Notes on Havel's Greatshield Special Ability

For many of us, Havel's Greatshield is a mystery. Most toons will never have the strength to wield it; people generally shun it because of its weight; and 99.5% of the information you'll find on its special ability is unadulterated crap. I hereby present the real deal on Havel's R2 ability after extensive testing:

Effect of the ability: The ability has zero effect on defense, including physical, magical, fire and lightning. However, the ability dramatically increases poise. With this ability active, I was able to tank 4 hits from the man serpents without so much as flinching (my toon was buck naked with zero poise during these tests). The ability also causes attacks to bounce off of you as if you blocked with a heavy shield. The only mobs I have found so far that can stagger me after using Havel's ability are the giants in Anor Londo.

Mobility considerations: The ability has no effect on mobility, unlike iron flesh.

Duration of the ability: 40 seconds. The duration is not affected by the lingering dragoncrest ring.

Durability cost: 300.

Ability activation animation: The animation consists of you ducking under the shield for about 2.5 seconds. This seems like a long time, but the good news is that you're practically immune to frontal damage during this time, because the animation counts as having your shield up. To activate this ability during a fight, simply back up against a wall (don't do it against someone wielding a weapon that can dead angle).

Interaction with other abilities: This counts as a personal buff. You can't have other buffs active at the same time.

Appearance of the ability: You are covered in black crystals.

Good uses for this ability: Be creative; who doesn't want more poise? If you're still stumped about the best use, I'll give you a hint. What is naked, roars, usually wastes weight points (i.e., is capable of carrying a 24 weight shield), and has no poise? Here is a little bonus: the dragon roar appears to deactivate the ability, making the buff temporarily invisible. However, appearances are deceptive, as the ability will still be active. Thus, dragon form effectively allows you to hide this poise-jacking buff.

Strength build dragonoids rejoice! You now have access to enough poise to tank just about anything!

edit: fyi, upgrading the shield has no effect on the special ability.

I've always wondered what it did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1rOUlnRf5Y Heres a link if you want to see what it looks like, by the way.

nice!

+1 for testing and sharing.

Thanks for testing this in depth, I've noted on the wiki about the stagger effect and I'll link to here as well.

Thanks, great work!

I noticed 2 more things about the buff:

1. You can activate it and then unequip the shield.

2. You can activate it without meeting the shield's equip requirements.

Could you let me know if either of these nulls or deactivates the buff? Thanks! Because if it doesn't, then really anyone could make use of this buff, since you wouldn't need the Str or equip weight requirements. Just buff and unequip.


EDIT: 1 is correct, 2 is false.

BLA1NE wrote:Thanks, great work!

I didn't test it per se, but I noticed 2 things about the buff:

1. You can activate it and then unequip the shield.

2. You can activate it without meeting the shield's equip requirements.

Could you let me know if either of these nulls or deactivates the buff? Thanks! Because if it doesn't, then really anyone could make use of this buff, since you wouldn't need the Str or equip weight requirements. Just buff and unequip.

Really? When I used it, my character with about 24 str would only show the normal sluggish bash animation because of his lack of STR.

Yeah I remember that as well, I'm pretty sure you need the strength to at least two hand it before you can activate the buff.

Hey thanks for that strangejoy. I didn't even know the shield had any special ability. I've never used it because it is too heavy for my character build. Now I've see it in action though (thanks for the link bloodpixel) I'm going to build my strength up so I can use it. It looks awesome.

Does it go away when removing the shield?

xXDaemonarchXx wrote:Does it go away when removing the shield?

Nope. See Blaine's post.

Nice

awesome, i know what im gonna use in the FC tourney.

I have 50 strength. And dragon torso stone. And 4 of these shields in my inventory. Now I know what I'm going to try next when I play some PvP.

@Blood & Knight

Well I guess I was wrong! I have so many characters, sometimes I forget which I test what with.

Nice testing, this information is appreciated.

You may be correct though Bla1ne, I'm unable to actually test it myself and going off a memory from long ago. I also believe that was before 1.05, could have changed.

Alright, I had to make sure:

- You can not use the buff if you don't meet the requirements

- However, you can apply the buff if you meet the requirements 2-handed.

So you can do it with only 34 Str. I also noticed it shows a little "Poise Buffed" icon under your stamina bar--don't know if that was there before, but I just noticed it now.

Also, could just be my imagination, but there seemed to be less crystals on my 34 Str character than there were on my 50 Str. Maybe the buff scales with Str? Just throwing this out there...

You know, I also remember alot less rock covering me back then, compared than when I did it with 65 STR one handed and practically my entire, literally 85-90%, was covered. I'm I have no idea what the meaning of this could possibly be though.

Does the poise increase show up in your character stats (upper right corner)? Might be a way to see if it scales with str, among other things.

As long as you had repair powder on hand, this could be a really good way to supplement light armour builds.

Rep up for a fellow tester!

That's cool info you have found out, seems like a cool way to play a dragon, I'm in!

One question though, have you tested this in PVP? Some shields bounce back attacks in PVE, but not in PVP for example. Iron Flesh will bounce back in PVP, maybe this does also? I assume the poise works in PVP though.

befowler wrote:Does the poise increase show up in your character stats (upper right corner)? Might be a way to see if it scales with str, among other things.

I didn't check just now, so unless it was changed in 1.05, no the buff doesn't show up on the stats screen.

Wade_Wilson wrote:As long as you had repair powder on hand, this could be a really good way to supplement light armour builds.

Light armor, with at least 34 Str... Pretty much only Dragons! But yeah, this blows the doors open on a lot of possibilities.

The poise isn't shown on your stat screen, so it's really hard to get a handle on whether it scales with str. That would be interesting. My tests were entirely at 50 str. My body was largely covered in crystals, and the poise was high enough that I doubt that any additional poise would be necessary in normal combat.

Blaine, for the 34 str toon, did you have to two hand the shield (right-hand) or could you use it on your left hand?

Dellusions wrote:Rep up for a fellow tester!

That's cool info you have found out, seems like a cool way to play a dragon, I'm in!

One question though, have you tested this in PVP? Some shields bounce back attacks in PVE, but not in PVP for example. Iron Flesh will bounce back in PVP, maybe this does also? I assume the poise works in PVP though.

I have not tested in PvP, but that's a good idea. My tests were conducted against: (1) the hollows near firelink; (2) man serpents in Sen's; (3) man serpent sorcerers (for the lightning); (4) the fire breathing bug things in blight town (for the fire, of course); (5) the sorcerer in the forest (for the magic); (6) the giants in Anor Londo (to test maximum poise damage); (7) the arrow traps in Sens (to make sure I was getting an accurate read out of physical damage); (8) the darkwraiths in New Londo (more poise testing).

I'll try to test in PvP tonight to see if I still get the bounce-back effect. It's hard to imagine that the poise effect would be altered, but I'll check that too.