Elden Ring - ULTIMATE Paladin TANK build

Hello and welcome back to my Holy Paladin

build for Elden Ring. If you're like me

and you really hate rolling and dodging

and you're very bad at timing the dodges,

then you may want a build that just

focuses on having a shield and blocking

and holding down the block button and

getting guard counters. So I've come up

with this playstyle that focuses on just

being a tank and absorbing a lot of

damage. It's a very defensive build and

mainly revolves around the Ashes of War

Barricade shield ability. Barricade Shield

is really good because it allows you to

block really heavy blows without barely

losing any stamina at all. See how many

hits I can take from this pretty large

enemy without barely losing any stamina.

I can just keep blocking and blocking.

The only thing you have to watch out for

is magic attacks because, because blocking

isn't very good against magic damage.

See, even against this really big boss,

his attacks barely do any damage to my

stamina bar and I can just block

everything he throws at me. Maybe he'll do

a tiny bit of damage that gets through the

shield, but it's barely noticeable. You

can get the Barricade Shield ability from

Castle Morne Rampart grace location, and

you have to wait until nighttime, and then

you fight this mounted knight, and then he

drops it. And it's really made the game a

lot easier for me. If I'm just messing

around with different weapons and then I

come across an enemy or a boss that I'm

really struggling on, I just switch back

to shield and do Barricade Shield, and I

focus on blocking and trying to do guard

counters. The main problem with this

ability is it only lasts about 10 seconds,

and sometimes when you're fighting a boss,

it can be difficult to notice if the

ability is on or not. As for the offensive

abilities of our Paladin build, we've got

Golden Vow, which I got from this axe— I

got this polearm that drops from the Tree

Sentinel boss at the beginning of the

game. And this buffs you and your minions,

your summons, with holy damage. I think

it's like 12% damage boost. And first of

all, it looks really cool. It gives off

this yellow flash. And secondly, it's

really cool that you can buff your minions

in true Paladin style as a buffer. You can

also get the Golden Vow Ashes. It drops

from this knight nearby a cliff, and then

you can apply it to any weapon. This

ability is also pretty cool. It's called

Order's Blade, and you can buy it from the

NPC called Dee at Roundhold Table.

And it makes your weapon glow yellow and

gives you a holy damage buff. Also, it

prevents those skeletons from resurrecting

themselves. And it's really good against

undead enemies, gives you a good damage

boost, and it looks really cool and very

Paladin-like. Now, there's plenty of other

holy damage spells, but I can't really use

them because I haven't really spent any

points leveling up my magical abilities.

Okay, so now let's talk about looking like

a Paladin. First of all, my weapon of

choice has to be the Golden Halberd, and I

like polearms in general just because they

have longer reach. We also need a nice

golden shiny shield, and I have several,

but I really like this triangular-looking

brass shield. And when it comes to armor,

it all needs to be golden and yellow. I

really like the Leyndell Knight armor set,

and I have the helmet and the boots and

the leggings, but for the chest, I like

General Radahn's Lion Armor. You can

switch out for other armor if you have

other yellow-looking armor pieces, that's

fine as well. For example, I've got the

Leyndell Knight chest piece, which also

looks pretty good. It's got that nice

Jouster's chest guard bit. And I've also

got this yellow chest bit which has a

tree, and I've got the golden tree shield

as well, and a golden sword. So I look

very golden. As for talismans, I have this

curved sword talisman which boosts guard

counters, and I have the sacred scorpion

charm which is good for boosting holy

damage. And finally, I have the great

shield talisman which boosts guard

ability, which basically reduces the

amount of stamina required to block an

attack. So basically we're boosting our

ability to guard and counter attacks and

be able to do blocking more effectively

with using less stamina and also boosting

our holy damage so we can do some damage

back and not just be 100% defensive. So my

main tactic when it comes to big bosses

and formidable enemies is to just hold up

Barricade Shield and block all of their

combos until they finally stop. And then

I'll get in a sneaky poke or a sneaky

guard counterattack, and then I'll put my

shield back up. I won't ever do more than

2 attacks. A second attack is kind of

risky because you open yourself up to

being attacked again before you can get

your shield back up. Now, some people

might say this is a very boring way to

play. It takes a very long time to whittle

bosses down just by poking them. Most of

the time you can only get in 1 attack, 1

guard counter, and maybe a second attack

at most before you have to get your shield

back up. And dodging, you don't really

have to worry about dodging unless they do

some kind of powerful magic attack that

can't really be blocked. Now, if you're

the kind of person who likes fast-paced

action with lots of combos and massively

high damage, then this build won't really

be for you. You'll probably feel like

you're falling asleep playing this, and

you have to have a lot of patience. But if

you've got the patience and you're careful

about it, you can take down bosses pretty

easily just by constantly blocking and and

figuring out their combo patterns and then

only doing a guard counter at the end of

their combo pattern. My favorite thing

about it is you don't really have to worry

too much about dodging because I find

timing the dodges to be very cumbersome

and difficult. I'm not great at it, and

it's just a lot easier to hold down the

block button and keep the shield up most

of the time. That way you don't really

have to worry about timing stuff. Now,

the main problem I had was when I was

fighting this boss, and he uses a lot of

magical attacks. During his combo, he does

some kind of holy or lightning magical

attack, and even when you're blocking it

with the barricade shield up, it doesn't

really reduce the amount of damage. Well,

it does reduce the amount of damage he

does by quite a lot, but you still end up

taking a lot of damage even if you've

blocked it successfully. And my solution

to this was to replace some of my golden

gear, my golden armor, with armor that had

more magical resistance. I ended up

swapping out most of my golden plate armor

with kind of sorcerer's robes and medium

gear which had magical resistance, and I

felt like that did help a little bit and

it made me take less damage than usual. I

guess it depends on the boss you're

fighting. If he does mainly physical

damage, then you don't really have to

worry too much about it, but if it's more

of a magical-based boss, you might have to

find different armor that has more

resistance. Against magic. I'm trying to

find different ways to make it so I take

less damage from different types of damage

sources so I could be the ultimate tank.

So that's my attempt at making some kind

of Holy Paladin tank. Obviously there's

going to be better ways of doing it, and I

haven't unlocked every single piece of

item or gear in the game. I don't have

every single ability in the game, so

there's probably better spells that can do

the same thing in a more effective way.

And when I find those things, I'll make an

update video. But until then, this is the

best I could come up with. If you have

some better solutions or better ideas or

suggestions, then let me know. But I think

what I have now is pretty good, and I like

being a golden holy paladin,

defender of justice, protector of maidens.

Thanks for watching and goodbye.