Talk:Baldur Shell/@comment-39311028-20190430113536

I think this summary doesn't give justice to Baldur Shell, so I just collected a few points: 1. This charm has obviously been made as a crunch for novice players' boss fights and most if its parameters are worked around this. That's why it immediately blocks 4 hits without cooldowns in-between, so even if you are clumsy like myself in these games you have a chance to mitigate your wrongly positioned/timed Focus attempts. The fact that it gets broken and only get repaired at a Bench is again meaningless, as you would only equip this before a boss and after you win you'll swap it back to your standard charms.

2. Keep in mind that this is one of the earliest charms you can attain in the game and the only skill you need to defeat the Elder Baldurs guarding it is Vengeful Spirit. This means that you can equip it before the earliest boss fights against Hornet and the False Knight.

3. Although you do lose the SOUL when hit, its still better just losing SOUL than losing SOUL and one mask of health.

4. If you really consider the above, this is a 2 cost charm that provides your with 4 extra masks of health, albeit with the caveat that you must be Focusing when hit. Against double damage opponents, that is even higher. Thats more than Fragile/Unbreakable Health but less universal.

5. Lastly, as earlier in the game you have just Dash and no Shade Cloak or Monarch Wings, thus your moveset is pretty limited. Avoiding a foe might not be as easy as later on in the game with all these upgrades, so a tactical ability like Baldur Shell might be useful to prevent the loss of your health during an unavoidable/cornered situation.

So to sum it up, you can get this charm very early in the game, and its among the first anti-boss measures you can have. Outside of boss fights (and mini-boss fights) it's indeed almost useless but what's wrong with having specific charms like this? It helped me in a lot of fights, as for my playstyle the loss of SOUL is less severe than losing health, and I am pretty bad at Focusing in the heat of battle.