So, what are the poise break-points?

[Call Sign: Raven]

Been playing the game forever, but since I only focus on dodge builds and speedruns, I never really looked into a tanky build.

I fully understand the poise system in Dark Souls: PTDE and Dark Souls 3, but the poise in Dark Souls 2 has always been a little ambiguous. For example, I get staggered even though I have over 100 poise. It seems to be tied to very heavy weapons, such as a Zweihander, but it feels very inconsistent to trigger my poise.

I'm thinking PvE applications, only. No PvP.

Anyway, thanks for reading, anybody got any good POISITIONS on this situation? :(

[TrueArchery]

Afaik there isn't any PvE related testing. And it really isn't very ambiguous, just check the reddit thread...

[Justice]

None. There is no poise unless you in attack mode, which absolute BS design for a gank
DS2 game with very slow stamina recovery compared to DS1

[Hevy]

Well there is poise... its weak af tough. For example if you wear no armor and get hit by a longsword r1, then u get staggered for a moment, do the same with havels and you gez slowed drastically but can still walk.

[Quickshooter]

enemy poise goes up when you go into NG+
as for breaking points, well most enemies in armor are weak to blunt
so use that with the stone ring to stun them

[TrueArchery]

People who have no idea what they're talking about shouldn't even reply man. As long as you do something, that can be attacking, rolling, using an item, just running..., Poise is in action, to varying degrees. Like, if you just walk you'll get stunned briefly like mentioned by Hevy but aren't stunlocked for another hit, if you attack you'll tank through without any flinching,...

引用自 Quickshooter：

enemy poise goes up when you go into NG+
as for breaking points, well most enemies in armor are weak to blunt
so use that with the stone ring to stun them

Poise and weaknesses are 2 unrelated topics. You aren't any better at breaking poise just because you exploit weaknesses. Your point "use strike weapons" is fine, but your explanation isn't logical at all.

[JellyPuff]

引用自 TrueArchery：

As long as you do something, that can be attacking, rolling, using an item, just running..., Poise is in action, to varying degrees. Like, if you just walk you'll get stunned briefly like mentioned by Hevy but aren't stunlocked for another hit, if you attack you'll tank through without any flinching,...

In addition to that, getting shot in the head stuns you no matter what. Poise is also most effective while attacking with weapons that have hyper armor during their attacks (just look up which weapons do have it). Hyper armor halves poise damage received.

Poise is generally pretty useful in PvE, but i wouldn't be surprised if some enemies with slower weapons deal absurd amounts of poise damage. It's trial and error until someone bored enough does a poise-breakpoint chart for each enemy and their attacks.