I did some testing in Dark Souls 3, regarding poise and "hyper armor".
First I tried to replicate tests I had done before, regarding whether it makes a difference to wear a full Catarina set or go naked when it comes to getting stunlocked. I did this against the mobs with straight swords right in between Cemetery of Ash and the Ludex Gundyr bonfire.
What I found is that poise doesn't matter. Whether I have 30 poise or 0 poise, I was able to get stunlocked by their straight swords. I did the test again with the Guts Greatsword, and found that it has hyper armor in its active frames, but this is not affected by my armor or poise. Whether I was naked or in full Catarina, I was able to absorb a hit in the active part of my attack, and was able to be stunlocked in the startup part of it. It did not matter whether I was one-handing or two-handing a weapon, or whether I was using R1 or R2 attacks. With my straight sword, even my jumping R2 attack was getting stunlocked, even in the active frames of it (which even resulted in my eating a critical hit, evidenced by extra damage and sound effect).
Before coming back to armor and damage absorption, let me note down what I found regarding weapons and hyper armor.
-Hyper Armor: Ultra Greatswords, Curved Greartswords, Greataxes, Great Hammers, and Great Shields.
-NO Hyper Armor: Daggers, Straight Swords, Greatswords (not Guts'), Curved Swords, Thursting Swords, Axes, Hammers, Katanas, Spears, Pikes, Halberds, Reapers, Whips, Fists, Bows, Greatbows, Crossbows, Staffs, Small Shields, and Medium Shields.
About damage absorption: A full Catarina set says that it has around 28.9% physical and 30.6% slash resistance, but in testing the damage I received from those same enemies in Cemetery of Ash, I found that in practice the armor was reducing the damage I took by about 38.6%, which is a higher percentage than any of the stats the full Catarina set gives me. I am not wearing any defense rings, and in fact my status page was clearly describing around 29% physical damage absorption when the set was equipped, and 0% when I was naked. So I don't know what to think here, other than the stats being plain wrong, or maybe they were updated in the latest patch but the values it shows in the item description and status screen weren't updated, I don't know. That said, a full Catarina set weighs 42.7 units, which equates to a whole lot of stat points that could be put into Vigor for a better return.
So technically you can play as a naked zombie with two Greatshields and go around blocking and attacking with hyper armor, and you'll probably beat people wearing Full Catarina + Dark Sword.
Now one thing I need to test still is what weapons stunlock opponents, and do their armors matter. It's well known that a straight sword can stunlock both naked hollows and the Abyss Watchers alike, but not Winged Knights. Can an Ultra Greatsword do that? Or is the hyper armor an Ultra Greatsword offers literally the only tactical advantage it offers over straight swords that have less than 1/4 the weight?
doing gods work, son
>>334918616
I wish Dark Souls had a cute loli.
>>334919580
>He doesn't know
>>334918616
you know his name is Iudex and nor Ludex?
can you do some testing on the skill stomp?
does it affect poise or is it actually some kind of hyper armor?
>>334918616
>NO Hyper Armor: Greatswords (not Guts')
I've been using the Flamberge, and I can't be staggered during the mid-point of an R1 by any weapon class smaller than it.
>>334918616
dont you get hyper armor with axes when you use the special shout that boosts atk and then use charged attacks?
because that changes the moveset quite a bit
>>334919983
i think WAs have hyper armor, leaping slash and the flame lariat from claws and demon fists respectively, definitely have hyper armor.
So what I tested just now is the ability of weapons to stunlock. Against "small" enemies, including the early Lothric Knights, even daggers can stagger them. However Lothric Knights are able to cancel out of of a stunlock animation into an attack, effectively forcing you to block or dodge rather than keep attacking. Cathedral Knights, on the other hand, cannot be stunlocked no matter what. Instead, they seem to function with a different system in which by hitting them multiple times, you eventually stagger them, giving you a chance for extra hits. I think it's the same system by which most bosses work (except the Abyss Watchers, as mentioned earlier). I then tested whether I had hyper armor against Cathedral Knights, and I got very mixed results. It almost seems like I've got a 50/50 chance of getting that hyper armor against the Cathedral Knight with the Ultra Greatsword right outside the Deacons of the Deep. He of course has hyper armor no matter what, at least against my UGS.
By the way if someone has had different results from mine and tests them, please point out where I'm wrong.
>>334919823
Stomp is most definitely hyper armor. I'll test it more, but from what I understand it simply gives you one hit of hyper armor as soon as you activate it, unlike a UGS which only gives you hyper armor once the attack is on its active and not startup frames.
>>334919816
Cause Iudex means judge and he judges who gets in Firelink brah
>>334920280
>>334919983
>>334919968
I just tested the axe and blacksmith hammer's skills. Warcry allows you to do that charged R2 move as mentioned. It makes you charge into enemies, tackling them back when you touch them. However, if they hit you before you reach them they'll stagger you. Perseverance, on the other, activates hyper armor the moment you press L2, just like Stomp.
You can still use Stomp and Perseverance to get hyper armor against the Cathedral Knight's UGS attacks. However, Stomp's hyper armor gets staggered by certain attacks like kicks, while Perseverance just...perseveres. The Axe's charged R2 attack with Warcry on doesn't do shit against the Cathedral Knight, by the way. They just take the tackle like a champ.
Regarding the Flamberge having hyper armor against certain weapons, I think you could be right. Remember I'm doing all my hyper armor tests against enemies with either Straight Swords or UGS, so it could be that hyper armor is actually a relative thing. That said, I couldn't get hyper armor on my regular Greatswords against Straight Swords, so maybe I need to try it better, or there's something kooky going on.
hyper armor meta when?
>>334921435
Any tests on Perseverance damage reduction? Does it make you take less punishment than Stomp?
I just had the weirdest results with an Executioner Greatsword (class is regular Greatsword). Basically, without armor, I just simply unable to get any hyper armor on it. Even with full Catarina, I was completely unable to get hyper armor on the one-handed R1. But the two-handed R1, however, would sometimes get hyper armor very late into its animation when I was wearing the full Catarina set. That same two-handed attack never could get hyper armor when naked, so it seems like Poise actually might be helping in this case. This is the only case I've found where armor and poise have made a difference.
This game's mechanics got their shit all sorts of fucked up family.
>>334921945
>hyper armor meta when?
Maybe if poise gets patched. Right now, someone using a greatshield and spear never has to get close enough to you to deal with hyper armor bullshit.
>>334922203
Maybe it's based on weapon weight? Claymore weights the same and has similar animations, so try seeing if it behaves the same way.
>>334922013
>Any tests on Perseverance damage reduction? Does it make you take less punishment than Stomp?
I'm doing this naked against the running stab attack of the mobs in Cemetery of Ashes.
Stomp = 160 damage
Perseverance = 176
I tested it with the stomp of both the Dark Sword and Guts' Greatsword. Sorry senpai.
>>334922438
My knightslayer ring says fuck your shield
>smash estoc turtle's shield with BKGA from its max range
>guardbroke
>eats the riposte
>dies like a bitch
Knightslayer Ring, get it, use it, love it.
I tested Greatswords of various weights. With all of them, it's the same issue of only having hyper armor on two-handed R1 attacks IF I'm wearing armor. By the way it doesn't seem to matter whether I'm wearing the full Catarina set or only the chest-piece. Actually I just tested it with only the Shadow Garb chest-piece (total of 3.5 poise), and I'm succeeding in getting hyper armor.
As an aside, I almost think that I get hyper armor frames earlier with the Wolf Knight's Greatsword, which is heavier than the Claymore, but that could just be my imagination.
>>334923229
>estoc
You'd get hit with the lance before you get in range. Or you can eat a Shield bash. Or the other guy can just not be an idiot and roll away. I'm not saying use a Greatshield and turtle like it's Street Fighter 4, I'm saying just have a greatshield and use it normally. It's less heavy than armor and more effective at defense, and you have leftover points for Health and Stamina.
>>334922846
Then what the hell is the point of perseverance?
I'm about done with this testing familia. My conclusions are these:
Even though the stats for armor damage absorption are better in testing than the numbers indicate, it still means less than 40% defense on a full Catarina set, for more than 40 points of weight. I think it's a better investment to put those points into HP and Stamina, and replace armor with a shield.
Hyper armor seems to be affected very slightly by your poise, and to a larger extent by whether you are one-handing or two-handing a weapon. So even Guts' Greatsword has many more frames of hyper armor when two-handing it naked, than when one-handing it in full Catarina. You can use hyper armor reliably in the first case, but not in the second case. So if you want hyper armor, focus on two-handing one of the very heavy weapons. As far as armor goes, since Poise is overwhelmingly insignificant, go instead for an armor with good defense-to-weight ratio, such as the Shadow Garb.
>>334923950
>Then what the hell is the point of perseverance?
From what I gather only that it doesn't get broken by kicks, unlike stomp.So it might be the right skill for beating THE CHAMP. Maybe it works the same against the Force miracle, who knows. Otherwise, I'd say treat it exactly like it was stomp, just with a non-Berserk animation.
>>334919580
Dark Souls 1 was supposed to have a cute loli but was scrapped because of time constraints.
