Master Parry

I need help please in clarifying how one uses this special skill.

Is it a passive skill such as dodge or shield use, and thus does not need to be activated from the quick slot bar?

Or, does one apply it to an enemy target? When I have done this the cursor remains the standard combat cursor and has not changed to the 3 bladed design. Nor do I see any entry in the log; which is also the case when I use a whetstone on a weapon, so that may not be an error either.

Thanks

It is not a passive skill as it has a cost of 15 endurance points. The way I understand this skill to work is that for the next 30 seconds, any parry or dodge checks for the character who used this skill will be automatic 100%.

I've been playing more with the log up, and while there is some information there it is not nearly as laid out as ToEE's break down. That said, I am glad to see it and hope for more of it in the prequel.

Thanks for the reply, though it raises another question.

The reply above makes reference to 30 seconds whilst the description refers to a number of comabt rounds. Looks like I am going to have to pay closer attention to this in the next few fights my party has.

Any further observations are welcome.

You'll effectively parry up to your maximum number of parries. If you're surrounded you're still going to get hit. If you have 3 parries per round then you'll avoid the first 3 hits, but the next 5 are gonna hurt

Attacks from behind cannot be parried.

I noticed the description did not have 30 seconds in it, but anytime I use the skill, that player gets a buff "Master Parry" that is 30s in duration.

I didn't think that rounds were broken down into time units, but rather just a culmination of all possible combat tests and calculations. But it would seem that "rounds" are occuring constantly, as the buff icon next to your portrait ticks down from the moment you select it, whether during combat or not, and, further, that each round is 2 seconds long… either that or there's a miss-print in the Master Parry description.

One other note: I wonder if someone could confirm for me that in some instances, it is not possible to parry against certain creatures? I can't remember if I read this or am just imagining it, but I do remember putting Dranor directly in front of Mother Rat so as to Master Parry all her blows and occupy her while my others beat her silly. And there were no summoned rats around either. Well, poor Dranor was not around for very long hehe, certainly nowhere near 30 seconds. Fact is, I still haven't defeated that bloated ratbag yet
. Sorry Dranor, my bad.

Master Parry works only for a certain time against a certain number of attacks.

Master parry description seems mention that the parry always succeed during 15 rounds. For newbies players like me that means the character couldn't be hurt but in practice that's not true, I'm almost sure that the white wolf hurt Dranor when Master parry was activated.

Well I see some skills like feint cancel parry, Master parry failure is perhaps related to that.

You'll succeed on every parry up to your maximum parries per round. Mother rat attacks 5 or 6 times a round and Dranor can only parry a few times. At least that's how it seems in practice. The first parries work, the latter attacks make it through.