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[Laurentius]

Sounds about right. There are a ton of walkthroughs, but those can ruin the fun of exploration and accomplishment. If you need specific tips or hints, you have us! Just tell us where you are, what you want or need, and we will guide you.

*Jump ahead, treasure below.*

Yeah, I've pretty much avoided walkthroughs as I want to experience it mostly blind and spoiler free. I've only looked up about 2 mechanics on the wiki, and where I should go to get Large Titanite. I was in desperate need of Large Titanite, but couldn't find any anywhere (which is why

Spoiler

I even tried to find the Iron Keep, even though I had no idea where it was

). The fact that I was in areas where I was getting all sorts of Titanite Chunk drops indicated to me I was in the wrong place. =P

 

[R1CHO]

Oh, so

Spoiler

The Rotton

has an insta-gib attack? Well that's stupid. Is there really anyway to avoid his exploding attack? I've rolled back as soon as I see the animation and it's not working.

Lucy was pretty useless when I took her in. By useless, I mean literally just stood there and got pummeled. Maybe attack 5 times. No need to bring her in if I've already used her 3 times, right?


fuck diff eq.

Spoiler

good luck

but where is the fun in that?

It really seems now people are just rushing the gate, especially for Luna. It's pretty lame. Fuck if I'm going to find you now, I'm just going to wait at the gate.

My advice, use the redeye ring, the cat sells it.

I have beaten the Rotten in NG with two bonfire ascetics, just me and Lucatiel. Keep moving, he will follow you, roll his attacks, let Lucatiel do all the job, but be sure to position the Rotten between you and her, so he can't hit her with his wide swings.

She has a fair amount of health, so she can eat a bunch of attacks.

It's slow, but safe, and you get to follow Lucatiel's quest that way.

This is generally a good strategy for any boss with the npc summons.

 

[HildyB]

Yeah, I've pretty much avoided walkthroughs as I want to experience it mostly blind and spoiler free. I've only looked up about 2 mechanics on the wiki, and where I should go to get Large Titanite. I was in desperate need of Large Titanite, but couldn't find any anywhere (which is why

Spoiler

I even tried to find the Iron Keep, even though I had no idea where it was

). The fact that I was in areas where I was getting all sorts of Titanite Chunk drops indicated to me I was in the wrong place. =P

Hardest part for me was trying to remember where I ran into a locked door. I started to jot them down, and whenever I found a new key (beat a boss), I would run back and hope it worked.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Are we sure that is the sole reason why they introduced it? What is SM if working exactly as intended?

I don't think it is. If you're on a lower level run, as many people do, I don't think they intended that you could get invaded by people 200, 300, 400 levels above you - how is that balanced?

They wanted a way to stop Giant dad cretins with avelyns and dark bead invading in the Burg as soon as you step foot in it, great but now we have full Havels cretins with TWO avelyns and hexes at SL300, 400 and upwards invading SL-anything players. What an improvement.

I doubt they would completely remove SM, it would be like admitting it completely failed. But they should definately tweak it. Like some people have said, have it only count in NG, and then NG+ onwards SL should be the matchmaking factor. Maybe even earlier, for example when you open up Drangleic Castle. The training wheels come off but it's still a fair fight matchmaking with SL.

And for anyone who says 'just level up and keep up with the competition'. NO. What is the point in that? Why have classes and builds and role playing in that case? Why bother with stat requirements at all for gear and spells if everyone can use everything? The game is about trade offs - If you carry a big fucking sword and wear huge armour, you shouldn't be rolling around like it was made of the finest silk. If you can one shot with a mega-spell, you shouldn't be able to be a tank with a HP bar that bursts off the side of the screen. PvP is built around the trade offs you make in choosing what type of character you want to play - That's the strategic element that makes it fun. Leveling up everything to 99 makes everything about stat requirements completely pointless.

And if you want to play like that - that's fine - You could always level up everything to 99 in Souls if you wanted, BUT you would only get matched with people doing the same. Now you get matched with anybody and everybody.

 

[Laurentius]

Hardest part for me was trying to remember where I ran into a locked door. I started to jot them down, and whenever I found a new key (beat a boss), I would run back and hope it worked.

That's a good idea, actually, I should have been doing that...oh well, I kind of enjoy going back to old areas and exploring them again, to see what I missed. I'll probably start writing down the locked doors or other things I can't access from here on out.

 

[R1CHO]

I don't think it is. If you're on a lower level run, as many people do, I don't think they intended that you could get invaded by people 200, 300, 400 levels above you - how is that balanced?

They wanted a way to stop Giant dad cretins with avelyns and dark bead invading in the Burg as soon as you step foot in it, great but now we have full Havels cretins with TWO avelyns and hexes at SL300, 400 and upwards invading SL-anything players. What an improvement.
.

I think it's still an improvement.

No new player is going to be making a low level run, if you have millions of souls on your SM but low SL... well, bad luck, but you know what you are doing, and in theory there are ways to minimize the risk of invasion, I guess that a veteran player could just use them.

The other way around was the real frustrating thing for new players.

 

[Kelas]

If I spoke to her at the final location without doing her quest, am I out of luck now that she's gone from there?

You might be out of luck, but I'm not 100% sure. You can certainly go back and ascetic some bonfires to respawn bosses, and summon her for those, but I don't know if that'll bring her back to her final location (unless maybe if you ascetic that bonfire there as well?)

 

[Red Liquorice]

I think it's still an improvement.

No new player is going to be making a low level run, if you have millions of souls on your SM but low SL... well, bad luck, but you know what you are doing, and in theory there are ways to minimize the risk of invasion, I guess that a veteran player could just use them.

The other way around was the real frustrating thing for new players.

The thing is, there are other things in the game that limit low level trolling, and I'm not sure SM would even make that much of a difference if it didn't exist.

Knowing what you're doing and not being able to make even the tiniest mistake without getting one shot are also two different things - let's also not forget the atrocious lag and mess they made of hitboxes etc. I'm level 12, you're level 400 - It's going to take a miracle for me to win basically. Balance is the issue. Balance.

 

[R1CHO]

If I spoke to her at the final location without doing her quest, am I out of luck now that she's gone from there?

I think so, sorry.

 

[ElFly]

I don't feel that SM is a problem, but then again, I mostly do PvP in the belfries.

That said, some people seem to have legitimate concerns, and it'd be better if they rolled back to the old system, after all, invading in NG is harshly limited by the way the game gives cracked red eye thingies.

But at least for me, it isn't a biggie.

 

[Aureon]

The problem is the split of damage type against multiple resistances on enemies. Simple example *

Imagine that an enemy has 100 points of defense against physical damage and 100 points against fire.

Regular+10 Sword will hit for 225-100=125 damage

Fire +10 Sword will hit for 157-100 + 157-100 = 114 damage

So, the optimal thing is to use an elemental weapon against an enemy weak against that elemental, and when in doubt, just use the normal +10.

You also have to take in to account that the scaling of the weapon changes when infusing, that can be good or bad depending on your stats.

* I don't thing the numbers are this simple, as in damage is directly attack-defense, it's just an example

tbh, i don't think DaS2 works that way.
Reportedly, using

Spoiler

Vendrick as an example, every Giant Soul you have doubles his defense, and testably halves your damage

If *2 defense means -50% damage, then the damage is straight up Attack/Defense, instead of the completely idiotic DaS formula.
I'll go do some testing.

e: Unsurprisingly, disproved pretty quickly. The formula is still something dumb-y.
(Slash Damage on the first mob out of fallen giants bonfire
(Atk \ damage)
85 \ 43
102 \ 49
169 \ 127
252 \ 297

Which fits pretty well to a exponential curve, tbh. Probably in the range of atk^3 / def^2 + offsets, like DaS1.

Data doesn't fit in the DaS1 formulas, either. So, it isn't the same formula - it seems stop exponential scaling far quicker, so split damage is considerably better in DkS2 than DkS1.

 

[Necromanti]

I think so, sorry.

You might be out of luck, but I'm not 100% sure. You can certainly go back and ascetic some bonfires to respawn bosses, and summon her for those, but I don't know if that'll bring her back to her final location (unless maybe if you ascetic that bonfire there as well?)

I did some additional research, and it sounds like she is indeed gone for good. Welp, that's dumb. I was hoping that quests worked similarly to how they did in Dark Souls. Maybe I'll go through it all again in NG+ one day.

 

[Sullichin]

tbh, i don't think DaS2 works that way.
Reportedly, using

Spoiler

Vendrick as an example, every Giant Soul you have doubles his defense, and testably halves your damage

If *2 defense means -50% damage, then the damage is straight up Attack/Defense, instead of the completely idiotic DaS formula.
I'll go do some testing.

Huh, what does that prove? It just increases all of his defenses by the same amount. Enemies still have different resistances to different attack/damage types.

 

[Rhaknar]

Spoiler

Darklurker

on first try, seemed very easy as a hex sorc

 

[Sullichin]

Spoiler

Darklurker

on first try, seemed very easy as a hex sorc

Yes, everything is. He's the best boss in the game with a melee character.

 

[Haly]

He's a pushover.

If FROM really wanted to be a dick, they would've just made the boss bottle against 4 black phantoms who aggro you immediately. One range guy, one slow melee guy, two fast melee guys.

 

[sublimit]

[Polygon fragments] Dark souls II - Majula

 

[Orthogonal]

Spoiler

Darklurker

on first try, seemed very easy as a hex sorc

Yup, I was disappointed. I even went in unprepared and low on spells and he was dead with like 5 or 6 Great Lightning spears. Gonna try full melee on ng+.

 

[Necromanti]

Yes, everything is. He's the best boss in the game with a melee character.

That's good to know. I just need to last long enough to develop a strategy against unblockable AoE attacks that kill me in one hit.

 

[Orthogonal]

If I spoke to her at the final location without doing her quest, am I out of luck now that she's gone from there?

Out of luck for that playthrough unfortunately.

Edit: missed your post that you already figured it out.

 

[Branson]

Finally watched this over at a friends house. Surprised at how it looked. It looked fine to me and the port looks really good. He had a smooth 60 maxed on an older system.

 

[Rhaknar]

so I only have 4 giant souls, where do you get the 5th?

Spoiler

I have the 3 from memorites and the 1 you get from the duo in black gulch

or should I just tackle

Spoiler

Vendrick

with 4?

 

[Grief.exe]

so I only have 4 giant souls, where do you get the 5th?

Spoiler

I have the 3 from memorites and the 1 you get from the duo in black gulch

or should I just tackle

Spoiler

Vendrick

with 4?

I beat him with 4 on NG no problem.

The 5th Giant Soul is kind of a lore spoiler that you should stumble on yourself.

 

[Orthogonal]

so I only have 4 giant souls, where do you get the 5th?

Spoiler

I have the 3 from memorites and the 1 you get from the duo in black gulch

or should I just tackle

Spoiler

Vendrick

with 4?

He is doable with 4.

The fifth is from

Spoiler

Ancient Dragon.

 

[didamangi]

so I only have 4 giant souls, where do you get the 5th?

Spoiler

I have the 3 from memorites and the 1 you get from the duo in black gulch

or should I just tackle

Spoiler

Vendrick

with 4?

Go for it, I beat him with 3 giant souls. Not that hard.

 

[AngryMoth]

Solution for soul memory: make it so it only accounts for souls spent on NG and get rid of it for NG+ onwards.

 

[HoosTrax]

so I only have 4 giant souls, where do you get the 5th?

Spoiler

I have the 3 from memorites and the 1 you get from the duo in black gulch

or should I just tackle

Spoiler

Vendrick

with 4?

The easiest way to get another is to just ascetic black gulch #1.

 

[Blinck]

Jesus I'm getting my ass handed over to me on the

Spoiler

dark covenent trials...fucking havel the rock and shit... this is pretty intense. If I slip I'm basically dead even though I have a pretty good amount of health and decent upgraded armor..

Any tips for these? I have a meele/ranged quality build...I guess I'm also quite fucked for the boss going by what everyone is saying

 

[Aureon]

Huh, what does that prove? It just increases all of his defenses by the same amount. Enemies still have different resistances to different attack/damage types.

If doubling the defense means exactly halving the damage taken, regardless of attack, then the damage formula is (and cannot be anything else) FixedCoefficient * Atk/Def - which would mean there's no malus to carrying split damage by itself.
Instead, the malus to carrying split damage is very much there. It doesn't seem big enough to make Enchanted>Magic in most circumstances, though - probably due to how Magic Weapon works.

 

[Rhaknar]

thanks guys ill try him with 4. also, reposting this because im dying to know

SON OF A BITCH

the second mob that can drop

Spoiler

Warlocks Mask

(besides the phantom in Huntsman Copse) also didnt drop it, of course! and it doesnt respawn...because fuck me thats why.

ok guys, please explain exactly how the ascetics work. if I pop one in 1 bonfire, does it affect just the area around that bonfire, or the entire zone that bonfire is in?

like, this npc is near the last bonfire in shrine of amana, right before going into undead crypt. if I pop a ascetic, will that buff the entire shrine of amana?

 

[Mistel]

This is a great spot.

Really quick fights too

It's one of the better bosses to farm due to the amount of people that do it as you well have too.

I wish King's Ultra Greatsword had a faster start up time on its swing. Awesome weapon otherwise

Me too but that strike damage is worth it.

 

[Blinck]

thanks guys ill try him with 4. also, reposting this because im dying to know

I haven't used one yet but I believe it only affects the area around that bonfire, not the whole zone.

I generally cheesed them by luring them to the very first platform you start out on. It has an elevated and lower (water) section and the AI in my case would take a significant amount of time to maneuver, giving me time to hit them. If you need to escape, you can jump over the gaps and quickly make it to the other side, whereas the AI will have to walk around. Still very difficult though.

That said, I did have a pure STR build and would just use the 2-handed strong attack (with my great club) and bash people on the head, wait for them to get up and repeat the process. Magic trivializes the entire thing, but that's not an option unfortunately. Is it possible to poison them?

I was able to poison

Spoiler

Havel

and kill him that way...the other dude in there though, that guy just started running and went full-on D'Artagnan on me and basically 1 shoted me.
I'm gonna try what you said and lure him towards the start and poison him that way!
Thanks!

 

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

Are any shields actually good for parrying in PVE? I've had a blue wooden shield for a while, but when it comes to parrying the startup time is so long that it's basically useless. Trying to parry the knights in Iron Keep basically comes down to predicting their overhead, because the parry is so slow that even if you react in time, you'll get hit due to the slow startup.

 

[la_briola]

My second char got the chariot lance, its pretty great!
I get Monster Hunter vibes from the running attack.

 

[R1CHO]

Jesus I'm getting my ass handed over to me on the

Spoiler

dark covenent trials...fucking havel the rock and shit... this is pretty intense. If I slip I'm basically dead even though I have a pretty good amount of health and decent upgraded armor..

Any tips for these? I have a meele/ranged quality build...I guess I'm also quite fucked for the boss going by what everyone is saying

Yes, the best way to deal with Havel and all those jokers is with a big ass weapon with some kind of knock back attack.

For example, using the R2 two handed attack of the Gyrm Great Hammer you will send them fliying (even Havel), probably down the hole or at least he will be down for a couple seconds, repeat and profit.

Gyrm one is great, but you can have similar results with all the great hammers i think, also the great swords. Try with something you can use.

When both were upgraded to Lightning +10, it was just slightly better in raw damage, at least with my build. It also is slightly faster than the witchtree bellvine, so I had no reason to go with Witchtree. That said, I will repeat once again that I have a lot of points invested in intelligence as well, so my dark damage might have something to do with it.

That said, if you're going full faith and no intelligence, Priest should be a better choice because of its S scaling. The starter chime is no slouch due to its high casting speed, but Priest is the better choice for faith build in my eyes. That said, you won't see a very large difference in damage until you get the dragon's chime, which outclasses all other chimes for faith builds. It does need a whopping 50 fth however.

Thanks, interesting, I start playing the cleric blind, didn't make any homework regarding chimes, I am still not sure about the way to go, if keep pumping points into faith or start upgrading Int so I can also use some hexes.

 

[la_briola]

Are any shields actually good for parrying in PVE? I've had a blue wooden shield for a while, but when it comes to parrying the startup time is so long that it's basically useless. Trying to parry the knights in Iron Keep basically comes down to predicting their overhead, because the parry is so slow that even if you react in time, you'll get hit due to the slow startup.

The small shields are decent, like the Target Shield or the Buckler.

 

[didamangi]

Jesus I'm getting my ass handed over to me on the

Spoiler

dark covenent trials...fucking havel the rock and shit... this is pretty intense. If I slip I'm basically dead even though I have a pretty good amount of health and decent upgraded armor..

Any tips for these? I have a meele/ranged quality build...I guess I'm also quite fucked for the boss going by what everyone is saying

For Havel you can equipped a great shield and just hold it up while circling him, then you can backstab him easily when you get the chance. Try luring him to the start area too if you want a safer place to do it.

 

[Haly]

Ranged. The solution is always ranged.

 

[Mistel]

Are any shields actually good for parrying in PVE? I've had a blue wooden shield for a while, but when it comes to parrying the startup time is so long that it's basically useless. Trying to parry the knights in Iron Keep basically comes down to predicting their overhead, because the parry is so slow that even if you react in time, you'll get hit due to the slow startup.

Raise adaptability to improve the response time or monastery scimitar and parry whilst rolling if you'd like to.

Ranged. The solution is always ranged.

Greatbows > all.

 

[Ghost23]

Cannot get through Iron Keep

 

[BadWolf]

Cannot get through Iron Keep

Which part is giving you trouble?

 

[Rhaknar]

nope, cant be arsed with

Spoiler

vendrick

at all

 

[Maxwood]

Cannot get through Iron Keep

Sure you can. Keep that shield up and keep your cool.
Or is the *first areaboss spoiler*

Spoiler

Smelter Demon

giving you issues? If so, it's time to get a better shield from

Spoiler

another smoky you've already visited

or summon some bro's. That guy is a pain.

 

[BadWolf]

Or is the *first areaboss spoiler*

Spoiler

Smelter Demon

giving you issues? If so, it's time to get a better sheild from

Spoiler

another smoky

place or summon some bro's. That guy is a pain.

He is also optional so you dont have to fight him or can come back to him later if you like.

 

[Alo81]

Wrote a 16 page paper saturday. Coded a computer program and made a power point project yesterday. Now I have to write an 8 page philosophy paper.

Finals are the pits and keeping me from what really matters, getting the mad warrior set.

 

[Mistel]

nope, cant be arsed with

Spoiler

vendrick

at all

He's easy with a melee character just two hand and circle strafe.

 

[MMBosstones86]

Solution for soul memory: make it so it only accounts for souls spent on NG and get rid of it for NG+ onwards.

Yup agreed. System would be better if it was Souls SPENT instead of Souls ACQUIRED.

 

[Rhaknar]

He's easy with a melee character just two hand and circle strafe.

im a hex sorc now, dont really care about taking my tank to NG+, and with the sorc I hit for shit (greater reso takes 450 with my maxed chime), and I eventually fuck up a roll and he 1 shots me (and 2 shots me since the first one staggers to hell). And i lack motivation, I dont care about achievements or challenge, and this is optional, every time I die I ask myself "why am I doing this?"

 

[dreamfall]

Settling down, almost ready for NG+.

But I just realized I didn't get my Gathering of Exiles achievement. I brought everyone to Majula (

Spoiler

But I killed Licia- which was stupid because I have to revive her to buy all the miracles! GAH!

Will it not show up even if everyone else is there?)

 

[Mistel]

im a hex sorc now, dont really care about taking my tank to NG+, and with the sorc I hit for shit (greater reso takes 450 with my maxed chime), and I eventually fuck up a roll and he 1 shots me (and 2 shots me since the first one staggers to hell). And i lack motivation, I dont care about achievements or challenge, and this is optional, every time I die I ask myself "why am I doing this?"

Does it even get you anything you want for your sorcerer?

Settling down, almost ready for NG+.

But I just realized I didn't get my Gathering of Exiles achievement. I brought everyone to Majula (

Spoiler

But I killed Licia- which was stupid because I have to revive her to buy all the miracles! GAH!

Will it not show up even if everyone else is there?)

Nope it will not.