Parry timing

[Grey Dragon]

I thought I would this here because so much of the information I've found on parrying is misleading. There is a brief delay once you start the parry move before it works. If the incoming attack hits just as the shield is swung out, it will be parried.

In Dark Souls, it's almost instant, so if you start to parry the instant before an attack connects, it will knock the enemy off balance and give you an opportunity for a critical hit. This threw me off when I played Elden Ring.

Unfortunately, knowing the timing hasn't helped me. The parrying window is far narrower than in Dark Souls, even with a small shield. As a result, if I'm faced with a slow attack and have memorised the exact parry timing for it, I have about a 50/50 chance of successfully parrying it. As a result, I have had to abandon parrying as a battle tactic.

[HixBozo]

Hard to spam parry in Elden Ring as it used to be in DS3. And even trash mob has delayed attacks while the parry window is as always very short.

Even in PVP, well there are so many unique ashes of wars. Are they even parryable ? Provided you can catch it.

But we have now shield counters. And this is welcome mechanics to me. DS3 shields were reduced to trash. Not anymor

[Mr.Hmm]

Parry the arm not the weapon.

[Grey Dragon]

Originally posted by HixBozo:

But we have now shield counters. And this is welcome mechanics to me. DS3 shields were reduced to trash. Not anymor

Yes, I'm glad of this. Being able to bash with shields, strengthen your next block or even send out an arrow-deflecting wind gust is also quite nice.

Originally posted by Mr.Hmm:

Parry the arm not the weapon.

I already know what to do, I just can't do it. The margin for error can be measured in nanoseconds.

[Furin]

Will be hard to describe in text but there's multiple "how to" videos on YT. Maybe easier to watch these?

[Fried Noodles]

It's no different than anything else in the game. Just requires patience and practice.

[Democracy Officer Cain]

In all souls games I parry a wall a few times with a shield. Look for the spark, that's when the 'parrying' usually starts proper. I think I picked it up from a video forever ago.

It feels like they've made the effect happen way earlier in the animation for medium parries, so it looks like the draw in motion does the deflection instead of the sweep outward. If you're used to the other games that's going to be a breaker for you. Sure was for me, took a load of adjustment and practice.

That's before we factor in every hollow across the lands knowing to feint strikes 90% of the time. I'm sure some developer thought it would make the enemies harder. It just ruins a lot of the enjoyment of parrying. Instead of reacting with reflexes and skill, it's down to memorizing hollow #56's slash-attack B variant (with 20ms longer prep time compared to slash attack A, don't mess up now!)

My apologies. I started with what I hoped would be advice and I wound up declaring my problems with parries in this game as it stands. I wish you good luck and swift learning mate.

[Martini]

Use a buckler
and if that is proving difficult, use a shield with either Golden Parry or Carian Retaliation

I jumped straight from ds1 (with very easy parries) straight to this game. It is rough, but very very do-able

[Superboniato]

Its a matter of time to get use to it. Almost every enemy delays its attacks, so you will have to get use to wait until the last moment.

To practise, the bucker is the easyest I think.
I think (but not sure) than CR y GoldenP gives the same iframes no matter the shield, so if you intend to use any of them, practise with them directly.

[rm -rf /*]

Carian Retaliation and Golden Parry has the best active window of all parry ash of wars (parry, buckler parry, thops' barrier, carian retaliation, golden parry), put them on medium shields.

[Grey Dragon]

Originally posted by ٩(´ᗜ`*)୨:

Carian Retaliation and Golden Parry has the best active window of all parry ash of wars (parry, buckler parry, thops' barrier, carian retaliation, golden parry), put them on medium shields.

This is good info. Thanks for the tip. I know you're not the only one to offer this advice, but I've marked your reply as the answer to this thread, since it will be clearest for anyone new checking this thread.

[Revalopod]

I hate the start up frames of parrying, though carrian retaliation works fairly well for me

[Witcher]

What are the rules in terms what attacks can be parried - e.g., enemies that don't wield a weapon cannot be parried?