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

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

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 mid-range attack that inflicts Deadly Poison. Unlike the regular Poison status, this does damage much faster, but with less overall damage. Paired with a standard Poison weapon, you can burn through your health bars fairly quickly, as long as you can use it two or three times per fight.

The Coil Shield’s weapon proficiency and base damage scale with Strength, so we recommend building more for Strength than Dexterity or Arcane. You can do this with a Heavy Venomous Fang, or you can gain access to both Poison and Rot with a Heavy Antspur Rapier. Either way, you’ve got a fast-paced option for close range and a very tough tool for mid-range. And it’s not like the Shield is useless with the weapon either: many enemies will become poisoned with a single cast of Viper Bite. With a Mushroom Crown and a Kindred of Rot’s Exultation, you’re still able to deal high base damage on top of your damage over time. Bad guys that are strong against Poison, like the Elden Beast, will give this build some trouble, but can be dealt with with generic Heavy Weapons without much trouble.