Underrated shields in PvP

In this thread, let's talk about shields we almost never see used, despite them having certain qualities that make them useful in PvP.

We all see the Silver and Black knight shields, BK being especially useful for its fire resistance and the silver for the highest stability of the medium shields. We all see the Grass crest shield for obvious reasons, it doesn't help of course that it's a perfectly competent shield on its own. Heater shield is common among parry fiends for some reason, (I haven't noticed a difference between its animation and the other medium shields) and the Crest shield makes an appearance due to its high magic defense.

But personally I favor the Iron Round Shield. It's stability is nothing to write home about and its defenses suck. It's heavy, and doesn't have a special parry. It has, however, a very special trait: Heavy deflection. It behaves like a greatshield in that lighter weapons will bounce right off of it, leaving a lot of Dex weapon users wide open, including rapier and straight sword users. Poor stability aside, it's like a greatshield that can parry, as long as you don't take too many hits. But what about you? Do you know any tricks with a shield that are seemingly unknown to the community at large?

Have to say I share your love of the iron round shield for the same reason.

This may not be what you're after but I regularely use the Balder shield. That 1 point of weight difference between it and the silver knight shield can make alot of difference.

I dunno, I feel like all shields, that are considered average to great I've seen used. I've used the Heater Shield for 2 of my builds (a 9 STR one, and a 2EL left, need a shield one). Actually, due to its existance, its really uncommon to see any small shield, or any medium shields, like small shields (like the Wooden one, East-West).

I've always loved the Wooden Shield, while its not great, the dang thing looks so cool.

Looking through the shields, I only see one I'm surprised I don't see a lot more, the Crystal Shield. It has poor Stability, great reduction, and protects from 100 bleed/poison/toxic. You can buy as many as you want right? I guess because it can't parry.

I'm also surprised so many people like the Dark Hand, even though I never have a problem with them, I just, ya know, attack them.

Yeah, the Balder shield is good. 1 point of weight is more of an advantage than 1 point of Stability. And I love the way the wooden shield looks, it blocks magic pretty well too.

You might not know this, but if you upgrade the Warrior's Round shield along a Magic +10 path, it'll block more magic damage than the crest shield. It's crap for blocking, but you can switch to it to foil mages while looking like a noob and getting underestimated.

Holy turds, I can't believe I never saw it, but 3 of the small shields are the same.
Warrior Round Shield
Caduceus Round Shield
Red & White Round Shield

With the Cracked Round Shield, and the Plank Shield pretty worthless compared to even other small shields, its no wonder that no one I've ever seen uses small shields.

Almost everyone knows that the Tower Kite and the Caduceus Kite Shields are the same too. I really like those two, they are really solid and great for 10 STR builds.

Magic round shield is really underrated, it's like a mini crest shield and has a fast parry.
Spider shield is one of the coolest shields and it protects you against those annoying poison arrows.
Wooden shield has a fast parry, goods stability and good light res.
Dark hand thAt thing is awesome for parrying and has an 80 res jn everything and it's perfect for builds that leave no room for shields.

I thought I would start using Red & white round shield, just because no one else does (hipster alert!) but it looks pretty cool on legit knight build.

I love using greatshields when I am playing as a fat roller. And when I am, I'm always surprised by the usefulness of the stone greatshield.

Effigy Shield!!!! 90 lightning resistance and awesome looking for those dark themed faith builds.

WyrmHero wrote:Effigy Shield!!!! 90 lightning resistance and awesome looking for those dark themed faith builds.

Yes. thats 90 phys 90 lit defence is so under-appreciated. It's one of my more favorite shields.

I think the heater shield is as common as it is for being the lightest of the 100% physical blockers. not for having any special parry properties

But 100 physical block is overrated, the GCS's 95 means that the opponent has to hit your shield 20 times to equal one unblocked hit. Unless you're turtling, I doubt you're going to block that many hits in a normal fight. And everyone who spams parry uses the heater. I don't understand it's appeal, wouldn't the target shield be better if all you were going to do was parry?

Well, Heater has 100% physical block and it blocks fire reasonably well, and it's stability hits 68 which is nothing to shake your stick at, the Target Shield is nowhere near as stout as it as a piece of defensive equipment.

Also, Target Shield, Buckler, and Parrying Dagger have that special animation, and the timing is different than that of fast parry, so if you've become comfortable with the fast parry, there would be a learning curve in switching to the Target Shield.

At +15, my heater has more stability than the grass or crest shields (at +15). It shocked me when I saw it.

I laugh at people trying to break stability or spamming spells at a Havels greatshield.

Really, thw wheight is very very rewarding

You can block just everything, magic, fire, buffed weapons does almost no damage, insane stability.

Its perfect for my fat rolling build. I'm with Buggy in this one.

I've been using the Buckler for the past two weeks and I don't see myself going back to anything else.

Always have used the Wooden Shield. As it was mentioned: good stability, great for parrying, weighs only 1.5, nice looking

I sometimes use the dragon crest shield for the fire res ( I know bks is better) but it also looks really cool, and weighs half as much! Despite the less than desirable magic res, it's not half bad for pvp.

I use the blood shield alot, mainly for looks, but the resistance it adds helps when invading in blighttown especially...

I also use the Red/White shield and Cadacus (not sure on spelling ) on my Viking builds, they are mainly for looks and fun though.

Fire Sunlight Shield, you'll love those defense values. Lightning Wooden shields, the Effigy shield. I like to make use of lighter shields with upgrades for the block values I want haha.

The biggest problem with the Buckler is the prolonged parry animation. If someone can bait your parry, they can easily walk around and BS you (like you said in one of your vids). And, they know you are going to try to parry them.

Wood plank... It's great with my sack & people think a naked sack wearing fool is just messing around, cue maneater carnage.

Maneater_Mildred wrote:Wood plank... It's great with my sack & people think a naked sack wearing fool is just messing around, cue maneater carnage.

Naked PvP ftw! respect : )