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[ElFly]

Speaking of, the graffiti situation in Majula is really out of control. Last time I was there I saw borderline obscenities scrawled everywhere.

It's a scenic location in a historically significant place and I love to visit, but I just can't bring myself to consider buying a house there while the local authorities allow such things to go unchecked. Even putting aside the possible impact on property values in the long term, how am I supposed to explain why someone saw fit to scrawl "tongue but hole" in the dirt to my kids every time we go ore shopping?

I'd say you take matters in your hands and go invade some foos.

Let's them know that Vendrick passed the constitutional ammendment that allows people to bear avelyns and all classes of crossbows, just for cases like these.

anyone a blue sentinel?

dont think i've had help when I joined the way of the blue

I have invaded two guys that had a blue sentinel helping them. Killed one of these teams, the other wtfpwned me.

 

[mothball]

So I've been waiting for the PC version and just recently started reading up about the game, and now I'm wondering: since enemies can permanently stop respawning now, does that mean there are no more stupidly low drop rate items? Or can you be screwed out of getting something for the rest of the playthrough?

 

[RiccochetJ]

New video from Xskulled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKiwbwpuuyk

Yay! Never forget!
The Skulled Shuffle

 

[Gorillaz]

in NG+

There are 2

Spoiler

red phantoms

heading to the gutter via the sewer and one of them have

Spoiler

is a mage with nothing but lightning attacks

It's so stupid, I can't even reach him because of his little buddy and he's doing all of this in water

edit: summoned as a grey spirit in rat bro and only every 1 of 3 hits connected despite making contact

 

[2AdEPT]

I think I am going to do a hex build. Is it better to lean more on faith or Int as the primary stat. I guess what I'm asking is what are the pro's and con's of either? I've never done a mage build before so I don't know how they play.

I found that faith stuff was more OP in demon's and as well in DS2...In DS1 sorcery was king, but this time Going faith/hex was my choice and it is paying off. You want to get 20 of each regardless, so do that and get the gifts from the vendor in the Copse. Free Straid using a branch from the Gutter or Earthen peak, and speak with chloanne in earthen peak...this will get you on your way with the choices that are available. The choice you will have to make is that certain hexes work off catalysts that usually do only faith and hex or sorcery and hex, rarely you can find a catalyst that does it all, but I did not say never! As such, if you know what yor favourite magic is in teh game, then you can build and upgrade an appropriate chime that does hexes ad faith, and/or a staff that does sorcery and hexes, etc. It will depend on the magic you acquire which catalyst it works with....so try out a lot of the different sorceries, miracles and hexes you find and decide on a staff and a chime to upgrade according to your needs.

Check out my channel as I do a brief intro to hexes, and I also show case my favourite the dead again hex in a later vid.

edit: the offer still stands to have someone help me out in the next vid which will be to use the dead again hex on an invader (which may be more fun if it is someone random...its just that there are not enough red signs down with the character I am currently using) and also I have theorycrafted an idea to use only dead again to kill the chariot boss without tripping the lever..i.e. to kill him in motion using only dead skellies as the bait! let me know by PM or on psn: adepterik2

 

[Mentok]

Perfect title. I finished it *finally* on the weekend & loved every minute. In my opinion, it wasn't as good as Demon's Souls or Dark Souls, but it was still fantastic. I have no issues with the lack of interconnecting areas and I think the world looks fantastic, my biggest issue was the bosses. They were very average. Nothing as epic as Four Kings, Dragon God or even S&O. Nothing memorial, I've forgotten most of the bosses. The one I thought was most impressive was The Chariot. Too many bosses killed in one attempt too.

I think a lot of people are hating on it because they've become used to the Souls gameplay, therefore it's "easier". I think if people played through Demon's Souls after Dark 1 & 2, they wouldn't have anywhere near as hard of a time as people were when it first came out. We now know to take things slow, to anticipate traps and to keep your shield up. Although I haven't played a caster in Dark Souls 2 they made Demon's much easier for me -- I reached NG+++ before I stopped playing.

Wow, fantastic post as I agree with all this. I just finished it today.It has its cons for sure, but was a fun ride. I'm going to plat with my STR/HEX build and then start a new build for more PvP/challenge.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Can someone explain this to me? I was told the Staff of Wisdom was the best staff for sorcery. With equipment bonuses my INT is currently at 53 (faith at base, sorcerer class FWIW), and yet at +5 my Staff of Wisdom still has a lower AR than my Witchtree Branch+10.

What gives? Did I just waste all that twinkling titanite, or does that staff only get good at like 60+ int? :S

Edit: ok now I'm even more confused. I tested the actual damage on Hollows in the Forest of Giants, and the damage is indeed stronger with the Staff of Wisdom. But its AR is lower. WTF?!

 

[ExFalsoQuodlibet]

To the user in the other thread that disconnects when invaded:

You don't understand what Dark Souls invasions are about, invasions are not PVP matches, arena fights are PVP matches, with balanced, shared rules, invasions are not balanced, you can choose to try to balance them by exchanging pleasantries, but they're not made to be balanced, invasions are invasions, they should be treated exactly like invasions from NPCs. There is a specific reason why FROM didn't give you the option to not fight an invader, and that is that invasions are not balanced, shared-rules PVP matches, invasions are just another way in which the game tries to kill you, and that's especially true in DkS2, in which there's even a covenant that lets you help other invaded players, and in which invasion items are not unlimited.

 

[Zidy]

Killed 2 Bellboys today all by meself. I'm liking the Demon Great Hammer. Still, I'm looking for something else. I'm in this weird kind of limbo between what build I want.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Bandit starting Faith and Intelligence still incorrect in OP

 

[ExVicis]

anyone a blue sentinel?

dont think i've had help when I joined the way of the blue

I'm a sentinel and I swear I stood the better part of an hour in the waiting room with a ring on while I played Vita and nothing happened.

Also in related news I was trying to invade in the Forest of Fallen Giants and the host was trying to lame it out. So screwing around I discovered as a Blue Phantom I can still using the Alluring Skulls. Forced him to fight after getting a hoard of Hollows to come right next to where he was.

 

[Orthogonal]

I found that faith stuff was more OP in demon's and as well in DS2...In DS1 sorcery was king, but this time Going faith/hex was my choice and it is paying off. You want to get 20 of each regardless, so do that and get the gifts from the vendor in the Copse. Free Straid using a branch from the Gutter or Earthen peak, and speak with chloanne in earthen peak...this will get you on your way with the choices that are available. The choice you will have to make is that certain hexes work off catalysts that usually do only faith and hex or sorcery and hex, rarely you can find a catalyst that does it all, but I did not say never! As such, if you know what yor favourite magic is in teh game, then you can build and upgrade an appropriate chime that does hexes ad faith, and/or a staff that does sorcery and hexes, etc. It will depend on the magic you acquire which catalyst it works with....so try out a lot of the different sorceries, miracles and hexes you find and decide on a staff and a chime to upgrade according to your needs.

Check out my channel as I do a brief intro to hexes, and I also show case my favourite the dead again hex in a later vid.

Great info here, thanks for that. I just perused the Wiki to review all the different spells and there is some cool stuff in all of them. I guess I can try a little bit of everything to see what I like and then use a Soul Vessel to tweak things a bit if necessary. Hex/Miracle seems like the best first pass on what I would probably enjoy playing, but some of the Sorceries look too good to pass up.

Perfect title. I finished it *finally* on the weekend & loved every minute. In my opinion, it wasn't as good as Demon's Souls or Dark Souls, but it was still fantastic. I have no issues with the lack of interconnecting areas and I think the world looks fantastic, my biggest issue was the bosses. They were very average. Nothing as epic as Four Kings, Dragon God or even S&O. Nothing memorial, I've forgotten most of the bosses. The one I thought was most impressive was The Chariot. Too many bosses killed in one attempt too.

I agree with a lot of this, the biggest shortcoming for DS2 for me was the Bosses. There are certainly some very good ones, but on the whole, it's the least memorable of the series. If I were to list a Top 5 for each of the games, I'd have a hard time even picking 5 that come close to being on the same plane as either DeS or DS1 Top 5. Sure, there is

Spoiler

Executioner Chariot, Smelter Demon and The Looking Glass Knight

which I think have/will become fairly iconic, but they pale in comparison to the ones you already mentioned and I'm having a hard time picking top contenders after that. Further, contrast some of the bosses that become standard mobs later in the game like

Spoiler

Ruin Sentinels or I guess Flexile Sentry

. They are ok bosses on their own right, but don't come anywhere near the presentation, design or impact of say Taurus Demon or Capra Demon bosses from DS1.

Edit: Forgot

Spoiler

Darklurker

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Can someone explain this to me? I was told the Staff of Wisdom was the best staff for sorcery. With equipment bonuses my INT is currently at 53 (faith at base, sorcerer class FWIW), and yet at +5 my Staff of Wisdom still has a lower AR than my Witchtree Branch+10.

What gives? Did I just waste all that twinkling titanite, or does that staff only get good at like 60+ int? :S

Edit: ok now I'm even more confused. I tested the actual damage on Hollows in the Forest of Giants, and the damage is indeed stronger with the Staff of Wisdom. But its AR is lower. WTF?!

So I think I know what's going on. I didn't notice the Witchtree Branch had split damage between Magic and Dark. The Staff of Wisdom has pure Magic damage, so while its AR is lower, it's not split, and that's why the actual damage is higher.

I am one of those who keep groaning every time I see n00bs confusing damage with AR so I really should have known better. -_- Never did notice the Witchtree Branch had split AR though until now.

 

[j0hnny_385]

Had my first "pwned by a lag" PvP yesterday. Uggghhh. Guy swings with his Greatsword, and by lag magic I got hit even though I was nowhere near the hit zone. >(

Anyway, great OT title. \(^.^)/

Finished

Spoiler

Dragon Aerie and Shrine

yesterday.
Those fuckers came down fast with my Lighting/Sunlight Spears and Hexes. Bwahahahaha.

Btw, those were the most beautiful levels I've seen in this game. Simply amazing. O_O

 

[Deified Data]

anyone a blue sentinel?

dont think i've had help when I joined the way of the blue

Tons of Blue Sentinels, barely any Pilgrims of Blue so none of them wear the ring needed to get summoned.

 

[Arjen]

Started NG+ with my hexer to get all the spells, it's insane how much easier it is compared to my quality build. I hope they buff the scaling a bit for melee weapons. Sunlight sword with A A scaling and 40/40 dex strength does pathetic damage compared to all the tools you've got with a Hexer.

 

[AlphaDragoon]

I used to think mages were OP in PvP until I learned how to dodge their spells. Now they are free kills.

Honestly I prefer fighting mages to other melees. Most of them are dumbasses used to fighting people with 10 ADP and just stand there and spell spam expecting to OHKO. Then I roll through it right into their back or chest while they recover and murder them.

There are people who use spells to keep out really effectively though. I usually end up in fire fights with them using a bow until one of us gets bored or lucky and it goes to close range.

 

[Sickbean]

Jesus the Lion Mages in Shaded Ruins don't mess about on NG+. They seem resistant to everything. First time in the game I've felt like I'm not doing enough damage with faith.

 

[Screaming Meat]

Best thread title is best.

 

[SargerusBR]

Wall of Shame pls Nito.

 

[Robot Pants]

Already at 4 pages....

(ook ok 2 pages or whatever for you proGAFers)

 

[Tevious]

Had my first "pwned by a lag" PvP yesterday. Uggghhh. Guy swings with his Greatsword, and by lag magic I got hit even though I was nowhere near the hit zone. >(

I hate it when I am clearly in front of someone, both facing each other, then suddenly I get back-stabbed.

 

[Warablo]

So I've been waiting for the PC version and just recently started reading up about the game, and now I'm wondering: since enemies can permanently stop respawning now, does that mean there are no more stupidly low drop rate items? Or can you be screwed out of getting something for the rest of the playthrough?

Screwed, unless you want to bonfire ascetic and take another gamble, but the enemies in the area move to NG+..

I like Dark Souls but then I don't for reasons like this.

 

[SJRB]

Awesome thread title hahaha!

 

[SeventhSon]

As penance for my meta-gaming in NG, I'll join the Blue Man Group in NG+ and act as bait for invaders, and call the cops so everyone can enjoy PvP.

 

[RyanDG]

I love the Chameleon spell - I think its a great tool for avoiding invasions.

But From really needs to patch it so that you can only not lock on to a chameleon when they aren't moving. A moving chameleon should be able to be locked on as normal.

 

[jimi_dini]

There is a specific reason why FROM didn't give you the option to not fight an invader

Chameleon says otherwise.

 

[Dresden]

Not to mention that you can just burn effigies...

 

[Orthogonal]

Screwed, unless you want to bonfire ascetic and take another gamble, but the enemies in the area move to NG+..

I like Dark Souls but then I don't for reasons like this.

I would say that the enemy de-spawn and bonfire ascetic reset is one of the better design innovation wins in DS2. Some folks may feel they get "screwed" when a particular item doesn't drop, but it's never game breaking when that happens and the real motivation behind is is that it now puts a decision and cost to the player on farming. There's no more free lunch and I think that is very Souls like approach. It also gives From the ability from a level design perspective to raise the stakes for particular area's.

Some of the more infamous level's like Shrine of Amana and Dragon Shrine are very challenging, but can be overcome through planning and skill, but there is also a brute force method of last resort in just killing everything off so players of all skill level's can take it out in their preferred method. I've heard numerous folks talk of how great it is to clear the path to bosses Smelter Demon or Ancient Dragon and be relieved that the game de-spawns eventually. Contrast this with other's enjoying the ability to respawn certain lootable items and farm certain bosses for huge rewaards.

 

[ExFalsoQuodlibet]

Not to mention that you can just burn effigies...

That completely prevents invasions, like with being offline, it doesn't do like "you are going to be invaded, is it ok?", or even worse "you are going to die because of an invasion, is it ok?"

 

[Icomp]

Damn, dragon pvp in iron keep is so busy! Don't even have to wait a minute to get summoned.

So fun dual-wielding blacksteel katanas, one fire and one lightning.

 

[jimi_dini]

I would say that the enemy de-spawn and bonfire ascetic reset is one of the better design innovation wins in DS2. Some folks may feel they get "screwed" when a particular item doesn't drop

I rather think that it makes the game easier.

Got trouble getting through a level and especially beating the boss? Don't worry. Enemies will stop spawning after a while and then it's straight to the boss. There are also at least 2 bonfires directly in front of bosses. I think that's really lame and not the Souls way.

Ascetic, yes that's nice. But the enemies shouldn't stop spawning. If it's "just" because of souls, why even do that? The player can easily play coop for a while to farm souls. That's the better choice anyway, because you don't risk anything.

 

[B-Genius]

anyone a blue sentinel?

dont think i've had help when I joined the way of the blue

I've decided that my first character will stay BS 4 lyfe.
Only managed to invade twice with the ring during my first playthrough, and not once has a cracked blue eye orb worked.
Hoping to find more sinners once I transcend to NG+...

Now you guys, I don't venture in here often for fear of spoilers (thankfully it's been a smooth ride so far), but I am keen for some caster info - particularly Pyro and Hexes.

Carefully browsing the Wiki and Reddit has yielded various conflicting results, and I daren't tread any further as I don't want to spoil myself on any plot/items/etc.

So basically I was wondering if anyone could answer the following for me, straight up:

1. Does Pryo (fire bonus) scale with anything other than the Pyro hand?
- I've read that it goes up gradually with either INT or FAI, but I was wondering if there was any real correlation between these.

2. How the hecks do Hexes work?
- Some say they scale with the lower of INT or FAI; others say their strength depends on the difference between these two stats...

Would a Pryo/Hex build be viable? What sort of stat arrangement would that entail?

Thanks for any help

 

[ExFalsoQuodlibet]

I rather think that it makes the game easier.

Got trouble getting through a level and especially beating the boss? Don't worry. Enemies will stop spawning after a while and then it's straight to the boss. There are also at least 2 bonfires directly in front of bosses. I think that's really lame and not the Souls way.

That is a great thing, and one of the best innovations about DkS2, and doesn't make the game any easier, you have to kill enemies like 15 times before they stop respawning, at that point you will have learned how to deal with those enemies, that's for sure. It makes the game less frustrating, not easier.

 

[Vazra]

Bandit starting Faith and Intelligence still incorrect in OP

PM the numbers to fix later today

Wall of Shame pls Nito.

 

[Zeliard]

Chameleon says otherwise.

Chameleon is adorable. Had a moment invading the bell tower where I went around for a while looking for the player, and at some point turned around to find them slowly climbing the stairs as a pot. As soon as I saw them they just stopped and we stared at each other for a moment.

It was cute, and I just waved then left the game, because how can you kill someone like that?

 

[Robot Pants]

Chameleon is adorable. Had a moment invading the bell tower where I went around for a while looking for the player, and at some point turned around to find them slowly climbing the stairs as a pot. As soon as I saw them they just stopped and we stared at each other for a moment.

It was cute, and I just waved then left the game, because how can you kill someone like that?

Hahahahaa I'm laughing. I can picture this perfectly.

 

[Screaming Meat]

Chameleon is adorable. Had a moment invading the bell tower where I went around for a while looking for the player, and at some point turned around to find them slowly climbing the stairs as a pot. As soon as I saw them they just stopped and we stared at each other for a moment.

It was cute, and I just waved then left the game, because how can you kill someone like that?

With fire...?

 

[demidar]

PM the numbers to fix later today

Not on it. Woohoo!

 

[Screaming Meat]

If it's "just" because of souls, why even do that? The player can easily play coop for a while to farm souls.

It could be that's exactly what they are pushing for players to do. That's the impression I get, anyway.

 

[Dresden]

That completely prevents invasions, like with being offline, it doesn't do like "you are going to be invaded, is it ok?", or even worse "you are going to die because of an invasion, is it ok?"

Well, you can attach a bunch of qualifiers to it if you want, but in the end it's basically the same thing that was present in the previous games (hollow state) albeit in a more roundabout, opt-in fashion. The game still offers up a way to avoid invasions while remaining online and there's no getting around that.

There is a specific reason why FROM didn't give you the option to not fight an invader, and that is that invasions are not balanced, shared-rules PVP matches, invasions are just another way in which the game tries to kill you, and that's especially true in DkS2, in which there's even a covenant that lets you help other invaded players, and in which invasion items are not unlimited.

By the way, invasion items are unlimited in ng+.

 

[aliensandwich]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet, but what if you use up all of the game's supply of human effigies?? How else can you restore humanity????

 

[B-Genius]

Chameleon is adorable. Had a moment invading the bell tower where I went around for a while looking for the player, and at some point turned around to find them slowly climbing the stairs as a pot. As soon as I saw them they just stopped and we stared at each other for a moment.

It was cute, and I just waved then left the game, because how can you kill someone like that?

Hahaha, gotta love that he stopped on the stairs to secure his disguise.
"If I just stay perfectly still..."

Verily, you are a gentleman bellkeeper, Zeliard.

 

[Dresden]

Just co-op. A successful session restores humanity now.

 

[Augemitbutter]

.

rofl.

 

[Cloudius12]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet, but what if you use up all of the game's supply of human effigies?? How else can you restore humanity????

There is an altar where you can pray to get your humanity back if you don't have anymore effigies. Also coop, til you get full humanity I suppose.

 

[koryuken]

I honestly dont understand how it's possible to win as a Hex mage in pvp. Everyone just wrecks the shit out of me, it's not even fun. I use all tips and I still get wrecked every single time.

Like today none of my spells did any damage whatsoever to this guy. if it hit, it did no damage, and he just one shots me.

it's like this everytime. My spells just do jack shit damage. It baffles me how people are able to win at pvp.

Honest to god, I should get the title: worst Dark Souls 2 PVPer. 12 invasions-0 wins. only 1 invasion did I even hurt the host.

LOL, I play a hexer and my win loss is something like 85-90% wins. I've invaded and killed at least 30 people today on NG+. Killed 90% of the blue sentinals that invaded me also. A hexer is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful build in the game. Practice more?

PS. Magic should never be your primary mode of attack, or you will always lose to competent players. (When I invade, I always cast profound still around a wall to gimp the other player. You should see what happens to players who rely solely on magic... its quite funny.) Anyways, magic should be a secondary attack -- i.e. a well timed GRS when an opponent is out of stamina. Your primary attack should always be a dark imbued weapon buffed with Resonant Weapon.

 

[Vitten]

Read this on another forum and I'm going to give it a go:

I'm going to leave the PS3 on overnight as a member of the bellfry covenant and with the Belltower ring equiped.
I'm sure I'll get demolished plenty of times but once in a while I'll get a free kill from other phantoms winning or environmental kills.

Let's see how many free chunks this nets me without having to do anything myself..

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I don't know about hex mages for PvP but sorcery so far is easy mode for PvP, at least in the Iron Keep. Some people don't completely suck and are decent at dodging the magic but my win/lose ratio is like 90% so far, and would be higher if not for lame-ass hosts who chug Estus.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I'm going to leave the PS3 on overnight as a member of the bellfry covenant and with the Belltower ring equiped.

Hope you don't have too many souls. You could get invaded while waiting haha.