-
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
- Thread starter Vazra
- Start date
I think I had the hardest time this DLC with smelter. Used like 10 humanity and elizabeth mushrooms on him. Alonne was fairly challenging but the fight doesnt up the difficulty mid way through unlike the others (unless you fuck up). Fume was hard but less frustrating than smelter because of the short walk to him. Using a dex build with pyromancy, no shields.
The DLC was good but I liked the first one better. The design of the memory was weak and a boss being a copy let it down.
Also they need to stop making firestorm spells.
The DLC was good but I liked the first one better. The design of the memory was weak and a boss being a copy let it down.
Also they need to stop making firestorm spells.
Killed
yesterday and have to say i'm really disappointed with this DLC, especially compared to the first. Encounter design was terrible imo and the whole area just felt too video-gamey. I loved the oldschool D&D ancient temple vibe in the first DLC. I explored every nook and cranny there but can't be bothered to explore the rest of OIK.
Loot was also pretty disappointing but that's just me i guess.
is cool tho. Not sure however if +30 AR on my MGS and wisdom staff are worth it, haven't really tested the dmg yet.
Hope the last DLC is en par with the first.
fume knight
Loot was also pretty disappointing but that's just me i guess.
Sorcery clutch ring
Hope the last DLC is en par with the first.
What do you mean by "video-gamey"?
I find it really funny after playing Dark Souls 1 and having Titanite Slabs be worth their weight in gold, to have a Slab drop or be in a chest in this game and go "oh god damn it, I wish that was a twinkling or a dragon bone". I currently have 14 titanite slabs in my inventory, hell if they aren't more common than chunks in this game. Doing a no bonfire aescetics run for fun and because my mild OCD likes when all the bonfire intensities match, and it is making getting dragon bones a real pain.
The imperfect are a good farmable source of petrified dragon bones.
Not sure how to explain it tbh. Area just never felt natural to me. All those chain elevators and stuff. Always had the feeling i was playing an ordinary Video game level.
Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
I've really enjoyed both DLC's so far, and I really feel it shows that the main issue with DS2 as a whole was that there were simply too many areas for them to cover adequately in the time they had.
The added focus that working on a handful of areas for the DLC has allowed the level design to shine once again.
Good bosses on the whole, although I did feel the difficulty was a little-bit too random. Fume Knight is so much tougher than the rest it felt a bit wrong to me, especially given that its the least flexible in terms of strategy.
Of the two I think Sunken King is the stronger, but I think From did an admirable job with Iron King especially given how the extreme verticality of Brume Tower limits their options.
Of all the bosses I think I enjoyed gank squad the most; its kind of easy once you figure out its a pure bump-and-run fight, but it was an enjoyable challenge.
The added focus that working on a handful of areas for the DLC has allowed the level design to shine once again.
Good bosses on the whole, although I did feel the difficulty was a little-bit too random. Fume Knight is so much tougher than the rest it felt a bit wrong to me, especially given that its the least flexible in terms of strategy.
Of the two I think Sunken King is the stronger, but I think From did an admirable job with Iron King especially given how the extreme verticality of Brume Tower limits their options.
Of all the bosses I think I enjoyed gank squad the most; its kind of easy once you figure out its a pure bump-and-run fight, but it was an enjoyable challenge.
Sen's Fortress too game-y too? That's the level everyone loves.
Actually, yes. I never understood the love sen's got in the community. But i liked it more than OIK just for the Indiana Jones vibe..
It also made more sense lore wise.
Maybe i just don't like the verticality of OIK, i dunno.
I think my main problem with both DLC so far is that everything was too backloaded. I really appreciated in the Artorias DLC of DkS 1 that it started with a bang with a boss right away (even if sanctuary guardian wasn't the best boss). Then you had Artorias roughly midway through and Manus at the end. It felt like there was a good pacing between regular enemies and bosses.
In both Sunken King and Iron King, I felt like I was going through the areas for hours and hours before even finding a boss. The areas were well designed, but I would've preferred the bosses be more spread out to break things up. Sunken King was the worst offender, with
literally back to back after like 6 hours of running around the city and the sanctum. The
hardly counts as a boss, but they were still incredibly far in as well. Iron King was pretty bad at this too, the earliest you could access any of the bosses was upon reaching the bottom of the tower after a ton of time in the DLC.
I really hope the third DLC gives us an early to mid way through boss, I would very much appreciate it.
In both Sunken King and Iron King, I felt like I was going through the areas for hours and hours before even finding a boss. The areas were well designed, but I would've preferred the bosses be more spread out to break things up. Sunken King was the worst offender, with
Elana and Sinh
lame trio
I really hope the third DLC gives us an early to mid way through boss, I would very much appreciate it.
So.. still stuck on the first boss in the sunken king dlc.
I either really suck, my build sucks, or its just stupidly hard.
I have a feeling its probably all 3.
WTF am i doing wrong?
Its so dumb that when she spawns Vels that the fight is basically over, then when I get the skeletons I try my hardest to hurt her, but I end up dying anyway
I either really suck, my build sucks, or its just stupidly hard.
I have a feeling its probably all 3.
WTF am i doing wrong?
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
It's probably the last two things, I doubt you suck that much. This boss, along with the optional one (the
3 way ganksquad
So either summon help, or adjust your build to increase agility for those extra i-frames (made a big difference on my melee faith build, first time I actually noticed the difference was in this boss fight) or be able to cast strong ranged magic to kite everyone or something. What is your build btw?
Funny that you mention it, I am also doing a stength faith build (55 faith, 30 strength, 33 vigor). Im using a +10 mace infused with lightning. I also have the Dragon Chime +5, but none of my faith spells do any damage to her (shes probably resistant to every thing).
Last night I even went and collected fireseeds and made a pyro glove +7... still didnt do any damage to her.
I would summon help.. but my ego is far too large. I havent summoned in the entire game, so I dont really want to start now.
She's got high resistance to lightning and fire damage so that's is why you are struggling to deal damage with those two types of attacks. She's weak to physical damage especially strike damage so your mace is alright. Suffers a fair bit from the damage split of 168/168 physical to lightning a fair bit though.
You might benefit from uninfusing your mace for a pure phyiscal weapon that deals 240 damage with A/E scaling. Or if you've got one a maxed out homoculus mace does 290 damage whilst having only B/E scaling as a downside out damages a mace though.
Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
If you are in NG, just summon Benhart. He can handle Elana and Velstadt pretty comfortably.
Stay mobile, let him tank - especially after she summons Velstadt- and take what shots you get opportunisticly.
Its worth trying bosses with different npc setups if you are struggling solo. For example adding a second npc to Elana just makes things harder, whereas against Smelter 2.0 in Iron King 2 NPC's are far more effective than just summoning one.
The key thing is to try and figure out where the problem lies with the strategy you are employing unsuccessfully. Are you getting pressed, caught and punished brutally, or are you just getting worn down by a battle of attrition? With the former summon help to relieve the pressure, with the latter try and figure out a way to control the pace of battle more to your liking- which is probably better solo.
Hah, just got invaded by a hacker that was spamming I think force (the point blank miracle that does no damage) like 5 times a second knocking me around doing no damage. I think they were just trying to break my items to annoy me? Broke my Third Dragon Ring and I alt-F4ed because I couldn't do anything else.
The reason I find this funny is because the thing that I did not 30 seconds before getting invaded was to find and unlock the repair tree in the first DLC, so if this hacker was trying to annoy me by breaking my gear it kind of did nothing since I just teleported, whipped the tree and was all set.
The reason I find this funny is because the thing that I did not 30 seconds before getting invaded was to find and unlock the repair tree in the first DLC, so if this hacker was trying to annoy me by breaking my gear it kind of did nothing since I just teleported, whipped the tree and was all set.
I just think its so stupid that when she summons vels that its pracitcally over
Do you stay there and fight off vels just so she can summon him again 2 seconds later?
At the same time she just drops firebombs all over the map so you cant even dodge his attacks to fight him anyway. Not to mention the hitboxes in this game are still broken.. so its not even feasible to dodge things efficiently.
I get so close to beating her, only for her to chill in the corner while vels just chases me non stop until im dead.
fuck
Do you stay there and fight off vels just so she can summon him again 2 seconds later?
At the same time she just drops firebombs all over the map so you cant even dodge his attacks to fight him anyway. Not to mention the hitboxes in this game are still broken.. so its not even feasible to dodge things efficiently.
I get so close to beating her, only for her to chill in the corner while vels just chases me non stop until im dead.
fuck
I feel like it comes down to a bit of luck that she summons the skeletons first and then Velstadt and by that point you can keep them close, bait Velstadt to attack, dodge and get a hit or two on her.
Orochinagis
Member
Man this is as best as I can do
Mind you, even though I have all that armour on I'm still sitting at around 40% equip load and I have Chloranthy +2 on.
Heavy armor will make your battle impossible, you need like 33% of equip load to fully roll against him
Totally. Which is pretty stupid, but what ever.
Whats really dumb is that I thought I found a trick to her. Kill 2 of the 3 skeletons, and let one just roam. I was thinking that she wouldnt be able to summon anyone else until that last skeleton died.
NOPE.gif
She summons Vels while there are still skeles out.
UGHHHHHHUHGUGHUGHUGHGUHGUHGUHGBap;uifbp;asuiodfbASOUIDFJBNASDOGFIBASD'OFIANSDFO'IKNASDF
Sorry.
I finally said fuck it and looked up where the other bonfire was, so my trek to the fog gate isnt as long now.. but I still cant beat her.
WhiskerFrisker
Member
Can anyone tell me what's the best item to start out with? This is my first time playing DSII (Played DS 1) so I want to know what is good for a STR/DEX build. I'm also stuck between faith/intelligence since I don't know which one is good in this game compared to DS1. I liked the idea of chucking lightning bolts.
Orochinagis
Member
Its better to keep velstadt but you have to manage your stamina constantly to not get caught on his heavy attack
Oh well. Wanted to get the soul for the heck of it, and wasn't going to use it anyways.
I find it interesting that opinions are varied regarding whether this or the first DLC is better. IMO, this DLC is far more compared to the first because of both the level design and the bosses. Sir Alonne and Fume Knight were really fun bosses. Also, enemies in this DLC in general are more interesting compared to the first one.
Last DLC is out in two weeks, correct?
Answers:
- The bastard sword is good for STR/DEX and available very early into the game.
- There's no real best gift all of them have their uses but depending on your luck the petrified something is good.
- If not the life ring or the healing wares are useful. You can do both and use miracle, sorcereries, and hexes but if you just want support stuff go FTH.
On the 24th of September.
Orochinagis
Member
You can go str/faith and use the Heide sword (secure drop) it sinergy with faith as a bonus to your strength build or the bastard sword for more heavy decisive damage.
As for the special gift go for the pretrified item and drop it on the nest to get a random chance to get an Item, there is a chance to get the demon axe from DS1 that deals huge amount of damage for str builds
DarkHeartedKill
Member
I thought you take the biggest stamina penalties at 50% and 60%. Plus I can roll through his attacks just fine, it's just when he does the AoE orbs attacks they do a ton of damage, then I get distracted because of the need to heal and die.
It's above 70% equip load for fat roll.
Orochinagis
Member
You still roll slower at 40%, just a little slower and shorter so yep the AOE can reach you because of that.
WhiskerFrisker
Member
So the cleric is a good class then? I think I would like to use sorcery if pyromancy isn't that good. How are the hexes?
What happens if my luck is low? Will the game troll me and give me a crappy item?
DarkHeartedKill
Member
I'm the same way, I like defeating a boss solo at least once. After I've proven to myself that I'm capable of doing so, summoning because funner to do because I'm not as tense during the fight.
That I know, however, for every 10% equip load above 0 you take stamina regen penalties. The most significant one is at 50% since you're taking 30% reduced stamina recovery( at 40% you take 17.5%).
You wanna talk about close fights?
I was about to land the killing blow on her and she teleports away like the wretch she is.
Totally. Which is pretty stupid, but what ever.
Whats really dumb is that I thought I found a trick to her. Kill 2 of the 3 skeletons, and let one just roam. I was thinking that she wouldnt be able to summon anyone else until that last skeleton died.
NOPE.gif
She summons Vels while there are still skeles out.
UGHHHHHHUHGUGHUGHUGHGUHGUHGUHGBap;uifbp;asuiodfbASOUIDFJBNASDOGFIBASD'OFIANSDFO'IKNASDF
Sorry.
I finally said fuck it and looked up where the other bonfire was, so my trek to the fog gate isnt as long now.. but I still cant beat her.
The way it works is if there are currently any skeletons alive she will not summon more skeletons but will summon Vel. If Vel is alive she won't summon another Vel but will summon skeletons. There's a low chance she summons the boars from Majula too, but after co-oping against her like 70 times, it only happened once.
Orochinagis
Member
The clerig mace is a fantastic starter weapon to destroy bosses while you are building up and looking for spells.
Sorceries, pryomancy and hexes are very related by the INT stat and Faith stat so its a win win if you go caster but the useful hexes and pyro are kinda late in the game so explore, find spells and test it the way you like and switch spells if you dont like it pretty easy.
About bad luck the lamest rewarks are a titanite slab or a twinkling titanite.
I know that too. Helps with stamina management with the heavier STR weapons.
Cleric is a pretty good starting class with the best starting weapon. Hexes and pyromancies are pretty good. Hexes uses both INT/FTH pyros have no stats requirements so are good for melee characters.
Huh. I just killed Velstadt, he died in three hits for me. Maybe four. I was able to kill him in between Elana's attacks. Then I killed Elana well before she summoned anything else, didn't even know there were summons besides Velstadt once. This character was just on NG though.
If you guys are talking about NG+ onwards, then damn my whole strategy for that fight will need to be reworked when I do it again.
After all my time playing DkS 2, I did not know this at all. I knew there was a stamina regen penalty based on weight but I thought it was continuous like roll distance (you roll slightly slower and less far as equip burden goes up) not with break points like DkS 1 equip load stuff.
Do you have a source for this? I believe you, but I want to see if I am missing anything else about the equip system!
DarkHeartedKill
Member
LOL! So I'm not the only one that feels that way. I feel the drops for Slabs are really common too, when I was fighting the horse statues on the way to Mirror Knight the first two both dropped a Slab. I had no equipment or rings on that increased luck. Then I go to Shrine of Amana and try to get twinkling titanite while having the Gold Ring +2, Jesters Hat, and the prisoners tatters I got 10 after kill 5 of the enemies until they stopped spawning.
WhiskerFrisker
Member
These are a lot of things I'm going to be investing in haha. Should I stop around SL 120 if I want to PvP? I'm not sure if I want to keep going since I've heard some things about Soul Memory. And I want to invest in adaptability for better rolling.
SL is irrelevant level as much as you like. SM will match up will match you up with those in that boundary except in arenas. Rasing ADP is a good idea 35 is the cap for agility via ADP by itself with 5 ATT.
Source.
DarkHeartedKill
Member
I got the numbers from here: http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/24igwy/stamina_recovery_and_you/
If you're talking about the kind of equipment you are wearing. that's irrelevant. For example you take the same stamina penalty naked and at 60% load as you would if you had Havels and were at 60%. While his table is a little ambiguous, there's a video that shows the stamina recovery and how long it takes at different loads, and some comments also point out a more direct penalty.
WhiskerFrisker
Member
Yes! This is music to my ears. I was just trying to calculate what I was going to invest in. This sounds very good to me. I was going to start DS II after Darksiders 2 but I'm getting bored with that. Dark Souls is calling me lol. I'll come back if I have anymore questions. Thanks for your help.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Back away when he does that (roll backwards if you have to), then roll towards. Most of the time you'll roll safely through.
Here:
http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/agility
No idea if any of this is accurate to be honest, but I assume people have tested this and aren't pulling it out of thin air.
Just came off a 4 hour run towards my Platinum and completed NG+. Now I'm on NG++ and only got two trophies left. I assumed I could open Shrine of Winter if I had like 8 mil Soul Memory but I was wrong. Now I have to collect the 4 Lord Souls again...fuck my life.
And I can't delete the patch and try out the shrine of winter hopping glitch to skip it because From's latest patch prevents post patch 1.07 to be used in an upatched game. Ffs~
I'm stopping now and will continue tomorrow.
And I can't delete the patch and try out the shrine of winter hopping glitch to skip it because From's latest patch prevents post patch 1.07 to be used in an upatched game. Ffs~
I'm stopping now and will continue tomorrow.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
If you hate the game so much that you're willing to skip half its content, why are you even still playing it?
Point me to the bit where I said I hated the game...
Orthogonal
Member
You need 3 Million souls from the start of ng++ to open Shrine of Winter early. Raw Soul Memory doesn't count.
DarkHeartedKill
Member
One could gather you hate a large portion of the game if you're willing to exploit a glitch to avoid playing through it. If you're on NG++ you need 3M more souls to open the Shrine of Winter, so you could just BA Old Iron King and keep defeating him. Or Co-Op a lot. Way better than glitching through.
I feel your pain, when I was going for the platinum I just wanted to be done already. Really hated that like two trophies were gated behind NG++ and relatively far in. Though you can get the Lord Souls pretty quickly after, obviously, doing it multiple times already.
And I believe the souls earned to open Shrine of Winter only counts souls earned in your current NG iteration. In that if it takes 8 million souls, you would need to earn 8 million from when you start NG++ until opening the door and it doesn't count your NG and NG+ souls earned.
I mean, I don't know about you but I would have a lot of fun playing through NG 3 times on three different characters, but having to go through the exact same content three times through on the exact same character playing the exact same way just for like three spells isn't fun. You don't have to hate the game to want to skip this dumb part of the platinum trophy, but when you are 2 trophies shy of finishing you still want to get it done.
This is my fifth run (third on my sorcerer, one run for a Hexxer and a Warrior). I'd like to get the last two trophies before Destiny comes out in two days, in which case I'll be dedicating myself fully to that game.