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

Jito

Banned
Have they removed the L
ooking Glass Knight
spawning in invaders? I'm playing online and only got NPC characters.
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
Have they removed the L
ooking Glass Knight
spawning in invaders? I'm playing online and only got NPC characters.

He can still spawn human invaders, it's just rare. I grinded my way to 30 Sunlight Medals helping people with him in co-op, and of the 30+ fights there was only a human squire summoned 3 times that I recall.
 

Neoweee

Member
Have they removed the L
ooking Glass Knight
spawning in invaders? I'm playing online and only got NPC characters.

Nope. Not only is it still there, but it happened for me in regular NG, whereas in the past it may have been restricted to NG+.

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.

Most people end up fighting that later in the game, but it is actually pretty fun if you do the BSCT path 1st or 2nd (of the five out of Majula), or on a CoC playthrough. You can get blocked in the aisles by the smaller guys.

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.

If you haven't played Dark Souls 1, the game can be quite hard. All 4 of the games are in roughly the same ballpark of difficulty, and the Company of Champions exacerbates some of the issues that people frequently complain about (though I disagree that they are problems). The extra damage (including poise damage, I believe), and increased number of hits to kill enemies makes anything even remotely resembling an ambush far more deadly.

You are also blocked from doing Co-op, so you have to beat bosses alone (normal if you're looking for a challenge) and will have to farm bellbros or invade if you want to farm levels.

You also can't fight one of the super bosses, because its series of dungeons require joining a different covenant.

I really enjoy the CoC, and it is one of the key reasons why I prefer this game over the others, but know that you're up for a true challenge, and that the DLC will be really goddamn difficult, instead of just very hard.

The one bone it throws you is that enemies don't despawn. I know people point to that and say "Dark Souls 2 is too easy!", but christ, not having them despawn is one of the best things in the CoC, and the only change that actually helps you out.
 

Juraash

Member
Just ordered this for when Bloodborne hype dies down a little and have a couple questions. I played the game at launch before all the dlc and whatnot and I remember lightning be insanely powerful against most bosses. I seem to recall they nerfed it after a month or so but I'd like confirmation of that.

Also is there a sort of....Bloodborne-esque build or weapon I could shoot for? Something Dex related I'm sure, but I'm super rusty on the weapons and builds for 2.
 

Neoweee

Member
Just ordered this for when Bloodborne hype dies down a little and have a couple questions. I played the game at launch before all the dlc and whatnot and I remember lightning be insanely powerful against most bosses. I seem to recall they nerfed it after a month or so but I'd like confirmation of that.

Also is there a sort of....Bloodborne-esque build or weapon I could shoot for? Something Dex related I'm sure, but I'm super rusty on the weapons and builds for 2.

Some ideas for builds:

1) The transforming Sword-Whip you get in DLC (which is way late in the game, unfortunately, unless you're using a guide. Really interesting move set, and it...

2) Anything that has a greatly different moveset when powerstancing. Dark Souls 2 Powerstancing (press triangle to hold a weapon in two hands, losing the use of your left weapon) is proto-Trick Weapons. It doesn't matter much for most weapons other than a getting more power, but some have notably different movesets or better range.

3) Light-weight Dex build. Polearms, rapiers, and, like, sub 25% equipment burden for some crazy rolls.

4) Generally, make sure to have a backup weapon so you can quickly change to different elements or movesets. Rapiers and daggers weight almost nothing, and can give you a vastly different moveset and speed compared to a heavier polearm or spear.

No matter your build, you will never have effectively as much stamina as you would in BB, and attacks will never flow as smoothly, or as quickly out of evasive moves.
 
Does MP use peer to peer or dedicated servers?

P2P.

I would LOVE if there were a way for them to have the game use dedicated servers, but feasibly there would only be two ways to handle it:

1) When a multiplayer connection is established, both the host and the invader(s) would need to go to a loading screen while they connect to the dedicated server
2) Any time you're playing online, you're on a dedicated server, and that would maintain the same flow as it is now. However, you would have concerns with single player lag at that point to the dedicated server, and it would of course cost From lots of money for those servers.

As of now, whenever you do P2P you always need to be concerned with desync. Hell, last night on the iron keep bridge I thought I got the leg up on someone, started spamming R1 to stun lock to finish them and then all of a sudden I was in the middle of a backstab execution.

Also, you guys may know this... Is there ANY great sword in the game that has the attack animations of a rapier? Or was that a hacker? I was running a fight club when I got invaded by this asshole with a big great sword and just keep doing the thrust for huge damage and stun lock from a huge distance. Didn't seem legit.
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Dammit I came so close to killing the Fume Knight and screwed it up when he was at like 5 percent health
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Also, you guys may know this... Is there ANY great sword in the game that has the attack animations of a rapier? Or was that a hacker? I was running a fight club when I got invaded by this asshole with a big great sword and just keep doing the thrust for huge damage and stun lock from a huge distance. Didn't seem legit.

Great sword or ultra great sword?

either the bastard sword or claymore (don't remember which) has a poke as the strong attack
 
cleared the 2nd dlc. man this level design. FS are true masters. i'm never getting tired of this.

quick bosses review

blue smelter smoked me a few times. i think it was the hardest boss for me since vanilla ancient dragon. his delayed attacks coupled with his long blade were destroying my hp bar. pretty cool fight. i think i died 5 times or so. fume was surprisingly easy. his attacks didn't do much against my dodging routine. got him on 3rd try. alonne was amazing and pretty memorable. maybe a little easy after these two. still, all these fights are amazing. i can't get enough of them.

also started the 3rd. holy shit....
 
Mother of god I
ron Passage
/B
lue Smelter Demon
is something else.

yup just cleared the two of the three dlc areas for the first time, ivory being the odd man out. I thought I was overleveled going in (like soul level 150 or so) but damn those areas are hard.

They really crank up the mob/boss damage and health, I actually liked the fume knight fight, it was a lot of fun. The smelter demon and alonne fight weren't so bad but the walk to the boss fight is god awful. I ended up developing a method to skip past most of them by walking and dodging at certain times, but really I was hoping that shit would be done with. They seemed to have gotten rid of all the annoying runs back to bosses but those two. Ancient Dragon and the run to vendrick used to be a PITA but they fixed it. Alonne was a fun fight based off reflexes.

Sunken King was good as well, I liked 2/3 the boss fights. The pseudo pvp boss encounter was pretty lazy, they hit like a truck and it felt more like I was trying to abuse the AI then beat the fight, by doing kind of a figure 8 around the arena, jumping off and luring them around corners to smack them with my greatsword.

Level design in Iron King is a lot better but I liked the puzzle aspect of Sunken King and it was gorgeous.

I like both DLC areas but like I said the run ruins the boss fights. They should have made the clerics despawn if you kill them once and also made the wraith dude with the bow and flaming sword killable without going the alternate route.

I'll probably end up skipping blue smelter demon and the grave diggers on my CoTC run. Their fights aren't really entertaining.
 
Re: the second DLC,

Where is
Alonne
? Beyond
Cool Ranch Smelter Demon
?

you probably figured it out by now but if not

If you picked up the tower key, and activated the elevators and all that jazz it's toward the beginning. You take the elevator going up from the third bonfire, then the next elevator that goes up (it's kind of built into the wall) you open the locked door to the immediate left and a dark spirit should be summoned, then 4 more. Follow that path.
 

Enordash

Member
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 did this on complete accident (I didn't know what that covenant did). It made the game feel pretty brutal. I ended up getting through two bosses and then, say, halfway into the next area before I figured out something was amiss. You better strap yourself in for one hell of a ride if you plan on doing this for the entire run-through.
 

Dresden

Member
All done. Haven't done the optional fight in Ivory King, but did the other two (the last one was pretty rad, summoned three phantoms for the hell of it and that combined with
the four NPC knights made for a party of eight. I just stood in the back spamming the decapitate gesture as the sunbros and the knights wrecked everything. Not exactly a way to challenge myself, but it was fun)
.

After that, got the
crowns heated up, triggered a cutscene, and burned an ascetic at Drangleic to fight Aldia.
Now that was a lame fight.

Ivory King was the worst of the three, but it was still pretty damn good. Really looking forward to DkS3 by Tanimura and Co. now - with all that they learned and applied here, and combined with a more coherent/cohesive vision, it could be something special. The base game suffers from Dark Souls 1's legacy more often than not, with all the inherited expectation of having an interconnected world. Freed from such constraints, they really delivered on the expansion content.
 
I did this on complete accident (I didn't know what that covenant did). It made the game feel pretty brutal. I ended up getting through two bosses and then, say, halfway into the next area before I figured out something was amiss. You better strap yourself in for one hell of a ride if you plan on doing this for the entire run-through.

yup CoC is crazy. Even when I know where to get upgrades and what weapon setup was optimal it was still a rough ride at launch (power stancing clubs most of the time). I can't even imagine DLC with CoTC, I will soon enough.
 

Ayt

Banned
Also, you guys may know this... Is there ANY great sword in the game that has the attack animations of a rapier? Or was that a hacker? I was running a fight club when I got invaded by this asshole with a big great sword and just keep doing the thrust for huge damage and stun lock from a huge distance. Didn't seem legit.

Zweihander is huge and has a poke. The claymore mentioned above also has a thrust attack, but it is quite a bit smaller than the zweihander. Those don't attack like a rapier though.

The estoc is a very long thrusting sword. Was it that?
 

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.

It was definitely a good fight.
Looking cool and having the speed and power to punish player mistakes made up for a rather limited moveset. And the staging was great, but I might just be a sucker for shiny reflective floors.
 

Enordash

Member
yup CoC is crazy. Even when I know where to get upgrades and what weapon setup was optimal it was still a rough ride at launch (power stancing clubs most of the time). I can't even imagine DLC with CoTC, I will soon enough.

I had just come from BB and cleared the whole game with no co-op help so I was feeling good. I almost had to put DS2 down after getting rocked continuously in the first area. Even without CoC, DS2 felt far more difficult throughout.
 

Daigoro

Member
qXJtaPE.gif
 
I had just come from BB and cleared the whole game with no co-op help so I was feeling good. I almost had to put DS2 down after getting rocked continuously in the first area. Even without CoC, DS2 felt far more difficult throughout.

not really, if your AGL > 100, the game is easy. Thanks to BB, i play DS2 again without shield this time and guess what? All the boss make me trouble in the past are super easy now. Even mobs are meh for me. But i agree DS2 is more difficult than BB, but not so much
 
Need some advice.

I am almost at the endgame, so I wanna branch off to one of the DLCs. Would prefer to start with the easiest first. So which one do I tackle first.

Need advice for a secondary STR weapon. I am currently using a Great Club and would like an alternate in case it breaks. Discarded the Large Club since its too similar. Wanna try something new. Any suggestions.

Have 40STR and 6 DEX.

Will be pumping DEX for a while now so any thing that requires up to 10-15 DEX should be fine I think.

Also is it recommended to have DEX higher than 15ish for a pure STR build?
 

pa22word

Member
So I'm about to start ng+ and was wondering if leveling str to 50 is a good idea for scaling purposes as a dex build. I've already hit 50 for dex, and I already have str at 23 anyways for power stance reasons. Also I have vit at 28 and vig at 24, with adapt at 28 or so.
 

Wagram

Member
Alright, finished all bosses except the final. Ready to head into these DLC areas. The real dark souls starts here? After 5 playthroughs it will be nice to have new content.
 

Wagram

Member
Need some advice.

I am almost at the endgame, so I wanna branch off to one of the DLCs. Would prefer to start with the easiest first. So which one do I tackle first.

Need advice for a secondary STR weapon. I am currently using a Great Club and would like an alternate in case it breaks. Discarded the Large Club since its too similar. Wanna try something new. Any suggestions.

Have 40STR and 6 DEX.

Will be pumping DEX for a while now so any thing that requires up to 10-15 DEX should be fine I think.

Also is it recommended to have DEX higher than 15ish for a pure STR build?

I really like to use the Curved Dragon Greatsword. It's a beast but you need 30 STR and 18 DEX.
 

Roshin

Member
What's the best armor set for a caster? Google says Lion's Mage armor with the Hexer Hood, but that armor looks awful. I designed my mage like an older gentleman with fancy moustache and all. Now he's wearing a slutty stripper outfit and a bag over his head.

There has to be something better? Right?
 

klee123

Member
oh god finally killed the optional boss in Cave of the Dead after dying from them so many times due to the fight being gank city.

The dlc is seriously a massive jump in difficulty compared to the main game.
 
Is vanilla 360 Dark Souls 2 + Update + DLC = Scholar of the First Sin 360? Or is there any difference?
There are a lot of differences. Better graphics, new enemy and item placements in the base game, new NPC summons and NPC invader.

I don't have it myself either, but I've been watching the LobosJr playthrough and it's quite different - largely in just throwing a load more enemies (if you can believe that!) There must be about 3 or 4 times as many hollows in the first area of FOFG for example where the first Heide Knight used to be sat under the tree. It looks pretty ridiculous tbh, seeing a dozen identical enemy models all doing the same animation. To me it looks like a fan-made 'hard mode' mod at times.

There are some odd choices made, enemies removed and others completely out of place
Desert sorceresses and Manakins in Drangleic Castle, the big hall in the castle with all the archers on the balcony now has a bunch of those old knights from Heides/Dragon Shrine and also the Executioner's horse boss on the main floor, lol! How did they get it in there?!!

Some of the changes are better thought out than that, and some of them look really silly. Overall it seems like a 'Master Quest' or remix type update. I wish they had included the choice to play vanilla or SOFS versions because I think players who haven't played vanilla are getting a mixed-bag of upgrades and downgrades.
 

Dawg

Member
I wanted to help some people out with the pursuer, but after the first successful battle, I kept getting errors when people tried to summon me. No idea why.

When I went to the bonfire, I got the option to nullify human effigy. Has that got anything to do with it?
 

tuna_love

Banned
I wanted to help some people out with the pursuer, but after the first successful battle, I kept getting errors when people tried to summon me. No idea why.

When I went to the bonfire, I got the option to nullify human effigy. Has that got anything to do with it?
Did you come back from suspend resume? Try restarting game.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
It was definitely a good fight.
Looking cool and having the speed and power to punish player mistakes made up for a rather limited moveset. And the staging was great, but I might just be a sucker for shiny reflective floors.

Yeah, it's a great boss.
And about time the souls series got an east Asia themed boss. If you beat him without getting hit he commits seppuku at the end of the battle.

I wanted to help some people out with the pursuer, but after the first successful battle, I kept getting errors when people tried to summon me. No idea why.

When I went to the bonfire, I got the option to nullify human effigy. Has that got anything to do with it?

Yep. Burning it stops invaders, but also other friendly phantoms.
 

Dawg

Member
So... I've unlocked quite a few locations. Shaded Woods, Lost Bastille and the pit in Majula. Bought the cat ring to survive the fall.

Not sure what's the best place to go for now. I think Shaded Woods only has the misty area because the other two paths require souls and a key. There's also an ogre guarding one of the places and he kicked my butt, hard.

Haven't reall explored Lost Bastille. To be honest, I really want to find a better 2H weapon. Still using the fire longsword (+4). I like it, but I feel like I should be getting something better by now. Got a few swords and halberds but they all seem weaker. Also got a lance and a dragon axe, I think.
 

Neoweee

Member
So... I've unlocked quite a few locations. Shaded Woods, Lost Bastille and the pit in Majula. Bought the cat ring to survive the fall.

Not sure what's the best place to go for now. I think Shaded Woods only has the misty area because the other two paths require souls and a key. There's also an ogre guarding one of the places and he kicked my butt, hard.

Haven't reall explored Lost Bastille. To be honest, I really want to find a better 2H weapon. Still using the fire longsword (+4). I like it, but I feel like I should be getting something better by now. Got a few swords and halberds but they all seem weaker. Also got a lance and a dragon axe, I think.

1) Look around the foggy part of Shaded Woods more.

2) Any area is okay to do. Lost Bastille is often "next", but I think the bosses are a fair step up compared to what you've done so far. There's a LOT of good loot to find on the other paths, and more.

3) All weapons get a surge in power when imbued with an element, like Fire (Fire Longsword is just a pre-imbued longsword). ANY weapon will feel as strong when you imbue it, but at the expense of some stat scaling.
 

njean777

Member
So... I've unlocked quite a few locations. Shaded Woods, Lost Bastille and the pit in Majula. Bought the cat ring to survive the fall.

Not sure what's the best place to go for now. I think Shaded Woods only has the misty area because the other two paths require souls and a key. There's also an ogre guarding one of the places and he kicked my butt, hard.

Haven't reall explored Lost Bastille. To be honest, I really want to find a better 2H weapon. Still using the fire longsword (+4). I like it, but I feel like I should be getting something better by now. Got a few swords and halberds but they all seem weaker. Also got a lance and a dragon axe, I think.

I suggest the club early on for a strength based character (if you have it).
 

Ayt

Banned
So I'm about to start ng+ and was wondering if leveling str to 50 is a good idea for scaling purposes as a dex build. I've already hit 50 for dex, and I already have str at 23 anyways for power stance reasons. Also I have vit at 28 and vig at 24, with adapt at 28 or so.

Vigor and endurance (I'm assuming end is in the 20's as well) would be far more useful unless you are using weapons that scale well with strength. What weapons are you dual wielding?
 
Question regarding summoning NPCs for their quest line.

So I read somewhere that if you fight the boss by yourself and beat it, THEN go to the summon sign and summon the NPC itll count as the summon helping you beat the boss and the quest line will continue for that summon. Is this true?
 

phoenixyz

Member
Question regarding summoning NPCs for their quest line.

So I read somewhere that if you fight the boss by yourself and beat it, THEN go to the summon sign and summon the NPC itll count as the summon helping you beat the boss and the quest line will continue for that summon. Is this true?

The summon sign won't be there once you beat the boss (unless you use a bonfire ascetic to respawn it).
 

Dawg

Member
1) Look around the foggy part of Shaded Woods more.

2) Any area is okay to do. Lost Bastille is often "next", but I think the bosses are a fair step up compared to what you've done so far. There's a LOT of good loot to find on the other paths, and more.

3) All weapons get a surge in power when imbued with an element, like Fire (Fire Longsword is just a pre-imbued longsword). ANY weapon will feel as strong when you imbue it, but at the expense of some stat scaling.

I suggest the club early on for a strength based character (if you have it).

Thanks!
 
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