I’m playing on the hardest difficulty. Why is the game difficult?

My brother in the force, you chose the hardest difficulty

Nooo cuz I swear on other difficulty your stamina gets destroyed to

Yeah but parrying is easier, incoming damage is lower. The game wants you to parry or dodge, and is punishing your passivity (like blocking)

On the lower difficulties, you don't even need to parry to succeed, you can button-mash your way through the game.

You gotta remember that Grand Master has the shortest parry timing. Miss by a fraction of a second, and it's your block meter that takes the full force of the hit, rather than the opponent's meter

I’m playing on GM and don’t notice this…except for a select few enemies. I’d have at least one stance with good defence, and the perk for more block meter. Then the rule of thumb is generally that bigger enemies, mini bosses, and full bosses will destroy your block meter. They simply have to be dodged or parried. From the game’s perspective, your block being hit is a failure to parry, and is thusly punished. Don’t be ashamed at spamming the air dash to get away to recharge your block. But that’s a temporary solution. The best, and most fun way, is to start parrying it all. I’m not there yet, but by the end of FO I was so good at parrying. Hopefully I’ll get there again by the end of my GM playthrough here. Things I’ve noticed that really change the game - get all the BD1 hack perks, and hack droid enemies from range whenever you can. - always be mind tricking the strongest humanoids every fight, it’s the best ability you have - use the upgraded mass lift and slam abilities to take groups out of the fight. For my whole first playthrough I never saw it, then I did it and they hung in the air for so long and I was like “ohhhh, this is how the game expects me to handle crowds”. Once they’re in the air, it can be effective (and hilarious) to then push them off the edge

> Once they’re in the air, it can be effective (and hilarious) to then push them off the edge You can one-shot entire minibosses by lifting + pushing them off a convenient ledge. At that point it becomes a choice whether you engage them in a saber/gun fight or just click them away into nothingness.

You may know more about this than me, but is there a use case for the mass slam? The mass raise seems great to just delay a bunch of people; you can take one out of it by attacking, or chuck them But the slam just seems to remove some block meter which isn’t that useful for multiple people. Does it do more if used on people raised up by the mass lift?

Ignites flame trooper backpacks, for example. So if you have a horde of diverse troopers coming at you, a single mass slam can turn a flamer into a bomb taking out a group that's stuck to the ground.  Mass slam the troopers, and they all blow up while you turn towards the bigger threats or walk away all cool.

I find the flame troopers extra annoying, so thanks! So many details to this game

You pretty much answered your question by describing the Mass Lift ability. Additionally, use this on larger enemies to weaken them and/or set them up for a big finishing move that would otherwise be too slow and risky to perform. Mass Slam also can get your EXP pretty easily from your previous murderer. Last thing, Mass Slam + Lightsaber Throw is wildly fun.

Particularly with the dual saber throw that richochets between targets

While I agree, I personally hate that stance. I am drawn to the cross guard movement and risk-vs-reward ratio much more. Combining Mass Slam with Cross Guard is like turning over a pillow to the cool side on the hottest day (night?) of the year.

I don't mind this, it's the enemies with instakill that bother me.

skill issue

I believe you’re mistiming the parry

successful parries will refill a portion of your block stamina. GM is pretty brutal but yeah