PoE 2: Parry Explained

Parry is a defensive Skill granted by Buckler Shields in Path of Exile 2. You'll typically find Parry-related mechanics on the lower-right side of the Passive Skill Tree.

What is Parry?

Parry is a Channelling Skill that allows you to raise your equipped Buckler Shield in front of you, Blocking the next incoming Blockable Hit from the front. While Channelling the Parry Skill, you're immune to Light Stuns.

Tip: check out our guide on Blocking here to learn more about this mechanic.

Upon Blocking a Hit with the Parry Skill, you'll retaliate with an Offhand Attack against the Attacker, dealing Damage based on the inherent Evasion Rating on your equipped Buckler Shield. The Offhand Attack dealt by Parry cannot by Evaded and has 400% more Stun buildup.

Note: Blocking a Hit using Parry will count as a Blocked Hit for mechanics such as the Life gained from Vigilance.

Parried Debuff

Upon Blocking a Hit using Parry, the attacking Monster will have the Parried Debuff applied to them as long as they are within Parry range. The Parried Debuff is always applied to Monsters that have their Melee Hits Blocked by Parry, but Monsters with Ranged Hits need to be within 1 metre of you by default. This range can be improved with modifiers to Projectile Parry Range, such as the one on Resolute Reprisal.

The Parried Debuff applies '50% more Attack Damage taken' and 'Cannot Evade' to the target for 2 seconds by default. You can improve the Magnitude of the Debuff with modifiers to Parried Debuff Magnitude, such as Reprisal. You can also increase the Duration of Parried by using modifiers such as the one on Flashy Deflection.

The 'Cannot Evade' portion of the Parried Debuff allows you to fully bypass the chance to Hit calculation with Attacks used against the Debuffed Monster(s), ignoring your Accuracy Rating and the Evasion Rating on the Monster(s).

Evasion

Whilst you're Channelling Parry, any Evasion Rating you have will no longer provide its normal function of contributing to Evading incoming Hits. Instead, your Evasion Rating will use its normal calculation against the Accuracy Rating of an Attacking Monster to calculate whether or not an incoming Blockable Hit will add to your Heavy Stun bar. If the calculation would normally roll an Evade, you'll avoid any Heavy Stun bar buildup from that Blocked Hit instead.

Heavy Stun Bar

Upon Blocking incoming Hits using Parry, you'll build up a Heavy Stun bar based on the Damage of the Blocked Hit.

The Heavy Stun bar as seen in-game on the lower-left side of the UI

If your Heavy Stun bar reaches full, you'll immediately cease Channelling Parry and be Heavily Stunned for 3 seconds by default. The Heavy Stun bar will empty naturally over time whilst not Channelling Parry. The rate at which the Heavy Stun bar empties can be improved with modifiers such as the ones on Resolute Reprisal or Defender's Resolve.

Calgyra's Arc

The Unique Buckler Calgyra's Arc removes the range limit on Parried Projectiles, allowing you to apply the Parried Debuff on any Monsters when Parrying their Hits, even if they would usually be too far from you.

Nocturne

Nocturne is a Unique Buckler that changes the Parried Debuff to apply '50% more Spell Damage taken' by default to Monsters that you Parry instead of '50% more Attack Damage taken'.

Silverthorne

The Silverthorne Unique Buckler causes your Parry Skill to also apply 10 stacks of Critical Weakness to Monsters that you Parry, making subsequent Hits against them more likely to Critically Hit. Silverthorne also provides the somewhat rare stat of '100% increased Parry Damage', scaling the Damage of the initial Offhand Attack Hit upon Parrying an incoming Hit.