• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Bloodborne: The Old Hunters |OT| Old Hunters. New Tricks, Bells & Whistles.

Essay

Member
Imru’ al-Qays;187511427 said:
Well, my issue with the Kirkhammer isn't necessarily that I think it needs more hyper armor within the context of the Bloodborne systems. It's that I think the way Bloodborne works, with lots of quick enemies and no poise, naturally tends to favor weapons with a faster swing speed. But that's more of a general issue with slow weapons in this game: in a game where there is no (or very little) hyper armor, slow weapons will suffer disproportionately compared to fast weapons.

My problem with the Kirkhammer specifically is that it seems to be even slower than various alternative weapons (like Ludwig's, or more recently the Whirligig Saw), with a more restricted moveset, and no advantages I can point to that would outweigh those disadvantages. I don't think the Kirkhammer is better at poisebreaking big enemies than Ludwig's or the Saw, for instance.



Yeah but most other weapons in the game don't have a near-duplicate competitor weapon. Ludwig's and Kirkhammer are the two most similar weapons in the game, barring the Saw Cleaver and the Saw Spear, and so when one of them has more advantages than the other it's more apparent than, say, when comparing the Reiterpallasch and the Blade of Mercy.

The Kirkhammer's moveset is only as restrictive as you let it be. My personal favourite thing about it is its unique dashing R1 that blocks while attacking. With it, you can react to the opponent and get into "sweet-spot" distance a lot safer than you'd think. Once you're in there, it hits a lot harder for less investment in damage stats, letting you work with lower-than-average-level builds that don't sacrifice stamina or hunter-tool use to hit like a truck. (And I must say that Executioner Gloves -> Dashing R1 chasedown can put in work!)

I definitely don't look at trick-mode in a vacuum though. The sword is just as important, and frequent transitions play a big roll in my success at least.

EDIT: Hey, servers ARE up. :)
 
So when I finally beat Laurence NG+6 with my hands shaking, the SHARE function doesn't work anymore :(

I only capture the last few seconds,don't know if it was because of the servers.
 

Akara

Banned
Weird stuff was happenign when I fought BSB with a beckoner lol, everyone must have logged in immediately online.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
anyone keen to help me through the Sinister Chalice?
 
Just killed the two
shark bros
and got the
Rakuyo
.
Out of curiosity, what do you folks think are the best weapons from the DLC?
 
Just killed the two
shark bros
and got the
Rakuyo
.
Out of curiosity, what do you folks think are the best weapons from the DLC?

Beasthunter Saif is off its DOODLE.

I can't remember if it was here or on reddit, but someone described it as "Bloodborne incarnate" due both to its aesthetic and how aggressive its moveset is. Could not have said it better myself. The reach on the transformation attacks is godly.
 

Akara

Banned
Just killed the two
shark bros
and got the
Rakuyo
.
Out of curiosity, what do you folks think are the best weapons from the DLC?

Very subjective.

Moonlight sword is very powerful if you do 50,50,50. Very great damage.

Rakuyo has an amazing moveset

Bloodletter has crazy range and does frenzy

Simons bow blade can do a sht ton of damage with its charged shot from afar using only 1 bullet

Whirlgigs hold L2 is a boss slayer

Beast Claw is amazingly quick

Saif has a guaranteed confirmed combo after r1 unlike almost all trick weapons, so you're guaranteed two hits from it rather than just one if you land r1 on a pvper.

Kos Parasite... I'll just stay quiet about it. I loathe it atm but see its viability....
 

MrHoot

Member
Just killed the two
shark bros
and got the
Rakuyo
.
Out of curiosity, what do you folks think are the best weapons from the DLC?

Whirlgig is a strong contender especially against beasts. Amazing scaling, a nice moveset between it's transformed form and I enjoy the "buzzsaw" move. Coupled with beast pellets, and upgraded with some nice gems that thing is just a beast against most bosses.

There are so many good weapons tho. Like I said above, compared to previous souls game where it was fairly easy for me to go with one style and stick with it, there are SO MANY GOOD OPTIONS in bloodborne as a whole that I cant' really decide.

I've been sporting the moonlight sword and i love the moveset. Especially in pvp as it keeps people on their toes between the swings of enchanted and unenchanted as well as the projectiles. The rakuya is super fun to use, like fancier blades of mercy.The beast cutter and pick are just fucking brutal.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
If by help, you mean ruthlessly invade you, let me know the password. ;)
(Sinister Root Chalices aren't needed to progress and tend to be used for PvP.)

worst

It's the fixed dungeon needed to get to Yharnam. :p

GAFHUNT
 

Dez_

Member
Laurence defeated and with that 100% of the trophies obtained. Boss actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I struggled more with Ludwig and OoK than anything else. However, I have this terrific knack for losing the ability to hit a boss when they're down to the tiniest sliver of health and frustratingly lost several battles right at the end.

I was about to have the same experience again, when I suddenly remember that I'm holding a (weak) gun and proceeded to ping down that last milometer from a distance. Seems anticlimactic to take them down like that, but I'll take it.

Man, this content has been incredibly fantastic. I need to digest it a little before jumping back in. Besides Defiled dungeons, most of these bosses gave me a real run around. It's rewarding to overcome these obstacles, but damn did this drain me. I don't think I have it in me to try this again solo... and that means some co-op!
 
So when I finally beat Laurence NG+6 with my hands shaking, the SHARE function doesn't work anymore :(

I only capture the last few seconds,don't know if it was because of the servers.

Aw man that sucks. I don't think the recording thing is dependant on the BB servers though, but who knows if that can interfere or not. Grats on beating him on that level though and on the bright side, there's always NG+7 :D ........ :C

Just killed the two
shark bros
and got the
Rakuyo
.
Out of curiosity, what do you folks think are the best weapons from the DLC?

Probably the Whirligig at the top. Then the bowblade (mostly as a supplementary weapon though, most efficient ranged weapon out there damage wise), Rakuyo especially due the ability to use papers and the enchantment on it, Holy Moonlight Sword and the rest after that. I'll say I think they're pretty much all viable though. Except for the gatling gun and I have some doubts on the Fist of Gratia.
 

MrHoot

Member
You guys aren't making this easy for me :)

The game sure isn't making this easy for us. It probably has the best selection of weapon in any souls game ever.

You can smash people with a fucking wheel.

I'm actually sad there isn't something like the Bell hammer like in dark souls 2
 
Woah. Got visceral'd by Maria mid way through. She held me, deathblow in sight... Co-op saved me. Partner stunned her.

Heal, heal.

Back in the fight.

Oh wow he knocked her out of the visceral animation? Thats pretty cool
 
Just killed the two
shark bros
and got the
Rakuyo
.
Out of curiosity, what do you folks think are the best weapons from the DLC?

Honestly this is one of those situations where all of the weapons seem great. Or at least almost all of them. So if there's one that just speaks to you at some sort of emotional level then by all means use it.

In my experience, all of the skill weapons (Beasthunter Saif, Church Pick, Rakuyo) are top notch. I was vacillating between the Pick and the Rakuyo, but I think I've settled on the Rakuyo for now.

The Whirligig Saw is the standout strength weapon, but the Holy Moonlight Sword and Boom Hammer both seem pretty good too. And people who love the Beast Cutter really love it. Amygdalan Arm, on the other hand, doesn't seem very good to me - moveset is slow and attack rating is sort of mediocre.

The Bloodletter seems fine, but not as good as the Chikage, which is its main competition. And Simon's Bowblade is just really hard to figure out.
 

MrHoot

Member
The DLC weapons are all honestly so much cooler than the base game's selection. But Pizza cutter stands tall as a giant among giants. #teampizzacutter.

They certainly have more pizazz but I still love the original vanilla selection. They're classic, but the saw cleaver or threaded cane havee such a charm and coolness to it and stuff like the speargun or the stake driver are still rad as hell. The rest is not particularily outstanding but i like to have them when I feel being like a classic efficient hunter (also because everyone in pvp right now is running with DLC weapons that they've forgotten the movesets of older stuff)
 
Aw man that sucks. I don't think the recording thing is dependant on the BB servers though, but who knows if that can interfere or not. Grats on beating him on that level though and on the bright side, there's always NG+7 :D ........ :C

Hell yeah ! And while it's not gonna be for this year (my December should mostly be XenobladeX), I know very well that I will come back again for Bloodborne one day for the next run. I always come back *-*
 
Those require a Bloodgem imprint. That would raise the AR from 726 currently to 757. Which I don't consider worth levelling up a Lost Chikage for.

With Bloodtinge radials you can get to 809 AR from what I see here. But remember that this puts the 1h version in the dumpster as well as that you get incredibly weak viscerals. So I don't think that's worth it personally.
I thought visceral attacks were only affected by your character's skill level. So attack points that scale from skill determine the damage of the viscerals?

Concerning the chikage. You want to use it in two hand mode.
 

Trojan

Member
So how many people are ranking this as the best Souls DLC? I usually don't pick up DLC this far after I've beaten a game, but I'm seriously considering it after reading this thread.
 

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
So how many people are ranking this as the best Souls DLC? I usually don't pick up DLC this far after I've beaten a game, but I'm seriously considering it after reading this thread.

I would. Artorias was great but I think this edges it out. I didn't find any of the Dark Souls 2 DLCs particularly amazing.
 
So how many people are ranking this as the best Souls DLC? I usually don't pick up DLC this far after I've beaten a game, but I'm seriously considering it after reading this thread.

Best Souls DLC for sure. Especially when you consider that the base game's main problem was that it wasn't long enough.
 

neoism

Member
holy shit the research hall is an amazingly creepy area.. dlc is amazing.. other than the weapons so far...
 

Wagram

Member
So how many people are ranking this as the best Souls DLC? I usually don't pick up DLC this far after I've beaten a game, but I'm seriously considering it after reading this thread.

It's not my favorite of the released DLCs, but that's subjective. I think most people would agree that even though the DLC is a bit on the short side, it's still worth the $20.
 
It's not my favorite of the released DLCs, but that's subjective. I think most people would agree that even though the DLC is a bit on the short side, it's still worth the $20.

I mean, is it a bit on the short side? It's certainly longer and more varied than Artorias of the Abyss or any one of the Dark Souls 2 DLCs.
 

neoism

Member
Are you really, honestly completely 100% unaware of the fact some people don't want to spend up to 10 hours replaying a game they already played to get to the new content they actually want to play (edit, because I'm already being misunderstood: Just as the poster above I'm counting the hours to play to the ending in NG to be leveled up for the DLC. I would likely not be able to do that in 5-6 hours)? I understand that it is no problem for you. That is cool. What I am saying and what Griffin and Patrick are saying is: We would really enjoy the DLC but do not enjoy going through the game a second, third or fourth time and would like an option to start playing the new content without having to do so. Is that so unbelievable to you?

Again: Because of this I had to play the DLC in NG++ and it actually made it less enjoyable for me. So my options were:

1.) Play 1 or 2 hours to get to the DLC in NG++ and enjoy the DLC less than I would have in NG
2.) Start an entirely new game I don't actually want to go through now and spend hours not enjoying myself too much to get to the part i would enjoy

Both of these options involve me lessening my enjoyment of the game. Why is it so completely unbelievable for some people why both of this options are less than ideal to me and quite a few others?

wat .. I thought you only hate to kill tge doge boss at the cathedral... thats like the second boss cant you get there in like 30min from a new game?
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
Imru’ al-Qays;187511427 said:
Well, my issue with the Kirkhammer isn't necessarily that I think it needs more hyper armor within the context of the Bloodborne systems. It's that I think the way Bloodborne works, with lots of quick enemies and no poise, naturally tends to favor weapons with a faster swing speed. But that's more of a general issue with slow weapons in this game: in a game where there is no (or very little) hyper armor, slow weapons will suffer disproportionately compared to fast weapons.

My problem with the Kirkhammer specifically is that it seems to be even slower than various alternative weapons (like Ludwig's, or more recently the Whirligig Saw), with a more restricted moveset, and no advantages I can point to that would outweigh those disadvantages. I don't think the Kirkhammer is better at poisebreaking big enemies than Ludwig's or the Saw, for instance.



Yeah but most other weapons in the game don't have a near-duplicate competitor weapon. Ludwig's and Kirkhammer are the two most similar weapons in the game, barring the Saw Cleaver and the Saw Spear, and so when one of them has more advantages than the other it's more apparent than, say, when comparing the Reiterpallasch and the Blade of Mercy.

First bolded: I have never actually seen a Bloodborne enemy that can't be staggered by Kirkhammer's Hammer mode, even the big ones. I don't think the game made an understatement when describing it as having "extreme amount of impact."

Second bolded: I hope that's not you dissing Reiterpallasch here, hahaha. Such an underused weapon that I love quite dearly :( It will be even MORE forgotten by people with Old Hunter, I imagine :(

wat .. I thought you only hate to kill tge doge boss at the cathedral... thats like the second boss cant you get there in like 30min from a new game?

Simply reaching it and have enough preparations to survive it are two completely different matters, hahah.
 
I thought visceral attacks were only affected by your character's skill level. So attack points that scale from skill determine the damage of the viscerals?

Concerning the chikage. You want to use it in two hand mode.

Of course you do, but that's not always optimal in certain situations. But sure, you could play with only the transformed state in mind.

As far as viscerals go, try it for yourself. It's only gem based though, NOT weapon based. You get a slight increase with arcane scaling for instance (probably some amount more if you use really high end arcane gems), also with papers I believe, but what really pushes it through the roof is the physical attack gems. So for me, not having those effectively knocks off over 2k dmg from my viscerals. This aside from the level and Skill scaling of course.

So that combined with me not wanting to waste health on every little mob that I can easily take out with the one handed mode, not to mention also allowing me to use my Evelyn, is something I really don't think is worth the relatively meagre increase in damage I'd get from using pure bloodtinge stuff. Versatility is pretty key to me.
 

Derpot

Member
The Old Hunters is longer than Artorias of the Abyss and DSII's DLCs. I spent like more than 8 hours on it ? And I mean overall Old Hunters is fucking amazing. Great bosses, great atmosphere, great weapons, great everything !
But I didn't want it to end D:
 
First bolded: I have never actually seen a Bloodborne enemy that can't be staggered by Kirkhammer's Hammer mode, even the big ones. I don't think the game made an understatement when describing it as having "extreme amount of impact."

I meant no poise on the player character, not no poise on the enemies. Lots of enemies have poise, and the Kirkhammer is good at staggering them (though I'm not sure it's better than Ludwig's). But since the player character doesn't have poise it makes slow, cumbersome attacks like the Kirkhammer's hammer attacks harder to utilize effectively than in a game like Dark Souls.

Second bolded: I hope that's not you dissing Reiterpallasch here, hahaha. Such an underused weapon that I love quite dearly :( It will be even MORE forgotten by people with Old Hunter, I imagine :(

Hell no. That's me dissing BoM. I love the Reiterpallasch.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
I thought visceral attacks were only affected by your character's skill level. So attack points that scale from skill determine the damage of the viscerals?

Concerning the chikage. You want to use it in two hand mode.

Visceral damage is counted from your level, your Skill, and your physical attack--so putting high level physical attack gems is really beneficial if you are planning to use lots of viscerals. Oh, and if you buff your weapon with Bolt or Fire paper for instance, your Visceral will do more damage too.

Imru’ al-Qays;187519251 said:
I meant no poise on the player character, not no poise on the enemies. Lots of enemies have poise, and the Kirkhammer is good at staggering them (though I'm not sure it's better than Ludwig's). But since the player character doesn't have poise it makes slow, cumbersome attacks like the Kirkhammer's hammer attacks harder to utilize effectively than in a game like Dark Souls.



Hell no. That's me dissing BoM. I love the Reiterpallasch.

I am not quite sure about this but I think the R2 charge of the Kirkhammer Hammer mode is uninterruptible once the Hunter launches it successfully. I am also quite convinced that in terms of stagger potential, Kirkhammer is higher than Ludwig since I personally have seen multiple occasions where the Hammer manage to stun enemies that Ludwig cannot with its normal big sword swings... although yes... Ludwig boasts a better damage potential than the Kirkhammer--faster, too.

As for the bolded, goooood :) Such an under-appreciated weapon, Raiterpallasch is :) I greatly favor it over BoM as well.
 

Akara

Banned
"I had no idea what to do even when I have all these arcane gizmos, could have jumped down after the cooperator aggro'd them or even thrown molotovs at em. I'll just watch the poor person die :)"

Hell no, do you know if I kill one of those spiders, another one would just spawn and chase me? CHYA NO I like my echoes tyvm.




I really didn't think my cooperator would appear there LOL
 

neoism

Member
Fashionborne
12314554_882562661812253_4397818553591713822_o.jpg
They call me the female magician in the game.

#itried

D:

use those echos brah..


large.jpg
 

silva1991

Member
some people hate the difficulty of the dlc bosses, but I disagree. the bosses in this dlc are ike super bosses in other japanese games like Terra and data bosses in KH2 or Father Rodin in Bayonetta1/2 etc.

I like that.
 
Top Bottom