Crest shield now the best shield?

Got invaded in ToG yesterday and waited for the invader. Happened to be using the crest shield because I had just finished taking out the hydra in ash lake. Anyway, he ends up finding me and proceeds to spam dark bead after dark bead. I simply kept moving while holding up the shield and took minimal damage. After he was out of casts I proceeded to absolutely work him over with my katana.

So, is the crest shield the best shield for PvP given that it has decent stability when maxed out, has 100% physical block, 80% magic block, and for now it seems that the most popular build either focus on dark magic or use it for support?

what sl were you? they probably didnt have a high enough int since the dar sorceries destroy the crest shield.

Crest shield has always been one of the best shields in the game. highest magic block for shields that can parry.

Actually glute a +10 magic warrior's round shield (the one you buy from the male undead merchant, it doesn't apply to the others for some reason) gives 84.5% magic resistance, more than the crest shield

Pedantics aside, i'd be a bit hesitant to call the crest shield the best shield, the elemental resistance isn't that great. If you like to block with big things i'd say the stone greatshield is the best IMO, basically a mini-havels with great all-round resistances that doesn't require 50 str, farming for it can take a while though.

I actually made one of those magic warrior shields +10 just to see if it was useful -- it was terrible. Stability was actually lower than my greatsword.

befowler wrote:I actually made one of those magic warrior shields +10 just to see if it was useful -- it was terrible. Stability was actually lower than my greatsword.

it's saved my life a couple of times, but it's really bad against dark sorceries just like the crest(which is better) stability sucks which is why you can tank with it, youre supposed to use it for those moments where you know youre screwed and your only option is to block and it saves your ***.

Crest Shield has always been the best shield.

Rynn wrote:Crest Shield has always been the best shield.

That's debatable. And up to personal preference
I prefer the heater shield myself, fast parry with 100% physical res.

Spurgun wrote:

Rynn wrote:Crest Shield has always been the best shield.

That's debatable. And up to personal preference
I prefer the heater shield myself, fast parry with 100% physical res.

and 30% magic res... so if anyone is fighting you with any type of enchanted weapon, they can eat you alive through your shield with the chip damage.

I rarely fight people with enchanted/occult weapons (that might change with this new patch though). So i haven't had to worry about that. I'm also used to dodging more than blocking.
I do change to the crest shield when i fight someone who uses DMB/CMW. Just as i change to the BK shield when i fight a pyro.

I suppose.
I love fighting people like you though, I explicitly use only enchanted weapons just because so many people use shields with 60% or lower magic res, so i can chew 30-70 damage per chip hit with a good enchanted weapon. The heater shield gives me close to 120 chip with 350 magic AR, and it takes a moment to get an opportunity to switch shields.

I guess you would be doing even more damage against me as well, since i don't use any armor (not sure though, i don't really know how it works).
I prefer dodging/parrying, but i don't think i would be able to parry people like you. So i would probably try to dodge for most of the fight.
But changing shield doesn't take that long. I can do it almost under a second, and i will still be moving while i do it. So i don't think you would be able to pressure me enough to hinder me from switching.

If you're only using a small shield to save yourself from a tight spot, it almost doesn't matter which you use. Heck I've blocked a point blank range Dark Bead by two-handing with the Gold Tracer and survived.

A shield that will be used specifically to block magic on the other hand needs to have both a high magic res. and stability due to the new dark magic's guard breaking abilities. And the Crest Shield, from what I have seen, is the best option to cover both the magic defense and stability.

Spurgun wrote:I guess you would be doing even more damage against me as well, since i don't use any armor (not sure though, i don't really know how it works).

If your shield has 80% magic resistance, then my AR is sliced down to 20% of it's original value. So that 500 AR Moonlight Greatsword only has 100 AR now, only doing about 30 chip damage.
So 30% magic resistance is far worse then 80% due to increasing gains on AR.

So the damage through a shield is the same no matter how much armor you have?

No. If You reduce my AR to 100, like in my above example, then the remaining 100 AR is then compared to your defense.

With a heater shield vs dragon warriors I often see returns of a bit over 200 with 350 magic AR.

That's what i thought.

I really hope that people don't start using enchanted weapons now

I'm genuinely surprised people don't do it more often.

I've always used Grass Crest for Stamina regen, but ever since Dark Sorceries arrived I'm using Crest Shield instead. I try to evade the spells, but the lag on spells is terrbile since the DLC, or I just happened to notice the lag only now, since there's a ton of Int builds. Seriously, three out of four guys I meet are Int, or Int hybrids now...

Anyway, if I'm not too sure about the evade, Crest Shield can save my life and it already did that MANY times. So far I've been able to block even close up Dark Bead, but it drained most of my max Stamina bar, so I'm very happy with it and it deals with spammers perfectly.

If my opponent brings Pyro instead of Int stuff I take out Dragon Crest Shield and if the guy prefers weapons only, it's Grass Crest again.

That's how I roll at least.

Crest shield is a beast to me ! using it till the beginning of the game and well actually i've never changed it.

My SL 120 50int build with Uchigatana +5 enchanted completely destroy people using low magic shield, with TCC i can do up to 1500 damage at close range with dark bead, and CSS roughly the same.

I was rly bas with my previous weapons battleaxe enchanted +5 but with little practice it's viable, in pvp and i surprise the hell out of people with my weapon and build.

Havel's shield. today I was in the forest and a dude spammed pursuers and dark bead at me. With the havel's shield I basicly took no damage at all

zivbu9 wrote:Havel's shield. today I was in the forest and a dude spammed pursuers and dark bead at me. With the havel's shield I basicly took no damage at all

I use Dark Orb. I like spamming 36 dark orbs into peoples shields. at 50 per, that's still 1800 damage.

Rynn wrote:I'm genuinely surprised people don't do it more often.

A lot of PvP players have aggressively pushed the idea that +15 physical damage weapons are ALWAYS best because of the min/max logic behind split damage. While the stats do support this, a lot of intangibles also come into play, including the ones brought up here. Against average invaders, enchanted and elemental weps will do fine. If I meet a seasoned pro, it won't matter what kind of damage I'm doing.

It all depends. I mean, I use the buckler and I do just well. I'm of the opinion that it's not necessarily about the equipment that you use, but about your offensive/defensive strategies.

I use the crest shield, almost exclusively, when I invade in Anor Londo, New Londo, and the Forest, where magic dominates.