I'm trying to see whether it's worth stancing parry down when picking up some weapons. According to Elanthipedia the ability to parry is affected by weapon balance, but it doesn't say how much. Some of my weapons do have pretty dismal balance, however.
My question is about the lower end of the scale. Is there a level of balance that makes weapons not worth parrying with?
CJDIRAC
DIMINISHEDANGEL
Re: Weapon parry question
04/06/2017 11:18 AM CDT
Parry is a weird defense.
On top of weapon balance, it also factors in your skill with the weapon you're holding. It's least affected by encumbrance and the multi opponent penalties, so it's got that going for it, I guess?
To be safe you may want to stance more into evasion/shield if you plan on backtraining, especially if the weapon you're backtraining is unbalanced, but I wouldn't stress about it overly much. I parry just fine with my SE when I'm backtraining it, and it's about 300 ranks lower than my 2HE.
On top of weapon balance, it also factors in your skill with the weapon you're holding. It's least affected by encumbrance and the multi opponent penalties, so it's got that going for it, I guess?
To be safe you may want to stance more into evasion/shield if you plan on backtraining, especially if the weapon you're backtraining is unbalanced, but I wouldn't stress about it overly much. I parry just fine with my SE when I'm backtraining it, and it's about 300 ranks lower than my 2HE.
DISCOTEQ21
Re: Weapon parry question
04/07/2017 08:16 PM CDT
I have capped parry and stance shield and evasion when I pvp.
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CJDIRAC
Re: Weapon parry question
04/27/2017 02:45 PM CDT
Thanks for the responses. I was ignoring the fact that as I'm backtraining my parry would be affected by the weapon skill.
I've done some testing using high balance edges and dismal balance blunts. I get 'parry' messages with both, so even if parry is hindered by the weapon balance, I guess the effect is not big enough to warrant a stance change.
I have noticed that if I stance parry to 0 I do get hit more, even weilding a badly balanced blunt. However I'm not sure whether this means my defences are actually worse as I don't see a strong correlation between the two (for my backtraining situation, I'm sure it will be evident at level).
I've done some testing using high balance edges and dismal balance blunts. I get 'parry' messages with both, so even if parry is hindered by the weapon balance, I guess the effect is not big enough to warrant a stance change.
I have noticed that if I stance parry to 0 I do get hit more, even weilding a badly balanced blunt. However I'm not sure whether this means my defences are actually worse as I don't see a strong correlation between the two (for my backtraining situation, I'm sure it will be evident at level).
SARAGOS
Re: Weapon parry question
05/10/2017 04:55 PM CDT
> I've done some testing using high balance edges and dismal balance blunts. I get 'parry' messages with both, so even if parry is hindered by the weapon balance, I guess the effect is not big enough to warrant a stance change.
You might want to be careful about that in your testing. IIRC, it pulls the messaging at random from your used defenses, so you can't rely on that to tell you much. FWIW, weapon skill does matter. Having picked up polearms for the first time while hunting storm bulls, it definitely caused me to get dinged up and put me in danger of dying a few times. Stow that weapon, though, and everything's fine.
This is also why I recommend training brawling, because parry sticks use brawling as their skill.
- Saragos
You might want to be careful about that in your testing. IIRC, it pulls the messaging at random from your used defenses, so you can't rely on that to tell you much. FWIW, weapon skill does matter. Having picked up polearms for the first time while hunting storm bulls, it definitely caused me to get dinged up and put me in danger of dying a few times. Stow that weapon, though, and everything's fine.
This is also why I recommend training brawling, because parry sticks use brawling as their skill.
- Saragos
RABB
Re: Weapon parry question
08/12/2017 06:58 AM CDT
So I've read all the discussions below from a few months ago, and my problem has been that I am a primary crossbow/shield user, always have been. I only OWN a sword because they require steep Parry for Clerics instead of shield. It goes without saying that I suck at blade ranks, but with all the changes, I've noticed the impact of that less.
Someone was kind to me and give me a parry stick, so I was stanced 70 evasion / 58 shield / 54 parry, just to see what results I got with it. When I wasn't holding the crossbow, I'd get even messages about parry and shield and evasion. When I held the crossbow, I started failing parry every single time (like it was ignoring the evasion / shield aspect).
My question - is the only way to AVOID parry fails while hunting ranged is to have it set to zero? Therefore making the parry stick just as useless as I thought they were before (even though everyone else loves them?)
MOTHRA
Re: Weapon parry question
08/12/2017 11:05 AM CDT
>My question - is the only way to AVOID parry fails while hunting ranged is to have it set to zero? Therefore making the parry stick just as useless as I thought they were before (even though everyone else loves them?)
Wielding a bow negates the defensive points you have allocated in parry so you're effectively stancing down your overall defenses to have any points in parry.
Change your stance to 100 evasion/80 shield (or 100 shield/80 evasion but the former is more effective imo) when you're wielding a crossbow (or stick bow).
Write up a small script to handle the stance change (and change back) so you don't forget to put parry back into the mix when you switch to melee.
The reason parry sticks are loved is they allow parry when your hands are empty, during brawling or attacks that land when you're switching weapons.
Wielding a bow negates the defensive points you have allocated in parry so you're effectively stancing down your overall defenses to have any points in parry.
Change your stance to 100 evasion/80 shield (or 100 shield/80 evasion but the former is more effective imo) when you're wielding a crossbow (or stick bow).
Write up a small script to handle the stance change (and change back) so you don't forget to put parry back into the mix when you switch to melee.
The reason parry sticks are loved is they allow parry when your hands are empty, during brawling or attacks that land when you're switching weapons.
