As a passionate Elden Ring fan with countless hours perfecting combat, mastering parries brings an unparalleled thrill. Precisely countering a lethal attack before slamming your opponent with a devastating riposte simply feels incredible. Yet for many struggle with inconsistent timing and punishment from mistakes.
Well after plenty of bloody trial-and-error, I‘ve compiled this comprehensive guide so you can experience the rush of parry domination! Let‘s delve into everything you need to know around executing frames-perfect parries, critical follow-ups, essential gear, proper technique, and advanced tips before applying this knowledge in your own dangerous Tarnished journey.
What Makes Parrying So Challenging in Elden Ring?
Unlike blocking or dodging, parrying requires extremely precise timing to deflect incoming strikes. Miss the tiny window even slightly and you‘ll take a battering. Enemies attack rapidly from multiple angles with varying timings mixing delayed and combo strikes. High damage punishes failed attempts heavily too. Simply put, the risk-reward balance is totally skewed.
So really mastering parries takes tremendous patience and practice. Expect a lot of frustration eating enemy combos as you slowly improve reactions honing technique. But the payoff of landing that absolutely perfect parry against lethal foes for massive damage can‘t be matched.
Trust me, that heart-pounding, adrenaline fueled excitement of using perfect technique to decisively down an enemy keeps me coming back. Now let‘s breakdown everything to help you reach parry enlightenment yourself!
Parry Gear & Stats – Optimizing for Responsive Control
Your parry tool and equipment loadout play pivotal roles by influencing speed, windows, and recovery. While most medium shields work, specialized setups take responsive precision even further:
Buckler Shield (8.5) – Impeccable startup and active frames make the buckler top choice for crisp parries. The downside comes in stability draining significant stamina per block.
Golden Parry (8.5) – Ash of War granting parry skill great for medium shields. Marginally slower than buckler but higher guard boost helps stability.
Carian Retaliation (7.5) – Talisman creating parry-like elemental projectile counters. Key when struggling against magic and ranged attacks.
Miséricorde Dagger (9.0) – While risky for primary parrying, post-parry riposte damage is unrivaled thanks to insane critical multipliers.
For attributes I‘d recommend:
- Vigor (40-60) – Extra health means surviving more failed parries especially while learning. No vigor means no training.
- Endurance (~20+) – Increased stamina reduces drain blocking hits and powers more attempted parries.
- Dexterity (50-80) – Boosts shield parry speed, attack speed, and bleed build-up from criticals. Reaction god stat.
And finally, stay below 70% max equip load retaining fast dodges, rolls, and movement to properly reposition. Heavy armors only slow reaction times critical for parry game. Optimize for mobility and recovery!
Elden Ring Parry Fundamentals – Precise Timing Essentials
Now into execution and technique – the meat allowing sweet parry satisfaction. Deflecting attacks relies on blocking during exact hit frame contact. Based on equip speeds, certain parries activate faster with wider windows:
- Startup Frames – Initial motion delay before parry becomes active. Faster is better.
- Active Parry Frames – Duration attack is deflected if landed in window. Wider is more forgiving.
- Recovery Frames – Animation lockout after attempt finishes. Shorter maintains control.
The goal becomes timing your parry activation to intercept the enemy weapon right as the strike would land. Matching that precision takes lots of prediction practice. Different techniques help with early, late, combo interrupt, and reaction parries:
- Early – Input parries slightly before incoming attacks based on telegraphs. Risk misses.
- Late – Delay parry initiation utilizing last possible frames. Recovers faster.
- Interruption – Blocking first attack enables parrying follow-ups in combos.
- Reaction – Pure reflex parrying initiated from muscle memory. No prediction.
Finding your optimal style depends on playstyle. I prefer reaction parries for the intense risk-reward exhilaration!
Common Parry Mistakes & Issues – What to Avoid
Mistakes get punished severely halting otherwise smooth progress. Being aware of problematic patterns prevents setbacks:
- Spamming Parry – Panic parrying randomly without strategy gets demolished by mix-ups. Stay calm and react intelligently.
- Initiating Too Early – Eager or poorly-timed attempts activate before strikes land causing misses even when initially blocking. Wait for contacting hits.
- Parrying Too Late – Delayed reactions fall outside active parry frames causing failed deflections despite good timing fundamentals. Start attempts earlier.
- Whiffing Punishes – Failing to riposte quickly after landing parries due to input delays or animation locks negates opening to deal damage. Follow-up instantly with highest poise-damage attacks.
- Greediness – Attempting parries in disadvantaged positions or against unsafe moves leads to eating consecutive hits. Consider strategic positioning and attack vulnerability before committing.
- Tilting – Frustration from consecutive misses causes detrimental recklessness, focusing errors, and motivation loss. Take breaks, analyze rationally, identify improvement areas.
Carefully isolate the above problems and course-correct using tips provided here. Be adaptive and always learning!
Advanced Parrying Techniques – Next Level Applications
Once fundamentals click, integrating advanced skills creates even more dominance opportunities:
- Delayed Parry – Exploit recovery time from missed attacks to land counter parries. Risky but optimal punish windows.
- Setup Parries – Force attack commitments through spacing then parry follow-ups. Generates openings.
- Roll Catch Parrying – Catch panic rolls with properly delayed and aimed parries. Devastating against button mashers.
- Toggle Escaping – Remove block hitstun quicker by toggling gear. Enables faster repeat parry attempts.
- Wake-up Parries – Regain control from knockdowns quicker by inputting early parries knowing opponents tend to aggression.
I can‘t overstate the importance of creativity here. Unpredictability provides major advantages against even dominant opponents. Try surprising and outplaying with advanced applications!
My Journey to Parry Excellence – Hard Lessons Learned
Looking back, I massively struggled grasping parry concepts at first. Against early game soldier fodder my sloppy reactions caused constant health draining. Each failure frustrated me more as I slammed controllers dealing pittance damage barely surviving encounters.
But incrementally things started clicking. Picking better shields boosted windows. Dexterity increased deflection frames speed. soon blocking attacks came naturally. Yet punishing remained difficult until practicing dedicated sessionsisolated on timing powerful riposte criticals.
Then something just clicked.
Suddenly parrying crucible knights to immediately impale with my dagger felt simple – enemies that once devastated me fell in seconds! This fuelled an obsessive drive to master precision deflections against lethal movesets.
I died hundreds of times dissecting advanced patterns from Maliketh, Godfrey, and the formidable Malenia. Eventually no attack surprised me. Instinct took over as I fluidly countered deadly combos through mnemonic muscle memory. Trading health chunks no longer phased me thanks to 60 vigor tankiness. I became unstoppable parry baiting opponents for healthbar deletions!
Now by sharing hard-won knowledge here, I hope explaining technicalities around responsive timing, gear selection, concentrated practice, and exploit creativity helps you overcome initial challenges. Soon you‘ll be parry kings yourself spacing attacks for perfect critical openings!
Final Thoughts – Go Forth and Parry!
And there we have it – everything you could need for mastering the immensely satisfying art of parries against the horrors of Elden Ring! Hopefully the detailed breakdowns provideMissing great foundation covering technical timing, essential gear, critical form, problematic patterns, and creativity fueling advanced applications for countering enemies in style.
Expect failure and punishment along the way. But stay determined adapting your skills continuously until those perfectly timed blocks into massive critical ripostes against bosses become second nature. I promise the payoff reaches profoundly epic levels!
NowElevate gear optimally, study intricate animations, and go land those slick parries Tarnished! Glory awaits at the end of a successful riposte. May this guide set you swiftly down the path to precise reactionary excellence and mastery over the sandbox FromSoftware has created!
