Elden Ring randomly buffed the famously overpowered Brass Shield after 2 years, and I have never been so desperate to ask Hidetaka Miyazaki "why"

The latest Elden Ring patch brought not-unexpected nerfs to the final boss of Shadow of the Erdtree and sizable buffs to some underwhelming gear, including a few of my personal favorites. Dutifully adding numbers to FromSoftware's notoriously nonspecific patch notes, Elden Ring players noticed that there's also a much more surprising change hidden in the list: the Brass Shield, hands-down the best medium shield in the entire game, got a pretty significant buff. 

A post from Reddit user N_audio brought this to my attention, and my body rejected the knowledge so violently that I practically sprinted to my living room to boot up Elden Ring and confirm it for myself. It's real, folks. The Brass Shield's guard boost has been increased from 69, which already put its stability in the realm of greatshields, to a staggering 75 – a near 10% buff, no strings attached. 

When FromSoftware said it increased the physical damage negation and guard strength of some shields, I kind of figured it would focus on the ones that aren't, you know, the best in the entire game. To be fair, some other competitive medium shields like the magic-resistant Wolf Crest Shield and fire-resistant Serpent Crest Shield, which beat the Brass Shield in some resistances and rival it in others, also got a nice buff. They now cap out at 74 guard boost, and the only reason I know this is because I have a lot of shields maxed out for fashion purposes. I can understand buffing everything to maintain parity, but improving the Brass Shield in any capacity feels like raising money for Bill Gates. 

For the unfamiliar, the Brass Shield is not simply good. It is the uncontested gold belt champion of the Lands Between. It is a tireless workhorse that has enabled countless Tarnished to overcome obstacles that once seemed insurmountable. And it needed a buff the way the PS5 Pro needed expensive accessories added to its already eye-watering price tag. 

The Brass Shield blocks all physical damage, has three elemental