u/Right_Entertainer324

This Shield is my new favourite Medium Shield.

I've just finished a Qua/Int sword and board character, who I'll be taking into the DLC soon, and whilst I finished with the Carian Knight's Sword and Shield, I started with the Broadsword and the Round Shield, as they better matched the fashion I had in mind.

And the Round Shield has easily got to be my new personal favourite Medium Shield, which I don't think I would've even considered looking at, before the Shield Patch.

As a Medium Shield, it means it has to compete with the King of Medium Shields, the Brass Shield. And it actually has a few things going for it, in comparison.

With it's base stats, the Round Shield offers:

- 94% Physical Negation

- 50% Magical Negation

- 37% Fire Negation

- 43% Lightning Negation

- 50% Holy Negation

- 3.0 Units in Weight

This is compared to the Brass Shield's:

- 100% Physical Negation

- 55% Magical Negation

- 59% Fire Negation

- 39% Lightning Negation

- 54% Holy Negation

- 7.0 Units in Weight

All things considered, there not too far off in Negation values. 37% Fire Negation on a Medium Shield is pretty poor, for the Round Shield, but it's a wooden Shield. It'd be weird if it was good against Fire, same goes for the Brass Shield with Lightning at almost the same value of 39% Negation. The Brass Shield also has higher Guard Boost, with 75 compared to 63 at +25.

But where the Brass Shield falls short, for me, is it's weight, availability and requirements.

The Round Shield requires 8 Strength to use. That's it. Every single starting class can use the Round Shield without a single level invested, making it one of the most accessible Medium Shields in the game. It's also much lighter than the Brass Shield, which can go a long way if you want to pair it with a heavier weapon and heavy armour. And it's not something you need to farm for, either, being sold by the Nomadic Merchant by Castle Morne in the Weeping Peninsula. Not having 100% Physical Negation is annoying, but for the otherwise well rounded Affinity Negation, barring Fire, light weight and respectable Guard Boost for it's weight, it's a pretty remarkable Shield.

Compared to the Brass Shield, which requires 16 Strength to use, meaning only the Hero can use it without investment, it's significantly heavier than the Round Shield, which makes fitting it alongside heavier armour a bit harder, and whilst not exactly uncommon (Pretty sure they've got these growing on trees XD), it's still an exclusive weapon drop. It can't be found, and it can't be bought. And whilst it's Guard Boost is exceptional for its weight, its Affinity Negations across the board barely outclass the Round Shield's, with the exception of Fire. Only an extra 5% Magic Negation and 4% Holy Negation is barely noticeable.

The Brass Shield will probably always be a better option on a build focused around a Shield, if using Medium Shields, but the Round Shield offers a nice, more easily obtained and usable alternative. Be mindful of the chip you'll be taking from Physical damage, and you've got an incredibly well-balanced Shield that continues to improve as you upgrade it. It's also pleasingly simple, in terms of design, and it's very unassuming look actually lends really well with fashion, as it goes with just about everything Knight adjacent. As compared to the Golden Dorito, that struggles to fit in with anything that isn't gold, and it looks ridiculous if you strap it to your back.

Still not fully levelled, going to 150 and will eventually have:

- 60 Vigour

- 15 Mind

- 28 Endurance

- 40 Strength

- 40 Dexterity

- 30 Intelligence

- 7 Faith

- 9 Arcane

Haven't ever made an Int build in Elden Ring, at least not a Sorcery focused Int build - I've done Int/Fai Fundamentalist, but never a Sorcerer or Sorcery Spellblade. So, mostly looking for spells to accompany the build that isn't Carian Slicer. Already used it, loved it, but it kinda defeats the purpose of my build being more tank focused.

Carian Knight's Shield has Barricade Shield, for clarification, and is only +19. Would've had enough Smithing Stones to get it to +21, but I've used so many weapons before setting on the Carian Knight's Sword. Like, I've got at least 1 weapon from every class upgraded to at least +12/+5, and this guy's not even made it to Farum Azula yet, although he's about to head there. Planning on actually stopping by the Haligtree first, though, as level wise, there's not much improvement to be made.

Crusade Insignia gives you a 15% attack boost when an enemy dies.

The Dried Bouquet gives you a 30% attack boost when a Spirit Ash dies.

However, the Crusade Insignia doesn't discriminate between an enemy or ally dying, and Spirits also proc it.

So, you can throw both on, have Helen get one shot by smelling the roses somewhere, and now you're sitting with a 40 something% attack boost, and can the reapply both with Frederick. And by the time he dies, Helen will have enough health to be resummoned, letting you do it *again*.

We're not too far off Nightreign's first birthday

Mad to think it's nearly been a year, already