illusorywall

How the Crystalians' Poise Works

Added 2022-07-14 03:22:38 +0000 UTC

The poise episode script is about halfway done, hoping to have the writing finished with audio recorded by this weekend.

In the meantime, just figured I'd share a bit about what's going on the Crystalians. You may have noticed that earlier in the fight they'll tank through everything, and then after the first time you break their stance, you can stagger them easily. The tankiness vs. easy flinching that occurs before-and-after that first stance break doesn't invoke the poise mechanic directly in any way, it's just an inherent "dmg level" / stagger property that changes during the fight. Poise is only involved in the full stance-breaking that allows for critical attacks.

For that, they have 70 poise and an infinite refill timer. They're the only enemy to have their poise never refill (until it's completely broken), making them unique in this regard. So if you're playing defensively, the good news is that you're never punished in any way for letting a lot of time pass between attacks.

There's no single attack at your disposal that can drain 70 poise, but here's a few things that drain 35 or more, allowing you to break their stance with just two of these. This is without the Wondrous Physick poise damage boost:

Charged R2s and Guard Counters, both 1-handed or 2-handed:

Colossal Swords
Hammers
Flails
Great Hammers
(most) Colossal Weapons

Charged R2s and Guard Counters, 2-handed only:

Heavy Thrusting Swords
Greataxes

Charged R2s, 2-handed only:

Curved Greatswords

If you're curious about another weapon or spell's ability to drain 70 poise let me know and I'd be happy to check how many attacks it should take to break a Crystalian's stance with it.