Parry and Riposte (Dark Souls II)

Parry and Riposte are techniques of delivering critical attacks to enemies coming from original Dark Souls but with a number of minor differences that may be slightly confusing to those who mastered these techniques in the first game.

Parrying
Parrying is performed by pressing or holding the left-hand strong attack (LT/L2) while having equipped a left-hand shield (Small Shields and Medium Shields only) or a right-hand weapon when it's 2-handed (with a number of exceptions). This move creates a 'parrying window' which has different length for different equipment. If the enemy's attack is caught in this window, they become staggered and after a short period fall to the ground. There are two possible riposte moves that can be triggered after parrying an attack: a standing riposte and a ground riposte (see below).

Most humanoid enemies can be parried as well as backstabbed and are vulnerable to guard break. There are rare examples of enemies that can only be parried, but not backstabbed and not even riposted (The Pursuer is a known example; the parry move can still be used to stun him for a few seconds which is useful).

Differences from Dark Souls

 * The biggest difference is that there are 2 different riposte moves that can be used after parry instead of one (see below).
 * The second biggest difference lies in timing. In Dark Souls II parry move needs to be activated as soon as you see the enemy's attack animation start (for fast and medium weapons like daggers, straight swords, curved swords, etc.) or somewhere mid-swing (for slow weapons like greatswords, great hammers, etc.). In constrast to that in the first game parry had to be activated just at the end of the animation (which is arguably more difficult).
 * The parrying/riposting player/enemy still receive very small amount of damage when attacked.

Weapons and shields that cannot parry

 * Reapers and Halberd can only be used to block when 2-handed and don't have a parry move.
 * Staves, Sacred Chimes, Pyromancy Flame cannot parry irregardless of which hand they are equipped in or whether or not they're two-handed because they have a punching animation in the strong attack slot.
 * Weapons and shields that have a special function bound to left-hand strong attack slot (like build-in augmentation of the Defender Greatsword or spellcasting functions of Sanctum Shield).

Minor notes

 * When a weapon is 2-handed but is equipped in the left-hand slot rather than the right-hand slot, its moveset is reversed and the parry move should be activated by RT/R2 instead of LT/L2.
 * Weapons don't have a parry move in their moveset when power-stanced.

Riposting
Riposte is the attack that can be performed right after an attack has been parried. Riposting deals critical damage (more than a backstab). The correlation between standard weapon damage and weapon's critical damage is determined by the weapon's critical parameter which usually varies between 100 and 150. Thrusting weapons deal more damage than other types of weapons, which can be further boosted by wearing Old Leo Ring.

Types of Riposte
There are basically 3 types of riposte in Dark Souls II:
 * Ground Riposte (Knockdown riposte). This is the type of riposte most widely used by players and very easy to pull off. Right after the enemy has been parried, after a second or so they will fall to the ground and will stay there for several seconds. At this time the player has to stand in front of the enemy and press R1/RB to initiate the riposte. Note that while the enemy is on the ground they cannot do anything, but the player can move freely and thus can be damaged by other enemies or types of damage.


 * Standing Riposte. This attack is similar to Riposte in the first game. It's performed right after parry, when the enemy hasn't yet fallen to the ground. It deals more damage than the Ground Riposte but is much more difficult to perform. The window for this riposte seems to be between the staggered animation and falling animation (although the transition is actually smooth and there is no change of animation). If performed unsuccessfully the player performs a regular attack and stops the enemy's staggered/falling state, for that reason many players prefer to safely perform the Ground Riposte.
 * Frontal Riposte. This can be performed right after using Guard Break on an enemy that was blocking. It's a very powerful attack and generally seems to be identical to Ground Riposte.

Weapons that cannot Riposte

 * Bows
 * Crossbows
 * Staves
 * Sacred Chimes
 * Pyromancy Flame
 * Shields