DS 3 | PvP Tips & Tricks (How to Git Gud)

[@spartandud3]

What do you mean by "Do not auto reset to neutral?"

[@iamamish]

I really wish I'd explained this better. So neutral is when you and your opponent are dancing around each other. You're generally not too close - neither of you are in attack range of one another. That's neutral. When you hit your opponent with two r1s (as an example), you should stick around and continue to attack. Some players, after the two R1s (or any other attack sequence) will automatically roll away, putting themselves back into neutral. You don't want to do that, you want to continue pressing your attack. Getting pressure opportunities is difficult, and gets more difficult as your opponents are more experienced. If you just roll out (reset to neutral) you are giving up on pressure opportunities you've already earned. The only reason you should be voluntarily relinquishing pressure is because you are being pressured by other players/PVE.

[@Kat-yt6pf]

@@iamamish I'm a very passive player and I tend to stay neutral after hitting somone, which is becuase I am against over leveled gankers 24/7 other than that I stay neutral to uh be a pain, (spell spam or tool spam etc)

[@iamamish]

@@Kat-yt6pf yeah for sure against ganks it is fine to be more passive, and I think I may have mentioned this in the video that you can reset for reasons like worrying about getting blindsided. The key is that you should have a reason for doing it, and not do it mindlessly.

[@tank19768]

This man really just used "the 7th R1 was a mixup" meme completely unironically, incredible.

[@jooot_6850]

They never see it coming

[@UltraxEmerald]

Easiest thing to learn, delay your swings every once and a while.

[@iamamish]

Yeah mixing up the rhythm of swings is huge.

[@bighouse581]

I've been able to make someone swing easy parried by just running up to them and stopping. Its weird.

[@SlayerRunefrost]

Never more than 2 R1s in a row.

[@tragiceso5121]

Slayer Runefrost unless you’re up against a good player, then sometimes subsequent r1’s may catch them off guard.

[@SlayerRunefrost]

@@tragiceso5121 true. Also someone who 2 handing

[@Jeenine]

Wow but seriously, who doesnt love to just sit and listen to amish talk about ds3 Happy 2020

[@iamamish]

Thanks mate :)

[@RASK1LLS]

Wheres those duels at g9😂

[@ghorstbusters6238]

Hey Jeenine. Dark greatlance, worth it?

[@zeehond604]

Nathan Cowan not as good as heavy or refined

[@MelinasConsort]

it's not a happy 2020 so far

[@isaacdoukaskomnenos8013]

I can't stand it when the connection is bad and i die because my hits don't connect but the player's hit me from a mile away but to top it all off they point you down

[@_mb_b_th_v_b_]

And then as your screen starts fading to black, you see your hit finally register and they take that damage that would've killed them if it hit when it was supposed to...ugh.

[@roiroije6326]

Point Down is a stupid emote that only deserves to be used by skilled players taking down a 4 Player Gank R1 squad and not edgy dickheads who think they're hot shit at everything.

[@alexanderdean2061]

I don’t see the point of hosts pointing down at me after an invasion. I mean, I invaded you, I’m obviously not here to make friends-pointing down isn’t going to bother me.

[@jesus-ck4el]

Try finger,but hole.

[@wurmturm]

Ikr, I hit a guy with an ultra greatsword, 87 damage. He hits me with a mace from 48367e miles away, 6th of my healthbar

[@SamMaxis]

I've noticed some seemingly instinctive actions players have that work out to their detriment. 1. People will avoid snap freeze like it'll one shot them. I can get 3 or 4 players who are chasing me to completely stop by casting snap freeze. They fear the frostbite but really it's not that crazy of damage to take and it'd better to keep pursuing me. 2. This ties in with unpredictability. 9 times out of 10 I can bait my opponent to parry by purposefully just missing a running attack or two on the scimitar or shotel and then running up and doing the spin slash weapon art which is not parryable. Shotel combos L2, R2, R2 (ouch) and scimitar combos L2, R2, R1. The same thing can be done with the rapier's weapon art. Hit them once or threaten to, then start the stance, boom they will parry. I find these to be less used than say spear running attacks and whatnot but are extremely reliable baits for me. It just instinctively makes them parry kinda like how L1 waggling often instinctively makes people roll. 3. People who parry don't even know they do it. I know you've talked about it before. They stop moving or move forward to time up the parry. It's extremely predictable when you're looking for it. Getting confident in running around for the backstab punish has extremely improved my game. I'd also like to say I'm annoyed and struggling to get used tot he new "quick estus" meta. It takes twice as long to kill estus chuggers now and I'm forced to learn this myself. I can't do it reliably yet but it's hurting pvp in my opinion. Complaining though isn't helping me. I have to keep practicing. I just dislike how it's thrown off estus punish. Thanks Amish

[@iamamish]

all great points - I probably run for backstabs against parries more than I should, tbh. I gets me punished plenty. RE: estus glitch, I agree and I wish it weren't in the game, but at this point I think we just have to learn how to do it ourselves. :(

[@chaoticaa2398]

The amount of chugging doesn't bother me as much as the fact my brainstem still screams at me to go punish, which turns into a parry setup or some such. I particularly hate that exploit. I was able to do it twice after practicing for ten minutes, so I'm sure it's not too bad to learn, but some part of me would feel dirty using it against another player.

[@iamamish]

@@chaoticaa2398 You can use that to your advantage. When I see somebody with a parry tool who estus cancels, I'll run at them when they're estusing like I'm gonna punish it, then run for their back. I get backstabs like that frequently.

[@chaoticaa2398]

@@iamamish Thanks! I'll try that next time I see it. Just need to retrain the ol' thinker box!

[@FunkyEspelhoCat]

My problem with backstabs is that they never actually hit, but I still get the animation for them, so I just stopped trying.

[@dangitjm]

That bit about learning curved swords to become a better overall player couldn't be any truer. These weapons teach the players fundamentals like spacing, whiff punishing, roll catching, and so on. You can take those basics into bigger, slower, or more unorthodox weapons and end up coming out on top more often than naught. Well done video! Happy New Years and let's hope we get more Elden Ring.

[@iamamish]

Thanks JM!

[@bonseez]

I never played dark souls 3 pvp, always a pve player. Did challenge runs, sl1, no death, no healing etc. I one day randomly logged in and was banned from online play for no reason, I'd heard of this happening to other players too, but it didnt bother me, as I never even played online. Here I am, a few months later, watching your vids, going down the rabbit hole of the pvp community. I now really wanna dip my toes in and try it for myself, but I'm banned lol, and now I'm mad about being banned for no reason 6 months ago. I'm kind of living the experience of pvp vicariously through your videos. Thanks for the content you make. Lets me get an insight into what this side of the dark souls community is like, otherwise I never would.

[@iamamish]

That's great that you are seeing a side of the game you wouldn't normally. I hope you're enjoying it.

[@superspork3975]

You're not missing much. The PvP is kinda trash and it's full lol tryhard clowns.

[@aaaargh8545]

Try family sharing

[@Gankstomper]

@@superspork3975 salt

[@superspork3975]

@@Gankstomper just calling out facts. Hyper armor and bad net coding don't go together well, roll spam, bad hotboxes, invasions are always ganks, parries are way too strong and too easy, same for backstabs. It's just not very good PvP

[@hazee4112]

Double rolls can be useful to escape backswings at high/medium latency, but yea, should avoid it at most situations. And pretty much any weapon that forces you to play the whiff punish game will make you better, curved swords tend to do it better because they are shorter (daggers would be too short even for that, except corvian), so you have to be more careful with your spacing. The thing is most ppl will tend to just spam the running attack, which will not help your spacing at all. I think the offhand Estoc is probably the best whiff punishing weapon, and probably just as good as a CS to get better at spacing, despite you getting used to a bit more range. Nice video :)

[@iamamish]

Thanks Hazee - I like the estoc too for the same reason, but it's easy to use the estoc improperly. Using a 2h CS forces you to understand how to use the estoc properly as an offhand whiff punish/roll punish/mix-up tool.

[@superspork3975]

Problem is the game shouldn't revolve around a couple weapons/ weapon types. The PvP in DS3 is horribly balanced.

[@iamamish]

@@superspork3975 it is an evolution. The biggest issue isn’t even imbalance, it is the ability to be passive and play purely defensively in an invasion. Fast weapons take that option away (or at least it isn’t as easy).

[@simple_most788]

@@superspork3975 nah, every weapon class is viable, some have more potential tho, mostly the unreactable stuff

[@superspork3975]

@@simple_most788 viable in what play group and skillcap? I find it near impossible to believe you'll see someone with an ultra win against a seasoned straight sword user. At an average level? Sure you'll see all sorts of unique stuff but top tier pvprs are always using faster weapons

[@mr.sillydog3981]

Can confirm, players on Twitch + YT are a lot better than you think. Especially that one guy, I'mAmish or something like that. Except me, I'm way worse than you think :D Glad to see you back uploading.

[@iamamish]

Haha I wasn't referring to myself, more thinking of players like you, Pinco, Hazee, etc. I knew you guys were all good, but you were even better than I realized.

[@AlrauneDollmind]

Nah you're pretty good. ♥

[@mr.sillydog3981]

@@AlrauneDollmind Too kind Schwa, glad to see you're still around :)

[@AlrauneDollmind]

@@mr.sillydog3981 I have a new video series up! It's not Dark Souls though.

[@zeallust8542]

Ironically my only experience with a streamer/YTer was PeevePeeverson in the darkroot forest in DS1, kinda bodied him. Was very surprised about it, i expected to get destroyed when i saw his name pop up as the invader lol

[@GreyHam87]

"have a great 2020" Oh sweet summer child...

[@stinkmonger]

"using a curved sword is like a skill switch" you can say that again

[@roiroije6326]

using a curved sword is like a skill switch

[@airbornezombie7655]

Using a curved sword is like a skill switch

[@dirt_dert_durt]

using a curved sword is like a skill switch

[@cheemsstan8192]

Using a skill switch is like using a curved sword

[@rahtsnake144]

the backstab at 5:52 was beautiful. good to have you back, you're my favorite ds3 content creator.

[@iamamish]

Thanks rahtsnake!

[@Nyffenschwander]

Happy new year, Amish. Was just thinking about how haven't uploaded in a while, and then I saw this. Great video with amazing advice that a lot of people should see and take to heart.

[@iamamish]

Aye Nyff, so good to hear from you. Thanks, and a Happy New Year to you as well. I'm hoping once Elden Ring lauches, we can expect more Nyff footage?

[@Nyffenschwander]

You know, back in the early days of DkS 3, when I got into uploading on a somewhat regular basis, I did it because I felt the invader community was lacking a voice (aside from that of the likes of Oroboro or Prod who are entertaining for sure, but don't take the matter all too seriously). Cool thing is, today, the invader community has many great voices who put forth amazing discussion and commentary videos. Your channel is one of the best examples. So that former feeling of urgency is kinda gone for me. Plus, the Souls and PvP burn-out is still very real for me. At the same time, if Elden Ring and its invasion system turns out amazing, I might still chime in from time to time. I'll have to see.

[@iamamish]

Nyff I’m flattered but you have one of the clearest thinking minds in the Souks community - I hope we don’t lose that.

[@aweinspyerd2112]

All of your tips are amazing and most of them point to a huge handicap I've played with since the games launch, LEVEL ENDURANCE!

[@iamamish]

Yeah, that's another good point. I also never saw the need for Chloranthy until I started playing more aggressively.

[@RealLoopine420]

Nice, glad to hear you aren't burnt out on ds3 man. Happy 2020

[@connorcozart5830]

I know that this is an older video and that you will not likely see this. But, this was easily the most helpful video that I have come across so far. Thank you for pointing out to me the shit that I was doing wrong. It really REALLY helped my game.

[@iamamish]

Dude that’s awesome! I get notifications for comments on videos old and new so I read almost all of them. Thanks for letting me know.

[@ShanalFunLand]

Ngl I love when you explain things perfectly as if it was coming from my own skull, these are all things ive thought of and have noticed throughout my souls career

[@iamamish]

Glad I could be your internal voice :D

[@carnivorn]

sorry in advance for long comment lol. tldr: glad you're back! great video! happy 2020! strongly agree with mr. sillydog, that amish guy is really good, i ran into him once on his non-twink build and he took me to clown town. watching videos, you don't have to worry about what you're doing, you can focus on what the person you're watching is doing and see all their mistakes... the pace feels slower as well. the point about learning to play curved sword is a really good one! i struggled against them so much that i started maining one just to see what people did to exploit my lack of knowledge and curved swords' weaknesses, and it really did help my game all around. i've done that with every weapon class that's given me trouble, but curved swords had the most obvious effect, and the furthest reaching. my biggest problem is, and always has been, that first one..... i fall into a rhythm, even if i'm not using the same attacks, and it gets me parried or punished hard. it'd be hard to give tips for being unpredictable though, wouldn't it? that'd just be different patterns than before.... ah well. i'm really glad you're back! the way you emphasize other content creators and talk about the other players in your videos gives the game a sense of community that i find hard to hold onto otherwise, and it makes it more fun to play online, instead of offline, against the too-familiar pve. so, not to sound too goopy or anything, but thanks for reminding me of how much fun my favourite game can be - there were a couple times last year i stopped playing for a couple months and your videos got me back into it, and now the new year is starting off with exactly the same lol. i hope life treated you well during your absence, and i hope 2020 is a great year for you!

[@iamamish]

Thanks for the insights! Somebody else mentioned something similar - when you're watching somebody play from the comfort of your couch, you don't have to adapt to them. I think that's totally right.

[@ecto_specto4521]

The best part about getting hard reads is that you you get the opportunity to completely style on an opponent. I remember dueling against someone who was spamming parry while I was using a darkwraith build. I landed two r1s, then went for the dark hand grab. There was no way that should've worked on a good opponent, but it was so damn satisfying.

[@euphoricacid]

Hopefully he wasnt’t using an uchigatana otherwise damn thats embarrassing. I remember getting dark handed cause i got greedy with one of my hits. Guy i fought was a fun opponent though

[@king_alonne3707]

@@euphoricacid uchigatana ?? wait where were you that time and do you play ps4 ?

[@euphoricacid]

@@king_alonne3707 Farron keep near the Abyss Watchers. Was wearing an evangelist hat if i recall. Looking back i realized that it probably wasnt me this guy was fighting because that time was a long drawn out fight. I was playing on pc

[@king_alonne3707]

@@euphoricacid oh no I tought it would be possibly me because I use what you said sometimes but I play playstaion. it is really fun to do unsual tricky things.

[@maiqtheliar7565]

Now I have the knowledge I need to fight those naked dudes with katanas

[@sheepisfortheweak6164]

Found the same naked katana user seven times in a row. They have one purpose and that's to fuck you till you love it.

[@BrotherLucid]

Informative videos and well spoken creator. Starting my journey to Gitting Gud and absorbing the knowledge as I get wrecked in pvp. Great content mr. iamamish!

[@iamamish]

Thanks mate, I hope the videos help!

[@tai1112]

Fighting with the players >>far more pressure than watching their vids only. Can't agree more. Happy new year.

[@ChristopherWaddelow]

As someone who hasn't played this game in two years, it was interesting watching this. I remember getting many wins against opponents because I was low on HP and they went to pressure, and instead of mashing roll I mashed R1. Great video, I didn't even think people still played this game seriously, but it was nice to go on a blast to the past.

[@mvrsts]

I've finally decided to give DS3 a chance and i'm loving it. Except the pvp aspects, since i dont look too much on which build or weapon is better. This video gave me a lot of insight, ty for the tips. I promise i'll try not to panic spam R1 and the dodge buttons anymore KEK

[@iamamish]

Hahaha everyone does it, that's why I had to make a video telling you to stop :D Good luck! The games are fantastic and can seriously change your life. I hope you find as much enjoyment in them as I have.

[@connoraslett2836]

Hi, I was sent here from dangitjm! Never watched any of your videos before but i loved this one! I look forward to diving in to the rest of your catalogue this evening! Just wanted to leave a comment about spamming r1 with a straight sword, for the longest time I have tried religiously to only press twice so as to not seem like a nooby scrub but earlier today straight sword r1 spam won me an invasion. I was fighting a host and his phantom and the decision that led to victory was spamming a straight sword 7 times in the face of the phantom who didn't roll out of the blender once and instead each time out of hitstun he tried to attack. And then instantly after this I was able to get a set up parry on the host and win. After that invasion and watching this video and hearing your thoughts I'll have to reevaluate how I see r1 spam

[@dylanjb4032]

Happy new year man! great video you make some really great points, your videos always make me re-evaluate my game and make adjustments GGs

[@FKyoutubeSERIOUSLY]

This is a rare video for me. You discuss in a way that makes me feel below average as a PvPer, even though I know what you're talking about. The momentum point, I have never heard talked about before. I only recently noticed it myself, but didn't really think to put it into words. And the neutral point... Whew... That ties right in there with momentum but I am honestly just realizing the implications of it today. All in all, this video has rejuvenated my will to play DS3 PvP. As someone important once said, you learn something new everyday. Many thanks, Amish.

[@iamamish]

Thanks so much. I’m glad you found it valuable.

[@AndrewBrownK]

I only started DS3 some months ago and these are fantastic tips. I’ve recorded a lot of my fights and it is really helpful (both in pve and pvp) to be able to look back and analyze what you did well and how you could improve. There is a HUGE skill gap I need to catch up with all these veteran players... but videos like this go a long way. Thank you. Subscribed.

[@iamamish]

Awesome! Yes, recording your own fights is a huge plus when you're debugging your gameplay. You can actually improve pretty quickly if you're watching good players and learning from them. I've seen players go from very average/new to top tier in as little as a few months.

[@AndrewBrownK]

iamamish great! Thanks again! I’ll be combing through the rest of your videos for sure

[@lilcrystalboi5178]

Glad to see another upload! I love watching and listening to your advice and have found myself learning more about pvp because of it

[@ThePittb85t]

Great video dude! I've missed playing this game honestly, I am hoping to get back into it soon! But it's good to see you still playing and I hope all has been well!

[@Felicificity]

New Amish commentary!! I knew this year was gonna be a keeper. Really good tips. I personally love the offstoc for the same reasons you mention the CS, really good at baits and whiff/roll punishes, but I’ll admit, I should get more practice with an actual CS. I find myself pretty mediocre with them in my experience, and they definitely make me miss the range of the estoc. I’ll take that tip to heart though, and slap a CS on a few builds as a more dedicated main.

[@iamamish]

There is a comment from Red Man Bad further down that captures the reasoning perfectly IMO. Thanks for the kind words Fel, and a Happy New Year to you and yours.

[@TheDkmBeats]

Channels like yours deserve more credit. A big problem in the community is people seeing players like Chasethebro, who is an extremely skilled duelist and invader, topple tryhard gank squads while he laughs, talks, and reads his live stream chat. To him, it really has become that simple. They see players like him make it look easy, and then they go out and try it themselves, and what do you know? The guy with tens of thousands of hours vs their mere 3 playthroughs is still dominating them. And they say screw it, I’d rather watch someone super good than try to figure it out myself. So channels like this, that try to explain and analyze playstyles are critically underrated. Which is a Stab in the back of the community, no pun intended.

[@7dahplit852]

I revisit this video every few months when i pick the game up again. Love the souls series pvp and this is a great video for people to watch of all experience levels.

[@markanema5391]

Loved your video as always! Got some great tips I'm gonna start using, like not returning to neutral state. Just wanted to add my own tip regarding rolling attacks. When you're up against a parry spammer, condition him to think you're going for the rolling attack but instead do a rolling jumping attack. Works really well and just looks cool =D

[@limitsatinfinity4393]

Very interesting points specially about not being predictive. I often find myself pressing R1 at the same time that my opponents, and I just can’t get out of that habit. It can get really frustrating specially when I’m fighting ultras because I lose the trade. And I think it’s because I reset to neutral. But It’s not in all cases. It’s just that ultras make me a little bit uncomfortable. Nice to see you back!

[@epsdudez]

Rolling attacks are something I almost never use unless I'm using an UGS and doing the mixup game. I really need to work on that because they're very useful at inhibiting pressure, and it's something I always keep wary of my opponents using. I guess I subconsciously taught myself early on to never use them because you might get parried or backstabbed.

[@iamamish]

yup, same here, I've been slowly introducing them into my game.

[@derpy4593]

Amish! Nice to see your return. I wanted to add a small tip that may help someone out, because I know it helped me out back when I wanted to improve and that's to play with different weapons. Preferably all of them and the reason why is because 1.) You learn how to fight with it (obviously) 2.) You learn how to fight AGAINST it and how people can use different strategies to take you down, which can help you when you fight against it 3.) Different weapons can help you practice spacing so you don't get too conditioned on one weapon. Thats why I spent a lot of time using various different weapons for a long time back then, and it's a small tip that helped me improve. Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year Amish!

[@iamamish]

Hey Derpy - I completely agree. This is on my list for volume 2, so i'll definitely have a lot to say but you already summarized the reasons perfectly.

[@iamamish]

Some folks have asked who Hazee is, check this vid out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqC0mZp8abmHn8U For others who hadn't seen Mocha's video on the Kill Switch, it is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJe4gYqln652rtk

[@red_catharsis]

I couldn’t remember if I saw this video or not, but I’m glad I watched/re-watched it because getting good again after a year and a half off from ds3 has been quite the ongoing journey! Also really cool you mentioned Hazee here. He was a good friend, but more than that a terribly underrated player who in my opinion was one of the best in the game and always took the time to help me learn new stuff! I really miss the guy.

[@roastpolice1139]

Video is RIP May it rest in peace

[@invalid785]

Awesome video man, beautiful gameplay and very informative commentary. And a happy new year!

[@sathanas6540]

Very nice video mate! Cool fights and really valuable tips that helped me think and identify some mistakes of mine. If I may say (as you already know I am not a very experienced player), the Warpick is a weapon that I have found pretty usefull against greatshield players. Also two handing the Caestus. Momentum in red invasions would be a great subject to be discussed some time. Especially since in Dark Souls I find a deep psychological aspect to it, I believe it is connected to morale as well. I invade Ringed City all the time. When I see a co-invader I know and I have worked with them before things are always way better and these things I mentioned seem to be a real thing! There are of course exceptions, with co-invaders I have never seen before and we still do a good job disposing of gankers. Unfortunately (for what I want to do), wex dust makes things difficult for me.

[@daredaemon8878]

Regarding people you watch appearing worse than they are, it's because of the benefit of distance. It's easy to notice other people's mistakes, it's easier to do so when you're not having to worry about execution. Most of the streamers I watch (and snipe, because c'mon, that's part of the fun) are way better than I am, but I can still notice a lot of mistakes in their gameplay while they're streaming that I definitely don't notice while they're busy killing me. (And they are so consistently good at killing me.)

[@iamamish]

That's a good insight. That makes a lot of sense to me.

[@Uchoobdood]

Wow LOVE spear “invasions” , but this would take me several days to get this many! What SL is this because i would br playing much more if i knew i could get more of these. Dangitjm brought me here!

[@iamamish]

d Watson thanks for stopping by. This is SL 90 on PC which is sometimes busy. Good luck!

[@CommunityGuidelinez]

If anyone is playing PS4, Sl 80+8 is still a great range for Spear Invasions. I get tons of them, despite the fact I only have a handful of uploads lol

[@mewmanc6188]

Man it’s good to see a new video from you and hear your thoughts on PVP stuff. I could never tire of it. It’s cool to hear you (and others) mention the “unlocking” of the game in regards to curved swords. I’ve noticed ever since I made PKCS my main invasion weapon, it has helped me improve immensely. Lots to learn still. Happy new year Amish.

[@iamamish]

Hey Mewmanc - totally agree, it gets you hyperfocused on what your opponent is doing. When you get good reads with a CS, you can just absolutely stomp on your opponent, which makes them panic more, which makes the reads easier, etc.

[@mewmanc6188]

PKCS gets unnecessary hate. I’m glad you said it takes a good player to make it dangerous. It’s not that scary when someone picks it up thinking it’ll give them easy wins. Also I think the PKCS (or curved swords in general) have a lot of ignored potential, in the form of kickflips and swap parries. Hitstun swap parries are almost guaranteed with a curved sword.

[@iamamish]

@@mewmanc6188 Fighting a CS player who will hardswap in hitstun to a parry tool is really intimidating. It completely changes my approach. It's a really powerful tool.

[@joligra]

I just started playing dark souls this year too, this is really helpful!

[@Zeptyche]

Watching this in 2022. Heard you say you’re excited for 2020. Oof.

[@Soul_Biscuit]

Happy New Year!!! Glad to see you upload!

[@Rejoice.]

Ho!Ho! The Amish returns, something to watch when I get off work 👍

[@EvaTheEpic]

Amish? Haven't heard that name in years. Great video like always, seems like I'll need to main a cs for a while cause it seems that could help me improve. Thanks for the tips!

[@chaoticaa2398]

IAMISHISBACK!!! 2020 is starting off well folks. Tips 1, 2, 3 all became very clear to me after playing against Chase, Lost and Fighter last night. I'm still trying to process just how much different playing them felt compared to your average bear. The invaders out numbered them by so much and I still found myself constantly resetting to neutral and got parried at one point (though I read the next one and managed a backstab). It's insane how much differently they use the same mechanics as everyone else. When I wiffed, I knew that I'd made a mistake and was going to be punished for it. Play with a curved sword - just started doing this with the demon's scar on my pyro. Everyone's always told me to work on spacing, learn how to whiff punish, etc... and none of it made sense until I started using it. I'm still pretty fresh with it, but it totally changes the game. As for the others, all things I need to be thinking about. As usual, thanks for the awesome advice!

[@iamamish]

Yeah fighting good players can be very intimidating and it can feel like they've anticipated every move you're making. That's hard to handle sometimes. Totally agree with the demon's scar choice - that's a great tool to learn spacing and whiff punishing on, and how to bait attacks that you can outspace and punish. If you can get that down, you'll be a force to reckon with. Glad you liked the video!

[@HadalStreetlights]

the inspiration lives.

[@awakenedcrusader8340]

I remember maining the hand axe, Very fun weapon to use, nice to see you back amish

[@heck7365]

Thank you amish. I started pvping in march of 2020 and have been improving but this vid opened my eyes to some things i've done wrong. I'd say im intermediate but i do a lot of things wrong and this vid helped

[@iamamish]

I always love reading that. Thanks for sharing.

[@j644]

Wow. As someone who is trying to get into the pvp scene for fun way too late (i.e. just invading random people) this is very helpful. I like that you can acknowledge what is obviously a newer player tendency like resetting to neutral and explain how this is bad without making me feel like I am an idiot for doing it. I am definitely a victim of that. Thanks for the tips

[@iamamish]

The reason I know about all these things is because I used to do them myself. I'm not going to fault anyone for these habits, I know first-hand how easy it is to fall into these traps. Thanks for the kind words.

[@cryog3nic_759]

One thing I'm trying to employ more (that I avoided doing for being a noob tactic) is blocking with a shield. Like, it opened my eyes. Denying damage and stun is NOT a stupid decision if you know WHEN to do it.

[@iamamish]

Pedro Barretto yeah a good player with a shield is really tough to manage

[@thegk-verse4216]

I use a caestus for shields. When I encounter a turtle, I punch the shit out of them. I even destroyed a curse ward greatshield. Buffed.

[@DarkBloodSouls]

Happy new year mate :)

[@Kekse4Live]

I really missed this. Thank you amish

[@sovietspaceship]

Point 6 resonates with me a lot. Before that, the only cs I was using was a scimitar I'd hardswap into very occasionally (and the sabre for guardbreaks), and during a stream a friend was curious to know how it compared with the ccs, so I did several invasions maining the two and I really fell in love with this class. With a scimitar as main, which is also a lot of fun to use, I improved my spacing massively as well as most of the things outlined in this video and more. I don't main the anymore because I'm a swapper, but the scimi is still the weapon I default to most of the time when starting an invasion and almost always the centre of my inventory layout because I know there's still a lot I can learn from it.

[@iamamish]

Yeah CS is so surgical and as your reads improve you have so much more success.

[@spookstaz]

Thanks for the video, hopefully I've learned something. I just started playing DS3 as my first dark souls game. I have yet to win any pvp encounter, it's pretty damn frustrating.

[@iamamish]

Spookstaz yeah at this point everyone is so experienced. Keep at it - you’ll improve. I would advise trying SL 60 or so. Don’t go to meta as that will be the most difficult.

[@spookstaz]

@@iamamish I'm only at SL 35 so far. I managed to beat Vordt solo, had some coop help from my friend to defeat Curse-Rotted Greatwood then we were getting invaded repeatedly trying to reach the Crystal Sage boss fight. Pretty much stuck there for the moment. Tried invading some couldn't really land any hits but thanks for the encouragement, not really looking to bet the best, just to be somewhat competent

[@spookstaz]

Update, I've been able to progress further, made it to the first part of the Ithreal valley at about level 70. Finally starting to manage to win some PVP matches here, used a few to tips in your video, such as being unpredictable, don't double roll, etc. I also learned, don't get baited into following invaders into dangerous areas, let them come to you. If they waste too much time a sentinel will come.

[@iamamish]

@@spookstaz yup, reds are good at baiting you into the level. Time is almost entirely on your side. Sounds like you're having fun, I hope you are. Thanks for sharing the update!

[@talionrayne2965]

"I'm really excited for 2020..." Famous last words

[@madarauchiha2955]

1:22 this parry was god-like.

[@xylonus]

Yea im tired of people parrying my charging Astora greatsword attack

[@kasumi2173]

Tbh the main problem I have while trying to learn how this game's pvp works is the lack of information ( or how outdated some of it can be ) . There are no guides about weapon counters which doesn't quite make me understand what kind of weapon I'd want to use against what other one , no guides about how to use "x" weapon type ( seriously...I can wreck a lot of players with 40+ poise and a GS / UGS cause they are rather simple to use...but the moment I swap to a SS I become trash as I don't know how it's used . Same goes for daggers , spears and so on ) . I still don't know how to deal with opponents whose weapon has a longer reach than mine ( being matched against a spear player as a katana user ) , how to gear swap , parry , backstab , how to fight with a low poise build , how to make and optimize a build , how to punish whiffs , ecc . It's all p basic stuff but there's just not enough information about it all or if there is it's not so easy to spot .

[@Jopeymessmusic]

I had no idea there was even potential for this kind of channel. This is kinda hilarious to me. No particular reason, I've been playing since OG demon's souls and never considered recording my thoughts about aspects of a game I love. 😅😂 Interesting stuff for newer players for sure.

[@CommunityGuidelinez]

Hotswapping: This is an absolute game changer for anyone who wants to learn how and when to do it. It's basically a button press, like Tekken, or Mortal Kombat. To change Right Hand weapon 1, it's Select,x,x,down,right,x,select for example. Memorizing them is just one part of it though, it's like a martial art, you can learn the theory, but not be able to do it until you physically train your fingers. The more you do it, the faster you will get at it as your muscle memory improves. And don't just Hotswap if your current weapon isn't working out or you need the Cat Ring real quick, do it often, mix it up and swap to a weapon just for a particular weapon art. Watch Jeenine's videos and see how he uses that strat. Some players may even find it helpful to keep extra copies of rings and weapons in their inventory so that it is arranged a particular way to make getting to them faster, this is useful especially for getting to a Cat Ring (I've recently started putting 5 Cat rings at every characters bottom row until I can get a bit faster 😆) Anyway, another great video Amish.

[@iamamish]

100% - I'm still a hotswap n00b so I'm not very good, but I'm working at it and it is helping my game so much. One subtle result is that you start viewing opponent match-ups very differently because not only can you find the best weapon easily for what your opponent has, but you can find micro-matchups depending on the very particular state of the game. Things like swapping to a spear for a surprise running attack, or surprise estoc, which is almost completely unreactaabe.

[@gunganeseegorgian8042]

keeping the community alive, all praise my friend

[@schleel7703]

Awesome tips man! Great work

[@dskim8075]

Great tips. Thanks! And Happy 2020!!

[@unbuttonedrobe]

Thanks for this educating video! but how u fight agaonst 3 vs 1 while one phantom is spamming fire vestiges,another pantom spams crystals and the other black flame?plus a traitor?missed your videos

[@iamamish]

GOOD LUCK

[@unbuttonedrobe]

@@iamamish lol...

[@AussieMoron]

It’s amazing to see there are still pro ds players kicking about, I got back into ds2 a little bit ago and realised there is so much more to these games than it seems.

[@iamamish]

Yeah the depth is amazing. The rabbit hole goes much deeper than i first realized. However I am no pro - go with JeeNiNe If you want to see a pro at work. His comment is pinned - click his name to see his channel.

[@FuriousGeorge321]

Great tips. I'm guilty of doing all of the wrong things. I never learned or practiced most of the things you mentioned but always wanted to.

[@iamamish]

FuriousGeorge321 pro tip: focus on one element at a time. Don’t move on until you’ve made progress on that one element first. If you try to tackle everything at once, you will get overwhelmed. Good luck!

[@FuriousGeorge321]

Great advice, and I appreciate the feedback. Some other great invaders always say my play style is rather unorthodox

[@woke2646]

Honestly i find the thing i struggled with the most fighting good players was a habit of being too passive or agressive, usually reactionary. A good player can sense if youre playing 100% reactionary quickly. Finding a good balance of reads spacing and punishes gave me a lot of success

[@iamamish]

YES. This is a good one for the list. I was too passive and good players picked up on that and absolutely crushed me for it.

[@woke2646]

iamamish yeah. It was probably the one barrier i had to get past to actually hang with players that had a brain. Being able to punish on a read not just reaction after their attack

[@djswizbeats4262]

you did a really good job at breaking pvp down. great guide thanks mate

[@iamamish]

Thanks, I hope you found it useful!

[@urossavic8960]

Awesome video, thanks for the tips 😊

[@UserOfTheZune]

I always look forward to your videos, I'm glad to see a new one at the beginning of the new year! Some great tips, simple things to keep in mind, and it's through you that I get a lot of the info about those high tier players and get to see some of their gameplay. Is there any chance of more 1v1s that you could break down against these players like JeeNine or BDubz? Or even some of the invader KZbinrs like ChaseTheBro or Lost my Sanity? I'd love to see some footage of that caliber, even if all you're doing is reinforcing ideas like those in this video and things you've talked about previously, it gives me a better sense of where or when strategy A may work better than strategy B. Anyways, love your content, and I'm looking forward to more tips in the next video! Thanks!

[@silkenshadow]

on creators being better than you think, I recall back in the day beating PraiseTheSun on stream (with an UGS, no less) and feeling such immense pride. people who pvp constantly are often such gods, it's so satisfying to test yourself against them

[@iamamish]

Praise imo was pretty good. A lot of players like to shit on him but I thought he was pretty good. I used to feel the same way fighting guys like Saint and JM and Pinco back in the day.

[@silkenshadow]

@@iamamish I was never as invested in raw skill so much as quality of entertainment, which is why I gravitated to PTS over, say, Scott Jund. that said I recall him dismantling a lot of people, even at higher levels

[@himalayas5908]

8:21 I used top do this a lot so I would stop using a weapon just because I would get called gank (my friends and I soul duped so we are high levels) to the point where I actually ended up selling all my 5+ twinkling titanite and 5+boss weapons. If you have fun with something dont let others top you from using it

[@internetsavage8733]

Neighbours: being noisy n shit A mother with 5 kids: *Invaded the world of Joe, disturber of sleep*

[@ayman___16]

Nice Video, as always

[@danglol]

5:40 I'll add that hardswaps are much, much easier with a ps4 controller. You can set the entire ps4 button to be start menu and the button wells are much shallower than xbox or other generic PC controllers, allowing insanely fast D pad patterns. The caveat is that the R3 button well is shallower, and you may jump a lot on accident during intense moments. also 12:23, I call this the rule of 3's: if they do it twice, they're 85%+ of the time going to do it a 3rd time-- rolling R1, curved running R1, taking parry bait, etc. this percentage changes with their skill level and awareness of this concept. Noob behavior can definitely be a powerful switch-up against a common pro.

[@Slackjaw]

Hey man nice to see an upload. Great tips especially with the curved sword, I'd almost put a spear in that category with it for invasions but curved sword is all around better. I'd love to see you get ganked in some impossible odds win or lose I know you got tips for that kinda shiet. Pce homie

[@DS_DoggerX]

Coming back to this after a while, a detail I overlooked was "avoiding strategies that make you seem like a noob". The better I get at this game, the more I realize how beneficial it is for me if my opponent thinks I'm a noob. I can claim I know what I'm doing these days. I don't wanna call myself good, but I win more often than I lose duels and my invasion record is good. If my opponent thinks I'm not a threat, that's the absolute best situation I could be in. I want my opponents to underestimate me. I want them to get overconfident. That makes them easier to deal with. In fact, I often intentionally start out doing things like that specifically to give my opponent that false confidence. Nobody expects a barehand parry swap from somebody who has been spamming r1 for a while beforehand.

[@iamamish]

To me there are two different ideas. One is to *look* like a noob and fool your opponent, and that can work. The other is to appear to be a good player, but utilize things like rolling attacks and R1 spam that many mid-level players would decry as n00b behavior.

[@DS_DoggerX]

@@iamamish as sun tzu would put it, all war is based on deceit. To appear close when you are far, strong when you are weak, tired when full of vigor and, in this case, weak when you are strong. It's quite useful to deceive your opponents by manipulating their assumptions of you. It leads to easier kills!

[@Don-ds3dy]

One tip that took me 6 years to finally figure out, you don't need to go for the biggest baddest most damage dealing weapon for PvP, you're probably going to get close to the same damage in for the same amount of time, plus you're more likely to hit with a faster weapon.

[@iamamish]

Yes, and I think in my part 2 of this video I talk about this. Gabri is a tournament player, and he always says something like, "moveset, then range, then damage" - that should be the order of evaluation of a weapon. A high-damaging weapon is worthless if you can't hit your opponent.

[@max_8888]

Been waitin for a vid

[@ChivalricNoble]

What exactly defines "auto-resetting to neutral after two hits"? As I understood it, it means not pushing the attack after landing two hits. Could someone care to explain?

[@critical6798]

For me, the best of players often go for the criticals and roll catch. That's like the main strat. I know when chasing better players, they'll look for the chase parry, the backstab, ravioli, shit like that. I KNOW that's what they're looking for because I do the same shit and have success. This makes it pretty easy to counter and punish that very first wiff. You know it's coming. That said, the way you play is one of my weaknesses. It's really fast aggression while doing a lot of mixups. Keeping pressure the way you do

[@catohostilius1221]

You make great videos. I just started DS3 and I am on a NG++. I usually play offline or un-embered since I'm horrible at pvp. I want to get into it!

[@iamamish]

Cato Hostilius you should it is way more fun than you know. Start off by watching DamnNoHtml and learn spacing and whiff punishing. That’ll get you 80% of the way there.

[@catohostilius1221]

@@iamamish Definitely. Thank you!

[@JAHIDxJD]

Thanks bro. My skills just scream noob to anyone whose against me 😂 Been trying to weapon switch and be more unpredictable now. Appreciate the tip on not going neutral after 2 hits

[@iamamish]

Everyone is a n00b when they start, so no shame in it. Glad to hear the tips helped!

[@rampantbuckler818]

dude what the hell is going neutral

[@hughmann9568]

@@rampantbuckler818 it means to stop attacking. Your character model goes to "default" or " neutral"

[@Prince-wd3ws]

I think you should include: Using harder weapons (to get better at the game and the mechanics generally) and learn how to parry (which is one of the best mechanics in the game to master).

[@Vincent_Thatch]

Best game analysis on KZbin.

[@iamamish]

wow - thank you!

[@Nixiôn.1]

If you want to win have confidence losing confidence is like hollowing never give up hope!

[@GigaDank]

I'm new to the game and I found profane greatsword and pointiff curved sword having them in your inventory at the same time just changing between them is amazing profane is more for roll catching and punishing heavy attacks with the weapon art and high damage and pointiff is for pressure and and weapon art when their low I quick swap from my profane and get them either rolling or trying to chug estus. Idk but I have trouble backstabbing tho Idk if profane or pointiff curbed is better for backstabs.

[@RennfahrerCembalist]

Does DS3 have a perfect block/instant block like DS1?

[@iamamish]

I dunno, I don't think so but that's only because I haven't heard of it before. It's possible there is one and I just don't know about it.

[@Someth1ngLight]

I was wondering where one might go to get the good

[@MarcelMuller-yf5rh]

But what to do when youre out of stamina if you shouldnt reset to neutral?

[@JH-mm9pl]

Hey Amish, really enjoyed the video:) Really recognize many of the points as someone who is good, but not great, at pvp. One spear-build question - is the cast speed of the bellvine a must to get the initial bountiful light cast off freely? To me it seems unfortunate to forego Filianores chime WA regen

[@Abeleko]

My biggest issue is finishing when I almost always have opponents at the brink of death, but will outlast due to rolling and estas advantage since I aggressively invade. I’ve incorporated lighting arrow and sunlight spear (faith) as well as healing to account for a war of attrition. But I lose way too much after I’ve already caught someone 3x in a row with a strength/faith build with vordts hammer (crazy effective with frost lands) and they have like 20hp, come back and outlast since I don’t have the stamina to chase and land over and over. Basically this video is good advice, I use a left hand rapier here and there to throw someone off and double hand the mace (vordts or heavy mace buffed) as soon as I see a one handed parry shield, caestus, one hand, etc. i just seem to have a hard time finishing and experience players seems to be able to be almost killed, and casually jog away, estus flask, and I can’t catch them with miracles or chasing due to stamina recovery. Any advice? As I usually dominate with close quarters timing and poise bait attacks aside from perseverance bros. Make any sense? I feel like my win rate would rise to 90% since my initial pvp wins all most always result in a near kill, but no one uses the battle matchups which excludes estus usuage.

[@iamamish]

You know, this is a really tough problem and I think I talked about this in some of my earlier videos. Unfortunately I don't remember which one(s). Just remember a few things - once most players are at very low health, they're going to go into passive mode - they're not trying to attack, they're sitting and waiting for the one attack from you that they can easily roll and heal. This means basically you can pressure for free. With any attack you throw out, you need to make sure you've let your stam regenerate enough to chase after the player. You also need to avoid slow attacks, since a single whiff will give them the space to heal. My later Spear videos show me doing this - watch how I manage the chase down. Using something really fast is key here, so a whiff won't let them heal. Lastly keep in mind that while most players in this situation will be passive, more experienced players know that you're worried about them healing, so they can attack you once or twice, then heal. Look for that too. Don't roll just bc you got hit once, that's what they want you to do. Good luck!

[@iamamish]

Let me add that Elden Ring added a slight delay between the beginning of the drink animation, and when the estus actually takes effect. This makes it marginally easier to stop players from doing this in ER.

[@Abeleko]

@@iamamish It’s good advice, I’ve been using straight swords to try and help, roll catch etc at the end, but I guess I just need to practice a finishing strategy. Church shivs just don’t do enough unless they’re down to one hit from tears of denial, and I just don’t seem to be able to hit the controls fast enough to get some throwing knives or lightning arrow going before they heal. I get my kills though, but I want the experienced players to eat the dirt more often.

[@Abeleko]

@@iamamish I actually don’t have the ps5 I don’t play video games too often as I’m busy and finally got around to playing the dlcs for ds3 which I really like. There’s still so much replay value and I’ve seen a ton of complaints about the elden ring pvp

[@Abeleko]

@@iamamish I actually don’t have the ps5 I don’t play video games too often as I’m busy and finally got around to playing the dlcs for ds3 which I really like. There’s still so much replay value and I’ve seen a ton of complaints about the elden ring pvp

[@brycenwalker3385]

So I'm having an issue. Ive been trying out ul greatswords but many people including myself go super defensive against ultras and just stand next to them and bait out attacks to backstab. I only realised how annoying it is until some one did it to me. The pressure scares me from my menu to hard swap to something smaller and no mix ups I try seem to work because everything is to slow to throw them off. I think if I just conquer my fear I would be ok but how do I know if I'm safe? Of course if I only throw one attack they cant get me if I dodge away but every time I either get curios and try something after they roll behind me that guarantees the back stab or latency kicks in and they get me anyways.

[@brycenwalker3385]

Also I tend to only use weapons with combos as pressing r1 twice feels to normal. Example ive been using cathedral knight sword for the r1 r2 and exile for r1 leaping r2. Just wanted to hear some opinions on that as well.

[@iamamish]

OK so a few options/observations: 1. Almost everyone is passive against ultras, and for good reason. The entire strategy of the ugs is to bait trades. So don't feel too badly about being passive. It's the only sane approach, and if you use a UGS, you have to expect this. 2. Depending on your comfort level, you can reverse backstabs on people when they roll in. Unlock, turn around, and grab their back on the way in. It'll take some practice to know when this is safe or not. 3. You can use the classic UGS mix-up - rolling attacks, then once your opponents are conditioned, roll at them, but do a standing r1. The timing will catch the roll they used in anticipation of your non-existent rolling attack. 4. Try doing any mix-up you can - L1 waggle, bundling, etc. Bundling is REALLY effective - r1, bundle, then r1 again. Often your opponents will mistake the bundle as the 2nd R1, because they're looking for it. Good luck!

[@SleazyRoseWalker]

I think the choice of weapon is what ultimately determines everything. Imo, weapons you just poke with are way easier in pvp, compared to heavier weapons, like Ledo's. With pokers vs heavies, you can just chase them down while poking them, while they roll and try to get some space.

[@iamamish]

Well some weapons are better suited to certain tasks than others. When I'm getting chased down by a large group in an invasion, estoc/ss is about the worst setup to have. Ledo's on the other hand would be great. The key is tailoring your setup moment to moment to your needs.

[@mexicamapping6587]

Here's a trick if your a sorcerer when your dealing whit gangs one thing that you can do is find a place where their isint alot of open area it can be inside a building or a staircase the thing here is that when the players are coming towards you from a far distance turn your back towards the player but your camera should also be facing them then cast Soul mass or Crystal soul mass then when they are near start casting Crystal soul spear immediately lock on to them this will make your character turn around and your soul mass will immediately shoot out and since you were all ready casting soul spear it will also immediately shoot out most likely you will one shot them it also works whit great heavy soul arrow if you dont want to use Crystal soul spear

[@madarauchiha2955]

One of my personal trick that helped me greatly in pvp is being savage, when im kind and i go to the people in a kind manner emote hello and shit i get stomped, but when i go savage mentality it helps me rekt them with ease