In fact, some might argue that the two character stats barely work at all in Dark Souls 3. The stats in question are poise and physical defense. In Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2, poise helped players combat being staggered by enemies - a fairly important stat to avoid taking heavy damage, particularly in PvP. Meanwhile, physical defense related to the amount of damage the player takes, after shield reductions are taken into consideration.
In Dark Souls 3, however, these two stats seem to do very little, if anything, for player characters. A high poise does not seem to make any difference to the player’s chances of being staggered, while the physical defense stat does not appear to change how much damage the player takes from enemies. This, then, is hardly useful for players hoping to break that all-time world record for completing the game.
Exactly why this has happened is still unknown, however. Plenty of theories have been bandied about on the Bandai Namco forums regarding this change to poise and physical defense, including the idea that the stats were taken out as a means to cause players to use different build strategies. Whether this is the case, or whether it’s a genuine oversight from developer From Software, remains to be seen.
Should this issue with the poise and physical defense stats prove to be a mistake from the developer, then fans should perhaps look out for a tweak to the game at some point in the future. After all, From Software has already shown that it is happy to release updates to improve upon parts of the game. At the end of April, the developer launched a patch specifically aimed at weapon balance, so there could be more coming soon - although some suspect that the April patch may have even been the cause of the issues with poise in the first place.
Those wanting a more immediate answer, however, should be wary about taking matters into their own hands. After all, Bandai Namco and From Software have shown to have little tolerance for those hacking their games, and have even received criticism for banning innocent players. Hopefully, the issue with these two stats can be resolved soon.
Source: Bandai Namco forums, VG 247
