RELATED: Dark Souls 3: The 10 Best Curved Swords, Ranked It also has a huge Critical stat of 130, making it the Thrusting Sword that deals the most damage via backstabs and ripostes. 1 Avoid PVP Until You're More Confident. Dark Souls’ primary campaign is singleplayer, but it’s also – technically – always a multiplayer, online experience. At practically any point in the game, another player can invade your campaign and trigger a PVP (Player Vs Player) battle. Awesome, I'm on PS4 I'm down to practice whenever. I learned to parry by parrying the various knights and was able to translate that to PvP pretty well. I'm hoping to do the same for these backstabs. When I practice I'll probably use an unupgraded weapon. The number one complaint about this game is the backstabs. People rant and rave about how backstabs are the end all and be all of PvP and that every fight is just chain backstabbing. How am I somehow enjoying "normal" souls PvP in DS1? You need to do two simple things. Learn how to defend against backstabs Stop constantly fishing for backstabs However, the ST isn't good for much besides backstabs and ripostes. If you want a good, versatile weapon, you can't go wrong with a Longsword +15 even though it doesn't provide any critical hit bonus. 1H R2 is a thrust attack, so if you're fighting something that can't be parried or backstabbed, just swap out your Hornet Ring for the Leo Ring For Dark Souls on the PlayStation 3, a GameFAQs message board topic titled "What's your opinion on backstabs?" - Page 34. So, how do you deal with them? Despite what you may think, some of these guys are just better than you which is what allows them to dispatch you quite quickly. Despite what you might think, backstabs are a broken game mechanic. One thing that makes Dark Souls the game it is, is the depth and subtle balance between weapons. There are very few safe openings in phase 3, but with the right spacing you can run under the black flame plunge, backstab, charged R2, R1 spam for solid damage, then dodge until you can bait it out again. The spinning ice plunge can be roll backstabbed with good spacing, but there's less time to position yourself. For Dark Souls on the Xbox 360, a GameFAQs message board topic titled "So for all you TanksHow do you deal with backstabs in pvp?". Different weapons have different extended animations and do a lot more damage than the literal "stab in the back" in ds1 or 3. For example a spear or halberd raises the enemy In The air then pins them to the ground. A great hammer knocks their knees out and ground pounds them. Even a regular longsword does a flurry of blows from multiple angles. 0VDDz.