Parry

Type

Ashes of War

Default affinity

Standard

FP cost

0 FP

Skill

Parry

About this Ash of War

This Ash of War grants no affinity to an armament, but imparts the following skill:

"Parry: Use this skill in time with a foe's melee attack to deflect it and break that foe's stance. This provides an opening to perform a critical hit."

Usable on daggers, curved swords, thrusting swords, fists, claws, and small and medium shields.

Bernahl's skill shop

Limgrave

Starting Site of Grace: Warmaster's Shack

Before you go

• Have 600 runes.
• Visit during the day.

1. From Gatefront, follow the road uphill through Stormgate to Stormhill Shack. Turn east along the road through the woods to Warmaster's Shack.
2. Speak to Knight Bernahl inside during the day, open his skill shop and buy Parry for 600 runes. His shop has one copy.
3. If Bernahl has moved to Volcano Manor, use his drawing-room shop. Once he leaves the manor, examine the sword at his chair for the established shop.
4. If you already have Bernahl's Bell Bearing, give it to the Twin Maiden Husks to buy his remaining stock. Killing him is unnecessary and cuts off his later quest rewards.

Notes

• Costs no FP. Press the skill button so the active part of the animation meets a parryable melee attack. Pressing too early or late can leave you taking damage and losing stamina.
• After the enemy reels, get close and press light attack for the critical hit. Some bosses require several successful parries before they become vulnerable to that critical.
• It does not parry every attack. Grabs, many large enemy attacks and ordinary incoming spells need another response.
• The animation and timing can depend on the weapon type. Buckler Parry is a separate built-in skill; installing this Ash does not give another shield that skill.
• Parry on a compatible left-hand weapon takes priority over the right-hand skill. Two-hand the right-hand weapon or change your off-hand setup when you want its skill instead.
• Parrying does not depend on a high damage-scaling attribute. Upgrade and build choices matter for the weapon that delivers the critical afterward.
• Smithscript Dagger has a hand-dependent parry animation: it uses the dagger version when held one-handed in the right hand and a shield version in the left hand or when two-handed.
• An ordinary small shield has a more forgiving active window than ordinary Parry on a medium shield. Golden Parry and Carian Retaliation have their own timings and are separate skills.
• A partial parry is not a successful stance break: you can still take HP and stamina damage. Move into the enemy's attack rather than trying to parry the weapon tip from too far away.
• Jump attacks, grabs, whips and many two-handed colossal attacks cannot be handled by an ordinary parry. Learning a particular boss's parryable moves matters more than its apparent weapon size.
• Can use this Ash of War on compatible equipment in these classes: Dagger, Curved Sword, Thrusting Sword, Fist, Claw, Small Shield, Medium Shield, Throwing Blade. Fixed-skill equipment is excluded.
• The default affinity is Standard. Additional affinities depend on the weapon and your whetblades; a class appearing in the compatibility list does not mean every weapon in that class supports every affinity.