PoE2 Swords for the Duelist — Grips, Parry, and New Bases

What are PoE2 swords on the Duelist?

Jonathan Rogers said the Duelist ships with swords, a weapon type he called kind of crazy we did not have before this class. Grinding Gear Games wants each new weapon type to feel different; for swords, Rogers defined combat as flow from attack to attack and from stance to stance. That ties swords to Ready Stance, Sand Stance, and Blood Stance rather than to a single default attack loop.

How do one-hand, two-hand, and dual wield differ?

Rogers said one hand, two hand, or dual wield each have their own interesting playstyle. The deep dive did not read out a stat sheet per grip; it showed different mechanics instead.

For parry routes and Runeforged Targe, see Duelist parry guide. For the full class loop, see Duelist class guide.

How does parry connect to sword gear?

Dual-wield parry is the stance entry Rogers highlighted: parry, then Bloodied Blade into Blood Stance. Shield bash from Ready Stance is the other parry path and does not require dual wield.

In the Scourge Walker segment, Roberts uses Runeforged Targe, which grants a special version of Parry that maintains its stances when used—including while using the dashing parry Jonathan mentioned. The build also uses a new sword base type that adds base duration to Parry, then invests passives on that weapon set to push duration further so the player can spend more time on Cyclone.

GGG has not narrated every targe base name or which non-Runeforged shields grant the same stance retention. What is confirmed is that one-hand sword plus targe appeared as the parry weapon set in the fire Cyclone build.

What new swords did Mark Roberts show?

After the Bringer of Blades segment, Roberts said that alongside the Duelist, we have made a whole bunch of new epic swords and asked viewers to look at the lineup. One sword in that build causes all your buried blades to be enhanced by Karui magic and become ancestrally boosted, paired with new passives for boosted attacks.

The montage and build gear also featured Oro’s Sacrifice, the new unique tied to Infernal Step and the Scourge Walker fire Cyclone loop. Item pages break that unique out separately at Oro’s Sacrifice item page; buried-blade combos live on Earthrend and buried blades and Bringer of Blades build.

Sources and last check

• GGG Duelist Deep Dive — swords and flow design
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive — one-hand, two-hand, dual wield and dual-wield parry
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive — shield bash parry from Ready Stance
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive — new epic swords and ancestrally boosted blades
• GGG Duelist Deep Dive — Runeforged Targe and parry duration sword base

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.