Some of the best Shields in Elden Ring under the Medium-sized category offer a good balance between weight and defense. They’re not as heavy as large shields but still, provide solid protection. While they can’t parry as well as small shields, they have a decent guard and can be improved with Ashes of War. This boosts their ability to reduce damage and improve their special skills. Depending on your style of play and your needs in different fights, you can choose the best medium shield for you.
- Elden Ring offers 27 different medium shields to choose from.
- Medium Shields in Elden Ring offer substantial protection and are lighter in weight compared to other types of shields.
- While not as strong at parrying as Small Shields, Medium Shields can be significantly improved using the best Ashes of War in Elden Ring.
- Ashes of War enhance the ability of these shields to reduce damage while guarding, as well as their respective abilities.
- Some Medium Shields can block 100% physical damage, making them highly effective in combat situations.
- Author’s Note: With more than dozens of hours of experience in Elden Ring, I feel more than obliged to provide you with hands-on experience on the topic below.
My Picks For The Best Medium-Sized Shields In Elden Ring
Shields are vital defensive equipment and the medium shields are the best of both worlds when it comes to having the strengths and weaknesses of Small & Large sized shields.
Here is an overview of all the best medium shields in Elden Ring showcased alongside the physical and elemental defensive stats:
| Serial Number | Medium Shield Name | Best For | Physical Guard | Magical Guard | Fire Guard | Lightning Guard | Holy Guard | Boost Guard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brass Shield | The Highest Guard Boost In Medium Shields | 100 | 55 | 59 | 39 | 54 | 56 |
| 2 | Great Turtle Shell | The Best Stamina-Regen Shield In Elden Ring | 87 | 44 | 39 | 43 | 46 | 49 |
| 3 | Inverted Hawk Heater | The Best Defense-To-Weight Ratio In Medium Shields | 100 | 49 | 49 | 34 | 49 | 50 |
| 4 | Blue Gold Kite Shield | The Best Early-Game Medium Shield | 100 | 47 | 53 | 35 | 45 | 53 |
| 5 | Carian Knight’s Shield | The Best Early-Game Shield For Magic Defense. | 100 | 71 | 28 | 19 | 54 | 49 |
| 6 | Banished Knight’s Shield | The Best Looking Medium Shield | 100 | 49 | 57 | 31 | 48 | 55 |
| 7 | Silver Mirrorshield | The Highest Magic Defense Shield In Elden Ring | 100 | 89 | 31 | 19 | 27 | 45 |
| 8 | Albinauric Shield | The Best Magic Def Medium Shield For Non-Int Builds | 100 | 66 | 42 | 23 | 47 | 51 |
| 9 | Twinbird Kite Shield | The Best Medium Shield For Risky Play | 100 | 49 | 50 | 28 | 35 | 50 |
| 10 | Eclipse Crest Heater | The Best No-Skill Medium Shield | 100 | 44 | 44 | 37 | 44 | 51 |
| 11 | Beast Crest Heater | The Best Medium Shield For Parry | 100 | 50 | 43 | 32 | 42 | 51 |
| 12 | Blue Crest Heater | N/A | 100 | 43 | 42 | 32 | 50 | 50 |
1. Brass Shield
| Attack Stats | Guard Stats |
|---|---|
| Phy 84 | Phy 100 |
| Mag 0 | Mag 55 |
| Fire 0 | Fire 59 |
| Ligt 0 | Ligt 39 |
| Holy 0 | Holy 54 |
| Crit 100 | Boost 56 |
- Why I Chose This: The Brass Shield provides substantial guard boost and all-type defenses making it the Best Medium Shield in Elden Ring.
The Brass Shield stands out as the premier shield choice in Elden Ring, especially for medium shields. Its stylish Heater design complements various armor sets and I’ve used it pretty frequently.
The shield not only provides highest guard boost but is also efficient in using against every single enemy in the game due to its exceptionally high defenses. The only drawback is its low drop rate and high weight. Ashes of War can further enhance its capabilities through upgrades.
If you are having trouble farming this shield, you can always go for Jellyfish Shield which is easy to obtain and provides almost the same result.
- Excellent guard boost and can use parry skills like Golden parry.
- Best all-around defenses in medium shields.
- Small efficiency problems due to higher weight.
- Needs tedious farming and has extremely low drop rate.
2. Great Turtle Shell
| Attack | Guard |
|---|---|
| Phy 81 | Phy 87 |
| Mag 0 | Mag 44 |
| Fire 0 | Fire 39 |
| Ligt 0 | Ligt 43 |
| Holy 0 | Holy 46 |
| Crit 100 | Boost 49 |
| Scaling | Str D |
| Requires | Str 14 |
- Why I Chose This: The Great Turtle Shell is the best shield for low End biulds due to its passive stamina-regen while also bieng good defensively.
The Great Turtle Shell, a medium shield resembling a tortoise shell, offers high protection with low weight that makes it easily slotable in low Endurance builds. Additionally, my reason for recommending it is the nice stamina regen passive, which remains active even after dual wielding the right/left armament.
Through the use of Ashes of War, you can enhance the Great Turtle Shell’s capabilities. It also possesses the Barricade Shield special ability, which significantly improves its blocking effectiveness for a brief duration.
- Helpful in guarding strong blows with innate skill Barricade Shield.
- Regenerates stamina passively even when two-handing weapon.
- The stamina regen though valuable, is low in quantity.
- Comparatively low Physical defenses.
3. Inverted Hawk Heater
| Attack | Guard |
|---|---|
| Phy 77 | Phy 100 |
| Mag 0 | Mag 49 |
| Fire 0 | Fire 49 |
| Ligt 0 | Ligt 34 |
| Holy 0 | Holy 49 |
| Crit 100 | Boost 50 |
- Why I Chose This: Inverted Hawk Heater Shield provides the most balanced negations for it’s wieght making it a worthy pick.
The Inverted Hawk Heater shield is considered the best-looking medium shield in Elden Ring, featuring a striking red and black design. This shield provides high defenses with considerably low weight, efficient throughout many mid-to-late game scenarios where a shield with high elemental as well as physical negations is necessary.
With a Guard Boost slightly higher than the Turtle Shell, it excels in defense. The Inverted Black Hawk shield offers the Parry Weapon Ability and can be upgraded using Ashes of War. It pairs well with armor featuring red accents. If your strategy relies on parrying, I’d say this is the top choice for a medium shield in Elden Ring.
- The parry skill provided can be changed.
- Substantial defenses and guard boost for its weight.
- Outclassed by Brass shield overall except the weight.
- No passive boost and lower Lightning dmg reduction.
4. Blue Gold Kite Shield
| Attack | Guard |
|---|---|
| Phy 80 | Phy 100 |
| Mag 0 | Mag 47 |
| Fire 0 | Fire 53 |
| Ligt 0 | Ligt 35 |
| Holy 0 | Holy 45 |
| Crit 100 | Boost 53 |
- Why I Chose This: Blue Gold Kite Shield remains your best defensive shield throughout early game if you can afford it’s wieght.
The Blue Gold Kite Shield, resembling a heater shield despite its name, suits Aired Tree Knight-type characters in Elden Ring. You can get your hands on it pretty early and it stays relevant throughout early-game. This shield can be infused with Ash of War to increase its efficiency. With its parry skill, low weight and good defenses, I believe it’s an ideal medium-sized shield.
With the same parry skill, slightly low weight, and better Holy defense, you can opt for the Scorpion Kite Shield.
- Pretty light-weight and can be acquired fairly early.
- Great weight-to-defenses and guard boost ratio.
- Has comparatively lower Lightning defenses.
- Slightly higher weight than other medium shields.
5. Carian Knight’s Shield
| Attack | Guard |
|---|---|
| Phy 63 | Phy 100 |
| Mag63 | Mag 71 |
| Fire 0 | Fire 28 |
| Ligt 0 | Ligt 19 |
| Holy 0 | Holy 54 |
| Crit 100 | Boost 49 |
- Why I Chose This: Carian Knight’s Shield is your ideal option for magic-defense and can be obtain earlier in the game.
The Carian Knight’s Shield is one of Elden Ring’s finest-looking and most effective Medium Shields. It provides efficient protection against Physical and Magic attacks. Along with a high Guard Boost, effective Damage Negations, and conserving stamina when blocking, I consider it the best magic-defense option in early-game.
The shield can be obtained by defeating The Carian Knight at Raya Lucaria Academy. You can further improve it using Ashes of War, which I suggest you do, particularly to enhance its Guard Boost.
- At maximum level, provides a high upgrade to guard boost (~61).
- Fairly good Physical and Magic dmg protection.
- Has very low Lightning dmg negation (19).
- Carian Knight is difficult to beat at beginner level.
6. Banished Knight’s Shield
| Attack | Guard |
|---|---|
| Phy 81 | Phy 100 |
| Mag 0 | Mag 49 |
| Fire 0 | Fire 57 |
| Ligt 0 | Ligt 31 |
| Holy 0 | Holy 48 |
| Crit 100 | Boost 55 |
- Why I Chose This: Banished Knight Shield has the second best defenses in medium shields, is lighter than Brass Shield and is pretty good looking.
Banished Knight is just another piece of gear and one of the best medium shield in Elden Ring. Plus, I think the shield looks really cool and suits with a lot of armor, hence, appearance-wise definitely an excellent-looking shield. It is impressive not only for the looks but also boasts high defenses all-around. But, comes with the demerit of high weight.
Moreover, it has a high Guard Boost which either starts off with no skill or the Parry skill and can be upgraded using Ashes of War, so either way you can put whatever you want on it and make it the shield that suits your playstyle the best.
- Grants good Physical and Fire defenses.
- Second highest guard boost in medium shields (68).
- Low Lightning and Holy defenses.
- Obtained after farming certain enemies.
7. Silver Mirrorshield
| Attack | Guard |
|---|---|
| Phy 70 | Phy 100 |
| Mag 45 | Mag 89 |
| Fire 0 | Fire 31 |
| Ligt 0 | Ligt 19 |
| Holy 0 | Holy 27 |
| Crit 100 | Boost 45 |
- Why I Chose This: Silver Mirrorshield has the highest magic-defense among shields in Elden Ring. Lightwieghted, ideal for mage-biulds.
The Silver Mirrorshield is among the strongest Medium shields since it has one of the highest physical durability levels of 100%. It is really good for the Mage build characters and players who have the best spells as it has one of the highest Magic Resistance. If you’re playing a mage, I suggest not sleeping on this.
Its extremely low guard boost, which results in a huge drain on your stamina bar upon stopping a blow, is the main factor keeping it from being a top contender.
- Low Int requirement, best for mage class.
- Very high magic dmg negation (89).
- Obtained in essentialy end-game, (consecrated snowfield).
- Comes with no skill, and no other skill can be affixed.
8. Albinauric Shield
| Attack | Guard |
|---|---|
| Phy 78 | Phy 100 |
| Mag 0 | Mag 66 |
| Fire 0 | Fire 42 |
| Ligt 0 | Ligt 23 |
| Holy 0 | Holy 47 |
| Crit 100 | Boost 51 |
- Why I Chose This: Albinauric Shield provides a great blend between physical and magic defenses which also performs equally in non-Int biulds.
Albinauric Shield is notorious for its parry and guard stat. It has low weight and can be infused or buffed with Ashes of War, Magic, or Consumables. Albinauric Shield has high magic absorption which is pretty effective against mages. Along with full Physical dmg negation to deal with enemies other than mages, it becomes a pretty solid option for any build.
- Pretty light weight with considerable defenses.
- It’s Magic defense can be increased through magic affinity (82.5).
- Relatively low Fire and Lightning defense.
- Only obtained through frustating farming.
9. Twinbird Kite Shield
| Attack | Guard |
|---|---|
| Phy 78 | Phy 100 |
| Mag 0 | Mag 49 |
| Fire 0 | Fire 50 |
| Ligt 0 | Ligt 28 |
| Holy 0 | Holy 35 |
| Crit 100 | Boost 50 |
- Why I Chose This: Twinbird Kite Shield rewards those who like to play the risky game by offering them atk and defense boost on low HP.
Twinbird Kite Shield has the ability to increase your attack and defense stats when the HP is low. This shield also has great utility for blocking fire attacks due ti its high negation for Fire dmg. Furthermore, it can be infused with Ashes of War or Consumables offering the best buffs in Elden Ring to further increase its abilities and it is dropped by the Death Bird which spawns at night in Leyndell.
- Increases Atk and Def at low HP.
- The buff can stack and remains the same in PvP.
- Relatively lower elemental defenses.
- Only obtained after defeating a mid-game boss.
10. Eclipse Crest Heater
| Attack | Guard |
|---|---|
| Phy 77 | Phy 100 |
| Mag 0 | Mag 44 |
| Fire 0 | Fire 44 |
| Ligt 0 | Ligt 37 |
| Holy 0 | Holy 44 |
| Crit 100 | Boost 51 |
- Why I Chose This: Eclipse Shield provides balanced defenses and a No-skill which can be infused, making it very versatile.
With only a weight of 3.5 it is the low-weight best Medium shield in Elden Ring that provides the best damage negation and guard boost. This shield has the most balanced elemental resistances for its weight and can be acquired very early in the game. Furthermore, it can be infused with Ashes of War to further enhance, which I believe can provide it decent versatility.
For a little more weight but increased defenses, I recommend the Kite Shield.
- Acquired fairly early in the game and provides solid defenses.
- Very low weight with exceptional guard boost.
- The only heater shield with no-skill.
- Slightly low Lightning defense.
11. Beast Crest Heater
| Attack | Guard |
|---|---|
| Phy 77 | Phy 100 |
| Mag 0 | Mag 50 |
| Fire 0 | Fire 43 |
| Ligt 0 | Ligt 32 |
| Holy 0 | Holy 42 |
| Crit 100 | Boost 51 |
- Why I Chose This: Beast Crest Heater Shield has the best utility for parrying in medium shield and also has great overall defenses.
If you’re seeking the best medium shield in Elden Ring for parrying, look no further than the Beast Crest. As per my experience, this Heater shield is a good choice among Medium Shields at the early start of Elden Ring. You can also use the Carian/Golden parry skills along with other ashes of wars to increase its viability. It offers good damage negation, guard boost, and physical damage reduction stats.
- Obtained at the beginning of the game.
- Full physical dmg reduction and decent magic reduction for its weight.
- Comparatively lower elemental defenses except for Magic.
- Comes without a passive, can only parry.
12. Blue Crest Heater
| Attack | Guard |
|---|---|
| Phy 77 | Phy 100 |
| Mag 0 | Mag 43 |
| Fire 0 | Fire 42 |
| Ligt 0 | Ligt 32 |
| Holy 0 | Holy 50 |
| Crit 100 | Boost 50 |
- Why I Chose This: Blue Crest Heater Shield offers good holy defense and is lightweight. It can be infused with various Ashes of War.
Blue Crest Heater is an early-game shield and despite having any Blue on it, surely outclasses any other heater shield. The shield possesses high Holy and Magic dmg resistance and can be obtained directly through the Confessor class. This shield can be upgraded with Ashes of War, especially its Guard Boost and Damage Negation.
You can also use the Red Crest Heater shield instead, as it has the same weight, the same parry skill, and slightly higher defenses.
- 100 Physical guard and decent Holy defense.
- Can be utilized rightaway by choosing the Confessor class.
- Significantly low elemental defenses except for Holy.
- It has the lowest guard boost in heater shields.
Alternative Shields
Here are some other best medium shields in Elden Ring that I did not include in the guide because of personal preferences, but they are worth mentioning.
- Spiralhorn Shield: A good shield if you are looking to deal blood loss to an enemy while having decent defense.
- Inverted Hawk-Heater Shield: Useful shield if you are looking for dodging and blocking with low strength requirement.
- Blue-Gold Kite Shield: This shield is good for reducing the damage taken, and it is easier to acquire.
What Are Medium Shields In Elden Ring?
Medium Shields are a type of shield that offers guards from substantial damage and are relatively lighter in weight as compared to other types of shields. Although they are weaker at parrying than Small Shields, most of these Medium Shields can be modified with Ashes of War, which enhances their ability to reduce damage while guarding and their respective abilities.
My Experience On Using Medium Shields
Many veterans frown upon the use of shields, but even with my experience in Elden Ring, I like keeping a shield around, just in case. Medium shields have always been my go-to shields because they do not weigh too much and offer ample protection.
I’ve personally ended one of my playthroughs of Elden Ring with the Carian Knight’s Shield, as it is one of my favorite shields due to it barely weighing anything and offering 100% protection against physical damage and fantastic protection against Magic and Holy damage. But before the Carian Knight’s Shield, my go-to shield was the Beast Crest Heater, as it offered similar protection as the Carian Shield while also being one of the best medium shields for parrying.
By now, I believe that my guide has given you ample information regarding Elden Ring’s Medium Shields in terms of their Blocking Stat, Compatibility with Ashes of War, and weight, so you can decide the best Elden Ring Medium Shield according to your needs.
In conclusion, medium shields in Elden Ring are a great choice for their balance of weight and protection. They are strong and can be improved with Ashes of War. These shields can help you in many battles, even blocking all physical damage in some cases. The best shield for you depends on your play style and the fights you face. So, picking the right medium shield can really help you succeed in the Elden Ring.
While you’re at it, I highly suggest that you go through Elden Ring: BEST Dual-Wield Weapons, BEST Prisoner Build, BEST Curved Swords, and How To Play Elden Ring GeoGuessr guides and learn more about the game.
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- Elden Ring: Bird Farm
- Best Elden Ring Builds
- Best Dagger Elden Ring
- Elden Ring: All Sacred Tear Churches Locations
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