Thanks to the speedrunning scene, we now have several techniques to beat bosses within a few seconds. Parrying the Pursuer for time to use the crossbow, fooling the Dragonrider into falling off his platform… But the best, and most fun, is the stunlock method.
There are a couple bosses this works great against, but it’s actually just a fun and addictive way to play the game. It’s also very easy to pull off.
First, grab two clubs, or two maces. You’ll be dual-wielding these. You’ll also need to get your strength to 150% of the required strength for the weapon (18 and above is fine), so you can enter the power stance. This is done by holding Triangle or Y for a second. You’ll notice a slight shift in stance.
In the power stance, L1 will do a swing with both clubs. L2 will do three hits in succession. Clubs and maces do lots of poise damage, and once your enemy’s poise limit is reached, they’ll be stunned for a few seconds — during which time you can start to do more poise damage.
Using the L2 should be able to poise break enemies over and over. Your stamina will be low, but just wait until you have a little bit left, then do it again. Don’t be afraid to go into negative stamina. Bosses particularly susceptible to this are the Ruin Sentinels, and Mytha, but it can work great against others as well — even harder bosses like the Lost Sinner or Smelter Demon.
I prefer clubs because of the range, moveset, and A scaling with strength. It’s easy to just keep upgrading Strength and get a lot of damage along with your stunlocking strat. Just remember that for the first second or so after an enemy is poise broken, they’re immune to poise damage, so I usually just leave one breath before starting again.
There are speedrunners who use this technique only for specific parts of their run, and they’re a lot better than I am (my best Any % time is just under 3 hours), but the following video illustrates the idea well enough:
Happy hunting!
Comments
5 responses to “How To Stunlock Bosses In Dark Souls 2”
I miss your sassy face on my TV Junglist
The mace is very OP due to its poise damage and scaling and is a great starting weapon if you just want to blast through everything. I actually learned about this stuff a few months ago by watching someone else who figured it out. Once I tried it myself, it was hard to let go.
Am I the only one who doesn’t see this as fun?
Whoever said real Nerdom died with written D&D hasn’t played video games.
With that kind of damage I don’t know if the stunlock really matters…
What kind of a insane damage is that? And what armor is that?