Best Sword and Shield builds in Elden Ring

Sword and Shield builds are classic for Soulsborne games, and their legacy lives on in Elden Ring. With the protection of a shield by your side, most enemies flounder. However, there are ways to optimize and ensure you get the most out of each build. 

This guide covers the three weights of Shield in Elden Ring—Small, Medium, and Greatshield. While there are many great shields in the game, many provide the same purpose of being good at blocking or parrying. These builds focus on making the shield a valid defensive and offensive threat.

Best Small Shield build in Elden Ring

Venomous Bite

The Coil Shield, found in Volcano Cave, has several unique qualities that make it a fascinating build-around. Rather than being a good parry tool like the other Small Shields, the Coil Shield’s Weapon Skill is a medium-ranged attack that inflicts Deadly Poison. Unlike the normal Poison status, this deals damage much faster but less total damage. Mixing this with a standard Poison weapon, you can burn through health bars rather quickly, as long as you can apply it two or three times per fight.

The Coil Shield’s Weapon Skill and base damage scales off of Strength, so we recommend building for Strength more than Dexterity or Arcane. You can do this with a Heavy Venomous Fang, or you can have access to both Poison and Rot with a Heavy Antspur Rapier. Either way, you have a close-range and fast option and a very tricky mid-range tool. And it’s not like the Shield is worthless with the weapon, either—many enemies get poisoned with one use of Viper Bite. With a Mushroom Crown and a Kindred of Rot’s Exultation, you’ll still be capable of high base damage on top of your damage over time. Bosses that are strong against Poison, like the Elden Beast, give this build trouble but can be fought with generic Heavy Weapons without much issue.

Don’t block with the Coil Shield too often if you can get away with it. With the lowest Guard Boost of any shield at 29 and an abysmal 65 Physical Defense, you’ll probably be better off blocking with your weapon. This goes for most Small Shields and you’ll sometimes feel the Coil Shield’s lack of parry while fighting enemies. You’ll rely on dodging and flinching your foes with the Viper Bite’s impressive stagger.

Best Medium Shield build in Elden Ring

Risky Business

The Twinbird Kite Shield, the reward from the Deathbird in northern Leyndell, is a powerful tool that enhances damage by around five percent and resistance by 10 percent when the user is at 20 percent health or lower. This build’s goal is to utilize that bonus alongside extremely powerful low-health buffs, such as the Feathered Branchsword Talismans, to maximize damage and survivability at low-health totals.

This build is surprisingly hard to put down. The Royal Remains Set guarantees you stay around 18 percent of your health through slow regen. The Blue-Feathered Branchsword reduces damage by 50 percent, the Twinbird Kite Shield by another 10, and the Dragoncrest Greatshield by around 20 percent. You can’t tank everything in the game as well as a 60 Vigor build should, but you get relatively close.

And the damage you get in return is stellar. Using an Uchigatana equipped with Seppuku, you can instantly proc Lord of Blood’s Exultation and the White Mask for a 30 percent damage buff—on top of the 20 and five percent boosts from your Talisman and Shield. With high physical stats and Quality affinity, you can find yourself hitting for Colossal Weapon numbers on a much faster weapon. Add in low-Faith Incantation buffs—like Flame, Grant Me Strength—or strong greases—like Fire or Magic Grease—and you’ve got yourself a build that can chew through health bars.

And this isn’t even optimized damage. We like the extra defense of the Royal Remains armor and Greatshield Talisman since that allows us to survive shockingly big hits and recover afterward. But, if you replace the Talisman with a Blue Dancer Charm, remove your armor, and use a very light Straight Sword, you can get another 10-12 percent damage for your troubles. You’re much more likely to die, but if you trust your dodges and your 100 percent physical blocking shield, you can clear bosses quickly.

Best Greatshield build in Elden Ring

Guard Counter

The Guard Counter build prioritizes several situational options to make Guard Counter deal as much damage as possible. Using a Colossal weapon or Halberd with Royal Knight’s Resolve and then fishing for a Guard Counter, you can deal massive damage from relative safety as your foe bounces off you. You use the Jellyfish Shield’s fantastic 20 percent damage buff to make things consistent over a long period.

This build only really flounders against anti-block bosses like Malenia. Most bosses get bullied by eating 3,000 or more damage to the dome consistently. You will spend Stamina quite rapidly, though, so Endurance—and strong Stamina Talismans—are key.

We cover this build in more detail in the dedicated article.