The latest weapon to trivialize Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is the unusual Duelling Shield. Players have officially declared them “busted”.
Originally revealed as one of the eight new weapon types coming to Shadow of the Erdtree, the Duelling Shield received quite the spotlight in its first gameplay trailer. Despite this, there are only two Duelling Shields in the game. Finding either one of them will “invalidate every fight in Elden Ring” according to streamer Scott Jund.
When paired with gear that increases your blocking ability like the Greatshield Talisman, the Duelling Shield turn fights into “shield poking on crack”. For the uninitiated, shield poking involves pairing a Spear with a Greatshield to deal chip damage safely. Incidentally, this is the same build that changed Asmongold’s mind about the DLC.
Players in the comments are reporting that it’s not just Shadow of the Erdtree’s enemies that the Duelling Shield trounces.
The new Dueling Shield weapons pretty much invalidate every fight in Elden Ring if you build it correctly. Its basically shield poking on crack because its the damage of a two handed weapon that also benefits from the Two-Handed Sword Talisman pic.twitter.com/ibQgjNlEg9
— Scott Jund (@ScottJund) June 27, 2024
“Dueling shield is nuts for PVP,” one user revealed. “Could not do a thing about it, trading wasn’t worth, outranged, out damaged, etc. The thing was a monster.”
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Even the DLC’s grueling final boss is no match for the weapon as one content creator proved by using the Duelling Shield and a modified saxophone controller to make light work of it. At least if you’re struggling, you’re only a Larval Tear and a weapon swap away from sweeping Shadow of the Erdtree.
Everyone was telling me how utterly impossible the Final Boss of Shadow of the Erdtree was going to be. Outrageous moveset, impossible dodges, etc…It only took me a dozen attempts on the saxophone.THE WORLD'S FIRST (afaik) ALT CONTROLLER DLC RUN HAS BEEN DOOTED!🎷 pic.twitter.com/nUzPmfgsNx
— Dr. Doot 🎷 (@DrDecomposing) July 1, 2024
Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC arrived to a chorus of accolades including our own five-star review. Though when the wider player base got their hands on it, the game’s Steam rating was tarnished with complaints about extreme difficulty.
Major streamers like Asmongold echoed the sentiment that Shadow of the Erdtree was “too hard to be fun” initially, but he changed his assessment after finishing it. Even FromSoftware took the early backlash under advisement and released a patch to soften the early hours of the expansion.
Of course, in the intervening days, Elden Ring players have found numerous ways to make the DLC easier including broken Sorceries and weapons. The latest to join their ranks are the new Duelling Shield weapons.
