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[Orthogonal]

So yeah, I don't have the skills to beat the optional Dar

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klurk

er with my high strength med dex halberd build, tried ~10 times and failed, a few times I was close and only 10% left on the boss's health before dying.

With no

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effigy

left, I resign to the fact that I have to respec for a spell build to beat this boss. I check my inventory, great lightning spear seems okay, so I respec to hybrid strength/faith/dex build and whaddaya know, grandma gives me 6x

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effigies

, just my luck!

Never used a spell in DS before other than pyromancy so I test it out a few times, seems pretty straightforward.

I devised a plan to launch a great lightning spear on my left hand when I can, with a fire halberd on the right for melee attacks. I composed myself and went to fight him/her again and....

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6-7 lightning spear later she's dead and I don't even have to heal?

Wut?

I did the same, lightning spears break that fight.

 

[Mt Heart Attack]

Thanks for the advices but if I beat him, I wanna do it by myself, so I guess I'll avoid videos and wikis for now. He's optional anyway, so it's not like I'm stuck there or anything.

I had more trouble with

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Vendrick.
Which is kind of dumb, because he's pretty slow. But, it was hard for me to get any tells for how many swings he was going to do. So my first few runs.. *splat*

Anyways... I wanted that last giant soul to destroy the shit out of him. The Ancient Dragon

is pretty easy to cheese. The enemies on the way are waaay more trouble imo.

I think he sometimes pulls random bullshit, but I

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was able to just sit between his two back legs and swung on his left foot until he went for a stomp, switched to the right foot: repeat. Sometimes he got up to shoot fire between his legs so you move outta the way, then do the first bit again when he settles back down.

He never once got up to fly for me when I did that.
I think I read somewhere you have to do 1000dmg per leg for him not to fly, but I dunno how true that is. It could be true. I was doing at least that.

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Vendrick

was kind of annoying too but at least it gives you some room for error. And yeah, the run to the

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Dragon

is cheap as hell too, who the hell though it was a good idea to have a door you have to open every time you die guarded by two knights?:/

 

[Cannon Goose]

In that case, may I suggest lowering END a little to get your equip load to sub 50%. The stamina regen of sub 50% is worth the levels in Vit, more than the extra END in my opinion.

I've definitely considered that, but the extra stamina has gotten me out of a lot of jams. I had planned on farming some soul vessels anyway so I'll give 50% equip load a try sometime soon.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Jackben]

One of my favorite things to do for D.Lurker is to use any method until the split, then Chaos Firestorm. Always 1-shots, I've done it on non-pyro builds as well by just using an upgraded dark pyro glove.

 

[Orthogonal]

If you Bonfire Ascetic the Kings Gate bonfire does it respawn the

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Dual Dragonriders, or just Throne Watcher/Nashandra.

 

[Jackben]

If you Bonfire Ascetic the Kings Gate bonfire does it respawn the

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Dual Dragonriders, or just Throne Watcher/Nashandra.

Both, as well as LGK.

 

[smashism]

Any specific armor or spells I should be equipped with for Harvest Valley?

 

[Orthogonal]

Both, as well as LGK.

Triple combo, cool. Can you do the others individually then with the other bonfires?

 

[Gbraga]

One of my favorite things to do for D.Lurker is to use any method until the split, then Chaos Firestorm. Always 1-shots, I've done it on non-pyro builds as well by just using an upgraded dark pyro glove.

What do you mean, does the dark glove negate the int requirement?

 

[Jackben]

Gbraga: http://darksouls2.wikidot.com/dark-pyromancy-flame

Triple combo, cool. Can you do the others individually then with the other bonfires?

I was joking. I think it only restarts Dual Riders, pretty sure the Stills brothers and Nash are once per NG only.

 

[Zom]

you can ascend the bonfire and get it in ng.

Nah, I'm going to start ng+ anyway, I don't want ng++ in my life yet lol.

 

[Gbraga]

Gbraga: http://darksouls2.wikidot.com/dark-pyromancy-flameI was joking. I think it only restarts Dual Riders, pretty sure the Stills brothers and Nash are once per NG only.

But doesn't the pyromancy itself require a certain amount of INT and Faith?

 

[Technoweirdo]

So about DEX scaling...

I feel that if you want to go with a pure DEX or DEX-oriented weapon (E/B scaling for example) then instead of getting to 40 DEX you should just meet the base requirements to use the weapon, infuse it with Raw, and then drop the Ring of Blades +2 on it as well. If my calculations are correct, this should give you ~40-50 fewer points of damage than a 40 DEX build, but then you'll have 25-30 levels that you can put elsewhere.

As an example of good DEX scaling, let's take a look at the Great Scythe from Dark Souls 1. At the base stats to use the weapon (14 STR/DEX) you would do 305 damage, the base 250 + 55 from scaling at the base stats! At 14 STR and 40 DEX the scaling damage goes up to a whopping 224, bringing you to 474 total damage! That's definitely worth the extra points into DEX.

In Dark Souls 2 the Great Scythe deals 250 base damage and at 16 STR/DEX you gain an additional 42 damage from scaling. Not terrible, a bit lower than the first game but it's still OK. Boost your STR and DEX to 40 and that 42 turns into... 84! So it would be even lower if you only boosted DEX. A grand total of ~80 points gained for a DEX weapon with A scaling and 40 points into DEX is a bit of a joke.

The same goes for Magic (Faintstone) infusions, the amount of bonus damage from having 50 INT is not very high at all compared to say, 18 INT (The amount required to use Crystal Magic Weapon after you have used ten spices on it). I am not certain if Dark, Fire, Lightning or Enchanted suffer from the same inadequacy as I didn't test them.

So in short, you can have a powerful build with low DEX because the scaling is quite poor. Put the points elsewhere and perhaps consider a hybrid build with buffs and magic on the side because you'll do a lot more damage that way.

Edit: Also, not to do with scaling but I'm still finding heaps of PVP and co-op at Soul Memory 7.1 million.

Been messing around with the Vanquisher's Seal for a bit and I think I can explain, as an addendum to why DEX investments aren't as good this time around, how scaling works in this game.

To put it briefly, scaling is now an additive effect to base damage rather than a multiplicative effect. Scaling will take a percentage of your bonus and add it to the weapon's base to come up with the final attack value.

Vanquisher's Seal, 50 STR (Bonus: 155), 50 DEX (Bonus: 155) nets 390 attack power.
50 STR (Bonus: 155), 99 DEX (Bonus: 200) nets 401 attack power (+11 from 'original').
99 STR (Bonus: 200), 50 DEX (Bonus: 155) nets 423 attack power (+33 from 'original').
99 STR (Bonus: 200), 99 DEX (Bonus: 200) nets 435 attack power (+45 from 'original').

For a second test (which I did just recently), I decided to check my Flamberge +0 versus my Zweihander +9 which the game tells me has the exact same DEX scaling as noted by the scaling letters not changing in color as I swap between the two.

Flamberge (Base: 125), 50 STR (Bonus: 155), 50 DEX (Bonus: 155) nets 229 attack power (104 from bonuses).
Zweihander (Base: 332), 50 STR (Bonus: 155), 50 DEX (Bonus: 155) nets 448 attack power (156 from bonuses, but that can be attributed to the better STR scaling).

Flamberge, 50 STR (Bonus: 155) 99 DEX (Bonus: 200) nets 241 attack power (+12 from 'original').
Zweihander, 50 STR (Bonus: 155), 99 DEX (Bonus: 200) nets 459 attack power (+11 from 'original').

The -minor- difference in gains may be attributed to decimals being hidden. In any case, we can conclude that base damage is not a factor in scaling. Scaling now takes a percentage of your stat bonus and applies it to base.

To put this in more practical terms:

- A high-damage weapon with shit scaling will benefit from Raw infusions better than they will from stat investment
- A low-damage weapon with good scaling will benefit from stat investment better than they will from Raw infusions
- A high-damage weapon with good scaling or even okay scaling -may- benefit from stat investment more than it will from Raw infusion due to bonuses gained from minimum stat requirements

- Heavy weapons in general will hit harder than light weapons regardless of scaling; Go big or go home. Coincidentally, STR weapons tend to be heavy and usually have good scaling.
- But that doesn't matter much because DARK MAGIC IS BALANCED

Edit: Whoops, forgot I was wearing a Ring of Blades +1. >.> Affects attack totals, but shouldn't affect scaling bonuses.

------

I'll be looking into mundane scaling later

 

[Jackben]

But doesn't the pyromancy itself require a certain amount of INT and Faith?

No, pyromancy has never had int or faith requirements. Regular pyro flame affects the strength of the pyromancy based on your fire BNS which scales with int and faith, dark flame strength is based on hollow %, but there is no minimum required to use a glove or spells.

 

[Mistel]

But doesn't the pyromancy itself require a certain amount of INT and Faith?

No it doesn't.

 

[Grief.exe]

If you Bonfire Ascetic the Kings Gate bonfire does it respawn the

Spoiler

Dual Dragonriders, or just Throne Watcher/Nashandra.

I did that to grab the Watcher Shield and Watcher Sword.

 

[Haunted]

Hence why pyromancy has been the magic of choice for any and all str/dex melee builds.

 

[Gbraga]

No, pyromancy has never had int or faith requirements. Regular pyro flame affects the strength of the pyromancy based on your fire BNS which scales with int and faith, dark flame strength is based on hollow %, but there is no minimum required to use a glove or spells.

Well, shit, I'm an idiot.

I'll give it a shot on my next character.

 

[Zom]

- But that doesn't matter much because DARK MAGIC IS BALANCED

The dubsteps edits always gets me.

 

[Sullichin]

Been messing around with the Vanquisher's Seal for a bit and I think I can explain, as an addendum to why DEX investments aren't as good this time around, how scaling works in this game.

To put it briefly, scaling is now an additive effect to base damage rather than a multiplicative effect. Scaling will take a percentage of your bonus and add it to the weapon's base to come up with the final attack value.

Vanquisher's Seal, 50 STR (Bonus: 155), 50 DEX (Bonus: 155) nets 390 attack power.
50 STR (Bonus: 155), 99 DEX (Bonus: 200) nets 401 attack power (+11 from 'original').
99 STR (Bonus: 200), 50 DEX (Bonus: 155) nets 423 attack power (+33 from 'original').
99 STR (Bonus: 200), 99 DEX (Bonus: 200) nets 435 attack power (+45 from 'original').

For a second test (which I did just recently), I decided to check my Flamberge +0 versus my Zweihander +9 which the game tells me has the exact same DEX scaling as noted by the scaling letters not changing in color as I swap between the two.

Flamberge (Base: 125), 50 STR (Bonus: 155), 50 DEX (Bonus: 155) nets 229 attack power (104 from bonuses).
Zweihander (Base: 332), 50 STR (Bonus: 155), 50 DEX (Bonus: 155) nets 448 attack power (156 from bonuses, but that can be attributed to the better STR scaling).

Flamberge, 50 STR (Bonus: 155) 99 DEX (Bonus: 200) nets 241 attack power (+12 from 'original').
Zweihander, 50 STR (Bonus: 155), 99 DEX (Bonus: 200) nets 459 attack power (+11 from 'original').

The -minor- difference in gains may be attributed to decimals being hidden. In any case, we can conclude that base damage is not a factor in scaling. Scaling now takes a percentage of your stat bonus and applies it to base.

To put this in more practical terms:

- A high-damage weapon with shit scaling will benefit from Raw infusions better than they will from stat investment
- A low-damage weapon with good scaling will benefit from stat investment better than they will from Raw infusions
- A high-damage weapon with good scaling or even okay scaling -may- benefit from stat investment more than it will from Raw infusion due to bonuses gained from minimum stat requirements

- Heavy weapons in general will hit harder than light weapons regardless of scaling; Go big or go home. Coincidentally, STR weapons tend to be heavy and usually have good scaling.
- But that doesn't matter much because DARK MAGIC IS BALANCED

Edit: Whoops, forgot I was wearing a Ring of Blades +1. >.> Affects attack totals, but shouldn't affect scaling bonuses.

------

I'll be looking into mundane scaling later

Thanks for going through the trouble. The bolded really shows how bad stat scaling is.

I think base damage for weapons might be a bit too high actually. If they lowered unupgraded base damage, scaling would feel like it did more. An unupgraded mace will get you so far in this game. But on top of that they should increase STR scaling slightly and give a more moderate boost to DEX scaling. Then, have weapon buffs scale with stats so that resonant weapon with 50INT/FTH does as much as it would now with any stats. You shouldn't be able to spice down a buff and get the same damage output as someone with like 60 more levels invested in the stats.

 

[Haly]

So it seems the Pharros fountain in Iron Keep isn't working for me. My character seems to "dry" instantly (the clothing loses the shiny effect).

Anyone know what's happening?

 

[YianGaruga]

So it seems the Pharros fountain in Iron Keep isn't working for me. My character seems to "dry" instantly (the clothing loses the shiny effect).

Anyone know what's happening?

Never worked for me either. Only the water urns did.

 

[EasyMode]

So it seems the Pharros fountain in Iron Keep isn't working for me. My character seems to "dry" instantly (the clothing loses the shiny effect).

Anyone know what's happening?

That has no effect on me either. Same for the urns.

 

[garath]

Any savings on DS2 or are we looking at full $50 everywhere?

 

[Gbraga]

So it seems the Pharros fountain in Iron Keep isn't working for me. My character seems to "dry" instantly (the clothing loses the shiny effect).

Anyone know what's happening?

Look at the fire resistance stat, if it's high, doesn't matter if he's not shiny anymore.

 

[Alo81]

Two things:

1. It's pretty regularly accepted that Dragon Bros don't heal during PVP yes? At least that's the impression I was under. It seems like everyone is a-okay with that, until you bring poison into the mix. I've been messing around with dual wielding poisonous caestus and everytime I get anyone low they run away and estus, as if because it's poison it makes it okay.

I don't know, I just think that's preeeeetty lame. I punish them for the estus, but it's still a real boner thing to do.

2. People who spend the first 20 seconds of a PVP battle buffing, preparing, and min-maxing everything are the biggest goobers.

 

[Haly]

Look at the fire resistance stat, if it's high, doesn't matter if he's not shiny anymore.

It's not, for some reason.

I don't think I'm getting fire resist from anything, it's stuck at 113.

EDIT: Nevermind, it's in the equipment screen for some unfathomable reason.

EDIT2: Okay, the Pharros Fountain isn't working for me. I see my Fire Resist flicker between some number and 590. My Lightning Resist is also flickering.

EDIT3: Okay it's working now.

 

[Alo81]

Any savings on DS2 or are we looking at full $50 everywhere?

$37.50 at GreenManGaming when using the coupon code: 9HZ09L-D4RYEU-FIW8BE

 

[Rickenslacker]

S

Spoiler

hrine of

A

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mana

as a pure melee character:

 

[JimPanzer]

do halbers break even faster in NG+? so annoying. any good other str weapons?

 

[cm osi]

S

Spoiler

hrine of

A

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mana

as a pure melee character:

i know that feel. had to use poison arrow

 

[ElFly]

S

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hrine of

A

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mana

as a pure melee character:

I feel it is not as bad until the final area before the boss.

Before that, you just beeline it for the mages before dealing with the melees and most of the time it will go ok.

 

[garath]

$37.50 at GreenManGaming when using the coupon code: 9HZ09L-D4RYEU-FIW8BE

You sir, are a scholar and a gentleman.

 

[Fuz]

Just asking, I probably know the answer already...

Did something like the DSMouseFix was made for DSII too? Those terrible controls sap all my will to play...

 

[Jinoru]

Just asking, I probably know the answer already...

Did something like the DSMouseFix was made for DSII too? Those terrible controls sap all my will to play...

Mouse works fine for me. The problem I have is the ridiculous button mapping and key combinations to do actions. I got my PS3 controller to work basically for that reason.

 

[zma1013]

Two things:

1. It's pretty regularly accepted that Dragon Bros don't heal during PVP yes? At least that's the impression I was under. It seems like everyone is a-okay with that, until you bring poison into the mix. I've been messing around with dual wielding poisonous caestus and everytime I get anyone low they run away and estus, as if because it's poison it makes it okay.

I don't know, I just think that's preeeeetty lame. I punish them for the estus, but it's still a real boner thing to do.

2. People who spend the first 20 seconds of a PVP battle buffing, preparing, and min-maxing everything are the biggest goobers.

Eh, I use Estus anytime I'm fighting someone. I really dislike duels where me or the other person just dies instantly. I prefer prolonged battles, so as long as you can get away from me and heal, more power to ya.

Wearing the butterfly cuffs is pretty funny. I think the buildup of poison by me just standing next to them confuses and scares them sometimes.

As for battle prep, I usually don't let people do it. They can bow or whatever without me attacking them, but as soon as I see them flame up their sword, it's on like donkey kong.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

S

Spoiler

hrine of

A

Spoiler

mana

as a pure melee character:

yeah I know that feel man

 

[burgerdog]

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Ancient Dragon

is just stupid, giving up on him.

V
V
V

There's a certain ring that was pretty much made for this fight, I didn't know until I went to the wiki after beating him (I always do this after I beat a boss to see what their soul can produce), but if it's half as good as it sounds, I definitely recommend getting it to fight him. Someone should put Ring required ahead before his room.

That ring makes a huge, huge difference. Sometimes he would only fly up a tiny bit and it was extremely hard to avoid the ae from the fire. I couldn't figure out why he would do that, I got the ring and killed him 2-3 tries later.

 

[Gbraga]

Eh, I use Estus anytime I'm fighting someone. I really dislike duels where me or the other person just dies instantly. I prefer prolonged battles, so as long as you can get away from me and heal, more power to ya.

Wearing the butterfly cuffs is pretty funny. I think the buildup of poison by me just standing next to them confuses and scares them sometimes.

As for battle prep, I usually don't let people do it. They can bow or whatever without me attacking them, but as soon as I see them flame up their sword, it's on like donkey kong.

Yeah, I usually don't attack people buffing, but I really have no problem with people doing so, and now that I'll start using sticky white stuff (bought 40 of them yesterday now that I don't need souls anymore), I don't mind if people attack me while I'm buffing. I'm getting extra damage, why should the other person have to just let me? They have the option to buff themselves if they want to, but if they don't, it's totally legit to stop me from getting the damage bonus.

About estus, I also don't like to use it, but if both players have access to their flasks, I don't think it's unfair or anything, I don't like it cause it makes the fight lame and I love the tension that comes with a fight that can be decided in one move, but if it's in the game, more power to you.

If people really think duels shouldn't have estus (honestly, I do think they shouldn't), they should bother From with that, not other players.

 

[Garcia]

S

Spoiler

hrine of

A

Spoiler

mana

as a pure melee character:

Before it got nerfed I remember buying 200 arrows only to get past that section. Hell on earth, man.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Estus doesn't bother me in PVP. The punish window is huge. What I do hate is when invaders run to mobs that I haven't killed and heal while I fight them off/ try not to get backstabbed.

 

[Gbraga]

Is it worth it to infuse a Darkdrift with poison?

 

[Mistel]

Is it worth it to infuse a Darkdrift with poison?

You'd want a manslayer for that it's already infused with poison so infusing it will boost its natural damage.

 

[Gbraga]

You'd want a manslayer for that it's already infused with poison so infusing it will boost its natural damage.

I want the Darkdrift for the shield piercing heavy, to use on my left hand along with the washing pole, was just wondering if it was worth it to infuse it since the damage is not super high, so maybe poison would be better so not only they would get shield pierced, but some poison buildup, that probably have a pretty good effect on the player.

 

[eot]

I feel it is not as bad until the final area before the boss.

Before that, you just beeline it for the mages before dealing with the melees and most of the time it will go ok.

Most of the time? I wasn't able to 1-shot the mages, and the one on the right was impossible to attack without aggroing the melee guys. If I tried to get two hits in those assholes would tag me before I could dodge. Trying to run away from them with mage aggro was hopeless too. The way I got through it was to use a glitch where if I did an R2 that knocks the mages down they don't get up again (even though they didn't die). Then I used the same R2 to pancake the melee assholes.

 

[Creamium]

Not focused at all today, but still: on NG++, huntsman's copse is kicking my ass. The run with the romena invasion has killed me a few times and the skeleton lords of all bosses got me like 4 or 5 times, even with summons. It's weird because that boss never killed me before. Bad day I suppose.

 

[DukeBobby]

Not focused at all today, but still: on NG++, huntsman's copse is kicking my ass. The run with the romena invasion has killed me a few times and the skeleton lords of all bosses got me like 4 or 5 times, even with summons. It's weird because that boss never killed me before. Bad day I suppose.

Skeleton Lords killed me on NG++ too. I got too cocky and those wheel skeletons punished me for it.

 

[Haly]

I think I've lost two Crystal Lizards so far by killing them as they were moving into a pit.

Fuck me...

 

[Mistel]

I want the Darkdrift for the shield piercing heavy, to use on my left hand along with the washing pole, was just wondering if it was worth it to infuse it since the damage is not super high, so maybe poison would be better so not only they would get shield pierced, but some poison buildup, that probably have a pretty good effect on the player.

If you can get it onto them without you dying first it very may well do.

 

[revolverjgw]

It's really annoying moving through the Shrine of Amana as a melee character with no range options. Motherfuckers sniping me left and right.