Elden Ring: Medium Shields Tier List (2024)

Elden Ring is packed to the brim with loot. With well over 100 weapons and individual pieces of armor, each belonging to a variety of classes, it's easy for a player to get overwhelmed. When it comes to shields, things are just as hectic, with over 70 individual shields appearing across three distinct categories.

For those who are looking for a lightweight option, but still want to defend against the vast majority of oncoming attacks, Elden Ring's Medium Shields are a solid option. However, as is the case with all of Elden Ring's loot, there are some Medium Shields that vastly overshadow the others in the class.

RELATED: Elden Ring: Small Shields Tier List

S-Tier

• Brass Shield: The Brass Shield is still widely regarded to be one of the best shields in Elden Ring, right alongside the next entry in this tier. Though it's heavier than some shields on this list, coming in at 7.0, it certainly isn't the heaviest, and its weight is more than justifiable with how much it blocks. The Brass Shield not only blocks 100% of oncoming physical damage, but also blocks a good amount of magic, fire, and holy damage. The Brass Shield can also be equipped with a wide range of Ashes of War, making the shield even more viable.
• Carian Knight's Shield: Along with being one of the best-looking Medium Shields, the Carian Knight's Shield is also exceedingly functional, being able to block 100% of physical damage and 71% magic damage. On top of this, its holy damage negation is quite high, and its guard boost stat is pretty forgiving, meaning that each hit takes less stamina to block.

A-Tier

• Banished Knight's Shield: With stats just a fraction lower than the Brass Shield, the Banished Knight's Shield is still a great option, with 100% physical damage negation, a high guard boost stat, and good elemental negation across the board.
• Silver Mirrorshield: Boasting an exceptionally high physical resistance of 100% and a magic defense of 89%, the Silver Mirrorshield is one of the most sturdy on this entire list. The key thing holding it back from a top spot is its very low guard boost, which means that blocking a hit takes a massive proportion of the user's stamina bar.
• Albinauric Shield: It doesn't offer quite as much magic damage reduction as the Silver Mirrorshield, but the Albinauric Shield does have a much higher guard boost stat.
• Twinbird Kite Shield: It may not block as much elemental damage as the rest above it, but the Twinbird Kite Shield still blocks 100% physical damage and has an interesting gimmick up its sleeve. When the user's HP is low, the Twinbird Kite Shield raises Elden Ring players' attack and defense power, which can be pretty useful.
• Eclipse Crest Heater: Thanks to a recent buff, this shield is a great low-weight option. With a weight of only 3.5, the Eclipse Crest Heater offers some of the best damage negation and guard boost for such a low barrier to entry.
• Beast Crest Heater: Not a bad option for an early-game build, the Beast Crest Heater can be found in a chest in Stormhill, and offers a good guard boost stat, 100% phyical damage reduction, and some good magic negation.
• Blue Crest Heater: Despite not actually having any blue on it, the Blue Crest Heater is another great early-game shield, appearing as the starter equipment for the Confessor Class.

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B-Tier

• Great Turtle Shield: A pretty big disappointment, the Great Turtle Shield is Elden Ring's version of Dark Souls' Grass Crest shield, but is significantly less viable. While the Great Turtle Shield does passively boost the player's stamina recovery rate, it only blocks 87% physical damage, and barely negates any elemental damage. Depending on preference, this shield also looks pretty ugly.
• Beastman's Jar-Shield: A bit of an inbetween of a Small and Medium Shield, the Beastman's Jar-Shield has a fairly low weight, but does trade off some damage negation for it. This shield only blocks 95% of physical damage, but its lightning and holy negation is quite impressive, as is its guard boost stat. This shield is pretty tricky to find though, requiring some farming.
• Scorpion Kite Shield: Much like the rest of the Kite Shields, the Scorpion Kite Shield offers decent elemental damage negation and has 100% physical damage reduction, but that's about it. Although, fans of 2011's Drive may want to pick it up for a Ryan Gosling-themed cosplay.
• Blue-Gold Kite Shield: The Blue-Gold Kite Shield is a good Medium Shield, with 100% physical damage negation and decent elemental damage reduction, as well as a good guard boost stat, but that's really all there is to it.
• Kite Shield: Yet another Kite Shield, this one is more of the same, with 100% physical damage negation and the rest of it.
• Inverted Hawk Heater: Since getting a nerf, this shield isn't quite as viable as it once was, with a still respectable but lower guard boost stat. Aside from that, the Inverted Hawk Heater shield is still a good Medium Shield with plenty of damage negation.
• Red Crest Heater: Though it has similar stats to the higher ranked Beast Crest Heater, the Red Crest Heater shield finds itself in this lower tier as players won't find it until they reach the Altus Plateu, by which time they'll probably have a better shield.
• Heater Shield: The standard Heater Shield is outclassed by most of the others that bear its name, but this version is still a decent Medium Shield with fairly good stats. This shield is also part of the starting equipment for the Vagabond Class.

C-Tier

• Marred Leather Shield: The rest of this tier list is going to start looking very same-y, as though a few have unique traits, all of these shields share a lack of good damage negation. The Marred Leather Shield, for instance, only blocks 81% of physical damage. Though, for the more reckless Elden Ring players, this shield can be used as a weapon, where it causes 50 points of blood loss build-up.
• Black Leather Shield: Despite its description claiming that it protects the user against frost, this shield does not, and it also only blocks of 88% of physical damage to boot.
• Large Leather Shield: Though it lacks good damage negation, the Large Leather Shield is a fine starter shield, especially as it allows the user to parry.
• Round Shield: Another fine early-game shield, the Round Shield won't block all attacks, but it might give the player some brief moments of respite in tough situations.
• Sun Realm Shield: Considering this weapon needs to be farmed in Caelid, there's no real reason to pick this up, with its low stats providing no incentive.
• Marred Wooden Shield: Much like its leather variant, the Marred Wooden Shield is actually best used as a weapon, with a passive ability that causes 50 points of blood loss build-up per hit.
• Flame Crest Wooden Shield: Though "flame" is in its title, this shield has pretty subpar elemental damage negation across the board, and its lack of physical damage reduction makes it a little worthless.
• Candletree Wooden Shield: Again, not an awful shield, but the effort required to get it isn't worth it, with the shields in the other tiers being much better options.
• Horse Crest Wooden Shield: Much like the rest of the Wooden Shields, the Horse Crest shield is practically redundant, with far lower stats than the rest of the Medium Shields in this list.
• Hawk Crest Wooden Shield: The best of a bad bunch, the Hawk Crest is the best Wooden Shield, but not by much, negating 90% of physical damage.

Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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