The time for the perfect parry, fighting owl on Ashina Castle roof as axample

[jayvh]

Hello there,

I'm currently 66 hours into the game and just told the owl I'm not helping him with getting the dragon blood from Kuro and now we are in for a fight. Looking at sites like howlongtobeat already shows me, that I don't have the very much talent for these kind of games but in this fight I'm getting the impression I have not understood the parry mechanic so far.

More like in any other fight before my posture meter is building up very fast. Genichiro was easy in comparison to this fight. I only played DS 1 for a longer time before and there I parried a short moment after the enemy has begun his sword sweep (Silver Knights in Anor Londo for example). Is this too early?

Owl is breaking my posture and then gives me a heavy strike taking off a lot of my health.

One more thing I don't get is when Owl (or headless ape before with his hard strike from up aboce) hits me heavy and I deflect, the Wolf gets thrown backwards kneels on the floor and holds his sword vertically. This goes along with a loud "clong". Is this a good sign that something was alright or was that a bad parry?

[Artek [General]]

Sekiro parries are pretty generous with timing, and the window is immediate. You JUST need to parry right before the attack hits. Unfortuantely i can't advise any more than that, because Sekiro enemies often intentionally delay their attacks just to mess with your timing. Practice is the only way.

Your posture can be at 99% as long as your parries are on point. The enemy can't break your posture if all your parries are perfect.
Bad parry can be distiguished from good parry by the visual effect and sound. Perfect deflections make a loud CLANG noise, followed with a bright explosion of sparks. Half-assed deflections do not produce explosions of spark (or if they do - they are very bleak) and they make a different clang which is anti-climatic and lame in comparison to the perfect deflection. Or at the very least, you should quickly learn to despise that sound.

The animation which you are talking about needs a specification. There is an animation where Wolf, after perfectly deflecting a powerful blow, gets knocked back and he stabs his sword into the ground and tries to use it as an anchor to hold himself in place.
This animation is perfectly normal, but its usually implied that you should be doing something else besides deflecting to counter this particular move, for the knockback limits your ability to retaliate and deal damage (albeit easily fixed by using something like a nightjar slash or a shuriken).

If you wish, i can post a video of me beating owl in semi-casual "intended" way for refference.

[jayvh]

Thank you for your quick response. So that is exactly the animation I was talking about. So Sekiro is ramming the sword in the to anchor himself. I thought that this was a bad thing as it takes alot of time to get back into action and doesn't leave time for another attack from my side. So instead of deflecting the attack, which led to this I would be better of with using a Shuriken or doing a nighjar slash?

Thank you, a video would be helpful, though I might only watch it for the first phase. Which I can do alright by myself but it uses up alot of my healing possibilities.

[Kensei]

Your own posture is visible on the screen below, if it rises, it means you were holding the block and it was not the perfect deflect. As for some attacks I'm not 100% sure, but I believe some attacks, even when perfect parried will raise your posture and also knock you backwards, without you taking dmg, those attacks have long wind-ups tho(like Owl's overhead downward slice in the air, the combo finisher), so I assume they should be side-stepped instead.

[Artek [General]]

jayvh の投稿を引用：

Thank you for your quick response. So that is exactly the animation I was talking about. So Sekiro is ramming the sword in the to anchor himself. I thought that this was a bad thing as it takes alot of time to get back into action and doesn't leave time for another attack from my side. So instead of deflecting the attack, which led to this I would be better of with using a Shuriken or doing a nighjar slash?

Thank you, a video would be helpful, though I might only watch it for the first phase. Which I can do alright by myself but it uses up alot of my healing possibilities.

Its a case-by-case scenario with heavy attacks that cause The Anchoring.
For example overhead jump-slam that Owl does can be simply sidestepped instead and used as an opportunity to get vitality damage in.

But then he also has this wide swing that he often uses at the end of combos or after throwing his own shurikens and as far as i know there is no alternative coutering to it.
The issues with attacks that cause Anchoring is that they effectively create space between you and the opponent and then the animation also forbids you from using this spacing for your own good (you can't use it to heal for example).

Case and point: exactly 3:30 of this video:

https://youtu.be/6DXtiiLboB4

Shuriken - swing - i get knocked back - i try to counter it with a ninjar slash - he just dodges it anyway. So its a waste of my time and posture and i have to just deal with it.

This attack is basically a skill-check really: hey can you parry this and not get oneshoted? No? DIE. Yes? Alright, good, resume the bossfight.
I could throw a shuriken instead though... He'd probably reflect it anyway, but at least it WILL hurt his posture and i can get a follow up to get into action, and not give him the initative with post-dodge retaliation.

[LightLance]

Artek General の投稿を引用：

But then he also has this wide swing that he often uses at the end of combos or after throwing his own shurikens and as far as i know there is no alternative coutering to it.

Sidestep to the right is good countering for that but needs more practice.
Look at 00:17-00:20
https://youtu.be/cxy9uYoiw-s

[Artek [General]]

LightLance の投稿を引用：

Artek General の投稿を引用：

But then he also has this wide swing that he often uses at the end of combos or after throwing his own shurikens and as far as i know there is no alternative coutering to it.

Sidestep to the right is good countering for that but needs more practice.
Look at 00:17-00:20
https://youtu.be/cxy9uYoiw-s

Risky, but obviously works for some bonus vitality damage.

[jayvh]

Artek General の投稿を引用：

Case and point: exactly 3:30 of this video:

https://youtu.be/6DXtiiLboB4

Shuriken - swing - i get knocked back - i try to counter it with a ninjar slash - he just dodges it anyway. So its a waste of my time and posture and i have to just deal with it.

Thank you. Unfortumately I didn't unlock the nighjar skill. Is this a NG+ fight? You have some equipment in your prosthetic that isn't available in the NG until this point in the game, am I right?

At 5:25 your posture is filled up and you get a pretty massive hit. I suppose you missed the right timing to defelct the attack or didn't hit the button at all?

BTW, nice music.

[Artek [General]]

jayvh の投稿を引用：

Artek General の投稿を引用：

Case and point: exactly 3:30 of this video:

https://youtu.be/6DXtiiLboB4

Shuriken - swing - i get knocked back - i try to counter it with a ninjar slash - he just dodges it anyway. So its a waste of my time and posture and i have to just deal with it.

Thank you. Unfortumately I didn't unlock the nighjar skill. Is this a NG+ fight? You have some equipment in your prosthetic that isn't available in the NG until this point in the game, am I right?

At 5:25 your posture is filled up and you get a pretty massive hit. I suppose you missed the right timing to defelct the attack or didn't hit the button at all?

BTW, nice music.

Oh yeah, its an NG+. NG++++ maybe even... Honestly can't remember. But definetely not 1st or even 2nd playthrough.

You should have access to shurikens and a follow-up slash though. Shuriken follow up has the same function as nightjar slash - closing the distance. The difference is that Nightjar Slash doesn't consume an emblem to do it.

Yeah, i didn't deflect in there, i just blocked for some reason and just stood there like an idiot. Maybe i tried to deflect, but my timing was so off that i just got hit into lazy blocking. 1st hit breaks my posture, 2nd follows and gets a critical on me.

At 5:40 i ♥♥♥♥ up again, and he breaks my posture again, but this time, he does it with the 2nd hit instead. He tries to deathblow me (the animation where he tries to slam his leg on me), but i just dodge out of the way (thankfully the recovery from posture break is quick enough to allow for this).
This situation wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't started by me just taking a massive hit couple seconds prior because i couldn't put my defense on quick enough after sprinting.

Honestly a pretty poor performance from me in there, not gonna lie. Could do WAY better, but it is what is. I call it "honest 7/10".

[Kensei]

jayvh の投稿を引用：

Thank you. Unfortumately I didn't unlock the nighjar skill. Is this a NG+ fight? You have some equipment in your prosthetic that isn't available in the NG until this point in the game, am I right?

At 5:25 your posture is filled up and you get a pretty massive hit. I suppose you missed the right timing to defelct the attack or didn't hit the button at all?

BTW, nice music.

I almost fininshed the game and I still haven't unlocked Nightjar Slash, imho combat arts in boss fights are very risky. Endgame bosses have very small windows of opening and combat arts are pretty damn slow. You can make them work, but hitting 2-3 times with normal attacks and ocasional single hit on a smaller opening will generally result in the same time, unless you are going for some cheese.

[Artek [General]]

Kensei の投稿を引用：

jayvh の投稿を引用：

Thank you. Unfortumately I didn't unlock the nighjar skill. Is this a NG+ fight? You have some equipment in your prosthetic that isn't available in the NG until this point in the game, am I right?

At 5:25 your posture is filled up and you get a pretty massive hit. I suppose you missed the right timing to defelct the attack or didn't hit the button at all?

BTW, nice music.

I almost fininshed the game and I still haven't unlocked Nightjar Slash, imho combat arts in boss fights are very risky. Endgame bosses have very small windows of opening and combat arts are pretty damn slow. You can make them work, but hitting 2-3 times with normal attacks and ocasional single hit on a smaller opening will generally result in the same time, unless you are going for some cheese.

That's actually true. Most combat arts are worthless against bosses. Only exceptions are Nightjar Slash, Mortal Draw, Shadow Rush and the overhead ashina smash... Forgot the name.

Nightjar - tactical engagement / disengament. Allows to close distance like a shuriken follow up would, without the emblem cost. Backwards disengaging slash is risky though and can only be used when attacking from behind (slash their back, create distance). Also style points.

Mortal Draw - very high vitality damage, but needs proper setup or a specific boss window.

Ichimonji (i remembered!) seems to be a fan-favorite for all the right reasons.

And Shadow Rush... Not that great really (not for its' price anyway), but the thrust can't blocked (always deals vitality damage) and covers some nice distance when fully charged.
I also found a stylish trick, where shadow rush can be used for the final blow to posture and then you can use the mandatory jump as a setup for death-from-above deathblow. EXTREMELY stylish, but hard to pull off.

[jayvh]

I usually use Ichimonji Double to get some posture back especially when he throws his anti-healing-bag and I dodge to the side.

Just came out of another try. I was trying to train some "perfect deflection" with the blue ninja right after the Buddha statue by not using blocking and just deflect. That didn't work out so well. My muscle memory had me hold block after some hits and I got some good deflections.

Nevertheless that doesn't help too much for Owl as his sword attacks are completly different stuff My posture builds up like in your video and sometimes I get a few mm on his posture bar but far less than on my posture bar. I don't lose health in this moment so I guess I'm to early with my release of the block and hitting the deflect button?

Just watched a video where someone is pretty much only deflecting and building up the posture bar of the Owl (while the one of Sekiro is also building up). I probably have to let go of the idea to achieve this and try the conventional way.

[HighLanderPony]

Kensei の投稿を引用：

jayvh の投稿を引用：

Thank you. Unfortumately I didn't unlock the nighjar skill. Is this a NG+ fight? You have some equipment in your prosthetic that isn't available in the NG until this point in the game, am I right?

At 5:25 your posture is filled up and you get a pretty massive hit. I suppose you missed the right timing to defelct the attack or didn't hit the button at all?

BTW, nice music.

I almost fininshed the game and I still haven't unlocked Nightjar Slash, imho combat arts in boss fights are very risky. Endgame bosses have very small windows of opening and combat arts are pretty damn slow. You can make them work, but hitting 2-3 times with normal attacks and ocasional single hit on a smaller opening will generally result in the same time, unless you are going for some cheese.

Wouldn't worry about that one, the Nightjar stuff sucks.