I could never get the parry timing right. I went on Youtube, followed every tutorial under the sun, but it never clicked. They all talked about overlapping windows of attack and parry and it all went right over my head. Or they went the other way and were too vague: "Wait till the last moment. You'll figure it out."

Then I read in a single article that I can't find again, the only place I could find that laid it out so clearly, this simple way to know when to parry: The very first frame after your opponent's wind-up, the split second when his weapon _starts_moving_towards_you_, that is when your parrying window opens. You then have however many frames to hit your parry. And since most enemies' windups are so obvious, it get really easy when all you have to spot is the moment his weapon starts to move towards you.

I don't know if this is technically true in every single case, but it served me well against Havel, against every black and silver knight, and against Gwyn. I went from successfully parrying about 20 % of the time to hitting it 80-90 % of the time.

My first playthrough, even though I had a character with a shield I adamantly persisted parrying to the point where I did it when it made way more sense to just block. If you just do it enough throughout the game there isn't really a need for a guide you just get a feel for it. I think trying to analyze and find some specific criteria for when to press the button is actually detrimental. By the time I got to Gwyn that fight was pure cheese.

I just hit parry till the dude was dead. Maybe took three tries?

Of all the things I wish I could get good at, parrying in these games is one of them. I think maybe my 60ms-refresh TV has made it difficult; it's just super hard for me to parry anyone in these games, especially Bloodborne.

I only learned how to do it as a last resort at the end, in order to beat Gwyn.

Never got to grips with backstab either. Never got gud.

Learning how to parry breaks any balance this game has against most enemies. I got fairly decent at it my first time through and it makes Gwyn a piece of cake. Doesn't do much for that tussle with Kalameet, though.

Che Guevara never parried. He poised through shit.

Yes, the buckler, target shield and parrying dagger all have the same slightly larger window. But it too opens at the exact moment that his weapon starts to move towards you. It just gives you a little more leeway from that moment. But when you know exactly when the window opens, you won't need that extra leeway. At least I didn't.

Yep, that's the approach that didn't work for me. Different strokes.

I forgot! There's one more thing that's essential: Distance. You have to be surprisingly close, and it is more surprising the bigger the enemy's weapon. Instinctively you'd think that as long as your shield connects his weapon you're fine, right? So you can keep your distance a bit more if he has a long weapon? Wrong. The game logic doesn't account for the size of his weapon, but only the position of his weapon HAND. You have to get RIGHT up in his grill. You literally can't get too close (so long as you can still see). But you can easily get too far apart, especially if you're intimidated by the size of his weapon. If your crotches are physically rubbing against each other, you know you are close enough.

Parrying is such a great mechanic. Tough to master, but totally worth it. This coming from someone who played through Demon's and Dark Souls for his first time without even knowing it existed. Unfortunately, by the time I got good with it in Dark Souls 1, they ruined it in 2 by making the timing all weird. I never did figure it out and still hate 2 because of it. Dark Souls 3 made it a bit easier again, but I spent most of my time dual-wielding in that one anyway. Maybe I'll try parrying more when I go back for the DLC. If I go back. Newborns really cut into gaming time.

@sinusoidal said:

I just rolled straight into DS2. What exactly did they do to parrying timing?

@joques: not sure what he means exactly, but I do recall the windup being larger that you had to anticipate much more in advance. for PvE I don't recall it being such a big deal, also don't think most bosses can be parried anyway, but PvP with connection issues and larger windows would make parrying come off as a bit frustrating. That game also de-emphasized being a parry king with the ton of dark magic and throwable weapons power stance and whip play.

@an_ancient: Ok thanks! I stay away from PvP as much as I can, that's not why I come to Souls.