Shield Choice

Hey all! Im new to darksouls, picked it up just yesterday. And after many many deaths i've finally made it to the rear end of blight town (about to get to the spider demon woman thing) and i have some item questions.

Im playing a kind of divine-katana build, going to get the chaos blade and all that but i'm unsure of what shield and armor i should be looking at.

I plan to branch into eather pryomancy or divine magic later on and i like to backstab and parry likeabaws .

So what shield/armor combo would be good for me? Or suggestions even i'd love to have. Using the good ol knight shield and buckler now with starter thief armor (starter class was thief)

THANK YOU!

I don't know about armour/shields, but DO NOT USE THE CHAOS BLADE! The damage is pretty bad, and it eats away at your own health each time you land a hit. For a dex build you're far better off with the furysword, if you don't mind lugging round all that humanity (which you would need for the chaos blade anyway).

Well any other suggestions for weapons like katanas? I see the furysword used a LOT and wasn't planning on going that route.

Well, i suppose the furysword technically isn't a katana at all. It depends really, the uchigatana has slightly higher damage than the iaito, but the latter has a far better R2 attack. On the other hand, the washing pole has longer reach and looks completely awesome, but it has less health than the other katanas.

Alright let me change my question a little bit (im sorry for extending this question PAST the, thanks for the shield recommendations btw!) i'm still very early in the game, what weapons would be suit my parry/backstab playstyle?

Grass crest shield is a favorite, nothing special going for it in the shield-type stats department but boosts your stamina regeneration. It's basically the only shield with any practical offensive use. Other than that I either use Eagle Shield (best lightweight stability and good vs lightning), Crest Shield vs magic or Black Knight Shield (mmm 95% fire reduction).

I also agree with the above poster, chaos blade is bad. If you want the best katana-like weapon you want a murakumo. As for the actual katanas there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of difference between them to me. Iaito's a bit of a different move set, not sure which would end up being better. And the furysword is good too though not the same style.

The best weapons for parry/backstab would be the thrusting swords (rapier, mail breaker, and estoc), but these weapons also have very narrow hitboxes and somewhat low damage for non-critical hits. Other decent options would be the balder side sword and the silver knight straight sword, both of which scale relatively well with dexterity (bss scales better, but sks has higher base damage; both have good range; sks has much better poise damage). All of the above weapons are good choices for a dex/faith build, because their speed maximizes your return when you use a weapon buff (sunlight blade or darkmoon blade).

You can get a bss by farming the balder knights (the guys with capes in the undead parish). You'll need to wait until Anor Londo to get the sks.

For a shield, the silver knight shield is a popular option for people who sometimes parry. I also like the iron round shield, which doesn't have as good stability but deflects blows from medium and light weapons (the deflection gives you a chance to strike).

How about spears? Im liking the bss stats but spears seem relevent too

You'll pick up a lightning spear in Sen's Fortress that spanks some booty. Really though, I'd recommend checking out some of the straight swords. The above recommendation of Balder Side Sword is probably the most farmable or attainable for your immediate progress point and it's got a great move set. The Silver Knight Swords are past Sen's Fortress.

If you are really into parries and back stabs get a weapon with a crit boost (most daggers, rapiers, etc), but most of those weapons scale only with Dex so any points you jam into Faith won't scale well.

You could also just head up the water wheel and head down the Valley of Drakes and nab the Astora Straight Sword...thing is pretty awesome early in the game as your character build is coalescing and scales with Strength, Dexterity and Faith, it splits its damage into physical and magical for those enemies that resist either. And it's a simple no fuss divine weapon for putting down skeletons n such later when you get to the catacombs. The Astora Straight Sword is also found laying near the Dragon Crest Shield (good fire resist, 100% physical, fair stability, and it's kinda sexy lookin).

I just discovered the silver knight strait sword the other day. I'm usually a katana user, but to be more accurate I make dexterity builds. As far as the katana's go any one of them is good, it just depends on the upgrade path you choose. You can't go wrong with fire/lightning. Occult/divine and enchanted/magic are great if you're focusing on magic. The longsword, broadsword, any curved sword, Silver knight strait sword, all the piercing swords are great choices for the build you sound like you're using. Whether or not you use miracles I'd recommend using pyromancy. Its a great crutch for those hard parts of the game.

As far as shields go people have already made some good suggestions. If you like to parry the lighter and smaller the shield the better. The targed shield and buckler are made for parrying. If you like blocking however I DON'T recommend them at all. The heater shield seems to be a nice balance between resistances and parry speed.

As far as armor goes I tend to use medium armors. I care less about defense and more about looks so if you're looking to max your stats I can't help you much.

Herbo wrote:Has died in Dark Souls:

pointlessly, fruitlessly, alone, tired, unloved, tragicly, comicly, heroicly, angrily, happy, rested, while taking a drink, answering the phone, being ganked by dark spirits, for daring to use a bridge, from opening a door, failing on stairs, rolling, jumping, standing, blocking, mashing buttons, using a greyed out item, attacking...

Have you died afk or in a menu forgetting you had mimic hat on?

Alistairetheblu wrote:Grass crest shield is a favorite, nothing special going for it in the shield-type stats department but boosts your stamina regeneration. It's basically the only shield with any practical offensive use. Other than that I either use Eagle Shield (best lightweight stability and good vs lightning), Crest Shield vs magic or Black Knight Shield (mmm 95% fire reduction).

I also agree with the above poster, chaos blade is bad. If you want the best katana-like weapon you want a murakumo. As for the actual katanas there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of difference between them to me. Iaito's a bit of a different move set, not sure which would end up being better. And the furysword is good too though not the same style.

The Iaito fully upgraded ends up SLIGHTLY, as in like 2 or 3 points, weaker than the fully upgraded Uchigatana, and by upgraded I mean just the standard upgrade path. The real difference, as you said is in move set. I did the katana thing for awhile with my last build and found that I preferred the Iaito despite it being slightly weaker. The two are exactly the same in all respects save the R2 attack, whereas the Uchigatana's R2 is a stab, similar to the generic katana running attack, the Iaito's R2 is a wide sweep. I personally found the Iaito's sweep to add a little more functionality to the weapon than what the Uchi has, which causes it to only really be able to focus on one enemy at a time.

As far as shields go if your looking to use something that will allow you to reposte and have decent protection, the Silver and Black Knight Shields are both decent, the Blood Shield can also be good, as can the Spider Shield. They all have strengths and weaknesses but despite that I feel like a shield with 100% physical damage reduction and stability that either starts or can be upgraded to over 60 cannot be argued with.

Perhaps this has been addressed elsewhere but in all these discussions nobody mentions the "attack values" of shields. Those seem to scale better than defense but I have no idea what it means! It can't refer to bashing as the stats go up on non-bashing shields as well. Any ideas? Does the shield actually augment the offensive capabilities of equipped (ie right hand) weapons?

Thanks!

no but you can equip shields on your main hand and their attacks are all bashing moves, no parrys or BS's though.