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

Jaeger

Member
NICE!

I was thinking about doing that, is it worth it? Is it fun running around beating stuff up with the fists? Or did you just do it for cheevos or something?

Nothing more fulfilling than beating someone to a pulp with your bare hands in a Dark Souls game.

My stats (I'll post a pic later);

VGR - 20
END -26
STR - 49
DEX - 55

Rings
Chloranthy Ring +2
Ring of Blades +2
Vanquisher's Seal
Third Dragon Ring

Bare fist, w/ Old Knight's Shield +10 (LEFT), and Priest's Chime +10 (RIGHT) as backup.
 

Audioboxer

Member
Just killed the Lost Sinner in NG+ (technically NG++ due to me burning in NG). Still quite challenging, especially with the extra mobs.

Decided I'd burn the bonfire in the holding cells to farm that heide knight once or twice, ended up getting the whole armour set and only 1 dupe! Now I want to do a fashion souls soul vessel and go full on lightning lol.

Sucks I started a sorcerer for this hex character, cleric would of been better and would save me wasted points. Ah well, 14 points in INT. Only other issues is my lack of chunks to upgrade all the armour/heide weapons, and lack of bones for the dragon chime. Current have the sword and lance, need to get the NG+ great lance as soon as I've opened the shrine of winter. Don't have the defender greatsword, I opted for the shield in NG due to being hex at the time. Challenge accepted though!
 

Sullichin

Member
Nothing more fulfilling than beating someone to a pulp with your bare hands in a Dark Souls game.

My stats (I'll post a pic later);

VGR - 20
END -26
STR - 49
DEX - 55

Rings
Chloranthy Ring +2
Ring of Blades +2
Vanquisher's Seal
Third Dragon Ring

Bare fist, w/ Old Knight's Shield +10 (LEFT), and Priest's Chime +10 (RIGHT) as backup.

What's your damage like? Are you in NG+? How many punches to take out an Allone Captain (laser sword knights in Iron Keep)?
 
Does anyone know what the best weapons are for guard breaking in this game? I don't mean the special guard break animation, I mean actually pummeling someone's shield until you drain all of their stamina.

So this would be a weapon which does a lot of stamina damage, while not draining too much of your own stamina. I'm thinking like the Mirdan hammer from Demon's Souls.
 

Sullichin

Member
Does anyone know what the best weapons are for guard breaking in this game? I don't mean the special guard break animation, I mean actually pummeling someone's shield until you drain all of their stamina.

So this would be a weapon which does a lot of stamina damage, while not draining too much of your own stamina. I'm thinking like the Mirdan hammer from Demon's Souls.

Weapons actually list their poise damage now. Off the top of my head anything 30 or above is pretty useful in staggering / guard breaking.

Don't forget the forward+R1 guardbreak. It's hard to pull off, but you can brush a greatshield aside in one move instead of wailing on it for a minute.
 

LiK

Member
Does anyone know what the best weapons are for guard breaking in this game? I don't mean the special guard break animation, I mean actually pummeling someone's shield until you drain all of their stamina.

So this would be a weapon which does a lot of stamina damage, while not draining too much of your own stamina. I'm thinking like the Mirdan hammer from Demon's Souls.

Try maces or clubs.
 

Jaeger

Member
What's your damage like? Are you in NG+? How many punches to take out an Allone Captain (laser sword knights in Iron Keep)?

3 hits with regular punches, 2 with double handed swings. Power stance combo 2-3. One punch was well over 500 damage. And I am in NG+.
 

Sullichin

Member
3 hits with regular punches, 2 with double handed swings. Power stance combo 2-3. One punch was well over 500 damage. And I am in NG+.

Nice, comparable to or maybe even better than my lightning mace +10 / dark mace +10 with 50int/fth. Can you stagger enemies with punches? Noticed you aren't using the stone ring
 

Jaeger

Member
Nice, comparable to or maybe even better than my lightning mace +10 / dark mace +10 with 50int/fth. Can you stagger enemies with punches? Noticed you aren't using the stone ring

Yes indeed. And yea, I get alot of stagger in PvE, and a little in PvP. I can usually get off 2-3 hits per attack before they can roll away.
 

LiK

Member
Nice, comparable to or maybe even better than my lightning mace +10 / dark mace +10 with 50int/fth. Can you stagger enemies with punches? Noticed you aren't using the stone ring

Staggering enemies is pretty much the best thing about a fist build from what I've read here.
 
I use Alva chest armor upgraded, partially because it helps me stay under <50% burden and partially because fashion souls. It looks awesome with Heide Knight helm.

My man. Best helm in the game. The Alva set is stunning, but its respective helm seems goofily proportioned in me eyes; luckily the HKH complements it perfectly.

You're going to want to have a squiz at Creighton's set and maybe research the quest a little to ensure that you get it. It's so fucking rad.
 

elhav

Member
I really like
Shrine of Amana
because I can farm all those Twinkling titanites and effigies.

Still rocking a Longsword+10 in PVE but in PVP it kinda sucks. Tried to get the Blacksteel katana in
Iron Keep
but no luck yet. Killed a lot of
Alonne knights
and nothing. Used item drop equipment and all. Sucks.

I'm kinda proud that I'm going through the entire game without looking at Wiki or getting help by other players in co-op. It makes it all the more surprising and fun. So far I would say the game isn't as hard as the first game was, but has some pretty mean bosses.
Recently killed the
Looking glass knight
and he wasn't that hard.
 

Audioboxer

Member
Does Sunlight Blade scale with the chime? Wanting to know if I can just use a throwaway chime on my left hand for buffing and main on the right.
 

Jackben

bitch I'm taking calls.
My man. Best helm in the game. The Alva set is stunning, but its respective helm seems goofily proportioned in me eyes; luckily the HKH complements it perfectly.

You're going to want to have a squiz at Creighton's set and maybe research the quest a little to ensure that you get it. It's so fucking rad.
Awesome, I'm nearing the end of that quest so I'll definitely have to check it out, thanks for the tip.
 

Gr1mLock

Passing metallic gas
Usually back to back for red soapsign summons or normal invasions when I'm sinner.

I actually invaded a guy in Iron Keep who I did co-op with like 2 days before. I thought that was funny.

This entire week ive had instances where I invaded or was invaded and was like ..hey i know that name. A sign I've been playing too much.
 
Pursuer down. I probably waited far too long before taking him on, because it was very easy. I got a hardon when I first tried the Drangleic Sword, but it quickly receded one I figured out that it needs Twinkling Titanite to upgrade. Don't really feel I can commit to that before knowing what else requires twinkling. So I'm a bit undecided on whether to go with that one or just keep using my Claymore. Are there a lot of weapons suitable for meelee that are upgraded with Twinkling?

The shield seemed nice at first. But I don't know. There's just nothing that can compare to the Large Leather Shield when it comes to performance per weight unit. I have a feeling I'll keep using that shield until the end of the game. At least the Drangleic Mail seems like a really useful piece of equipment.
 
Looking for some stat pointers. I'm at work so going off the top of my head here:

SL160 (I believe)
VGR20
END20
VIT22
ATN13
STR40
DEX25
INT10
FTH10

I'm STR build (use Mastodon Greatsword +10) with Pyromancy+10 here and there (ATN13 so I can equip both Flame Swathe and Chaos Storm). What do you guys think?
 

maomaoIYP

Member
My entire life is a lie

Yup. Sunlight blade doesn't scale with FAI either. It's just a flat 30% boost to lightning damage. If you're going to cast only sunlight blade and no offensive miracles like WoTG, spears or emit force, just use as much spices as you can to lower the FAI cost. The only reason to even have FAI in this case would be if you weapon scales well with it, but that's not very likely to begin with.
 
Weapons actually list their poise damage now. Off the top of my head anything 30 or above is pretty useful in staggering / guard breaking.

Don't forget the forward+R1 guardbreak. It's hard to pull off, but you can brush a greatshield aside in one move instead of wailing on it for a minute.


I was asking for stamina damage. That's not the same as poise damage is it?
 

LiK

Member
Yup. Sunlight blade doesn't scale with FAI either. It's just a flat 30% boost to lightning damage. If you're going to cast only sunlight blade and no offensive miracles like WoTG, spears or emit force, just use as much spices as you can to lower the FAI cost. The only reason to even have FAI in this case would be if you weapon scales well with it, but that's not very likely to begin with.

Great Lightning Spears scale right? I noticed SLS didn't really do a huge amount of dmg over my GLS.
 

Sullichin

Member
Yup. Sunlight blade doesn't scale with FAI either. It's just a flat 30% boost to lightning damage. If you're going to cast only sunlight blade and no offensive miracles like WoTG, spears or emit force, just use as much spices as you can to lower the FAI cost. The only reason to even have FAI in this case would be if you weapon scales well with it, but that's not very likely to begin with.

Makes sense why I'm hearing about people spicing down sunlight blade to only need 10INT or something ridiculous like that.

That's a shame. I transformed my hex build to use dual maces with resonant weapon. I have 50INT/FTH which helps for the dark/lightning damage on my two maces, but probably not enough to justify the cost...

But my 50INT/FTH great resonant soul and scraps of life are just too good. Not sure what to do!
 

Soulhouf

Member
Yup. Sunlight blade doesn't scale with FAI either. It's just a flat 30% boost to lightning damage. If you're going to cast only sunlight blade and no offensive miracles like WoTG, spears or emit force, just use as much spices as you can to lower the FAI cost. The only reason to even have FAI in this case would be if you weapon scales well with it, but that's not very likely to begin with.

Are you saying that if my weapon doesn't have lightning damage, Sunlight Blade wouldn't add any bonus?
If so, this is a huge change from DkS1.
 

Sullichin

Member
Are you saying that if my weapon doesn't have lightning damage, Sunlight Blade wouldn't add any bonus?
If so, this is a huge change from DkS1.
I believe it adds a small flat bonus and then a percentage. So you'll still get a bonus but it would be much greater if you already did lightning damage.
 

Soulhouf

Member
I believe it adds a small flat bonus and then a percentage. So you'll still get a bonus but it would be much greater if you already did lightning damage.

Hmmm that makes sens actually since that way, it scales indirectly through the lightning infusion.
If you don't have a lightning weapon you'll get a bismal bonus.
Nevertheless I still wish there was a buff for pure physical builds à la Power Within.
 

J-Roderton

Member
Been using the Ultra Greatsword for most of the game now and just kinda getting bored with it. Been dual wielding them and everything and have em upgraded. So what's a good sword to use that will not eat up so much stamina while swinging? Basically looking for a good one to use in that regard and that will scale preferably with STR and/or have a good upgrade path.
 

LiK

Member
Been using the Ultra Greatsword for most of the game now and just kinda getting bored with it. Been dual wielding them and everything and have em upgraded. So what's a good sword to use that will not eat up so much stamina while swinging. Basically looking for a good one to use in that regard and that will scale preferably with STR and/or have a good upgrade path.

Try going with regular Greatswords instead.
 

Jaeger

Member
Does anybody have a checklist of things to do before moving on to NG+??

-Beat all optional bosses
-Get as many armors, and items possible. Some merchants only sell stuff after events or areas reached, so endgame should get everything. Make sure to exhaust all their dialogue.
-Get all Boss Weapons/Miracles desired. Won't have access to Straid or Ornifex right away in NG+, of course.
-Do all the Covenant stuff you can/want, too. Again, can't access alot of them right away. Do it now.
 

Field

Member
After spending 10 human effigies trying to beat Darklurker with my melee build I caved and used a soul vessel. I beat her on first try with Faith build.
 

Sullichin

Member
Hmmm that makes sens actually since that way, it scales indirectly through the lightning infusion.
If you don't have a lightning weapon you'll get a bismal bonus.
Nevertheless I still wish there was a buff for pure physical builds à la Power Within.

Agreed, I guess the closest thing is Ring of Blades +2
 

ZangBa

Member
Watching my nephew play for the first time, he picked the sorcerer class and the first stat he raised was strength because he thought it would make his dagger do more damage. Trying so hard not to help so he can figure the game out himself...
 

LiK

Member
I guess I could pull out the ol fire Zweihander. After I've enfused it with fire I can still take it to +10, yeah? But that's still kind of a stamina eater.

Zweihander is an Ultra Greatsword. You should try Bastard/Claymore etc instead. Those are regular Greatswords. Use less stamina but still packs a punch after being fully upgraded.
 

Sullichin

Member
Watching my nephew play for the first time, he picked the sorcerer class and the first stat he raised was strength because he thought it would make his dagger do more damage. Trying so hard not to help so he can figure the game out himself...

At least tell him when leveling up, look at what numbers change!

I am going to get this for my nephew as well (he's 10). He made it to Capra demon in Dark Souls and started many characters. I'd much rather him play Dark Souls over the several crappy Lego games that he also likes.

The bells


So the
mages in undead crypt
won't keep respawning? That's.. dumb. It's the only thing that makes that area challenging. But i fought Vesdalt post patch and the ones in the room before the boss seemed to keep spawning?
 

LiK

Member
At least tell him when leveling up, look at what numbers change!

I am going to get this for my nephew as well (he's 10). He made it to Capra demon in Dark Souls and started many characters. I'd much rather him play Dark Souls over the several crappy Lego games that he also likes.




So the
mages in undead crypt
won't keep respawning? That's.. dumb. It's the only thing that makes that area challenging. But i fought Vesdalt post patch and the ones in the room before the boss seemed to keep spawning?

Yea, it does have a puzzle element by destroying the
statues
to stop it
 

ZangBa

Member
At least tell him when leveling up, look at what numbers change!

I am going to get this for my nephew as well (he's 10). He made it to Capra demon in Dark Souls and started many characters. I'd much rather him play Dark Souls over the several crappy Lego games that he also likes.

I told him to press select so he understands what the stats do. He finally made it to the second bonfire in the forest, having made some enemies extinct in the process.

He never made it past the depths in Dark Souls :/.
 

Sullichin

Member
Yea, it does have a puzzle element by destroying the
statues
to stop it


Oooh they "haven't" patched it out. Misread the post.

Yeah I don't really think they'd change it so they would stop spawning on their own.

You could farm the stone soldiers in the castle infinitely as well. Chance to get a titanite slab too.
 
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