Board Thread:Dark Souls II/@comment-96.51.75.19-20150421234045/@comment-16047389-20150422143530

To me, a combination of Agility and Vitality are the most important stats in the game. Agility determines the maximization of i-frames you can get, and at 120 Agility, you can litterally roll through any attack in the game. However, testing has also shown that having lower equipment loads also further increases the amount of i-frames (obviously fat rolling severely reduces i-frames regardless of agility).

To me, fights in Dark Souls and Dark Souls II will always be a matter of skill. If you're taking any damage at all at any point, then you've made a mistake. You always have oppurtunities to mitigate damage completely, and more i-frames increases the window of oppurtunity.

I once dueled a Rank 3 Brotherhood of Blood player who was as overpowered as you can get. Full Havel set, Gower's Ring of Protection, and enough healing miracles to put Licia out of business. I was using an Estoc during the fight and was doing maybe only 150-200 damage per attack (he easily had over 2000 HP). Our fight lasted over 10 minutes, and he was no closer to dying than he was at the beginning of it. 2-3 of his hits would've easily killed me (I think he had a fully upgraded Gyrm hammer), but my use of i-frames insured that he rarely ever touched me. In the end, I won the duel but not because I had killed him. He had gotten so tired of never being able to hit me, that he'd given up and left. I think it was the first time he'd ever lost in a long time. Of course, I learned something from that duel, and now I keep a supply of poison and bleed weaponry in my inventory just to deal with such players.