT/DEX, in place of where I was going to put the Eagle Shield, and I eventually ended up switching to the Silver Knight Shield because it's defensive stats are higher and the deflection thing wasn't doing a thing for me in Pvp. So the Silver Knight has higher defensive stats in the areas other than fire than the BK? That's enough for me too. Any other recommendations? The 5 point weight isn't really an issue for me. At least its less than the GS's. It's a shame though. I was enjoying my Tower Shield. It just weighs too damn much.

What about Solaire's shield? That seems to be about the same as the Iron Round Shield but it weighs a little less and it's stats are a little higher.

spider shield is really good too and it looks awesome. too bad it doesnt protect youagainst poison anymore, WTF FROM!!!

Sure it does. I just took it through Blight Town the other day. It protects you just fine. I was just doing some stat comparisons and I think I'm going with either one of the Kite Shields or the SKSh. The Spider is good, but all it's stats are just a little lower than the other 2. As for the Sunlight it just seems outclassed by the SKSh, when taking their heavier weight into consideration. Like if I'm going to go with a shield that weighs 4 pounds I might as well go for 1 pound heavier for the better stats.

I meant poison arrows for PvP. Solaires shield is good and like you said the kite shields are too.

That's weird that it'd protect you from one and not the other. That was a patch thing?

its always done it but i think the patch changed it since it doesnt anymore unless im getting dead angled by the damn arrows which i doubt.

Ya know just for conversations sake, the Cleansing GS wouldn't be a bad shield for a tank at all. If you consider that in order to tank you'd be wearing some of the best defensive armor in the game. That 80% phys wouldn't really make too huge a difference, and it's other stats/weight/stability are pretty great.

overall is a really good shield, when people see a tank they wont just go up to you and spam r1(usually) instead they'll spam magic which would be better for the guy that's tanking since the magic res are really good.

I'm actually thinking about firing up a stat generator and seeing how high my endurance would need to be to use it with my current set up. I could use it now if I ditched my Havel's armor piece, but it adds so much poise, and some pretty good defense increases it's hard to let go of.

yeah, imo havel's is better than giant's because of the poise.

Giants doesn't really go with anything else that's heavy either. The two stone guardian sets can be mixed and matched and still look fairly decent, and then most of the others can mix with each other because they're all blacks and silvers, but the gold/yellow giants doesn't really work with anything else in it's class.

im using full guardian right now to med roll, i love how it looks and its actually pretty good.

I really like the big chunky gauntlets and legs. I think the gauntlets might be only ones in the game without defined hands and fingers.