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

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
got through the grave of saints, the gutter, and the black gulch this morning. the grave of saints was super easy. the boss fight was quite pathetic. they just have a mob of rats attack you. i kept thinking when the real boss would appear but nope that was it. the gutter area...oh god i hate it. definitely influenced by the upper parts of blighttown. so glad i'm not going back there. had a bit of trouble in the black gulch due to the combination of poison/invaders and those tar pits. took me 3 tries to beat the boss.

on to the shaded woods next. 1 primal soul left.
 

Tarkus

Member
There's an optional section at Brume Tower that's supposed to be done with coop, otherwise it's a great area. I don't get why it gets so much hate. Once you figure it out, it's a breeze. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
 

Novocaine

Member
There's an optional section at Brume Tower that's supposed to be done with coop, otherwise it's a great area. I don't get why it gets so much hate. Once you figure it out, it's a breeze. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I think the key part there is "once you figure it out". Like if you don't know about the curse immunity mask, that makes that spiral ramp part the biggest cunt of an area. Going through it after you know the tropes though I think it's great.
 
Currently fighting Sinh, have no idea how I beat thim the first time, probably got lucky with his RNG so he spammed his easy to avoid attacks.
Would probably have fewer issues if his wings stopped blocking my camera.

NG++ has additional red phantoms. I remember one in the
Frigid Outskirts
lol

Well, after defeating the boss of that... wonderful area, I have sworn to never visit it again.
 
Does anyone remember the changes they made to the mundane infusion and could explain them to me? Because what I'm reading online and what is happening in-game doesn't match up.

To be specific, Santier's Spear has no innate scaling and infusing it with mundane is supposed to make it godlike, except that I just tried it and it makes it kinda shit, apparently there was a change somewhere along the way, but I can't find specifics.

From the discussion of the infusion online, I got the impression that if all your stats are equal, it should scale off all of them and you'd get insane damage because you got a bonus for every single stat. Because I'm a complete fucking lunatic, I leveled all my stats to 50 (please don't judge me), but even then the spear does less damage with the infusion than without it.
How is that supposed to work?

[EDIT]
As a side note, just read about changes to poise in DS3. What the fuck were they thinking?
 
Oh my god. I played DS 3 and Blooborne before I played this game, and this game seems a thousand times harder to me than DS 3 and BB. None of the merchants will buy anything from me. The torches are timed, and can only be lit by a few certain items, and there are a ton of very dark areas. The blacksmith can't work until I find his key. Dudes are throwing exploding molotovs on my head, and hitting me with arrows from every angle, right off the bat at the start of the game. And I have to navigate very narrow paths and make big jumps all the time. Like one hour in! Right off the bat there are dudes with spears and shields who are kicking the crap out of me. Those dudes are harder than some of the bosses in DS3, andt they're scrubs that you fight constantly. The must have toned down BB and DS3 a ton. Either that, or I just have way less patience now or something. This is brutal.
 

Mistel

Banned
Does anyone remember the changes they made to the mundane infusion and could explain them to me?
The infusion was nerfed basically whatever you are reading is very out of date.
Oh my god. I played DS 3 and Blooborne before I played this game, and this game seems a thousand times harder to me than DS 3 and BB. None of the merchants will buy anything from me. The torches are timed, and can only be lit by a few certain items, and there are a ton of very dark areas. The blacksmith can't work until I find his key. Dudes are throwing exploding molotovs on my head, and hitting me with arrows from every angle, right off the bat at the start of the game. And I have to navigate very narrow paths and make big jumps all the time. Like one hour in! Right off the bat there are dudes with spears and shields who are kicking the crap out of me. Those dudes are harder than some of the bosses in DS3, andt they're scrubs that you fight constantly. The must have toned down BB and DS3 a ton. Either that, or I just have way less patience now or something. This is brutal.
DS2 is a lot harder earlier on than any of the other games as everything is generally a lot more aggressive.
 

Novocaine

Member
Just beat Mirror Knight on my XBO play through. I'm up to 5 Sunlight medals. No one is summoning at all. Will be sitting at the King's Gate for a couple of days at this rate.
 
Oh my god. I played DS 3 and Blooborne before I played this game, and this game seems a thousand times harder to me than DS 3 and BB. None of the merchants will buy anything from me. The torches are timed, and can only be lit by a few certain items, and there are a ton of very dark areas. The blacksmith can't work until I find his key. Dudes are throwing exploding molotovs on my head, and hitting me with arrows from every angle, right off the bat at the start of the game. And I have to navigate very narrow paths and make big jumps all the time. Like one hour in! Right off the bat there are dudes with spears and shields who are kicking the crap out of me. Those dudes are harder than some of the bosses in DS3, andt they're scrubs that you fight constantly. The must have toned down BB and DS3 a ton. Either that, or I just have way less patience now or something. This is brutal.

I agree that starting off is brutal, but to clear something up:

Torches are a gimmick, currently I have 10 hours, yes hours, worth of them because you get so many and almost never need to use them, the areas you are referring to are only at the start, only need them again for one corridoor and later one whole area.

There is one merchant that buys stuff, he is accessed much later, but you're not missing much.

Upgrade materials are a bit rare when you first start and should be saved for better weapons than what you start with, so again, not missing much by not having access to a blacksmith right away.

Some early encounter design is shit, no disagreement there.

The infusion was nerfed basically whatever you are reading is very out of date.

Shame, do you remember any details on exactly what changed?
 

Soulhouf

Member
Oh my god. I played DS 3 and Blooborne before I played this game, and this game seems a thousand times harder to me than DS 3 and BB. None of the merchants will buy anything from me. The torches are timed, and can only be lit by a few certain items, and there are a ton of very dark areas. The blacksmith can't work until I find his key. Dudes are throwing exploding molotovs on my head, and hitting me with arrows from every angle, right off the bat at the start of the game. And I have to navigate very narrow paths and make big jumps all the time. Like one hour in! Right off the bat there are dudes with spears and shields who are kicking the crap out of me. Those dudes are harder than some of the bosses in DS3, andt they're scrubs that you fight constantly. The must have toned down BB and DS3 a ton. Either that, or I just have way less patience now or something. This is brutal.

It's not harder, it's different. They changed a lot of fundamental bases of the game, so basically if you play DS2 as you play DS3 or BB it won't work especially in the beginning.
Eventually you'll get used to it and the game will become a lot easier once you assimilate the refinements developers integrated into the game.
In term of feeling, DS2 is definitely the most unique game in the series, even more so than Bloodborne.

Shame, do you remember any details on exactly what changed?

Mundane basically scales on your lowest stat. The scaling used to be very high for santier spear but they nerfed it.
 

Mistel

Banned
I agree that starting off is brutal, but to clear something up:

Torches are a gimmick, currently I have 10 hours, yes hours, worth of them because you get so many and almost never need to use them, the areas you are referring to are only at the start, only need them again for one corridoor and later one whole area.

There is one merchant that buys stuff, he is accessed much later, but you're not missing much.

Upgrade materials are a bit rare when you first start and should be saved for better weapons than what you start with, so again, not missing much by not having access to a blacksmith right away.

Some early encounter design is shit, no disagreement there.



Shame, do you remember any details on exactly what changed?
The blacksmith access isn't more than a half hour trip to do its not too difficult. As for mundane the scaling along with the base damage was lowered. Mundane is pretty useless anyway really.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
got all 4 primal souls!

as i understand it I now need to: go to the undead crypt, get the king ring, go back to the forked road and head north, get the ashen mist heart/x1 soul of a giant, go to cardinal tower and get x3 soul of a giant + giant's kinship, return to black gulch for x1 soul of a giant, fight vendrick, go to throne of want and fight throne keepers/nashandra/aldia. is that right?
 

Unai

Member
After my first playthrough of Dark Souls 1 I gave this game a shot and it didn't click at all, even after a couple dozen hours into the game. There was something I was not enjoying at the basic level and so I stopped playing.

Now after I have played hundreds of hours of Dark Souls 1 and 3 with some bloodborne in between, I tried it again. I realized that what I was having trouble was the character movement. It was very different from all the other games in the series. I googled about it and between "git gud" and "go play skyrim" I fond some good advice. At least the PS4 and PC versions have some weird issues with the left stick dead zone.

So I adjusted these settings in the PC version and holy shit, it makes a huge difference. In the last three days I have played 17 hours of it and filled a page in my notebook about things that I have to check later (I like to play blind). I'm in love with it. I have some days off work and I'll spend most of them playing the shit out of Dark Souls II.

Well, that's it. I just wanted to share this experience.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
After my first playthrough of Dark Souls 1 I gave this game a shot and it didn't click at all, even after a couple dozen hours into the game. There was something I was not enjoying at the basic level and so I stopped playing.

Now after I have played hundreds of hours of Dark Souls 1 and 3 with some bloodborne in between, I tried it again. I realized that what I was having trouble was the character movement. It was very different from all the other games in the series. I googled about it and between "git gud" and "go play skyrim" I fond some good advice. At least the PS4 and PC versions have some weird issues with the left stick dead zone.

So I adjusted these settings in the PC version and holy shit, it makes a huge difference. In the last three days I have played 17 hours of it and filled a page in my notebook about things that I have to check later (I like to play blind). I'm in love with it. I have some days off work and I'll spend most of them playing the shit out of Dark Souls II.

Well, that's it. I just wanted to share this experience.

what settings did you change? the controls put me off at first too and to be honest they still bother me. everyone kept saying i had to lvl up ADP stat (i have it at 99 right now) but the game still doesn't feel as responsive as DS1. there is still a delay between pressing the button and the action happening. it has got me killed way too many times.
 
So, I'm probably one of the few people who are working backwards in the series, as Souls 3 was my very first Souls game. After beating 3 and loving it, I'm now playing Scholars. Is it me or does Scholars have so much more content (I'm not counting the DLC here) than 3? It just feels much bigger and there's more to see/find than 3?
 

Ferr986

Member
So, I'm probably one of the few people who are working backwards in the series, as Souls 3 was my very first Souls game. After beating 3 and loving it, I'm now playing Scholars. Is it me or does Scholars have so much more content (I'm not counting the DLC here) than 3? It just feels much bigger and there's more to see/find than 3?

Yes, it's the longest Soulsborne.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
So, I'm probably one of the few people who are working backwards in the series, as Souls 3 was my very first Souls game. After beating 3 and loving it, I'm now playing Scholars. Is it me or does Scholars have so much more content (I'm not counting the DLC here) than 3? It just feels much bigger and there's more to see/find than 3?

i don't know about 3/bloodborne but i finished DS1 in about 35 hours. i'm just over 30 hours into DS2 and i've only just got the 4 primal souls. still got a good bit to go it seems. that isn't even including DLC. i don't know what that will add.
 

Unai

Member
what settings did you change? the controls put me off at first too and to be honest they still bother me. everyone kept saying i had to lvl up ADP stat (i have it at 99 right now) but the game still doesn't feel as responsive as DS1. there is still a delay between pressing the button and the action happening. it has got me killed way too many times.

The only things I changed were related to the left stick, so it probably won't help you. I found this fix here at reddit.
 

Mistel

Banned
i don't know about 3/bloodborne but i finished DS1 in about 35 hours. i'm just over 30 hours into DS2 and i've only just got the 4 primal souls. still got a good bit to go it seems. that isn't even including DLC. i don't know what that will add.
That's still quite a far way to go with regards to the progress in the game dlc each add a conservative ~6-8 hours depending on skill, build, etc.
 

Unai

Member
I just beat that level with the Dragons and the knights at the end. Oh man, what an amazing game this is.

In the last area I saw a message saying "Keep your composure" or something like that (I wasn't playing in English). The first things I see are clearly enemies but they bowed to me and waited so I could fight the big guy. I thought they were going after me after I killed the big knight but they stood still. And there were so many of them through the whole level! I didn't want to fight them since they were so polite so I just kept going until the end. I'll make sure to come back here when I finish the game to fight them and see what happens.

I think I'm almost at the end of the game. I don't want to see any walkthrough to make sure. People in the Dark Souls III thread said that I can wait to go to New Game+ in this one too so after the credits I'll come back to revisit some places (I have like 3 pages in my notebook with notes about some places).

Anyway, I'm rocking a Greatsword +10 for the first time in this series and loving it very much. I also have an Estoc +10 and Short Bow +9 in the other hand, using an upgraded Elite Knight Set because, well, it looks very good. Not using magic of any kind.

Next I'm thinking if I go open the door at the Castle using the king's ring or if I go to some shirines that I saw all over the game (I guess these places are the DLC areas?).

Edit: Just finished the main game! Second try on the last boss solo if anyone is interested in seeing it. I even tried to kill those things that were cursing me, without results of course. That was easy compared to Dark Souls 1 and 3. Great game. Now the DLC areas.

Edit 2: Seeing the above video againg killing those things actually worked. I was hit so I thought I wasn't supposed to do that lol. It was very fast.
 

Ferr986

Member
I just beat that level with the Dragons and the knights at the end. Oh man, what an amazing game this is.

In the last area I saw a message saying "Keep your composure" or something like that (I wasn't playing in English). The first things I see are clearly enemies but they bowed to me and waited so I could fight the big guy. I thought they were going after me after I killed the big knight but they stood still. And there were so many of them through the whole level! I didn't want to fight them since they were so polite so I just kept going until the end. I'll make sure to come back here when I finish the game to fight them and see what happens.

I think I'm almost at the end of the game. I don't want to see any walkthrough to make sure. People in the Dark Souls III thread said that I can wait to go to New Game+ in this one too so after the credits I'll come back to revisit some places (I have like 3 pages in my notebook with notes about some places).

Anyway, I'm rocking a Greatsword +10 for the first time in this series and loving it very much. I also have an Estoc +10 and Short Bow +9 in the other hand, using an upgraded Elite Knight Set because, well, it looks very good. Not using magic of any kind.

Next I'm thinking if I go open the door at the Castle using the king's ring or if I go to some shirines that I saw all over the game (I guess these places are the DLC areas?).

Edit: Just finished the main game! Second try on the last boss solo if anyone is interested in seeing it. I even tried to kill those things that were cursing me, without results of course. That was easy compared to Dark Souls 1 and 3. Great game. Now the DLC areas.

Edit 2: Seeing the above video againg killing those things actually worked. I was hit so I thought I wasn't supposed to do that lol. It was very fast.

If you ever do a NG+ run do watch a guide about SOFTS because you missed something extra at the end :)

or if you want to know I spoiler it here (big spoilers of course)
you missed a fight against Aldia after Nashandra. I guess you didn't fight hollow Vendrick, needs to beat him for that end fight to trigger. You get to choose another ending after Aldia.
 

Unai

Member
If you ever do a NG+ run do watch a guide about SOFTS because you missed something extra at the end :)

or if you want to know I spoiler it here (big spoilers of course)
you missed a fight against Aldia after Nashandra. I guess you didn't fight hollow Vendrick, needs to beat him for that end fight to trigger. You get to choose another ending after Aldia.

I'm ok with spoilers from the non DLC areas now. Oh shit, I was planning to go back to Vendrick, but I completely forgot and I didn't write a note about it either. It was so obvious that something had to happen there.

There's always the New Game+.
 
I'm ok with spoilers from the non DLC areas now. Oh shit, I was planning to go back to Vendrick, but I completely forgot and I didn't write a note about it either. It was so obvious that something had to happen there.

There's always the New Game+.

Vendrick sort of has a little quest line, but it sort of involves the DLC indirectly, and you need to be past a certain point in the main story before you can do it.

I'll give you the least spoilery version, but you don't need to read it.
Get the Ashen Mist Heart from Ancient Dragon
Fight Vendrick
Find his armour set
Return to his boss fight area after each DLC is complete
 

Ferr986

Member
Played the game today again, didn't touch it since before DS3 release.
Honestly, the only thing that I needed to adjust was the long attack animations (so you can cancel attacks as early as DS3). Other than that it didn't feel that different.

Played a little with my Pyro, slower than DS3 but it's good to have good useful and damaging spell other than fireballs (and I don't even have GCFB here)
 

Fevaweva

Member
I wish there was a shortcut or at least a quick way to get to the DLC. I was informed that the DLC was best done at NG+ but I really can't be arsed to go through some of those shitty areas (specifically Fuckwit Gulch).
 

Mistel

Banned
I wish there was a shortcut or at least a quick way to get to the DLC. I was informed that the DLC was best done at NG+ but I really can't be arsed to go through some of those shitty areas (specifically Fuckwit Gulch).
You don't need to be in NG+ to get the best out of the DLC there's a few quick trips to access the dlc if anything its just a short walk to all of them.
 

Ferr986

Member
I wish there was a shortcut or at least a quick way to get to the DLC. I was informed that the DLC was best done at NG+ but I really can't be arsed to go through some of those shitty areas (specifically Fuckwit Gulch).

I would say DLC is better done first on NG for a first timer, considering is quite a bit harder than base game.
 

Unai

Member
So, playing Crown of the Old Iron King now, I can't figure out how to get where that enemy in this screenshot is. The door is locked from the other side but I can't see any other places where I could enter, so maybe an illusory wall? Except for that I'm done with this DLC.

It was pretty great.

20160724003755_1dijp7.jpg

Vendrick sort of has a little quest line, but it sort of involves the DLC indirectly, and you need to be past a certain point in the main story before you can do it.

I'll give you the least spoilery version, but you don't need to read it.
Get the Ashen Mist Heart from Ancient Dragon
Fight Vendrick
Find his armour set
Return to his boss fight area after each DLC is complete

Thanks, I'll do that in my next playthrough because it's probably too late now, right?
 

Mistel

Banned
So, playing Crown of the Old Iron King now, I can't figure out how to get where that enemy in this screenshot is. The door is locked from the other side but I can't see any other places where I could enter, so maybe an illusory wall? Except for that I'm done with this DLC.
There is a blockage that blocks the door you need to attack through the door to clear it.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
Took a little break from this to play some other games but started playing again today. Got to Drangleic Castle's first bonfire. Got 11 +5 estus now so just need 1 more shard which I believe is in this area. I'm lvl 118 right now.
 

Novocaine

Member
Thanks, I'll do that in my next playthrough because it's probably too late now, right?

You can do it now, you just won't trigger Aldia until your next play through. You can still do the flashbacks, kill the king and get his soul and armour
I'd say it's worth doing before you start NG+.
 
Ok, so after another long break, I'm back in. I've done some memories and have four giant souls but I'm having a hell of time fighting Vendrick. He staggers me with one swipe, kills me with the second. Not sure where to get more giant souls.

With that in mind, is this about the time I should tackle dlc if I should buy it/them? I'm worried that with how long it's taking me to complete this game, doing the dlc will delay my bloodborne and ds3 playthrough even longer. How long are they (the dlc)?
 

Novocaine

Member
Ok, so after another long break, I'm back in. I've done some memories and have four giant souls but I'm having a hell of time fighting Vendrick. He staggers me with one swipe, kills me with the second. Not sure where to get more giant souls.

With that in mind, is this about the time I should tackle dlc if I should buy it/them? I'm worried that with how long it's taking me to complete this game, doing the dlc will delay my bloodborne and ds3 playthrough even longer. How long are they (the dlc)?

I'd say 6-8 hours a piece for the DLC. Vendrick hits like a truck but he's super slow, you need to take advantage of that. 4 Giant Souls are plenty to kill him, just be patient with it.

Honestly I'd play through NG+ as well but if you're trying to rush it you won't miss too much.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Ok, so after another long break, I'm back in. I've done some memories and have four giant souls but I'm having a hell of time fighting Vendrick. He staggers me with one swipe, kills me with the second. Not sure where to get more giant souls.
Kill the
Ancient Dragon

With that in mind, is this about the time I should tackle dlc if I should buy it/them? I'm worried that with how long it's taking me to complete this game, doing the dlc will delay my bloodborne and ds3 playthrough even longer. How long are they (the dlc)?
Yeah you should be strong enough for the DLCs. They might delay your future playthroughs yes, but they are totally worth it, the best content of the game.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
cleared drangleic castle. it was shorter than expected and the bosses were surprisingly easy. now at the shrine of amana. redistributed my points and now at lvl 124.
 
Ok, so after another long break, I'm back in. I've done some memories and have four giant souls but I'm having a hell of time fighting Vendrick. He staggers me with one swipe, kills me with the second. Not sure where to get more giant souls.

With that in mind, is this about the time I should tackle dlc if I should buy it/them? I'm worried that with how long it's taking me to complete this game, doing the dlc will delay my bloodborne and ds3 playthrough even longer. How long are they (the dlc)?

There's one boss in the DLCs that you can't access until you get the
Ashen Mist Heart
from playing through the main story, but you should be fine to play most of it now. It is a good bit tougher than the main game though.

One of the DLCs could take a while to complete due to it having a tricky area to navigate, but it generally took me like two days to finish each (not playing all day mind you).

I left the DLC until I was ready to fight the final boss, which you can check if you talk to the cat in Majula. Her dialogue changes to a sort of definitive dialogue when the final boss is able to be fought. She starts with saying something like "It seems like we must now part."

Edit: You don't have the DLC yet? Definitely buy them then, they're some of the best content in the game. I played through SotFS, so I'm not sure if it's the same with Vanilla, but you might need to find an item for each DLC to be able to access them, so that could add a bit more time searching for those if you don't use a walkthrough. But as I said, you might just be able to access the DLC if you buy it.
 

Mistel

Banned
Edit: You don't have the DLC yet? Definitely buy them then, they're some of the best content in the game. I played through SotFS, so I'm not sure if it's the same with Vanilla, but you might need to find an item for each DLC to be able to access them, so that could add a bit more time searching for those if you don't use a walkthrough. But as I said, you might just be able to access the DLC if you buy it.
The keys will just be given to them if they're playing the base game.
 
Thanks folks. I think you've sold me on the dlc.

Context of my current progress: I've gotten the Ashen Mist Heart and visited 3 giant memories and the ancient dragon memory. And I must have one from something else, no? I'll have to recheck my count later.

I have the king's ring and basically ready for end game I suppose so I've been using a guide to do a sweep for items I may have missed thanks to acquiring items I may not have known about or remembered that opened certain locked doors earlier in the game.

Hell, I only JUST saved Ornifex before writing that post. And between her and Straid, I've only just done boss soul trading too. Call me crazy.
 
Thanks folks. I think you've sold me on the dlc.

Context of my current progress: I've gotten the Ashen Mist Heart and visited 3 giant memories and the ancient dragon memory. And I must have one from something else, no? I'll have to recheck my count later.

I have the king's ring and basically ready for end game I suppose so I've been using a guide to do a sweep for items I may have missed thanks to acquiring items I may not have known about or remembered that opened certain locked doors earlier in the game.

Hell, I only JUST saved Ornifex before writing that post. And between her and Straid, I've only just done boss soul trading too. Call me crazy.

OK, progress wise you're definitely ready for the DLC.
Unless I'm forgetting something myself that's all of them that you can access for now. You get another 2 memories when you have the DLC, but one of them is added into the main game.
 

Unai

Member
Yesterday I finally found the area I hate the most in the whole series: Frigid Outskirts. I managed to pass it and beat the boss, but holy mother of god, that was annoying. The level design in this area is the oposite of everything I love about Dark Souls. The other parts of the DLC were amazing, though.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
It's not too bad in all honesty. It starts off cool, but then it gets kinda annoying after the first bonfire. As long as you have some form of projectile you should be good.

i'm at the first bonfire in the ruined building. i do have a bow but ran out of arrows just before the next fog gate. there are a load of enemies standing there.
 
i'm at the first bonfire in the ruined building. i do have a bow but ran out of arrows just before the next fog gate. there are a load of enemies standing there.

I'd advise going back to get some arrows, and if possible taking a shield with decent magic defence
 
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