The parry skill works a bit differently in Elden Ring than in other games. This is one combat mechanic that you have to master if you want to get the better of enemies and bosses across The Lands Between.
Parrying in Elden Ring is more than just countering an enemy attack. You can use your shield to stagger an enemy to create a temporary opening for your heavy attacks.
However, parry is not a default skill in Elden Ring. You need to have a shield that already has the parrying ability. Either that or use the Parry Ash of War to infuse the ability on your shield yourself.
Before knowing how to find the Parry Ash of War though, you need to know how parrying works in Elden Ring.
How do you parry in Elden Ring?
Parrying is not an easy technique and requires perfect timing for you to negate your enemy’s attacks. Therefore, first, you need to equip the shield with the parry ability in your left hand and a weapon that you attack with, in your right hand.
Now, make sure to time your heavy attack with the enemy attack by pressing the heavy attack button of your left hand (L2/LT) on PlayStation/Xbox respectively.
In short, you need to focus on your enemy’s hand holding the weapon and as soon as he swings it at you, you can counter it correctly and land back-to-back parries on your foe.
Take note that every enemy has a different attacking style. Some enemies take a long wind up with their attacks that can be easily parried. While other enemies attack instantly and parrying them can be pretty challenging. However, once you learn to parry your foes’ attack they will be left stunned for a moment allowing you to land a vital blow on them in the game.
When you successfully parry the enemy, they will be staggered temporarily, allowing you the opportunity to land a critical strike on them. However, you cannot parry ranged attacks. Also, another thing to note here is that you cannot parry enemy attacks with swords in Elden Ring.
On the other hand, your opponent’s melee attacks can be parried but it will take a lot of practice to get used to in Elden Ring. This skill can only be utilized conveniently with Shields that have the parry skill from the start.
However, that being said it is easier to perform parry skill in Elden Ring using small shields compared to medium shields. With smaller shields, it is typically easier to parry, because they have larger parry windows compared to heavier shields which have smaller parry windows making them less effective to perform this skill in Elden Ring.
This is an essential tip for beginners who want to master parry in Elden Ring, so they should avoid grabbing bigger shields.
Furthermore, there are cases where you are unable to parry incoming attacks with perfection. This means that you will have to work on timing these skills with your shield parry or magic attack.
Moreover, it is best to observe the attack pattern of your foe first and then work on executing the parry skill with its attack. It will take some time and practice but eventually, you will get the hang of it.
Where to find Parry Ash of War in Elden Ring
Like the other Ashes of War, you can apply the Parry Ash of War on your shield to get the ability to parry enemy attacks in Elden Ring. This is when you have a shield that does not have the Parry skill by default.
While finding shields with Parry skills is not hard in Elden Ring, you may want the Parry Ash of War separately just the same. This way you will be able to gain the Parry ability when you find a shield that you like but which has no Parry by default.
To get the Parry Ash of War in Elden Ring, make your way to the Warmaster’s Shack. Here, interact with Knight Bernahl, press the option “learn skill” and then move on to purchasing the Ash of War: Parry for 600 Runes.
How to parry magic spells in Elden Ring
In terms of parrying spells in the game, you will have to obtain sorcery spells. These will involve getting either the Carian Retaliation or the Corresponding sorcery in Elden Ring. After obtaining them you parry the magical attacks performed by your foes.
However, this type of parry does not provide you with incentives compared to shield parry as it lacks the critical hit factor, and it can only be used against a single magic attack. This means that it won’t be able to block multiple magic attacks and you will get damaged in the process.
Lastly, in terms of skills, you can parry spells using the Thops’ Barrier. It will somewhat negate the effects of the spell attacks performed by your opponents. Moreover, the benefit of using this skill is that it does not eat up your Focus Point (FP) in Elden ring.
