Never before any game made me willing to practice solely for the purpose of getting better, not just to beat the game in a reasonable time and be done with it. And since parrying is such a rewarding mechanic, I decided to spend more time practicing it. Important note: I cannot parry with a shield. Just nope, I swing it hoping for the best but nope. The moment I found curved sword parry being so cool looking and to my surprise better for my reaction time, I decided that's the thing I parry with no matter what people say. Hopefully I can parry bosses some day, well those that can actually be parried.
This is very useful mod called Boss Arena which adds essentially replayable bosses (remembrance, dungeons, field bosses, basically any enemy with a named HP bar can be replayed infinitely, both base game and the DLC). Absolutely fantastic tool to learn and practice, or just replay those favorite bosses and try new builds.
I honestly was surprised I can parry crucible knight's stomps and shield attacks. Truly learning experience, also with timing for the wings dodge/jump and tail swings. And as a result crucible knights became my favorite mobs, followed closely by Divine Beast Warriors (even though the latter are absolute killing machines that never flinch, never stagger and totally cannot be backstabbed XD).
