AWKWARD ZOMBIE

I don't know how one is easier because of lag, and how one is harder. That doesn't make much sense. The window for parries is super short, but the window for backstabs is as long as you are behind someone.

And low-poise is almost a must for anyone who really wants to backstab or riposte consecutively. If you're doing either you have to be confident that you can and you won't get hit. Any decent poise is from shields that aren't the best for parrying, or from armor that makes it easier for people to backstab you so you'll hardly get the chance.

But that's wrong
When you parry someone, usually it's a few frames. But online, you can parry a few frames after the normal parrying frames and still get the parry due to lag. Backstabs are as long as you're behind someone, sure, but due to lag you'll often get backstab cancelled (backstab animation with no damage)


Shields don't give you poise, they give you stability. Any shield besides greatshields (which have the bashing attack) are perfectly fine for parrying.
I wear the mother's mask, dingy robe +10, guardian gloves, and brigands trousers +10 and the 23 poise helps a lot. If I really need the extra 40 poise I swap out my hornet/leo ring for the wolf ring.
You can backstab with any armor or equipment load, you just have to play smart and not be a chainstabbing scrub.

The videos I've watched have parries being the main reason for winning a duel. People roll around too much to reliably backstab, whereas when they throw out a poke you parry, which staggers, then riposte.

Plus you kind of have to learn how to parry because the final boss is extremely hard to hit with anything else.

Yeah, you can parry people who try to backstab you with a bit of practice. Very useful, I really really suck at that though. I just backstep.

I actually didn't know that. I've never been in a situation where that happened.



You can, but the slower you are the naturally more difficult it is going to be. If you're in fatroll it's probably not going to be a priority.

of course if you're in fatroll you probably should rethink some things



That's assuming they can roll around a bunch. Lighter characters can, but once you hit over the 25% mark then it's less of a "use all the time" roll and more of a "use to dodge an attack" roll. If they don't have the ninja roll, backstabbing is much easier than the parry and carries a lot less risk.

Over the 25% mark, especially if both have the wood-grain ring and are rather good, I've noticed neither party really goes for either a backstab or a riposte because both are expecting it. Usually turns into a poke fest until someone gets lucky or someone slips up. Usually taking advantage of the weird angles you can get around shields with.

If someone is turtling you should resort to poison or just kick their shield down.
If you havent seen any backstab cancels you should probably try more pvp. I've seen tons, and have at least 300 hours in total and that's not counting my old xbox account playtime.

Or just do this

EMI blocked the video for whatever reason
thanks copyright fuckfaces

I will never get tired of that video.

I've only got like 70 hours on the game so far so that might be why I've never seen a backstab cancel.

I do enough PvP, I think. I almost never invade unless I'm super desperate for souls, but until recently where I very suddenly became probably too high level, I always get invaded while human.
I actually once summoned this guy in full Kirk armor, and was invaded by someone else also in full Kirk.

They just rolled into each other until they both died.

i'm still waiting to see if that becomes a youtube video

glorious

Anyone watch EpicNameBro's videos? They're very informative and he has great commentary.

As for pure shenanigans, NotEvilDaed has some good stuff.

ive followed epic since his 4 vid lol. really sucks how alot ppl abused his PSN ID and shit cause it would've been fun to chill/play with him hes a cool guy

All dark magic spells except for pursuers has rather low INT requirements. The highest is 18 (except for Pursuers which is 32).
One can easily make a potent low level dark magic build pretty easily, considering people can run through the game at level 1 (plus there are always people who hack the game to get good stuff at low levels).
If you don't believe me look at this level 10 dark magic user build: http://mmdks.com/1plt.