that was the one fight when I wound up actually saving my summon for halfway through
I feel like i-frames should have disappeared like 3 Souls game ago TBH, Ā« roll into an enemy attack to avoid it Ā» is unintuitive nonsense we should never have gotten used to, and it led to From doubling/tripling/quadrupling down on giving bosses a bunch of chain attacks that you try to avoid by haphazardly rolling around /mashing Circle while yelling wahoo like Mario
On the other hand From has already de-emphasized rolling in Sekiro and it wasnāt tied to any de-escalation in boss attack patterns and it led instead to an even bigger focus on reflex based combat, with multiple different reactions to attacks to keep in mind and use all the time instead of only rolls. It was my own personal nightmare. So Iām not using my monkey paw wish on this one
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Oh I liked the crystalian fights (Iāve done the pair first, and the solo crystalian second, because Iām great at approaching this game in order), but Iām using a heavy weapon so staggering them didnāt take long. Every time they stagger, their armor gets absurdly weaker
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Iām using a straight sword which bounces every time so I resort to doing backstabs which doesnāt seem to affect their defense whatsoever. Which is likeā¦ idkā¦ usually I think of critical hits as ignoring defense but thatās just my pretense. I just need to suck it up and bounce my sword off of them a few times
they donāt care about critical hits specifically, only breaking their poise.
Oh yeah, and you might want to switch to blunt just for this fight
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i agree with this premise although i do think sekiro removing rolls and making the invincibility mechanics aggressive rather than evasive was a vast improvement even if iād have more intuitive interest in exploring the diverging path (keeping rolls, removing iframes). however i donāt think fromās game systems (in terms of collision, camera behaviour) are anywhere near robust enough to pull that off yet
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I agree about the iframes and wild swinging attacks being unnecessary, it kind of pulls me out of the experience to see my character in plate armor do 30 rolls per minute. I mean itās a game about magic and shit and giant Guts swords so ārealismā isnāt my issue, but this is one of the things I like most about DS2. it matters way more in that game to actually gtfo of the way of attacks and pay attention to the direction of enemies rather than the frame timing. sekiro makes timing more sensible too, making timing more important for deflecting than anything else, which is entirely in line with the combat designāa well timed parry feels like something that character would do over a vaguely-timed evasive action. incidentally Elden Ring is the first of these games for me to regularly incorporate a shield into my loadout, because they made blocking good again with lots of 100% phys block and large starting stamina bars.
what I dislike is that guarding isnāt a necessary universal mechanic, but rolling is. you can play through the game Dark Souls style, two handing and rolling everything, but you canāt NOT roll. Iād like to be proven wrong, but I havenāt seen any >70% armor + greatshield loadouts just tanking hits without ever pressing the circle button. the game really discourages this with bosses and some overworld enemies that will still delete your stamina in one blocked attack, even though the number of actions you can perform has still been buffed from previous games
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Iāve been using greatshield with medium armor and a thrusting sword, and have done greatshield builds in DkS2 and 3 as well.
Your basic point is right, rolling is a key mechanic and blocking is an optional mechanic like casting spells that you need to invest in before it gets particularly useful. But, although it would not be an optimal style, I think a really roll-averse player might be able to get away without rolling the whole game.
Re: the enemies that delete your stamina in one hit: A) they usually donāt anymore now that I have a 36 STR greatshield upgraded to +10, B) after big hits, most enemies donāt hit again for a long time, and your stamina regens normally during the guard crush. With a greatshield itās still pretty routine to get guardcrushed, but you only wind up taking damage if you really overreached and managed to get crushed by the first hit of an attack chain.
The biggest reason to roll is actually the overheads that ignore my shield. I can either preposition at a greater distance or roll for those, and rolling is sometimes easier.
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what the holy fuck is radahn. I take the port and he kills me instantly with undodgeable projectiles
edit: oh you can dodge them Iām just bad
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Iām at Siofra, which, first of all maybe the best looking environment of all time, and I just want to run around and explore but the fucking arrow guys are back! Whatās with these guys? Why are they the most powerful enemies in the game? Why do these and only these enemies fire perfect deflection shots over infinite range while normal arrow fire is basically easy to just ignore? Argh
feeling some hesitation at having basically ignored the entire western plateau but sort of wanting to move on alreadyā¦ I get a bit more impatient after 40 hours I guess
Finally got to this Draconic Tree Sentinel guy and just straight up out-horsed him. Real proud of myself for realizing mounted guys usually have a weak side.
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this fight is hellaciously stupid
What does a āfatrollerā do when it tries to backstep? Also is the shielding backstep any good? I feel like making fatroll viable has to have been a thing for these guys.
dudeās name is āStarscourge Radahnā and is crushing a tiny horse, whatād you expect
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I can definitely understand this feeling, although i donāt really feel it myself, since I rationalize it as āducking under the sweepā or whatever. I think my brain interprets it this way because most attacks that arenāt sweeps will still hit you on a roll unless you time it literally perfectly. I personally like how aggressively useful i-frames are, but thatās just me I guess.
Also, donāt underestimate two handing a shield to block, it gives you a crazy good stability buff. I was tanking huge boss hits with just the brass shield you get from the normal soldiers, by two-handing.
Afaik upgrading a shield doesnāt affect its stability (guard boost) or defense in this one, just attack damage. At least that was the case upgrading my brass shield, and comparing my turtle shield to a friendās upgraded version. Bummer.
I always do a shield build in souls games because I like the interplay of defense and attack, patiently tanking hits until I can take the perfect roll opportunity during a combo to get behind a guy and shove my sword up his ass. I consider blocking as essential to rolling in these games personally, but again I realize Iām probably outside the majority opinion on that.
If anything i think people are misled when they are told to invest all in to rolling by the gamer public that surrounds these games. Rolling is high risk, high reward, and until a player recognizes where the roll is effective, misapplication gets their skull caved in. I try to encourage shield builds for new players for precisely this reason; lets you feel safe, allows you to learn attack combos, and is very useful against enemies. Hell, parrying even has i-frames against unparryable attacks if timed right, and a MUCH faster recovery than rolling (at the cost of health).
I like how many tools the game gives you to suss out your playstyle most of all. Iām a shield guy who aggressively blocks everything, a friend is a roll fiend who 2h greatswords, another relies on magic and distanceā¦ thatās the magic of gaming to me, and the juice that makes these games so fun. Iām always learning and applying new concepts.
(Note: I wish getting a 100 phys def shield was easier in this one. Most souls games let you get a heater shield right away, like at the first merchant in Upper Burg in DS1, but I had to get a lucky brass shield drop before i had one in ER. I always Deprived start for my initial plays of these games, but it ended up being way harder this time because of how long it took to find my first metal kite shield)
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this should be a promotional soft drink
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i love to block and i only roll backwards because iām a big coward. aggressive play is exactly counter to how i like to play this game (and most games (except Nioh 2))
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If you rush to Margit and die you can end up in the RoundTable and thereās one for purchase there. Thereās also one to find in a Lordsworn camp by the Ashes of War merchant.
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Cemetery Shade is definitely the spo0kiest enemy from has ever designed
perfect how it dies in three hits, assuming you can manage to hit it
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