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[Sanctuary]

The DLC absolutely is worth it. It has some fantastic level design, great enemies, and is really meaty.

Also, it has some of the best co-op content in the entire Souls series (which is unsurprising considering that it's the only content specifically designed for co-op).

How active is the game right now on PC for summons, and if I can't summon someone, are the phantoms at least serviceable?

All magic has been nerfed at some point.

That's shitty since Sorcery was pretty weak compared to everythying else already. Nerfing the other schools to "balance" it would have been one option, but I can't see why it would have been nerfed too. The only thing I know about Miracles is that lightning spear got drastically nerfed in cast count.

 

[CountAntonius]

Realistic Lucatiel Cosplay

So good.

 

[Orochinagis]

That's shitty since Sorcery was pretty weak compared to everythying else already. Nerfing the other schools to "balance" it would have been one option, but I can't see why it would have been nerfed too. The only thing I know about Miracles is that lightning spear got drastically nerfed in cast count.

I was forced to go hibrid because of the DLC no way I could defeat those bosses for being pure sorcerer

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I thought about playing a tank class this time around, as I've never really done so (always valued quick rolls), but does physical defense really do much in this game? I just started experimenting on some of the Heide's Tower knights and it seems like I'm taking nearly the same damage with a defense rating of 520 compared to when I was wearing armor that amounted to only 280 or so.

Am I missing something or can I not really expect a huge difference in damage reduction through armor?

 

[Mistel]

Am I missing something or can I not really expect a huge difference in damage reduction through armor?

There's not really much of a difference it does help though. Stuff like full havel's is better than say prisioners set for example.

 

[Orochinagis]

I thought about playing a tank class this time around, as I've never really done so (always valued quick rolls), but does physical defense really do much in this game? I just started experimenting on some of the Heide's Tower knights and it seems like I'm taking nearly the same damage with a defense rating of 520 compared to when I was wearing armor that amounted to only 280 or so.

Am I missing something or can I not really expect a huge difference in damage reduction through armor?

By using heavy armor you get less staggering and less stuns but you wont notice great damage reduction unless you fully upgrade your armor but still you wont get more than 50% damage reduction against bosses.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

50% sounds massive. That means twice the hits, right?

I was just disappointed that doubling my defense values seemed to do nothing against the knights in Heide's Tower. Weird.

In Dark Souls, the benefits of high armor and poise were obvious. I wonder why they chose to weaken tank builds so much in DS2. Combine that with all of the magic nerfs, and it seems like they want everyone to play the game with a greatsword and light armor this time around.

 

[Iva Demilcol]

Hey guys,

I need some advice: I'm going to try a NG+ no-death run with my high DEX, high FTH, high STR character so... Are there any nasty things I should be extra careful about? I think my soul memory is high enough to let me go directly to Drangleic Castle after beating the last giant.

If I don't succeed then I'll just play again as if it was a normal play-through.

Once I'm done with Bayonetta 2. I'll go back to play more DSII. =D

 

[Mistel]

I think my soul memory is high enough to let me go directly to Drangleic Castle after beating the last giant.

It ain't soul memory that gets you through the shrine of winter you need to have gained 2 million in that play through to get through on NG+.

 

[NEO0MJ]

I need some advice: I'm going to try a NG+ no-death run with my high DEX, high FTH, high STR character so... Are there any nasty things I should be extra careful about? I think my soul memory is high enough to let me go directly to Drangleic Castle after beating the last giant.

Actually, you need to have gained those souls during the playthrough, so you can't access it this way. If you're still in NG you can farm bosses (I think the giant lord is best) using bonfire ascetics for their soul which you can consume in NG+ to boost the number of souls you gained. Keep in mind that in NG+ you need to earn two million souls during that playthrough so remember your soul memory at the start so you can tell when you reached it.

Also, watch out for those Falconers at the start. I died because as soon as I started I went to the menu and didn't notice that I was attacked until it was too late and so died right from the start.

 

[Iva Demilcol]

Oh, I see.

Then I don't care anymore (lol)... I wanted to do it as fast as I could and then go back to play the game normally. I guess I'll just keep playing to get all the spells, miracles, etc.

Thanks guys.

 

[neoism]

There's not really much of a difference it does help though. Stuff like full havel's is better than say prisioners set for example.

meh fashion souls ftw been rockin this for my third play-through..

nice to finally have something to match the cat boots ;p

 

[Mistel]

meh fashion souls ftw been rockin this for my third play-through..

nice to finally have something to match the cat boots ;p

This outfit with the ledyia black robe instead of the xanthos coat works better:

 

[Orochinagis]

meh fashion souls ftw been rockin this for my third play-through..

nice to finally have something to match the cat boots ;p

What about the lion chest piece to match it?

 

[Sanctuary]

So I went to fight the Pursuer for the first time since April. And he shot a bunch of dark orbs at me. WTF?

 

[Orochinagis]

So I went to fight the Pursuer for the first time since April. And he shot a bunch of dark orbs at me. WTF?

Dont remember he can do that, you were in NG+?

 

[Sanctuary]

Dont remember he can do that, you were in NG+?

He never did that on a normal game, unless it was just such a rare attack that I never saw it once during the 30+ times I fought him. Or he was changed during one of the updates. I never used an ascetic or fought him on NG+. He didn't do it when I fought him at the ballista spot, only the spot where you can fight him once only.

 

[Orochinagis]

He never did that on a normal game, unless it was just such a rare attack that I never saw it once during the 30+ times I fought him. Or he was changed during one of the updates. I never used an ascetic or fought him on NG+. He didn't do it when I fought him at the ballista spot, only the spot where you can fight him once only.

Maybe you buff him, he buff himself when he does his finishing move with his sword and gains a dark buff

 

[Cannon Goose]

So I went to fight the Pursuer for the first time since April. And he shot a bunch of dark orbs at me. WTF?

It seems like most bosses have a rarely seen attack that catches people off guard. I've seen the Pursuer shoot a blue Sonic Boom style magic bolt at me but never dark magic. Has anyone else seen Vendrick throw a dark fireball? He's done it once and it was the moment I entered the fog gate, so I had no idea what he was doing. Turns out if you get hit by it you are immediately cursed -_-

 

[Hypron]

He never did that on a normal game, unless it was just such a rare attack that I never saw it once during the 30+ times I fought him. Or he was changed during one of the updates. I never used an ascetic or fought him on NG+. He didn't do it when I fought him at the ballista spot, only the spot where you can fight him once only.

I saw it the first time I fought him after getting impaled by his grab attack. I've never seen it since then and never got hit by the grab again so I think there's a link between the two.

 

[MG310]

The guide says the blue Shockwave only happens if you stay far away from him and the Cursed Orb attack only happens after he hits you with the Cursed sword stab.

 

[Sanctuary]

The guide says the blue Shockwave only happens if you stay far away from him and the Cursed Orb attack only happens after he hits you with the Cursed sword stab.

I've been hit by his cursed attack multiple times when first learning the fight, trying to learn what was parryable, and this is the first time I have ever seen him fire the orbs. I'm also 99% sure that the orbs were his opening attack, and I wasn't hit by anything prior to him launching them. I've also never seen his shockwave, and when I was playing my caster I would be max distance as much as possible initially.

 

[Orochinagis]

Yeah some bosses have rare attacks depending of the cirscunstances, I actually saw the dark shockware from the pursuer as a mage but the dark orbs are rarer then? never let him hit me with his move

 

[2AdEPT]

Anyone want to invade me at SM 600k in the forest of fallen giants on PC?...not getting any action here...I am trying to prove you can do a vanquisher seal prep only killing one boss...the rotten....so far success, but I had to cheese Rhoy by stun locking him off the bridge....so I didnt get the extra awsestone drop needed to get the full 50...just need one more than I can make a new video about it. Will put you in the credits. Anyone?

Alternative locations are only heide's, guttergulch, and sunken king.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

So I went to fight the Pursuer for the first time since April. And he shot a bunch of dark orbs at me. WTF?

Yeah I saw that for the first time playing on PC recently. I had only played the DLC on consoles recently, so I don't know if one of the patches or calibrations or whatever affected the Pursuer boss during that time, but it caught me by surprise.

He also did it only on the non-boss area platform, when I fought him on another character on PC in the ballista room he didn't use it, but that might be a coincidence.

It seems like most bosses have a rarely seen attack that catches people off guard. I've seen the Pursuer shoot a blue Sonic Boom style magic bolt at me but never dark magic. Has anyone else seen Vendrick throw a dark fireball?

Yup, like on my second playthrough, and went WTF indeed.

 

[Sanctuary]

Playing this again reminds me why I stopped after three playthroughs. I still like the game, but it feels so grossly unpolished compared to what came before it, and it's infuriating at times how they decided to make the game "more difficult" at times in really cheap ways.

I also remember bitching pretty hardcore about how awful a lot of the hitboxes were during the first week and got hit with basically "lol, there's nothing wrong with them, get gud" replies. A month later and more people were finally commenting about how broken they are.

I'm not sure why playing at a higher framerate would make them seem even worse, but for whatever reason I am getting bodied by some pretty dumb shit in No-Man's Wharf that I had no issues with on the PS3. That area is one of the newbie zones, yet here comes Varangian the shred-zerker to slice and dice his way right through my Estoc thrust that magically went through his body and did nothing, only for half of my life to be gone instantly, followed by a kick that drained the last of my stamina, so I'm stuck standing in some strange "I can't move, so I'll just tread water" pose, to be finished off by a dog.

The there's those blue. whatever the fuck "Howdy" monster things. Those are the epitome of bad hitboxes and phantom reach. I just lost 10k souls dodging backwards as it was telegraphing an attack, ended up about a meter away from the strike, stood up and died from it somehow.

 

[Orochinagis]

You would surely hate the second DLC, cheap tactics to make that content hard

In the shaded woods the poison guys can forget their own speed and frames to not get hit by the player, they start to move so fast you think the game is glitching or something.

 

[Sanctuary]

You would surely hate the second DLC, cheap tactics to make that content hard

In the shaded woods the poison guys can forget their own speed and frames to not get hit by the player, they start to move so fast you think the game is glitching or something.

I'm mostly just trying to play around with things I never bothered with before in terms of weapons, but even then something just feels really off. I'm not sure if it's an issue specific to the Estoc or thrusting weapons in general, but they seem to have the opposite issue of the Claymore. Their actual hitbox seems much smaller than the graphic indicates. I'm also having a hell of a time with it wanting to target walls 45 degrees to either side of where I am actually facing and what I am actually targetting. No idea what is going on with the weapon.

Considering just dropping it and picking up a Katana, since I never bothered with them in DS2 and just use one until I grab the Claymore (again). On another character I'm using a Greatsword and not having nearly as much of an issue. While that weapon is kind of fun, it too has issues where the R2 will cause you to spin around sometimes and swing your weapon in the opposite direction of the target.

 

[Orochinagis]

Didnt you were moving your controller stick in the middle of the attack? Moving the stick while you are attacking changes the direction of the attack before and after the attack animation, sometimes it stores the stick direction for the next attack then return to default direction

 

[Sanctuary]

In the case of the Greatsword, it's an issue with auto-locked vs unlocked swinging. They were designed to be used without auto-lock. What you said applies to this weapon, but the majority of weapons do not function that way. I never really bothered with the larger weapons in this game until now. I'll still probably never play with any of the clubs or hammers though, regardless of how strong they are. The movesets are just so dull to me.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I just want to add that the implementation of Nvidia's DSR in this game is great. So easy to just choose 4K resolution and the game still runs at 60fps on my hardware. It looks beautiful, too.

Only issue is that the damage numbers are tiny.

 

[DarkHeartedKill]

So I went to fight the Pursuer for the first time since April. And he shot a bunch of dark orbs at me. WTF?

I don't remember if it ever happened to me, but I do recall seeing it in one of VaatiVidya's videos, I think the one about the poor translations.

It seems like most bosses have a rarely seen attack that catches people off guard. I've seen the Pursuer shoot a blue Sonic Boom style magic bolt at me but never dark magic. Has anyone else seen Vendrick throw a dark fireball? He's done it once and it was the moment I entered the fog gate, so I had no idea what he was doing. Turns out if you get hit by it you are immediately cursed -_-

Yeah that happened to me once, I was like ofuckofuckofuckofuck roll dammit ROLL! I successfully rolled, but then got killed by his two handed overhead swing shortly after. It was a series of unfortunate events.

 

[Orthogonal]

It seems like most bosses have a rarely seen attack that catches people off guard. I've seen the Pursuer shoot a blue Sonic Boom style magic bolt at me but never dark magic. Has anyone else seen Vendrick throw a dark fireball? He's done it once and it was the moment I entered the fog gate, so I had no idea what he was doing. Turns out if you get hit by it you are immediately cursed -_-

Some boss attacks are rare because there is a trigger for it. I think Pursuer only does the special orb attack if you got impaled by the glowing blue sword attack animation.

 

[RedSwirl]

I beat the Ivory King but there are still some parts of Eleum Loyce I haven't figured out how to access yet, like the area above the bonfire guarded by the casting priestess. Haven't been to the Frozen Abyss yet but I unlocked the bonfire immediately before it.

 

[Orochinagis]

I beat the Ivory King but there are still some parts of Eleum Loyce I haven't figured out how to access yet, like the area above the bonfire guarded by the casting priestess. Haven't been to the Frozen Abyss yet but I unlocked the bonfire immediately before it.

There are more patchs being cleared after you take out the blizzard in the first two areas

 

[neoism]

What about the lion chest piece to match it?

yeah I got my first one this 3rd playthrough lol when I zoomed through the ruins and its looks ok but the xanthos coat has those things on the back and it just looks really good... been tryin to find a good color reskin or something for it but its just black or blue or red or something seems like the moders are a little more lazy for this game for some reason. :/

 

[2AdEPT]

The DLC absolutely is worth it. It has some fantastic level design, great enemies, and is really meaty.

Also, it has some of the best co-op content in the entire Souls series (which is unsurprising considering that it's the only content specifically designed for co-op).

It also has some of the best enhancement mods out there...I am a complete noob at PC and yet with your mod and the avermedia PCI card, I can record and now UPLOAD to YouTube in 60FPS...unfortunately its just 720 P if I want to keep the 60 FPS ...but I do...this below looks great to me!

THANKS DURANTE! (mirror knight is my favourite) (make sure to watch in chrome)

 

[NixForlorn]

I decided today to try out Climax in PvP, since I haven't used it before.
It was great!
and by great I mean it can one shot everyone.

 

[HK-47]

It use to be even better.

 

[Red Liquorice]

That's a fairer assessment. I just hate all the sloppy changes they made to the basic combat, that's my main gripe - the combat is worse and isn't as fun. Criticisms of the story, boss and enemy designs etc all come second to that for me. And two little letters SM

Like?

Everything? Weird glitchy hitboxes, slashing several times at an enemy and having the weapon go through the model but no damage taken (shortsword is terrible for this), agility/i-frames as a stat, the weird 'sliding on ice' when getting staggered by a hit, hitting enemies but not "feeling it" - two handing a mace on the knights in Heides tower, it feels like the weapon goes straight through the model and only the (often delayed) sound effect and the numbers on screen tell you it hit. Eternal spinning on the spot enemy AI (looks even more ridiculous when it's a huge boss like Jabba the Hut), that same delayed third or fourth hit to a combo that so many of the enemies have. Poise being useless apparently. Wear a shit ton of armour and still get chain staggered by a tiny dagger. Rolling and jumping just feels off and unreliable. The cardinal sin of attacking in different directions when locking on (if I wanted free aim I wouldn't lock on) - it's difficult not to be holding a direction in a game like this. Not stacking button commands during rolls etc (worked great in DS1, why change it?

And that's just PvE, I gave up on PvP a long time ago when I realised SM destroys not only low-level pvp, co-op and counter-troll builds but also any level pvp and co-op because soul level is now completely meaningless. Plus rubberband rollback p2p connections worse than anything I've seen in the previous two games. I get a lot of people like being SL400 and being able to equip anything and everything with only one character - that's not me, and if I'm in a niche of Souls players, I'm in a niche, but something tells me the niche isn't that all that small. I hear the exact same criticisms when listening to ENB and A German Spy's videos amongst others.

As Booshka said, there's still some great stuff in the game, I love making a new character and landing at the farfire and buying the cat ring and blasting through the Gutter to get down to the fragrent branch of yore down there to unlock the Shaded Woods asap, stuff like that. I love how you explore at low level in all the Souls games.

 

[Amakusa]

Ohhhh My

 

[GRIP]

Everything? Weird glitchy hitboxes, slashing several times at an enemy and having the weapon go through the model but no damage taken (shortsword is terrible for this), agility/i-frames as a stat, the weird 'sliding on ice' when getting staggered by a hit, hitting enemies but not "feeling it" - two handing a mace on the knights in Heides tower, it feels like the weapon goes straight through the model and only the (often delayed) sound effect and the numbers on screen tell you it hit. Eternal spinning on the spot enemy AI (looks even more ridiculous when it's a huge boss like Jabba the Hut), that same delayed third or fourth hit to a combo that so many of the enemies have. Poise being useless apparently. Wear a shit ton of armour and still get chain staggered by a tiny dagger. Rolling and jumping just feels off and unreliable. The cardinal sin of attacking in different directions when locking on (if I wanted free aim I wouldn't lock on) - it's difficult not to be holding a direction in a game like this. Not stacking button commands during rolls etc (worked great in DS1, why change it?

And that's just PvE, I gave up on PvP a long time ago when I realised SM destroys not only low-level pvp, co-op and counter-troll builds but also any level pvp and co-op because soul level is now completely meaningless. Plus rubberband rollback p2p connections worse than anything I've seen in the previous two games. I get a lot of people like being SL400 and being able to equip anything and everything with only one character - that's not me, and if I'm in a niche of Souls players, I'm in a niche, but something tells me the niche isn't that all that small. I hear the exact same criticisms when listening to ENB and A German Spy's videos amongst others.

As Booshka said, there's still some great stuff in the game, I love making a new character and landing at the farfire and buying the cat ring and blasting through the Gutter to get down to the fragrent branch of yore down there to unlock the Shaded Woods asap, stuff like that. I love how you explore at low level in all the Souls games.

Okay, so a lot of the issues you brought up in regards to PVE seem to be more on the side of technical issues the game has and not actual design choices which is what I was asking. Some of the other things you mentioned like enemy tracking, poise, and weapons missing their targets are kind of non issues for me. Enemy tracking can look dumb, but I never had a problem with it being in the game, and poise is something I've never cared for so I was glad to see it was nerfed in DS2. I do agree about the agility stat and and button commands not stacking, though.

As far as SM and PVP,well, I think everyone agrees that it didn't work out the way From was hoping it would. Not gonna disagree with any of that. With regards to connection issues, however, I really never noticed a huge difference between DS1 and DS2.

And since you mentioned ENB and his criticisms about the PVP, it should be noted that he has said several times that he feels DS2 has the best PVP in the series ;p Not saying I agree necessarily, but thought I'd throw that out there.

I do want to add that I feel the addition of proper duel wielding was one of the best combat mechanics introduced to the series. Power stancing feels soooo damn good and adds a lot more depth to the combat. This one implementation, for me, completely outweighs some of the negative changes they made.

 

[Orochinagis]

Ohhhh My

She can offer one job and we both know....

 

[Red Liquorice]

Okay, so a lot of the issues you brought up in regards to PVE seem to be more on the side of technical issues the game has and not actual design choices which is what I was asking.

Well I said my biggest gripe was the basic combat, which you highlighted, so that's how I answered. I never mentioned design.

I do want to add that I feel the addition of proper duel wielding was one of the best combat mechanics introduced to the series. Power stancing feels soooo damn good and adds a lot more depth to the combat. This one implementation, for me, completely outweighs some of the negative changes they made.

I agree about proper duel weilding, it's not that the whole game is bad - just that for me, the basics were such a step back from the previous two games that the negatives are too heavy to ignore. And that's key for me, whilst lore and design is well done in Souls, it would be nothing without the gameplay. A lot of the positive additions in DS2 I feel would be natural progressions for the series any way. I don't understand why they took a pretty amazing formula and fucked with it. And the DLC really sealed the deal for me - they exhibited a lot of what I dislike about the base game, in fact I usually stay out of the DLC when replaying, I can't stand it.

 

[Sanctuary]

WAnd the DLC really sealed the deal for me - they exhibited a lot of what I dislike about the base game, in fact I usually stay out of the DLC when replaying, I can't stand it.

Well that doesn't bode well for me. I started playing the game again after shelving it since April (I share pretty much all of the same dislikes as you) just for the DLC that I wanted to wait to play until it had all been released.

There's a lot to like about this game still, but it just feels so much like some other company did their best to copy a Souls game, but forgot quite a few important things.

 

[DarkHeartedKill]

I want more DLC. DLC is the only thing that keeps the game alive for me. I dislike PvP a lot and no one does a co-op playthrough with me ;~;.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I do want to add that I feel the addition of proper duel wielding was one of the best combat mechanics introduced to the series. Power stancing feels soooo damn good and adds a lot more depth to the combat. This one implementation, for me, completely outweighs some of the negative changes they made.

This, so much. Love powerstancing so much. Weird how the game doesn't even explain the requirements on its best new mechanic though, lol.

 

[Orochinagis]

I want more DLC. DLC is the only thing that keeps the game alive for me. I dislike PvP a lot and no one does a co-op playthrough with me ;~;.

Mmmm no, I only see them as "challenges" but nothing more

 

[Cannon Goose]

trackingandhitboxes.webm

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

Simply being out of the way of attacks is so unreliable when playing online. That particular attack is horrible (I like it on paper) because the stun from the initial leap hits you from stupidly far away and then you're unable to dodge the rest of the attack. I don't think I've ever dodged it.

 

[GRIP]

This, so much. Love powerstancing so much. Weird how the game doesn't even explain the requirements on its best new mechanic though, lol.

I gotta admit that I didn't know what power stancing was, let alone know how to do it, until I got to NG+2 on my main character. I kept hearing people talk about it and had no idea WTF they were going on about.

Duel Rapiers with Leo Ring (and I guess Flynns ring now?) just tears through everything in the game.