After playing all the available campaign I can tell I could defeat some bosses (the 3-4 last ones) thanks to drop all my armour and go back to light weight. I spent some time using shield, but It wasn’t absorving all damage, so i had to stop playing like DS (blocking with shield). With the mid-rol…

Interesting perspective. I consider light armour a self-imposed challenge as two hits from certain bosses can kill me, and one probably stagger me. Heavy armour is easier for me, perhaps outside of chasing an old man. It has been my experience that speed increases (or mobility runes) overcompensate…

It’s worth noting that in this game (particularly early and midgame), you should lean in to being defensively oriented if you want to play that way for best results. Shields are great, but you do have to balance your armor and plenty of other stats to get the most out of it. Unlike say, a fromsoft …

Personally I found that the weight of a shield is best replaced with extra heavy armor instead. Shield weight is only valuable while you block, but otherwise it’s purely dead weight. If you use heavier armor and no shield, you simply take less damage all the time. Since blocking doesn’t fully negat…

shields are useful even when not used as stat sticks - you can put +10% damage to a certain element gems in them. the shield enchantments are powerful too biggest thing - shields increase your parry windows. small shield reduces incoming damage by around 40% from what i tested at max level. that …

[image] balrogslayer: otherwise it’s purely dead weight. Outside of providing a 40% longer parry window and [1] being an unbelievable stat stick, as Hubristic says. Either four gems, or one gem and 30% bonus damage for 10 seconds on demand. The Chipped Spike is a multiplicative modifier to you…

[image] Konrad: 40% longer parry window Was that confirmed for patch 1? I remember Snaps, a QA guy at Moon, say in the dev stream from a couple months ago, that this is no longer the case.

No, I’ve blindly taken the figure from Dammitt’s data. I haven’t done any tests of the parry window myself. What I have tested, however, is how long the parry animation roots the player, notably with torch or empty off-hand vs. small shield. Shields root you for significantly longer. Compare this c…

[image] Konrad: I might do proper frame-counting as my time allows I would love that because the myth that shields extend parry windows has been going around since the birth of early-access :see_no_evil_monkey: (which I also helped prolong at first).

The database shows all shields with a 10 frame parry window, meanwhile weapons are 7 frames. That is an almost 50% longer parry window and definitely allows for broader predictive parrying, so unless the DB is incorrect, it looks like everyone’s intuitive vibe from parrying with shields and it feeli…

[image] Jasado: unless the DB is incorrect It appears to be. Full testing here: [image] Parrying Frame Data Wicked Tips & Tricks Summary Shields do not seem to grant a longer active parry window, which appears to be 13 frames regardless of shield usage.…

Boss combat and character weight

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Konrad April 7, 2026, 8:28am 11

It appears to be. Full testing here:

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Boss combat and character weight

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