Elden Ring DLC Best Only Shield Build Guide - Carian Thrusting Shield
In the vast world of Elden Ring, where players are constantly adapting and crafting unique builds, the recent Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has introduced a thrilling opportunity: the Carian Thrusting Shield. Shield builds in Elden Ring have always held a special place for defensive players, but this guide will show you how to turn your shield into a devastating offensive tool. With the ability to block and attack simultaneously, the Carian Thrusting Shield is more than just a defensive weapon—it’s a game-changer. Dive into this guide, and we’ll walk you through the best shield build to dominate bosses and enemies alike, balancing between defense and deadly pierce damage.
Before diving into the details of this Thrusting Shield build, make sure you're fully equipped for the journey. Head over to MMOPixel to buy Elden Ring Runes and items to get a head start on your adventure!
Why Choose the Carian Thrusting Shield?
The Carian Thrusting Shield is one of two thrusting shields introduced in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. What sets this shield apart is its versatility.
It only requires modest amounts of strength, dexterity, and intelligence, making it accessible to many players. Weighing just 10, it provides an impressive 76 guard boost on the standard infusion, meaning you can block a substantial amount of damage while remaining mobile.
Compared to the typical greatshields that are much heavier, the Carian Thrusting Shield offers a lightweight solution with exceptional defensive power.
● Weight: 10
● Guard Boost: 76 (standard), slightly lower for heavy infusion
● Physical Protection: 94%
What makes this shield exceptional is its ability to block and attack simultaneously.
When you perform an attack, the shield stays positioned in front of you, allowing you to block incoming hits.
Even though it only provides 94% physical protection, the minimal chip damage is a fair trade-off for the added offensive capability. You’ll find that even tough enemies and bosses struggle to overcome your defenses while you dish out damage.
Managing Stamina and Endurance
One of the biggest challenges with this build is stamina management. Since you’re blocking and attacking at the same time, your stamina can deplete rapidly.
For this reason, investing heavily in endurance is crucial, allowing you to maintain constant pressure without getting guard-broken.
Additionally, using the Two-Headed Turtle Talisman to regenerate stamina is essential to keep up the aggressive playstyle this build demands.
● Endurance: High stamina allows you to block and attack simultaneously without getting staggered.
● Talisman: Two-Headed Turtle Talisman for stamina regeneration.
Ash of War: Cragblade
We’ve chosen to pair the Carian Thrusting Shield with the Cragblade Ash of War. This Ash of War focuses on boosting physical damage and enhances strength scaling, allowing you to maximize the damage output of your shield.
This combination ensures that while your shield is primarily a defensive tool, it also packs a punch in melee combat.
● Primary Damage: Physical, with minor magic damage.
● Cragblade Buff: Increases strength scaling and physical damage.
By focusing on physical damage, you also enhance counter damage. The Carian Thrusting Shield deals pierce damage, which is ideal for counterattacking enemies during their attack animations.
Unlike builds that rely on magic, this setup keeps the damage output consistent, particularly during boss fights.
To truly make the most out of this build, having enough runes to level up your stats and enhance your shield is essential. You can conveniently purchase Elden Ring Runes and items from MMOPixel to ensure you’re always prepared for tough battles
Armor and Fashion
For armor, we’ve gone with a combination of Royal Knight pieces and Rellana’s Chest Piece, which ties thematically with the shield.
The choice of armor is primarily for aesthetics, but it’s essential to make sure you have at least 51 poise. This poise threshold will prevent you from getting interrupted during your R1 attack chains, ensuring you can maintain your offensive while blocking.
● Armor Set: Royal Knight Helm, Gauntlets, and Legs with Rellana’s Chest Piece.
● Poise Requirement: At least 51 poise to avoid being interrupted mid-combo.
Recommended Talismans for Maximum Damage
Talismans play a key role in maximizing the effectiveness of this build. Here are the top recommendations:
1. Rotten Winged Sword Insignia: Boosts attack power as you land consecutive hits, perfect for an R1 spam build.
2. Spear Talisman: Increases counter damage when hitting enemies during their attack animations.
3. Curved Sword Talisman: If you find yourself doing more block counters, this can be swapped for even more damage.
4. Two-Headed Turtle Talisman: Essential for regenerating stamina during prolonged engagements.
Stance Damage: Breaking Bosses
This build excels at breaking enemy stance, especially during boss fights. The Cragblade Ash of War boosts both your damage and stance-breaking power, making it easier to stagger bosses and land devastating critical hits.
Combine this with the Stonebark Cracked Tear in your Flask of Wondrous Physick for even more stance damage during critical moments.
● Stance Damage: Buffed with Cragblade and Stonebark Cracked Tear.
● Stance Breaking: Two block counters can break most bosses' stance, allowing for critical strikes.
Flask of Wondrous Physick
For your Flask of Wondrous Physick, having the right setup can make all the difference when facing off against Elden Ring's toughest foes. Here's the recommended combination to maximize your effectiveness in combat:
● Deflecting Hardtear: This tear is a fantastic choice for boosting your block counter damage. Since this build relies heavily on blocking and countering with your shield, the increased damage from this tear will make your block counters hit even harder. Every time you deflect an attack and strike back, you’ll deal significant damage, making it an essential part of your offensive strategy.
● Stonebark Cracked Tear: This tear ramps up your stance damage, which is crucial for breaking the poise of enemies and bosses. With this boost, you'll find it much easier to stagger even the more resilient enemies, leaving them vulnerable to critical hits. This is especially useful when facing bosses that require precise timing and powerful strikes to break their defenses.
To fully take advantage of these effects, pop this flask just before a challenging battle, whether it's a boss fight or a tough enemy encounter. The added damage to both your block counters and stance-breaking abilities will give you an edge, allowing you to deal more damage while controlling the flow of the fight by keeping your enemies off-balance. This setup ensures that you're not only defensive but can also dish out punishment while maintaining your solid defense.
Stat Allocation
At level 163, this build requires a well-balanced stat distribution to ensure you can handle any challenge Elden Ring throws your way. Here’s how you should allocate your points:
● Vigor: 60 – With this much vigor, you’ll have plenty of health to survive even the toughest fights. Whether you’re taking hits from powerful bosses or surviving intense PvP duels, this will give you enough cushion to keep pushing forward.
● Mind: 27 – This amount of mind will provide you with enough FP to consistently use the Cragblade Ash of War, a crucial component of this build. It lets you unleash this skill frequently without worrying too much about running out of FP mid-battle.
● Endurance: 40 – With 40 endurance, you’ll enjoy a high stamina pool, allowing you to perform more attacks, blocks, and rolls. This is especially important since you’ll be blocking and performing stamina-heavy actions frequently. Plus, the increased equip load ensures that you can maintain a medium roll, giving you more flexibility in your armor and shield choices.
● Strength: 70 – As the primary stat for this build, having 70 strength allows you to deal a hefty amount of damage. This stat maximizes the scaling of your weapons and ensures that each hit you land is as devastating as possible.
● Dexterity: 13 – This is the minimum requirement to wield your thrusting shield. No need to invest more here, as it’s solely about meeting the shield’s basic stat requirement.
● Intelligence: 16 – Just enough to meet the minimum requirement, but if you want to experiment with a bit of magic damage, you can raise this stat slightly. For most players, though, 16 intelligence will suffice, keeping the focus on physical damage and shield use.
This stat allocation ensures that you can take hits, deal massive damage, and keep up your defenses, making this build a powerhouse in both PvE and PvP situations.
Conclusion
The Carian Thrusting Shield build in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC offers a perfect balance between offense and defense. By utilizing the unique mechanics of thrusting shields—blocking and attacking simultaneously—you can take on even the toughest foes with confidence. Whether you’re smashing through bosses or dealing with groups of enemies, this build ensures you remain nearly untouchable while dishing out massive damage.
So, gear up, boost that poise, and start breaking stances left and right. This is the ultimate shield build for those who want to be both untouchable and unstoppable in the world of Elden Ring. Stay strong, and may your shield always strike true!
Now that you’ve got a powerful Thrusting Shield build ready to take on the toughest foes, make sure you have the right resources to back you up. Check out MMOPixel to purchase Elden Ring Runes and items to make your gameplay smoother and more enjoyable!
