Ya I don't have issues with poise being how it is now at all. I still get to embarrass dudes with parries. When it comes to enjoying the game, I find that I have the most fun either ganking or invading. If duels seem to be getting stale for you, try out invading. Which curved swords we talking about? shit like scimitar/falchion? It's not like those weapons weren't used much before anyway. I remember Mike running falchion a lot on his bean pie guy, but other than him I really don't remember seeing those much. I ran painted guardian in ds1 a few too, but not as much as other weapons. I haven't used much of normal curved swords in this game though so can't comment much. I certainly haven't seen them being used much. I do plan to use them more often on my quality build. I'm particularly looking at carthus, sellsword twinblades and crescent sword. My quality build rocks the turban anyway, so at least it'll go with the outfit. If you meant curved swords as a whole, Katanas are still strong. Mura is strong. exile greatsword is strong.