What is the point of Poise if it barely works?

[tim.]

Having roughly 60 poise with some of the heavier armor i've found so far, and i still get stunned mid-swing by F tier enemies. Why am i weighing myself down with all this ♥♥♥♥ if it doesn't even matter? Sure if a rat bit my ♥♥♥♥ IRL mid-attack i'd stagger, but it's a bit much in this game.

I can obviously work around it by not getting hit and timing attacks better, but why have a stat in the game if it essentially does nothing?

[Stinkhole]

From what I understand about poise is that it works like ds3, based on your animations so it's weapon (weapon art) based but I noticed it worked while 1 handing greatswords wich is new.

[Xengre]

it wont work for daggers. it only works during attacks creating hyper armor. poise is a modifier and your weapon attack has different hyper armor values

weapon arts have even more, even for things like longswords, than normal R1s

there may be a period at the start of an attack without hyper armor

obviously heavier weapons tend to have more hyper armor thus modified by poise even more significantly

there is no perpetual infinite poise

[Timbermaw]

It mainly works during attack animations to not get interrupted as easily
Heavy weapons get more benefit

[Veritas]

There is passive poise in this game, it just doesn't prevent knockback entirely like ds1, it's more like ds2 where you're slowed and mini-staggered instead but recover fast. However it's really underpowered and the breakpoints are quite high, so unlike ds2 poise it's kind of a meme outside of hyper armor weapons and skills in pvp

[mpcgannon]

I've noticed of I'm running by an enemy who attacks me, I lose health but don't miss a step. Keep in mind poise and hyper armor are different...

[Zozomdo]

all animals in this game bypass poise

[GrandTickler]

if you get hit midswing u get countered(likely take extra damage too), i dont think any poise helps against that

edit: its also why leo ring was great in ds1

[60mph gorilla]

Poise has been a garbage mechanic since they re-worked it in DS2. Just call it hyper armor and be done with it. And yes you need a crap ton of it to even make it worth a ♥♥♥♥.

[mpcgannon]

To be more clear, I understand it this way:
If you are armored like a brick sh1t house, you can stand there while someone wails on you with a butter knife and never get stun locked. That's poise.
But if you're swinging that same butter knife, no matter what your poise is, the butter knife can be interrupted easily. That's hyper armor.

[Cooprent]

As someone who has done STR/poise and can confirm it works.

Most enemies that use 1 handed weapons wont stagger you if you use greatsword/colossal/greathammer. Those weapons all have innate hyper armor during attacks that stack with your poise when you 2 hand them. when your poise is around 60 most bigger enemies wont stagger you during swings. But it has to be these weapon types.

Anything else even if you have poise you will be staggered. With 88 poise and a rapier i'm interrupted mid swings. but with 88 poise and radahns greatswords i can even trade with some boss swings.