I am a noob. I played dark souls 2 for about 300 hours now. I've been trying to pvp and I found a lot of great ways of killing people.

One thing that really fascinates me is parrying. I see a lot of very skilled people get parries really easily. Their skill and timing is unmatched. This inspired me to try my best to get good at parrying people.

I grabbed the monastery scimitar and so far I have terrible results. if I press the button too early, I get stun locked and lose lots of health. If I press the button too late, the parry does not come out due to the fact that I am already stunned.

It seems that every single person I fight seems to base their game play on poise breaking players and getting multiple hits. I don't understand what is wrong with me. I press the parry button as soon as they swing, yet I always get hit and poise broken no matter what.

How do I use the monastery scimitar effectively?

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5 Answers

Latency is the big killer. "I parry as soon as they swing" never works. You need to learn when they swing, and when they hit; then parry the hit rather than the swing. It can be tricky, but it is very rewarding.

It has nothing to do with the weapon.

2

The Weapon: Monastery Sword

Stats

[Damage] 95/0/0/0/0 - (Slash)
[Counter] 110
[Poise*] 15
[Stats Needed] 9/22/0/0
[Stats Bonuses] E/B/-/-/-/-
[Weight] 1.5

Parrying Frames

[Start at frame] 7
[Effective start] 11
[Recovery start] 49
[Last animation frame] 67

This means that the frames where your parry hits is between frame 11 and 49. Which is a good range, losing only to small shields.

When you click to parry, the animation starts at frame 7, it will be active at frame 11, end at 49, and during until frame 67. You will be vulnerable in the frames where it will not be active.

Parrying

In Dark Souls 2 all parrying have to pass 3 phases when you press the button to parry.

  1. Start - The moment when you press the button until the parry is active indeed - Vunerable
  2. Active - The sweetspot where the magic(parry) happens - Profit
  3. Recovery - After the active phase end until the end of the animation - Vulnerable

Parrying frames

In this graph you could compare the frames of a few weapons.

Note that this is the frames for the weapon you are holding, not the enemy is attacking.

And to the parry happens you need to be in the red phase when the enemy attack hits you.

For enemy parry attacks timing see this guide:

from the youtuber Juutas1988.

Parrying With the Monastery Sword (And Curved Swords)

The Monastery Sword was the best and favorite pvp and pve parry sword, it used to block as soon you press the button.

start at 1(parrying) with a longer active time.

Now it was nerfed and put under the Curved Swords parrying frames.

strat with 0, a few frames change to 1, and then come back to 0

In frames

It will parry when its blade barely passes your right hand (perpendicular to your body)

Parry Start Monastery Sword

And will endure until it passes your left hand(holding it) parallel your body.

Parry End Monastery Sword

Definitions and source

Damage Type Physical Damage / Magical Damage / Fire Damage / Lightning Damage / Dark Damage

Stats Needd Str/Dex/Int/Faith

Poise is used to stagger calc.

Source(Dark_Souls_II) [PT-BR]

Its not about the weapon. As some other users said above, its about parry the hit. The animation are most of the time wrong, the problem you probably have is that the animation of the shield, or weapon, confuses you. Try to ignore the fany animation that looks like it counter parries, it is not there that the parry start, but as soon as you press the button or shortly after. So as soon as the enemy's weapon is gonna hit you, press the button trying to ignore the fact that the shield isnt bashing. Try with slow and easy enemies first, its actually quite fun and rewarding after a while that you use, even in PvE I hope I helped you a bit

Parrying with the Monastery Scimitar is no different to parrying with other weapons.

Timing is everything. I would recommend training in PvE and getting accustomed to parrying enemies.

Not all attacks are parryable though but that includes a lot of information. If you want to venture into more depth into the Parry you can go here.

NOTE: as of the 8/25/14 patch, the Monastery Scimitar no longer has an instant parry.

You've got to account for this as well.

But a general tip for parrying would be hitting the button as soon as you see the enemy attacking and the hit reaching your body.

Of course reading these hints is one thing. If you want to see a parry happening you can see this guide and then try to practice in PvE to conquer PvP, that's my advice.

I thing I understand where problem is 2 accually , get buckler and try learning the timing with 2 or 3 enemies In PvP ( parrying is slightly delayed ) your goal at the beginning of the fight is to learn your opponent's : weapon animation , style of fighting , maby padern if he's spamming rolling or running attacks , watch him for first 30 seconds then try to just fight him regularly and then BAM parry , you have to give it some time I'm sure you'll catch it couse you want it good luck !