• 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.

Dark Souls II |OT++| Bearer of...Seek...Seek...Lest

S

Snacks the sober sea lion

Member
I beat the big boss of the DLC and then went to (spoilers if you haven't heard about new memory accessible with DLC)
use the Ashen Mist Heart on Vendrick's clothes. That conversation was, well... kind of pointless.
]
All it does is remind me how much of the lore is underdeveloped. Why do they keep saying my characters "covets the Throne?" My character doesn't even know what the dumb Throne is. For that matter, nobody knows what the Throne is aside from conjecture, and we didn't learn anything about the Dark Soul or the pygmy, so stop saying "Dark" all the time.
 
neoism

neoism

Member
Stormtrooper said:
Soothing sunlight was stolen by Licia from a monestary in Lindeldt. She's a thief and a con artist who tricks the gullible i.e you (cursed undead or what ever it's called) and others. An example is when she lies to you about the rotunda needing miracles to work as it is mechanical in nature. That's why the black eye orb is used to invade her as she is guilty. She may also be the nameless usurper but that's rather unknown at this point.
Click to expand...
lol she took me 20 fucking tries lol fucking sooooo cheap I got so mad I just said fuck it and cheesed the fight too lol....
 
O

Orochinagis

Member
Snacks the sober sea lion said:
I beat the big boss of the DLC and then went to (spoilers if you haven't heard about new memory accessible with DLC)
use the Ashen Mist Heart on Vendrick's clothes. That conversation was, well... kind of pointless.
]
All it does is remind me how much of the lore is underdeveloped. Why do they keep saying my characters "covets the Throne?" My character doesn't even know what the dumb Throne is. For that matter, nobody knows what the Throne is aside from conjecture, and we didn't learn anything about the Dark Soul or the pygmy, so stop saying "Dark" all the time.
Click to expand...

Yep, feels like they were trying to replicate the "chosen undead" lines but it fails on their own world lore because you dont have any clear mission outside curing the curse on first place, the emerald gives you a vague explanation then vendrink enters these lines to guide you when you already finished the game so you have to pay for the DLC to understand what he is really saying since the dialogues unlocks by getting DLC items.

neoism said:
lol she took me 20 fucking tries lol fucking sooooo cheap I got so mad I just said fuck it and cheesed the fight too lol....
Click to expand...

Since lycia have unlimited spells, I had to poison and knock her down till the poison killed her.

AlexSA2 said:
Anyone know where that whip sword is in the DLC?
Click to expand...

After passing the room with the first priest sorcerer, dont jump on the hole and go forward till you see a dead end then activate the swith in front of you in the upper part. then go back and activate the switch in the wall hole and go to one of the detours..
 
I

Iva Demilcol

Member
Just defeated Darklurker... took me several human effigies and I don't want to fight it a second time, I literally killed it with fire. I'd prefer to kill the ancient dragon a second time instead of Darklurker. Also, I chose to do it while I was offline since I didn't want to get invaded by some assholes.

Now that I think about killing NPCs I'd usually kill them using poison, it was very effective against Licia, Jester Thomas was also very easy that way. Also, since the guy had no poise I had fun using force against him.
 
E

ElTopo

Banned
Iva Demilcol said:
Just defeated Darklurker... took me several human effigies and I don't want to fight it a second time, I literally killed it with fire. I'd prefer to kill the ancient dragon a second time instead of Darklurker. Also, I chose to do it while I was offline since I didn't want to get invaded by some assholes.
Click to expand...

I think Dark Lurker is in the top 5 for hardest boss fights so congrats.

I wasted around 50 Human Effigies to get him. 20 Dealing with the zones and killing the phantoms and roughly another 20 trying to kill the Dark Lurker.
 
R

Ruuppa

Member
TnK said:
How can I fight against the dark lurker boss?
Click to expand...

Find the wheelchairman 3 times:
Black Gulch, Shaded Woods, Drangleic Castle.
After that, he'll allow you to join the covenant and access Abyss dungeons, one in each area he hangs out in. Finish two of those by lighting the big torches and killing the enemies, and on trying the exit the third, you fight Darklurker.
 
R

Raxious

Member
Stormtrooper said:
Get a Rebel greatshield and infuse it with dark that only leaves you the fire orbs as a danger. Staggering it is rather helpful in the long run too.
Click to expand...

Damn, that works indeed :eek: I still died though xD

Gonna farm the Giant Lord for a little bit today and get my attunements up to 16, so I can just nuke him down with Pyromancy.
 
C

Cannon Goose

Member
Did the NG+ Gargoyles get harder since I last fought them? I've done it five times before and now I can barely even kill one of them. They just don't seem to separate any more and they do these staggered group attacks that I just can't dodge through.

edit: lol

http://a.pomf.se/ozieyt.webm

Still haven't killed one of them yet.
 
P

Psycho_Mantis

Banned
Wow this team has effectively killed of the ultra greatsword class of weapons (what was left of it). Mediocre movesets and poor tracking.

Is it me or the unlocked gameplay DkS2 is considerably worse?
 
S

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
chunk3rvd said:
Anyone running a DEX/Hex build and if so, can you let me know your stats? I know STR is more useful than DEX in DS2 but I used to love skywalker builds with darkmoon blade in DS1. I was thinking something similar with a nice katana (blacksteel?) and resonant or dark weapon could be good fun?
Click to expand...

You'll get the most out of Blacksteel Katana playing pure DEX and duel-wielding two. I've found that it takes an inefficient amount of DEX for it to be the best Katana (50 DEX, as I recall).

To be honest, as a Hex build, you'll likely want to make the most out of your Dark dmg (not a lot of enemies have much in the way of Dark resistance), which will mean eventually infusing it with a Darknight Stone. That will bring down the DEX scaling quite a bit, which is Blacksteel's most useful trait. In this rather comprehensive guide on how to make an efficient Hex/Melee character, it suggests - outside of the naturally Dark imbued weapons - that the Chaos Blade is a nifty match for Hex/Melee players. Here's what the article says:

A dark infused Chaos Blade has 185/185 in base damage. The B-scaling in Dark and Dex grants us an additional 47 dark and physical damage resulting in a 232/232 weapon.
You will buff your weapon with Resonant weapon to increase the dark damage on the weapon by a flat 50 and a 50% increase, thus, (232+50)x1.5 = 423.

In the end we end up with a Chaos Blade that does 232/423 damage. Total AR is: 655
Click to expand...

That's not including any Ring of Blades boosts or what-not. Obviously, the only drawback is that the Chaos Blade hurts you every time you hit someone, but you can off-set the damage in interesting ways... the Ring of Thorns being a particularly cheeky way to do it. The article has a list of weapons and numbers that is worth a look at. Be warned, with the recent update some of them are a little out of date (Roaring Halberd, for example).
 
C

Cannon Goose

Member
Oh fuck, the Belfry bonfire after the Gargoyles was on NG+4! No wonder it was so tricky. Had to summon someone for help to get past them in the end but thankfully that's over with now.
 
T

Trakan

Member
Screaming Meat said:
That's not including any Ring of Blades boosts or what-not. Obviously, the only drawback is that the Chaos Blade hurts you every time you hit someone, but you can off-set the damage in interesting ways... the Ring of Thorns being a particularly cheeky way to do it. The article has a list of weapons and numbers that is worth a look at. Be warned, with the recent update some of them are a little out of date (Roaring Halberd, for example).
Click to expand...


Resonant Weapon isn't as good as it used to be anymore. The damage is lower, though it still out-damages Dark Weapon I think.
 
E

ElTopo

Banned
Ruuppa said:
Find the wheelchairman 3 times:
Black Gulch, Shaded Woods, Drangleic Castle.
After that, he'll allow you to join the covenant and access Abyss dungeons, one in each area he hangs out in. Finish two of those by lighting the big torches and killing the enemies, and on trying the exit the third, you fight Darklurker.
Click to expand...

After clearing out all 3 zones and lighting the fires you can go to any of them and re-beat the phantoms to fight the Dark Lurker. The one in Drangelic is probably the easiest one given the low number of enemies and it's somewhat easy to take them on one on one.
 
C

chunk3rvd

Member
Screaming Meat said:
You'll get the most out of Blacksteel Katana playing pure DEX and duel-wielding two. I've found that it takes an inefficient amount of DEX for it to be the best Katana (50 DEX, as I recall).

To be honest, as a Hex build, you'll likely want to make the most out of your Dark dmg (not a lot of enemies have much in the way of Dark resistance), which will mean eventually infusing it with a Darknight Stone. That will bring down the DEX scaling quite a bit, which is Blacksteel's most useful trait. In this rather comprehensive guide on how to make an efficient Hex/Melee character, it suggests - outside of the naturally Dark imbued weapons - that the Chaos Blade is a nifty match for Hex/Melee players. Here's what the article says:



That's not including any Ring of Blades boosts or what-not. Obviously, the only drawback is that the Chaos Blade hurts you every time you hit someone, but you can off-set the damage in interesting ways... the Ring of Thorns being a particularly cheeky way to do it. The article has a list of weapons and numbers that is worth a look at. Be warned, with the recent update some of them are a little out of date (Roaring Halberd, for example).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips :) If I work towards the chaos blade and SL150 I get the following:

VIG - 30
END - 23
VIT - 11
ATT - 20
STR - 14
DEX - 25
ADP - 20
INT - 30
FAI - 30

Only worry is that I'm lacking in HP but I guess that's the sacrifice a hexer has to make since I'm spreading points across more stats. Is 150 still the SL most are playing around? Should I be trying to get DEX to 40 and making sacrifices elsewhere? Also, I'm guessing Flynn's ring would work with this build due to the low VIT?
 
Prat

Prat

Member
Seek souls, larger, more powerful souls. Seek the king, that is the only way. Lest this land swallow you whole... as it has so many others...
 
A

AkuMifune

Banned
Hey guys! Been awhile. Jumped back to get into the DLC, playing it at NG+, sl lvl 150. Just wanted to check my equipment to get any advice. Flying blind into this DLC after having a long break has been daunting. In a great way. About halfway through it now I think. I love the area and enemies, would have appreciated a bit of narrative context though.

Been using a +5 Black Knight Halberd forever. Velstads armor set. 40 Dex 40 Str just about. melee/bow. No spells. Just picked up the
Drakeblood Greatsword
and plan to use both based on situation. My only question, is there any other weapon I should be looking at getting/upgrading? Any reason not to use that weapon I just picked up? I think I like it. Should I infuse it?
 
M

Mistel

Banned
AkuMifune said:
40 Dex 40 Str just about. melee/bow. No spells. Just picked up the
Drakeblood Greatsword
and plan to use both based on situation. My only question, is there any other weapon I should be looking at getting/upgrading? Any reason not to use that weapon I just picked up? I think I like it. Should I infuse it?
Click to expand...
The drakeblood greatsword at max will have E/S scaling with 210/50/50 damage split the problem is that it will go through three defenses at the minimum reducing it's damage. It's the same issue the mace of the insolent has. So that's a reason not to use it.

With your stats a red iron twinblade, claymore, mastodon greatsword or a royal greatsword would be more beneficial.
Prat said:
Seek souls, larger, more powerful souls. Seek the king, that is the only way. Lest this land swallow you whole... as it has so many others...
Click to expand...
emerald_herald_by_badproblems-d7ms2b5.png
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
What the heck is up with the description of the
Ancient Dragon Soul - I'm talking about the soul you get from the fossilized dragon in Tseldora, which presumably is one of the original dragons killed by Gwyn, no?
?
 
O

Orochinagis

Member
Easy_D said:
What the heck is up with the description of the
Ancient Dragon Soul - I'm talking about the soul you get from the fossilized dragon in Tseldora, which presumably is one of the original dragons killed by Gwyn, no?
?
Click to expand...

If you use the ancient mist to explore that memory you can find it would be the original ancient dragon or an everlasting dragon who died in that place.
 
A

AkuMifune

Banned
Stormtrooper said:
The drakeblood greatsword at max will have E/S scaling with 210/50/50 damage split the problem is that it will go through three defenses at the minimum reducing it's damage. It's the same issue the mace of the insolent has. So that's a reason not to use it.

With your stats a red iron twinblade, claymore, mastodon greatsword or a royal greatsword would be more beneficial.
Click to expand...

Have a claymore as backup but the BKH still does more damage at the moment, but I'll check out the red iron twinblade. Never considered it.

Now just hoping I picked it up on my first playthrough or it will be a bit before I'm back to the shrine.
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Orochinagis said:
If you use the ancient mist to explore that memory you can find it would be the original ancient dragon or an everlasting dragon who died in that place.
Click to expand...

That's precisely the soul I'm talking about. The description makes it sound as if
it's referencing the Ancient Dragon found atop of the Dragon Shrine, rather than one of the OG Dragons
 
R

Ruuppa

Member
Easy_D said:
That's precisely the soul I'm talking about. The description makes it sound as if
it's referencing the Ancient Dragon found atop of the Dragon Shrine, rather than one of the OG Dragons
Click to expand...

There's a theory that
the Ancient Dragon is a construct, created from Giant Souls that houses the mind/soul of Aldia. It is said that Aldia wanted to recreate the dragons, and considering what you meet, he probably succeeded. Whether it's Aldia or not is up in the air. The soul's description might be a simple red herring, and instead of pointing to the Ancient Dragon, it points to the dead dragon in the memory. But more probably it does indeed point to the Ancient Dragon, since it explicitly mentions the shrine. Which makes little sense, considering where you get the soul.

If it is true that he managed to recreate the dragon, and *is* it currently, it is not farfetched to think that he used the Ancient Dragon's carcass from Brightstone Cove along with the Giant Souls to do it. The Ancient Dragon in the Shrine is in possession of the Ashen Mist, so he could have gotten his hands on the same Ancient Dragon soul that you find in the Dragon Memory.
 
M

Mistel

Banned
Easy_D said:
What the heck is up with the description of the
Ancient Dragon Soul - I'm talking about the soul you get from the fossilized dragon in Tseldora, which presumably is one of the original dragons killed by Gwyn, no?
?
Click to expand...
It kicked the bucket before anyone showed up. It says it stood and waited at dragon shrine till it was killed or died and with replaced with the faux ancient dragon.
 
neoism

neoism

Member
Stormtrooper said:
Dragon sanctum near the wall spikes also as a rare drop from the squirmy worm things in cave of the dead. It's also a trio drop.

There's much more exploitable ways to go about that fight like profound still.
Click to expand...
Oh I know I used it like 2 times but still died I ended up just using 16 gls spam lol and a bright bug : p
 
O

Orochinagis

Member
Easy_D said:
That's precisely the soul I'm talking about. The description makes it sound as if
it's referencing the Ancient Dragon found atop of the Dragon Shrine, rather than one of the OG Dragons
Click to expand...

It could be a reused asset from the Ancient Dragon to fill the Everlasting dragon model becasue you never fight a dragon in this game or designed dragon to be in this game outside the ancient dragon.

Since Aldia could not borrow the corpse because the spiders making its home on the death dragon body but takes the dragon bones from the dragon shrine's drakes instead and usurped the ancient dragon status to trick the dragon warriors.
 
S

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
zewone said:
Is Ring of Thorns confirmed to activate from Chaos Blade? I've heard conflicting reports.
Click to expand...

My bad, I thought you could.

chunk3rvd said:
Should I be trying to get DEX to 40 and making sacrifices elsewhere? Also, I'm guessing Flynn's ring would work with this build due to the low VIT?
Click to expand...

You'll get some extra damage from DEX, but those stats seem fairly sturdy. Remember, your health goes up with every level, so that's something at least!

Dunno about Flynn's. Not played the DLC yet.
 
C

CronoShot

Member
Is there a reason to keep your SL at 150 anymore? I've heard matchmaking goes off of Soul Memory, so I don't want to purposely nerf myself.
 
S

Sullichin

Member
chunk3rvd said:
Thanks for the tips :) If I work towards the chaos blade and SL150 I get the following:

VIG - 30
END - 23
VIT - 11
ATT - 20
STR - 14
DEX - 25
ADP - 20
INT - 30
FAI - 30

Only worry is that I'm lacking in HP but I guess that's the sacrifice a hexer has to make since I'm spreading points across more stats. Is 150 still the SL most are playing around? Should I be trying to get DEX to 40 and making sacrifices elsewhere? Also, I'm guessing Flynn's ring would work with this build due to the low VIT?
Click to expand...

I'm a big fan of Flynn's Ring (definitely use ROB+2 also or it's pointless). Remember that the dragon rings / royal soldier's will increase your equip weight though. You need your equip load stat (not currently equipped number) to be 60 or less to get the full 50AR from Flynn's ring.

I'd get DEX to 40. Dex scaling isn't great but you might as well get the most out of it. What agility does 20ATT and 20ADP get you? if you can shave some points off ADP and still have 100 agi, i'd do that if you wanted to save a few levels.

The far fire site shows more people playing at 200 than 150. It's up to you. If the arena is your focus, you won't feel like you overleveled if you go to 180 or 200. I go back and forth. I have save backups at SL130, 150, 180 and even 250+ (NG+). It does make sense that you'd make sacrifices to health as a hexer but in practice you'll be fighting SL300+ dark weapon buffed buffstackers with 2500+ HP and heavy armor anyway so what the hell.

CronoShot said:
Is there a reason to keep your SL at 150 anymore? I've heard matchmaking goes off of Soul Memory, so I don't want to purposely nerf myself.
Click to expand...

Kind of wish there was, but there really isn't.
 
R

Raxious

Member
Sooo, I'm in NG+ and one of the last few miracles I need is from the sunbro's, anyone got a good idea on where to farm for sunlight medals? I'm SL150, SM 3.7 mil. I never get summoned for bosses, nor do I see other people's signs.
 
M

Mistel

Banned
Raxious said:
Sooo, I'm in NG+ and one of the last few miracles I need is from the sunbro's, anyone got a good idea on where to farm for sunlight medals? I'm SL150, SM 3.7 mil. I never get summoned for bosses, nor do I see other people's signs.
Click to expand...
Drangelic castle twin dragon riders or the throne of want are the best places for it. Depending how many you need you could farm the mounted overseers or falconer's for sunlight medals whilst wearing item discovery boosting gear.
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Man this game is weird at times, for some reason my framerate randomly drops by 50% when I am invading (As a blue phantom!) or in co op. At first I thought it was the cloth physics but it happened in the Lost Bastille with no sight of the guy I invaded.

Happened in the Dragon Shrine too, get summoned, we're two dudes, FPS drops by half. Next time we're three dudes and the framerate is normal.
 
C

chunk3rvd

Member
Sullichin said:
I'm a big fan of Flynn's Ring (definitely use ROB+2 also or it's pointless). Remember that the dragon rings / royal soldier's will increase your equip weight though. You need your equip load stat (not currently equipped number) to be 60 or less to get the full 50AR from Flynn's ring.

I'd get DEX to 40. Dex scaling isn't great but you might as well get the most out of it. What agility does 20ATT and 20ADP get you? if you can shave some points off ADP and still have 100 agi, i'd do that if you wanted to save a few levels.

The far fire site shows more people playing at 200 than 150. It's up to you. If the arena is your focus, you won't feel like you overleveled if you go to 180 or 200. I go back and forth. I have save backups at SL130, 150, 180 and even 250+ (NG+). It does make sense that you'd make sacrifices to health as a hexer but in practice you'll be fighting SL300+ dark weapon buffed buffstackers with 2500+ HP and heavy armor anyway so what the hell.
Click to expand...

20 ADP and 20 ATT gets me exactly to 100 agility so I'll keep that. Will probably stick to 150 max in NG then level towards 200 in NG+. An extra 50 will let me take DEX to 40 and still have 35 more points for VIG and END. Might even put 6 into STR so I can fool around with a greatbow. They were always good fun in DS1. Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

(Book) Dark Souls: The Willow King releasing in August
14
2K
Codes 208 replied
Souls games aren't well designed
Opinion 2 3 4
177
7K
Kumomeme replied
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered - Review Thread
News
37
3K
Feel Like I'm On 42 replied
Deadlock |OT|
|OT| Community 2
91
6K
Robot Carnival replied
GmanLives: The Killing Antidote Is The Resident Evil Clone We Deserve
Analysis Trailer
29
2K
Rickyiez replied
Top Bottom