Board Thread:Dark Souls II/@comment-24.150.90.12-20140319175308/@comment-24684538-20140319225530

68.116.49.98 wrote: Always have a shield in your back pack, I'm halfway through the game thus far and you won't be able to duck and dodge everything you come across. Whilst a shield can greatly help in parts of the game I wouldn't say it isn't viable to not use one, on my hex build I've yet to even equip a shield and I'm getting towards the end of my first playthrough for that character.

That being said, I do tend to co-op most bosses with a friend so I can't say how viable a non shield build is whilst playing solo.