Poise question.

I've been looking at poise breakpoints and the highest one is at 72 poise, so is it worth getting more than 72 poise? Seems like a waste to wear heavy armor if the poise will break none the less.

You rarely even need to go over 31 it depends on your weapon and fighting style.

The top is actually 77 for Ultra weapons. 36 will give you enough for one handed greatswords so thats generally the best stopping point now. 62 is good for stopping 2 katana or spears hits. The main reason to go above 77 is if you're using a slow weapon like an ultra weapon. You want to make sure you dont get stunlocked mid swing so it depends on your weapon.

Well here's the build i'm currently going for: http://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/?c=414028725347263675

I'll probably use it for high lvl PVP and i don't really mind the mid-roll, but i could probably get some better armor if i don't need 119 poise lol.

Yeah full giant's or havel's for poise is just unnecessary. I've never noticed a difference in poise at the ultra high levels (somewhere over 100).

poise is like a stamina bar. when you run out of poise you stagger, and it regenerates over time.

people like to go to very high levels of poise because it allows them to take lots of hits from different weapons.. be it because they like trading hits, are unable to dodge for whatever reason or like to do poise backstabs.

it's something that comes down to preference, and you should find a breakpoint that you find the build and you do well at, but does not exceed the amount you actually need.

so.. try and see what the build will allow and see what works. 31, 53, 76 or higher.

i tend to use 31 or 53, but i try to aim for 53.

I usualy get to 30+ myself, but never much over it. Typically in my fights, i find people playing fairly and not R1 spamming or i get spammed to death and poise is worthless. (Yes, parry. I do but i'm just using an example). Poise is such a disaster of a game design anyway. It totally changed gameplay, and im not 100% sure i like it. But i see the potential of it. It just needs some fine tuning. As far as going over 76...general agreement seems to be that its a waste. I never notice any difference and i tried doing the tank style. Once i broke that 70 barrier it was all the same for me.

I re-made my build a little so it gets 89 pose instead of 119, which gives me 20 more points into faith instead of wasting it into endurance. And i'm pretty sure that dmg is far better than a tiny 20-30 points of defense at high lvl PVP.

I like 62 if I'm using slow weapons and or medium rolling. Keeps the black flame from stunning and one handed R1 spammers from stunning with two hits.

SublimeSinner wrote:I like 62 if I'm using slow weapons and or medium rolling. Keeps the black flame from stunning and one handed R1 spammers from stunning with two hits.

I'm not too familiar with the poise brackets, but if this is true then 62 would probably be the magic number as Black Flames are aplenty in pvp.

Some poise break stuff:

Light weapons deal 5 poise damage.
Medium weapons deal 20 poise damage.
Heavy weapons deal 35 poise damage.
Ultra weapons deal 50 poise damage.

Black Knight Greataxe is a special case and deals 40 poise damage. Great Combust also deals 40 poise damage. Black Flame deals 60. Fireball deals 80.

If you two-hand a weapon, it deals 1.5x poise damage rounded down. Most R2's deal the same poise damage as the R1, but there are exceptions which I have no documentation on, but I know a couple off the top of my head like Silver Knight Sword.

I'm not positive, but from experience running attacks seem to deal like 1 or 2 more poise damage than R1's.

To resist an attack you need 1 poise more than its poise damage. E.G., Claymore does 35 poise damage, so two-handed it deals 52.5, rounded down is 52, so you need 53 poise to resist it. Two Uchi 2H R1's would be 61. For a Zweihander 2H R1, you need 76. Etc.