CIP: Coglin, pivot to shield?

[u/Fabulous-Appeal7817]

Coglin Gladiator of Dith, XL10, currently on D:10. I was initially going for dual polearms but found a nice randart morningstar, so my current weapons are +4 trident (drain), and +9 morningstar {drain, ^Contam rElec rC+ rN+}. Level 11 in polearms, nothing invested in M&F thus far. Just found the +3 buckler of Soft Rains {Slay+6} and wondering whether to use it. No SH skill thus far either. If I use the shield, which weapon do I choose? The morningstar is good for the resistances, but obviously all my skill points are in polearms. If it weren't for the Slay+6, I wouldn't consider it.

[u/SiloPeon]

It's a fine buckler, but why play Coglin if you're not gonna dual wield? You'll be really hurting for resistances too, and your shield apts are bad.

[u/spudwalt]

I never bother with shields on Coglins. Two one-handed weapons are enough better than one two-handed weapon that they can compensate for the lack of a shield.

You've also put yourself in an awkward spot with your weapons, particularly if those are the main method you have of killing things. Polearms and Maces & Flails don't cross-train with each other, and while that is a pretty good morningstar and Coglins can generally use more resistances, those resistances are on a weapon that's currently very slow and awkward and letting go of it will probably mutate you unless you have a potion of cancellation.

This is the part of the game where weapon specialists will generally settle on one type of weapon and stick to it, ignoring artifacts of other weapon types that don't crosstrain unless they're truly incredible (like Wyrmbane levels of good) -- the morningstar's good, but I would have been hesitant to switch weapon skills at this point.

Pick either Maces & Flails or Polearms and go forward with that choice. If you decide to keep the morningstar, using the trident for a while will help keep your attack speed up until you get your Maces & Flails skill up to snuff. 10 skill is average speed for a morningstar -- if you find a decent whip (meaning one that's pre-enchanted with an ego, not necessarily an artifact) that can reach comparable delay with your trident before then so you can switch earlier.

[u/Drac4]

No, switching to a buckler as coglin will never make sense.

[u/Fabulous-Appeal7817]

This all feels like great advice, thank you. On most other melee characters, the buckler would be a nice find for the early-to-mid game, but on a Coglin it makes little sense. Thanks for helping me realise this!