Block

Blocking is an important defensive mechanic in Sands of Aura.

Blocking:

Blocking an attack prevents all health damage it would deal to you, and instead you only take poise damage. Once your poise drops to 0, your shield is broken, and you are stunned for several seconds. Some attacks are unblockable, such as Ubaani's undergroud fist attack. Most Ranged projectile attacks can be blocked and parried.

Poise:

Currently, Poise is equal to 60% of your max Health. Damage you take is dealt to poise if you are blocking. If your poise drops to 0 while blocking, you are stunned.

Poise begins to recover 2 seconds after the last time you took poise damage and takes ~1.67 seconds to fully recover, or automatically at the end of any stagger or stun animation. Damage reduction from Armor also reduces poise damage.

Parrying:

Blocking at the correct time allows you to parry. In order to parry an attack, you must line up the enemy's 'Damage frame' with the 'Parry Window' shortly after you start blocking. The base parry window starts 0.15 seconds after the start of the block animation, and lasts for 0.175 seconds.

Bonuses to parry duration stack additively. This means that the max parry window is 0.2975 seconds long, with the +50% from One Handed Stabbing fighting Style, and up to +20% from the Lithe Riposte talisman.

Most attacks can be parried, including Bosses, though some are unparriable.

This includes ranged projectile attacks, however parrying these will have no effect on the enemy that launched them unless you have the Reflectile talisman which spawns a projectile back at the attacker.

Doing this correctly will stun the enemy in question, and prevent any poise damage the attack would deal to you - Successfully parrying an attack will never result in a broken shield.