Board Thread:Dark Souls/@comment-1852943-20130327182640/@comment-1687225-20130410014038

Couple of things to say here.

A) Curved swords (and thrusting swords) have a very fast parrying animation, faster than any other off hand.

B) This is not necessarily a good thing. A fast parry animation means fewer frames of parrying=fewer frames of a partial parry success chance and of a actual parry success chance. Long and slow parries have their benefits. The parrying dagger and target shield, for example, have very long parry windows and are much more likely to catch someone with a successful parry, but the user is more open if they screw up. Thrusting and curved sword parries are fast, but have a very small frame for success.

So in a perfect world where you land every parry, curved swords/thrusting swords are the best. In reality, given the multitude of playstyles, lag, and human error, it's a hit or miss.