Dark Souls 3 - Witch's Locks (NO PYROMANCY!) - PVP Guide [v3]

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TheGameconomist

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Published on June 19, 2017 6:12:53 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rLVty3mL3I

Game:

Dark Souls III (2016)

Category:

Guide

Duration: 12:03

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I've been a heavy user of Witch's Locks ever since I started Dark Souls 3 and decided that I would play pyromancy as a main. The game has changed a lot and one of the recent patches included a
recovery speed buff to whips. I am finally taking a new look at Witch's Locks, in more ways than one

This time around Witch's Locks is my primary weapon, with no Pyromancy allowed. I did this because I needed a clearer understanding of what you gain with this weapon. What I found was that treating the whip as a primary let me focus on the need to swap between the 2hand and 1hand moveset, something I wouldnt explore as much as a pyro, since my spells would take priority.

Here's a breakdown of the gameplay:

1. Your base game revolves around 1hand R2, and an offhand parry tool. A deadly combo because post buff, the R2 can be spammed effectively. The initial windup is your weak spot but once it gets going it's hard to approach without rolling, and rolling attacks are *very* easy to parry, forcing your opponent to use R2's out of their roll, and those are easy for me to evade.

2. Some opponents roll into you and do nothing, or they might attempt to approach with their shield. Often this is just a move to bait out a parry, and they would follow up with a backstab.
I refer to this as crowding and easily punish it with the whip weapon art, just be sure they are actually in range. Otherwise I avoid using the whip WA bc it is telegraphed and punishable. But at close range the initial wind up will interupt and combo into high damage.

3. You have some mixups like the Dash R2, which will hit enemies behind you, you can roll any direction and get a Roll R1 to come out for low damage, Dagger will mostly counter quickstep, Lightning Urn is my projectile, and a hyper armor med heal, which you could trade out for a bellvine chime projected heal.

4. There were a few weak points, such as opponents who were about to die and simply forced a draw. Your best chance might be to swap dagger for estoc at that point, I would simply try and chase with the dagger. Whips really are no good at chasing, so you rely on a back up weapon swapping sometimes. It was also difficult to know when the whip would interupt an ultra, vs when the ultra would simply poise through the attack and combo for high damage. I also think halberds and katanas have a decent matchup against Witchs locks. Halberds use their poise and range, Katanas interupt the initial R2 windup with a dash attack.

Hope that helps, leave any tips, questions or comments you have below, and I will take a look, thanks.

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