Good early-game medium shields?

Apologies if this has already been discussed, did a search and couldn't find what I was looking for. Created a new Faith based character, still fairly early in the game, and I'm deciding what shield to use. The HSS used to be my go-to shield, but now that it's been nerfed I'm looking at upgrading either the Knight Shield or the Grass Crest Shield. Knight Shield has more stability, but GC Shield has that stamina regen.

Has anyone used these post-patch? Any suggestions?

The Cracked Round Shield is a pretty solid choice, you can block and parry with it while not taking 100% of the Damage .
And it is a fairly common drop from the Hollows to boot .

Not a fan of the Knight Shield, personally. Too heavy for the stability it has, when I can use the Tower/Caduceus Kite Shield and have more stability for only 3 units of weight.

The Grass Crest Shield is useful, although I think it's best for PvP.

I tend to use the Heater Shield and would recommend it. The lightest of the 100% physical damage reduction shields and it has decent stability too once you have upgraded it a bit. I've done whole playthroughs using no other shield but that and it's been fine every time.

+1 for the heater, it's light and 100% block. good to start out with, later on you'll get used to dodging and be going for the lighter shields.

Thanks for the suggestions. Seeing as how the Heater Shield is only 1,000 souls I see no reason not to try it out.

If you have the master key do a suicide run for the Dragon crest shield, it's one of the best shield in the game imo.

The heater shield is a nice light weight option, and it's a great shield for PVE and PVP.  However if you can afford 3.0 weight for a shield you get access to several nice situational options:

- Caduceus Kite or Tower Kite for 100% physical block and stability
- Grass Crest for stamina regen
- Crest Shield for 80% magic block
- Dragon Crest for 80% fire block
- Bloodshield for a status resist boost
- Spider Shield if you need to block toxic darts in Blighttown and you haven't gotten the Bloodshield yet.

All but the Blood Shield are available early on.

Cronotis wrote:The heater shield is a nice light weight option, and it's a great shield for PVE and PVP.  However if you can afford 3.0 weight for a shield you get access to several nice situational options:

- Caduceus Kite or Tower Kite for 100% physical block and stability
- Grass Crest for stamina regen
- Crest Shield for 80% magic block
- Dragon Crest for 80% fire block
- Bloodshield for a status resist boost
- Spider Shield if you need to block toxic darts in Blighttown and you haven't gotten the Bloodshield yet.

All but the Blood Shield are available early on.

Also, the crystal shield. It blocks all stat build in PVE. (All stat buildup done by enemies)

Crystal shield is awesome (used it in my very first playthrough..good times...) but weighs a ton (~6 right?)
Id suggest
-Dark Hand
-S/B Knight shield because SKS has high stab, BKS has high fire resist (but heavy)
-Sanctus since faith build
-Thorn shield my personal favorite when coupled with the spiked whip  
-Crest Shield because 80% magic resist

I'm suprpised no one mentioned the Eagle Shield. For lightweight classes imo one of the best shields, especially when upgraded to +15 - and it's accessible very early in Blighttown.

Though the longer I play the game the less I need stability on a shield simply because I evade more and block less. Hence the Grass Crest Shield is my choice even on NG++ for almost all battles, stamina regen beats everything. Only for the way up in Anor Londo that's guarded by the two marksmen I use the Eagle and the Crest for 4Kings on NG++ and beyond.

Alright typed a lot of sentences and than realized that the OP is asking for a medium shield, which the Eagle is not Though why not use it if stability is the issue? It's only a tiny bit heavier than the Crest Shields.

I'm suprpised no one mentioned the Eagle Shield. For lightweight classes imo one of the best shields, especially when upgraded to +15 - and it's accessible very early in Blighttown.

Eagle shield is one of the best shields for PvE in the game as long as you go to 16 str or more, but as you later point out it is definitely a greatshield, not a medium shield and thus not an option per OP title . Still, if OP is willing to go to 16 str, it trivializes PvE when upgraded as many attacks that are normally very threatening wind up becoming very tolerably blockable.

IMO for just raw stability early on tower/cad are the best. Easy to access, highest stability at 3.0 weight, low str requirement, and enough oomph to get one through a pinch in, say, a capra demon fight.

For those spamming dodge, grass crest is the obvious option.

Least the Eagle shield nerfed to 90%?

Wasnt*
(Sorry mobile can't edit)

I thought it still had 95% damage block. When you factor in armor of any kind + 95% reduction on it, the chip is a joke. It's not the best vs pure magic or fire, but better than eating those attacks outright (not that anything threatening in PvE uses fire that you can block anyway - Quelag is it. BoC just storms you or smacks you physically, firesage is magic, centipede is mostly physical).

95 okay.
Black knight shield is better then since it has 100 in phys and Fire. (Or 90 in fire I can't remember) weighs the same and can parry. Those chips add up.

Chips add up, yes, but ES has 84 stability when maxed...much higher than black knight shield. So much higher in fact that black knight shield stability is closer to a maxed heater. This allows not only more blocking, but also more follow up attacks.

As I mentioned, in PvE fire is a joke; you never see it from anything that matters. You could make a case for magic, since all of these use magic:

Moonlight butterfly
4kings
demon firesage
stray demon
Nito
Manus AFAIK

And possibly:

Seath (no idea, might only be physical + curse buildup)
Quelag (AoE?)
Kalameet (I heard his breath was magic)

So you might have to dodge those with Eagle, or use crest, or use spell + speckled stone plates and still block with Eagle. Whatever you want to do, black knight isn't the pick vs magic anyway; even silver knight would be better for that.

I have never relied on Stability, if I wanted stability I would go all the way for a great shield with 100, since sacrificing parrying is a major deal. And if it is a special attack i would only like to get hit once so I use the dark hand for its versatility as a shield. (If that. Parrying & no shield ftw)

Yarxov wrote:

I have never relied on Stability, if I wanted stability I would go all the way for a great shield with 100, since sacrificing parrying is a major deal. And if it is a special attack i would only like to get hit once so I use the dark hand for its versatility  as a shield. (If that. Parrying & no shield ftw)

Stability is enormous. It's among the most important factors as to whether you'd bother to block at all. 5% physical chip is a small deal (people block huge damage dark magic with Havel's shield all the time and don't flinch, and that's 10% chip), considering that eagle shield can be used with 16 str (not an uncommon dex stopping point) while the next lightest greatshield is the tower which needs 30 str.

Parrying is a major deal in PvP, but it's of minor importance at best in PvE. It is understandably fun and satisfying, but aside from Gwyn irrelevant to boss fights and in many regular encounters also. Most of the regular enemies that can be parried and are actually encountered with any frequency also get a recoil animation from hitting a greatshield, exposing them regardless.

Greatshield + spear is among the easiest ways to play the game PvE <3.

I agree. Greatshields aren't that great for pvp (apart from havels and possibly the stone greatshield), however they make pve encounters laughable even without a spear. The high stability, combined with the deflection, means you don't lose much stamina blocking. I like to combine a greatshield with a heavy weapon (such as my trusty DGA), since the deflection gives enough of a delay to 2-hand my weapon and attack. This staggers them, letting me attack again, which is enough to finish off any non-boss mobs. I don't know why people don't use greatshields in pve more often.

A related point: I REALLY hope greatshields in DKS2 give deflection in pvp.

Shakie666 wrote:

A related point: I REALLY hope greatshields in DKS2 give deflection in pvp.

I don't know about deflection but the shield bash of the Greatshields finally do good Damage so that it's a worthwhile attack .