Parrying...useless?

[Border]

I'm trying to use parry more often, because usually in souls-like games that's how you get the most pay off from attacks, but here it doesn't seem to do anything? I understand there's like a poise meter or stagger meter here somehow readable through the lock on deal but that's hard to focus on entirely because of the enemy density in some spots being insane.

Should I look for something better in a shield or is this a fruitless venture?

I wanted to do a strength build but I'm so slow with all my stuff on and I'm left wide open I'm honestly thinking of just saving up for that respec option and just go agility build with minimum armor and try to utilize bleed as much as possible if I can't get this parry mechanic to make sense....

[Gearwar]

Originally posted by Kurague:

Originally posted by Gearwar:

That is true, but you still lose it all if you screw up once. after. Like you parry 5 attacks in a row perfectly, you screw up once, you still eat the whole damage if you do not manage to get enough jabs back in.

Meanwhile, if you just strafe out of attacks, you take zero damage, neither withering nor other, you are usually in a better position after ward to get in even more hits. Like there is no upside to parry, because the fatal attacks are so bad.

Its high risk, little reward. Its just not worth it. Its a valid strat, like i used it on pieta, but its just more economical to dodge and weave.

While this is true, that if you screw up once you lose everything, sometimes in fights you literally get oneshotted by an attack that is hard to dodge. The shield completely removes this weakness by making the attack basically do a reduced percentage of the damage, and it also makes it so you can get it back.

As general advice for you guys, the gray health CAN be regained with ranged attacks(Bows, thrown daggers, magic, or even the initial stone you get), and the ammo gets upgraded with Stamine or health upgrades.

yea but now you are talking about blocking, not parrying.

And most bosses have enough of a damage combo that you have to atleast block/parry (both do wither) 3-4 attacks in a row before you can start regaining that health. It also costs stamina to block (and parry i assume, not sure).

I assume if you run some heave tank shield, if they do exist, later on, you can mitigate or change the playstyle.. but specially early game.. parrying and blocking can be very hazardous to your health if you can't regain your health or screw up once.

[Kacho]

Parry is insane. Get good with it and you will be a machine.

[Salem]

I only used parry on Pieta literally first boss because my weapon was trash and thats how I beat her but then other times its rare when I use. If I find some enemy to be tought tho thats usually how I beat them by parry, but thats also mean that im underlevel or undergeared for that area so I always go back to at least upgrade a little but yeah. Parry seems not that great, even more when you lose health, you not lose lose but that white HP is very punishing for a perfect parry, even tho unlike Lies of P, the white HP never goes down and you can always block and defent everything almost forever so yeah there are pros and cons but I would like it to be more balanced.

[Stray]

Parry is extremely useful, you lose no Stamina you can do it back to back if enemy does fast attacks, you lose HP but it's Temp HP so you regain it on any form of attack and you can eventually break their poise and go for a critical attack which normally also allows for heavy follow up once they are knocked down.

Some bosses also have mechanics that are effected by Parry such as certain Boss on a Horse can be knocked off instantly if you parry the Axe (Not the Horse).

You can also pretty much Parry vast majority of attacks from enemies and bosses in the game and you recover quickly if you parry an attack so you can do a follow up more easily

[Arhat]

Originally posted by Stray:

Parry is extremely useful, you lose no Stamina you can do it back to back if enemy does fast attacks, you lose HP but it's Temp HP so you regain it on any form of attack and you can eventually break their poise and go for a critical attack which normally also allows for heavy follow up once they are knocked down.

Some bosses also have mechanics that are effected by Parry such as certain Boss on a Horse can be knocked off instantly if you parry the Axe (Not the Horse).

You can also pretty much Parry vast majority of attacks from enemies and bosses in the game and you recover quickly if you parry an attack so you can do a follow up more easily

While agree with you, I think the red reaper multi-slash combo cannot be parried.

[Rena Ichigawa]

Originally posted by Border:

Originally posted by Kurague:

As a tip, just so you guys know, the bigger the shield's defense %s, the more damage to stagger your parry does.
Likewise, the bigger these %, the less damage you take from the parry or block itself. Stability does the same but for your Stamina, where it'll reduce the amount of stamina you use to block.

You also need to keep in mind, in this game, AS LONG as you keep blocking, you CAN NOT DIE. Even if your whole health bar is COMPLETELY depleted and fully white, you will survive if you block.

See that's what I needed to know, thanks! I just got a cool shield from the PureBlades and I was using that but I'd parry a PureBlade's attack like four or five times and then I'd finally get a chance to do a special attack but by then I'm either taken out by many other little creatures or cheap shotted by a archer and boom, all that wither health is gone and I'm dead cause I'm down to a pinch of health after parrying five hits....

Now I know this though I'll keep a look out for incredible percentages. Is it worth while to do parrying if I'm using a weapon though instead of a shield in my off hand?

Edit: Ope I just saw my weapons also have those percentages...ok so it's just more effective with a shield probly

Ravager shield, cleric guy around the ckrner sells it at some point. Itz heavy as sin, buy its defenses are so par pretty unmatched all around.

[Kashra Fall]

Parry is quite good, but it isn't immediately rewarding like DkS or other games. There is also an amulet you can get that makes enemies take damage on a successful parry, so there's that =P.

[D. Flame]

Lock on to an enemy and there is a little ring around the dot. That seems to be their poise. Deplete it, and you can land a riposte. Each parry lowers their poise a bit.

Parries are basically garbage in this game because you still take damage for doing them successfully. Unless they get rebalanced, you should not be intentionally building towards them.

[Celto]

I agree the parrying is pretty worthless. While it may be easier to do, theres like no reward to it

[M.T. Fish]

I think it's probably good with weapons that have crit bonuses.

That being said I never parry in any game so I'll never know lol.

[LuckyRaphi]

It's not strong but it's better than dodge and pretty easy so I do it sometimes. Especially the holy knights like Pieta are very easy to parry. And ♥♥♥♥ mobs sometimes stagger after just 1 parry

[Kurague]

I just found a quite decent utility that I didn't know worked like this.

You know how gray health regenerates when you deal direct damage to an enemy, right?

Turns out, if you use a magic that deals damage to things around you, or one in which you make a pool that damages enemies constantly and hold the block button, your white life from the blocks will regenerate back up almost instantly.

I tried it with the magma pillar spell, which makes a fire explosion and then leaves a magma AoE. Enemies standing in the AoE would give me gray health back while I was blocking.

[Kurague]

Originally posted by downpour:

Yep it's completely useless. By the time you finally even break their "poise" the grevious strike does about as much damage as just getting 2 light attacks in lol. Zero payout. Junk mechanic.

You mean it like I have to stand still blocking the attacks of the enemy just because I have a shield. I parry, then attack, just like you dodge, then attack. I have the same IF NOT MORE time to attack the enemy, since your character is doing an animation, and mine is not.

By your logic, I could say the following;
"Yep it's completely useless. By the time you finally let them finish their combo by dodging, the 2 attacks you hit does about as much damage as just stabbing them. Zero payout. Junk mechanic."

Please, be fair when rating opr giving advice to others, don't just do like these commercials that do worst case scenario for the competitor's product and then use their product with utmost care so it doesn't even get a scratch, then go like "SEE? IT'S SPOTLESS".

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by Kurague:

Originally posted by downpour:

Yep it's completely useless. By the time you finally even break their "poise" the grevious strike does about as much damage as just getting 2 light attacks in lol. Zero payout. Junk mechanic.

You mean it like I have to stand still blocking the attacks of the enemy just because I have a shield. I parry, then attack, just like you dodge, then attack. I have the same IF NOT MORE time to attack the enemy, since your character is doing an animation, and mine is not.

By your logic, I could say the following;
"Yep it's completely useless. By the time you finally let them finish their combo by dodging, the 2 attacks you hit does about as much damage as just stabbing them. Zero payout. Junk mechanic."

Please, be fair when rating opr giving advice to others, don't just do like these commercials that do worst case scenario for the competitor's product and then use their product with utmost care so it doesn't even get a scratch, then go like "SEE? IT'S SPOTLESS".

Not really, I parry an attack and immediately attack, only to trade hits. I dodge that same attack, then can attack for free since the enemy has to reposition. Parries only work in very specific scenarios. They desperately need buffed.

[Swanheart]

Parry is actually fun against bosses like Cleric, which I think is an amazing boss. Against other huge bosses it can be a struggle to find the correct timing. but still, parry isn't that bad.