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[Intheflorsh]

I'm close beating the game and all of the optional bosses, just need to take out

Spoiler

Darklurker, Nashandra and Aldia.

Not even including the DLC stuff, it's surprising just how much I bypassed in the vanilla game. It never occured to me that you could actually kill

Spoiler

Vendrick or the Ancient Dragon

, for instance.

 

[Nephtes]

Been away from Dark Souls 2 for a few days, do we have any update on when exactly the durability patch drops yet?

 

[Reebot]

I've beaten the iron keep just now and my thoughts on the game are really torn. On one hand, the Dark Souls formula is just a great success. But on the other, this is the worst rendition thereof.

Animations are just hilarious in this game. Tanks all immersion to see a giant armored foe spin around without moving his feet, literally defying physics. Rolling looks equally ridiculous, and is now more of an active i frames button than a proper dodge.

Weapon degradation is another immersion killer, especially in it's bugged state.

And then there's the world, which no longer even comes close to connecting logically or realistically.

I'm on PS4 and this is my first experience with the game. Pretty clear now where the "b team" sentiment comes from and I agree entirely. DS 2 feels like that straight to DVD sequel to your favorite movie.

 

[phoenixyz]

Animations are just hilarious in this game. Tanks all immersion to see a giant armored foe spin around without moving his feet, literally defying physics. Rolling looks equally ridiculous, and is now more of an active i frames button than a proper dodge.

Yep, tracking is really ridiculous at times. Often I had the feeling they thought "This enemy is not hard enough but we have no idea how to make it more challenging other than ramping up damage, tracking and resistance ". Hitboxes are also pretty bad at times.

 

[Saint9806]

So, I was finally able to get into DS2 since I just finished Bloodborne, which was my first souls game. I beat The Last Giant. My question is what does everyone do with the boss souls? Do you cash out and use it to level up or do you save it to trade for whatever... I think this one is for some sort of axe later on.

 

[Spaaaaaaaaace]

So, I was finally able to get into DS2 since I just finished Bloodborne, which was my first souls game. I beat The Last Giant. My question is what does everyone do with the boss souls? Do you cash out and use it to level up or do you save it to trade for whatever... I think this one is for some sort of axe later on.

Save them for later.

 

[Wagram]

Watching some videos of people fighting bosses in the "normal" mode. Game seems so much easier not being on champions, you can literally take tons of hits and survive. On champions it's much different with most attacks from bosses crippling you to death or damn close to it. If I wasn't in the covenant I would probably complain about difficulty being easy.

 

[Saint9806]

Save them for later.

Awesome. Thanks!

 

[Kama_1082]

lol... that part was pretty tough, but for some reason it didn't give me nearly as much trouble as the route from

Spoiler

Smelter to Old Iron King.

Finding the the last shortcut after the fire was a life saver

 

[Korosenai]

Silverblack Spear: fairly common drop from Grave Wardens. Innate dark damage. Infusable with dark. Buffable with Dark Weapon. Nice with the Dark Clutch ring and Old Leo Ring. Good for both PvP (unlocked 2HR2 is a great roll punish) and PvE.

That's on my to-get list, but I was wondering if I need to infuse all of my stuff with dark or if I should just leave stuff as it is.

 

[Golgo 13]

Soul Geyser isn't really that great anymore. I would go for crystal soul spear. In order to get crystal soul spear you'll need to burn an ascetic at the lower bonfire in Teldora(its the one that's right next to Ornifex, the weaponsmith) and kill Duke's Dear Freja. She will drop her soul along with the pale drake soul which you can trade with Straid to get crystal soul spear. Not gonna lie, I found this fight to be a pain because of the damn spiders in the boss room that jump half way across the room at you and take off a third of your life, but its worth it for crystal soul spear because css will absolutely destroy some bosses which is probably why they make such a pain to get.

The battle against The Scorpioness was a bit tough but managable with a helper but I have a feeling Dukes Dear Freja might be a tad tougher.

I'm currently trying to kill the Ancient Dragon, Got him down to 1/4 health once, it's just got a shitload of health. That AoE attack is just silly.

 

[Augemitbutter]

Watching some videos of people fighting bosses in the "normal" mode. Game seems so much easier not being on champions, you can literally take tons of hits and survive. On champions it's much different with most attacks from bosses crippling you to death or damn close to it. If I wasn't in the covenant I would probably complain about difficulty being easy.

they should reward a trophy for this mode next game. more people would be inclined to pick it up

 

[tintin1029]

lol... that part was pretty tough, but for some reason it didn't give me nearly as much trouble as the route from

Spoiler

Smelter to Old Iron King.

You probably missed the

Spoiler

bonfire right next to the boss room

.

 

[Screaming Meat]

That's on my to-get list, but I was wondering if I need to infuse all of my stuff with dark or if I should just leave stuff as it is.

Ah, sorry. What are your stats?

Generally, dark stones are fairly rare till the late game, so on my Hex/Melee I saved most of them for weapons with innate dark properties. You'll get much better results with them than stuff that doesn't and you'll kick yourself if you haven't got the stones available. I'd definitely infuse whatever magic catalyst you are using too.

I did use one on the Chaos Blade which you can get from

Spoiler

a soul the Lost Sinner drops at Bonfire Intensity 2

because it has quite good Dark scaling and base damage.

Basically, I'd pick one weapon to Dark infuse before you come across the innate lot. Saying that, keep in mind that, in vanilla at least, Silverblack Spear is one of the earliest dark innate weapons you can get.

 

[elfinke]

Soul Geyser isn't really that great anymore. I would go for crystal soul spear. In order to get crystal soul spear you'll need to burn an ascetic at the lower bonfire in Teldora(its the one that's right next to Ornifex, the weaponsmith) and kill Duke's Dear Freja. She will drop her soul along with the pale drake soul which you can trade with Straid to get crystal soul spear. Not gonna lie, I found this fight to be a pain because of the damn spiders in the boss room that jump half way across the room at you and take off a third of your life, but its worth it for crystal soul spear because css will absolutely destroy some bosses which is probably why they make such a pain to get.

I did this last night so I could have the MLGS, and I'll be returning again today to gather some CSS. Fuck that fight and the run to it, jeez. One tip for anyone considering the same, summon Bashful Ray and forget Manhunter O'Harrah. Ashen Knight is neither here nor there, same as human summons. Bashful Ray however, made the fight many times easier.

 

[Wagram]

The optional boss in the Crown of Ivory King DLC is some of the most bullshit. ARGH.

 

[Golgo 13]

Alright, so as per recommended, I got Crystal Soul Spear. It's definitely damaging, but man, I wish it didn't take up two slots. So in order to have 8 CSS's I need to surrender 4 magic slots. Geezus that's a lot.

So everyone used to rave about Soul Geyser, so I'm assuming it got nerfed? That's a shame, it's always fun to have really powerful spells at high levels, especially ones that require 64 (!) Intelligence. I mean really.

 

[tuna_love]

Is there some secret to these fucking reindeers I'm missing. Getting ganked by 3 seems impossible.

 

[InfiniDragon]

Animations are just hilarious in this game. Tanks all immersion to see a giant armored foe spin around without moving his feet, literally defying physics. Rolling looks equally ridiculous, and is now more of an active i frames button than a proper dodge.

While the rest of the stuff you described is your opinion and I respect that, this is flat out wrong if you're comparing it to the original Dark Souls.

Animations are just as silly in Dark Souls with things like Havel ninjas flipping all over the place and the zany ragdoll stuff. Also, the lack of cloth physics makes most armor sets animate horribly compared to DSII (and especially compared to Bloodborne which has better physics than DSII by a mile). And I sincerely hope you haven't been playing the original Dark Souls using the dodge to move out of the way instead of the i-frames...because if you were you were doing it very wrong. Monster Hunter has real dodges apart from the dive. Souls games have i-frames that should be used. If you want "proper" dodges that require you to move out of the way this is the wrong series for that.

 

[rhandino]

Completed the Sunken Crown! YAAAAAAAAAAS!

Dear Gwyn, why is the optional boss a

Spoiler

Gank Squad!!!

, WOW! I can see how this could frustrate a lot of people X_x and the reward is a

Spoiler

Flower Skirt? WHY!

In some ways I enjoyed the fight tbh since is easy to spot the role of

Spoiler

each member of that team

and the area is at least designed to give you temporary safe zones from

Spoiler

them

... My strategy was

Spoiler

focus first on the one who is dual wielding since he seems to love backstabbing me while I try to fight the Havel one, then Havel and finally Arrow guy

Loved this part of the DLC a lot, mostly because how all the area were connected and the amount of shortcuts everywhere, the lore of the city is interesting and the loot is amazing, seriously the spear and the sword are going to be my mains in my NG+.

Now to tackle Iron King T_T

 

[Augemitbutter]

.

yup, i enjoyed that fight. was using a greatsword with a little hit and run. it was a long + exciting fight. got them on first try. but the loot was disappointing, true. heh.

 

[Intheflorsh]

Geez, I thought I beat all the bosses but apparently there's one optional boss in the Ivory King DLC I skipped. It's insane how much content there is in the game.

 

[Danielsan]

Having finished Bloodborne earlier this week I've been thirsting for more Souls games. I'm afraid New Game+ and the Chalice dungeons won't be quite enough. So I figured it would be time to finally get the DLC of Dark Souls 2 by upgrading to the Scholar of the First Sin edition. Started the game yesterday evening and I've been straight up cruising so far. The remixed enemy/character placements make going through the early game content a bit more exciting. That said, I'm baffled by people calling this Dark Souls 2 hard mode. In part thanks to Bloodborne I'm two-handing/no shielding my way through the game and so far nothing has been a lot tougher than what I remember from the original version. I'd actually go as far as to say that some areas are easier. Bosses also still drop like flies the first time you fight them. Kind of a bummer. Maybe I should take up Victor's Stone covenant?

Regardless, I'm enjoying my time with it. New weapons and armour drop/become available at a rapid rate and I enjoy the ability to seemingly just go wherever I want (so many areas to tackle). Trying to no-shield an actual Souls title is also a fun prospect. However, I was also quickly reminded just how much better Bloodborne is. From the world building, the combat, the enemy and environment design, the lore, the music, the boss encounters. Pretty much everything except content quantity and your options to diversify your character build is just miles ahead of what Dark Souls 2 offers.

P.S. Fuck this weapon durability issue

 

[Jellycrackers]

You probably missed the

Spoiler

bonfire right next to the boss room

.

No, I found that one thanks to a kind message left on the floor. But getting from smelter to that point was just tedious.

 

[phoenixyz]

For me personally it was the weakest installment in the Souls series but it's still pretty much the best game I have played this year so far (although I have high hopes for GTA V). Maybe I'll even buy a PS4 for Bloodborne sometime :/

 

[toastyToast]

Went through the sunken crown DLC in one session, took about 4 hours. Pretty nifty area. It was pretty annoying having my magic be basically useless though. The last boss was cool despite being an easier Kalameet. Others were straight garbage lol. The bangbros, seriously lol. Then the other one that summons

Spoiler

another freaking boss

. Jeez.

Do any of the bosses in this game rank up there with the best of the series for anyone? Haven't been blown away by anything tbh

 

[gogosox82]

Alright, so as per recommended, I got Crystal Soul Spear. It's definitely damaging, but man, I wish it didn't take up two slots. So in order to have 8 CSS's I need to surrender 4 magic slots. Geezus that's a lot.

So everyone used to rave about Soul Geyser, so I'm assuming it got nerfed? That's a shame, it's always fun to have really powerful spells at high levels, especially ones that require 64 (!) Intelligence. I mean really.

Yeah, I was disappointed in the nerf as well but people would grab it and then farm some spice to lower the requirements and it would still be really powerful at like 30 or 40 int. The problem is that they nerfed the damage and increased the stamina it costs to use it to the point where it makes more sense just to use css since the damage is basically the same and it costs way less stamina to use. I think slowing down the casting time and increasing the stamina would have been enough of an adjustment. They could also make so that you can't farm spice so easily as well to help. Maybe move spice to a place that requires you to kill a boss.

Went through the sunken crown DLC in one session, took about 4 hours. Pretty nifty area. It was pretty annoying having my magic be basically useless though. The last boss was cool despite being an easier Kalameet. Others were straight garbage lol. The bangbros, seriously lol. Then the other one that summons another freaking boss. Jeez.

Do any of the bosses in this game rank up there with the best of the series for anyone? Haven't been blown away by anything tbh

I actually liked Sihn quite a bit and think he's one of the better boss fights in the game. He's definitely better than any fight in vanilla DS2 (besides Darklurker). Have you done Iron King dlc yet? The two boss fights there are probably the two best fights in the entire game.

 

[ZangBa]

It felt so weird coming back to this after playing Bloodborne, everything is so much slower ( but not worse).

I have mixed feelings on the new enemy placements, I like some but hate others, but I do really like the new Dragon Shrine. I never bought the DLC on the PS3 so it was fun to do a couple of them last night. I thought the bosses would be more difficult from what I read, but I ended up one-shotting some of them or dying once or twice. Fume Knight armor is so swaggy.

 

[Schweinehund]

From did a hatchet job on pretty much all magic damage, probably due to pvp complaints. I think the salt in the wound is the DLC bosses being magic resistant too. I'm about ready to end my Hexer CoC run on Aava because my dark hail hits for like 300 total. Pretty ironic that melee ends up being easier in comparison to Dark Souls 1.

 

[Wagram]

Completed the Sunken Crown! YAAAAAAAAAAS!

Dear Gwyn, why is the optional boss a

Spoiler

Gank Squad!!!

, WOW! I can see how this could frustrate a lot of people X_x and the reward is a

Spoiler

Flower Skirt? WHY!

In some ways I enjoyed the fight tbh since is easy to spot the role of

Spoiler

each member of that team

and the area is at least designed to give you temporary safe zones from

Spoiler

them

... My strategy was

Spoiler

focus first on the one who is dual wielding since he seems to love backstabbing me while I try to fight the Havel one, then Havel and finally Arrow guy

Loved this part of the DLC a lot, mostly because how all the area were connected and the amount of shortcuts everywhere, the lore of the city is interesting and the loot is amazing, seriously the spear and the sword are going to be my mains in my NG+.

Now to tackle Iron King T_T

Spoiler

Gank squad

isn't shit compared to the optional Ivory King boss. lol

 

[heringer]

I'm surprised no one tried to mimic the lightining of SotfS with SweetFX/ReShade on the dx9 version yet.

 

[Dragon1893]

I forgot how fucking annoying Shrine of Amana is. Christ.

 

[Mattiator]

Hi all
I platinumed dark souls 2 on ps3 but am trying different builds and haven't played any of the dlc yet. Does anyone have any recommendations for good armor and weapons for a quality build. Right now I'm rocking havels and a grand Lance and am getting somewhat bored. Would like to try something good but don't want to invest in crap. Thanks for any opinions

 

[lowhighkang_LHK]

I forgot how fucking annoying Shrine of Amana is. Christ.

Yeah, it's like all the shit that exists in these games to piss people off is in that level unfiltered and wholesale.

1) Water which slows you down. So for people who rock a high agility build are at a disadvantage because or speed and movement is reduced.

2) Enemies with shit spells that auto-track. Never a plus especially when the game has a target lock system which also locks the camera view.

3) Bottom-less pit deaths......THAT YOU CAN'T FUCKING SEE so it's bullshit x 2. unless you run around staring at the ground like an idiot. Which makes the level feel like it takes forever.

4) Inclusion of a former boss as a regular enemy, cus like - fuck it might as well right?

5) And a boss fight which bores you to death because you're waiting around for him to pull his uncircumcised face skin back.

6) To top this off, one of the few stages in the game in which you have to revisit and deal with all the above all over again. There is a secret door which you have to revisit later to unlock. Meaning, congratulations you have to go through this shit level again if you want the contents behind said secret door.

Shrine of Amana represents the worst of Dark Souls 2, while I think the 3 DLC areas represent the best of Dark Souls 2. I think it'd be great if somebody could put together a video-piece illustrating comparisons and contrasts between those two areas of design thought. It almost seems like one guy designed Shrine of Amana, and other did the DLC maps.

 

[DaciaJC]

Yeah, it's like all they shit that exists in these games to piss people off is in that level.

1) Water which slows you down. So for people who rock a high agility build are at a disadvantage because or speed and movement is reduced.

That's not even the worst part of it, though. What's even more infuriating is that the enemies (I'm thinking specifically about the Archdrake knights) in the level don't experience said reduced movement. So when you have two or three of the female mages casting homing missiles at you, and you manage to aggro two or three of the knights (and one or two of those lizard things for good measure) while advancing towards the mages, and you try to run back to safety because there's simply no way you'll finish off the casters before you're overwhelmed ... lol, good fucking luck.

 

[lowhighkang_LHK]

Hi all
I platinumed dark souls 2 on ps3 but am trying different builds and haven't played any of the dlc yet. Does anyone have any recommendations for good armor and weapons for a quality build. Right now I'm rocking havels and a grand Lance and am getting somewhat bored. Would like to try something good but don't want to invest in crap. Thanks for any opinions

High Dexterity + High ADR (aka Agility).

Go no shield. And two hand your weapons. Katanas are great, but develop two of them since weapon degredation actually matters now. Also using the whip is fun. But you platinum'ed the game so you already know this.

People complain this game has shitty evade mechanics and unfair hit boxes. Mostly because people don't invest points into ADR. ADR increases healing speed, and most importantly adds invincibility frames to your dodge evasions roll.

Get your agility to 105 (which is about 30 ADR) and you have about half a second of invincibility in your evade-roll. About 28 frames out of 60 frames is invincible. Most of it is at the beginning of your roll, so naturally evading at the last-moment is better than evading too early.

I used to be like you. Heavy armor, tank, shield. But that turtle mentality is incredibly boring.

High Dexterity + High ADR (mine is at 30) + High Stamina are the three stats you should focus on. Game feels like I'm playing trickster style on Devil May Cry.

It makes the "action" element of this game legit fun. Mind you, I'm actually rocking High Strength + High ADR + High Vitality. Which allows me to carry powerful weapons and armor while maintaining below 35% equip load. But I think high dexterity would make more sense than high strenght. I just like big powerful weapons.

PS: Having a low equip load is crucial for this build recommendation as well. Faster stamina recovery plus a long-distance roll. I think keeping it below 35% allows you to have decent defense (as long as your gear is upgraded). So invest some points into vitality to increase equip load a bit.

PPS: Putting points into Vigor (Health Points) isn't that crucial, with your god-like evade you won't be getting hit =). And you won't have to worry about investing points into intelligence or faith because your high dexterity will allow you to use a decent bow for when you need ranged battle for luring tactics.

PPPS: Also, I'm not expert on making god-like PvP builds, or the exact stats to make the most destructive PvE build. I'm the, what build is fun to play kind of guy. And being aggressive and fast, rolling around like a boss with no shield while you fuck enemies up Onimusha style, to me, is fun. Demon Souls ,Dark Souls 1 and 2, I played them turtle style. It's why I found bloodborne so refreshing. So, there you go. We can call it the "fun build."

 

[Dresden]

Amana isn't that bad anymore, but I guess it's hard to feel this way unless you experienced it last year, console release, pre-patch/pc.

 

[lowhighkang_LHK]

That's not even the worst part of it, though. What's even more infuriating is that the enemies (I'm thinking specifically about the Archdrake knights) in the level don't experience said reduced movement. So when you have two or three of the female mages casting homing missiles at you, and you manage to aggro two or three of the knights (and one or two of those lizard things for good measure) while advancing towards the mages, and you try to run back to safety because there's simply no way you'll finish off the casters before you're overwhelmed ... lol, good fucking luck.

Good point. I actually made a comment on this earlier about how I think it's bullshit how enemies don't abide by the same rules as you. Why do mages get infinite spell uses? Why do certain enemies seemingly have infinite firebombs? Why is it that my target lock has limited range while enemies don't? And most of all, why do enemies turn invincible when they are on the ground? I know in a sense we too, are invincible when we're on the ground, but when it's you versus a mob of 5, it's annoying that you landed a two-handed R2 attack to ground an enemy, but you can't finish him off because you're waiting for the fucker to leisurely get back up while you're trying to evade the fuck out of the other 4 mobbing you.

Keep the rules the same. You can make the enemies hit slightly harder and have more aggressive A.I to compensate the difficulty curve, but it really takes you out of the moment when the enemies don't have to follow the same set of rules, a game that is defined so well by said rules.

Amana isn't that bad anymore, but I guess it's hard to feel this way unless you experienced it last year, console release, pre-patch/pc.

Oh no, I do think some of the bullshit in Amana and in others areas have been lessened, but it was a bad stage before, and despite being somewhat less annoying - it's still a low-point in the game.

 

[ZangBa]

Frigid Outskirts is stupid AF, I don't want to do this. Did they include DLC items into the old trophies?

 

[Mattiator]

High Dexterity + High ADR (aka Agility).

Go no shield. And two hand your weapons. Katanas are great, but develop two of them since weapon degredation actually matters now. Also using the whip is fun. But you platinum'ed the game so you already know this.

People complain this game has shitty evade mechanics and unfair hit boxes. Mostly because people don't invest points into ADR. ADR increases healing speed, and most importantly adds invincibility frames to your dodge evasions roll.

Get your agility to 105 (which is about 30 ADR) and you have about half a second of invincibility in your evade-roll. About 28 frames out of 60 frames is invincible. Most of it is at the beginning of your roll, so naturally evading at the last-moment is better than evading too early.

I used to be like you. Heavy armor, tank, shield. But that turtle mentality is incredibly boring.

High Dexterity + High ADR (mine is at 30) + High Stamina are the three stats you should focus on. Game feels like I'm playing trickster style on Devil May Cry.

It makes the "action" element of this game legit fun. Mind you, I'm actually rocking High Strength + High ADR + High Vitality. Which allows me to carry powerful weapons and armor while maintaining below 35% equip load. But I think high dexterity would make more sense than high strenght. I just like big powerful weapons.

PS: Having a low equip load is crucial for this build recommendation as well. Faster stamina recovery plus a long-distance roll. I think keeping it below 35% allows you to have decent defense (as long as your gear is upgraded). So invest some points into vitality to increase equip load a bit.

PPS: Putting points into Vigor (Health Points) isn't that crucial, with your god-like evade you won't be getting hit =). And you won't have to worry about investing points into intelligence or faith because your high dexterity will allow you to use a decent bow for when you need ranged battle for luring tactics.

PPPS: Also, I'm not expert on making god-like PvP builds, or the exact stats to make the most destructive PvE build. I'm the, what build is fun to play kind of guy. And being aggressive and fast, rolling around like a boss with no shield while you fuck enemies up Onimusha style, to me, is fun. Demon Souls ,Dark Souls 1 and 2, I played them turtle style. It's why I found bloodborne so refreshing. So, there you go. We can call it the "fun build."

Awesome! thanks for such a detailed response

I will be respecting and rocking something duel. I loved bloodborne and also found it refreshing so this build sounds like it will make it more enjoyable . Any boss soul weapons you could dual?? Which armor do you recommend for this type of build? ?
Thanks again

 

[Golgo 13]

I've definitely noticed bosses and many creatures are very magic resistant, and certain areas become pretty much impossible for a magic-only character unless you're grotesquely over-leveled. That fucking DLC area with all the Dual-Wielding Ghost Warriors. Yeah, they're fucking dangerous, and magic damage is reduced by about %80 on them. Fuck that.

 

[Reebot]

Animations are just as silly in Dark Souls

They really aren't, I'd love for you to provide an example. I just finished both DeS and DS before playing DS 2. You cannot look at the turtle knight and think that's ok; I really doubt anything in DS came close to that. Keep in mind, it's not an isolated case either. Almost every enemy glides impossibly along the floor.

And yeah, I know dodges are all about the i frames, this isn't my first rodeo. But at least they looked convincing last time.

I think I'm going to retire DS 2 for now. Going through the shrine of winter dlc area, it's so uninspired and boring. A corridor with armed human like enemies. A dog every now and then. Incredibly disappointing.

 

[Zukuu]

Btw, did the blue flames on the map lead to anything in the end or is it still unknown?

 

[InfiniDragon]

They really aren't, I'd love for you to provide an example. I just finished both DeS and DS before playing DS 2. You cannot look at the turtle knight and think that's ok; I really doubt anything in DS came close to that. Keep in mind, it's not an isolated case either. Almost every enemy glides impossibly along the floor.

And yeah, I know dodges are all about the i frames, this isn't my first rodeo. But at least they looked convincing last time.

I think I'm going to retire DS 2 for now. Going through the shrine of winter dlc area, it's so uninspired and boring. A corridor with armed human like enemies. A dog every now and then. Incredibly disappointing.

I did in my reply, the fact that dudes in full rock armor can do cartwheels (Dark Wood Grain Ring) is pretty bonkers, when talking strictly immersion as you were previously.

Also, the infamous rag doll effect is toned down quite a bit in DSII (though most people liked it lol), and putting an entire Great Scythe through someone via backstab is incredibly badass, but not very convincing from a immersion standpoint. DSII tries to make the riposte/backstab look more believable and mostly pulls it off. Not saying DSII doesn't have jank, hell even BB does. My point was that all From Soft games do.

 

[ZangBa]

Killed Lud and Zallen, fuck that boss, never doing that bullshit again. That whole area of the game can fuck right off. Easily the worst designed area of any souls games, and I love DSII.

 

[Neoweee]

Amana isn't that bad anymore, but I guess it's hard to feel this way unless you experienced it last year, console release, pre-patch/pc.

It is hard but in different ways. The section near that 2nd bonfire is the hardest it has ever been, but the final approach to the third bonfire is definitely falls between the first-and-second incarnations of the zone.

 

[gogosox82]

I've definitely noticed bosses and many creatures are very magic resistant, and certain areas become pretty much impossible for a magic-only character unless you're grotesquely over-leveled. That fucking DLC area with all the Dual-Wielding Ghost Warriors. Yeah, they're fucking dangerous, and magic damage is reduced by about %80 on them. Fuck that.

There is a trick to those guys that you need to figure out. Search around the area and you'll figure it out.

 

[purg3]

Is the ladder dude no longer in the same spot?

 

[Intheflorsh]

Is the ladder dude no longer in the same spot?

Nope, he's still out on the ledge.

 

[purg3]

Nope, he's still out on the ledge.

Hmm, he's not there for me.

Edit: nvm. went back for him after I beat the boss. Didn't realize he goes to Majula anyway.