How can I counter katanas?

1) The best tactic: learn to parry them. I personally find that difficult, so...
2) Stack some poise and try to break their poise. What I find is that a lot of katana users like to spam the R1, which is great if you use this tactic and can stand about two hits from their weapon. So, what I like to do is stack up my poise so I can take three or four hits from the katanas. I use a buffed Falchion (any curved sword should work though) 2-handed. As they spam the attack, they may lose track of their own poise. The Falchion is a stun-locking beast once you break their poise so the key is to break their poise before they break yours.

Try kicking. A lot of players tend to forget that by kicking, you can temporarily stun your opponent and land a free hit. This is especially useful against players who use light weapons and 2-hand them.

Hit them with something longer.

^Can't believe I didn't think of that, bloodpixel. A spear, perhaps?

Yep. In a way, this game can become a game of rock paper scissors if you aren't prepared. In order to avoid this I have all my best weapons right next to each other, each designed for a different task.

BSS/Leo ring. They don't spam the dash attack as much when it costs them 500-700 hp a pop.

Parry should be solution for any R1 spam so practice that especially if your build doesn't allow switching to longer and heavier weapon.

Parry - learn it. You will die alot learning, but it will be worth it. Check YouTube for instructional videos.

use a spear (i will suggest the pike) with the leo ring. once you see they start to spam attacks, hit them with 2 handed R1 attacks. you will do something like 600 damage each hit. they will be dead in a few seconds.

Strafe from side to side. I can't say how much this has helped me when facing katanas. This is only when they have the distance, by the way. They'll normally go for the dashing thrust attack, so if I'm circling around then it easily misses. They're either open for a backstab or a quick hit. Pick your poison.

This is a tactic I like to use against those "good" katana users. I'm talking about those guys you see on YouTube and only attack at max range so it's tougher to parry. Besides that learning to parry them, BSS+Leo, and long weapons are all great choices.

So, let me get this right: You are new to pvp and you win the "majority" of your matches? :shock: Wow, that's impressive. What are you, a dark magic spammer or hornet user?

martyrsbrigade99 wrote:So, let me get this right: You are new to pvp and you win the "majority" of your matches? :shock: Wow, that's impressive. What are you, a dark magic spammer or hornet user?

Or maybe he's just a fast learner?
And he already stated that he uses SSS and the bastard sword.

martyrsbrigade99 wrote:So, let me get this right: You are new to pvp and you win the "majority" of your matches? :shock: Wow, that's impressive. What are you, a dark magic spammer or hornet user?

mabey he's just good? thats also an option :roll:

I'm pretty sure that was sarcasm guys.
He probably is just a quick learner, though. I started winning a majority of my fights only a week after starting to duel because I took a crash course on YouTube from martyrsbrigade, Some guy, and ewgf.

Katanas can be very easy or very difficult to deal with. Depends on the player, obviously, like every weapon.

Usually try to determine what kind of katana wielder I am dealing with. Take a hit from them, (unless it is buffed it won't hurt too bad), if they swing twice in a row; congratulations, you are dealing with a bad Katana user, and you will be winning most likely.

Do the same thing again, and after taking the first hit, just parry, it is practically like an auto-parry. There is a video out there of it. (I think it might be martyr's brigade, not sure).

If they are a good katana user, they will not hit R1 more than once in a row, and you will have to resort to one of the other tactics discussed in this thread.

I'm beginning to doubt the effectiveness of parrying altogether. I've found that usually the parry and riposte don't OHKO for me, so when my opponent gets up, they play really conservatively (AKA backstab fish) the rest of the fight.

As an avid katana user, i have most trouble with any type of long range thrust weapon.

Glutebrah wrote:As an avid katana user, i have most trouble with any type of long range thrust weapon.

^ This. Spears are not my friend. Spears usually force me to roll-parry or try to outrange them. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't.

Acarnatia wrote:Can anyone please tell me a few effective means of countering katanas?

Hack your avatar's shield into Dark Souls and activate Blessed Riposte.

(Then send me instructions on how to do it.)

With your poise I would say tank a hit and parry the second swing. However I'm having trouble with katanas on my 0 poise build, because I can't do that. Any suggestions for -me-? lol

^^^ spears + leo ring. thats all you are going to need even if you have 0 poise.