With Dark Souls 3 being the notoriously difficult game that it is, it is imperative that you avoid as much damage as you possibly can. One way to do that? Rolling out of the way of an incoming attack. With the press of a button, you'll launch yourself across the battlefield and out of harm's way.

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That is if you are currently light enough to do so. If you're bogged down in heavy armor that impedes your movement, you might just... clunk forwards slowly. The weight of your equipment and your Equip Load stat will affect your maneuverability greatly, and it's important to understand how it works.

Weight Load Ratio

Dark Souls 3 Dodge Roll
Rolling in Dark Souls 3

Equip Load is a stat dictated by your Vitality - every point of Vitality will increase your Equip Load by one, and this is important for any character that wants to use the heavier items of equipment scattered throughout the game.

Equip Load is compared against the total weight of your currently equipped items to dictate whether you are one of four states:

  • Lightly-equipped or "fast-rolling" - if your equipment weighs less than 30% of your total Equip Load, you will be in this state.
  • Moderately-equipped or "medium-rolling" - if your equipment weighs between 30% and 70% of your total Equip Load, you will be in this state.
  • Heavily-equipped or "fat-rolling" - if your equipment weighs more than 70% of your total Equip Load, you will be in this state.
  • Over-encumbered - if your equipment's weight exceeds your Equip Load, you will be in this state.

Your level of encumbrance dictates how fast your dodge rolls are and how far they propel you. With lighter encumbrance, you will dodge further and quicker - this can be crucial in fights where putting more distance between yourself and your foe's attacks gives you more breathing room.

TIP: It's a perfectly viable strategy to simply take pieces of armor off to hit the next weight load ratio threshold. If a better dodge roll would help you avoid attacks, the extra defense that the armor provided is made entirely useless.

It is important to note that encumbrance has little-to-no effect on how many invincibility frames (iframes) you get when rolling. This is the period that you are completely invulnerable to damage and outside influence. You will get 13 iframes when lightly or moderately equipped and 12 when heavily equipped. This difference is too small to impact your gameplay.

When heavily encumbered, you will also recover Stamina at a slower rate - roughly 20 percent slower than usual.

Apart from improving your Vitality through leveling up or equipping the Prisoner's Chain, you can increase your Equip Load with two different rings:

  • Ring of Favor, which increases your Equip Load by five to eight percent depending on the level of the ring.
  • Havel's Ring, which increases your Equip Load by 15 to 19 percent depending on the level of the ring.

If you are over-encumbered, you will not be able to execute a dodge roll or sprint. Make sure your equipment loadout is useable for your current Vitality level.

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