How to Trivialize Elden Ring with Dueling Shields

Dueling Shields are a new class of weapon in Shadow of the Erdtree that essentially takes the safety of shieldpoking from previous Souls games and cranks it up to gigachad levels.
/ scottjund

[@AcetoneEyeDrops]

I’m like 90% sure they’re bugged in that you take no stamina damage during attack block frames which is why they’re so broken

[@ScottJund]

yeah they are almost definitely broken, youll notice i only lose stamina when i attack

[@brennangaribay5387]

@@ScottJund I think a good way to balance the weapon type is to not only fix the bug, but to also increase the amount of stamina damage you take when you block an attack while attacking. It wouldn’t make the weapon completely useless, but it would prevent or at least hinder its current ability to tank the hit of basically anything. All the while dealing a pretty good chunk of damage in return for basically free. Aside from bosses, nothing can really survive the spam from full stamina in a one on one.

[@MeowLesty]

Ive tried shield bashing these with a Haligtree Greatshield mid attacks and yeah, they dont get guard broken at all. The stamina they consume is not Attack + Stamina damage from blocking, If youre mashing R1 ONLY the attack stamina gets consumed. Some counters i found are Elemental Damage cause they have pretty bad elemental block as stated in the video or most people that use these have 2 functioning braincells that are currently competing for 3rd place so you'll very likely be able to bait them to R1 and use Impaling Thrust on them for full damage.

[@Space_Australian]

@@ScottJund Actually if you go frame by frame you are losing like, literally one point of stamina whenever you block. Still broken for sure, likely even bugged. Hard to tell after stacking so much guard buffs.

[@_CrimsonBlade]

Nope they perfectly balanced fromsoft doesnt make any mistakes ever if this was a boss nonoe of you would be complaining

[@_You_Are_Not_Him_]

Fromsoft: "Oh, you like sheild poking? Here's a poking sheild. Go crazy."

[@franciscoramadhan9156]

phield

[@babloescobango5143]

Phealdh

[@HateNeverLies]

I spent 8 hours learning to parry the final boss and getting it down to around 10% at my best attempt only to see this and do it first try with 4 flasks left. Thank you Miyazaki.

[@khalidpapa6299]

you can parry him???? also same thing happend to me lol. without the parrying part tho

[@williambudrow9508]

Ya, I facetank blocked everything instead of parrying, making myself have like 3k hp, trying to out heal his damage with holy ground and the little tree incantation while using guard counters mostly. It uh... took me 4.5 hours. But I did finally do it! 😅

[@bobertastic6541]

I just used a pike and moore’s shield lol

[@pondiker7366]

@@khalidpapa6299 yes, and it's extremely effective. If you parry his attacks in phase 2 you don't have to worry about the pillars of light that follow every attack.

[@soulgazer014]

Dueling shields, impenetrable thorns, rolling sparks. They really just said “screw it” to balance huh😂

[@pranp1217]

Don't forget the big ass chicken leg weapon that deals 212 blood loss

[@Supreme_Court.]

Rolling sparks completely melted the Scadutree Avatar. Easily 2 shot it in its third phase

[@theobell2002]

Nerfs incoming.

[@bobertastic6541]

@@Supreme_Court.that thing has like 2 hp

[@comsox4915]

@@bobertastic6541 yeah and a massive weakpoint

[@seanstone749]

Fingerprint Shield Anspur Rapier walked so Dueling Shields go run

[@Kusabiii]

I think anspur is still better for low lvl builds

[@drksideofthewal]

How is this better than the guard boost of Fingerprint Shield, and the damage of a dedicated thrusting weapon?

[@6mega]

@@drksideofthewal it isn't

[@dankazama09]

​@@drksideofthewaldueling considered 2 handed. All 2 handed perks like gaiin more str. U can also have i frames while attacking (don't know if its a bug)

[@drksideofthewal]

@@dankazama09 Ah, good to know

[@ethanfritch3706]

I love these shields. I love using it as a battle mage with the staff in my right hand and the shield as a defensive option or melee weapon if needed in the left. It’s my favorite new weapon type and it feels like I have three arms with ability to block or melee.

[@orion1204]

Currently a high Int build, what’s your setup

[@Battleguild]

I'm using a Carian Knight themed character and the Carian Dueling Shield is great even if you only use it as a shield. I'm running a 40/40 Quality + 40 Intelligence build.

[@irishsoxfan97]

I love how different the difficulty is dependent on the build. This game is hilarious and wonderful

[@suwakomoriya2765]

One bonus thing to help with the elemental resistances more generally is the new Pearl Shield Talisman, which boosts all non-physical damage negation by about 20% when you're guarding. It's pretty nice for general use cases or when fighting a boss with multiple elements.

[@themrrental2509]

I was always interested in using the dueling shield. Then I picked it up and realized it made the game completely brainless. Beat all the dungeons with it but I switched back to my great katana for all the bosses. Until the final one. Never felt so good to cheese a fight.

[@henriquemuller42]

The only boss fight I cheesed, was radahn consort of miquella, I used a frenzied flask flame which did like, crazy 7k damage per ash of war, which is still pretty bad considering the potential damage it has

[@thevigilmain6628]

@@henriquemuller42 ok but like Radahn has super weak for months especially after the nerf so that ain’t impressive…….

[@Isaac-pg2hm]

​@@thevigilmain6628 he just came out...

[@thevigilmain6628]

@@Isaac-pg2hm what radahn is a main story boss, been there for 2+ years

[@Isaac-pg2hm]

@thevigilmain6628 there's a DLC boss that shares the name... we are obviously talking about that one

[@PaoYong]

Love how you explain everything clear and concise

[@aclevertrick]

I've been having a lot of success putting Blood Tax as the AoW and using that to top off when there's an opening -- you'll almost always come out of a fight with more HP than you started with.

[@elijahvasquez6603]

Please keep making these tutorials. You’re great at explaining things

[@twoshu8940]

He’s always been a goat at analysis

[@MardenNewAcc]

Thank you KZbin for suggesting this video and you Scott for the video itself. My favourite weapon type right now.

[@ZephyrusAsmodeus]

What's really cool, if youre wanting to maintain a spellcaster build, is having the new carian spell sword in the right hand and this on the left, with the flashsword and greatsword spells equipped, perfect for dealing with scrub enemies, tough enemies, bosses and keeping unpredictable for invaders with access to buffs and literally four different weapon movesets if needed, all without even switching weapons, dueling shield, thrusting sword, flashsword spell, carian greatsword spell (or preferably Adula's Moonblade) all while even maintaining a Carian knight/spellblade/Gish theme. Beautiful.

[@FoulUnderworldCreature]

The scaling on that sword is so bad. It's worse than an unupgraded staff with minimum int. If they ever buff it, it's gonna be absolutely amazing though.

[@ZephyrusAsmodeus]

@FoulUnderworldCreature That, unfortunately is also true, it dosent even seem to have a spell scaling, AND I just learned that [possible equipment spoiler] there's a staff that casts both incants and spells, so that's definitely going to take its place lol

[@francescoleoci7685]

​@@ZephyrusAsmodeus that staff has bad spell scaling as well afaik, can't have quality of life without sacrificing performance 🥲

[@Thixico]

@@ZephyrusAsmodeus It's good for lower investment hexer builds (basically int/faith at sl125-150). At max level PoD and the Gelmir staff are leagues better.

[@bobertastic6541]

@@ZephyrusAsmodeusthat staff also sucks. Pretty sure at 80/80 int/fry it has like under 200 scaling.

[@ramsenc]

I like Giant Hunt with it to really stick it to those large enemies.

[@aioliboi]

it seems that two headed turtle talisman would be more useful than the emerald medalion, but maybe max stam is more valuable bc it allows you to attack more, prob depends on certain bosses

[@jubabutler]

Double turtle is way better. Very necessary for last boss

[@hwallace3198]

Why not both? Become THE WALL.

[@ISAACcookie]

You can kind of replace the talisman by just eating the new turtle neck or to a lesser extend the stamina physics.

[@jubabutler]

@@ISAACcookie I like to keep my talismans for damage

[@secretlyaslug2325]

​@@jubabutlerwhile I'd agree in 99% of cases turtle is best. I actually found Greatshield talisman to do more for stamina efficiency then turtle in the final boss. I had to put stamina regen on my physick but greatshield, dragoncrest, golden braid, and CS +1 with black steel greatshield to be the best way to survive 2nd phase. I just gave up trying to dodge some of the combo strings especially the ground slam. If you missed the dodge you just took too much damage to justify trying to dodge it.

[@LarsSveen]

I'm glad you mentioned at least some of the nuance here because I keep hearing people freaking out, like "there's a shield that you can attack with!?" And I'm like "what about the old spiked shields with guard crash?" Blocking, attacking, charging forward, and causing massive bleed damage all at once with those shields in the base game. Of course there were other attacking shields too like that serpent one, but of course not all that powerful being a buckler.

[@darkdays1989]

I’ve been telling people these things are broken since i found them this thing carried me through the entire DLC, criminally underrated

[@styxkeeper]

Good to see you back on soulsgames, Scott! Are you gonna be doing any Narrated Thoughts duels going forward?

[@KeaneKamina]

A build even Asmon can use.

[@Amraphenson]

Even outside the 2h block poke cheese, I've been loving this as a sidearm/shield for a pure caster. the guard frames on the normal 1h attacks are great too! also the carian one just looks gorgeous.

[@sladevalen2120]

Ya I've been using this on my caster all dlc and it's been so much fun!

[@Gspi1005]

If you want another (not quite as) powerful build for these that isn't quite as braindead, run the Deflecting Tear and the guard counter talisman for a Lies of P-esque Block Parry playstyle that does respectable damage. Frost or bleed add chunks of damage, or do what for something more novel, run the poison and the Poison Flower Blooms AoW for a meme build (that can still beat the final boss).

[@sidismo2903]

PSA: This was a bug and it got patched out. However, you can still do the same block and poke tactic to a certain degree using Greatshields + Guard Talisman + any thrusting weapon with a Bleed infusion.

[@LaserLief]

we are blessed to live in a Scott Jund Soulsgame video era.

[@r2d2sp1]

I feel like the rotten winged sword insignia is also a great amulet to use if you want to focus on damage, since you'll be attacking non-stop, you can very quickly get and profit on the damage bonus of it

[@DJIronChef]

50 deaths and almost 3 hours in and phase 2 im lucky to get to half. He will fall, no shield no bleed

[@aioliboi]

gl!

[@jubabutler]

You'll get it man. Dont give up

[@DJIronChef]

I will not falter in my ambitions.

[@Hlidskialf]

Never give up

[@kululivestreaming369]

JUST BEAT FINAL BOSS DLC WITH THIS BUILD DUELING SHIELD MY NEW FAVORITE BUILD

[@RedEvileK]

Good, Gratz! I've just tested but it is problem with stamina- Use regen stamina talisman, Boss is attacking me alltime, I don't have time for regen stamina in his 2nd phase he is unstoppable and he follow me all time cause I cannot regen stamina, when I try he 1-2 hits and thats all. Actually this battle is absurd. I have 162 stamina.

[@razgriz2276]

Might I recommend the new tears from the wickermen, attacks have a healing/gain stamina effect. Now your pokes are healing the chip damage you take and getting stamina back to keep the shield up and poke more. I've been running them in my endure monk using melanias rune as well. I heal damage I take and heal on hit, can't be staggered and get stamina back to stay in the fight. It's been wild. Lvl 150 btw

[@kululivestreaming369]

What's the tear called ?

[@Adrian-xn3ss]

It gets even better, the charged heavy attack guards while it's charging, similar to the Carian Knight's sword but with a much higher negation.

[@Sir_Maximus_Hardwood]

I have a dual fingerprint shield build. Time for some more flavor.

[@brennangaribay5387]

I was just waiting for someone to discover their true potential like I did lol. And it should be noted that the new tear for the physic that gives you infinite stamina for a time is basically just invincibility for 15 seconds when you pair it with the other new tear that gives you health every time you hit an enemy. And I guess swaddling cloth can be used as well but that just seems redundant at this point. Gonna be annoying in PvP though. Although the blind spot ash of war as per usual, counters it.

[@ethantsai8261]

Blind spot counters everything, there is no way to engage with it.

[@jjharrison5176]

Ether people will learn to counter it or fromsoft will nerf it like they did with the fingerprint shield, so it will be fine sooner or later. Hopefully it stays good in pve

[@brennangaribay5387]

@@jjharrison5176yeah they’ll most certainly nerf it but as much as I like the weapon type, I do think they should tune its power in PvE down a notch so it isn’t as much of a “turn off your brain and win” type of weapon against pretty much everything

[@brennangaribay5387]

@@ethantsai8261For now yeah, but until they nerf it I’ve found that blocking with a weapon sometimes throws the spammers off and causes them to panic use it which allows you to get a punish. Sort of like baiting dead hard it dbd by either moving your head or doing something that makes it look like you’re about to swing.

[@jjharrison5176]

@@brennangaribay5387 True but there are plenty of turn off your brain weapon that people fine fun. Strength weapon with Lions Claw & endure which is what I use. One shot spell build only really need the correct buff. And even the original 100 guard fingerprint shield. Sometime turning off your brain in pve is enjoyable but I understand where you’re coming from.

[@drewcipher896]

There was actually an ash of war for shields they had to remove from the game before launch. It was called Shin Kick and 1 hit every enemy.

[@mruwcool]

i look forward to u doing an analysis vid on the new dbd patch !

[@NeillSmith]

Does this only work with heavy? Or is heavy just a good choice because of the two hand thing adding strength?

[@magicmangoes6127]

is it worth losing guard boost value by changing ash of war to an magic one for use in an int build?

[@Ju5t4l1z4rd]

I got both thrusting shields and find it silly yet fun to use both on each and.

[@xanrilteneb7673]

I saw the dueling shield and thought it would be a good int scaling off hand to get some Pokes in with a Caster build. >> I didn't know it was just a whole ass build on its own

[@zalo8875]

build helped me kill the final boss, thanks scott

[@kronickmasturbater5226]

You released this video right as I was about to go build this thing, sweet

[@doomkid360]

I thought when I found the thrusting shield that they were already insane just because it's a REALLY good shield that I can put TONS of weapon arts on??? I was freaking out about it and I think this just kinda makes it even way more insane. I hope this is something they maybe fix cuz it seems insane, but god DAMN it's a really sick shield.

[@J_3_P_O]

I used my normal build for the entire game and DLC and then switched to this build for the Radahn fight... which seemed impossible. It worked perfectly and beat him in like 5 minutes. Many thanks!!! 😊

[@LifeIMO]

I stand by my comment from last video, best facesmasher NA

[@revenge3265]

Interesting. I recently started using blood antspur due to the final boss' phase 2 and the bleed + rot proc made him easy mode. Wonder just how much better this is

[@rail7646]

seems not legit that you don't receive stamina damage while blocking, reminds me to the old stone greatshield with 100% stamina usage reduction on release

[@KyokujiFGC]

Even though it has base magic damage, you can still put weapon buffs like scholar's armament on this thing too for some reason.

[@wamoo577]

I love how scott's forehead is just soloing all the DLC in this game

[@tanikstheabomination9743]

Also Immutable shield incant completely removes elemental damage and status build up whilst blocking.

[@Fire.and.Forget]

it's only last half a minutes

[@vulkan5790]

Fortunately in PvP, kick still seems to instantly guardbreak.

[@jaimerojas6578]

Trying this right away!

[@Hlidskialf]

What about bloodsucking cracked tear for dmg? You have to deal with dot but its another 20% multiplier.

[@Mystic444x]

can you put bleed on it and take some points from strength into arcane?

[@MrRivech]

We get this but they remove twin doors because "it's broken". The twink of shields instead of the sigma chad implacable greatshield walking forward menacingly.

[@LoveSeeker81392]

Does the pearl shield non phys dmg reduction work on shield while attacking ?

[@Acusumano25]

i think it would be cool if they gave dueling shields an ash of war unique to their class, similar to shield bash or shield crash where they perform an exaggerated attack

[@razielmozarus2006]

Hi its still good with only 55 Guard Boost? Even with Scholar's Shield and Greatshield Talisman isnt stamina chunked away?

[@johnprodman4244]

Nah its not so good anymore.

[@leonardo9259]

Now i wanna see a duel in the arena where both players mash their head against the controller with poke shields

[@DustinEstep]

Idk if you have checked out the smithscript weapons, they are absolutely amazing. The shield is especially powerful.

[@Dmwntkp99]

Basically a walking tank.

[@Sepppppuku]

From Patch Notes Version 1.12.3: Fixed a bug where successfully guarding while attacking using the Thrusting Shield weapon type would consume less stamina than intended. Still good though.

[@stevenfoss3015]

Also using ensure and spring gaurd counters is insanely affective at stance breaking or punishing over aggressive characters in pvp

[@turin236]

I don't know about very little damage while doing the thrusting build Cross-Naginata with Sepuku, Finger print/The New shield, Rotten Winged Talisman, Lord of Blood's Talisman, Varre's helmet, and a Arcane build, you are looking at a very strong build, that does a ton of damage, while being perfectly safe

[@Deadgye]

Spear poke my beloved ex. Carried me through DeS when I played it back before the internet knew what a souls game was.

[@itsmethemario8846]

My favourite build rn is this shield but magic infused, pump up to 70-80int while dex/str at 30-40. Since you are doing int build, get as many expensive spells in as possible and go watch your mimic unleash all those spells while you guard R1 the whole time lol. Your mimic will be tanky as hell and do alot of spell dmg and your R1 will hit like 1k+ like this pure str build. This trivialized all DLC bosses in ng+ for me. It gives you both defensive, and long range offensive option for any situation.

[@tombcruisin]

It's crazy how close I was to figuring this out but never did. Instead, I used the deflect tear and then would let go of block and regular R1 (or guard counter) lmao Super glad I finished the DLC before this came out.

[@meganobgutzkraka2398]

that 100% has to be bugged, but if not yeah, everyone that likes thrusting weapons with shields just got a new toy

[@jinsu9004]

Adding holy ground for 17 health/s 20% negation on all damage sounds like an idea for the shield?

[@helioa8191]

Pearl Shield Talisman reduces all non-physical damage you take by 20% while blocking. Match made in heaven for this shield to make things even easier.

[@jonathanrosas9046]

The anspur has been my best friend for a few bosses, poison/rot/bleed for decent chunks of dmg

[@TheChosenOne462]

is it good to use guard counter?

[@sladevalen2120]

This is my favorite part of the dlc by a large margin. Great visuals, unique gameplay, and good enough damage to not just be considered a meme

[@Aires457]

I love this concept. Wonder how well it does in PVP

[@MeowLesty]

Very well. A lil bit too well since they are bugged and you cant guard break them as they attack. Once they get fixed maybe they'll be beatable without cheesing them with Blindspot - Impaling Thrust or just swapping to a Fire/Electric weapon to abuse their low Elemental block. If you dont have a counter to these you automatically lose the 1v1

[@curtmull8066]

We've gone full circle, who else remembers the Magic Shield spell on Dark Souls 1 release?

[@byrnedk]

Are these shields new to the DLC? I just started base game on DLC release date, I got awhile to go 😂

[@lharsay]

Yes, completely new weapon class.

[@santiagohache2302]

"My wife is fighting the final boss in the background" no need to flex that hard, dude

[@ZreaperOfficial]

Can make this even stupider with the new Pearl Shield Talisman that boosts all non-physical damage negation by 20% while guarding

[@benben7667]

What about the pearl sheild tailsman?

[@redmoon9179]

I have a infatuation with shields, they are just so cool

[@ldalion]

I would use Staff of the Great Beyond, to be able to use Golden Vow and Flame, give me strength. In addition to sorcery to buff the shield In addition to sorcery to buff the shield

[@thomaspeterson8357]

Can you put seppuku on it?

[@brandonedwards6119]

I want to use them so much but using a heavy shield and taking physical damage is a dealbreaker.

[@FedericoBagnolini]

Ive been playing with the regular one because I don't have the int requirements for the carian one and I like it for pvp because kinda plays like a weird shunter . I didn't even realize it had a block r1, actually I was wondering why block canceling was inconsistent now everything is clear

[@lharsay]

3:00 I tried usung it with RKR against the final boss, I kept getting hit because my stupid ass kept thinking it was Barricade Shield, I'm so not used to having an offensive buff on a shield.

[@everettdaly5621]

you also get extra stability twohanded, no?

[@zhilong]

Thank you 🙏

[@Games4Days912]

Finger print shield. Scholar's shield. Spear. Every enemy became easy. Even final boss.

[@francisxavier8374]

the tried and true "bash controller on forehead" method of proving something is busted

[@MagicNash89]

Is this like Shield Bash in DS3?

[@MagicNash89]

I looked at it more, it looks like way better and ...unintended?🤣At least Shield Bash in DS3 can miss if the pve enemy is moving around

[@Jimbobob5536]

Good physic tear would be faster stamina regen.

[@jabe4575]

Thank you bearded nick eh 30

[@-quiet1089]

Dang this build is BUSTED. I was stuck on Consort Radahn for several hours, swapped to this build and literally first tried it with no summons. It was also my first ever time trying out the moveset, just goes to show how strong/braindead it is

[@Daemeous]

If 80 Strength is your target it's 54, not 64 you want. 64 gets you to 96 Strength.

[@joshuahensley9395]

Set up a new game + to use these, got as far as Margit before I was too board lol.

[@cbodley4676]

Im holding L1 and pressing rb and its not working for me

[@clockworkcadaver]

Tbf the dueling shields would be suicidal if they had stamina drain unless you had 50 end. You’d have to be intentionally selective of what attacks to trade into when fighting a boss and even then why not just cheese at that point by punishing slow recovery attacks with a better different weapon

[@redumulis2448]

Still having trouble with the final boss using all this.

[@CarlosRodela]

why do i still keep gettin my guard broken during the blocking hmmm

[@CarlosRodela]

and yes I know im prob doing something wrong but that first boss knight in dlc - keeps breaking my guard to do a combo on me. blackgoal knight

[@CarlosRodela]

ill answer my own question it seems i just kept running out of stamina with blocking - so might respec-give myself more stamina

[@ixiahj]

I want multiples of that shield so I can put different AoWs on it.

[@CallMeMitochondria]

I think rotten wing sword insignia would actually be better than spear talisman

[@Sanji_Vinsmoke_69]

Why are people acting like they made a shocking new discovery? This is basically a weaker version of the shield and piercing weapon. I used both and the stone fingerprint shield + antspur rapier is superior not only in blocking but also attacking I know some people will say they ware heavy loaded and cant dodge.. Well if you add bloodhounds step to the rapier that eliminates the heavy load problem. You cannot infuse bleed as good on the carian thrusting sheild as with the rapier cos anything other than standard types of infusion drops the thrusting shield's physical blocking ablity from 94% down to around 89%. I have used both the carian thrusting shield and the stone shield + rapier combo on so many DLC bosses and I can say for certain the stone shield + rapier is far superior. Like this guy said, you need points for faith to buff your damage negation up cos the carian thrusting shield's elemental defence isnt very good.. well with the stone shield and rapier combo, I didnt need to use any spell buffs for my nonphysical damage for the final boss.

[@floodsye]

OOOOOOH! Now I get what all the fuss is about with the DLC being too hard. They weren't talking about the difficulty. They were talking about how hard and sturdy this shield is! I own some people an apology!