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[Soulhouf]

Can you go a little deeper into why the stat changes? Why lower DEX so drastically? Why lower INT and FTH? Why Raise STR above what I need to use DSK?

I lowered DEX so drastically because you don't need it for a hex build. 18/18 STR/DEX to be able to use Berseker Blade (it has the highest base damage of all katanas).
You don't gain a worth amount of damage by increasing your INT/FAI to 32, that's why I lowered them to 30/30 (the soft cap for hexes).
Regarding the other changes: more HP is always good for survivor and more stamina to be able to perform more attacks/hexes.

If I infuse my katana with dark, can I still use Dark Weapon on it?

Yes and that's where Resonant Weapon buff shines because it adds 50 dark + 50% of the weapon's dark damage. So if you go with a normal weapon you'll only get the +50 flat damage.

At 25 ATN I have 4 slots (I think... might be 5), are GRS and RW the only hexes I should equip?

You have 5 slots and potentially 2-3 more with a specific ring.
As for the spells, these 2 use 2 slots each but they will serve you well. You can of course attune other spells to test and keep some if you like them.
Just beware of the resonant spells since they consume souls for each use (500 for GRS and 2000 for RW) to be effective. Knowing that you can destroy everything so quickly with these 2 spells alone.

 

[Gr1mLock]

Durability be damned. You can take my washing pole from my cold dead hands.

 

[Snakethesniper]

Consider it edited

Personally, I have all the katana (fully maxed) and I find, for my 50 DEX build at least, that the BSK has the best balance of move-set, damage, range and durability... apart from the Chaos Blade. If you can cope with losing 30hp with every strike (and like I say, there are ways you can turn that into an advantage or sort of nullify it, although I still find it more of a nuisance than anything), go with the CB.

The Washing Pole is great for range, especially in PvP, but I find it doesn't have the move-set, damage or durability of the other two. Berserker is pretty much a short Uchi with a bit of extra damage, so I tend not to use that one. In fact I ended up trading it for Mad Warrior chest armour (best armour).

I see, thanks!
I was wondering about a poison weapon too. I was thinking about a manslayer infused with poison or richard's rapier infused

 

[giancarlo123x]

Bought this yesterday afternoon. Beat ds1 last night. Going in to this after work. Is there anything I should know? Will I be burned out by playing this so soon right after? I put 20 hours into ds1 in the past 2 weeks.

 

[Screaming Meat]

I see, thanks!
I was wondering about a poison weapon too. I was thinking about a manslayer infused with poison or richard's rapier infused

Poison scales with DEX, so pump that. I have a set-up where I use a Manslayer +5 infused with poison in the right hand and The Spotted Whip +5 infused with poison in the left. It's a lot of fun.

Durability be damned. You can take my washing pole from my cold dead hands.

Easily done. ;P

 

[Snakethesniper]

Poison scales with DEX, so pump that. I have a set-up where I use a Manslayer +5 infused with poison in the right hand and The Spotted Whip +5 infused with poison in the left. It's a lot of fun.



Easily done. ;P

I'm doing a DEX build so it shouldn't be a problem, I'm at 38 DEX now xD

 

[Screaming Meat]

I'm doing a DEX build so it shouldn't be a problem, I'm at 38 DEX now xD

Sweet!

You might want to consider stocking up on poison throwing knives and getting a Pyro glove to +10 with Poison/Toxic Mist. It means you can kind of direct the battlefield from a distance. Even if you don't poison people with the mist, you can use the cloud as a smoke screen to obscure your position and throw the poison knives/strike with the Spotted Whip (fully upgraded and poison infused Spotted Whip poisons in 2-3 solid hits) through it, surprising your opponent.

If you can spare the stats Dark Fog is even better.

 

[Interrobang]

I lowered DEX so drastically because you don't need it for a hex build. 18/18 STR/DEX to be able to use Berseker Blade (it has the highest base damage of all katanas).
You don't gain a worth amount of damage by increasing your INT/FAI to 32, that's why I lowered them to 30/30 (the soft cap for hexes).
Regarding the other changes: more HP is always good for survivor and more stamina to be able to perform more attacks/hexes.

Yes and that's where Resonant Weapon buff shines because it adds 50 dark + 50% of the weapon's dark damage. So if you go with a normal weapon you'll only get the +50 flat damage.

You have 5 slots and potentially 2-3 more with a specific ring.
As for the spells, these 2 use 2 slots each but they will serve you well. You can of course attune other spells to test and keep some if you like them.
Just beware of the resonant spells since they consume souls for each use (500 for GRS and 2000 for RW) to be effective. Knowing that you can destroy everything so quickly with these 2 spells alone.

Thanks a lot for the break down. I'll respec for this tonight after work. Is a DEX/Hex split build not a viable strategy? I was going to focus on both for my NG+ run.

 

[Gr1mLock]

Easily done. ;P

Said every knave who ended up on the business end of a running R1.

Spoiler

but then it broke so they ended up on the business end of a raw avelyn instead

 

[Mistel]

For DEX as a build you can't do worse than the hunters black bow. Or the even better great bows if your strength is high enough.

 

[Screaming Meat]

Said every knave who ended up on the business end of a running R1.

Spoiler

but then it broke so they ended up on the business end of a raw avelyn instead

Avelyn, eh? Yeah. I'd be dead after that. Running R1 though. That'll get you hurt, mate.

For DEX as a build you can't do worse than the hunters black bow. Or the even better great bows if your strength is high enough.

That bow is excellent. Huge damage with 50 DEX.

 

[Violentine]

For a pure sorcerer, is it bad to go beyond soft cap? I want to increase my Int to 99.

My current stat:
Knight
Sl 251
50
40
7
94
18
18
9
67
6
Spells: crystal souls spear *8, soul greatsword *2
Full desert sorcerer set
Left: defender shield, sea bow
Right: moonlight greatsword, staff of wisdom. Both infused with magic

 

[maomaoIYP]

Berserker blade has the same damage as the washing pole but double the durability and shorter length.
Personally I'm a washing pole guy, I've never had it break on me during duels or invasions (yet).
Katanas are great for PvP but piss for PvE, and unfortunately with the monastery scimitar, the shine of katanas in PvP have been lessened greatly.

edit: There this fucking zipline exploit in dragon aerie where the player can zipline all over the sky in any direction they want. It's fucking annoying because they just fly all over the air and you can't catch the host.

 

[BadWolf]

Katanas are great for PvP but piss for PvE.

Really? Used an Uchigatana for most of my first playthrough. What is a good replacement for PvE?

IIrc I have 19 STR and 27 DEX. Can use a Soul Vessel if needed to reconfigure.

 

[maomaoIYP]

Really? Used an Uchigatana for most of my first playthrough. What is a good replacement for PvE?

IIrc I have 19 STR and 27 DEX. Can use a Soul Vessel if need to reconfigure.

Yeah really. Slash is bad against heavily armored enemies, and they have poor durability, and dex scaling is terrible. Literally anything else would be better, especially the thrusting swords.

 

[BadWolf]

Yeah really. Slash is bad against heavily armored enemies, and they have poor durability, and dex scaling is terrible. Literally anything else would be better, especially the thrusting swords.

Thanks, will look into them.

 

[Goldenroad]

Any tips for building my Sorcerer. I'm still pretty early on, somewhere around level 30...

STR 11
DEX 18
(which I did to wield the Winged Spear)
VIG 6
VIT 6
END 10
ATN 12
INT 19
FTH 4

Not sure about my other stats. I'm more curious what direction I should go in for weapons. Are there any good special weapons early on with high INT scaling? What about armor? I've got a pretty low VIT, and I'm hoping to keep it that way, so I'm looking more for a light armor with some attributes that might help with casting.

Either way...just want to say how much I love this game. The first 5-6 hours were a bit of a slow burn for me, but last night it suddenly all clicked, and it's now all I can think about, much like Dark Souls 1 was for the last 5 months for me.

 

[maomaoIYP]

Won my first 3v1. I don't even have wrath of god yet. What a RUSH!

 

[KoreanBarbecue]

Spoiler

Well, of course. After finally getting the real Santier's Spear, I go to Shrine of Amana to farm some Twinkling Titanite and get about 15 minutes in before all the enemies stop respawning.

 

[Minamu]

For DEX as a build you can't do worse than the hunters black bow. Or the even better great bows if your strength is high enough.

With str/dex at 40/40, Im not overly impressed with the damage output to be honest. It has served me well across half of ng at +9 and ng+ at +10, but it's not even close to being OP or anything :/ And it still takes me 4 poison arrows to poison something, which rarely is enough to actually kill something anyway. Something cooler would be nice!

 

[Mistel]

With str/dex at 40/40, Im not overly impressed with the damage output to be honest. It has served me well across half of ng at +9 and ng+ at +10, but it's not even close to being OP or anything :/ And it still takes me 4 poison arrows to poison something, which rarely is enough to actually kill something anyway. Something cooler would be nice!

E/S scaling with those stats? You got to makes some changes I think in the range department to suit your purposes:

1. Dragon slayer greatbow B/C scaling with 290 damage at max
2. Alonne greatbow C/C scaling with 260 damage at max
3. Composite bow C/C scaling with 165 damage at max
4. Dragon rider bow B/D/C scaling with 180/100 damage at max

 

[Violentine]

Any tips for building my Sorcerer. I'm still pretty early on, somewhere around level 30...

STR 11
DEX 18
(which I did to wield the Winged Spear)
VIG 6
VIT 6
END 10
ATN 12
INT 19
FTH 4

Not sure about my other stats. I'm more curious what direction I should go in for weapons. Are there any good special weapons early on with high INT scaling? What about armor? I've got a pretty low VIT, and I'm hoping to keep it that way, so I'm looking more for a light armor with some attributes that might help with casting.

Either way...just want to say how much I love this game. The first 5-6 hours were a bit of a slow burn for me, but last night it suddenly all clicked, and it's now all I can think about, much like Dark Souls 1 was for the last 5 months for me.

fire long sword and magic mace can carry you through the whole game. Armor doesn't matter, wear whatever offers you the best protection without making you fat roll. You don't have to focus on your int for first time playthrough because you can respec later. I just put points where I needed. Like vigor, end, vit and adaptability

 

[Akainu]

Been playing/screwing around for hours. It's okay. I've gotten to both entrances to the lost bastille. And the one for no man's wharf definitely makes no sense, which already doesn't make sense to begin with. That part with the royal knights guys feels pretty cheap. But my stubbornness won't let me run past them so I have to kill them all.

Where can I use these blue eye orbs? Or am I too early in the game? And is the white soapstone timed or is it based on how many enemies are killed?

 

[Gr1mLock]

Its very interesting how many weapons with no scaling, fully upgraded with raw end up being better than some A scaling weapons.

 

[Z..]

The sentinels are killing me, man...
Must've died at least 20 times by now. First one is easy as fuck, and I always get the second one down to ~25% health but as soon as #3 jumps in, that's it, I'm done. It's impossible to keep an eye on both of them up on the ledge and one of them always hits me eventually. As soon as I'm hit once, I stagger and get hit again without being able to do anything about it... And that's it, I'm dead. It feels cheap as shit because the real enemy is the enclosed space, the camera and the unavoidable second hit, the sentinels themselves are incredibly easy to read and dodge, plus they go down quite fast! Guess I gotta drop down to the large room below to finish them off properly.

The game is clearly mocking me.

So after a couple more tries, I'm finally down to the last one... he's almost dead and across the room, so I hit him with a fireball. Works like a charm, he's dying... hooray, right?

Nope. THE GAME FUCKING FREEZES.

Fuck you, From. FUCK YOU.

*sigh*

 

[Mistel]

They're optional and can be bypassed.

 

[SeventhSon]

Its very interesting how many weapons with no scaling, fully upgraded with raw end up being better than some A scaling weapons.

Scaling was nerfed in Dark Sous II, particularly Dex scaling.

 

[Sinatar]

They're optional and can be bypassed.

Yea if you're a coward.

 

[Gr1mLock]

Scaling was nerfed in Dark Sous II, particularly Dex scaling.

Yea getting damage with dex builds takes some creativity. Especially if you arent dual wielding.

 

[Jackben]

Strength scaling isn't bad actually. It's dexterity that gets screwed and I have no idea why.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Onionbro refuses to drop his leggings for me - I have multiples of all the other pieces (and a Heavy Crossbow+5 :/ ), but I just can't get those damn leggings to drop. I had better luck with the Mad Warrior.

The game is clearly mocking me.

So after a couple more tries, I'm finally down to the last one... he's almost dead and across the room, so I hit him with a fireball. Works like a charm, he's dying... hooray, right?

Nope. THE GAME FUCKING FREEZES.

Fuck you, From. FUCK YOU.

*sigh*

You could always come back and do them later. I think they're definately a difficulty spike in the game considering how early you can get to them.

 

[Soulhouf]

Thanks a lot for the break down. I'll respec for this tonight after work. Is a DEX/Hex split build not a viable strategy? I was going to focus on both for my NG+ run.

Of course it's viable but since you can respec in this game, why not min/max for a hex/melee build and when you get bored switch to a pure dex?
Especially when you're using buff, you need to infuse your weapon with the buff element to take advantage of the bonus.
Aside from a few exceptions, when you use elemental weapons, it's better to only put the required stat to wield them and the buff will do the rest.

 

[Gr1mLock]

I just need two more sunlight medals and no one is biting.

 

[KoreanBarbecue]

I just need two more sunlight medals and no one is biting.

Farm those dark riders in Harvest Valley?

 

[Gr1mLock]

Farm those dark riders in Harvest Valley?

Yeah. No bueno.

 

[Mistel]

I just need two more sunlight medals and no one is biting.

Falconeers? If you are on NG+.

 

[Gr1mLock]

Falconeers? If you are on NG+.

I totally forgot about them.

 

[Z..]

You could always come back and do them later. I think they're definately a difficulty spike in the game considering how early you can get to them.

No worries, they're done. ^^
Took me a while, though.

 

[Mothman91]

Got the 4 souls, where do I go now?

 

[Mistel]

Got the 4 souls, where do I go now?

Shrine of winter then onto the castle.

 

[Mothman91]

Shrine of winter then onto the castle.

How I get there?

Edit: I meant which road takes me to the castle lol

 

[Mistel]

How I get there?

Edit: I meant which road takes me to the castle lol

On the shaded woods bonfire go to the left and follow that path you should see a Flexile sentry then your on the right path.

 

[Colorful Vocabulary]

Onionbro refuses to drop his leggings for me - I have multiples of all the other pieces (and a Heavy Crossbow+5 :/ ), but I just can't get those damn leggings to drop. I had better luck with the Mad Warrior.

Not sure if you know this or not, but there's an easy way to continuously farm enemies, that only spawn once, for their gear, without the immediate use of a bonfire ascetic. I'd say it pretty much guarantees you'll get everything you want.

 

[maomaoIYP]

Not sure if you know this or not, but there's an easy way to continuously farm enemies, that only spawn once, for their gear, without the immediate use of a bonfire ascetic. I'd say it pretty much guarantees you'll get everything you want.

And that method is......??

 

[Jaeger]

Not sure if you know this or not, but there's an easy way to continuously farm enemies, that only spawn once, for their gear, without the immediate use of a bonfire ascetic. I'd say it pretty much guarantees you'll get everything you want.

Why be coy? We all need to know this!

 

[Alo81]

Why be coy? We all need to know this!

Not sure if you know this or not, but there's an easy way to continuously farm enemies, that only spawn once, for their gear, without the immediate use of a bonfire ascetic. I'd say it pretty much guarantees you'll get everything you want.

 

[maomaoIYP]

I think he is talking about this method

 

[Colorful Vocabulary]

I think he is talking about this method

Yes, that "console quit trick" is what I'm talking about.

I didn't know it had a name and everything though. I kinda found out about it myself after desperately trying to figure a way to farm red phantom enemies without having to slug through a boss battle every time.

Actually, the only difference from that method and mine is instead of wait around like it says you can just activate the auto save yourself by un-equipping and re-equipping something, like a ring.

 

[maomaoIYP]

Yes, that "console quit trick" is what I'm talking about.

I didn't know it had a name and everything though. I kinda found out about it myself after desperately trying to figure a way to farm red phantom enemies without having to slug through a boss battle every time.

Actually, the only difference from that method and mine is instead of wait around like it says you can just activate the auto save yourself by un-equipping and re-equipping something, like a ring.

But once they drop something that you want, you still need to use an ascetic to get them to spawn again right?

 

[Sub_Level]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but

Can the Champions Covenant stack on top of NG+7 (bonfire intensity level 8) to make it even harder?