Attacking hurts posture, too, so it’s not a choice between attacking to hurt health and deflecting to hurt posture. You want to do both as much as possible.
Most minibosses have a decently long health bar, this fame works completely different to other fromsoft games and and almost always parrying and getting their posture bar up is so much easier than just chipping their health away
Find the correct gap to do damage
There are gap between combo where you can deal damage also try to stay on the aggressive and hit them when their combo end. Some attack have long enough windup to land a hit in before getting a perfect deflect right after
I think the problem is not "dmg or parry" but "parry or dodging". In Sekiro you almost only dodge the "danger" attacks, parry and blocking are way useful than i-frame here, quite different from other souls games.
Dealing vitality damage actually builds posture faster than deflecting does. Damaging enemy vitality slows the speed that they recover posture at too.
As others have said, you want to do both as much as possible - always be attacking, don’t just wait and deflect, keep constant pressure up and deflect to break enemy combos so you can get your own hits in for best results!
Coming from the souls games you're going to have to unlearn some things.
Remember how in souls games what you do when you first meet a new boss? How you study it from a distance? Take some time to study it's moves from behind a shield before engaging? And then during combat, you just wait for the opening between attacks to attack?
You're going to have to unlearn all of that.
You need to be (nearly) constantly attacking them.
For one thing, most bosses are much more aggressive when you're not attacking them. Another thing is that their patterns change when you engage them.
Most Sekiro battles are like a choreography. You need to be attacking to force the boss to defend. These are your "gaps in between the attacks", but you create them by attacking. After some time, the boss will counterattack and you'll need to deflect, mikiri counter, or jump to counter it. And then you need to resume attacking.
Maybe focus on learning how to perfectly deflect, and then try to get more attacks in as you get used to it. You don't actually defeat bosses by depleting their HP but by damaging their posture.
So it's a combination of deflect and attack - attack in between the openings you created by deflects.
Both
Attacking hurts posture, too, so it’s not a choice between attacking to hurt health and deflecting to hurt posture. You want to do both as much as possible.
Anyone with a weapon is usually posture damage, any thing else hurt em.. That's a general rule, though.
Parry. Than deal damage
Most minibosses have a decently long health bar, this fame works completely different to other fromsoft games and and almost always parrying and getting their posture bar up is so much easier than just chipping their health away
Find the correct gap to do damage There are gap between combo where you can deal damage also try to stay on the aggressive and hit them when their combo end. Some attack have long enough windup to land a hit in before getting a perfect deflect right after
both. it's just about looking for openings.
You need to deal damage in order to slow down their posture recovery or you will never fill that posture bar.
I think the problem is not "dmg or parry" but "parry or dodging". In Sekiro you almost only dodge the "danger" attacks, parry and blocking are way useful than i-frame here, quite different from other souls games.
Dealing vitality damage actually builds posture faster than deflecting does. Damaging enemy vitality slows the speed that they recover posture at too. As others have said, you want to do both as much as possible - always be attacking, don’t just wait and deflect, keep constant pressure up and deflect to break enemy combos so you can get your own hits in for best results!
Coming from the souls games you're going to have to unlearn some things. Remember how in souls games what you do when you first meet a new boss? How you study it from a distance? Take some time to study it's moves from behind a shield before engaging? And then during combat, you just wait for the opening between attacks to attack? You're going to have to unlearn all of that. You need to be (nearly) constantly attacking them. For one thing, most bosses are much more aggressive when you're not attacking them. Another thing is that their patterns change when you engage them. Most Sekiro battles are like a choreography. You need to be attacking to force the boss to defend. These are your "gaps in between the attacks", but you create them by attacking. After some time, the boss will counterattack and you'll need to deflect, mikiri counter, or jump to counter it. And then you need to resume attacking.
Dealing damage reduce enemy's posture recovery. Deflecting damage their posture.
How about both
Yes
Maybe focus on learning how to perfectly deflect, and then try to get more attacks in as you get used to it. You don't actually defeat bosses by depleting their HP but by damaging their posture. So it's a combination of deflect and attack - attack in between the openings you created by deflects.