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[Relaxed Muscle]

Pretty sure her summon sign in that zone has moved since vanilla.

Spoiler

On the docks closer to the ship

, no?

Yep

ok seriously though fuck pursuers, worst enemies

they consistently wreck me

You have to know when to attack, basically just attack after:

• His charge attack: You'll see how he prepares to lunge at you, after rolling attack one or a couple of times, not more
• Blue sword stab: Roll from safety, timing might be a bit tricky but is not that hard, once again after rolling into safety attack another couple of times
• His 1-2-3 combo: There's two variations, after the second hit with his shield, he'll either do the large horizontal slash, (take care with this one, don't roll back, roll tho his front to the left, or the big vertical slash, this one is easy. The attack 1 or two times, don't attack unless he finishes his combo.

The curse ball rain attack is also critical, but with the right timing you can evade safely. Also, there's another variation of his lunge attack, in which he tries to stab you instead of that down-up vertical slash. Is faster and harder to avade, take care.

Otherwise, as I said, is a matter of patience, just attack when it's safe and be always ready (and have a bit of stamina) to evade. Also, level up ADP, yeah otherwise, I hope you have a good shield.

 

[MrHoot]

There are some zones I find nicer than before (no man's wharf notably, nice to see the assassin ennemies put to good use), but man I hate the new Iron keep (first part, all these SANIC FAST alonne knights that are placed in so many horrible places) and shrine of amana. Guess i'm just gonna invest in dat bow to spare me the hassle

 

[Mejilan]

As soon as you see the dark pursuer start charging up his cursed orb attack, RUN behind him. Every single orb will miss. And on top of that, you can thoroughly punish him as he uselessly erupts with orbs. I was able to consistently knock off 40% -50% of his health every time he did that.

Also, like with most heavily armored enemies, blunt/bashing weapons hurt much more than bladed ones.

 

[partyboy]

Pursuer is pretty easy to parry and will take a lot of damage that way.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Kinda confused now. Think I'm about halfway through at the moment having lit 2 primal bonfires at sinners rise and the iron keep. Currently taking on the boss in the shaded woods, seems optional. So which way to the next two primals? When can I get at the dlc? I found an entrance but no key.

Also there seems to be trophies tied to npc quests? I found one so far so I'm guessing there's more.

I'll tell you one place:

Spoiler

In Majula go to the big hole in the middle, you'll see items down below in wooden planks of hell. If you met certain NPC in your way to Iron Keep, he should near there, you can buy a wooden lader from him to go below, or use a ring and gear to reduce fall damage, and have an good old "letting your character fall over weirdly placed planks and hope not to die" experience

Have fun, the next area after that one is a lot of FUN (bring items to cure poison and torches)

 

[arevin01]

I started the DLC area sunken king and find it to be more difficult than vanilla. Enemies hit way harder, has more health, lots of poison, narrow pathways, and are very aggressive. Makes me not wanting to bother playing the DLC areas.

 

[wrongway]

A titanite shard,you should roll after you open the chest though

Ah great, no real loss then. The chest was a casualty in the battle against the guys who come out of the side room. :x

 

[Novocaine]

I've ended up shelving Bloodborne for now because this had sucked me back in. I don't know what it is about DS2 but I really really like it.

Making the push through Earthen Peak now. Full strength build rocking Great sword and Large Club.

I'm honestly kind of surprised at how many people seem to be playing when Bloodborne is also available.

 

[Soodanim]

ok seriously though fuck pursuers, worst enemies

they consistently wreck me

My build is based around dodging attacks so I have 20-something Adaptability, but for me it was a case of learning when to roll. And roll into the side his sword is coming from, so that when your iframes are done you're behind him and ready to get in a few shots. With a bit of practice you can also bait him into doing his lunge attack quite often, which I find to be the easiest to dodge as it's just one swing. If he does his long wind up magic attack, try and get behind him. The spell does nothing and you can get in a lot of free hits.

 

[VaultBoy101]

Pretty sure her summon sign in that zone has moved since vanilla.

Spoiler

On the docks closer to the ship

, no?

Thanks, edited. I summoned her for that fight but the change obviously didn't register in my head.

 

[Heysoos]

Thanks for the advice fellas!


Also, how do I leave someone's game when I get summoned? Someone summoned me but not for a boss, which is cool, I like to help but I didn't know how to leave lol.

 

[Soodanim]

Thanks for the advice fellas!


Also, how do I leave someone's game when I get summoned? Someone summoned me but not for a boss, which is cool, I like to help but I didn't know how to leave lol.

It's an item you start with called the Black Separation Crystal

 

[Steel]

Where does Lucatiel go after meeting her in the Lost Bastille? I didn't summon her for Ruin Sentinels or Rotten but I'm looking for her in Earthen Peak for the Smelter Demon and she doesn't seem to be anywhere.

Spoiler

Did you find her in No Man's Wharf?

 

[Skatterd]

it's almost time. i'll be starting (or revisiting?) this in a bit. did anyting about the stat weight change fundamentally?

it's going to feel weird after bloodborne.

It's felt super weird for me. I just did a new playthrough of DS2 like a month before BB rarely dying. Now I'm getting destroyed...I don't know what happened lol

 

[ichtyander]

Just beat the game, got through the DLCs first and then the final boss fights, chose the new ending. It was fun. Back with vanilla DS2, I burned out on the game and felt like I didn't want to touch it anymore, but this was a welcome "remix" of sorts for me.

Took 39 hours to beat it, ended at level 174. Didn't grind at all and it generally felt easy for the most part as a STR build, but the beginning felt much harder this time around. Also didn't beat all bosses yet so I'll probably mess around with that.

Also, holy shit, there's a whole area in the third DLC that I didn't know existed, completely missed it back when it came out. I love the Souls series because of that stuff, always finding something more.

 

[CountAntonius]

These are so sadistic and well done.

DS, Most brutal enemies (concepts)

My objective, make a collection of the most brutal, annoying, nightmarish enemies you could imagine in the Dark Souls world (don´t take it seriously, I´m just doing this for fun)

 

[Ferrio]

These are so sadistic and well done.

DS, Most brutal enemies (concepts)

Oh god don't give them ideas, those mimics.....

 

[BigDes]

Bonfire mimic?

Poison Ironclad?

That dude is history's greatest monster

 

[Katori]

Omg Bonfire Mimic is an amazing idea. DaS3 plz.

 

[BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO]

Yeah, DS1 shits on this game from a great height in terms of level design and bosses.

 

[Robot Pants]

Flexile smelter demon. Good god no

 

[BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO]

LOL falling is killing me more than the enemies are.

 

[Mogwai]

Fuck the Darklurker.

I have nothing else to say about it. And I will henceforth judge Dark Souls II solely based on this boss fight. So you know what I think about Dark Souls II.

I see your enjoyment with the game has dropped since yesterday

 

[xxRONN1Nxx]

I went ahead and picked this up and started my character. Got to first fire in the Forrest of Giants. But i cant get off BB to get into this

 

[BouncyFrag]

So, Capra Demon Wheel...

 

[Alo81]

Dude Bonfire mimic is an incredible idea.

 

[SymbiantXenos]

Bonfire and ladder mimics NEED to happen in DS3.

 

[Dimmle]

Lucatiel complete guide since there seems to be some confusion:

Spoiler

Lost Bastille - in the small tower directly across from the bonfire after the Pursuer battle and bird ride (same location as vanilla). Summon for Lost Sinner fight. Sign is directly behind the lift at the bottom.
No Man's Wharf - on the top floor of one of the houses early in the area (different location from vanilla). Summon for Flexile Sentry fight. Sign is on the docks close to the ship.
Black Gulch - in the earliest of the three secret areas you can find by dropping down over the edge, close to the first bonfire (same location as vanilla). Summon for The Rotten fight. Sign is right by the second bonfire.
Harvest Valley/Earthen Peak - in the small hidden room on the bottom floor of the three-story area just before you fight Covetous Demon (different location from vanilla). Summon for Smelter Demon fight. Sign is right outside the fog gate.

In order to get her equipment (and the related achievement/trophy), you must do two things:
1. Talk to her and exhaust all of her dialogue in all 4 of the above locations, until she starts repeating the same lines.
2. Summon her and keep her alive for at least 3 of the 4 boss fights listed above. She must survive at least 3 of these fights through their completion.

Final location:
Aldia's Keep - in the small wooden hut with the bonfire as soon as you enter the area. If the above 2 requirements are met, she will give you her equipment after talking to her a couple of times. Either way, she will disappear after talking to her here, never to be seen again in your current NG level.

Thanks, this really cleared everything up!

 

[Kazuhira]

Walls,merchants,estus flasks,your own armor...everything was mimics.

 

[Ferr986]

lol this is plain evil.

 

[burgerdog]

My fucking god, they made the run to smelter demon straight up bullshit. DS2 was my favorite souls game, so far this is my most hated. :| I'd go back to bb, but I'm waiting for the patch before I start a new character.

 

[Heysoos]

So I keep getting invaded by multiple people as soon as I enter Belfry Luna lol..

 

[Santiako]

Holy shit, the new areas (dlc ones) are insanely good. I'm getting to the end of them (I think) and leaving the final bosses for the end. I got to

Spoiler

the corrosive Dragon, Sihn I think

and

Spoiler

Fume Knight

, I'm still doing the frozen area.

 

[Alo81]

A modder is currently developing a fix for the Durability bug.

Github page.

Durability bug

Dark Souls II would damage your weapons based on your framerate. SotFS will just apply the damage twice regardless. Let's not do that.

Details

[ DarkSoulsII.exe+1F4830 ]

[... snip ...]

.text:00000001401F4927     movss   xmm2, dword ptr [rax+154h]
.text:00000001401F492F [1] jmp     short ComputeWeaponDurabilityDamage

[... snip ...]

.text:00000001401F4939 [2] ComputeWeaponDurabilityDamage:
.text:00000001401F4939     mov     rax, [rdi+8]
.text:00000001401F493D     lea     edx, [rsi-2]
.text:00000001401F4940     xor     r9d, r9d
.text:00000001401F4943     mov     rcx, [rax+0B8h]
.text:00000001401F494A     movss   xmm0, dword ptr [rcx+414h]
.text:00000001401F4952     mov     rcx, rdi
.text:00000001401F4955 [3] mulss   xmm0, dword ptr [rbp+18h]
.text:00000001401F495A [4] mulss   xmm2, xmm0
.text:00000001401F495E [5] xorps   xmm2, cs:xmmword_1410A46C0
.text:00000001401F4965 [6] call    ApplyDurabilityDamage

here lies the routine responsible for some of the durability damage management. Looking further down @ 1F492F[1] you can see a jmp short to 1F4939[2] — that's where the weapon durability damage is applied. Here, the game will compute the damage[3][4][5] and call the routine[6] to apply said damage.

[ DarkSoulsII.exe+1F4D80 ]

.text:00000001401F4D80 [7] mov     [rsp+10h], rbx
.text:00000001401F4D85 [8] mov     [rsp+18h], rbp

[... snip ...]

.text:00000001401F4DE2     movzx   r8d, bpl
.text:00000001401F4DE6     mov     edx, esi
.text:00000001401F4DE8     mov     rcx, rdi
.text:00000001401F4DEB     call    GetCurrentDurability [ @ +348A00 ]

[... snip ...]

.text:00000001401F4E18     mov     edx, ebx
.text:00000001401F4E1A     mov     rcx, rdi
.text:00000001401F4E1D     movaps  xmm6, xmm0
.text:00000001401F4E20     call    GetMaxDurability [ @ +342560 ]

[... snip ...]

.text:00000001401F4E30     addss   xmm6, xmm8                  ; apply damage

[... snip ...]

.text:00000001401F4E64 loc_1401F4E64:
.text:00000001401F4E64     movss   xmm2, dword ptr [rax]       ; save new durability
.text:00000001401F4E68     lea     rcx, [rsp+88h+var_60]
.text:00000001401F4E6D     mov     edx, esi
.text:00000001401F4E6F     call    SetNewDurability [ @ +151E90]

We'll hook this baby here at its first 5 bytes[7], and jump to our custom naked function (in _Durability.asm), which will handle the halving of the damage (stored in the xmm2 registry, set by the previous function at +1F495E). This is necessary since inline assembly is not possible in MSVC_x64 and I seem to be too dumb to invoke a __fastcall without trashing the shit out of every single register x86_64 has to offer. Thanks, Microsoft.

We'll just get xmm2, halve it and jump back to the trampoline function created by MinHook, where the 5 bytes we overwritten beforehand are stored, then we'll jump into Dark Souls II again and let the game go by its business[8].

 

[tuna_love]

So I keep getting invaded by multiple people as soon as I enter Belfry Luna lol..

If you don't want titanite chunks you can do that area offline.

 

[zeox]

The dull ember is in a chest in the room you get dropped in.

Dang. Guess I'll troubleshoot this issue some more then . Thanks

 

[xxRONN1Nxx]

Question about how fast weapons are breaking. Is it just early weapons and does it improve when you start to fortify or get later weapons? Or should I just get used to carrying 2 or 3 weapons. I played vanilla on 360 and could go through entire zones and bosses without trouble currently I'm having issues making it to the next fire without them breaking

 

[plasmawave]

Question about how fast weapons are breaking. Is it just early weapons and does it improve when you start to fortify or get later weapons? Or should I just get used to carrying 2 or 3 weapons. I played vanilla on 360 and could go through entire zones and bosses without trouble currently I'm having issues making it to the next fire without them breaking

I think it improves with upgrades, but DS2 definitely has the fastest breaking weapons in the series.

 

[Neoweee]

I think it improves with upgrades, but DS2 definitely has the fastest breaking weapons in the series.

That's because it is a fundamentally different mechanic that happens to share the same name. Here, it is meant to put weapons on the same bonfire-based cycle as Spells and Estus.

 

[Corpekata]

I've only had issues with breaking early on with the Old Whip, and I usually have two weapons I switch between (one for general, one for narrow areas it would get caught on), and sometimes a third depending on enemy type. Since I stopped using the whip I've only had durability issues come near the last like 10 percent of a bosses' life.

 

[xxRONN1Nxx]

I think it improves with upgrades, but DS2 definitely has the fastest breaking weapons in the series.

Yea its kinda crazy. I started with the knight origin and that sword you start with is in danger of breaking when i get to that first fire in forrest by that river. Then when i climb latter to kill all those mobs and head to that fire its dam close to breaking

 

[SkylineRKR]

The breaking became less of an issue after Heide for me. This is my first time with DS2, and I gotta say I'm hooked. I disliked it during the first hour or 2 but the game grew on me. I think its pretty good. Still one shotted every boss up until this point though (Lost Bastille), but some regular gank squads occasionally cut me up. There isn't something like a thief ring in here isn't there?

 

[EVA UNIT 01]

First time playing dks2.
Its an odd game but Im liking it.
3 times now ive felt like quitting but I keep pushing through and sucking up the deaths.
Im not giving it the satisfaction.
Ill see you dead dks2

 

[Heysoos]

So I keep getting invaded by multiple people as soon as I enter Belfry Luna lol..

Well, finally got through this area but now I'm lost. Thought this was my next destination but it seems rather useless. Where do I go next?

 

[Neoweee]

Well, finally got through this area but now I'm lost. Thought this was my next destination but it seems rather useless. Where do I go next?

Tons of places. What bosses have you beaten?

 

[Heysoos]

Tons of places. What bosses have you beaten?

Spoiler

After the Old Giant and Pursuer I went through the heides tower area and Lost Bastille all the way through the three sentinel bosses and then kept going until I got to the sinner dude. After that I explored no mans wharf and beat the dude that was in the ship and then ended back in Lost Bastille. From there I went to the belfry luna area until I hit a dead end after the gargoyles.

 

[FarmerGiles]

Yea its kinda crazy. I started with the knight origin and that sword you start with is in danger of breaking when i get to that first fire in forrest by that river. Then when i climb latter to kill all those mobs and head to that fire its dam close to breaking

And this folks, is what we're moaning about. THAT'S WHAT'S MEANT TO @#!*ING HAPPEN, there's nothing '!?CRAZY!?' about a weapon nearly getting broken before getting to a bonfire. You guys are treating it like you're going through several sets of weapons, like there's nary a bonfire in sight! It's not even an issue, you're all just knee-jerking mechanicphobes with little to no patience for actually managing your equipment.

This is why we can't have complex game mechanics in AAA games, because we whine about how crazy it is that our weapons are almost breaking before a repair point.

Also, no, weapon durability isn't increased with upgrades.

 

[Augemitbutter]

it doesn't play as smooth as bloodborne, but it completely hooked me again from the first minute. the music in majula alone combined with lots of sun praising. ran through the forest and downed the LG.

i'm in love again.

 

[Neoweee]

Spoiler

After the Old Giant and Pursuer I went through the heides tower area and Lost Bastille all the way through the three sentinel bosses and then kept going until I got to the sinner dude. After that I explored no mans wharf and beat the dude that was in the ship and then ended back in Lost Bastille. From there I went to the belfry luna area until I hit a dead end after the gargoyles.

You can explore the Bastille more (go back to the bonfire after the Sentinels, to start?), or you can start doing any of the other game's main paths.

I'm not. Bloodborne is the easiest and shortest Souls game to date, IMHO.
I had the platinum days before Dark 2 re-released.

Shortest, maybe NOT the easiest, but definitely not the hardest, and Chalice "progression" is a low point for the series. I mostly breezed through the Defiled area, but I can't just move on to the next for the platinum due to some BS farming reasons.

 

[Mejilan]

I'm honestly kind of surprised at how many people seem to be playing when Bloodborne is also available.

I'm not. Bloodborne is the easiest and shortest Souls game to date, IMHO.
I had the platinum days before Dark 2 re-released.