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

Tarkus

Member
I didn't realise you could be overlevelled for it - it's not like Cleric Beast/Blood-starved Beast where you can skip them and come back to them later, you have to kill Covetous Demon to get through Earthen Keep -> Iron Keep -> Old Iron King to get the Great Soul.

It must be because I did The Gutter first.
You also 8 estus flasks +3, which I believe is much more than typical at the point at which most players face Covetous Demon.
 

RiggyRob

Member
You can be over levelled for fights in this because you can actually skip quite a lot of them you don't have to actually even get any of the greatsouls.

Yeah, I can't imagine someone actually being able to cross the 1 million soul threshold needed to open Shrine of Winter without doing the Great Souls though. Is it automatically open on NG+?


Yeah, the 4 great souls can be done in any order. That said I don't think you can really be overlevelled for that boss but it does seem that your fire longsword does a lot of damage for an otherwise mediocre weapon.

I was focusing on levelling up Int, so I guess the fire damage scaling was quite high at this point.


You also 8 estus flasks +3, which I believe is much more than typical at the point at which most players face Covetous Demon.

Good reward for exploring then! I don't even remember where I found most of them - still find it weird that Estus Flasks go up to 12 rather than stopping at 10.
 

Mistel

Banned
Yeah, I can't imagine someone actually being able to cross the 1 million soul threshold needed to open Shrine of Winter without doing the Great Souls though. Is it automatically open on NG+?
It is not and it's really not at all that difficult to amass one million souls.
 
Yeah, the 4 great souls can be done in any order. That said I don't think you can really be overlevelled for that boss but it does seem that your fire longsword does a lot of damage for an otherwise mediocre weapon.

By that point you can already have a +10 weapon, not sure if that's the case, but is possible it can do that dmg.

Yeah, I can't imagine someone actually being able to cross the 1 million soul threshold needed to open Shrine of Winter without doing the Great Souls though. Is it automatically open on NG+?

No, on NG+ you need 2 million souls to open it (2 million obtained on that NG+ run), 3 on NG++ and so on.
 

kagamin

Member
I'm kind of at a loss here about what to do, but I thought I'd post here because I couldn't find help anywhere else:
So, just recently when I tried to play SOTFS again (it was working fine before) my mouse cursor was not showing up at all, now normally when I played before the mouse cursor showed up fine whenever I wanted to use it in the menus, now it's invisible. The overlay also makes the game white screen infinitely. Even with the overlay disabled the mouse cursor doesn't show up and in full screen I can only click on part of the screen, most of the bottom area of the screen will show my normal cursor that I have on the desktop and I cannot interact with anything using it.
 

squadr0n

Member
I've been having an issue on pc where my screen will freeze but my character can still move around and I can hear everything. Is this a common issue and if so is there a fix?

PC specs:
skylake i5
8 gigs DDR5 3000 ramm
Gtx 960
Win 10

Nvidia geforce exp has me at max settings atm. I'm going to try turning them down and see if that fixes it. It's sucks because it's happened twice after reversing from hollow and pretty much wasted it.

Im also having the same issue. Which is weird because Dark Souls 2 vanilla version works fine. Ive tried google but havent found a fix for it, does anyone know what is causing it? It usually happens a few minutes after summoning someone for me.
 
DLC was good, a bit tricky for a non shield melee solo player but still fun. Some cheap bosses, probably better suited for coop but I really enjoyed the dragon fight, those in the maingame were a bit disappointing imo.
This game was actually much harder for me compared to bb, no shield, no parries and dodging isn't the same powerful weapon at all (stamina 144, maybe a bit low, not sure).
Great game, I don't think I'll ever touch it again but I'm really glad I finished it.
 

RiggyRob

Member
Episode 15, myself vs. Mytha, the Baneful Queen: https://youtu.be/do9xbaepnDM

This is another standard fight once you've figured out the trick to Earthen Peak, but I would have never have figured out without help. Burning the clearly metal frame of the windmill to stop the poison flow is so obscure, I'm not sure how you're supposed to figure it out when offline.

Also, kudos to Jester Thomas! If only you could use pyromancies in the same way as the AI does, it'd feel incredible to cast explosions everywhere.
 

Mistel

Banned
I meant more like spamming Flame Swathe/Firestorm/Forbidden Sun with hardly any cool down/stamina usage/unlimited casts, but of course that would be beyond broken.
Well you can do the spam to a degree but you cant quite reach the abilities of Thomas not that he even uses the other flame.
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
Does this thread also serve as OT for regular Dark Souls 2? Just popped in the disc in my good old PS3, time to finally start this
after 234 minutes of updates.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
I don't see why not, since the old thread is inactive, but if you have questions later down the line make sure to remind us you're playing the non-Scholar version.
 

GulAtiCa

Member
Yeah, this thread is really active. The other thread is dead as can be. I mean, last post was Feb 3rd or so and only has 7 new posts in 2016..

So, feel free to post here/etc. Just keep in mind that while the main core game is the same. A lot of item/enemy/etc placements are different between the versions.

Anyways, Tonight I plan to get back to playing. Been busy with work last few days, so haven't progress much. Getting little closer to reaching Platinum in the game. Just got to 100% this last DLC and then see anything I'm missing before heading into NG+
 

RiggyRob

Member
Episode 16, myself vs. Smelter Demon: https://youtu.be/NZj6hsvIy_k

Bit disappointed that they reused the Pursuer's theme for this fight, but otherwise this was pretty cool. I like that you can get Smelter Demon's armour set from Maughlin after the fight, even if the helmet and the exposed midriff chest-piece is terrible.

I made a bit of a fuckup in that I upgraded the Zweihander you get in Iron Keep, but it was too heavy for my armour setup, and the only other upgraded weapon I had was the Fire Longsword, but luckily I managed to get away with it.
 

RiggyRob

Member
They re-used the Sentinel's theme, not the Pursuer's.

Dark Souls also re-used Moonlight Butterfly's theme for Gwyndolin, among others.

Oh yeah, should've realised that - my bad.

I get reusing music for thematically similar fights e.g. Ornstein and Old Dragonslayer, but when they do it just because, it makes me wonder why they even bothered doing the boss in the first place.
 

Mistel

Banned
Oh yeah, should've realised that - my bad.

I get reusing music for thematically similar fights e.g. Ornstein and Old Dragonslayer, but when they do it just because, it makes me wonder why they even bothered doing the boss in the first place.
Would you prefer if it was like the Dragonrider / Freja theme where the second is an altered form of the first?
 

J_Viper

Member
This second DLC area is HORRIBLE

I've constantly read claims on how much superior to the main game the DLC areas were but I've only found myself in frustration, and not the fun, challenging frustration of the main content.
 

RiggyRob

Member
Would you prefer if it was like the Dragonrider / Freja theme where the second is an altered form of the first?

That's much better - not only is there the thematic link (Dragonrider + the dead dragon in Freja's lair), but it isn't just straight up copied and pasted, they made some effort to distinguish the two.

This second DLC area is HORRIBLE

I've constantly read claims on how much superior to the main game the DLC areas were but I've only found myself in frustration, and not the fun, challenging frustration of the main content.

Iron Passage? Yeah, it's pretty rough - I haven't even bothered with Frigid Outskirts and I don't think I will to be honest.
 

Novocaine

Member
This second DLC area is HORRIBLE

I've constantly read claims on how much superior to the main game the DLC areas were but I've only found myself in frustration, and not the fun, challenging frustration of the main content.

Brume Tower was my least favourite of the 3 areas at first but after revisiting it a couple pf times after I figured out the tropes I grew to really like it. Iron Passage still sucks butts though, I avoid it after I get everything I need for it.
 
This second DLC area is HORRIBLE

I've constantly read claims on how much superior to the main game the DLC areas were but I've only found myself in frustration, and not the fun, challenging frustration of the main content.

Na only the first one had really good level design, iron keep has great bosses and the last dlc is meh
 

Arjen

Member
I really liked the level design of Brume Tower, the verticallty, going back to places you couldn't reach before, cool stuff.
 

Risette

A Good Citizen
Does anybody here have a Dragonrider soul they wouldn't mind dropping for me on PS4?

I accidentally popped mine while trying to use my white soapstone ._.
 

Novocaine

Member
Yeah there's actually one in a secret right below the vendor.

Also spoilers
there's a second Dragonrider boss fight that gives the soul again but it will be much further in the game.
 

Chitown B

Member
I keep not starting this game. I 1000G'd DS1 but for some reason I feel like this one will be a let down, and I have read things about it that I don't like. :sigh:

Any DS1 lovers care to chime in on if my concerns are valid?
 

RiggyRob

Member
Episode 17, myself vs Old Iron King: https://youtu.be/VFwH5ehC0UE

It's probably a bit boring to watch a ranged fight against Old Iron King, but if you make a small arena where you can fall into lava and instantly die, the melee options aren't fantastic.

Again, this is another instance where the design of the enemy is much more fearsome (if derivative) than the fight itself. Gotta admit though, fighting a Balrog is pretty epic.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
I keep not starting this game. I 1000G'd DS1 but for some reason I feel like this one will be a let down, and I have read things about it that I don't like. :sigh:

Any DS1 lovers care to chime in on if my concerns are valid?

Most of the complains have been completely overblown, and ignore or hand-wave similar problems in the first game to begin with. I say try it and make your own mind, don't let a specific, niche Internet negativity taint your experience.

Episode 17, myself vs Old Iron King: https://youtu.be/VFwH5ehC0UE

It's probably a bit boring to watch a ranged fight against Old Iron King, but if you make a small arena where you can fall into lava and instantly die, the melee options aren't fantastic.

Again, this is another instance where the design of the enemy is much more fearsome (if derivative) than the fight itself. Gotta admit though, fighting a Balrog is pretty epic.

lol, it's fine to melee, just fight him like Ceaseless Discharge (but with environmental hazards).
 

Tarkus

Member
Iron Passage? Yeah, it's pretty rough - I haven't even bothered with Frigid Outskirts and I don't think I will to be honest.
Frigid Outskirts isn't that bad. If you use the only fixed point of reference that's always visible, the sun, you can get down to Lud and Zallan without much frustration. Use 2 NPC summons to help kill the horses. Don't run from them, kill them or they'll gang bang you at the bottom.
 

Nerokis

Member
Frigid Outskirts isn't that bad. If you use the only fixed point of reference that's always visible, the sun, you can get down to Lud and Zallan without much frustration. Use 2 NPC summons to help kill the horses. Don't run from them, kill them or they'll gang bang you at the bottom.

I didn't think it was bad at all. Short and sweet, if anything. I loved the sudden change of pace. You go from these tightly designed corridors to this tense, wide open space, and finding a house almost simulates the feeling of finding a bonfire in Blighttown. The horses can be tough to deal with, but if you're having trouble, you have 3 NPC summons to choose from.

I remember seeing a lot of frustration directed at the Frigid Outskirts, but I didn't get that experience at all. The Iron Passage, though? Getting through that definitely required dealing with some frustration.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Worth nothing that the Frigid Outskirts got massively nerfed in Scholar. The lulls in the storm are much longer (at least twice as long) which makes it less painful than before.

I used to absolutely hate Frigid Outskirts, but nowadays I think Iron Passage is still way worse. I've sort of made my peace with the Outskirts after doing the whole thing + boss in one attempt with no deaths in the Company of Champions (vanilla PS3 version), I guess. :D
 

RiggyRob

Member
Dark Souls, first boss of the Demon Ruins.

Ah, I haven't played Dark Souls, and if it doesn't get released on PS4 I probably never will.

Frigid Outskirts isn't that bad. If you use the only fixed point of reference that's always visible, the sun, you can get down to Lud and Zallan without much frustration. Use 2 NPC summons to help kill the horses. Don't run from them, kill them or they'll gang bang you at the bottom.

Hmm, in that case I might reconsider it. It would only be for the bragging rights of killing all the bosses (and having an extra video) though, I feel like I've gotten my enjoyment and money's worth out of the DLC (even though I'm playing Scholar of the First Sin so it was there anyway).
 
Episode 17, myself vs Old Iron King: https://youtu.be/VFwH5ehC0UE

It's probably a bit boring to watch a ranged fight against Old Iron King, but if you make a small arena where you can fall into lava and instantly die, the melee options aren't fantastic.

Again, this is another instance where the design of the enemy is much more fearsome (if derivative) than the fight itself. Gotta admit though, fighting a Balrog is pretty epic.

I died a lot during this boss, but he never killed me. I always somehow fell into lava. Hated that boss.
 
Hmm, in that case I might reconsider it. It would only be for the bragging rights of killing all the bosses (and having an extra video) though, I feel like I've gotten my enjoyment and money's worth out of the DLC (even though I'm playing Scholar of the First Sin so it was there anyway).

If the horses are giving you trouble (and you have the strength to manage it), infuse a Mastodon Shield with boltstone... you'll get 100% lightning resist, and you can just laugh off all of the horse attacks. I found this really useful because you want to save as much healing as possible for the boss.
 

Tarkus

Member
Worth nothing that the Frigid Outskirts got massively nerfed in Scholar. The lulls in the storm are much longer (at least twice as long) which makes it less painful than before.

I used to absolutely hate Frigid Outskirts, but nowadays I think Iron Passage is still way worse. I've sort of made my peace with the Outskirts after doing the whole thing + boss in one attempt with no deaths in the Company of Champions (vanilla PS3 version), I guess. :D
Haven't heard this. I thought the DLCs were left alone.
 
I'm at the end of the game now (I think I am: the cat in Majula's dialogue has changed to something along the lines of
"we must part now... Take your throne
, and I've been to every bonfire outside the DLC) and all I need to do before I fight the last boss is the DLC. I've just started the Shulva Sanctum City DLC area, and I was wondering if the DLC gets better?

I've heard that the DLC is the best part of the game, but aside from looking pretty, the enemy layout is horrible so far. Granted, I've only reached the area with the archers on the slope, and a load of those sort of platforms that raise and look like the Parthenon, but the enemy layout up to now is reaching the Demon's Ruins Taurus Demon get-together and Capra Demon corridor from Dark Souls. I want to play through all the DLC , but I'm losing motivation here. It's not particularly difficult if I go through slowly and just pick things off, but it's boring and time consuming.
 
Enemy placement is rather cheap, but also because I wasn't really aware of the poise/stagger mechanism which lead to the kind of playthrough you're describing there. :p
Some of the bosses are actually way more enjoyable than in the maingame, especially the second/third dlc for me. The problem with these games is that I just have to keep coming back untill I defeated every (optional) boss, but there are some shitty parts in there yeah.
 
You're also WAY overlevelled for that fight.

SL 1 is over leveled for that fight. The most damage he has ever done to me was 50% of my health, and that's because I was busy gesturing and taunting him lol.

I don't like SotFS very much, they seem to have just jam packed areas with enemies like freaking Iron Keep and Tower of Heide(although it does make sense that there would be Heide knights there, so I'll give that a pass.) I HATE how they just put so many damn statues everywhere, it impeded my progress a lot :(. I hope it DaS 3 boss fights are difficult regardless of level, because I helped a buttload of people with fighting OIK since he's the boss people seem to have the most difficulty with so I ended up fighting Lost Siner at SL 175 and wrekt her.

I'm at the end of the game now (I think I am: the cat in Majula's dialogue has changed to something along the lines of
"we must part now... Take your throne
, and I've been to every bonfire outside the DLC) and all I need to do before I fight the last boss is the DLC. I've just started the Shulva Sanctum City DLC area, and I was wondering if the DLC gets better?

I've heard that the DLC is the best part of the game, but aside from looking pretty, the enemy layout is horrible so far. Granted, I've only reached the area with the archers on the slope, and a load of those sort of platforms that raise and look like the Parthenon, but the enemy layout up to now is reaching the Demon's Ruins Taurus Demon get-together and Capra Demon corridor from Dark Souls. I want to play through all the DLC , but I'm losing motivation here. It's not particularly difficult if I go through slowly and just pick things off, but it's boring and time consuming.

Yea you're pretty close to the end. As for the DLC
All three DLCs suffered greatly with their optional boss fights, you'll see why I hate them so much.
Crown of The Sunken King has the best level design and puzzles, the gauntlets are bullshit but the required boss fights are alright.
Crown of The Iron King has a really good level design too(I love the first DLC level design more though) and has two of the GREATEST fights ever gauntlets are again utter bullshit.
Crown of The Ivory King doesn't have a particular great level design, but it has a great level mechanic which you'll see
(or perhaps not see amirite guys?)
. However, the gauntlets here a bit less bullshit, so it gets better :p.
 
Great to read the impressions in here. I'm playing the vanilla version and it took around 15 hours for this game to click with me after multiple false starts but I'm finally back innit like the first. Most of the time I loathe baiting enemies one at a time but I feel like it's mandatory in this game, really annoying... But the variety present is fun and I really appreciate lots of items to look at, weapons to experiment with, etc.

I have three of the four great souls, unlocked all the DLCs (but have not ventured into them) and found Drangelic Castle... Currently in the Doors of Pharros and excited to be even close to the end even though I've enjoyed the ride so much.

I feel like there's plenty to legitimately complain about (level design, mini bosses, bosses, just a lot of uninspired or tired content all around) but hell, even 80% Dark Souls is better than the majority of games out there.

Really excited to be playing the GOTY Edition of DaS III when it finally arrives!
 

Nerokis

Member
Worth nothing that the Frigid Outskirts got massively nerfed in Scholar. The lulls in the storm are much longer (at least twice as long) which makes it less painful than before.

I used to absolutely hate Frigid Outskirts, but nowadays I think Iron Passage is still way worse. I've sort of made my peace with the Outskirts after doing the whole thing + boss in one attempt with no deaths in the Company of Champions (vanilla PS3 version), I guess. :D

Ahh, did it? That makes sense. I went into the Outskirts expecting something frustrating, unfair, and badly designed. Sounds like the Scholar version was much improved.
 
Worth nothing that the Frigid Outskirts got massively nerfed in Scholar. The lulls in the storm are much longer (at least twice as long) which makes it less painful than before.

I used to absolutely hate Frigid Outskirts, but nowadays I think Iron Passage is still way worse. I've sort of made my peace with the Outskirts after doing the whole thing + boss in one attempt with no deaths in the Company of Champions (vanilla PS3 version), I guess. :D

Are you for real? I never beat that optional boss in the original DaS 2, I tried like 3 or 4 times. I skipped that place in SotFS because I was like "NO! NOT AGAIN, I HAVE ENOUGH ANTLERS IN MY ASS!" so I went on and killed everything else.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Are you for real? I never beat that optional boss in the original DaS 2, I tried like 3 or 4 times. I skipped that place in SotFS because I was like "NO! NOT AGAIN, I HAVE ENOUGH ANTLERS IN MY ASS!" so I went on and killed everything else.
Yep. My first time doing the Outskirts I died constantly and hated the place. I think I even caved in and summoned a friend for the two pets because I couldn't handle it solo. Later, on a different build (strength build) I decided to solo them, and using the red iron twinblade and a Brightbug I was able to take down the first tiger before the second even jumped down, so that worked out.

So when I was doing that Champion playthrough, I was terrified and postponed doing the Outskirts forever. My Champion was a faith build (it was quite strong before all the nerfs... xD he struggled in the DLCs though) using mostly Heide's Lance and lightning greatswords (lightning-infused claymore, and later Defender Greatsword). So since the Red Iron Twinblade worked out well on my STR I decided to use it again, this time infused with Lightning and buffed with Sunlight Blade. I did the whole Outskirts in one go, staggered the horses constantly with the twinblade so they were not a problem, didn't even die once. Used a brightbug, buffed my twinblade, and then wrecked the tigers. Had some close calls still, I'll admit; I think I had 0 estus left. xD But, the DPS was so good on that thing that I managed to kill the second tiger before it buffed itself (and got that annoying HP regen too) so that went really well. Felt so proud, lol.

Brightbugs are amazing, I use them on the harder bosses all the time now. :D They make a huge difference. I'm not skilled enough to do perfect, no-damage runs; I do try to not get hit, of course, but I am not good enough to be perfect at it, so the Brightbug making me take half the damage and dealing twice as much is a godsend against the DLC bosses.
 
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