Parrying and how to make it effective and reliable

A guide that includes:
- Parrying Techniques
- Parrying baits
- Parrying weapons and which you should choose
- general tips and tricks
- how not to be a dunce

Introduction

Parrying is perhaps one of the coolest moves you can do to kill an enemy. It serves as a humiliation, and it is an all around fun thing to learn and use if you have beat the game, and even if you are struggling with a boss or even just normal enemies. Regardless, it is always a good thing to know. This guide will mostly cover multiplayer, since many of the enemies in PVE are not riposte-able.

In this guide, as mentioned in the description, i am going to go over several important topics regarding the matter.

This guide will be updated if anything changes, if i feel like doing so, and i will probably make it short since no one would read an entire essay about a technique used in a video game...would they?

Now, before you read anything else....

DO NOT USE THE MONESTARY SCIMITAR

It has instant parry frames, is a broken weapon, and the only excuse for using it is either cosplaying as a painting guardian or if you are an autistic disabled orphan with cancer.


Picture is an example of a typical duel between the latter

Weapons for parrying

There is a huge variety of weapons you can parry with in dark souls 2, and they all have very different parry frames. I am not going to go very in depth into this, so if you want something to study go to youtube and find some parrying guides there. I doubt any of this is really researched, so i will just write what my personal experiences dictate.

Before you start you should know that there are 3 different stages in a parry: the startup (windup), the parry frames, and the recovery. The less startup, the more reactionary your parries are. The more frames, the easier they are to land if you are late or early. The more recovery, the more you leave yourself open to a counter attack.

From easiest to parry with to hardest (In my opinion):

- Curved Swords

All curved swords have quick start ups, consisting of only 7 frames, and relatively long parry windows. In my opinion it is the best weapon type to use for beginners. It is almost reactionary except for the fastest weapons, so it is a great way to learn about parry windows and when you should press that nice L2 button in a duel. It is often frowned upon, however, so try to use riposte weapons that do not have too high of a critical rating. The windows are not instanteneous, however, and thus are a step above the monestary scimmy... Below you will see a typical example of a curved sword "parry spam" parry.

- Small shields

If you are using a small shield, your opponent will probably be extremely cautious about attacking you due to the fact that this is a very popular weapon to parry with. Here you have the advantage of being able to block as well, which means if your opponent tries to follow up an attack that you blocked, you basically have a secured parry. Just press l2, although missing is indeed a possibility. The frames on these weapons are great, since they have relatively short windup and a lot of active frames. 3 less than the monestary scimitar. However, due to the windup ,they are not as reactionary as the curved swords.


- Rapiers.
Rapiers have almost as long active windows as the small shields,although your opponent does not often anticipate that you are trying to parry them (more on strategies and such later). These weapons also double as effective counter attack weapons. Pairing these with large weapons will make you extremely unpredictable


- Parrying dagger
Just like rapiers, but it is easy to tell you are trying to parry them, hence why it is rarely used outside of "ninja builds" They do have slightly shorter windups, however.



- Medium shields

Personally, this is my favourite. No one has an idea you want to parry them, since the windows are relatively small and it has a quite long windup. If you are experienced with parrying, however, this is the best choice. Again, you have the option to block and parry their follow-up attack

Straight Swords, katanas

shorter animation, and less frames than a rapier. You have to be pretty accurate to land it, although it requires less prediction than those below. Also called a hilt parry. These have a bit more windup than medium shields, and fewer active frames.


- Greatswords, UG, great clubs and curved greatswords

Enormous windup times, which means it is really only good if the opponent is careless or if you are using the "parry spam" technique. You can always bait, but this is extremely difficult for new players.

Bare fists and fist weapons

If you can land parries with these, you have mastered parrying. They only have 4 active frames! that means you have 0.06 seconds to land the parry.


For more detailed information about parry windows, visit this link: http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Parry+Frame+Data


SPECIAL THANKS TO POLEMIO FOR THE ABOVE LINK AND INFORMATION

Techniques and strategy

Most successful parries require some form of prediction if your opponent is not using a slow weapon. If you have played the game a lot, and know the patterns of your opponents, you can just parry whenever you think they will attack. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. It is not really reliable but as long as your opponent is not smart enough to punish you for it, there are no consequenses.

You can also parry while your opponent is rolling, since that often indicates he is about to do a rolling attack. The same applies to running and backstep attacks

The more reliable techniques are known as "baiting" or "parry baits". It involves doing something that leaves you wide open, so the enemy will most likely attack, but then at the last second parrying. It is extremely reliable and you will get a parry more times than not as long as you know the timing of your weapon. I will list just a few baits.


The parry-parry bait

It is really as stupid as it sounds, yet works even on veteran players. It involves parrying the air, then as the opponent comes in to punish you, parry again. It is a bit humorous to watch some havelmonster come at you with a claymore while you are standing there with your shield nearly above your head after the animation, then watching him fall on his behind. You can almost see the look of desperation as they land on the ground.

An example of the parry parry bait









Jumping attack parry

Just do a jumping attack, then as your opponent tries to punish, parry. Works on more experienced players, due to the fact that noobs tend to roll away instead.

- example









Parry-spam -bait

As the video on the weapons section showed, just spamming l2 can get you a parry. If your opponent is far away, it is a great technique. Just spam l2, and as your opponent tries to execute a running attack, pause slightly, then parry. It is mildly difficult to do this successfully, but when you pull it off it is quite funny. If you do not feel like going up to view it again, it is below.

Roll bait

If your opponent is using a weapon that can hit you mid-roll, or tries to hit you while recovering from a roll, then this is an effective baiting method. Just parry right after you roll and thats it.

(Do not have an example of this yet)









Guard Break bait

Perhaps the more versatile of the techniques - opponents often hide behind their shield and wait for the opponent to try a guard break so they can punish with a counterattack. When they try, parry, and enjoy the riposte. This works best with shields, since often you do an attack animatiion instead if you use weapons.

Here is an example of the guard break parry









Agressive start bait

This may be somewhat cheap, but it is effective. When your opponent is doing a gesture, run up to them, without attacking of course, and they are bound to try to attack first. This is a little bit harder to pull of due to the fact that it is not as predictable as the other baiting methods.

Here is an example of the aggressive start parry










Very important - whether or not these baits work depend your choice of weapon. If you are using a buckler or a parrying dagger, it is pretty obvious you are trying to parry them, which means your opponent will most likely not go for the punishes.

If you are bad at parrying, you can also just run around with a parrying weapon - it tends to make your opponent more defensive. Parrying is essentially just mind-games after you get the technique in.

(NEW) countering parries

If you ever meet someone who consistantly tries to parry you, it is difficult to avoid their traps unless you are extremely patient or follow the next few tips:

1.
Play unpredictably - If you do the same attacks over and over again, it is easy to parry you. If you play unpredictably, even randomly, you are probably not getting parried.

2.
Try to use interesting combinations of weapons. For example: greataxe/ultra greatsword in right hand, rapier/dagger in left. If you alternate between attacking with these, your opponent will not know when to start the parry because of the extreme difference between the speed of your weapons.

3. if you are too stupid to do any of the above, using an unparryable weapon also works.

Tips and Tricks and PVP etiquette

• Some weapons are unparriable, like the whips and the 2-handed attacks of curved GS, great hammer, halberds, UG-swords and (unless you parry the sweetspot) scythes.
  
• If you ever meet a monestary scimitar user, mock them and, if you have one too, pull it out. If not, use an unparryable weapon OR do not attack at all and try to parry them back
  
• if you want your enemy to try to follow up a blocked attack, try to use shield with low physical defense- slumbering dragoncrest shield, blossom kite shield are both extremely good for this due to the stamina regen bonus.

There are certain things you should avoid doing after a parry if you want to play honorably.

• Do not use monestary scim
  
• Do not use mundane shadow dagger/ any dagger unless you are fighting a buffmonkey or a havelmonster. Fights are not fun when you can 1-hit kill your opponent.
  
• Do not use unavoidable spells after a riposte (heavanly thunder, etc.) Again, fights are no fun if you do not give the opponent a fighting chance.

A quick little note as well:

Try not to be a try-hard. The point of Dark Souls 2, and every game, is to have fun. Winning is not the only way to have fun. Challanging yourself is the real fun, especially in souls games. I have never had more fun with this game than when i started to try parrying with medium shields. It was a challange, and i had barely a 40% success rate. That increased however, due to learning and adapting. I still do my best to do things that make fights fun. (red+blue tearstone fight with a sliver of health, etc.) and as should you. Winning is not the most important thing in the world.

[MrDerpHerpin]

great guide, and nice gif! XD

[shippage]

lol that's exactly what you have to do to land a parry. do you want to try and invade me and see if you can parry my attacks? it's really easy to punish someone who's obviously parry fishing.

git gud

[Oggab0gga]

@Shippage
They have edited it to start at 2 now

virtually no differnce.

As long as you have basic coordination, you can use it to get a parry. That is not how it should work. It should require prediction, nearly perfect timing and knowing how your opponent thinks.

[shippage]

at any point you can get parried with any off hand equip, so no shit if your enemy's reflexes are good then they should get a parry. also the monoscim isn't even instant parry even more post patch.

[Oggab0gga]

@Polemio
thanks for the help, buddy
@The sun - np. I understand it seems like a difficult concept for the majority of the community
@Shippage
being forced to use unparryable weapons does not make you good. It is broken because if you use a parryable weapon. you can get parried as quick as their reflexes allow them - which is 0.1-0,2 seconds +10-20 ms input lag. So, unless you are using daggers or fists, RIP

[Krongo009]

This guide has helped me so much with parrying in this game! Thank you so much and keep up the good work!

[shippage]

the monoscim is only broken if you're bad.

[polemio]

Hey man you should add this to the list. I didn't test anything but this seems to be pretty accurate.
According to this the small shields are the "best parrying" tools. Apparently buckler and target shield are better than magic shield, transgressor and phoenix parma.
http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Parry+Frame+Data
Personally i don't like reading a guide because i want to find my own strategy to parry but this seems pretty good. Keep up the good work :)

[ColonelRonin]

great guide, helps alot

[Oggab0gga]

cream gravy

Lag, and yes, rapiers can and are easily parried.