Blockmaster Paladin - Elden Ring

 So, playing a bit with the Paladin build from Fextralife, I've been playing my Confessor character. While initially I intended to more or less recreate my Strength/Faith character from Dark Souls III, the way this one is built, he's actually more Faith/Endurance. I just beat the Godskin Noble in Volcano Manor, and while the fight wasn't easy (taking a few attempts,) I've been able to do something I don't remember ever being able to seriously do in these games: blocking a boss.

The Brass Shield is the centerpiece of this: this shield apparently can eventually hit 65 Guard Boost (the reduction of Stamina cost for blocking,) which can be pushed to 100 if you have the Barricade Shield Art of War on it - thus meaning your blocks won't cost any stamina.

The build is thus all about guard-counters, the new maneuver in Elden Ring that allows you to more easily punish your foes than parrying - after you block a hit, you can use R2 to immediately strike back, doing extra damage and I believe extra poise damage. It's not foolproof - if your foe is in the middle of a multi-hit combo, your attack might be interrupted as you get hit.

Barricade Shield doesn't last super long - only 10 seconds or so - but while it's up, you can take a massive amount of punishment from a boss and not get staggered. While I had it up, the Godskin Noble's rapid-fire rapier thrusts only diminished my stamina by a little bit, allowing me to hit back with a nice, punishing guard counter.

To be fair, I think you could go with a lot of different options for your other stat, but Faith at least gives you some heals and weapon arts like Sacred Blade, which lets you launch a ranged attack and then buffs your weapon for extra holy damage for a few seconds.

I'm beginning to think that if I really want to do a Faith Caster, I might actually be better off doing an Arcane build, pushing for the dragon incantations. That might be a whole other character.

Anyway, having played a squishy wizard (who's high enough level that he's not actually all that squishy anymore) it's fun to play a tank character. Now that I've gotten to Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy, I think I'm going to be heading back out into the world and maybe do some underdark stuff (especially to get the Mimic Tear, which is pretty clutch in his fight).

On this character, once I hit 24 faith to use the Winged Scythe (which I don't use all the time anymore,) I've basically put almost every level into Vigor and Endurance. Sitting at 30 Vigor a little earlier in the game has given me some wiggle-room that is greatly appreciated - and as long as I upgrade my weapons, the damage isn't that bad.

There are a lot of different builds to play with in Elden Ring, and it's a huge game. I think this is going to be one I come back to from time to time over the years.