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[GiantBombGamer]

So, this is mostly for DS2 vanilla + season pass, but i'll be starting this once I finish the first:

I've played this game to about the first 3-4 bosses a number of times and tend to drop off, mostly due to insecurity about my builds. I want to give this game a real push now that the new version's on sale.

So here's what i want out of my character:
Heavy-ish armor
a shield
a mace
Some kind of side weapon

Basically i can't figure out how to prioritize my stats, Usually i go Health and End up to 20 or so and by this point i've got elite knight's and i'm slow rolling everywhere. I know there's like an action speed stat i need to level at some point, but also a carry weight one, and one for armor specifically? I like the mace's vs armor damage buff but i feel like i might be better off with dex weapons somehow.

Basically i'm overwhelmed, someone explain this to me so i can play the game

I'd recommend a paladin-type build. Something like this:

http://www.giantbomb.com/dark-souls-ii/3030-40798/forums/beginner-character-guide-paladin-1475388/

 

[Bacon_Boss]

- To be more mobile with heavier gear, you need to raise Vitality.
- To get more HP, you need to raise Vigor.
- To get more stamina (and therefore more swings and rolls during the action) you need to raise Endurance.
- To get more invincibility frames per roll and avoid being clipped when you shouldn't be, you need to raise Adaptability.
- To do more damage against armoured enemies, Strike damage is best, but Thrust is also good. Strike damage is typically from weapons that scale well with the Strength stat, whereas Thrust is typically more Dexterity oriented.

It's of course up to you in which order you level up, but none of these stats are a bad choice really. You should probably cap your Agility (which is raised by Adaptability) at 99 or 100 at the most. I forget at which ADP stat that is, maybe about 20? I would suggest increasing it one or two levels every time you beat a boss or earn a lot of souls to spend on a few levels, and spend the rest on raising your damage (STR or DEX) and HP. Endurance is also important of course. I would keep Vitality last, because I think you can get decent defense from mixing up a heavy armour chest piece with, say, lighter leggings and gloves until later. You also get a ring that increases your equip burden fairly early on, in No Man's Wharf, that will help with wearing heavier armour. Just make sure you stay under 70% of your equip burden to at least roll fast enough.

I'd recommend a paladin-type build. Something like this:

http://www.giantbomb.com/dark-souls-ii/3030-40798/forums/beginner-character-guide-paladin-1475388/

Thanks guys! I'll give it a try tonight!

 

[Ogre]

After like 500 hours of vanilla Dark Souls 2 and SotFS combined, I've finally decided to go see what NG+ is all about. And holy crap, the

Spoiler

surprise Freya encounter out of nowhere

in Tseldora caught me completely off guard, I'm so glad that miraculously never got spoiled to me.

 

[gift of 100 gab]

I started a knight class to focus on melee again like I did for dark souls but now I'm thinking I might try some magic as well, something I completely skipped in the first game. As a knight my base stats are pretty terrible (int 3 and fth 6), and so far I've focused on adaptability, str and end. I considered going strength/faith but am now wondering if sorcery is better than miracles due to ranged attacks when dealing with mobs? Either way I need to put a lot of points into one of these, so which do you prefer?

 

[RandomSeed]

Got up to 22 faith and bought lightning spear. Didn't know it only has 3 charges. I am disappoint.

 

[spliced]

Mostly finished with the non-DLC areas now. I like that they put those ghosts enemies from the foggy forest in the shaded ruins, they are more fun and fair in an area where I can actually see. Those guys always give me so much trouble, I can't see them or lock on and if that didn't raise the cheap meter enough they can 1 shot you...like wth From? Then it gets even worse if you're trying to fight them with magic. I actually wish they would have replaced all the ghosts in the foggy forest with the lion enemies, I love their design and there are too few of them in SotFS now.

I love the adjustments to the walking on fire damage and to the Ancient Dragon, I thought the did exactly what needed to be done.

Trying out the Red Iron Twinblade for the first time and I can see why people like it, it's does really good damage and it has a refreshingly different feel from the strength weapons I usually gravitate to.

I've made my way through the Sunken King DLC and it was fantastic. I had been talking about how I was hoping they'd add more Zelda style puzzles to DS and here I get exactly what I wanted. I tried going through with a caster though and they are hard mode, the bosses take minimal damage from some of my best spells.

I'm just getting into the Iron Keep DLC and so far it seems very good so far. Damn I love me some Souls.

 

[hohoXD123]

Couple of questions about the DLC areas, is there a particular point in the main game whereby I can't go back to the DLC areas without starting a new game? Started the Sunken King area after killing The Rotten and I feel as though I'm slightly under levelled. Also, should I be playing through them in release order?

 

[natethegreat409]

Couple of questions about the DLC areas, is there a particular point in the main game whereby I can't go back to the DLC areas without starting a new game? Started the Sunken King area after killing The Rotten and I feel as though I'm slightly under levelled. Also, should I be playing through them in release order?

I did them all right before the last boss. I think you can do them anytime, even after the last boss, but if you want the DLC ending I think you have to do them before killing the last boss.

 

[Greddleok]

Couple of questions about the DLC areas, is there a particular point in the main game whereby I can't go back to the DLC areas without starting a new game? Started the Sunken King area after killing The Rotten and I feel as though I'm slightly under levelled. Also, should I be playing through them in release order?

You can complete the game, then go to the DLC areas. I went to them before killing the final boss. Felt about the right level.

 

[Fancy Clown]

Wow the beginning of this game is kicking my ass

 

[natethegreat409]

Why do people insist on summoning Ellie on Fume Knight.... She adds nothing but HP to the boss and something to get in the way of me rolling around the boss. She makes the damn fight harder.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Why do people insist on summoning Ellie on Fume Knight.... She adds nothing but HP to the boss and something to get in the way of me rolling around the boss. She makes the damn fight harder.

I know right? I tried to help a bunch of people with Fume, and I groaned every time they'd summon Ellie or Carhillion.
They (the players) almost always died, too.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

I just beat Fume after about 4 attempts, I used Ellie almost evert time. Tried it once without her and got my arse kicked!

How do you upgrade your Estus flask? I've given the bird in Majula like 10 shards and my flasks still don't even say +1 yet. How do you do it?

 

[gift of 100 gab]

How do you upgrade your Estus flask? I've given the bird in Majula like 10 shards and my flasks still don't even say +1 yet. How do you do it?

You need to burn Sublime Bone Dust in Majula. The shards just give you additional estus flasks.

 

[RandomSeed]

I take it the lockstones are pretty limited? I feel like I wasted quite a few, but being my first playthrough, how should I know what they each do?

 

[daxy]

Picked up SotFS the other day, and it's my first (honest) shot at this series. I've tried getting into Dark Souls (1) several times, but it didn't really click with me so I never got very far into it. I don't know why I decided to have a go at DS2, but I did and so far I am enjoying it far more than my time with the first one. I don't know what the difference is really. Maybe DaS1 was a bit too intensely depressing and throws you in the deep end from the get-go. I really enjoy that feeling of mystery and trying to learn what this world is all about. Reminds me (conceptually) of Fez and trying to piece together a better understanding of how the world works through little clues left in the environment. There are very few games that have spark that kind of inquisitiveness, so I'm glad that I gave the series a shot again. It's a bit like playing games as a kid, when everything was so mysterious and I'd come up with elaborate stories about why this thing was there, or what that guy meant with that statement and so forth. Now I'll definitely give Dark Souls (1) another try once I get through 2.

So I got stuck here and there, but I've managed to defeat the Last Giant and the Pursuer (second time around). Last Giant was relatively simple, but the Pursuer was no joke. Once I stopped trying to get greedy with my attacks it was just a matter of patience. My experience with Monster Hunter carried over surprisingly well and I don't find myself really ever blocking, because the dodge is too good. Feel pretty good about the progress I made, and once I wrapped my mind around it the game wasn't as impenetrable as I thought it'd be. Thought I'd try a greatsword, but the bastard sword isn't really doing it for me. It drains stamina like crazy and doesn't seem to do much more damage than the fire longsword that I've been rolling with mainly.

Edit: Dragonrider defeated! Got my hands on an ultra greatsword, did a respec and am wrecking dudes. Feeling a bit overpowered with that UGS, but I'm sure it won't be for long.

 

[RandomSeed]

Anyone have luck with sweetfx on the SOTFS version? I'm using sweetfx 2.0, but when renaming the 64-bit dll I get the Windows "Dark Souls has stopped working" message. The game runs with the 32-bit dll, but without the sweetfx settings (and scroll lock doesn't change that).

 

[ThisGuy]

My girl just bought this for me as an early b-day present. So now I'm looking for some advice on stats, been awhile since I've played ds.

For my first run I want to keep it simple, I was thinking of a dex/adap build dual wielding with dual elements. Maybe poison and lightening. With str vit being my back up stats for heavy equipment.

My question is how should I allot the stats?

Scholar of the first sin on pc. No jump attack for me.

 

[natethegreat409]

Started up a sorcerer build. I'm struggling to kill the scorpion though, and I want to bonfire her. Any advice?

Sorcery isn't doing any damage, and she wrecks me melee for some reason with her claws. I can't roll them. No shield run too.

Edit: Said hell with it and summoned help. Made it a cakewalk.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Never had a problem with Najka with my sorceress, but the lion warriors, oh my... had to switch to backup melee for that. :| I ran past them all in the end when I was ready for the boss.

 

[Morfeo]

Just saw this for £5 at a store on the 360, should I get it or wait for when I eventually joins the next gen? Also, does the passive multiplayer stuff like messages, bloodstains etc require xbox live gold?

 

[gift of 100 gab]

How do you guys deal with vigor, equipment load, and armor? My vgr stat is at 10 I think, and I'm constantly on the 70% breakpoint but I don't feel like putting more points into it since there's always other stats that always are more urgent to level up. I'm using the claymore now and loving it but if I ever want to try a heavier weapon I'll be fat rolling all day at this point. I was hoping to find something like the Havel's ring but so far the only one I've found (Royal Soldier's Ring) doesnt seem to do much.

 

[One Foul Note]

How do you guys deal with vigor, equipment load, and armor? My vgr stat is at 10 I think, and I'm constantly on the 70% breakpoint but I don't feel like putting more points into it since there's always other stats that always are more urgent to level up. I'm using the claymore now and loving it but if I ever want to try a heavier weapon I'll be fat rolling all day at this point. I was hoping to find something like the Havel's ring but so far the only one I've found (Royal Soldier's Ring) doesnt seem to do much.

Royal Soldiers Ring is a percentage buff on your existing load. So if your equipment load is already fairly low then it won't do much. If you want to stay out of the 75% equipment load zone then I would recommend you either bite the bullet and level vitality or look into wearing some lighter armour. You'll be surprised by how much lighter armour actually doesn't decrease your overall defense by that much. During my playthrough of SotFS I went with a sub 25% load build and was expecting like a 60% damage increase on me compared to my previous heavier build run through but it is more like 20-30% if that and the added roll speed and stamina recovery is a lifesaver. Failing that, things like just not wearing a helmet/gloves or keeping your amount of carried weapons to a minimum can help.

 

[gift of 100 gab]

Royal Soldiers Ring is a percentage buff on your existing load. So if your equipment load is already fairly low then it won't do much. If you want to stay out of the 75% equipment load zone then I would recommend you either bite the bullet and level vitality or look into wearing some lighter armour. You'll be surprised by how much lighter armour actually doesn't decrease your overall defense by that much. During my playthrough of SotFS I went with a sub 25% load build and was expecting like a 60% damage increase on me compared to my previous heavier build run through but it is more like 20-30% if that and the added roll speed and stamina recovery is a lifesaver. Failing that, things like just not wearing a helmet/gloves or keeping your amount of carried weapons to a minimum can help.

Sorry, meant vitality! Yeah, that's what I was considering but basically any armor I have puts me over 40%. Just checking now, I'm at 40% wearing nothing lol. Like you said, I guess I just I might need to put some more points into it. Are there breaking points like in DkS? I noticed anything over 70% is fatroll but 50% doesnt seem to be a breaking point in the same respect. Wearing light armor is probably the way to go, I do love that mobility.

 

[One Foul Note]

Sorry, meant vitality! Yeah, that's what I was considering but basically any armor I have puts me over 40%. Just checking now, I'm at 40% wearing nothing lol. Like you said, I guess I just I might need to put some more points into it. Are there breaking points like in DkS? I noticed anything over 70% is fatroll but 50% doesnt seem to be a breaking point in the same respect. Wearing light armor is probably the way to go, I do love that mobility.

70% is the only breaking point (I actually messed up in my previous post by saying it was 75%). Below that your roll speed will stay the same but the distance you cover with it increases at lower equipment load uses and your stamina recovers faster at lower uses too. I've also heard that the stamina drain for running and rolling is lower if you are carrying less, but I'm not 100% sure about that. If it does happen it is tiny amount.

 

[RandomSeed]

I upgraded the great club to +10 and it is the first weapon that seems to suck due to the durability. I've been able to get through most every other area without having to change out my main weapon, but this thing is a letdown. At least slabs are easy to find now. I did find the Faraam armor set and it looks great. Under 70% with a mace, greatshield, and Faraam set w/Havel gauntlets. All I need to find is a weapon that clicks with me.

 

[gift of 100 gab]

How often do you guys get summoned or invaded? I tried to co-op a couple of bosses but no dice, and I've only been invaded two times (

Spoiler

just did the gutter/black gulch as the last great soul

). I checked to see recommended levels and it seems I was a bit overleveled to co-op in the areas I finished despite not having really farmed at all (well did some titanite farming but that probably netted me 3-4 levels tops) - do you have to hold back on levelling to be able to do proper co-op for bosses and such? I know the whole thing is muddied by using soul memory instead, and I haven't really read up on how that works, but it seems by just playing the game normally makes it hard for me to get summoned or invaded?

Loved the gutter btw. Blighttown is sooo much better designed, but I liked that this was way less risky in terms of falling off but still had that oppressive atmosphere, and I really liked lighting all those sconces and seeing my progression visualized in the darkness.

 

[SatansReverence]

Is it just me, or is summoning completely dead on XB1?

In a highlighted area and never get summoned and never see signs.

 

[Ferr986]

Doing a Twinblade run. Man the weapon is lots of fun but also it's like hard mode (especially in ambushes or PvP).
Using the Dragonrider Twinblade because of buffs (and it looks boss). Wonder if I should also enchant it with a faintstone...

 

[NinjaBoiX]

You need to burn Sublime Bone Dust in Majula. The shards just give you additional estus flasks.

Ah, OK. Cheers man!

 

[Morfeo]

Just saw this for £5 at a store on the 360, should I get it or wait for when I eventually joins the next gen? Also, does the passive multiplayer stuff like messages, bloodstains etc require xbox live gold?

Reposting this question, and I just realized it also applies for next-gen probably? This definitely makes me consider the PS3-version the most.

Also, is the dlc on disc in the pal ps3-release. Does anybody know?

 

[takriel]

Any tips on entertaining walkthroughs? I'm in the mood to watch someone play DS II

 

[NinjaBoiX]

OK, had two Sublime Bone Dust in my inventory, found the other three from a wiki. Also got another Estus shard on my travels, rocking 9 +5 flasks right now, should make things easier! Really want other shard now though get to that magic 10.

I go through peaks and troughs with this game:

Make loads of progress
Hit and wall/struggle to find somewhere to go
Repeat

I'm on a peak now though, I feel like I could box the game off with my current build.

Stat screen:

- She's a beast!

Equipment:

Uchigatana +10
Blacksteel Katana +10
Hunter's Blackbow +10
(Fire) Light Crossbow +6
Watchdragon Parma (standard)
Alonne Knight Armour Set +7

Question, do you guys recommend any other armour before I max out my Alonne Set? I'd hate to spend all that upgrade material to just move on to something else. Also, what about a shield? My Parma is going just fine right now but I don't know if I'm missing some brilliant shield I could be using. I've never upgraded any shields yet, I'm not sure I see the point?

Educate me SoulsGAF!

Thanks.

Any tips on entertaining walkthroughs? I'm in the mood to watch someone play DS II

EpicNameBro is good, really thorough, provides good tips and has a very amiable manner. He helped to write the official guide if that's any kind of commendation for you.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Upgrading shields is good, because it increases their stability and slightly raises the blocking % on various properties. So if your shield blocks 100% physical and 70% magic, when upgraded it might be like 75% magic for example.

The parma sucks for blocking though, doesn't it? It's only good for farming drops since it increases item discovery. That said if you wear it in permanence, then sure, upgrade it, it'll suck a bit less. The best light shield with low strength requirements is probably the Royal Kite Shield (sold by McDuff), it has 100% block and it's light with low reqs.

Armour should be up to you, whatever you think look best. Eventually you'll have infinite chunks so don't worry about it.

 

[Ferr986]

Reposting this question, and I just realized it also applies for next-gen probably? This definitely makes me consider the PS3-version the most.

Also, is the dlc on disc in the pal ps3-release. Does anybody know?

If it's the Scholar of the First Sin version, it comes with the DLC. I think the 360 requires Gold for message and stuff, but it's been a while since I last played it so not sure 100%.

I would personally wait if you're gonna get a PS4/One. 60 FPS are nice.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

If it's the Scholar of the First Sin version, it comes with the DLC. I think the 360 requires Gold for message and stuff, but it's been a while since I last played it so not sure 100%.

I would personally wait if you're gonna get a PS4/One. 60 FPS are nice.

Indeed. Unless you have no way to get it on a decent PC and don't plan on ever switching to current gen, I see no reason to get this game on last-gen even if it's cheap.

 

[natethegreat409]

Any tips on entertaining walkthroughs? I'm in the mood to watch someone play DS II

I like watching EpicNameBro's walkthrough. I learned a lot and he's entertaining to listen to.

 

[Yoshichan]

Hey guys, I'm looking for the three man gank squad, either the naked ones or the ones that were dressed in animal heads. Youtube link plx ♥

 

[Fhtagn]

I'm doing the DLC now in SOTFS on PS4.

Y'all have probably already heard what I've had to say over in the BBvDkS2 thread, but I'm enjoying it a lot.

Anyone up to tackle the Cave of the Dead? (Sunken King optional area) I never finished this on the PS3 and now for human players it seems to be dead, no one to summon, no one summoning me.

I have SM of 3,134,530.
(Whoa that jumped by a million since the last I looked at it.)

 

[SRTtoZ]

Yo gais, I'm buying it on PC (or shall I say upgrading to SOTFS) and was wondering if it works fine with the Dualshock 4 just like the vanilla version? (with DS4windows obv).

 

[daxy]

Finished Sinner's Rise, about to wrap up Black Gulch. Next up, Huntsman's Copse?

Upgraded the Greatsword to +10. I haven't really enjoyed using shields, so I've just been two handing this huge slab of steel. I don't know what to do with my armor. I want to keep equip load low for that great long roll, so I mixed that super light transparent armor you get from the merchant with the regular one. It'll be a while until I can get the +2 royal soldier's ring.

Yo gais, I'm buying it on PC (or shall I say upgrading to SOTFS) and was wondering if it works fine with the Dualshock 4 just like the vanilla version? (with DS4windows obv).

I personally use a 360 controller so I can't help you with that, but I have read that Windows 10 doesn't play too nice with the DS4 and requires a workaround for many games. If you're running 10, perhaps post in the DS4 on W10 thread to see what the status is on that now.

 

[RandomSeed]

I played with a DS4 on Windows 10 and it works great after you set it up. That means hitting the button in DS4windows (experimental fix), then turning on the controller, and then starting up steam and the game. It's kinda a pain doing it each time, but I hear a windows update is coming soon, and the controller itself works fine.

 

[Ferr986]

For a 40 INT user (not going to go higher) is it worth farming the Staff of Amana or there's better staves? I've been farming this shit for an hour and it just won't drop and I'm starting to get sick of evading homing attacks :/

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Wouldn't the Staff of Wisdom be better anyway?

Also, sucks to be you, I always get a bunch of Staff of Amana drops that clutter my inventory and sell 'em all to Gavlan, lol. Didn't know they were any good.

 

[Ferr986]

Wouldn't the Staff of Wisdom be better anyway?

Also, sucks to be you, I always get a bunch of Staff of Amana drops that clutter my inventory and sell 'em all to Gavlan, lol. Didn't know they were any good.

That one is 50 tho, right? I was gonna cap INT to 40 right now for duel reasons so I wasn't planning to go higher than 40.

EDIT: Around 1:30 hours later I got it... and I completely forgot it does shit damage if you're not in human form (and I don't think I'm going to stay much time in human form in the DLCs lol)

 

[SRTtoZ]

I personally use a 360 controller so I can't help you with that, but I have read that Windows 10 doesn't play too nice with the DS4 and requires a workaround for many games. If you're running 10, perhaps post in there to see what the status is on that now.

I played with a DS4 on Windows 10 and it works great after you set it up. That means hitting the button in DS4windows (experimental fix), then turning on the controller, and then starting up steam and the game. It's kinda a pain doing it each time, but I hear a windows update is coming soon, and the controller itself works fine.

Yep it ended up working fine in exclusive mode! Plays perfectly, minus the Xbox button prompts but thats no big deal since I know the controls by heart.

Anyway, so I'm trying a Magic/hex type build for the first time in any Souls game when I usually always go STR, but I'm enjoying it so far. Built up enough stats for the fire longsword and the Drangleic shield, and put everything else into INT/FAITH for now so that hex NPC talks to me.

 

[gift of 100 gab]

Ok, been in Brume Tower for a minute and shit just got real. I've done most of everything in the main game and is probably completely overleveled and this place still wrecks my shit so hard. Fucking hell

 

[Maridia]

Ok, been in Brume Tower for a minute and shit just got real. I've done most of everything in the main game and is probably completely overleveled and this place still wrecks my shit so hard. Fucking hell

Juuuuuusst waaaaaiiit

It'll geeet beeeeeetteeerr

I sweeeeeeeeaarrrr

 

[One Foul Note]

Any tips on how to defeat that giant cat in the ivory dlc? By this point in this game she is pretty much roadblocking me from making any more progress with that dlc. My current build is focused on hi-str, low equip load with using rolls to keeps out of trouble, although I am not against rebuilding my character should the boss require it.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

You can tank her with a shield IIRC, except for the grab attack, which you should dodge sideways. You can roll through most of the attacks (with high enough agility anyway). When she casts her homing projectiles, don't try to roll but run to the side (you can stay locked on) and they will fly past you.

...I'm assuming you made her visible, of course. Otherwise yeah it's really really hard, but not too bad otherwise.