PoE2 Duelist Parry: Dual Wield, Shield Bash, and Stances

How does parry work on the PoE2 Duelist?

Unlike other weapon types in the demo, dual wielding swords gives the PoE2 Duelist the ability to parry attacks, as Jonathan Rogers showed before Blood Stance. Parry received a significant upgrade compared to earlier versions and is a lot more reliable now. Follow parry with Bloodied Blade to enter Blood Stance, where default attacks and skills like Perforate change behavior.

What is different about parry on swords?

Jonathan framed sword combat around flow from attack to attack and from stance to stance. For dual wield, that flow includes parrying incoming attacks, then following with Bloodied Blade to enter Blood Stance and bleed enemies with a blood wave on default attack.

GGG has not published numeric parry windows, cooldowns, or gem requirements in this video. What is confirmed is the weapon requirement (dual wield swords) and the link to Blood Stance via Bloodied Blade.

How do you parry without waiting for an enemy attack?

There is another parry route that does not require waiting for a monster to attack you. By switching to a shield, you can bash enemies straight out of Ready Stance to parry them without waiting for an attack.

That shield bash from Ready Stance is separate from the dual-wield reactive parry shown when Jonathan switched to dual wield for Blood Stance. Both were shown in the same Grand Arena demo. For the full stance list and what Ready Stance modifies, see Duelist stances guide.

What did the Scourge Walker build add for parry?

Mark Roberts’ Scourge Walker endgame build swaps to a second weapon set for single target: a one hand sword and targe that grants Parry. Instead of a regular targe, the build uses Runeforged Targe, which grants a special version of Parry that maintains its stances when used. If you are in Blood Stance and use it, you remain in Blood Stance afterwards. That includes the dashing parry Jonathan mentioned earlier.

The build pushes parry debuff duration as long as possible so the player can spend more time spinning Cyclone. Mark used a new sword base type that adds base duration to Parry, plus passives on the weapon set tree invested into parry duration.

Mark Roberts used a new support so Parry applies Armour Break. To make Armour Break benefit from fire damage, the demo anoints Molten One’s Gift on the amulet so Armour Break causes enemies to take extra fire damage. The single-target loop shown: enter Blood Stance with Bloodied Blade, use Parry which dashes in while keeping Blood Stance, then Cyclone.

That segment is one endgame build, not a rule every Duelist must follow. It confirms dashing parry, stance retention on Runeforged Targe, parry duration scaling, and Armour Break on Parry exist in the 1.0 preview footage.

For Cyclone and fire scaling in that build, see Scourge Walker build. For sword types and gear shown alongside the Duelist, see Duelist swords guide.

Sources and last check

• GGG Duelist Deep Dive — dual wield parry and Bloodied Blade
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive — parry upgrade and shield bash from Ready Stance
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive — Scourge Walker weapon set parry and Runeforged Targe
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive — parry duration, Armour Break, and Blood Stance rotation

Last checked 19 Oct 2026; this page covers what GGG showed before the 1.0 release on 11 Dec 2026 and will be updated when it changes.