Opinions on Parry for Moonlord / Lunar Knight

[Giodante]

Most of the guides I've seen recommend at least level 1 Parry for Moonlords, but they never explain why. Sometimes they'll say that it's broken and is required, or mention that it has an i-frame and short cooldown, but that's it.

I've tried using Parry, and without the awakening, I'm not impressed, and have stopped using it entirely. It only seems to work half the time, if that, and when it doesn't I take a hit and get knocked down. I have more than enough i-frames as it is, and seem to do much more DPS and take far fewer hits when I just don't bother with it. This applies to PVP as well.

Instead of Parry, I've gotten the entire Gladiator line and Dash Slash + Dash Combo. They're all really useful in PVP, and I use Forward Thrust and Frenzied Charge all the time in PVE for mobility and evasion. Getting the most out of your Moonlord's skills involves a lot of precise positioning, so these skills influence my bottom line DPS in a positive way even though they themselves don't deal much.

So will someone please explain to me what I'm doing wrong, and why Parry is a must-have? I really am not seeing it. What would you drop for it?

[lightweight]

I think you answered the question yourself. Parry (especially the unawakened version) isn't necessary on a LK, it's just a safety net that offers a decent counter (high % @ lv2). If you find you're rarely using it, then drop it. The reason others opt for it is because awakened LK magic skills have fairly low cooldowns, which means one will rarely find themselves using anything in the "physical" tree, so they dump the extra SP into parry.

[Hekaiyo]

In PvP Parry lv1 is almost mandatory, while lv2 is entirely unnecessary. Gladiator skills are also highly required, so I'm not surprised at your observations there.

However, in PvE Parry can potentially have very high DPS if you use it correctly, and there's not much else to dump SP in anyway. You can actually land up to 5 hits from Parry, resulting in an absurd amount of damage. Lv1 Parry is also still useful for the utility. Even though there are a billion i-frames already, another one won't hurt, especially one on a 5 second cooldown, MP drain notwithstanding.

[Giodante]

In PvP Parry lv1 is almost mandatory, while lv2 is entirely unnecessary. Gladiator skills are also highly required, so I'm not surprised at your observations there.

However, in PvE Parry can potentially have very high DPS if you use it correctly, and there's not much else to dump SP in anyway. You can actually land up to 5 hits from Parry, resulting in an absurd amount of damage. Lv1 Parry is also still useful for the utility. Even though there are a billion i-frames already, another one won't hurt, especially one on a 5 second cooldown, MP drain notwithstanding.

So how do you effectively use it? Whenever I try to actually get a counterattack off, half the time I just take a hit and get knocked down, as if the skill didn't even do anything...

[Hekaiyo]

It's hard to tell what exactly it is that's going wrong without watching. It's possible that you're trying to parry attacks that can't be blocked, such as bar mechs. Or maybe you're using it too early or too late. Or maybe you're just simply really laggy.

[Goodwill]

Parry is a great way to keep up your DPS and stay close to a boss. It also allows you to reserve your iframes for "oh-crap" moments, or namely attacks you can block, but will still apply a status debuff like Kodiak poison waves.

The downside to parry in recent caps is that not all attacks are block-able. So you do have to trial and error to see what you can and can't block. General rule of thumb is that bar mechanic wipes can't be blocked. Also don't try blocking continuous attacks either. Sure, you'll block the first hit, and iframe the second, but what about third, fourth, fifth and sixth?

[RandomSwordsman]

Before it makes sense to drop parry since lunar knights were middle range. Now we play the melee game. Parry is good when you are up in the boss face and there is no time dodge at of it. It has so many uses. Messed up ur timing on stomp mechs. Parry. Land in a terrible spot with mbd and boss about to attack. Parry. Boss about to hit u and u are in the middle of casting Cresent cleave. Parry. Parry saves lives man. Lunar knights only have three iframe: eclipse, tumble, and parry. Five if u know how to use front shove iframe and circle break.

[Anime Garbage]

Parry is a completely safe broken move that you can just throw around when you're getting comboed to completely change neutral. It has active frames that last far too deceptively long, and when you consider network discrepancies as well, you may as well just drop the combo and run away when an SM uses it.

Like, if anyone is comboing you, do brush off and instantly parry. You just magically shift in the air into a parry stance and knock them away for really really good damage if they for whatever reason assume a combo is a combo until they drop.

For SM, parry is basically auxiliary feint, which is really weird because MLs have Eclipse and glads have actual feint, so its just a free as fuck escape as long as brush off is off CD.

Both SM classes are insanely slippery and good at escapes. Personally I think parry is unnecessary for both PvP wise, but the amount of people that use it regardless might sway you to that side.

PvE, idk. iFrames are iFrames and some gimmick attacks from mobs might be able to be avoided completely with a Forward -> Tumble -> Parry -> Eclipse/Feint

That's like a 4 or 5 second iFrame.