Divine shield bash good for putting down skeletons?

I searched the forums (and wider internet), didn't find an answer. I have a low faith melee build, and would like to take on the Catacombs to get the Rite of Kindling. I guess I just don't have the skills to pull this off without being able to put down the skeletons permanently. My one divine sword does such crap damage, it isn't even a viable switch-out for last few hits when the crowd closes in.

I was upgrading some gear though, and saw that I could turn my Grass Crest Shield into a divine shield. Does anyone know if a shield bash from a divine shield would do the trick? I am low on shards etc, so I would like to only test it myself if nobody posts an answer.

If it comes to that, I will post the results here.

I do not have an answer to your question. But if you want a good divine weapon I recomment the reinforced club; at +5 divine the leap attack kills the skelletons instantly (worked with my level 1 char).

Silver Knight Spear does divine damage as well if you're a pure melee build; it'll put down the skeletons.

Otherwise pick something with poor scaling, like the Gargoyle Halberd (D,D) or reinforced club and use that.

Yes any killing blow dealt by a divine shield will prevent them from reviving but honestly the divine path is a waste of a shield. Your better off taking any strike weapon and upgrading it as any attack from a weapon that deals strike damage will not only do extra damage to skeletons on top of the divine bonus but strike attacks cause them to stun and temporarily disassemble allowing free hits and infinite stunning. As razz and mark suggested the reinforced club is the best at low levels, it's relatively high damage and easily bought from the male undead merchant.

On a side note my favorite divine weapon is the Great Club from blightown for any character with the 19 str to 2hand it. It hits like a truck and at +10 its even useful in Tomb of Giants.

Thank you for the advice guys! After I posted I noticed what that would have done to my shield's physical defense too. Yikes! Just got the Gargoyle Halberd, will probably use that.

If you're just going for the Kindling, then I suggest using the shortcut method. From the first bonfire it's a very short run, and you can either ignore the Skeletons on the way or fight them, since there's only a few you should be able to get through it with only a little trouble.

If you are having trouble with the skeletons due to lack of a divine weapon, you could always push them off an edge. That was what I did in my very first playthrough. I had no idea that divine weapons existed in the first place, and I needed some way to get past them. It took unnecessarily long time, but I got through, all the way to the Tomb of Giants.

What happened there, is a whole other story. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty, since I didn't know that the necromancer lanterns actually FUNCTIONED as lanterns.

Anyway, I sugest you go to Anor Londo. Venture into Havels secret stash. Take the occult club. Degrade it into a divine club. And there you go.
Its weak, but if you combine it with you preferred weapon of choice, it will prove useful.

I discovered something yesterday that I'd like to advance with further testing. Unfortunately, I cannot remember what SL I was or what character I was playing, but my Divine Gargoyle Halberd+10 was doing more damage against the statue guys than my Fire Gargoyle Halberd+10 and perhaps even my Gargoyle Halberd+15.

Perhaps divine is a good weapon against enemies other than the skeletons in the catacombs.

Green__Eagle wrote:I discovered something yesterday that I'd like to advance with further testing. Unfortunately, I cannot remember what SL I was or what character I was playing, but my Divine Gargoyle Halberd+10 was doing more damage against the statue guys than my Fire Gargoyle Halberd+10 and perhaps even my Gargoyle Halberd+15.

Perhaps divine is a good weapon against enemies other than the skeletons in the catacombs.

You mean the titanite Demon? That's probably true, Divine is supposed to be good against "Evil" things.

I did some testing last night using SL215 or so on ng6. The first number is damage output using r1. The second number is damage output using r2. The weapons used are gargoyle halberds.

Divine+10: 165/209

Fire+10: 81/96

+15: 203/258

On a related note, I do recall using a moonlight sword against these guys a long time ago and it killed them in one swing.