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

onken

Member
Finally getting into this after beating vanilla all that time ago. I don't know if it's easier or I just got better or I know which equipment doesn't suck now, but I killed smelter demon in like 3 tries (took me dozens the first time). Really hit home when I killed Velstadt on my first go, I mean wtf?! Anyway, great game.
 
So, after beating Old Hunters (NG....not bad for a rookie like me) I want to go back on Dark Souls 2, as my 360 crashed 70 hours into the game.

Anyways, I was reading all about these different builds,like the STR or DEX ones and I wanted to ask this: Going for a certain build means that you allocate all your level up points to a singular stat?

Yesterday, I created a Cleric, with the intention to go for a Dex Build, but I think it's a rather unfortunate combination.....

Any help would be appreciated...
 

Manu

Member
Dark Souls 2 - Series Strengths and Sequel Changes

Maybe it warrants a new thread, but it's a great video explaining how DS2 is arguably as good as DS1 when you consider that, even if its level and encounter design are totally different from the first game, they are also balanced around that fact.

There's still a fair amount of criticizing the game, but it's probably one of the best cases for DS2 I've seen to this day.
 

Mistel

Banned
Anyways, I was reading all about these different builds,like the STR or DEX ones and I wanted to ask this: Going for a certain build means that you allocate all your level up points to a singular stat?

Yesterday, I created a Cleric, with the intention to go for a Dex Build, but I think it's a rather unfortunate combination.....

Any help would be appreciated...
The starting classes really don't matter although there are better choices like a bandit for DEX builds. You don't just allocate all of your points into a single stat there are several that require stat investment for an effective build.
 

Dresden

Member
So, after beating Old Hunters (NG....not bad for a rookie like me) I want to go back on Dark Souls 2, as my 360 crashed 70 hours into the game.

Anyways, I was reading all about these different builds,like the STR or DEX ones and I wanted to ask this: Going for a certain build means that you allocate all your level up points to a singular stat?

Yesterday, I created a Cleric, with the intention to go for a Dex Build, but I think it's a rather unfortunate combination.....

Any help would be appreciated...

Starting classes don't matter in DS2. Just bash things with the mace until you can cobble something dexish together.
 
Dark Souls 2 - Series Strengths and Sequel Changes

Maybe it warrants a new thread, but it's a great video explaining how DS2 is arguably as good as DS1 when you consider that, even if its level and encounter design are totally different from the first game, they are also balanced around that fact.

There's still a fair amount of criticizing the game, but it's probably one of the best cases for DS2 I've seen to this day.
Damn, I watched a lot more of the video than I thought I would, but I was curious about what he was going to argue.

Among all of the issues I have with DS2, I never once considered the problem Lifegems introduced. I treated them the same way he did, except I've continued to do so throughout every playthrough, because I don't often explore what vendors sell in terms of consumables, and didn't realize they were so cheap. In my most recent playthrough, I gave up on the game before Smelter Demon, because the Iron Keep is so shitty. Might just be able to push back through there using Lifegems so I can at least get to the DLC and finish it like I had originally wanted to with this playthrough (lost my original playthrough that was already midway through the Ivory King because this stupid game doesn't have Steam Cloud support).

And as much as I disagree with him about his point made about the multi-enemy encounters being just as good as single enemy encounters in DS1, I do agree that they were handled better than multi-enemy encounters in DS1. Bloodborne had a similar issue with closed environments and inhibiting the player's ability to avoid enemy attacks, and fight back. DS2's more open environments definitely worked better based on the game's mechanics, but I still think they should probably go back and tweak them so they can effectively pull those smaller more enclosed environments back in. And like I mentioned, for some reason despite providing players with more room to maneuver around, they still did stupid things like throw in archers with infinite range in all corners of their open maps (Iron Keep), which make these areas much worse than if they'd just been more enclosed.

Really wished he would have touched upon issues with DS2 like Iron Keep or Shrine of Amana, rather than mentioning them briefly early on, and ignoring them when jumping to the conclusion that DS2 never drops in quality near the late game like DS1 did.

I'm all for agreeing that the DLC for DS2 is some of the best content in the series, but this video was focused on vanilla content, and it missed a whole lot of what's generally complained about, concluding that giving the player a crutch through Lifegems was a good thing, and that DS2 is on par with DS1 just because DS1 dropped in quality after receiving the Lordvessel.

Also, I don't think he mentioned Scholar of the First Sin, and he also says he's never played Bloodborne, which is rather unfortunate considering how extensive his video series is trying to be.

Shrine of Amana is really fucking awful. Wade through water slowly while making sure you don't fall into a hard to see pitfall while being sniped by mage and warriors ganging up on you. Oh and those lizard things hiding in the water to surprise jump you. Throw in NPC invasions and you got a recipe for some of the worst encounters in DS2.
Whenever I get frustrated with whatever I'm losing to in a game, I quickly Google search something like, "DS2 Iron Keep worst area in game". Ran into a GameFAQs thread last time where everybody was voting for Shrine of Amana as the worst, and it brought back horrible memories I thought I'd blocked out. Definitely better my second time through, but it took me so long to get through during my first playthrough.
 

Dahbomb

Member
Shrine of Amana is really fucking awful. Wade through water slowly while making sure you don't fall into a hard to see pitfall while being sniped by mage and warriors ganging up on you. Oh and those lizard things hiding in the water to surprise jump you. Throw in NPC invasions and you got a recipe for some of the worst encounters in DS2.
 

Manu

Member
Great post Conkerkid.

He's doing two more videos after this one, one of them will be exclusively about the DLC, so I'm sure he's gonna be more thorough then.
 

Buraindo

Member
Dark Souls 2 - Series Strengths and Sequel Changes

Maybe it warrants a new thread, but it's a great video explaining how DS2 is arguably as good as DS1 when you consider that, even if its level and encounter design are totally different from the first game, they are also balanced around that fact.

There's still a fair amount of criticizing the game, but it's probably one of the best cases for DS2 I've seen to this day.

Watched the whole thing and I can't agree.
I understand that DS2 needed to find a way to prevent the ability to trivialise the entire game with backstabs and circle strafing but the methods DS2 uses and still fails to prevent that sort of cheesing (anyone seriously going to argue that you can't circle strafe almost everything in DS2?) is not a point in its favour. He may not mind and even enjoy these changes, but I sure do.
Lifegems feel like a band aid instead of an actual solution to the more unfair enemy behaviour they introduced, and groups are STILL something that these games can't handle properly.
He rightfully mentions how poor group encounters are in DS1 while failing to recognise that they behave the exact same way in 2, which as a sequel it should've fixed that. Then he goes to provide a workaround (not fix, because I don't see as running around and then attacking every now and then as engaging gameplay) to deal with groups that is the same for both games, proving that absolutely nothing has really been done to warrant the higher number of enemy groups in DS2.
Also amusing how the examples of group encounters he uses in DS1 aren't necessarily groups as you can choose to fight them one-on-one, unlike most multiple enemy encounters in DS2 where pulling one enemy from a distance will often result in a horde coming your way at the speed of a Falconer.
I understand it's a matter of preference but how could anyone see enemies tracking your every single move, infinite poise/stamina and rolling being absolute rubbish until you level up agility as improvements and lifegems as a solid balance solution to that is beyond me.
That said DS2 does bring a lot of improvements that I appreciated a great deal and are the reason why I will sometimes boot DS2 instead of 1, like inventory management, removal of embers, turn human whenever and wherever, travel everywhere, Boss weapons aren't a pain to get, stability and performance, multiplayer and weapon upgrades.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Dark Souls 2 - Series Strengths and Sequel Changes

Maybe it warrants a new thread, but it's a great video explaining how DS2 is arguably as good as DS1 when you consider that, even if its level and encounter design are totally different from the first game, they are also balanced around that fact.

There's still a fair amount of criticizing the game, but it's probably one of the best cases for DS2 I've seen to this day.
I'll watch that some day, a bit too long for now.

But to reply to what some have said above; come on with the infinite poise/stamina thing, that's like one enemy (lion warriors and the maul giants in Dragon Shrine, which got nerfed in Scholar). Get over it already. Seath's first encounter is cheaper than anything in DS2, and the Lost Izalith dinosaurs are probably more annoying than anything in DS2, but it doesn't ruin the whole game now does it?
 

Buraindo

Member
I'll watch that some day, a bit too long for now.

But to reply to what some have said above; come on with the infinite poise/stamina thing, that's like one enemy (lion warriors and the maul giants in Dragon Shrine, which got nerfed in Scholar). Get over it already. Seath's first encounter is cheaper than anything in DS2, and the Lost Izalith dinosaurs are probably more annoying than anything in DS2, but it doesn't ruin the whole game now does it?

Nowhere in my post did I say or imply that it ruined the whole game, if that were true I wouldn't have played as much as I have or even be in this thread to begin with, so please refrain from putting words in my mouth. And I don't see how the first Seath encounter or the dinosaurs being cheap suddenly makes some of the more questionable DS2 enemies and design decisions above criticism.

The Iron Keep is not shitty. Is that what most people think?

I thought it was okay. I've grown to like the SOTFS version of it more than the vanilla one.

This game sometimes. Ugghhh...

Iron Keep 2nd boss, not sure how spoilers are handled in this thread.
yUZDpc6.gif

That looks annoying.
 
This game sometimes. Ugghhh...

Iron Keep 2nd boss, not sure how spoilers are handled in this thread.
http://i.imgur.com/yUZDpc6.webm

The Iron Keep is not shitty. Is that what most people think?
I find Iron Keep shitty for the same reason I find Shrine of Amana shitty. Throw some infinite range casters/archers into every corner of a wide open map, make their projectiles guided missiles, and you're set. Iron Keep has the added benefit of throwing lava everywhere, so if you've been relying on rolling to dodge attacks, you'd better rethink how you've been playing the game. Then throw some turtle enemies in there who can knock you back 10 feet, slap those on the slim bridges surrounded by lava, baby, that's Dark Souls 2's "difficulty".

Iron Keep also defies another rule set for every other area in the game where melee enemies have a limited range that they can detect you within. Instead, you've got dudes bumrushing you from clear across the map. Slap in two set NPC invasions right off the bat, tons of Forlorn invasions, everything above, and this consequently also becomes a popular place for PvP invasions.

Edit: Why on earth is it so hard for me to reveal that spoilered gif? Probably just gonna replace it with a link to the webm.

Double Edit: lmao, spoilered URLs are still revealed? What the hell.

That looks annoying.
It's just funny that after watching most of the video posted earlier, the guy mentions that one of the best parts about these games is that 9/10 times or so, it's your fault that you died.

Between the hitboxes, and messed up iFrames due to ADP being a stat in this, I feel like it's a little less than 9/10 times.
 

Gestahl

Member
This game sometimes. Ugghhh...

Iron Keep 2nd boss, not sure how spoilers are handled in this thread.
yUZDpc6.gif


I find Iron Keep shitty for the same reason I find Shrine of Amana shitty. Throw some infinite range casters/archers into every corner of a wide open map, make their projectiles guided missiles, and you're set. Iron Keep has the added benefit of throwing lava everywhere, so if you've been relying on rolling to dodge attacks, you'd better rethink how you've been playing the game. Then throw some turtle enemies in there who can knock you back 10 feet, slap those on the slim bridges surrounded by lava, baby, that's Dark Souls 2's "difficulty".

Iron Keep also defies another rule set for every other area in the game where melee enemies have a limited range that they can detect you within. Instead, you've got dudes bumrushing you from clear across the map. Slap in two set NPC invasions right off the bat, tons of Forlorn invasions, and a popular place for PvP invasions.

It's mostly pre smelter that's completely garbage. It's not even really difficult it just makes it more annoying to get to the boss door and engenders even more passivity than the base game's version did with those arbitrary enemy trigger lines.

Honestly most of the encounter design in this game is trash and promotes the most tedious styles of play. There's that room in the Ivory King right after the Inner Wall bonfire that's 4 or 5 enemies, all with projectiles (seriously why does nearly every fucking enemy in this DLC have a projectile), with two of those golem soul statues AND a mimic of all things. It's just bloat and excess and doesn't amount to any real challenge, it simply encourages the most boring, passive safe play. Just like most of the bosses where if you're using anything slower than a light weapon you get your 1 hit in, two if you're really lucky, and then flop around until the boss attacks again
 

Dresden

Member
Amana is fun, and the post launch nerfs plus scholar tweaks blunted its teeth quite a bit. Lots of little hidden stuff, one of the two areas where the torch is useful (third in Scholar), and by far the most awfully enjoyable area to invade.

I think invading there near launch with chameleon and double mundane avelyns is like the third worst thing I've ever done in Souls.
 

RiggyRob

Member
Sooooo, after beating the majority of Bloodborne (no platinum yet) I thought I'd take a punt and get SOTFS while it was £14 delivered on Amazon and get some advice in here before I actually dive into playing it
which will probably not be for a while since I'm away from the PS4 for at least another week
.

First of all, I'd never played a Souls game before Bloodborne, so has anyone else who's gone from Bloodborne as their first Souls game to this found it difficult to adjust?

Second, my Bloodborne character went Strength/Arcane because I wanted to use magic weapons like fire/lightning swords and spells, but it was a bit weak because I could only use temporary buffs or weak spells like Fire Paper/Augur of Ebrietas - I did end up using the Tonitrus which was cool but not quite what I wanted, I effectively wanted a permanently Fire Paper/Bolt Paper buffed weapon visually, and the Fire/Bolt gems in Bloodborne weren't as satisfying.

What's the best starting class/build to get a similar style of weapon or play style? I'd also like to try out magic as much as possible, even though I get Dark Souls is supposed to be a melee game.

Basically I could use a few pointers on what the hell everything (stats, shields, equip load etc.) means in Dark Souls 2 as it seems a lot more complex than Bloodborne, which was relatively streamlined.
 

Dahbomb

Member
Magic is really powerful in Dark Souls 2, over powered in fact. Bloodborne has non existing magic compared to DS2 IMO.

One of the magic classes should be fine (ones that have high Intelligence/Attunement). There are pyromancies (fire based spells), hexes (dark based spells), sorceries (magic based attacks) and miracles (heal and lightning based spells) in DS2. Elements in DS2 are Magic, Dark, Lightning, Fire, Bleed and Poison.

You want to have high Attunements and Intelligence for magic based builds. For each type of spell you need a catalyst to use as a weapon:

Sorcery: Scepter/staffs
Miracles: Chimes
Pyromancy: Fire hand (forgot what it's called, it looks like a flame hand)
etc.


You can only have as many spells as you have Attunement slots. Some spells are so powerful they take up multiple attunement slots. You have to put more stats into Attunement to get more slots.

Pyromancies don't require any stats to use but they do scale off of Intelligence like the other spells.
Sorceries require Intelligence.
Miracles require Faith.
Hexes require Faith + Intelligence.

There are many, many spells to use in Dark Souls 2.


I personally don't know much about magic in the Souls games because I rarely if ever use them. I am a melee guy all the way (ride or die). These are the basics of it
 

Dahbomb

Member
Does pyromancy scale with INT this time around? Not with the level of your Pyromancer's Flame like in DS1?
You still have to level up your Pyromancer's Flame (the glove) though you might get additional scaling from Intelligence. Not exactly sure, like I said I never really delved into magic too much in DS2.
 

Mistel

Banned
Does pyromancy scale with INT this time around? Not with the level of your Pyromancer's Flame like in DS1?
It scales based of a different stat which is is Fire ATK bonus which is a combination FTH and INT, you still upgrade the flames as well.
What's the best starting class/build to get a similar style of weapon or play style? I'd also like to try out magic as much as possible, even though I get Dark Souls is supposed to be a melee game.

Basically I could use a few pointers on what the hell everything (stats, shields, equip load etc.) means in Dark Souls 2 as it seems a lot more complex than Bloodborne, which was relatively streamlined.
For that style of play there's either a explorer who can be built into that style of character and has the most I frames (highest ADP) and you can pick up a majority of the required catalyst/chime pretty much of the bat. Or you can do all of that with either a Knight so you've got a bit tougher base character or one of the caster classes. It doesn't matter much though as they're all capable with investment starting class doesn't matter much. As for the stats breakdown read this, equip load is how much you can carry with the normal breakpoint before a fat roll is 70% with a lower equip load you also regain stamina faster.

With shields it's split into small/normal/great shield categories without getting into the nitty gritty small mainly is for parrying, normal is jack of all trades, and great shields are the heavy defensive shields bare in mind this is rather generalising them as there's a lot of nuances with shields.
 

Hisoka

Member
I love my Dark Souls II SOTFS.
But i didn't get around one thing.. Can someone somehow save equipment builds or at least sort it manually? I already have so many different weapons, rings and armors etc.. Also, different upgrades or different enhancers, so they should somehow implement this if they haven't already and i'm just too dumb to find it?
I know which i use or which are appropriate for different Situations, but it would be a hell faster that way rather than change it always manually through going through your whole stuff...
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Hey started this not along ago. Think I hit the first wall early on though. Playing knight and have a fire longsword +4

I seem to have only two ways to go at the moment:

Forest of fallen giants - but keep getting wrecked by Armourer Denis. Can get him to halfway but his magic is just too strong at the moment.
Heide - seems to be OK but I just don't have much health due to being hollow and no lifegems. Estus flask is at 4 but it seems to need a near perfect run to get to the dragonslayer boss - I've been told to only do dragonrider after dragon slayer or the other way round (basically the one at the bottom with the merchant above do last). So keep dying, due to there being a 'mob' after the first three tall knights.

I tried going back to some areas but they're not dropping enough souls to level anything up. Some have disappeared entirely. I do have the ring to drop more souls equipped.

I'm liking this more than DSI and it doesn't feel as 'cheap' (yet). Good follow on from Bloodborne, just feeling a little frustrated at the moment though. The losing half your health is a bit severe to be honest especially if you have no effigies.

Already done Lost Bastille (as far as is open anyway), FotFG, Marjula inc. mansion house, Betwixt (minus petrified mist door)
 

onken

Member
Hey started this not along ago. Think I hit the first wall early on though. Playing knight and have a fire longsword +4

I seem to have only two ways to go at the moment:

Forest of fallen giants - but keep getting wrecked by Armourer Denis. Can get him to halfway but his magic is just too strong at the moment.
Heide - seems to be OK but I just don't have much health due to being hollow and no lifegems. Estus flask is at 4 but it seems to need a near perfect run to get to the dragonslayer boss - I've been told to only do dragonrider after dragon slayer or the other way round (basically the one at the bottom with the merchant above do last). So keep dying, due to there being a 'mob' after the first three tall knights.

I tried going back to some areas but they're not dropping enough souls to level anything up. Some have disappeared entirely. I do have the ring to drop more souls equipped.

I'm liking this more than DSI and it doesn't feel as 'cheap' (yet). Good follow on from Bloodborne, just feeling a little frustrated at the moment though. The losing half your health is a bit severe to be honest especially if you have no effigies.

Already done Lost Bastille (as far as is open anyway), FotFG, Marjula inc. mansion house, Betwixt (minus petrified mist door)

Go get this right now:

http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Ring+of+Binding

I honestly play less than 5% as human, I have something like 45 effigies and I still have a ton of stuff to do in NG.
 

neoemonk

Member
There's no way to import characters from vanilla, right?

I can get the upgrade for $10 on Steam which seems like a steal for the DLC, but the prospect of starting the game fresh isn't very appealing. I'd like to keep going with my current character.
 

Mistel

Banned
Hey started this not along ago. Think I hit the first wall early on though. Playing knight and have a fire longsword +4

I seem to have only two ways to go at the moment:

Forest of fallen giants - but keep getting wrecked by Armourer Denis. Can get him to halfway but his magic is just too strong at the moment.
Heide - seems to be OK but I just don't have much health due to being hollow and no lifegems. Estus flask is at 4 but it seems to need a near perfect run to get to the dragonslayer boss - I've been told to only do dragonrider after dragon slayer or the other way round (basically the one at the bottom with the merchant above do last). So keep dying, due to there being a 'mob' after the first three tall knights.

I tried going back to some areas but they're not dropping enough souls to level anything up. Some have disappeared entirely. I do have the ring to drop more souls equipped.

I'm liking this more than DSI and it doesn't feel as 'cheap' (yet). Good follow on from Bloodborne, just feeling a little frustrated at the moment though. The losing half your health is a bit severe to be honest especially if you have no effigies.

Already done Lost Bastille (as far as is open anyway), FotFG, Marjula inc. mansion house, Betwixt (minus petrified mist door)
Well you don't actually need to kill him as that's like a side area near the soldiers rest bonfire, not that you'll do it with a +4 Fire longsword there's better weapons available right from the start compared to it that'll take advantage of your stats better.

As for the lack of souls go join champions and farm FOTF for a while or Heide knights in Heide then you can buy lifegems off of Melntia. Plus as Onken says get the ring of binding even if you suicide run for it.
There's no way to import characters from vanilla, right?
None at all.
 

sam777

Member
Sooooo, after beating the majority of Bloodborne (no platinum yet) I thought I'd take a punt and get SOTFS while it was £14 delivered on Amazon and get some advice in here before I actually dive into playing it
which will probably not be for a while since I'm away from the PS4 for at least another week
.

First of all, I'd never played a Souls game before Bloodborne, so has anyone else who's gone from Bloodborne as their first Souls game to this found it difficult to adjust?

Second, my Bloodborne character went Strength/Arcane because I wanted to use magic weapons like fire/lightning swords and spells, but it was a bit weak because I could only use temporary buffs or weak spells like Fire Paper/Augur of Ebrietas - I did end up using the Tonitrus which was cool but not quite what I wanted, I effectively wanted a permanently Fire Paper/Bolt Paper buffed weapon visually, and the Fire/Bolt gems in Bloodborne weren't as satisfying.

What's the best starting class/build to get a similar style of weapon or play style? I'd also like to try out magic as much as possible, even though I get Dark Souls is supposed to be a melee game.

Basically I could use a few pointers on what the hell everything (stats, shields, equip load etc.) means in Dark Souls 2 as it seems a lot more complex than Bloodborne, which was relatively streamlined.

I was in the same boat as you, I picked the Warrior class I think but looking at videos you may have an easier time being a mage/sorcerer. The game is slower than Bloodborne, so that takes a bit of adjusting but you will get hooked. Make sure if you got a half health bar to use an human effigy.
 
Well, I think I'm done with my first playthrough. I just need a pharos stone to open a path in the crypt... But I've wasted a lot on useless shit and can't find any :(
I'll take another look around to find one and loot some armor/weapons
 

Buraindo

Member
Well, I think I'm done with my first playthrough. I just need a pharos stone to open a path in the crypt... But I've wasted a lot on useless shit and can't find any :(
I'll take another look around to find one and loot some armor/weapons

You can farm them in the Doors of Pharros.
 

oldmario

Member
are there any NPC summons around the chapel threshold? kinda having problems with the boss in this area and i think i might be too high level for anyone to be summoned on
 

Mistel

Banned
Ok thanks! I guess it's super rare... I'll farm 30min or so if I don't find any I'll move into NG+
Pharros lockstones are not that rare at all you can get them really easy as a gray phantom for defeating a tresspasser and vice versa.
are there any NPC summons around the chapel threshold? kinda having problems with the boss in this area and i think i might be too high level for anyone to be summoned on
Ashen knight Boyd is on the lowest floor before the fog gate behind a pillar.
 

Buraindo

Member
are there any NPC summons around the chapel threshold? kinda having problems with the boss in this area and i think i might be too high level for anyone to be summoned on

It's not immediately available but there's an NPC summon signature in the building next to Ornifex. Just break the furniture close to the spider on the wall and you should see it. There are a couple more in the chapel just before entering the boss' lair.
If you're on PC, I might be able to help.
 
Ok I'm in NG+ and reseted my stat. I was using a DEX build but now I'll try DEX/INT.
What spell should I use to make damage ? I never use a magic build in Souls games before, but since I can respec any time here I figure I'll give it a shot... But I'm a total newbie when it comes to magic lol

Edit: about weapon, Should I use a staff or a sub weapon like a charm ? Ideally I'd like to cast and to some damage but I'd also like to buff my main DEX weapon.
 

RiggyRob

Member
Magic is really powerful in Dark Souls 2, over powered in fact. Bloodborne has non existing magic compared to DS2 IMO.

One of the magic classes should be fine (ones that have high Intelligence/Attunement). There are pyromancies (fire based spells), hexes (dark based spells), sorceries (magic based attacks) and miracles (heal and lightning based spells) in DS2. Elements in DS2 are Magic, Dark, Lightning, Fire, Bleed and Poison.

You want to have high Attunements and Intelligence for magic based builds. For each type of spell you need a catalyst to use as a weapon:

Sorcery: Scepter/staffs
Miracles: Chimes
Pyromancy: Fire hand (forgot what it's called, it looks like a flame hand)
etc.


You can only have as many spells as you have Attunement slots. Some spells are so powerful they take up multiple attunement slots. You have to put more stats into Attunement to get more slots.

Pyromancies don't require any stats to use but they do scale off of Intelligence like the other spells.
Sorceries require Intelligence.
Miracles require Faith.
Hexes require Faith + Intelligence.

There are many, many spells to use in Dark Souls 2.


I personally don't know much about magic in the Souls games because I rarely if ever use them. I am a melee guy all the way (ride or die). These are the basics of it

It scales based of a different stat which is is Fire ATK bonus which is a combination FTH and INT, you still upgrade the flames as well.

For that style of play there's either a explorer who can be built into that style of character and has the most I frames (highest ADP) and you can pick up a majority of the required catalyst/chime pretty much of the bat. Or you can do all of that with either a Knight so you've got a bit tougher base character or one of the caster classes. It doesn't matter much though as they're all capable with investment starting class doesn't matter much. As for the stats breakdown read this, equip load is how much you can carry with the normal breakpoint before a fat roll is 70% with a lower equip load you also regain stamina faster.

With shields it's split into small/normal/great shield categories without getting into the nitty gritty small mainly is for parrying, normal is jack of all trades, and great shields are the heavy defensive shields bare in mind this is rather generalising them as there's a lot of nuances with shields.

I was in the same boat as you, I picked the Warrior class I think but looking at videos you may have an easier time being a mage/sorcerer. The game is slower than Bloodborne, so that takes a bit of adjusting but you will get hooked. Make sure if you got a half health bar to use an human effigy.

Cheers doods, it sounds like Knight/Sorceror starting class with Vigour/Attunement/Int/Faith levelling with some Strength to use shields and secondary weapons is the way to go.

I saw Fire Longsword mentioned above, and that's pretty much the type of weapon I'd like to use. I'm pretty torn on which type of magic to use (Soul/Fire/Lightning/Dark) so I'll use all of them if I can.

There's the Ring of Binding which I've seen mentioned and the shield which requires 16 Strength to wield with 100% damage reduction which also seems pretty important, so I'll keep those in mind. I have seen a Let's Play of Dark Souls 2 but I've forgotten a lot of it and the particular play style I want probably won't follow how they did it, so I'll be in the dark for most of it.
 

Mistel

Banned
Ok I'm in NG+ and reseted my stat. I was using a DEX build but now I'll try DEX/INT. What spell should I use to make damage ? I never use a magic build in Souls games before, but since I can respec any time here I figure I'll give it a shot... But I'm a total newbie when it comes to magic lol

Edit: about weapon, Should I use a staff or a sub weapon like a charm ? Ideally I'd like to cast and to some damage but I'd also like to buff my main DEX weapon.
You can use the soul spear family, plus the magic great sword and the magic crystal weapon buff on your DEX weapon. Or you could either increase FTH and use the lightning stuff or use Hex with INT/FTH which has its own dark based hexes. There's lots of options for it. You can use the black witch staff which can cast all three types and is pretty decent staff.
Cheers doods, it sounds like Knight/Sorceror starting class with Vigour/Attunement/Int/Faith levelling with some Strength to use shields and secondary weapons is the way to go.

I saw Fire Longsword mentioned above, and that's pretty much the type of weapon I'd like to use. I'm pretty torn on which type of magic to use (Soul/Fire/Lightning/Dark) so I'll use all of them if I can.

There's the Ring of Binding which I've seen mentioned and the shield which requires 16 Strength to wield with 100% damage reduction which also seems pretty important, so I'll keep those in mind. I have seen a Let's Play of Dark Souls 2 but I've forgotten a lot of it and the particular play style I want probably won't follow how they did it, so I'll be in the dark for most of it.
Elemental weapons require investment in stats for their returns but there's the downsides to using the due to split damage and the way the defenses work where they're often weaker than their non infused counterparts. The shield I assume is the drangleic shield which is a decent normal shield especially early on, it's potentially endgame capable but there is a better shield later on.
 

Tarkus

Member
Ok I'm in NG+ and reseted my stat. I was using a DEX build but now I'll try DEX/INT.
What spell should I use to make damage ? I never use a magic build in Souls games before, but since I can respec any time here I figure I'll give it a shot... But I'm a total newbie when it comes to magic lol

Edit: about weapon, Should I use a staff or a sub weapon like a charm ? Ideally I'd like to cast and to some damage but I'd also like to buff my main DEX weapon.
I hope you got most of the spells in NG, because a lot of the good stuff is toward the end of the game. The soul arrow variations are the most useful. Soul Greatsword can go through walls and does a shit ton of damage. Soul Geyser melts large enemies and bosses as does Crystal Soul Spear, but they need a large INT investment.
 

oldmario

Member
Ashen knight Boyd is on the lowest floor before the fog gate behind a pillar.

hopefully his collection of Poundland tat can save me

It's not immediately available but there's an NPC summon signature in the building next to Ornifex. Just break the furniture close to the spider on the wall and you should see it. There are a couple more in the chapel just before entering the boss' lair.
If you're on PC, I might be able to help.

sadly i'm not on PC i'm playing it on PS4
 
You can use the soul spear family, plus the magic great sword and the magic crystal weapon buff on your DEX weapon. Or you could either increase FTH and use the lightning stuff or use Hex with INT/FTH which has its own dark based hexes. There's lots of options for it. You can use the black witch staff which can cast all three types and is pretty decent staff.

Alright, I'll check if I have that staff. I'll probably just stick with INT for now, but I'll try the Hex stuff on my NG++

I hope you got most of the spells in NG, because a lot of the good stuff is toward the end of the game. The soul arrow variations are the most useful. Soul Greatsword can go through walls and does a shit ton of damage. Soul Geyser melts large enemies and bosses as does Crystal Soul Spear, but they need a large INT investment.

I have most of the spell, just need some from Navlann and other merchants (stuff you can only get in NG+ and beyond).
 
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