As a Tarnished who has walked the shattered lands countless times since the game's release, I can attest that the art of the parry in Elden Ring remains one of the most satisfying, yet brutally demanding, skills to master. While the freedom to craft any build imaginable is the game's beating heart—a symphony of possibilities against the silence of despair—choosing to face the demigods and horrors of The Lands Between and the Land of Shadows with nothing but a well-timed deflect is a path of pure, self-imposed masochism. It’s a dance on a razor's edge, where a single misstep isn't just a mistake; it’s a punctuation mark of failure written in your own blood. In 2026, with the community's collective knowledge fully matured, the challenge of mastering these parries has evolved from a mystery into a precise science of pain. Let's revisit the bosses that continue to make that parrying journey feel like trying to catch lightning in a teacup.
The Early Trial: Tree Sentinel
For the fresh-faced Tarnished stepping into Limgrave, the Tree Sentinel stands as a gilded, moving tutorial on humility. While he's often bypassed and returned to later, attempting to parry him with starting gear is like trying to stop a freight train with a feather. His halberd swings are deceptively heavy, and the parry windows for beginners are as fleeting as a ghost in the mist. A couple of ill-timed attempts often result in a swift, crushing end. The fight teaches a fundamental lesson: sometimes, the best parry is knowing when to come back with a better weapon.
The First True Gatekeeper: Margit, The Fell Omen
Ah, Margit. For many, he is the first real skill-check, a wall that separates the curious from the committed. Parrying him is a lesson in tempo. His first phase offers some readable openings, but his second phase is a dramatic escalation—a calm river suddenly transforming into a raging rapid. His aggression spikes, his combos extend, and his speed makes finding that perfect parry frame feel like threading a needle during an earthquake. It’s a frantic, beautiful chaos that demands respect and a quick weapon to match his pace.
The Spectral Menace: Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree
The encounter with Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree is a brutal reminder of how Elden Ring recycles and refines. She is her Caria Manor counterpart, but amplified—every magical glaive sweep is faster, every thrust more punishing. The challenge in parrying her isn't necessarily in recognizing the openings, which are somewhat consistent. No, the true difficulty lies in the multitasking: you must simultaneously dance around her sweeping magical attacks—a ballet performed in a hailstorm of glintstone—while staying close enough to capitalize on the brief melee windows she provides. It’s a exhausting test of spatial awareness and patience.
The Relentless Duo & Their Kin: Crucible Knights
If there were a poster child for "parry practice," it would be the Crucible Knights. These are not bosses in the traditional sense, but they fight with the precision and ferocity of one. They are the game's master swordsmen, their movements a blend of bestial fury and knightly discipline. Parrying them is like trying to predict the path of a ricocheting bullet. Their attacks are lightning-fast, often feature deceptive delays, and their duo fight is an exercise in controlled panic. However, mastering their timings is immensely rewarding, as it teaches fundamentals that apply to nearly every humanoid enemy in the game. Their fight rewards are just the cherry on top of a very tough, but satisfying, cake.
| Crucible Knight Challenge | Why It's Hard to Parry |
|---|---|
| Speed | Attack wind-ups are incredibly short. |
| Delayed Attacks | They masterfully hold strikes to catch panic rolls and parries. |
| Aggression | They leave very little breathing room between combos. |
| The Duo Fight | Managing two at once requires flawless situational awareness. |
The Summoner in the Storm: Commander Niall
Commander Niall presents a unique parry challenge because the fight is a two-act play. First, you must efficiently dispatch his two spectral knight summons, a frantic scramble in its own right. Only then does the real duel begin. Niall himself is a tempest in plate armor. His attacks, especially his lightning-infused kicks and sweeps, are punishingly powerful and deceptively timed. Attempting to parry him is an act of supreme confidence, as a single miss against his delayed frosty slams often leads to a stun-lock and death. This fight feels less like a duel and more like disarming a bomb with a hair-trigger.
The Goddess of Rot: Malenia, Blade of Miquella
Of course, we arrive at Malenia. Even in 2026, her name is spoken with a mix of reverence and terror. Parrying her is the ultimate high-risk, high-reward strategy. Successfully deflecting her flurry of attacks can break her posture and open her up for critical hits, potentially skipping her dreaded Waterfowl Dance. But the cost of failure is catastrophic. Every missed parry not only deals massive damage but also heals her, turning your mistakes into her sustenance. Learning her parry timings is like memorizing the notes of a song played at triple speed, where a single wrong note feeds the performer. She remains the pinnacle of the base game's parry challenge, a beautiful, relentless storm of scarlet rot and steel.
The DLC's Duelist: Rellana, Twin Moon Knight
The Shadow of the Erdtree DLC brought a new pantheon of challenges, and Rellana stands tall among them. She is a parry-focused player's nightmare and dream rolled into one. Wielding twin blades, her attacks are a relentless, swirling tempest of steel. The windows to parry are microscopic, buried within flurries that seem to have no end. Her rhythm is erratic, a jazz improvisation against the classical compositions of earlier bosses. Some veterans find a groove, but for many, parrying Rellana feels like trying to catch individual raindrops in a hurricane.
The Cursed Blade: Maliketh, the Black Blade
Finally, we have Maliketh, the Black Blade, who presents a unique philosophical challenge to the parry purist. The act of parrying him is bifurcated. Some of his faster, beast-like slashes can be deflected with a standard parry. However, his most devastating attacks, the ones imbued with the power of his destined death, require a specific key: the Blasphemous Claw. This adds a layer of meta-knowledge to the fight. Simply being skilled at parrying is not enough; you must first know that you need a specific, easy-to-miss item to fully engage with his mechanics. It makes him a peculiar entry on this list—a boss whose parry difficulty is partly rooted in the player's own preparedness and discovery, a puzzle box you must solve before you can even attempt to open it with skill alone.
In conclusion, the journey to become a parry master in Elden Ring is a pilgrimage through escalating tiers of punishment. Each of these bosses serves as a harsh but fair teacher, their relentless attacks grinding your reflexes into a sharp, precise tool. In 2026, facing them with a shield or a parrying dagger in hand remains one of the most pure and rewarding ways to experience the brutal ballet of FromSoftware's masterpiece. 🛡️⚔️