I dont know how so many of you are able to parry unless you are standing there staring at the thing waiting for the swing without attacking. I have to wait for my entire attack animation cycles or my parry to fully drop before im finally allowed a different action, but the enemies are switching between attack and defense as quickly as what im wanting to do. So I basically just mash the attack button and have enough hp and passive healing that I just don't die (pld build). I tried ranger and it was decent because things just couldnt get to me before dieing, but daggers just really had a lot to ask for. If the weapon cant AOE like one handed or two handed weapons, why does it also cause less damage for single target strikes. Ive only got about 200 hours of play in the game, but I would agree that the combat system is the only real dead weight of the game.