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

K

Kevyt

Member
Am I the only one that can't connect to the Dark Souls II server? I'm playing on PC and can't connect to it. I checked Bandai Namco's support page and there's a link that takes one to the official website but it is not available.

I have to play offline in the meantime. Also, the steam overlay was working fine, but not anymore... :(

So they must be having server issues?

Edit: This is their support link: https://support.bandainamcoent.com/...ew/438/393/dark-souls-ii---server-information

Upon which they provide you to visit the official site to see if there are server problems: http://farfire.darksoulsii.com/pc/
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Sweet. Been waiting for this patch to resume my playthrough.
 
A

AmyS

Member
So do patches need to be approved by Sony & Microsoft before they can be pushed out to consoles?

Maybe that's why Steam / PC has it now and consoles don't.
 
BizzyBum

BizzyBum

Member
After seeing
Drangleic Castle
it's just so crazy plain and uninspired compared to something like
Castle Cainhurst in Bloodborne.
 
R

rhandino

Banned
BizzyBum said:
After seeing
Drangleic Castle
it's just so crazy plain and uninspired compared to something like
Castle Cainhurst in Bloodborne.
Click to expand...
In one hand the view from the outside is just amazing what with the rain, the moon and how it seems that the whole thing is built with black rock...

On the other hand when you enter and see how boring and gray is inside... yeah... at least there are some interesting rooms and areas there =/
 
H

heringer

Member
How do you guys feel about backstabbing in this game? I relied a lot on it in Dark Souls, but here it's so much harder to pull off I feel it's not even worth trying.
 
I

iRAWRasaurus

Banned
AmyS said:
So do patches need to be approved by Sony & Microsoft before they can be pushed out to consoles?

Maybe that's why Steam / PC has it now and consoles don't.
Click to expand...
I believe that's true. But don't it always goes up live on Tuesday? Or is that just the psn and Xbox live stores.
 
R

rhandino

Banned
heringer said:
How do you guys feel about backstabbing in this game? I relied a lot on it in Dark Souls, but here it's so much harder to pull off I feel it's not even worth trying.
Click to expand...
I barely do it here, only use it againt Leon warriors in Shaded Woods and the Ice Soldiers on Eleum Loyce...

And parrying... I used that A LOT in DS1 but I never parried with this new character, I can't seem to get the timing right in this game =/
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Any PC reds in here? Y'all better watch out. Tonight I'm joining the fun and I'm heading to Heide's first.
 
N

Neoweee

Member
So, with regards to durability, technically I'm not sure if they fixed the 60 fps "bug"...

From rudimentary testing, it feels as if they adjusted the underlying issue of corpse hits being worse than hitting live enemies. Ergo, if it counts the same as hitting an enemy, then it never encounters a point where the frame-rate matters.

More testing is needed.

heringer said:
How do you guys feel about backstabbing in this game? I relied a lot on it in Dark Souls, but here it's so much harder to pull off I feel it's not even worth trying.
Click to expand...

Against most enemies, no, but in the DLC as a caster, yes. Enemies are quite weak to elemental damage, but have a buff against ranged elemental spells. So you can fucking own them with backstabs of elemental or buffed weapons. The most common enemies in the DLC also have long animations and lock in place fairly early.


I Win Yet Again said:
Yea, unfortunately, I never had the chance to play Demon's Souls. I hope to get into both that and Dark Souls one day hopefully on PSN Now or a remaster. Areas in Bloodborne are inter-connected but there is no real hub there.
Click to expand...

So, the five paths out of Majula:

1)
Left along the coast (a slight slope downwards) to the Forest
2)
Right along the coast, in to the stone tunnel, to Heide's
3)
Right along the coast, in to the stone tunnel, there will be the NPC you found after completing Heide's, if you talked to her. Pay her. Leads to the Copse.
4)
Left along the coast, but not down the hell. Instead, go up the slope on the other side of the wall, through the arch. Go straight. You will need a Fragrant Branch of Yore to unpetrify an NPC. Leads to "Shaded"
5)
In the center, down the well. You will need an item or spell that lets you survive greater fall distances. Equipment weight also influences falling damage. Leads to Grave and Gutter.

And of course, they way you came in, which is near #4.
 
I

iRAWRasaurus

Banned
Quick question on the trophies. For the Mastery of Sorcery the only way to get Hidden Weapon is by the Bellkeeperers? Also assuming its the same For Master of Miracles Sunlight Spear? Besides those 2, everything else can be obtain in NG++ ?
 
N

Neoweee

Member
iRAWRasaurus said:
Quick question on the trophies. For the Mastery of Sorcery the only way to get Hidden Weapon is by the Bellkeeperers? Also assuming its the same For Master of Miracles Sunlight Spear? Besides those 2, everything else can be obtain in NG++ ?
Click to expand...

Yes, only those two. I'm not entirely sure why those two, but it amounts to...

- The best PVP covenant in the series
- The best Co-Op covenant in the series

... so despite some frustrations, it encourages players to see some of the nicer parts of the game. Both can be a bit tedious near the end, though.
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
:lol. The Hollow Soldier who climbs down the ladder to kick you, was he always there? Dick move, FROM
 
S

Saint9806

Member
Neoweee said:
So, with regards to durability, technically I'm not sure if they fixed the 60 fps "bug"...

From rudimentary testing, it feels as if they adjusted the underlying issue of corpse hits being worse than hitting live enemies. Ergo, if it counts the same as hitting an enemy, then it never encounters a point where the frame-rate matters.

More testing is needed.



Against most enemies, no, but in the DLC as a caster, yes. Enemies are quite weak to elemental damage, but have a buff against ranged elemental spells. So you can fucking own them with backstabs of elemental or buffed weapons. The most common enemies in the DLC also have long animations and lock in place fairly early.




So, the five paths out of Majula:

1)
Left along the coast (a slight slope downwards) to the Forest
2)
Right along the coast, in to the stone tunnel, to Heide's
3)
Right along the coast, in to the stone tunnel, there will be the NPC you found after completing Heide's, if you talked to her. Pay her. Leads to the Copse.
4)
Left along the coast, but not down the hell. Instead, go up the slope on the other side of the wall, through the arch. Go straight. You will need a Fragrant Branch of Yore to unpetrify an NPC. Leads to "Shaded"
5)
In the center, down the well. You will need an item or spell that lets you survive greater fall distances. Equipment weight also influences falling damage. Leads to Grave and Gutter.

And of course, they way you came in, which is near #4.
Click to expand...

I didn't know about 5! I saw the well and never thought it would lead to something else. I was wondering where that NPC from Heide's went. I will go look for her. Thanks for the tips.

Took me 3 hours, but I got through No Man's Wharf and beat the boss on my first try. I must have died 40 times during the 3 hours. My way of playing this game that seems to be working is to work my way as far as possible through an area. Earlier on in the game, If I died several times, I would use my Human Effigy. Now what I do is no matter how many times I die, I don't use it but keep on trying until I make it through the area. After you kill an enemy 10 times, they disappear for good and the area becomes easier and easier. Then when I finally make it to the fog door, I use my Human Effigy and fight the boss. Very time consuming but whatever.... lol
 
I

InfiniDragon

Member
Yep, patch is out on PC and I can confirm the durability is fixed to act the way it always should have. One word of warning though; on enemies with long death animations (like the Full Moon Sickle mobs in Huntsman's) you can still lose durability on hits while they're in the animation because they aren't "dead" yet.

Apart from that (and it's only certain enemies), it's glorious.
 
J

jurec84

Unconfirmed Member
God, this game is long! I'm at 60 hours and have only 2 great souls ... :S Dying a lot, but man, this game is addictive! I have never experienced any durability issues though ...
 
E

elfinke

Member
Ivory King DLC was great, I really enjoyed it... Except for the Frozen Outskirts. Boy, that's an obnoxious place. But the final boss was neat, with a fun mechanic I stumbled into. Those frozen hedgehogs will haunt me for some time to come, too.

Anyway, have moved on to Iron Keep DLC, before finally tackling Nashandra. I understand that having the three DLC crowns
permits an alternate
ending, is that correct? I just want to defeat Nashandra so I can get acces to those sweet Titanite pieces, really.
 
K

knitoe

Member
jurec84 said:
God, this game is long! I'm at 60 hours and have only 2 great souls ... :S Dying a lot, but man, this game is addictive! I have never experienced any durability issues though ...
Click to expand...

Yes. This game is long. Even though I have spent hundreds of hours and finished this game many times, it still took me 30 hrs to do every boss in SotFS. To compare, it only took me 13 hrs with Bloodborne on my 4th time.
 
T

toastyToast

Member
elfinke said:
Ivory King DLC was great, I really enjoyed it... Except for the Frozen Outskirts. Boy, that's an obnoxious place. But the final boss was neat, with a fun mechanic I stumbled into. Those frozen hedgehogs will haunt me for some time to come, too.

Anyway, have moved on to Iron Keep DLC, before finally tackling Nashandra. I understand that having the three DLC crowns
permits an alternate
ending, is that correct? I just want to defeat Nashandra so I can get acces to those sweet Titanite pieces, really.
Click to expand...

You'll have to beat Vendrick before the last boss if you want it
 
G

GreyOcelot

Member
i haven't had much durability issues. i just keep a couple of powerful swords handy and switch during a down moment if one is getting close to breaking. i think i only used repair powder once
 
S

Saint9806

Member
Yea, I don't see the durability issues either. If the area is long with alot of enemies, as soon as I see the weapon risk pop up, i switch out with another weapon. I try to keep at least 2 weapons as leveled up as possible.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Finally put in some time with the Scholar of the First Sin edition now that the patch is out. Went through the Forest of the Fallen Giants, a bit of the Lost Bastille, past the Dragonrider in Heide's and now I'm working my way through No-Man's Wharf.

So far, I'm really liking the changes they made to the enemy and item placement. I'm playing on PC, but graphically, the game looks a hell of a lot better than I remember it. It's not just the enhanced texture detail, but the lighting, ambient occlusion, and color grading come together to make it look a ton better.
 
I

iRAWRasaurus

Banned
GreyOcelot said:
i haven't had much durability issues. i just keep a couple of powerful swords handy and switch during a down moment if one is getting close to breaking. i think i only used repair powder once
Click to expand...

I Win Yet Again said:
Yea, I don't see the durability issues either. If the area is long with alot of enemies, as soon as see I the weapon risk pop up, i switch out with another weapon. I try to keep at least 2 weapons as leveled up as possible.
Click to expand...

Nah I agree with you. I never had a durability issues before using the HKS. But it still exist..
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Played some more today and wow, there's so much online activity, player ghosts everywhere. And I love that bloodstains show multiple deaths now :lol.

Also had a weird run in with some strange chest related stuff.
The tunnel to FOFG, message warned that the chest was a mimic. You could see bloodstains around it and people getting locked in the mimic hitbox. But it was just a regular chest for me? Wiki makes no mention of it either.
 
A

Augemitbutter

Member
Easy_D said:
Played some more today and wow, there's so much online activity, player ghosts everywhere. And I love that bloodstains show multiple deaths now :lol.

Also had a weird run in with some strange chest related stuff.
The tunnel to FOFG, message warned that the chest was a mimic. You could see bloodstains around it and people getting locked in the mimic hitbox. But it was just a regular chest for me? Wiki makes no mention of it either.
Click to expand...

yea, that's
a mimic in NG+ only. scared the shit out of me....again. i think it was the same in vanilla, i just forgot about it
.
 
P

Poetic.Injustice

Member
Guys, how the fuck do I get over there? This has been bugging me for the last hour or so.

212BF54285731E80DF14DA5DB6C4D95DFD4D4769
Click to expand...
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
So Shaded Woods... yeah, no. I hate stuff like this in games :( Gives me the creeps.

EDIT: Got to the boss, well, the level is not *that* bad. At least it's not dark like Valley of Defilement. Boss is easy as hell. Man, The Pursuer really is the hardest boss out of the first 5 bosses or so :D
 
N

Neoweee

Member
Poetic.Injustice said:
Guys, how the fuck do I get over there? This has been bugging me for the last hour or so.
Click to expand...

Don't worry about that for now.

StoppedInTracks said:
So Shaded Woods... yeah, no. I hate stuff like this in games :( Gives me the creeps.

EDIT: Got to the boss, well, the level is not *that* bad. At least it's not dark like Valley of Defilement. Boss is easy as hell. Man, The Pursuer really is the hardest boss out of the first 5 bosses or so :D
Click to expand...

My view of the game balance: You gain a shitload of souls from your first three or four bosses (especially if you eat them souls) that which bosses are "hard" fades away rapidly. Trying Najka as my 2nd boss on a Champions run was brutal. To a lesser extent, The Lords and the Congregation are regarded as joke fights by a lot, but if you rush the fights early, they can be fun fights.

Discussion on Souls series game structure:

Dark Souls 1 was Linear 1st half -> "Open" 2nd half, while Dark Souls 2 is like the reverse of that. A balance between the two I think would work best for Dark Souls 3, like 2 sets of 3 objectives (in any order), or 3 sets of 2 objectives (in either order).
 
E

elfinke

Member
Damn, Sir Alonne is giving it to me, jeez. Walked over Fume, though it was a good fight. Even Aldia gave me some grief, largely due to inattention. It is 0130 here, and probably time for bed, yeah, that's what we'll say...

I missed both of today's Splatoon demo times, and I can't imagine I'll be getting up for the silly early one, so that's a bummer too. Seems like it going down pretty well.
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
Neoweee said:
Don't worry about that for now.



My view of the game balance: You gain a shitload of souls from your first three or four bosses (especially if you eat them souls) that which bosses are "hard" fades away rapidly. Trying Najka as my 2nd boss on a Champions run was brutal. To a lesser extent, The Lords and the Congregation are regarded as joke fights by a lot, but if you rush the fights early, they can be fun fights.

Discussion on Souls series game structure:

Dark Souls 1 was Linear 1st half -> "Open" 2nd half, while Dark Souls 2 is like the reverse of that. A balance between the two I think would work best for Dark Souls 3, like 2 sets of 3 objectives (in any order), or 3 sets of 2 objectives (in either order).
Click to expand...

Got that 2nd boss fight you mentioned down. Kinda cool fight. The next area looks like GARBAGE, though. Such poor design.

The whole Shaded Woods "archstone" looks like crap. From the very first area. There is no rhyme or reason for the design of this level, absolutelty none. It's like some ideas clumped together and attached with a string: cathedral, ore crystals, pharos, foggy woods, sandy village with sand pit in the center etc. Who designed this?!?

Man, those levels have nothing on the coherency and solidness of Demon's Souls levels. NOTHING. Very disappointed after 25 hours of playtime.
 
N

Neoweee

Member
StoppedInTracks said:
Got that 2nd boss fight you mentioned down. Kinda cool fight. The next area looks like GARBAGE, though. Such poor design.

The whole Shaded Woods "archstone" looks like crap. From the very first area. There is no rhyme or reason for the design of this level, absolutely none. It's like some ideas clumped together and attached with a string: cathedral, ore crystals, pharos, foggy woods, sandy village with sand pit in the center etc. Who designed this?!?

Man, those levels have nothing on the coherency and solidness of Demon's Souls levels. NOTHING. Very disappointed after 25 hours of playtime.
Click to expand...

There are some really nice areas down that "archstone" path you'll come to later, though.

But, yes, Shaded Woods is the worst looking thing From made last generation. I'd even say it looks like a PS2 game, but I've played From's PS2 games, and... yeesh. Demon Souls was a giant step up in visual design from all of From's past efforts, but sometimes (Crystal Caves, Lost Izalith, Shaded Woods, Tseldora), they revert back to the old days.
 
BizzyBum

BizzyBum

Member
This game is soooooooo long.

At this point I'm kinda wanting it to end so I can just move on to the next.. lol

And I didn't even TOUCH the DLC....
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
Neoweee said:
There are some really nice areas down that "archstone" path you'll come to later, though.

But, yes, Shaded Woods is the worst looking thing From made last generation. I'd even say it looks like a PS2 game, but I've played From's PS2 games, and... yeesh. Demon Souls was a giant step up in visual design from all of From's past efforts, but sometimes (Crystal Caves, Lost Izalith, Shaded Woods, Tseldora), they revert back to the old days.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's pretty bad :( Majula looks ace, Heide's looks awesome but Tseldora is ugh... basic.

Next boss in Shaded Woods. Twin-headed brother of Armored Spider :) Finally a different and interesting fight.

Is it just me or are there bosses every 100 meters in Dark Souls 2?
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
BizzyBum said:
This game is soooooooo long.

At this point I'm kinda wanting it to end so I can just move on to the next.. lol

And I didn't even TOUCH the DLC....
Click to expand...

But you have to. The DLC is so damn good and a sign of what's to come for Dark Souls 3. I sincerely hope it's the same team while Miyazaki and co do whatever they wanna do.
 
R

rhandino

Banned
Nope, sorry but I will not go through the Frigid Outskirts once again...

I even grinded 4 hours for the
Soul of Alsanna and the other goodies
in
The Old Chaos
but I will not make the trip to fight the pets.

I better go and finish the game until I get more bitter and bothered that they ruined the best DLC with the most interesting story by hiding the best parts of that story behind *that* kind of grind or ruining the concept of
being blinded by a snowstorm while enemies attack you
with those bullshit ponies.

This is what I get for enjoying
The Cave of The Dead
and
Iron Passage
isn't

CwHW5cy.gif
 
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