DARK SOULS™ III

DARK SOULS™ III

152 ratings
PvP Counterplay Guide
By Skeleton
This guide illustrates counters to different styles of PvP play that may frustrate some.
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
Welcome
I see lots of guides complaining about certain styles of play as "impossible to counter" which are then followed with lots of salt. This guide intends to give those of you still playing this game some idea of how to recognize and counter the cheesier and more common styles of play.
Poise Tanks
These builds are easily recognizable by their heavy armor and large weapons. This style of play revolves around trading hits with the opponent, which favors the one with more damage per swing and more poise (the person with this build). The simple counterplay to this is to never trade. Use a fast weapon to attack before they can react or before they can recover from a swing. Alternatively, use a weapon with greater reach to avoid putting yourself at risk of trading hits. If applicable, this build can counter itself if done properly (use heavier armor and weapons with more damage per hit).
Reactive Players
This style of play is easily recognizable by a few key traits, often using weapons with long range and fast running attacks, such as the washing pole. These players will rarely strike unless they deem it safe to do so. Often, this will come in the form of running in circles just outside your weapon's reach until you swing, prompting a quick running attack as punishment. The simple counterplay to this build is never to swing unless it would force them to roll. By doing this, you ensure that they are not able to use the time that you spend recovering from your swing, meaning that they can't get easy hits when your guard is down, and they're forced to deal with your attacks more often, leaving them open to mistakes. Another useful tactic is to bait a running attack with a particularly fast attack (an offhand caestus is particularly useful for this on builds that focus more on heavy weapons, but an r1 from a mainhand light weapon will do as well) and attempt to parry the incoming running attack.
R1 Spammers
This one incites much rage against people who are too lazy to counter it. It is very easily identifiable by the use of a weapon with fast attacks, such as a straight sword, curved sword, greatsword, dagger, spear, or katana. Players will only fall under this category if you are sure that each attack they throw out is immediately after the last one, and that they never stop at only one or two attacks. Simply back up, parry if you feel confident, or outrange them as they slowly make their way over to you. Their predictability is their downfall, and you must take advantage of the fact that you know their next action to counter this style of play.
Parry Kings
This style of play may be hard to identify at first. They might have any sort of weapon in their mainhand, but they will always have a parrying tool in their offhand. Players can switch between their right hand 1 and right hand 2 slots in between parrying and riposting, so someone who appears to be using a weapon with very low riposte damage might be carrying something much more damaging in the offhand. Most players can carry daggers, but be particularly cautious if someone appears to be wearing little to no armor and has a parrying tool in the offhand, because even if they have a smough's hammer strapped to their right hand 2 slot, the only way to tell before they use it to slam your face into the dirt is their roll speed versus what they appear to have equipped. If you see a man in rags with a light weapon who is not fastrolling, be aware. The simple way to counter this playstyle is either to switch to a weapon which cannot be parried (or using unparryable attacks on the weapon you have), or carefully staggering your attacks to remain unpredictable.
DUAL WIELD
Sometimes, players chose to have a weapon in their offhand that compliments the one in their mainhand by covering its weaknesses. The most common of which features an offhand straightsword to compliment a heavy weapon or a spear. The best way to counter this is to understand that the normal counters to whatever weapon is in their right hand might not work. It also means that they are unable to use their weapon arts or parry (unless it's a fist weapon). The counter to this really depends on their setup, but I'll give general directions. Rather than playing as if you are fighting a heavy weapon or a long range weapon (usually their right hand weapon), play as if you are fighting a greatsword, which has a good mix of range, power and speed. Also note that, as they cannot two-hand or use weapon arts, every attack they throw out will be parryable.
Combo Builds
There are many setups in Dark Souls 3 that will allow a player to deal a large amount of damage across multiple hits that are unable to be escaped as long as the first is a solid hit. The key to recognizing and countering these builds is recognition both of the weapons themselves and their movesets. The two main ways to counter this are (with a fast weapon) to learn how to roll through each and every hit of their combo, then retaliate when it's done with a rolling attack or some R1s, or (with a heavy weapon) to simply poise through or sit outside the range of the early hits and, taking advantage of the fact they they're in a rather lengthy chain of animations, punishing with a powerful weapon art (Stomp is particularly well suited for this) or a charged R2.
Rollcatchers
Rollcatch comes in many shapes and sizes, and it's more of a technique than a style of play. It works by predicting the direction and time at which one rolls in order to attack exactly when and where they end up when no longer in roll-invincibility. Rather than rolling immediately as soon as possible, try to wait until they actually start their attack animation so that you end their roll after their attack ends, rather than getting caught and the end of your roll. If they wait a very long time before following up, even throwing out an attack or two of your own is a viable counter.
Mages
Mages can be recognized by their distinctive casting tools. There are only really two kinds of mages: those who use talismans, and those who don't. Allow me to explain: the simplest and easiest way to counter casting is to interrupt slow spells with fast attacks and to punish spells that come out more quickly. Make sure to remain close at all times, as any distance between you and the caster is distance you have to cross to interrupt them, leaving them safe to cast spells. Fast weapons like straight swords, most paired weapons, and anything else with quick light and running attacks works well for this purpose. Unfortunately, this isn't a workable solution when your opponent uses a talisman, as it gives them armor, meaning that they can trade extremely favorably with any attack that might interrupt them. Enemies who use talismans are very annoying to counter: the best solution is usually to wait until it's safe to hit back, treating them more as a heavy weapon user than a caster of any sort. There are a few spells, however, which have either such good range or come out and recover so quickly that punishment at melee range is virtually impossible: most notably, lightning arrow and lightning storm. Exercise great patience and caution. P.S.: Be particularly wary of any and all, but especially talisman-wielding mages in fights which are more than 1-on-1, as their ability to deal heavy damage at a range is unsurpassed and, in the case of those who use talismans (chimes too), can heal their teammates and themselves while remaining safe, if nobody is putting pressure on them.
Roll/Quickstep Builds
Any time someone pulls out a dagger and holds it with both hands, you should be concerned. This means that:
  • Any backstabs that they manage will be quick and extremely painful
  • They're now able to use the quickstep weapon art
  • Not only are the two listed above very hard to deal with on their own, they synergize very well.
Dealing with these builds can be tricky in execution, but is pretty simple in general. First and foremost, avoid leaving your back exposed for long stretches of time, so it's best to avoid heavier weapons (staying away from anything with great in its name will do). To deal with their relatively high amount of invincibility frames (points at which they can't be damaged), you're going to want to put out as many hitboxes as possible in the shortest amount of time (i.e. R1 spam). And, of course, quickstepping does consume focus; although it is very tedious, you can try to wait them out until they are out, and punishing their newfound lack of invincibility or any chugging that they attempt in order to fix that. Alternatively, (credit goes to some guy in the comments) try to bait out a dagger attack with an attack of your own and parry it.
Anything Else
I'll check the comments for anything that I might have missed. A solid strategy will help your game, but if you lack core skills then you just need to get good.
Gankers
This section details less of a counter to a specific playstyle or set thereof, but provides some good general tactical guidelines nonetheless. Gankers refer to two or more players working together to fight you at the same time. Naturally it's important to try to pay attention to as much of what they're doing as possible within reason, so careful positioning of the camera is necessary to make sure you're not caught off guard by someone off-camera. Ganking allows for many different behaviors due to the defensive nature of the tactic: generally speaking, gankers expect that they can move in and out of close combat to heal, heal their teammates with miracles, or used ranged weapons at little risk. If you are able to identify which member(s) of the gank are capable of these things, try to put light melee pressure on them without being overly commital (it's more important to stay alive than to get damage off, especially since they have a far higher combined health than you, and healing for them is going to be a lot easier than it is for you.) and only to strike when you're sure you're safe (make sure you're not getting hit by someone else while you're hitting them). However, if you're able to manage fighting against multiple people at once, and you have the patience to play really safely to prevent any damage to yourself, you CAN beat these people. Light weapons can be extremely useful, as they provide more often and safer opportunities at which you can deal damage, and due to their speed, apply far more pressure on gankers who might be attacking you at range or healing themselves or their allies were you not pressuring them. There is no singular strategy for dealing with these gankers, but make sure you are aware of whatever you have around you to your advantage, be it the environment, enemies, other invaders or perhaps summons if you're being ganked as the host, and which among those you'd be comfortable using without sacrificing your moral high ground :^). TL;DR: Pay attention, strike only when safe, apply pressure if you can.
56 Comments
-eind 6 Oct, 2024 @ 6:37am 
Xyйня лсного бомжа
J. Darksoul 28 Sep, 2022 @ 10:14am 
My personal recommendation for Rollcatchers is to pack lots of stamina into your build, enough to use a stable and defensive shield that can block out of your roll, which is usually fast enough to block their catch and give you space to back off, but never use so much stamina that you can't block and roll again to get out of range. My personal favorite here is the Black Knight Shield, but there are plenty of good options
Skeleton  [author] 30 Jul, 2022 @ 3:20pm 
you can still play the game on community servers using ds3os.

https://github.com/TLeonardUK/ds3os
the_bastarded_one 30 Jul, 2022 @ 3:05pm 
RIP this articles entire point of existing.
Average Des 5 Feb, 2020 @ 8:27am 
So learn to read every situation every weapon can be whiff punished the most important thing is your attack timing and your spacing obviously there is phantom range and latency but you learn to read that as you play.Though im a cs main i use every weapon in the game its a lot more fun using bad weapons and still winning against good players and weapons focus on having fun. If you really want to get good at spacing use broken straight sword or painting guardian cs to really test your spacing skills. When you get good enough you can beat pontiff knight cs with painters and that always feels great.
Average Des 5 Feb, 2020 @ 8:27am 
Mages, pressure them to death dont give them a chance to breath or cast if they cast and then roll when you try to hit them run up to them so they roll and roll catch them if its homing soul mass you can roll out of it after getting one roll catch r1. if they poise cast you can still get damage in the same ways they just wont flinch so play smart or safely swing once.
Roll and quickstep builds are awful you can easily roll catch both roll and quicksteps if you swing while the person is halfway through the roll you will catch them and stagger them before they can attack unless they have poise. If they have poise with a cs at least you can hit them and narrowly roll their rolling attack. Quickstep is exactly them same punish if you picture the quickstep as a roll half way through you swing and hit stun them before they can attack. Quickstep is really weak when you learn the timing to attack.
Average Des 5 Feb, 2020 @ 8:27am 
Combo weapons are a tad tricky you have to avoid being hit at all costs for the most part, i usually whiff punish the first attacks to stagger them before the rest of the combo comes out, i recommend not rolling through the combos its just risky and any good player can delay the combo or restart it to roll catch you.
For roll catching waiting for an animation is pretty good advice just make sure they arent doing a block animation to bait a roll to roll catch you. I roll catch people from full health because they panic and que roll after roll so they have no chance of getting away. Youre better off getting in the habit of holding your roll button to run and then quickly tapping roll to get out safely (if youre in range), if you run out of range and they try to roll catch, whiff punish them.
Average Des 5 Feb, 2020 @ 8:27am 
"Parry Kings" are very fun to dominate nothing is more fun than hitting them with two r1s and when they go for the 3rd swing parry using a cs WA that they cant parry and then hitting them with 2 more r1s. They usually stop trying to parry after getting read that hard. That combo can also start with the unparriable WA first then two r1s if they look like they will parry the first swing.
Dual wielding has a lot of interesting combinations however as long as they dont have poise then you can win by whiff punishing, they swing with the first attack if you space your weapon can stagger them before another swing can be used by either weapon. If they do have poise only attack after they use the heavier weapon the lighter weapon is almost always bait for a heavy follow up unless they swing the smaller weapon twice, if its a dagger be more wary they can swing more and still bait the heavy.
Average Des 5 Feb, 2020 @ 8:26am 
This is a good guide for beginners, if you really want to git gud learn to read every situation in the moment and find a counter comfortable to you. Personally I am a curved sword main and have a play-style i like to call passive aggressive. I usually use painters to challenge myself because its more fun giving the other person a better chance of winning.
Against poise monsters because I know that they want to trade I will whiff punish them and if im the one pressuring I only swing once and roll out of their attack.
Against other reactive players it all depends on who makes more mistakes, I make sure my running attacks are close enough that they either have to roll or get hit, and whiff punishing their running attacks or r1s if they try to go for one. "The Dance of the Curved Swords"
R1 spammers are literal noobs, you can out space and whiff punish them or parry them or poise slam them they are not worth worrying about.
Kitt 24 Dec, 2019 @ 12:21am 
also for the love of Gwyn, if someone teleports you to them or makes explosions from thin air, do your self a favor and alt f4 out. they're cheating and can edit your stats to get you banned.