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Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin |OT| Your weapons are weak, old man

Question about boss souls:

If I'm not interested in the boss weapon that I can get for them, is there any reason NOT to cash them in? For example, the Pursuer's soul. My character won't have a need for the weapon/shield I can get for it.....any reason not to cash it in and upgrade some stats?
 

tuna_love

Banned
Question about boss souls:

If I'm not interested in the boss weapon that I can get for them, is there any reason NOT to cash them in? For example, the Pursuer's soul. My character won't have a need for the weapon/shield I can get for it.....any reason not to cash it in and upgrade some stats?
Just don't cash in giant souls.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
How the fuck are you supposed to kill the
Ivory king dude
? The bullshit adds never stop spawning.


edit: got it but that was really not intuitive.

you can close all the gates if you have all 4 knights. and you get all 4 knights by doing the entire gigantic dlc zone. the path to the boss is like a third, or a fourth of the actual entire zone
 

Dresden

Member
Finished the Sunken City DLC last night. The level design is up there with the best in Souls. They were a little too trigger happy with poison/acid/petrification, but it wasn't too painful overall.

The bosses were okay - the first
was pretty lame, with a gimpy Veldstadt summon that went down fast and three skeletons after that all got one shot
, but I enjoyed
Sinh.
First DkS2 boss to take multiple tries; felt good when I got him.

And then I tried the
triplets
, fuck them to hell.
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
If
Vengarl
dies in
Frigid Outskirts
is he gone forever?

No, he's just a phantom. None of the NPC phantoms you can summon actually die if they bite it while summoned. Presumably they just sulk a little bit and then attribute their poor performance as a helper to lag.

If you reset the area by either dying yourself or resting at a bonfire his summon sign will be right back where you found it the first time, all ready and rarin' for another round.
 

Captcha

Member
for those of you that have blown through the game lol how different is the new enemy layout and how are the balance changes overall?

It's much, much easier with the baffling exception of Earthen Peak which got a difficulty buff for some reason. One could argue Iron Keep too, but I didn't have much trouble there personally. Stuff aggros from miles, yes, but if you're careful you can control what you pull.
 

Novocaine

Member
Seed of a tree of giants. Use it and when he runs down the stairs the enemies will aggro on him and kill him. If you use a weapon with strong knock back, you can knock him off the ledge and he'll fall down the hole and die.

Well shit, I never thought about using a seed on a pesky NPC invader.
 

Skatterd

Member
After trying probably 50 times to beat Fume Knight the first time I played the dlc, beat him on my second try in Scholar of the First Sin.

Feelsgoodman.
 

Heysoos

Member
Beat the game!
Beat Nashandra and Aldia.

This is the most fun I've had in a long ass time. So glad I picked this up, that said the constant crashing really hurt the experience at times. (X1) Anyways, most of the achievements except for gathering all sorceries, hexes, and miracles. It apparently requires multiple play throughs which I can't do right now.
 
Question about boss souls:

If I'm not interested in the boss weapon that I can get for them, is there any reason NOT to cash them in? For example, the Pursuer's soul. My character won't have a need for the weapon/shield I can get for it.....any reason not to cash it in and upgrade some stats?

If you trade enough boss souls to Straid, he'll give you his armor set. So don't just consume them all.
 

Neoweee

Member
Well mother fucker. Got the bird boss soul trader killed. Fuck.

Where?

If it was at her first location, =( I feel your pain.

If it is at her final location, her tomb will eventually appear, and then it is business as normal (for an extra price).

It's much, much easier with the baffling exception of Earthen Peak which got a difficulty buff for some reason. One could argue Iron Keep too, but I didn't have much trouble there personally. Stuff aggros from miles, yes, but if you're careful you can control what you pull.

I disagree with it being much much easier. How? Most areas remain unchanged, a few areas have more enemy variety, a few areas have more advanced enemies, and there are generally more invaders. Maybe slightly easier, but any "much" comes from your skill at having played the game before, not the changes in placement.

for those of you that have blown through the game lol how different is the new enemy layout and how are the balance changes overall?


Overall, it is the same ballpark in difficulty, but the world feels much more "lively", with better AI, more enemy variety in each zone, and some more subtle changes to how zones respond to your actions.
 
Where?

If it was at her first location, =( I feel your pain.

If it is at her final location, her tomb will eventually appear, and then it is business as normal (for an extra price).

.


Past the locked door. I ran in, then got mobbed by frogs, killed her. Pretty fucked off as I wanted the great sword from the trade. Cocked it right up now and she does not even drop anything.
 

Neoweee

Member
Past the locked door. I ran in, then got mobbed by frogs, killed her. Pretty fucked off as I wanted the great sword from the trade. Cocked it right up now and she does not even drop anything.

That sucks. I like what the DkS2 team did with accidentally aggroing or killing NPCs, but Ornifex is like the one giant hole in how things are programmed.
 
It's much, much easier with the baffling exception of Earthen Peak which got a difficulty buff for some reason. One could argue Iron Keep too, but I didn't have much trouble there personally. Stuff aggros from miles, yes, but if you're careful you can control what you pull.

I agree with both your examples. I was dreading Iron Keep. There are more enemies and it comes at a fast pace but I had no trouble. If anything I had more fun on my way to Smelter.

Haven't played after the second bonfire though. About to jump in now.
 

Captcha

Member
I disagree with it being much much easier. How? Most areas remain unchanged, a few areas have more enemy variety, a few areas have more advanced enemies, and there are generally more invaders. Maybe slightly easier, but any "much" comes from your skill at having played the game before, not the changes in placement.

For context, the last time I played this game completely through was around 2 months after it came out. When the DLCs released, I played the first two and got frustrated during the 2nd one and never played the third one. There could have been adjustments in there somewhere in between when I last completed an entire run and when I went through the remaster.

With that being said, the NG is not EXTREMELY different, but the changes made make things easier in some fashion (except notably at Earthen Peak). I can't recall every little mob placement change, but I know they removed a couple gank squads. NG+ is where the change is most stark to me.
Things like moving Vengarl's body away from the primal bonfire after Freja; the changes to Dragon's Keep; little things like moving the Bastille Key so you don't have to fight the Gargoyles; vastly reducing the defense and HP of Lost Sinner's adds; removing a couple red phantoms in the vanilla game altogether (a couple in Huntsman's Copse come to mind); and adding a short cut to the Wharf made things a good deal easier.
They also completely removed red phantoms from the DLC areas on NG+. That lowered the difficulty quite a bit for those areas which, I think, most would agree are already harder than most of the base game.

You are right that experience plays a big part, though. I'm fully willing to admit that it could color my perception, but the game still felt way easier to me especially on NG+.
 
By the way are there any new metas for cutoffs for rolling? It used to be: get below 30% on one end of the spectrum and avoid 70% fat rolls on the other.

How does it work now?
 
By the way are there any new metas for cutoffs for rolling? It used to be: get below 30% on one end of the spectrum and avoid 70% fat rolls on the other.

How does it work now?

It seems to scale linearly. In regards to stamina regen and roll speed/distance. Meaning equip rate of 32% is better off than 38%.

There are two types of rolls, at pre 70% and post 70%. But in terms of stamina regen and roll distance the lower the better. There aren't any cut-offs in that regard.

For me I've just made it a mental note to keep i below 35 percent. If there is armor that I really want to wear that puts me above, I'll be sure to put in some points into vitality to counter it.
 
It seems to scale linearly. In regards to stamina regen and roll speed/distance. Meaning equip rate of 32% is better off than 38%.

There are two types of rolls, at pre 70% and post 70%. But in terms of stamina regen and roll distance the lower the better. There aren't any cut-offs in that regard.

For me I've just made it a mental note to keep i below 35 percent. If there is armor that I really want to wear that puts me above, I'll be sure to put in some points into vitality to counter it.

Oh wow! What a change. Thanks for the reply. I had kept my vitality at 9 just because of the flynn ring that I will eventually get and there are more crucial stats in the mid game. I noticed stamina regen seemed slower when I was wielding heavier stuff.

Hell, does that mean Flynn's ring is useless now?
 

gogosox82

Member
Oh wow! What a change. Thanks for the reply. I had kept my vitality at 9 just because of the flynn ring that I will eventually get and there are more crucial stats in the mid game. I noticed stamina regen seemed slower when I was wielding heavier stuff.

Hell, does that mean Flynn's ring is useless now?

Flynn's Ring is tied to your equip load not your item burden. You can still keep your item burden below 35% and still use Flynn's Ring as long as your equip load is under 60.
 

Dresden

Member
Fume Knight was a fun fight. The staggered timing on some of its attacks threw me off quite a bit - I didn't realize how much I'd relied on rhythm to dodge multiple hits, and it took a few tries to get a feel for it.

One DLC left. The tower in Old Iron King wasn't quite up to the Sunken City's level of intricacy, but it was still pretty damn good.
 
I've only found one of the DLC's keys. I've only activated two primal bonefires thus far.

I'd like to think I do a pretty ok job of exploring in Souls games, having said that - should I be able to find the other two or are they unreasonably obscure?
 
I've only found one of the DLC's keys. I've only activated two primal bonefires thus far.

I'd like to think I do a pretty ok job of exploring in Souls games, having said that - should I be able to find the other two or are they unreasonably obscure?

They're pretty damn obscure in my opinion.

If you wanted to find it naturally, it would take you many hours I would imagine. They aren't exactly along a path you would normally take as you're progressing like the key you got (ice one, correct?).
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Fume Knight was a fun fight. The staggered timing on some of its attacks threw me off quite a bit - I didn't realize how much I'd relied on rhythm to dodge multiple hits, and it took a few tries to get a feel for it.

One DLC left. The tower in Old Iron King wasn't quite up to the Sunken City's level of intricacy, but it was still pretty damn good.

Did you fight the third boss of that area yet?
 

Wagram

Member
I don't like most of the changes they've made to enemy placement thus far. I'm only at Dragleic Castle but the only two areas where the placement changes increased challenge was Iron Keep and Heides Tower of Flame. Everywhere else has had small changes that make absolutely zero sense and decreases difficulty. Seriously, I think I would recommend the original PC/PS3 title over this w/ DLC.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Not yet, was eager to get to the next area. Killed the first boss there and that was that for the night.

Dude, the third boss of the second DLC area is one of the best bosses in the series. Don't wait on fighting it. Reaching it isn't too much trouble, either. It's at
the bonfire near that armor on display. Just interact with it and you'll reach the area of the third boss, which is only a two minute dash at most.
 

Dresden

Member
Dude, the third boss of the second DLC area is one of the best bosses in the series. Don't wait on fighting it. Reaching it isn't too much trouble, either. It's at
the bonfire near that armor on display. Just interact with it and you'll reach the area of the third boss, which is only a two minute dash at most.

Hmm, will do that then.
 
Question:

1) not a new player (had no problems with platinuming Demon's)
2) never played DaS1

Q: is it very hard to start with the Covenant of the Champions? Normal run, not a SL1 one. First playthrough of the game. I am totally in the dark about this game - had nothing spoiled for me in the past.
 

Maedre

Banned
Question:

1) not a new player (had no problems with platinuming Demon's)
2) never played DaS1

Q: is it very hard to start with the Covenant of the Champions? Normal run, not a SL1 one. First playthrough of the game. I am totally in the dark about this game - had nothing spoiled for me in the past.

Do it!
 

Ayt

Banned
Question:

1) not a new player (had no problems with platinuming Demon's)
2) never played DaS1

Q: is it very hard to start with the Covenant of the Champions? Normal run, not a SL1 one. First playthrough of the game. I am totally in the dark about this game - had nothing spoiled for me in the past.

I wouldn't recommend it. Beyond the increased difficulty, you'd also be missing out on all online activity other than invasions and you wouldn't be able to do any npc quest lines. If you don't care about that, then it is just a question of difficulty.

If you really want to do it for some reason, you can join at any time. I'd go through a bit of the first few hours of the game before deciding.
 

Neoweee

Member
It seems to scale linearly. In regards to stamina regen and roll speed/distance. Meaning equip rate of 32% is better off than 38%.

There are two types of rolls, at pre 70% and post 70%. But in terms of stamina regen and roll distance the lower the better. There aren't any cut-offs in that regard.

For me I've just made it a mental note to keep i below 35 percent. If there is armor that I really want to wear that puts me above, I'll be sure to put in some points into vitality to counter it.

It scales continuously, but not linearly. However, it is really hard to judge the value of just a bit of extra roll distance, as that very quickly starts to make the difference between getting hit and not getting hit, or getting from far into attack range with a single roll.
 

Dance Inferno

Unconfirmed Member
Played for a bit yesterday and beat R
oyal
R
at
A
uthority
, who I managed to beat after 3 tries but was super annoying due to all the adds. I ignored them at first thinking they respawned infinitely but all that did is get me poisoned and stomped on when I tried to heal. On my successful attempt I took them out first then focused on the big guy, who has some pretty delayed attack animations. He was probably the least "fun" boss I've fought in the game so far.

Until I entered B
rightsone
C
ove
T
eldora
and fought P
rowling
M
agus
.

Not sure who designed this encounter but what a joke. I got hit as soon as I entered the room, but I soon realized that as long as you're continually moving in a circle around the room nothing can hit you. Hilarious. This probably would have been a more interesting fight if they just removed the "boss" lifebar from the bottom of the screen, because it's nothing more than a glorified mob.

Whatever, I'm not complaining. On with the rest of the level.
 

Ragnaroz

Member
Played for a bit yesterday and beat R
oyal
R
at
A
uthority
, who I managed to beat after 3 tries but was super annoying due to all the adds. I ignored them at first thinking they respawned infinitely but all that did is get me poisoned and stomped on when I tried to heal. On my successful attempt I took them out first then focused on the big guy, who has some pretty delayed attack animations. He was probably the least "fun" boss I've fought in the game so far.

Until I entered B
rightsone
C
ove
T
eldora
and fought P
rowling
M
agus
.

Not sure who designed this encounter but what a joke. I got hit as soon as I entered the room, but I soon realized that as long as you're continually moving in a circle around the room nothing can hit you. Hilarious. This probably would have been a more interesting fight if they just removed the "boss" lifebar from the bottom of the screen, because it's nothing more than a glorified mob.

Whatever, I'm not complaining. On with the rest of the level.
You don't even get a boss soul for that fight so it may as well be a glorified mob.
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
Weird but DSII is now the only game that doesn't tell me when I unlock Trophies nor does it takes screenshots automatically anymore for them. Trophies unlock in silence, and no more screenshots. WTH?
 

addyb

Member
Finished the game last night. Started on sunken king dlc. Wow definite increase in difficulty. May have missed a 2nd bonfire as I'm a fair way from the 1st and have just got to a bit with
spiked floors
please tell me there's another bonfire round here as I'm finding it a slog to get back with all the
archers
 
Finished the game last night. Started on sunken king dlc. Wow definite increase in difficulty. May have missed a 2nd bonfire as I'm a fair way from the 1st and have just got to a bit with
spiked floors
please tell me there's another bonfire round here as I'm finding it a slog to get back with all the
archers

If you are at the spiked floor there should be some steps down in front of you. Go halfway down the steps...not all the way, monster... and then turn around and look up. Should be a button on a wall on your left. Shoot it to open a door above you to the bonfire. Run back up the steps and around to your left and then up the ladder. Jump over to the bonfire.
 

addyb

Member
If you are at the spiked floor there should be some steps down in front of you. Go halfway down the steps...not all the way, monster... and then turn around and look up. Should be a button on a wall on your left. Shoot it to open a door above you to the bonfire. Run back up the steps and around to your left and then up the ladder. Jump over to the bonfire.


Thanks matey. Will have a look later :)
 
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