You don't even need to do that you can just walk of the platform above and land in iron keep and be on your way with no hassle.
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Dark Souls II |OT++| Bearer of...Seek...Seek...Lest
- Thread starter Vazra
- Start date
Can't say I agree there, there are several ways to go about the Shrine of Amana. My approach was a combination of stealth and kiting. The casters will wreck your shit if you're careless, but hey, welcome to Dark Souls.
Also loved the little details. When you meet that girl and she says "the little ones dance when we sing", if you pay close attention, the monsters in the water wont attack you while she's singing. Once she stops though, oh boy.
Red Liquorice
Member
It looks lovely, but as an area it's boring and just a straight line through basically. It's full of treasure and loot drops though - I still haven't made a run of the game where I haven't farmed it to extinction, it's just too tempting not to.
I think most people agree the magic of the first two games is in shorter supply in DS2. Some areas are up there with the best - Lost Bastille is maybe my favourite area in the game, even FOFG is a twisty, turny classic Souls area. The latter half looks better, but the area layout and designs are better in the first half imo. Lots of corridors areas in the second half (Amana, Airie, Dragon Shrine, Aldia's Keep)
edit - The worst part about Belfry Sol for me is the bonfire at the bottom of the ladder. The 3ft wall looks stupid, but you can drop down from the top to get out, but couldn't they have put the bonfire at the top of the ladder in a room, it's so fucking tedious for farming that area (and they put several enemies in their with rare spawns so they did know people would farm it).
Did you play it pre nerf? That was the worst area in the game for pure melee users.
what changed?
They nerfed the range and tracking of the priestess among other things.
Pre nerf and pure melee here(and low level on top of that) and I enjoyed the shit out of that area. It's so refreshing atmosphere and level design wise.
The enemies are designed to make your life hard but in an unprecedented way.
Really one of the rare places that stood out in this game.
Dont remind me. Second bonfire area was just torture.
I think it's a badly designed area because of it's reliance on forcing the player into cheap, cheesy tactics that feel out of place in the game. Is it a difficult area? No, but I didn't buy this game to peer down a reticle or pair of binoculars to exchange potshots with mobs across the map. It's just not even remotely satisfying gameplay.
As for being the worst area in terms of design? I'm not sure. I think I would have to nominate Black Gulch, but for a different reason. It's more like the designers phoned it in and didn't even try. No, dropping poison dart statues along the walls of a linear path does not win you level design awards.
LurkerPrime
Member
I have not.
That said, I think From has tried to prod players into being more varied in their tactics this time around in Dark Souls 2, with the increased ring slots and encumberance changes. The Shrine of Amana is certainly a late-game area, and I would personally expect most players to have an expanded arsenal by that point in the game.
It is easy to start Dark Souls 2 as a melee fighter, but with the very nature of diminishing returns for your stats it should be expected to "multi-class" into another role, either a ranger or a spellcaster. If you double-down on melee fighting, then you should have the equipment and tactics to survive the Shrine with ease - so long as you prep yourself accordingly (such as using a magic-resistant shield).
In short, being a difficult part of the game does not automatically make it unfairly, lazily, or badly designed.
Like the rest of the game, the Shrine of Amana is a test of adaptability, cunning, and knowledge.
By throwing what ever it was at you forcing you to either turtle up and block them or get a bow to go through the area? That's not challenging I think and makes the rather dull area already torturous especially post second bonfire.
The torturers picked the wrong spot they should of sat there instead of in the copse.
You can dodge most of the soul spears on reflex, they're pretty slow and obvious.
Not that I think it's good level design, but it's not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. It's pretty clear the game punishes narrow builds though. Every caster needs a good melee option, every melee character benefits from having a ranged option.
Not that I think it's good level design, but it's not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. It's pretty clear the game punishes narrow builds though. Every caster needs a good melee option, every melee character benefits from having a ranged option.
I was running like a madman trying to get to the mages as quickly as possible to kill them. It was frustratingly fun and lovable.
So who has gotten all the Achievements? If so, how many playthroughs did it take? I'm 28/38 right now, doing some cleanup before I head on to new game plus.
That's probably the best way to put it.
Even at it's worst, I find Dark Souls 2's level design just makes sooooo many other games feel fucking awful by comparison.
That's probably the best way to put it.
Even at it's worst, I find Dark Souls 2's level design just makes sooooo many other games feel fucking awful by comparison.
dragonlife
Member
Maaaaan, no one I get summoned by can deal with the Ancient Dragon QQ Last night I played for 2 hours and got summoned at a good pace, but was only able to win once. And that was after the the second phantom got wrecked early on. That was a great one.
Muh Sunlight Medals QQ
Muh Sunlight Medals QQ
There's a really, really easy way to cheese that fight if people are so inclined. Basically you just stand by his left foot and you'll never get hit, it's completely breaks the fight. I really hope they patch it.
Uh, since when. I got through NG+ twice using nothing but GLS + SS.
Took me two and a half. You need to be in NG+2 to feasibly get three of them.
This.
A lot of areas are handled better than others based on how you approach them in the Souls games. This is why from the getgo in DS2 I made sure to have a ranged option in addition to melee.
So Shrine of Amana was business as usual pretty much, proceeded a little and decided that bow was better for the area and that was that.
In NG+ I had nothing better to do than put stats into Faith so leveling that up and having access to magic in addition to melee and bow opened the options up for me even more and a lot of areas were a heck of a lot easier with this option available.
That doesn't sound fun at all it sounds as you say frustrating.
I've run into one or two hackers on PC when defending the belltower. He didn't have any ridiculous hacks like super speed or anything, but he had infinite health.
All I can think is how is the game even fun with inifinite health? There goes all the challenge...
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Got my third great soul on my SL 1 character last night. The run up to Freja was more annoying than Freja herself.
It's funny, I went through the trouble of getting the southern ritual band so I could use pyromancies. But I haven't honestly used them much since then. My +10 Mace with resins tends to take out bosses just as well if not better than my current pyromancies. (Although I've only got the glove to +5 so far.)
I can't believe I forgot to mention that place, what a miserable level. The enemies and boss in the area make up for some of it though.
The Rotten in particular has a pretty intimidating design, I loved it.
You could use that excuse to dispel any criticism of the game's combat encounters, I don't buy it. The giant cyclops monster in the area mixes things up well because the best way to engage him (for pure melee builds) is to lure him into a shallower area of the linear map and fight him there. The priestesses (I don't actually know their names...) on the other hand never move out of the water they're in and can target you from 2x further than you can. Being fair is not synonymous with being well designed and most importantly: engaging. This is the only area of the game (so far) that I've felt this way about. Isn't there a better way of providing challenge for the player that doesn't involve either piling on the volume of enemies or limiting the players capabilities?
Granted I've only had about a weeks worth of exposure to a Souls game so maybe I have the wrong read on it but this game's combat style doesn't seem well suited for engaging a high volume of baddies.
That's pretty much my approach too for my melee build. It's just so, so tedious and leaves me waiting around for a more engaging level to pop up. Unless I missed some huge alternative path, I believe the game is becoming more linear and forcing me through the Shrine because I've cleared all the prior areas. It makes me think I'm nearing the end of the game yet there are still like 4 greyed out areas in the bonfire menu. If the rest of the game is as linear and tedious as Amana then I might just start a new build instead.
I really, really hope that isn't the case though because the previous non-linearity of having 4 different major zones to explore was where this game felt the most interesting for me.
I've run into one or two hackers on PC when defending the belltower. He didn't have any ridiculous hacks like super speed or anything, but he had infinite health.
All I can think is how is the game even fun with inifinite health? There goes all the challenge...
Think that goes for any multiplayer game ever. What exactly is the fun in cheating? It's like congrats you beat me because it's literally impossible for me to win, huge accomplishment there, asshole.
King Gilga
Member
Man, I just ganked someone killing the mad warrior, I didn't realise until after the fact.
I feel bad, I hope it doesn't despawn when they die.
I feel bad, I hope it doesn't despawn when they die.
Why is that? You shouldn't be expected to pick up a whole different type of combat to traverse a single area.
bob_arctor
Tough_Smooth
Shrine of Amana claims another victim! I loved it. Great atmosphere, looks great (especially now with Durante's new HDR Bloom), cool enemies, makes the torch useful (and risky), carefully tucked away items. And yeah, the singing. There was nothing remotely unfair about it, post-nerf. Belfry Sol can be avoided in a very obvious way, so no need to be all catty.
Catching him in his rear feet AI loop makes him easier than a majula piggy.
It's a shame cause he's an amazing fight if you don't do that.
Violentine
Banned
Hey don't make fun of the piggies. People die from them! There are tons of blood stains in that area
It's amazing it see how many people die to stupid crap. Like that one skeleton in Majula looks like it's slaughtered tons of people that head inside his house.
There's an extra skeleton for each bonfire intensity.
Bonfire Ascetic Majula several times, go down there, then get back to me.
Violentine
Banned
Could be in Ng+. There are 6 or more skeletons, all charge you at same time. I died once because I was expecting to see one, instead I got ganked by a whole pack.
Yeah but it really gets tedious after a while. Especially if you're melee'ing him.
The piggies are pretty mean. Who among us was not marooned on the highest rock in majula at one point or another?
Soul payout is based on players Souls to Level stat. If you invade someone and kill them, you get 10% of their Souls to Level. If you kill an invader you get 50% of their Souls to Level. The amount of souls you have on you is irrelevant, it is only determined by how many Souls it takes you to level up, AKA, Soul Level.
Nope we're talking about the little piglets in Majula there's 3 of them.
King Gilga
Member
They nearly killed me at the start of the game when exploring the hub.
They're tougher than they look, took like no damage from me, I had to run away.
Jackben
bitch I'm taking calls.
This man gets it.
Also Iron Keep doesn't require you to go through Belfrey Sol at all, as with Luna it's a completely optional area. Cry more plz.
N
Noray
Unconfirmed Member
scrubs might skip Smelter and his bonfire though.
eot
Banned
Is that patch active on PC? I just went through there again and the mages aggro as soon as they pop into rendering range.
Yup, it's just a section that pushes you for being completely dependent on one style of play.
I also LOVED the part where you have to use a torch to see the creatures hiding in the water. It was so intense, I also got fucking invaded at the moment, scared the shit out of me. Managed to beat him though!
Jackben
bitch I'm taking calls.
There are actually a lot of areas you can skip with the right about of exploration. Iron Keep you can skip Smelter by turning off the furnace, you only miss out on a bonfire. Lost Bastille has some optional areas, ALL of No Man's Warf is optional, which means so is Heide's Tower of Flame, Huntsman's Copse all you need are Skeleton Lords, harvest valley is a super short area if you just rush to earthen peak...
Heck if you happen to co-op enough to get 1 million souls (or simply die a lot) you can skip all the old ones and go right through the shrine of winter.
Heck if you happen to co-op enough to get 1 million souls (or simply die a lot) you can skip all the old ones and go right through the shrine of winter.
N
Noray
Unconfirmed Member
Heide's isn't skippable. Need Licia to get to the Copse.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Still wouldn't need to use Belfry Sol...
Violentine
Banned
Dragon rider is so easy, just let him fall.