Heavy build and heavy weapon user, Unspoken and hc realm, playing around shield, parries, and shoulder bash - 280h+
Playing with parries is a steep learning curve in HC…
…that feels plenty rewarding: bad positioning AND still being alive is incredibly strong and satisfying as it is.
That being said, i feel like different weapon styles should allow different parries. Like a lot of you have pointed out, heavy and slow weapons can’t do much follow-up atm, which is perfectly fine against bosses or elite mobs, but is actually often, if not always, the case on every mob and feels like it shouldn’t;
My take is:
-The follow-up options need more variety with pluses and downsides attached to them, not to the parry mechanic itself.
-Parries should not give a window large enough to follow up with a backstab unless parrying with weapons intended to give you such opportunities (and which are harder to pull off).
(Which brings up the “wtf the backstab is way too overpowered and easy to spam”)
-Light dodge is fine early game since it comes with being 2-shotted as the price, but the actual late-game balance makes it overpowered, which is a problem of balancing OP builds/mechanics, not dodge or parries themselves. Slow roll makes the trade even, as it often only avoids the first of many incoming hits, meaning a parry/shield needs to follow up most of the time. This is a good thing to keep dodge as a panic button and not a spammable invincibility frame (spammable repositioning is fine if the cost is relevant).
-Parries need to remain hard to pull off, and not be rewarding in themselves more than they should.
…
I did not look at other builds before finishing the EA storyline, and did not see any problem with the current parry system other than it being too basic should it remain as is.
It felt right, limited in some cases but right; the issue seems to be elsewhere and/or in deeper mechanics.
(topic on “parry + runes” that would allow specific weapon types to have a specific follow-up option. Which could also be part of some weapon behavior, like the flurry unleashed on certain running attacks and others)