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

Time your healing better.


The agape ring isn't a perfect fix but it should serve. As should the name-engraved ring which greatly increases the soul memory range. I've done full coop runs with different friends and we did our own solo adventures/farming/etc. on the side and it was never an issue.

As for the hitboxes, it's been discussed before, and it's true they are generally weaker than in the other games, though raising agility to 99 makes it not too bad. I don't recall the enemies hitting you at the start of their animation to be a common problem though? I think it might have happened once or twice but it's greatly exaggerated IMO.

Sometimes the hitboxes are surprisingly good. The giant knights in Heide, for instance, will whiff their horizontal sweep if you are "ducked" (from casting something, for example) because they are so tall. I found that neat. The worst hitboxes are grab attacks which have a vacuum bullshit property to them, they're really frustrating (but also present in other Souls games, though none of them is quite as bad as the mimic's which can grab you from behind LOL).

I time my healings the best. The best. No one times their heals better than me. I'm a great healer. But it is impossible to use estus during the Old Ornstein fight with sub 95 agility without getting hit. At least as a shieldless character.

As for the animation hitboxes. Heide Knights and spear hollows are the most egregious offenders. Try to do a lunging attack against a spear hollow even when it has its shield down. Still looking forward to pickaxe hollows in Brightstone Cove. Honestly I think agility is my main issue. I'm powerbombing magic because apparently magic is dope in DS2. So everything in general feels so much slower than even in Dark Souls 1. Which, I think it's a mistake to gimp all the animation and action speeds to make the stat valuable.
 

Widge

Member
I've just started going through this, as blind as possible so far.

Just killed my first boss, the Last Giant or whatever it was. But the path to that is always the tale.

Went for a sorcery build (which I'll buff up for some weapon use, most likely Dex as I like to thrash away). First death came at the top of a hill to a guy that sat on me. This is Dark Souls.

Pushed my way through to the first significant bonfire after Things Betwixt. Oh man, when you burst through into the sunlight, what a moment. I don't think any of the games have matched that at all.

Eventually figured out that I had to go to the Forest Of The Giants (I think it is) as the "first" path. Been ploughing through there mainly. Not noticing the first bonfire meant many a long trudge. Then it was a case of learning how to get around the room of the play deads effectively. After that, the careful careful corridors before finally getting to the second bonfire. After that, christ, that room with all the bowmen everywhere. That was horrible. Eventually went up the tree instead, got past the fat controller and pushed on.

Now, by this point I'd amassed a decent amount of deaths and playtime. I'd pushed past my benchmark and had quite a wadge of souls and little in terms of healing. After going up a ladder and a dragon dropped off a "fuck nope", I went around the corner and found myself in a room that had a DEATH AHEAD message in there. After narrowly getting out of the way of the deluge of arrows, four horrible dudes then trot out. I had no hope against them and basically had to peg it. I did so, they didn't follow and I ended up in a dusky wing of the castle. I picked off horrible dudes from a distance, declined to run up the large pathway that had GO AHEAD FOR DEATH messages in front of it. A huge fucker with a mace came out but I took him out without a scratch.

Finally, I went through a door and discovered that I was back at the place where I had descended from the second bonfire. The elation of opening a door. What a sensation.

After that, I trotted on down to the boss and got him on my second or third try.
 
Wanted dragon scales for the covenant and farming the imperfects was a pain in the ass. So I did PvP on purpose for the first time in any Souls game.
Because I'm a complete jackass I did it wearing the Ironclad set + powerstancing Orma&Reeve + Forbidden Suns in case I need to burst someone down from a distance. Even though I'm level 686 with 260m SM, I had no trouble finding people to duel with.

Orma&Reeve confuse the everloving fuck out of people, had encounters where my opponent didn't seem to know these things even existed, let alone what they are or how they work. Their damage is absurd, had a fight against someone wearing full Havels, two proper hits and 90%+ of their HP was gone. Pretty good tracking too, with the camera unlocked you can make a ~270° circle during the attack animation. Pretend to have terrible tracking by staying locked on, and when they attempt to backstab you, unlock and do a 180°.
Also, everyone underestimates the reach of the jump attack.
Sadly they are let down by their terrible reach on normal attacks, really long windup and depressingly limited moveset. Both LB and LT are the same attack animation with the same damage, only difference is that with LB you can follow up attacks quickly while LT has more hyperarmor frames (well, that's what I read). Shame they don't have the moveset like the knights that use them do. They also have blocking frames during their attack animation, but they are so few that managing to block anything that way is a matter of luck more than anything else.
 
I need some help with the Steam version of the game it has constantly crashed at startup since I got the game. I have 64-bit windows and my computer specs are:
i5-2500k
8gb
Radeon HD 7970

I have tried many fixes that I have found with a google search like:

Enabling GPU scaling on my amd card and disabling surface format optimization.

Messing with dxcpl.

Trying this thing with the prologue video.

Trying different windows compablity settings.

Using DS2Fix.

Nothing has worked.
 
Started playing about 10 days ago. Already played for 35 hours, which is impressive considering I don't play videogames anymore (this was one of the main reasons I got a PS4).

Anyway, is there a way to farm twinkling titanites?

As for my progress, I beat
the Lost sinner, the big spider whose name includes Duke, and I have to kill the Old Iron King or whatever he's called but died twice trying to take him out.

I need the twinkling titanites for my Drangleic sword (currently +3).
 

Novocaine

Member
You get a metric fuckton of Twinkling Titanite by the end of one play through. After lighting the 4 primal bonfires you'll be able to get it from
the priests in Shrine of Armana
but I'm unsure of any good farming spots beforehand.
 
Thanks for the info.

I'm currently at Black Gulch... figuring out what to do about those poisonous statues.

And I killed the Old Iron King on my second attempt today. Easy enough in the end.
 

Novocaine

Member
Thanks for the info.

I'm currently at Black Gulch... figuring out what to do about those poisonous statues.

And I killed the Old Iron King on my second attempt today. Easy enough in the end.


You can break them, rest at a bonfire and they will stay broken. But if you die they respawn. A basic Lifegem usually offsets the poison damage okay.
 
You can break them, rest at a bonfire and they will stay broken. But if you die they respawn. A basic Lifegem usually offsets the poison damage okay.

Yeah, that I had already figured out. Oh well. We'll see. Won't play again until tomorrow after work.

Just realized I miss at least one boss somewhere (Smelter Demon I gave up on trying for now), it's the Rat Authority I think. Hmm...

Loving this game, but I see that a lot of people hated it. Wondering why.

edit for pandora12: yeah, a lot of people online on the PS4 version. When I put down my white sign (farming, fuck yeah), it usually doesn't take long to be summoned. Like a couple minutes.
 

Widge

Member
Loving this game, but I see that a lot of people hated it. Wondering why.

I see two statements in conjunction with others.

All Dark Souls games are better than most games.
Dark Souls 2 is crap compared to the rest of the series.

Remove the comparison to the rest of the series and you are left with a game that is one of the best you can get your hands on.
 
I know this is very off topic but I don't know where else to go Souls GAF... I need help in Dark souls 2 Scholar for PS4 in Hunters Copse so bad :-( SOS, please & thanks.

In my first run, level 49 done 3 co-ops not to filmilar with the soul memory mechanic.
 

Novocaine

Member
I know this is very off topic but I don't know where else to go Souls GAF... I need help in Dark souls 2 Scholar for PS4 in Hunters Copse so bad :-( SOS, please & thanks.

In my first run, level 49 done 3 co-ops not to filmilar with the soul memory mechanic.

What area are you having trouble?

If it's the 3 skeletons boss there are summons available in the tunnel but you need to unlock the cage and talk to Creighton. Bashful Ray is in one of the huts. NPC summons for the boss along the other path are basically useless but you could use Ray to help you with the invader.

I don't have anybody that low level or I'd jump on for you.
 
What area are you having trouble?

If it's the 3 skeletons boss there are summons available in the tunnel but you need to unlock the cage and talk to Creighton. Bashful Ray is in one of the huts. NPC summons for the boss along the other path are basically useless but you could use Ray to help you with the invader.

I don't have anybody that low level or I'd jump on for you.

It was that NPC invader! Big shield guy. I got passed though & can't summon for chariot.

Creighton used up & Bashful rays duty was fulfilled when he killed the girl invade apparently.
 

Novocaine

Member
It was that NPC invader! Big shield guy. I got passed though & can't summon for chariot.

Creighton used up & Bashful rays duty was fulfilled when he killed the girl invade apparently.

You don't want NPC's for chariot anyway, they will die without offering much help. Chariot isn't too hard, you can take your time. Once you know where the summoners are beeline to them. Chariot will kill the skeletons. Then just don't stand near the chariots back or front.
 
You don't want NPC's for chariot anyway, they will die without offering much help. Chariot isn't too hard, you can take your time. Once you know where the summoners are beeline to them. Chariot will kill the skeletons. Then just don't stand near the chariots back or front.

Shit is just getting annoying man.
His tracking with his stomp is ridiculous
 

tebunker

Banned
Man I wish I had found this thread months ago when I started my play through.

Right now I just finished the Sunken King, the Iron king and at the doorstep of the Ivory King.

I'll have to come back and completely share my bad build, but it has worked so far.

I went with a 50 Dex, 30 Str , Adp 30 going to 35 atm, and then Vit which is at 30 and I just plan to dump whatever is left as I go along to the end. Dual wield build using Falchion +10 and Black Stinger +5


I hadn't really gotten frustrated with the game until Brume Tower and now Eleum Loyce. I get it that they are dlc and meant to be tougher, and overall I've enjoyed the step up in challenge. I just wasn't fully prepared for it coming off how easy the end game had been up till then.
 

Zocano

Member
I went with a 50 Dex, 30 Str , Adp 30 going to 35 atm, and then Vit which is at 30 and I just plan to dump whatever is left as I go along to the end. Dual wield build using Falchion +10 and Black Stinger +5

Brume Tower is probably (definitely?) the hardest of the three DLC areas. Eleum Loyce is a god damn fun one though in its own right.

I've personally never been a fan of the dual wield builds. Think the animation for the dual attacks always takes too long with not enough stagger when you need it to offset the attack animations. The stats themselves are fine but you might want to mention your endurance. Stamina is not something to skip out on.
 

tebunker

Banned
Brume Tower is probably (definitely?) the hardest of the three DLC areas. Eleum Loyce is a god damn fun one though in its own right.

I've personally never been a fan of the dual wield builds. Think the animation for the dual attacks always takes too long with not enough stagger when you need it to offset the attack animations. The stats themselves are fine but you might want to mention your endurance. Stamina is not something to skip out on.

Looking forward to going through unfrozen Eleum Loyce now.

End is only 20. It hasn't really been an issue, but I guess I could bump it up some more. Not put anymore in to Adp or Vit. I pretty much rely on Cloranthy ring though..
 

6for8

Member
anyone willing to help?

Don't have any tips if you are getting to the final stage of the fight, just don't get hit :) You can do damage to it before the final form but that is tricky. You can also roll through the wheels making the first part easier.

It appears you are on ps4, I will send an a request to psn id in your profile. Should be able to coop if that is something you like to do.
 
Don't have any tips if you are getting to the final stage of the fight, just don't get hit :) You can do damage to it before the final form but that is tricky. You can also roll through the wheels making the first part easier.

It appears you are on ps4, I will send an a request to psn id in your profile. Should be able to coop if that is something you like to do.

YES, I want to co-op the rest of the game honestly, just want to have fun :-(
 

tebunker

Banned
Just wanted to come back and say today I discovered there is no path...

Enjoyed this game almost as much as the first. Parts were better and parts were worse. I found it very satisfying and all dlc was well made. Worth the purchase. Looking at Blooborne and DS3 on the shlf now begging to be played, but I will probably take a breather on the games for a minute.

Doubt I will play NG+. I didn't do it for the first two games, and I rarely replay games as it is. But I may go in from time to time and drop my summon sign by the bosses so I can help out if possible.
 
Can I delay moving on to NG+ after beating the final boss like you can with Dark Souls 3? I will want to play through the DLC areas, but I may want to take a break from souls before starting them and just finish the main game first.
 
Eleum Loyce started out so promising. And then the winds stop and the ice shatters and it becomes a hell hole. Bone Wheel Skeletons have nothing on Sonic The Hedgehog. Fuck these things holy shit. They poise break just by existing and their rolls takes away more stamina than any bone wheel hit does. Just awful. And bonfire placement is abysmal, forcing you to run through a gauntlet of enemies just get back to the hedgehog area. And there's no cover once the ice shatters and some enemies don't kite to you. Eleum Loyce perfectly represents my biggest issue with Dark Souls 2's design philosophy. Not hard enough? Just add more dudes. Which wouldn't be an issue if the level design accommodated it. Luring and kiting off individual enemies is standard souls strategy. But this DLC is ridiculous where every other room is just a flat square box that requires this strategy and it makes it such a slow boring trek. It started off so well, reminding me of classic souls level design. But damn it falls off a cliff after you beat Aava.
 
No need I'm putting in an order now.
Yeah I figured with the GOTY edition of Bloodborne already out we're probably locked in as far as published content goes which is when these books are usually issued.

For those wondering, it's beautiful to look at stuff like this in a pleasant hardcover-

61lki2BnHlL.jpg

and the lore explanations are diverse and essential to understand what's happening imo
 

Novocaine

Member
Aww man it's not hardcover?

Think ill wait. Although I'm keen as anything to flip through this thing.

I love the DS 1/2 design works, and even the one that came with DS3 that did the trilogy was great. But I want the Design Works.
 
Got my ass repeatedly handed to me in the Dragon Sanctum.

Oh, finally beat the game a few days ago... didn't parry a single enemy in the 80 hours it took me to see the credits roll.
 
I lied I'm back to conquer the DLC after completing another run of DS1. While Sanctum and the ice hole keep wrecking my shit I've been wandering through Brume and enjoying it the beautiful scenery.

These games and lava mountain environments are so tasty!
 

MrOogieBoogie

BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
Playing Scholar of the First Sin for the first time and loving it, though weapons seem more powerful in general in this game. Most recently I cleared out the Iron Keep, and everything up to the Gutter with a Bandit Axe +1 and a Dragon Tooth. The latter in particular is a MONSTER when it's two-wielded. Is there a better strength weapon in the game?
 

Novocaine

Member
Playing Scholar of the First Sin for the first time and loving it, though weapons seem more powerful in general in this game. Most recently I cleared out the Iron Keep, and everything up to the Gutter with a Bandit Axe +1 and a Dragon Tooth. The latter in particular is a MONSTER when it's two-wielded. Is there a better strength weapon in the game?

My favourite STR weapons would have to be the Greatsword from No Man's Wharf, the Fume Ultra GS from Iron King DLC, and the King's Ultra Greatsword from the Kings soul. The latter is by far my all time favourite, you just obliterate enemies with that thing.
 

MrOogieBoogie

BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
Scholar of the First Sin:

When should I do the DLCs, and in what order?

For reference, I'm currently in the Shaded Woods for the first time at SL 102, but I've done everything up to and including the Black Gulch. I've already got the keys to at least two DLCs, and I've seen the crystals that transport you to them.

So...?
 

Novocaine

Member
Scholar of the First Sin:

When should I do the DLCs, and in what order?

For reference, I'm currently in the Shaded Woods for the first time at SL 102, but I've done everything up to and including the Black Gulch. I've already got the keys to at least two DLCs, and I've seen the crystals that transport you to them.

So...?

They are a step up in difficulty from the rest of the game. I'd do them when you're done with everything else. Order isn't important but release order was Sunken > Iron > Frozen
 
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