Is there any point to meeting the stat requirements of a shield if you're not attacking with it? The stat penalty only applies to its attack damage.

I've read the page about the hardness tiers for how different weapons and shields will act if they come into contact with each other and I thought I had a basic understanding of it but now I'm not so sure. I only ever use a brass shield +16 with barricade shield AoW on it and I've never felt like that combo wasn't giving me enough protection. I've used it on some hard hitting enemies and I only take a small stamina hit even from blocking heavy attacks. But I hit Malenia's difficulty hard for the first time yesterday and there's no denying she is a cheap OP 1st class c**t of the highest order. I don't see any enjoyment or fun from banging my head against a wall dying over and over trying to beat her. So I started trying the finger print shield, I haven't upgraded it because I never thought I'd use it because of the massive weight penalty that goes with it.

The finger print shield is how I knew I needed clarification from someone who knows more than I do. I made the troll outside the secluded cell all aggro with me then I used the brass shield to block it's attacks while casting barricade shield between hits and even blocking heavy attacks from that troll the stamina hit from each attack wasn't much at all. I tried the same with the finger print shield but the stamina loss from blocking the trolls attacks with that shield was considerably higher.
Can anyone explain what's going on here? I'm assuming the finger print shield is in the top hardness tier and can make weapons bounce off, preventing combos and making the attacker flinch. But the brass shield with barricade shield cast on it has a higher guard boost so drains less stamina from each blocked attack, is that correct?
I don't want to use the resources to upgrade the finger print shield knowing I'd only be doing it for one boss fight. But how high does FPS's guard boost get if it is fully upgraded?

no logarius wheel? wtf fromsoft..

Kill Lhutel the Headless at black knife cata for this shield, easy farm, run past him and open doors, hit grace in cata, will always spawn facing away from you and doesnt move until attacked, backstab and guard counter him to death.

Does anybody here want the shield from a Shielded Silver Tear? I think I this would be a great medium shield or possibly great shield?

>unironically using a shield

Lol what is this? DS1?

These shields all suck, I want my Kusabimaru back.

Incredibly disappointed there's no equivalent to Orma and Reeves or the Twin Door Shield. That's something that I've noticed a lot of in the game. There were a lot of cool ideas that should've been expanded on in the previous games, but were just outright removed in this game. Pretty sad if you ask me.

Why, oh why, can't we get the giant disk that the Fire Giant uses as an offensive greatshield with slams and swipes instead of just bashes?

why shield with under 100% physical damage negation (95% of spiked greatshield for example) sometimes can block all physical attacks from enemies? does that hit have to be low on power or something?