Guardian's halberd moveset also permits them the use of a charged guard counter. This does not have much of enhanced properties (not as much damage difference as a charged heavy to a regular heavy), but does include a charge to allow them to close gaps created by knockback or spacing. Note that the charge - despite its looks - does not have enough weight or damage to stagger enemies, although the actual strike still does.

Guardian's dodge roll is the shortest and one of the faster ones in the game. This does mean spamming dodge grants you more iframes, but your stamina use is not reduced by much, unlike Duchess. However, it is more important for his shield stance passive, for entering it sooner.

The timing for a guard counter is right when you see the white flash on your shield and hear the sound cue. Notably, this can happen while you are in the air from being flung, and to input the guard counter you will have to commit to it during falling state. After which, Guardian will commit the guard counter on landing. Unless you have 'Summon skeletons on activation (guard counters)', there's no reason to do this.

There are other attacks which count as having blocked but do not offer guard counters. The condition for this is that you weren't directly struck, although the distinction is muddy. The fire breath of a dragon will not permit a guard counter, but a fire monk's Whirl, O Flame! and combustion will. The roar of a grafted scion will not permit a guard counter, but the shockwave of Godrick or a crucible knight stomping, will.

Be wary of blocking certain attacks. Because being knocked down is an animation with invulnerability, there are scenarios where you will die due to blocking. For example, where the lingering flames of a dragon's breath would hit you three times in the span of your team mates being hit once and falling over.

Steel Guard: Plant feet and brace with shield for more powerful guard.

This is not a passive, this is actually a third ability - or first. You can enter it by inputting dodge while blocking. Importantly, Guardian turns to face whichever direction is dodged in even while locked on, so only dodge backwards or in a forwards cone towards your intended target unless you're attempting to predict them moving past you. Your shield stability is functionally infinite and allows you to withstand most attacks which do not fling, and even so Guardian will automatically return to stance after landing. While in the air after being flung, your stamina will not drain. However, your stamina drains at a constant rate, which appears to be approximately 5/s, and you move a lot slower. On the plus side, this slowed speed counts as walking for any effects which care about it.

Guardian's relic effect of reflecting damage while ability is active refers to this effect. It creates a short-range explosion that does a % of the attack... but not very much. It also appears to be capped at 60. Against bosses, this damage is trivial due to their size and range. However, this effect can be used to revive your downed teammates if against something with repeated not-launching attacks such as Libra or Gladius.

Whirlwind: Beat wing to whip up a wind-churning cyclone.

Does decent damage and mostly makes up for Guardian's lacklustre scaling. Do not sleep on this ability. The knock-up/stagger/weight from this attack is greater than that of charged two-handed great hammers and the cooldown is short, so spam this whenever possible. The projectile reflection affects most bosses which are not Nightlords - Especially those such as Loretta's magic greatbow. This can affect low-power Nightlord projectiles inconsistently, so experiment.

There is a relic effect which 'extends the duration' of this ability. That is a half-truth. It actually greatly reduces the immediate damage and weight of the whirlwind but has it linger for 8-ish seconds. Its total damage is however improved, making it better against enemies with low weight such as the Oracle Envoy church encounter. Do note that enemies within the whirlwind will be shoved about randomly with each damage tick, so stabbing motions are inconvenienced. This also retains the projectile-redirection effect.

Wings of Salvation: Leap up and dive back down to raise protective area.

This ability is guaranteed a revive regardless of death state. Using this ability only consumes 75% of the ultimate charge. The remaining 25% can be spent by holding the input for however long to drain ult charge at 5%/s to create the protective field. It appears to increase universal mitigation by 100%. The poise increase is unknown, but the hardness is also enough to deflect attacks from two-swording headless banished knights.

With the relic effect to heal on use, the heal is a flat amount comparable to that of a heal by an on-level Recluse. Note that this is not a healing aura as Projected Heal from the base game, but actually applied as a buff to allies - so land this ability as close to them as possible, or they might successfully finesse their way in-and-out to not have been healed once.

Other than the ability-specific relics, someone playing Guardian should know the following:

+ There is a relic effect which gives arts charge when blocking. This has an internal cooldown of once every 3 seconds, and gives about 3%.

+ There is a relic effect which grants HP after blocking. This also has an internal cooldown of 3s, and replenishes about 20... which isn't a lot.

+ 'Holy burst after guard counter' causes you to explode after a delay, and causes considerable stagger. Even after you get launched by a boss, you can quickly input a guard counter to whiff and sprint at them to deal some damage. This isn't very good, but it exists.

+ 'Summon Those Who Live in Death after guard counter' causes you to to use Rosus's Summons after a guard counter, except the skeletons are actually quite large. They are summoned on the target's position, not yours, and do not have to be the target which triggered the guard counter. This is something you will always want, what with the range and weight of Nightlord attacks.

+ While effects which restore stamina are not active in guard stance due to the passive stamina drain, you should still be looking for anything which causes you to regenerate stamina sooner.

+ Despite a C in Arcane and Faith and a D in Intelligence, Guardian makes good use of area-based effects such as the [...] mist weapon arts, and night maiden's/mercurial mist due to their disregard for scaling. Especially look out for night maiden's/mercurial mist, because your Recluse is definitely not bothering with what is a dead spell for them. Your concern then will be FP management... but you likely aren't using it anyways.

+ Because character skill cooldown reduction is a flat amount by the second [citation needed but I think so], you can nearly manage 100% uptime of extended whirlwind with 6 reduction, and entirely with 8. This might not seem useful, but the ability to deal chip damage for the sake of ult charge while blocking has its cases.

+ 'Increased threat while blocking' is a relic effect you will want.

+ Damage mitigation after blocking. Take this. You will need it, as most nightlords have non-physical damage which no shield has 100 mitigation for. The closest you can get is 88% to magic damage with Loretta's mirror teardrop shield.

+ Eat every bolus you come across. Nightlords with status damage will chew through your health bar.

? 'Blocking ability' from the shield talisman refers to block power, not damage reduction. Ironically, Guardian does not really need this due to his already very high block power - to the point where you can tank an entire string of attacks from the final Nightlord. He can use this, but not effectively. Take this if you aren't confident in using your passive - which you should be, because 20% is not enough to save you from being guard broken by most Nightlord attacks outside of your passive.

? 'FP/HP on hit' includes your character ability, so Guardian with extended whirlwind is uniquely suited to using these effects... although Recluse's passive is just better. Great for weapon skills, though.

- 'Charge attacks [...]' does not apply to Guardian's charged halberd guard counters.

- 'Less likely to be targeted X' is something you want to avoid as much of as you can. It never seems like it does much than buy you two extra seconds of flailing at your downed teammate, but you want to have been the one being attacked anyways.

So now you know! Guardian is probably the most complicated character in the game due to his reliance on a mechanic which was never really explained nor all that useful in base Elden Ring. But don't let that scare you off, if you are a furry who wants to play as this hunk, or simply enjoy the shield hero fantasy. Despite his lacking combat prowess, his ultimate art has the highest healing thoroughput (Song of the Nightblood has the problem of needing to deal damage to an enemy which might enter an evasive phase) and can guaruntee a revive on downed players (Eternal Parade is stuck on Revenant who is dangerously squishy, every other ult only does damage which might not be enough if a fight drags on).

That said, anything Guardian can block, so can Executor deflect. And Executor can also use guard counters from deflecting................ and has better stats and synergies............... but is only a beast like 20 seconds of every two minutes so I know my pick.