Dark Souls II |OT2| Prepare to Vengarl

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Btw having to level up there breaks the continuity of the game and is so obnoxious I wish they'd patch it. Is there any reason for it when you can warp there at any bonfire? It literally adds nothing but two loading screens and the bashing of the a button to skip the dialogue.

So agreed. One of the worst implemented mechanics.
 
Aight, finished my first playthrough. I loved this game. Started out lukewarm but it just kept getting better, really loved some of those areas in the 2nd half of the game. Anyone else manage to open the Shrine of Winter without killing
Freja
? I didn't know it was a requirement until I started looking at stuff online today. I actually didn't even find that boss until very late, after the
ancient dragon
even.
 
Wish there were some consistency in the system. Saying something has "S" scaling has absolutely no meaning as that "S" may end up being less of a damage bonus than another weapon's "B," for example.

No, S is always better than B, A is always better than B, etc. You can see how it worked in the first game here, I would bet it's the same:
http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Parameter_Bonus#Weapon_Scaling
edit: I might be mistaken, but the link should explain it more properly.
 
The Gutter and Black Gulch are just awful, cheap, lazy, annoying levels. They're not even difficult, just bullshit. Almost made me quit the game after 40+ hours. Killed the Rotten on my first try (praise the sun) and I'm never going back there.

Don't know how you can call The Gutter lazy/cheap/annoying/awful. None of those attributes I would use to describe it. It was a wonderful level because
it forced me to use a torch. And looking back on the level after you've completed it and seeing the entire place lit because of the sconces was very rewarding as well.
How you can think it was "lazy" or "cheap" seems absurd to me. I can *sort of* see the arguments for The Black Gulch but even then the area is tiny, you can break the poison things, and, again, it's tiny. The small enemy count and high probability of being poisoned seemed fair to me.
 
So agreed. One of the worst implemented mechanics.
I already said something like this but it's seriously nonsensical and baffling. I don't think many games have ever actively removed streamlining that was a relatively minor convenience like this, even the angle of going back to grab stuff from the smith or whatever seems flimsy, especially with how you have to go all over the place anyway for some stuff unlike Demon's Souls that was more centralized.
 
It's got the worst PvP in the series. Just not fun at all.

And in a contrasting opinion, I'm loving the PVP. I don't experience unresponsive gameplay during my play, so far.
Anyway, I got four Giant Souls. I'm going to start farming Souls (legitimately) and Effigy, tonight. Then try and beat the Ancient Dragon (oh boy).

Then, I'm going for Vendrick.

All while boosting my INT, which is taking so long to do now that I waited so late game to learn Hexes, and other magic after starting with a straight STR and DEX Warrior.
 
Don't know how you can call The Gutter lazy/cheap/annoying/awful. None of those attributes I would use to describe it. It was a wonderful level because
it forced me to use a torch. And looking back on the level after you've completed it and seeing the entire place lit because of the sconces was very rewarding as well.
How you can think it was "lazy" or "cheap" seems absurd to me. I can *sort of* see the arguments for The Black Gulch but even then the area is tiny, you can break the poison things, and, again, it's tiny. The small enemy count and high probability of being poisoned seemed fair to me.
To me, everything about that level is Surprise! there's a poison statue and several guys that dropped out of the sky. And the floor collapses. Again, not terribly difficult, just not fun and no sense of accomplishment (to me). But, I am loving this game just not those two levels.
 
To me, everything about that level is Surprise! there's a poison statue and several guys that dropped out of the sky. And the floor collapses. Again, not terribly difficult, just not fun and no sense of accomplishment (to me). But, I am loving this game just not those two levels.

I guess some people just don't enjoy the change of pace levels FROM likes to put in these games. Tomb of the Giants was one of my favorite levels in DS1. Blighttown was some fucking bullshit because it was nothing but shitty platforming, awful framerate, false floors, and getting lost 90% of the time.
The Gutter and Black Gultch
just force you to change up your style of play and pace. I really enjoyed slowly working my way through that level with a torch.
 
So when you get to
Drangleic castle
, there is a place right below
ghost man
with messages saying hidden path ahead. how do i unhide it?
 
Oh man last night I had an epic fight against
Darklurker
.

Dodge, slice, arrow, dodge, dodge, arrow, arrow, dodge, arrow, slice, slice, slice then when it
split apart into two
I sprinted towards
them
and hit CHAOS STORM #1 BOOOOOOOM doing heaps of damage
they both
attacked me but missed or something (went over me? lol) and I hit CHAOS STORM #2 BOOOOOOOM to finish
them both.

Was having so much trouble with the fight, the cost of entry and all the losing was getting really frustrating I was starting to think if I'd ever be able to do it.

:D

I wonder how many people have died to its 'death swing' at you in its dying animation, pretty cheap thing for it to have >_> I'd be super annoyed if it hit me.
 
Give it a patch or so. Hopefully

As of right now tho this is definitely the worst pvp in the series.

It's almost the same as Demon's Souls with all the stun locking and people were always quick to point out how great demon's souls pvp was. O.o

PVP is fun as hell for me especially because none of the lag problems are there. I don't get nailed by soul spears that I thought I dodged and passed 3 seconds ago anymore at least.
Of course there's some balance issues but this isn't a tournement fighter either...

Maybe it'll need a few patches as you said but it's nowhere near the worst. Dark Souls 1 had so many more problems and still does now.
 
Just had a fight with the Ruin Sentinals in Lost Bastille where one spent the whole fight walking forward into a pillar and the other would only attack me when I was about half a rooms length away from her. The AI (especially the path-finding) in this game sometimes feels Bethesda-tier. God knows what would happen if I actually tried to manipulate the AI on purpose. If I didn't already have such a positive bias towards this series, I would probably never overlook all this jank.
 
I beat Ancient Dragon. Has anyone mentioned this fight is much easier when he's lured to the edge of his circle? If anyone knows about the "X position" method, I tried this, except I find getting him to fly once so he moves to the edge of the circle makes it much easier to escape his fire attack. Otherwise, just follow the video, and if he flies, run towards the fog door. I managed to escape his flame pretty easily. If you're in the middle of the circle, getting away is more difficult.
 
okay im in
Bright Cove
and I just went into the place with the
spiders
. Right before the fog door (I think there is a boss), is an illusion wall. You go up the stairs and can pick up a flask shard from a dead body. There is an urn there which doesnt seem to do anything and there is also a weird sound. Am I missing anything else here?


Also, side note: for illusion walls, I always see people put up signs right in front of walls that say illusion ahead or whatever, and they dont seem to be. I understand that people are trying to screw around most of the time, but what I want to know is, does putting one of those signs up make you not able to register pressing X on an actual illusion wall? Like does the message block it because you have to press x to open the message?
 
Did anyone else feel the opening cinematic was very depressing and foreboding? It kinda made me anxious lol. Just something very creepy, yet evocative.
 
Does the scaling on the Murakumo or Arced Sword ever get better than C/A? I ended up going with the Mirrah Greatsword over either of the curved greatswords because of that.

No. Curved dragon greatsword does though. Eitherway I found imbuing them with elements does more damage than trying to go with high scaling (even on curved dragon). You'd have to have some absurdly high Dex.
 
okay im in
Bright Cove
and I just went into the place with the
spiders
. Right before the fog door (I think there is a boss), is an illusion wall. You go up the stairs and can pick up a flask shard from a dead body. There is an urn there which doesnt seem to do anything and there is also a weird sound. Am I missing anything else here?


Also, side note: for illusion walls, I always see people put up signs right in front of walls that say illusion ahead or whatever, and they dont seem to be. I understand that people are trying to screw around most of the time, but what I want to know is, does putting one of those signs up make you not able to register pressing X on an actual illusion wall? Like does the message block it because you have to press x to open the message?

Messages won't block the fog door. Source: my experience.

There are several troll messages.
 
I beat Ancient Dragon. Has anyone mentioned this fight is much easier when he's lured to the edge of his circle? If anyone knows about the "X position" method, I tried this, except I find getting him to fly once so he moves to the edge of the circle makes it much easier to escape his fire attack. Otherwise, just follow the video, and if he flies, run towards the fog door. I managed to escape his flame pretty easily. If you're in the middle of the circle, getting away is more difficult.
I just did that too. *Wrong Dragon :]
Went into the encounter with some really dumb stuff and no guide. Just wanted to see what was up. It was a lot of fun figuring out what wasn't working. Jester's Cap and Gold Covetous Serpent Ring don't help much. +10 Gyrm Shield and Great Club do help.

Down in one with two flasks left. The next area was stunning. Really can't wait to see how the game looks on PC and PS4/One if that becomes a thing.
 
Did anyone else feel the opening cinematic was very depressing and foreboding? It kinda made me anxious lol. Just something very creepy, yet evocative.

Loved it!

Every into so far has been different.

Demon's Souls: You're about to be screwed.

Dark Souls: Long ago, we got screwed.

Dark Souls II: Bearer of the curse, you are SCREWED.
 
No. Curved dragon greatsword does though. Eitherway I found imbuing them with elements does more damage than trying to go with high scaling (even on curved dragon). You'd have to have some absurdly high Dex.

Does imbuing make sense with a quality build in this game? All the elements seem to scale with some stat now.
 
Loved it!

Every into so far has been different.

Demon's Souls: You're about to be screwed.

Dark Souls: Long ago, we got screwed.

Dark Souls II: Bearer of the curse, you are SCREWED.

Yes lol! It was very powerful - I loved it too, but was definitely anxious starting the game. It felt very dark and that is fantastic.
 
Graphically, it's kind of baffling that (late area spoiler inside)
Shaded Woods and Dragon Aerie
can be in the same game.
 
It's almost the same as Demon's Souls with all the stun locking and people were always quick to point out how great demon's souls pvp was. O.o

PVP is fun as hell for me especially because none of the lag problems are there. I don't get nailed by soul spears that I thought I dodged and passed 3 seconds ago anymore at least.
Of course there's some balance issues but this isn't a tournement fighter either...

Maybe it'll need a few patches as you said but it's nowhere near the worst. Dark Souls 1 had so many more problems and still does now.
Each game had its problem. Even after its final patch. The backstab dance of DS was probably the biggest.

Lag is still there tho I've experienced it a few times and from what I heard Great Magic Barrier got nerfed. So that might be a problem. Then again From never could even out the playing field between melee vs magic these part few games that well, but its a PvE game.

I guess the thing that bugs me the most are the fact PvP/invasion stuff and rules feels more of an add on, like they only tacked it on to make some covenant important or because people complained about it, rather then DS where it felt ingrained with the experience itself.

I
 
Graphically, it's kind of baffling that (late area spoiler inside)
Shaded Woods and Dragon Aerie
can be in the same game.

From do stone well.

From do leafs bad.

Funny, but true! From has amazing artists when it comes to designing armor, specular maps for metal and stone stuff. But designing and rendering natural, organic environments... I think Darkroot Garden in DS1 is the best they've ever done.
 
Each game had its problem. Even after its final patch. The backstab dance of DS was probably the biggest.

Lag is still there tho I've experienced it a few times and from what I heard Great Magic Barrier got nerfed. So that might be a problem. Then again From never could even out the playing field between melee vs magic these part few games that well, but its a PvE game.

I guess the thing that bugs me the most are the fact PvP/invasion stuff and rules feels more of an add on, like they only tacked it on to make some covenant important or because people complained about it, rather then DS where it felt ingrained with the experience itself.

I
I wish FROM would focus on more creative PvP/PvE hybrid covenants. It's such a shame that the Gravelords were completely fucking broken in DS1. The closest DS2 has is the Rat Covenant, which is way less ambitious.
 
Does imbuing make sense with a quality build in this game? All the elements seem to scale with some stat now.

Don't know overall. But from what I've tested on the curved greatswords swords was that the imbuing will do just as much damage if not more with stats around 40. Not to mention you get elemental damage which probably most players probably don't have much defense against.

Also buffing spells work on imbued weapons. Doing greater magic weapon on my lightning+10 curved greatsword pumps the damage up a lot.
 
Every game I've played since DkS2 has made me want to stop playing and go back to playing DkS2. Game is just so good.

It just keeps getting better as I play. I just love how developed the adventure is. Most games feel like they would've ended it at
Drangleic Castle
and I already went through two more areas after it. It's like I'm playing Okami again in terms of game length. Can't wait for my ng+ run.
 
Each game had its problem. Even after its final patch. The backstab dance of DS was probably the biggest.

Lag is still there tho I've experienced it a few times and from what I heard Great Magic Barrier got nerfed. So that might be a problem. Then again From never could even out the playing field between melee vs magic these part few games that well, but its a PvE game.

I guess the thing that bugs me the most are the fact PvP/invasion stuff and rules feels more of an add on, like they only tacked it on to make some covenant important or because people complained about it, rather then DS where it felt ingrained with the experience itself.

I

Oh yeah, I can completely agree on that front. Actually getting engaged in pvp(besides the boring duel arenas) is way too annoying now. I still don't get why they got rid of the intact orbs. Making these items consumables that are a chore to grind was a pretty bad move. They could at least have made them the top tier rewards for the covenants.
I know you can buy infinite orbs in ng+ but they're still very expensive and the fact that you hardly get any souls for a successful invasion doesn't really help that at all.
 
Every game I've played since DkS2 has made me want to stop playing and go back to playing DkS2. Game is just so good.

I bought Deception 4. I love it but I've only played about 5 hours. And since its purchase I made another character on DS2 and finished NG.
Now I'm at work aching to go home and playing.
 
So online play, a couple of Q's:

1. I picked up a couple of item drops from enemies while as a phantom, did they drop for me or am I stealing from the host? (This is a nice new addition either way btw, lol)

2. The whole souls memory thing - Does this mean the more co-op I do, the more I'm screwing myself over for matching making? I just did a few co-op boss battles in Heides Tower, say you grinded through co-op there for a long time - does that mean eventually you would just run out of people who could summon you since your soul memory would be too high for low level hosts, even though you had a similar SL? Or is soul memory just for invasions?


The more I think about it, the more soul memory seems like a really poor way of handling things. Also loading times for being summoned are awful - is this the 'benefit' of servers because it felt like double the time that summoning took in DS1 and as for lag and online play, it doesn't seem any different to DS1 either. /blank stare.
 
I've been meaning to ask. I've killed the final boss and still have an estus flask shard I can't use as well an an extra
branch of yore
. Were these just extras?
 
so should I just upgrade the regular pyromancy hand or
wait for the dark hand? I'm kind of always a hollow and just have the ring of binding equipped for my health, but maybe its a good idea to start just being human since I have so many effigies?
 
Is
Vendrick
a missable fight? I just fought
Velstadt
and got the
King's Ring
. I didn't see any other mist doors to walk through.
 
How do I beat
Najka
? Her magic attacks are fucking broken. They never miss and she constantly spams them, constantly. TOo far? Too close? magic spam. How am I supposed to hurt her when I can't even get near her without getting magic'd to death?
 
How do I beat
Najka
? Her magic attacks are fucking broken. They never miss and she constantly spams them, constantly. TOo far? Too close? magic spam. How am I supposed to hurt her when I can't even get near her without getting magic'd to death?

Just stay close.
 
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