Stab circles while parrying. A waste of time?

[gr00veh0lmes]

I fight dual, with a 3s stun on p parry.

Stab circles that break an enemy combo give me enough time to MAYBE get off one combo if i'm lucky.

I've been ignoring them and going for the dodge break. This gives me time for two swipes, four combos and one ultra.

If I'm fast enough maybe two more swipes and one more combo too! (very rarely).

With the on screen support for "great parry" and "perfect parry" I'd been led to belive that parrying was regarded more highly by the game, but it seems not.

So......Go for the dodge, it's not easier than parrying but it does pay better dividends.

[DarthDuck]

Well on light I've always wondered the same. Light gives you three stab opportunities with a special but if you just skip them and start slashing it seems like you can deal at least as much damage. I suppose it wouldn't be that hard to test but in general I don't appreciate the blue circle gameplay. I'm sure most chimpanzees can stab blue circles.

[=Silver=]

Here is my experience.

There are two types of circles in dual:

1. Parry reward.
It goes at the end of the combos or if you interrupt it with the parry, after it you get multiple circles going one after another. More circles you get with Break gem equipped. There could be circles appearing in parallel (not consecutive), but I'm not sure if it's not a glitch. After it you get automatic stab session followed by a time-bound attack window. And this is not good as we know, because they can be either 7 or more rare 9 hits (x-x-2x-2x-2x-2x-3x or x-x-2x-2x-2x-2x-2x-2x-3x). Another bug with these type of circles - is a much worse registering of gestures after the stab session. I personally don't like it cause in average you do more damage with simple hit-bound window which is 9 to 11 hits. Even if you get 9 hit window which is more often in hit-bound windows you do equal or more damage than stabs + usual 7 hits (not saying about bad register problems): 4x ~ nx/3. So, if you make more than n=12 stabs in a stab session and make no mistakes after it, you make a little bit more damage, but comparing to 11 hit window (which is not so rare as 9 hit in time-bound window), it's a loose.

2. Interrupting circle.
This is a single stab opportunity which interrupts a stepback (taken from IB1). Pros is that you can interrupt the combo. Cons - is that you have only 4 hit window to make a simple huge combo. The rule here is: if you are sure you may counter the combo without using this stab DON'T EVER TOUCH THE CIRCLE, and instead of 4 hit window you may get 11 hit one. Beware of a worse trap: sometimes you may get that type of circles at the end of the combo - be sure not to touch it incidentally.

[gr00veh0lmes]

More circles you get with Stun gem equipped.

This hasn't been my experience. I've always had more stab circles from the Titan Break Gems.

With the Stun on P Parry gem, I find I get a maximum of 5 to 6 stab circles. I generally use the opportunity to stab, but reading your post has changed my mind. Thanks Silver.

[=Silver=]

Thanks groove, fixed this typo. Of course I was talking about Titan Break gem

[dknowle]

It's not worth it to go for those stabs using S&S either. Unless it is a super or super type break it just reduces your hit window.