Ranking All 69 Elden Ring Shields From Worst To Best...

[@Rusty._]

🌏 Get an Exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ nordvpn.com/rustyvpn It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! ✌ **VIDEO PATCH NOTES 1.01** Upward Adjustments: - Rickety Shield's incredibly low weight went mostly unrecognized in the argument. Willing to boost this one up to 63 but only because it can be made good with other ashes, not because the shield itself is good in any way. Downward Adjustments: - 11:44 The description example highlighted does not thoroughly communicate that the shield has good fire negation, specifically using the word "boosts", insinuating that it is an effect given to the player even though no such thing occurs. Red Thorn has been moved to 66. Bug reports: - Cuckoo Greatshield does not come with Contagious Fury as a default. This does not affect its current placement. Adjusted Ranking: 69 - Perfumer 68 - Marred 67 - Pillory 66 - Red Thorn 65 - Hawk Crest 64 - Black Leather 63 - Rickety 62-1 remain unchanged

[@Balavander]

I’ve been waiting for this video for over a year! 😅

[@w12266]

Please rank all elden ring enemies next!

[@the_seer_0421]

No

[@lidudley3000]

Don't worry dlc is almost here! Wait..... Does that mean more of these kinds of vids?

[@Balavander]

Also glad to see my favourite shield (eclipse crest great shield) get the respect it deserves 😅

[@bishop659]

Can’t wait for rusty to rank all versions of Elden Ring

[@colossaltitan3546]

Ranking every patch of the game might actually be really interesting to watch

[@aesouza98]

YES PLS

[@chingshady2689]

@@colossaltitan3546don’t make him go through that

[@mickeybat5816]

​@@chingshady2689 i bet rusty already read it and is now actively crying and finding out how to play former patches of the gamr

[@leonardo9259]

It's not hard to de-upgrade the game, also current patch is best

[@NeaPollen]

That ad read transition was so good I legitimately couldn't tell if it was an ad or a bit at first

[@veszekium5693]

I love it how he was trying not to laugh when it started

[@rampant1apart]

Little of column A, little of column B

[@nathanielscott6159]

Did you know? _Genuinely_ has replaced _literally_ as the choice expressive word for _honestly_ *Truly*

[@shaneespinoza5343]

​@@nathanielscott6159Legitimately?

[@thechosenflutterbox]

Playing devils advocate, the rickety shield is actually really good for min-maxing your build by allowing you to slap on carian retaliation or golden parry while only having to make room for 1 myazaki unit of weight

[@ianbaker2063]

True early game I used to use it so I could hold colossal weapons and not decent armor

[@grapenut6094]

Its the only weapon slot equippable item in the game that weighs one unit, everything else is either zero or 1.5 or over meaning its the only thing I`d ever make +24 on every build. Easily top 5 for that reason.

[@tytar1037]

It’s the best parry tool for PvP. It’s the lightest. Always have two on me. One with carian retaliation and one with golden party

[@the_dennator7723]

aren't (not spiked) caestus also only one unit?@@grapenut6094

[@MakiMaki.]

@@tytar1037 woooo golden party!

[@mortimerwake2974]

Rusty, think it through: if you are a church soldier, the last thing you need to defend against is Holy, because it's the guy's on your side who have all the Holy attacks. It is more important to defend against the Magic heretics. The shields having inverted resistances to the faction makes perfect sense.

[@defonoteleazar4998]

Exactly lol. Bit daft he didn’t think of that. Guess that’s what happens when you’re crunching these many numbers, some creative details can give ya the slip

[@simaocharpentier2046]

I really don't get why it's the opposite for armor set and in general. It would make more sense and demand more creativity. Because of that an idea that sprung to me recently. The way I usually determine resistances is using lore and logic. Pushing that idea further, enemies could be resistant to the element of their faction as well as their enemies'. Say, holy and fire, then they would be weak to either magic or lightning because they wouldn't have a need to defend against it: why be resistant to something that doesn't concern you? That would encourage the use of elements that are less commonly used and create a sort of rock paper scissors system because at some point you'll have to group the resistances into pairs of resistances and of weaknesses. Personally, it sounds more engaging and fun!

[@tahraki4918]

​@simaocharpentier2046 i think it's partly due to familiarity. If you were an expert in, say, fire damage, your understanding of fire would allow you to craft better fire protection than a sunbro or mage. (This example excludes espionage, cooperation, or practical utility, i digress) I do like your idea tho, two sides who have fought each other for so long, they've become accustomed and somewhat resistant to each other's tricks, up until a sudden third party (the player) comes barging in with moon magic or smth

[@kestrelynn]

​@@simaocharpentier2046the game even plays with this idea, claiming its weird that the carian knights sheild is magic resistant "just who were they fighting?" and sure some excuses caj he made like leyndell being resistant to lightning because thry fought the dragons, but i agree it would be so cool if they used this idea more explicitly

[@colossaltitan3546]

Only exception I can think of to that is the Carian shield. The Carian knights had to defend against both the Capital's forces and the rebelling Cuckoos

[@SheffiTB]

45:20 it is worth noting that at +25 and with a holy infusion, this shield reaches 98.75% holy absorption. You take 1.25% damage from Elden Stars while blocking with it, before your own holy negation comes into play. In other words, you effectively take 0 damage from the final boss's big signature move, and nullify half of the rest of his kit to boot.

[@vyor8837]

wait, absorptions go up with item level?

[@Bibbleboo42]

not how it works buddy

[@mo6555]

Elden stars moves around a lot so i don't think it's that easy to block the whole thing. it also only has 71% guard boost so elden stars would still take a lot of stamina.

[@mo6555]

@@vyor8837 it depends on the affinity. on physical affinities (including occult) the guard boost goes up with upgrade level, on elemental affinities some of the damage absorptions go up.

[@vyor8837]

@@mo6555 Good to know, thanks.

[@Maxen-hz4ls]

Rusty descends deeper into madness after each upload

[@Y4maokaHaoru]

Isn't that why we're all here for?

[@blackreaper1288]

Bro's trying to get the Frenzied Flame irl

[@Father303]

Can't descend deeper, when you already hit rock bottom

[@jessefleming1421]

I’m here for it. Funny and informative.

[@kevinsari1699]

Wuhuu lets go

[@magnus_artifex]

You did rank all weapons. I respect that. But you didn’t do the biggest challenge possible, and that’s ranking all enemies.

[@mattnsg13]

oh he will

[@AbeWaltChan]

The gauntlet has been thrown down

[@Theronius_the_fool]

I honestly hope he doesn’t because this man has clearly been going crazy from ranking things. Also his world building that he did for some of the intros were really interesting and it would be better if he devoted more time to creative stuff like that

[@Afrochilla]

ranking every blade of grass in elden ring

[@TheGamingNoise]

I have finally beaten elden ring im proud of myself the graphics were freaking amazing voice acting was also good i hate maliena and her father lmao one of the hardest bosses to beat ​@Afrochilla

[@emperorender8201]

Can't wait to see where the 'duelist shields' from the DLC are gonna place

[@JeenRsHeart]

Coil Shield has another advantage not mentioned in this vid - the snake attack can go through walls rather than bouncing off like normal weapon attacks. A huge advantage if you want to cheese something to death.

[@SunburstSenshi]

It is absolutely hilarious to me how I picked up the brass shield right at the beginning of my playthrough, and it was my go-to shield the entire game, purely because it was aesthetically really good (and was a medium shield). I tried other shields and was like “nah they don’t feel right” and I had no idea it was actually just objectively the best shield. Sometimes fashion does work out in games 😂

[@Mystic-Midnight]

I picked up brass shield and wielded it alongside my Lord sworns great sword until the haligtree where I finally changed shield to the haligtree great shield cause my fashion changed from Radahn armor to blue silvermail

[@mowglippml]

​@@Mystic-Midnightare we the same person?

[@flameon4130]

lol same, took the brass shield for it's 100 physical dmg negation, scooted whole game with it xd

[@HouseRN]

Same! It was literally like the third shield I happened to pick up and was like “Well, it has a higher guard boost than the other two, so I guess I’ll use it”. Then throughout my playthrough I picked up other shields and was just not satisfied with them for some reason. Turns out it’s just objectively one of, if not the best, shield in the game 😅

[@thegoat3153]

This shield literally carried me throughout my entire first play through with the bloodhound fang and i never knew just how good it was. I just liked the gold lol

[@cesarbernardi1646]

48:50 - you can actually two-hand the Fingerprint Shield using a SL1 character (with Radagon Soreseal, Strength Talisman, Omensmirk Mask and the Strength tear). It's use in such a run is completely situational (giving it Bleed affinity + Shield Crash, it melts through NPC invaders and Fia's Champions), but I had my fun doing it.

[@fib900]

You can melt through almost all NPCs with spinning chain. It’s not as fun bust easily doable.

[@gengarisnotinsmash...]

So... uhh... slight issue with rickety shield... It's the lightest shield in the game, yet it can have it's AoW changed. So you can put Carian Retaliation or Golden Parry on it, both of which have the best parry stats in the game. Rickety shield gives you the best parry in the game, at the measly cost of 1 weight, making it unironically one of the best small shields.

[@jinji_xo]

hes ranking them on damage absorption alone im assuming and yeah rickety shield is also one of the top tier shields in game

[@michaelbowman6684]

@xo Which is wacky, because the best stat on a Shield isn't Damage Negation, it's the Guard Boost stat. Basically, how much stamina you lose when you block an attack, the higher the Guard Boost, the less stamina you lose. It's why the Eclipse Crest Greatshield is actually the best Greatshield (for it's weight), and why the Brass Shield is the best Medium Shield (or perhaps Blue-Gold if you are min-maxing). The next most important stat is Weight, which is why Rickety is really good if all you care about is making an Ash of War stick.

[@davidhong1934]

Okay, but what's the fashion score?

[@traitorous5626]

buckler is still worth considering over carian, particularly for pvp, due to its superior recovery frames. dunno why that always gets left out of the conversation

[@Mixi_Hazbin]

​@@traitorous5626 Because most people don't care about PvP and recovery frames rarely matter elsewhere with some exceptions.

[@OstVyns]

We need a general enemy ranking

[@panwhabee6805]

Best idea ever!

[@btarczy5067]

We need a ranking of every enemy encounter! (As in every set of enemies we are expected to face at once)

[@VepiumOfficial]

agreed

[@novemberguy7087]

I would have thought he'd done that before ranking the 'gestures' of all things.

[@robbybevard8034]

On launch the turtle shell shield had 100% physical reduction, barricade shield spell that came with it lasted 10 seconds, and combined with passive stamina regen it was pretty great, those bonuses outweighing an otherwise middling shield. Then they nerfed it to only 87 physical reduction, and the spell to only last 6 seconds, and it became worthless instantly. Such a shame. It was a massive nerf, probably a result of pvp before they started balancing that separately from the main game, same with the fingerprint shield.

[@n.7443]

Honestly turtle shell should come with a extra passive ability to ignore backstabs while twohanding. And bump up the stamina to 5/s. Would make it better? definitely more fun.

[@sametekiz3709]

no

[@TheFourthBlackReaper]

9:43 I watched this entire video, then during my next session of Elden Ring I got this shield as a drop from a tomb skeleton. I couldn’t remember you saying anything about any scripture wooden shield so I thought you might have missed a shield, and I came back and watched this again and nope. You covered it. But that brief period of time when I thought a KZbinr might have forgotten to rank it is the most interesting this shield has ever been.

[@draketurtle4169]

This is not the paragraph in the comments I was expecting… however it’s a pleasant surprise, two paragraphs!

[@savageassassin8548]

can't wait for him to redo all of his lists and rankings when shadow of the erdtree drops

[@yurifairy2969]

he really is gonna go insane

[@potato17733]

it has released

[@jstar3382]

​@@potato17733no it has not

[@draketurtle4169]

@@jstar3382yes it has

[@Omnywrench]

I love the Spiked Palisade Shield. With the Great Stars and Briar armor, its perfect for what I call the "Tetanus Titan" build

[@BlueShellshock]

A Greatshield talisman, Shard of Alex, Shield Bash, and yeah, I can respect that as a legit way to play. Maybe even use Law of Causality since it doesn't have 100% block.

[@grapenut6094]

Looks great with the duelist set.

[@karlschlackwhitehouse7676]

good name

[@davidhong1934]

*Host:* What happened to you? *Cooperator:* Some pointy guy gave me tetanus

[@Omnywrench]

@@grapenut6094 Yeah, along with the briar gauntlets/boots I wear the rotten gracekeeper cloak and the black wolf mask

[@mimictear6788]

No, you're right. Brass Shield mogs all the competition. Not only does it have near-greatshield level stats while retaining the ability to parry, it is also the only holy-looking medium shield that doesn't look like overdesigned silverware.

[@rue_pardox]

This 🙌

[@FunandStuff88]

The only downside is that it’s so good, I can’t even gaslight myself into thinking my build is somewhat optimized when I’m using a different medium shield. The bright yellow just looks too out of place with some armor sets.

[@rue_pardox]

@@FunandStuff88 Style over Stats! Always!

[@ashkorfrost]

It's my go-to

[@DarrenCarroll72]

This. I finished the game with this shield and the standard Vagabond armour (which is really good)

[@cmdreteri7791]

My favorite shield in Elden Ring is the 85% physical block while 2 handing the Greatsword

[@brianng9765]

One thing people often overlook and also in this video, is that the rickety shield is the lightest shield, so you can just use it with a parry AoW of your choice, making one of the best options.

[@Zathren]

I love shields in Elden Ring. More so than in every other souls game. The counter mechanic is the greatest thing they added, making shields feel like they have a place even if you don't want to learn all the parry timings.

[@K0RVAA]

One of the most fun builds I've done is a guard counter build with the Zweihander. Not the strongest build, but very fun.

[@psivampire13]

I have never used a shield in any Soulsborne game. 🤣 All I know is higher number is better. I will sometimes equip it, but actually guarding/parrying? Nah.

[@exilemorin04]

@@psivampire13you should try it out sometime, they made the parry easier with some ashes of war especially carian retaliation and golden parry. It feels amazing to parry strong enemy’s but it does take some time to adjust if you never did before

[@343killedhalo4]

they cant block status effects and half the weapon arts in the game peirce sheilds. they are the worst of any souls game. dark souls 2 did sheilds better but that game also had a sheild break move built in at all time witch was also annoying. juat in general from soft doesnt know how sheilds work.

[@baatmilk]

terminal pvpbrain

[@TheScavv]

Rickety shield has a lot of value in the fact that it is the lightest shield. It's obviously terrible as a functioning shield but ashes of war can be very valuable and you can put a shield AOW on it and it works just as well as any other shield, just for less weight investment. Put a parry, holy ground, or vow of the indomitable on it and it serves a very solid purpose. It's the same idea when people put golden vow on a dagger, use it, then switch to their real weapon.

[@Xaiclun]

The damage negotiations from the Horse and Flame wooden crest shields make sense. After all, they are crest shields, so they depict what they are fighting for, not against. We know that Lindell fought against Raya Lucaria, so it's a holy themed shield strong against magic. The frencied flame as well as the Fire Giants are/were opponents of the Golden order, so it's a fire themed shield strong against holy damage. So they each are resistent against the enemy of what they show. If the stats are good or not, is another topic however. Same goes for the blue and red crest heater shield.

[@kirbyis4ever]

Pretty sure the carian knight shield explicitly stated something like this in it's description. Something along the lines of "This shield is good against both holy and magic. What exactly did they plan to fight against to warrant this?"

[@Xaiclun]

@kirbyis4ever Gideon, they wanted to fight Gideon. Also, wasn't there a war between Caria and Raya Lucaria? Although I think this was after Radagon left Renala...

[@kirbyis4ever]

@@Xaiclun There was a war fought between the golden order and the astrologers, yes. Then they had a political marriage and supposedly got over it, but the shield being geared towards protecting against golden order incantations and also magic tells us that the carian side doesn't take kindly to either.

[@kolbywilliams7234]

That’s not how weapon development works, though. Any time you develop weapons, or in this case magic, you would logically do one of two things: 1: develop a way to defeat that weapon should it ever be used against you. 2: Naturally develop countermeasures to a weapon type due to sheer familiarity with it. In either case, no faction has exclusive control over these magical forces. Leyndell and the Halligtree both have holy magic and are clearly not allies. Caria and the cuckoo’s both use magic, and they are at war with each other. Prudence dictates they would logically want to defend against those things out of prudence. It would also be relatively simple, as they each understand their respective type of magic and have access to the materials. This is just basic elements of weapon design in virtual every military throughout time.

[@fedweezy4976]

​@@kirbyis4ever the carian knights fought against both the academy of raya lucaria (while one is found at raya lucaria, he is protecting Rennala, the matriarch of the carian royal family) and the golden order's forces across three different conflicts. Hence, magic and holy resistance.

[@TheJmoreno126]

Thank you very much for the rotating models of weapons and shields. There are a lot of cool details that can't be appreciated in-game. Specially the inner side of the shields.

[@somescrunkly]

Fun fact : Shields without a 100% damage negation will reduce by half the damage going through with certain attacks, mostly depending on the size of the shield, IE a light shield will only do that against crossbow bolts but the icon shield applies that halving reduction to almost any attack from a man-sized enemy

[@EmissaryOfSmeagol]

The Fingerprint Stone Shield is the only weapon (pre DLC) that can get Madness scaling with Arcane. Put Poison, Bleed, or Arc infusion on it with the Shield Crash ashe, and you have the strongest source of Madness in the game.

[@jmbug9598]

I have gotten so much hate mail from doing this single thing in PVP, shield only with light roll and you are basically asking for people to hate you. Legit can 1 shot with a whole crash

[@EmissaryOfSmeagol]

@@jmbug9598 nice

[@kitoyosai2568]

18:25 I laughed so hard at “burnt cookie” my humor is broken

[@Rawkit_Surgeon]

The humble brass shield carried me through my first playthrough. Has the best stability among the medium shields which gives it an excellent weight to protection and stat investment ratio.

[@FlyingFox86]

I don't like that shield specifically because of how good it is. It renders all other medium shields irrelevant. Still use it though.

[@violet9214]

its also pretty :3@@FlyingFox86

[@FlyingFox86]

@@violet9214 Yeah, goes well with gold themed armor sets, of which there are a ton.

[@jstar3382]

​@@FlyingFox86 same. It's so damn common but extremely good. which makes sense

[@nayyarrashid4661]

I was a little surprised to find it early on. I thought there would be other better shields.

[@bjmurphy34]

The Inverted Hawk Heater Shield got me through the whole game. It has 100% physical block, and it only weighs 3.5 units. Plus, you can easily get it in the early-game of every subsequent play-through.

[@Piratewaffle43]

The scripture wooden shield raises a hidden sub statistic of faith called piety by 20 points, which specifically applies to the potency of healing sorceries.

[@flarelord8425]

28:29 - his popup for the Cuckoo shield displays the skill as 'Contagious Fury'

[@cinderofsoul5601]

I saw that aswell

[@Psianth]

Bound to catch something eventually if you're getting Cuckoo'd all the time.

[@vorpalpizza3250]

I saw it too😆

[@mrmars4939]

Hi Rusty! Just wanted to let you know I respect and appreciate all the unique footage you get for your videos! I know it would have been easier to record footage fighting the same enemies with the same weapon but you went the extra mile and I appreciate it!

[@notfajnyyy]

yea, that makes the video way more entertaining to watch, seeing all the different enemies really adds a depth to his videos.

[@octiantrys5090]

Me this whole video: "Oh yeah, that one exists, doesn't it?"

[@livetonfnv3176]

My buddy loves the sword and board playstyle, and he picked up brass shield before we even found torrent. We kept thinking that as time goes on, he might find a suitable replacement but no, 200+ hrs later, and we find out that the single best sheild possible was sitting 3' front the start of the game.

[@nayyarrashid4661]

Exactly same here.

[@josephbulkin9222]

Sword and board never let's you down. Good since Demon's Souls, no matter what the Bloodborne fans say

[@leipzigergnom]

I used the brass shield for my Golden knight build and never stopped using it. I tried using the Erdtree Greatshield but in the end I went back to the brass shield, because I preferred having a medium-sized shield. I started out using it because of the look, but as it turns out, it has excellent stats too once you fully upgrade it.

[@Mental244]

We need an All Sites of Grace Ranked video

[@K0RVAA]

theres over 300 of them dawg, what would he even rank them on? the view?

[@Mental244]

@@K0RVAA ya

[@TheLyricalCleric]

#1 is Church of Ellah. Kalé is best chaos boy.

[@Mental244]

@@TheLyricalCleric for me it’s erdtree grazing hill

[@TB-me1gc]

This. Make it happen. To the top.

[@Yobolight]

Ricketty is actually amazing in terms of weight/stat requirements for a parry tool. S tier shield in PvP.

[@sayounsang]

But only for minmaxing, honestly. Otherwise, the spiralhorn shield (+50 resistances to every status effect) is just better.

[@meltenvy]

Glad to see some recognition for my boy Beast Crest Heater Shield, been using ol’ reliable on every single playthrough so far. Really does do anything well.

[@TheHeatMMA]

These have become some of my favorite videos. I love the editing and commentary. Can you do a remembrance one at some point?

[@OnlyWaifuYT]

Kick: "allow me to introduce myself"

[@bronzite_]

ah hell nah who invited kick to the function

[@angbald]

0:33 "cardinal instrument of defense" *shows dueling shield that is also used for attacking*

[@weirdwizard27]

The Lordsworn Shield is at least the lightest greatshield you can find really early in the game, so it's a good start if you want to be doing block counters. You'll replace that shit almost immediately, maybe even by grinding out a Gilded Greatshield in the same area, but that's waaaay heavier. It isn't much of a bonus, but at least it's an earlygame jumping on point to a tanky block-counter playstyle.

[@Hirotoro4692]

the lordsworns is trash. It has less physical block (IE not even 100%), weighs more, and has less guard boost than the Brass Shield. It's just not worth it AT ALL.

[@weirdwizard27]

@@Hirotoro4692 Certainly not worth keeping, but at that early point in the game, enemy attacks will flinch off the Lordsworn's that wouldn't off the Brass Shield, enabling the block counter playstyle. I'm not saying you wouldn't replace it IMMEDIATELY, because you would, but if you want to be doing guard counters it'll get you started much more readily than the Brass Shield.

[@Rainu3279]

Yeah, I built my first character around a greatshield and guard counters since it seemed like a cool way to make shields more interesting in the leadup to release. Had a ton of fun with that character and the Lordsworn worked great for a really long time. Normally I'd scoff at a shield without 100% physical block, but the crimson dagger talisman lets you use the *incredible* posture damage of guard counters to refill all that chip damage. Brass shield may have better stats, but everything bouncing off of greatshields is a huge unlisted benefit.

[@gustavovm491]

Wooden Greatshield is at Stormveil, slightly lower stats but lighter, requires even less strenght than Brass shield. But is still a greatshield which means it can stand attacks that the Brass can't without stance breaking you. Perfect for an economic tank, the chip damage is negligible unless you are building around ritual talismans.

[@augustgurtisen]

Im absolutely floored that you ranked my 2 favorite shields at the top of your list, proving you understand the heart of a shield user

[@lindsaylinck1830]

Same here!

[@WillabyNeko]

I went into this video not knowing what to expect, but was genuinely surprised by the takes on a lot of these shields and it makes me rethink how I'll go about some of these in future playthroughs. Great video.

[@bluephoenix9293]

Ranking NPCs Fights. Their drip, their lore, how annoying the fight is and the reward for beating them (Shadow, Anastasia, Vyke, etc)

[@Deadnight-ei6lp]

The Sun Realm shield I believe is in reference to Lordran from Dark Souls. if it has any special lore, it might be talking about the lack of a sun in The Lands Between?

[@andyghkfilm2287]

I-I never realized there’s no sun in the lands between… there’s a moon, in fact there’s three moons, the full new and crescent moon. How did I get Gwyndolyn’d again?

[@ObbyFeathersnoot]

You pretend to hate it, but you cannot resist ranking all of the weapons in various trenchcoat sizes.

[@leonardo9259]

It's done

[@TheAmyrlinSeat]

I'm calling it, the seat of the sun is gonna be a major part of the DLC

[@JordanAbercrombie-tm5cu]

Did you know that the Hailige Tree Great Shield is actually the rarest idem in all of elden ring, going by the fact that it has a 0..8 drop rate from a enemy in late game AND there is only one of those enemys in the whole game and you can only kill him once. Arguable making this the rarest idem in all of elden ring

[@corbin1240]

Brass shield even got nerfed at one point. On my first playthrough blocking Radagon's charge attack with it only ate about a 1/6th of my stamina bar (no greatshield talisman).

[@Barkruffalo35]

Day 1 million of asking for a sites of grace ranking

[@ZankokunaKami]

Jesus Christ

[@ZackJakk]

Something about the quality balance of numbers and bad words in these videos gets me popping off every time I see a new one

[@hallohaun4097]

Came back to this because some poser a.i disagrees with your rankings and is taking it a bit personal.

[@andrewgonzales6527]

Great video, but you should definitely rank all of the Sites of Grace.

[@AlbecoSound]

I realized that you are so entertaining, I’m watching a video about a part of the game I simply do not interact with. I’ve only run two handed weapons or spellblade builds, so I’ve never touched a shield outside of the first 5 minutes of the game

[@cadehenderson6635]

I had no idea there were this many shields. I've played this game for 400 hours and I recognized about half of them.

[@purplehaze2358]

I’m gonna be honest, I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen people use shields in this game as actual shields.

[@Hirotoro4692]

are you kidding? Tank builds are really popular lmao lots of players like to hide behind a greatshield and poke spam.

[@omelette535]

@@Hirotoro4692key words: “…number of times *i’ve* seen…”. Hope this helps!

[@thegoose8663]

While not the only AoW in the game so not every build may use it - endure alone grants good enough defenses that small shield viability is questionable at best.

[@nomadicsaturn2519]

​@@omelette535someone wouldn't LIE on the Internet would they?!?!?!

[@omelette535]

@@nomadicsaturn2519 not really what it’s about 😴

[@tarabelle7716]

0:30 Dueling shield mentioned!

[@SewerRat4Ever7]

They are going to ad a dueling shield in the dlc

[@tarabelle7716]

@@SewerRat4Ever7 Elden ring coming thru for niche weapon enjoyers

[@Denamic]

I think you completely missed an important aspect of the carian knight’s shield. It has innate magic damage and int scaling, which boosts carian retaliation’ glint blades substantially.

[@hoboryan3455]

A big mistake mentioned over and over again is that some shields are designed based on what they are used against. The flame crest wooden shield is a great example as it has high holy resist bc they are defending themselves against the sacred order hunting them.

[@sadneil529]

dear god, if it ain't broke don't fix it

[@everythingpony]

But it is broken and needs to be fixed

[@Ultradahn]

0:10 based reference

[@V1C10US]

When 14 year-olds think they're cool because they swear a lot......

[@johnnyplto5592]

souls games are the new COD

[@burntair56]

Wanted to say I really enjoy how informative you make your videos. Even the ranking videos talk about the practicalities of each thing in ways I never noticed

[@xKapnKrunch]

Drive was a criminally underrated movie.... The contrast between "The Notebook" which was constantly in the back of my head the whole time made the movie all the more visceral. That movie is in my top 50 list for sure.

[@hybrid5860]

In my first playthrough, I had no idea the brass shield was this good. I just used it for guard counters and thought it had a good design that fit my current loadout aesthetically. It feels cool to have used a top tier item by complete accident. Thank you Rusty

[@mattiaraimondo7479]

I admit thar I usually skip the ad segment of the videos, but this time the intro was so brilliant that I HAD to watch it whole 😂

[@jaceyates6315]

so excited for the video where you rank every site of grace by how useful it is, and how nice it is to vibe there

[@jd2792]

I get you are looking them as shields but the fact that the rickty shield is only cost 1 weight means its amazing as soley for using parry/vow of the indomitable in your second hand

[@StupidlyAwsome]

W take on the brass shield. Used it till "Goldfrey"

[@wolfmoe7398]

When I first saw the tree sentinels, two things were incredibly apparent. The helmet in combination with the shield reminded me of a spartan solider. There are a few acceptable armors to wear that complete the look, but just off of those two I had to make a spartan warrior. With the dlc I now have two spartan builds. One for madness that’s not as efficient but functions as a super cool reference, and a second true spartan solider that just absolutely wrecks with high strength and the bare minimum faith for golden vow.

[@DrEisenhower]

Relevant point about the Brass Shield - I'm currently doing a run through the game called "Knighty-Night" where I'm only allowed to use Weapons and Armour that have the word "Knight" or "Night" in them, meaning the Brass Shield isn't available to me. Even though I'm using the Banished Knight Shield, I'm still feeling how much I'm missing out by not using it.

[@lharsay]

You aren't really missing out on much, the Banished Knight Shield is only marginally worse.

[@tundranocaps]

Visage Shield - the fire dmg + fire negation means it's always useful - either it's great at blocking fire damage, or it's great at killing things that don't deal fire damage to you.

[@riolikethebirdmovie5293]

I love the mirror shield because it matches almost perfectly with Loretta's set, which makes it even more obvious that it's purpose is to help you beat her into the dirt.

[@asahmetsaid544]

I saw hundreds of nordvpn sponsored ads and this was the only one that actually explained it and didnt just put a random pre made ad in the video that doesnt even have anything to do with the video but its just a video that was put into a video, but the one in this video actually has something to do with the video since its mixed with elden ring, humor and sponsorship

[@Jurgen411]

3 Months late comment, but oh well. I wanted to say two things: Rusty, love the videos. I think some people take rankings super seriously, but I think there are a lot more people like myself who just enjoy seeing all the stuff Elden Ring provides, and because you're so thorough, we get new ideas of cool stuff to try all the time from your vids, so thank you. Second, I wish there was a petition for fromsoft to fix the dragonclaw greatshield; it has some of the coolest fashion IMHO, and fits so well with a bunch of gold themed builds because it's gold accented, not primary. I don't even care if they buff its stats, I just want to be able to change the ash, or have it be default no skill, that's all. I just want to carry a big dragon claw around while still being able to small people with beastclaw great hammer.

[@Morkftw]

It's the first time that I sat through a youtube sponsor ad. Well played, Rusty, well played

[@mastermarkus5307]

Silver mirror shield gets some points for me for being PURE ART. Honestly, kind of shocked that my old reliable gilded iron shield was so high on the list when I genuinely just use it constantly because I like to roleplay with a holy/faith build and it was the best visual candidate for Golden Parry that is a small shield. I think parrying is fun and I'm also stupid so I keep forgetting about the block/riposte ability in Elden Ring to the point that I never remember what it's called.

[@craniifer]

I'm happy to see that Ant Shield this far up on your shield. Not only do I love bugs, but I love poison builds and that Shield Bash is fun in the Colosseum.

[@noahwysocki1233]

I'm so glad the Deflecting Hardtear gives all the small shields some much needed love, now. Black Leather Shield, my beloved.

[@kazuallykunfuzed]

That ad read was incredible. I honestly didn't know if it was just a bit or not in the first half.

[@exodosthesoulbanish]

Here's a free idea for a future video, ranking each unique heavy attack. It popped into my head when I got the flame monk mace.

[@trashwagon347]

Bro y is ur voice so nice to listen to, I feel like u could give a tier list on something stupid and I would enjoy it

[@GreyKingZero]

Thank you for another lineup video. Your effort is appreciated. Looking forward to your Elden Ring DLC vids if that happens.

[@jstar3382]

I have a new video idea. Ranking EACH DAMAGE TYPE/STATUS SOURCE. All weapons, spells, summons, ITEMS. everything

[@DungForever]

I am so happy that my favorite shield that I always spend HOURS hunting for is your number one pick. The Brass Shield is my absolute favorite!!

[@MisanthropicOcellus]

Im really hoping the dlc brings back paired greatshields like in dks3, i miss my ormah and reeve bulldozer

[@spellcrashers]

"If I wanted to prove I'm better than you, I have plenty of other ways to do it." Lol. Great stuff all around!!!

[@KatonRyu]

The literal only reason I use the Turtle Shell is for the stamina regen. The Greatsword has better defenses in every category except physical negation (including guard boost), and even in physical it's 84 to the shell's 87. It's just not very good anymore.

[@Loop_Kat]

My takeaway from this video is that it's criminal how much better the Knight armor set looks on a really skinny character compared to how excessively bulky it looks on any character of average human proportions. Like, I actually had to go in-game and confirm it in the character editor because I honestly thought it was one of those alternate body type mods that adjusts armor to have a tighter fit

[@frankmalditx]

Its so cool how dedicated rusty is to ranking all of these knowing he’ll have to do it all over again in like 4 months

[@lonelyfriday6022]

waiting for all 59 cookbooks ranked, you can't avoid it rusty.

[@johnstarinieri7360]

So pleased to see the Ant shield so high up, that thing was a champion in my insect-themed challenge run

[@Centinym]

The rickety shield does have one use: it is an early access to a decent parry window that something like the leather shield lacks. The frames are significantly better than most options available to a starting player and can come in handy if you want to take on the first crucible knight out the gate.

[@Ronin-42]

I was so happy to see the Brass Shield at the top. Its an absolute workhorse, and it carried me through several playthroughs. Its also not ugly as sin and matches with a surprising amount of equipment.

[@ixinor]

Lore gimmicks (nerd time): Some additional reasons: - Take it with a grain of salt; many of it is through interpretations and we dont have better. But lore wise it's the best connections you can make. The resistances in terms of lore reads very false sometimes. Because they either defend against a certain magic type that doesnt matches its own faction or it defends against its faction. The second reason in lore usually refers to the "corruption" that has taken place. Basically how the golden hue is gone or the location theyre from or the Ice shield from North and connection to the Moon protects against Magic and Frost. Black Leather Shield protection against Frost because of the North. Also note that the Erdtree represents Nature. Which means all elements in balance including war, death, sorrow, madness etcetera. This means all factions were always prepared for conflict or always did so as said that the Tarnished (you) come from lands far away where you've waged war and the other champions/soldiers. And ofcourse the history throughout the Erdtree provides evidence of battles and wars. @6:00 Black Leather Shield resists frost because they're from the North, its also where Frost Magic comes from. @7:00 Most Basic crest shields date to factions and possibly used by foot soldiers. The more advanced shields by knights etc. Since the Shattering all factions and gods went to war pretty much. @13:00 The Seat of the Sun is talking about the Sun being present. Because the God or Lord in the Seat of the Sun is Godwyn. He represents the Sun. When he died the Eclipse happened and so did the warmth. The Erdtree provides warmth to the planet or realm now as evidenced by all the Sunflowers pointing towards it and not the Sun. The Sun still exists because the Body exists, but not the Soul (Thus the reason why the Sun lost its shine). Because of that the Erdtree eclipses the Sun and balance is lost. @22:20 The Blue and Red crest shields is location based: The Blue shield (forest and water) represents Liurnia or the Siofra River or the Ainsel river (or its part of it). Its speculated and theorized a river once flowed through that area, before the Shattering. Both Carians and Ancestrals employ magic. The Confessor class also starts with it and they're Church spies and they may have infiltrated the Carians or Ancestrals/Nox. The Red crest shield is sold at Altus Plateau probably indicating these shields were to battle fire which is close with Mt. Gelmir. @23:30 The Eclipse shield is pretty much what it says; lost its power because of the Eclipse. Probably wielded by foot soldiers. @23:50 Yeah thats totally true, very disappointing that it doesnt pierce. @27:22 The Blue Gold crest shield has a misnomer in its lore, not from that time, but in your characters time. It represents the Erdtree that's under control. Where Death doesn't exist anymore because Marika was interested in the Elden Ring and its mechanics, she removed the Rune of Death. This is a shield from that time. The Inverted Hawk represents Stormveil, and the Stormlord, Stormveil being up and the Inverted for those plunging in the depths. And its slaves who they sent to explore Siofra and its Eternal City, possibly due to war. "The Fallen Hawks were a band of soldiers who were once ordered to explore the Eternal City, and now prowl the underground rivers. When the band's last embers were used up in their long search, they began to burn the bones of their fellows, acquiring the cold ghostflame, which allowed them to cause magic damage and afflict foes with frost. However, it also meant sealing their fate as dwellers of the underground for all eternity." -- Note that it says Soldiers instead of Slaves, which means the Slaves wielded the shitty Wooden shields and the Soldiers the metallic ones. These are ancient explorers. Farum Azula is very connected to Stormveil and Time/Dimensional manipulations. @36:37 I'm impressed they added an easter egg and lore ingame to it as well. As the Scorpion is part of Rot and Poison (Scorpion's Stinger) "Dagger fashioned from a great scorpion's tail, glistening with scarlet rot. A ceremonial tool used by heretics, crafted from the relic of a sealed outer god." @43:03 It doesn't protect against Death Blight because the Eclipse didnt need to defend against it lore wise, you as a Tarnished however is lore wise very susceptible to Death (Fia's Lore and Quests etc) in the characters timeline. Death Blight is an unnatural result possibly because of Godwyns death. Since his soul is gone and his body retains it's being used as nourishment. It's an effect of balance because Marika removed Death, it's Part of the Rune of Death. Aka the Prince of Death Godwyn. The description specifically mentions the Mausoleum Knights who are hellbent on duty. They're not Tarnished nor graced, they're bound, enslaved spirits. They cannot die anymore. They used to protect Godwyn and now serve the soulless Demigod (Dead Godwyn). They failed to protect him against Destined Death. Death Blight can only be stopped by Vitality/Arcane. The Eclipse Shotel is so powerful it still contains Death.

[@4thWardTechnology]

My first playthrough of the game was all about the brass shield. Though later on my stategy rejected it either for weight reasons (going for light roll) or if I didn't want to be light I went for a tower shield. The brass shield was too middling for my characters with high carrying capacity.

[@theemperorofalcoholics6336]

Thank you for the effort you put into these videos. They keep me coming back to the game and to the channel. All of your videos have inspired me to try new runs and new builds using weapons or items I never thought too and make the game just that much more enjoyable.

[@partymantis3421]

The rickety shield deserves more credit honestly, while bad at blocking, the light weight & common drop rate make it a perfect tool for having all your shield ashes on standby, so you can have all parrys, indomitable & golden land at the ready without thinking of equip load .+great in pvp