'Dark Souls III' patch news: Poise stat turned off

(Dark Souls Game / Twitter)'Dark Souls III' patch released without Poise.

The much-awaited patch for "Dark Souls III" was finally released last week. However, gamers are abuzz not because of the patch in general but a game's mechanic that is turned off — the Poise.

Poise has been around since the first "Dark Souls" game. It is a stat that affects stagger limits and it is found in every armor that a character has. When a character sports heavier armors, then their Poise will increase. This means that when a character gets a much higher Poise, it would be harder to stagger them. In player versus player (PvP) games, staggering is a great way to do quick kills, while the character is healing up.

The absence of Poise made the gaming community question the game developer FromSoftware's decision. Some think that the patch is meant to have no Poise because the developer, apparently, doesn't know what to do with the stat. However, there are some who believe that they simply forgot the stat.

Although the missing Poise does not affect the game considerably, the change is still quite apparent. The advantages that the stat has include forgoing speed and choosing the heavy armor while wielding a heavy slow weapon. It also enables characters to walk through attacks.

Without Poise, situations like an opponent swinging its fast weapons with a little fear of retribution commonly happen. Players find it even difficult if the opponent's weapons are Estocs or Dark Swords — both have fast swing speed and great attack rating. To counterattack, players can opt to roll away from the second attack by the faster weapons.

If the stat was not abolished, the Poise could be applied to any weapon, even if it's just a spear, and it could still knock out enemies. Without it, then the gamers who have the heaviest armors might only end up being stunned by their enemies, meaning the heaviest armors may only be a burden rather than an advantage.

"Dark Souls III" is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

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