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

N

Neoweee

Member
Swuabino said:
IrKe SPOILER:
In the huge room just before Smelter Demon, they've increased the number of Knights/Archers, changed their placement, and modified the AI so they aggro you from anywhere in the room. Every time I tried to make a run for the boss room, I would very quickly find myself surrounded by about 8-9 Knights and 3-4 Archers shooting at me. Basically the only way to even reach the boss is to kite enemies one at a time back to the entrance until the room is (mostly) empty. Considering how long the run is, and the fact that Smelter is one of the more challenging bosses in the game, the whole situation seems like overkill.
Click to expand...

Is that boss still optional, though?
 
H

HeelPower

Member
Swuabino said:
In the huge room just before Smelter Demon, they've increased the number of Knights/Archers, changed their placement, and modified the AI so they aggro you from anywhere in the room. Every time I tried to make a run for the boss room, I would very quickly find myself surrounded by about 8-9 Knights and 3-4 Archers shooting at me. Basically the only way to even reach the boss is to kite enemies one at a time back to the entrance until the room is (mostly) empty. Considering how long the run is, and the fact that Smelter is one of the more challenging bosses in the game, the whole situation seems like overkill.
Click to expand...

goddamn it all...

this area was adequately frustrating in vanilla....gah!
 
D

def sim

Member
335300_2015-04-03_000qgu16.png


slowly bashing my way through

i brought adaptability up to 20 to fix dodge roll. this really shouldn't have been a stat
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Neoweee said:
First, if you're having a hard time with the game, check to make sure you didn't join the Company of Champions.

====

When approaching the game's difficulty, there are a few things to keep in mind.

1) This was voted the easiest of the Souls games by GAF (though I disagree with the assessment),

2) Going down and saying "It's harder because of these design choices" misses all of the things that benefit the player. There are a bunch of things that ultimately help the player out, like:

- There are no worthless stats like there are in the other three games.
- If you don't like your spec, or you misplaced a few points, you can respect.
- Crafting comes earlier and at lower cost, and the mechanics are simplified.
- You can upgrade armor.
- There is a far greater variety of weapons and armor to fit your playstyle and current stat build at any time.
- The game is wildly less linear, and even less linear in the updated version due to a few key item placements/purchases.
- Fast travel lets you explore with less effort, and allows you to look for alternatives if you're having difficulty with any area or boss.
- There's overall much greater build variety and balance.
- It is much easier to do meaningful hybrid builds rather than stacking a single stat-or-two.
- You get four ring slots, and there are a ton of options that effectively "disable" some of the things people dislike about the game design. Durability, soul loss, "humanity"/HP loss, amount of HP loss, too-little poise, too-little poise damage, etc. are all things that, if you're struggling with, have solutions in the early game. Keep exploring!

If you're having difficulty, or think an area sucks, it is so easy to reconfigure your character or try going somewhere else. I found Dark Souls 1 to be frustrating until I figured out what spells/gear were broken as hell, but I felt like this game really allowed me to find my own alternatives and progress at my own pace and interests, and that the solutions weren't just "cheese the fuck out of the game". If you go in expecting the pace or mechanics of Dark Souls 1, it will probably be a miserable experience.

Overall, it is about the same difficulty as Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne, but you have to use mechanics and design to your advantage rather than assuming the mechanics copy over from one of the to other games. You could get away with it going from DeS to Dark Souls, but between "DS"/BB/DkS2, you have to account for the different mechanics.
Click to expand...

A great synopsis of why the game is honestly great and deserves more respect than it deserves. The sheer diversity of the game's builds alone make the game much more repayable than DkS 1 in particular.
 
O

Orochinagis

Member
Swuabino said:
In the huge room just before Smelter Demon, they've increased the number of Knights/Archers, changed their placement, and modified the AI so they aggro you from anywhere in the room. Every time I tried to make a run for the boss room, I would very quickly find myself surrounded by about 8-9 Knights and 3-4 Archers shooting at me. Basically the only way to even reach the boss is to kite enemies one at a time back to the entrance until the room is (mostly) empty. Considering how long the run is, and the fact that Smelter is one of the more challenging bosses in the game, the whole situation seems like overkill.
Click to expand...

RIP my mage.
 
DaciaJC

DaciaJC

Gold Member
AWizardDidIt said:
Nothing in Dark Souls 2 is more bullshit unfair than the archers in Anor Londo

I don't know. I just don't see it. None of my deaths so far I've felt have been due to "bullshit".
Click to expand...

Ancient Dragon is plenty bullshit. The red phantom in front of the fog gate of Undead Purgatory is most definitely made of bullshit. Getting killed by a Mimic's grab attack when attacking it from the rear - oh, yeah, that's bullshit.

But then, I don't see what's unfair about the Anor Londo archers.
 
C

Chance Hale

Member
Ancient Dragon's seemingly random fireball radius is always fun. The thing some people said about enemies coming through fog gates was a lie right? Haven't downloaded this yet.
 
N

Neoweee

Member
ricochetguro said:
Ancient Dragon's seemingly random fireball radius is always fun. The thing some people said about enemies coming through fog gates was a lie right? Haven't downloaded this yet.
Click to expand...

It's a lie.

They don't go through boss fog gates.

The "thing" is that their chase distances are a little bit longer. The game doesn't snap them back to their original positions so easily.
 
N

Neoweee

Member
Respect said:
Guessing no new info the durability issue?, IE it's intended or it isn't and there is a fix on the way.
Click to expand...

Bandai Namco's response was that it is intended, that you are supposed to lose durability for hitting corpses and walls. That's what they said a year ago, and From has increased durability on the weapons that frequently clobber walls rather than fix the issue directly.

However, B-N's response is weird. Is it supposed be 2x loss compared to a regular hit, or the 3-4x that it currently is? They're just a PR mouthpiece. I'd really like to see anyone the development team give a response, as it seems really weird for corpse hits to be lumped in with wall hits.
 
M

MUnited83

For you.
DaciaJC said:
Ancient Dragon is plenty bullshit. The red phantom in front of the fog gate of Undead Purgatory is most definitely made of bullshit. Getting killed by a Mimic's grab attack when attacking it from the rear - oh, yeah, that's bullshit.

But then, I don't see what's unfair about the Anor Londo archers.
Click to expand...

Neither do I. People kept hyping it up as this big hard unfair moment,and then I got through them the first try. Guess it helped that I was on a light build and was quite used to roll my way through things instead of blocking.
 
N

NBtoaster

Member
It's definitely not intentional. The way it currently is, weapons on the xbox one version will last slightly longer than on the ps4 version because it has a lower average framerate.
 
R

Randam

Member
BernardoOne said:
Neither do I. People kept hyping it up as this big hard unfair moment,and then I got through them the first try. Guess it helped that I was on a light build and was quite used to roll my way through things instead of blocking.
Click to expand...

some here.

found out way later, that that spot gave so many people huge problems.
 
A

AlphaProspector

Member
Ok, played around 8 hours since this version released and I'm about to reach the Iron King boss.

I'm glad they got rid of the asshats in the water catacomb towards the Lost Sinner too. (Replaced by something else much more accessible!)

But, man, you guys weren't kidding about the Iron Keep. I don't recall the Alonne Knights being so god damn vicious and fast, same for the captains! (They drop blacksteel katanas now too!) So far I have noticed the game kind of wants you to summon more people and take advantage of the 3 summons. I've been rolling and engaging in jolly cooperation since the start and it's been a blast. More than ever I guess the aim is to get you to stay human and do co-op.

At least on the first run, where you are still massing stat points and gear, it's a blessing. On NG+ you can embark on a lonelier journey, with far less summons and help but I kind of like the idea of making summons even easier but balancing it out with NPC invaders, who now do gestures and all.

Checking the death stats on PC, the amount of deaths is enormous... So big I now understand the "pools of blood" instead of just bloodstains.

The world feels much livelier too! They definitely populated some areas with more crap and objects too, wish they could've also improved texture tiling.
Entering the Bastille and seeing the belfry gargoyles fly by, the asshole dragon on the way to face the Old Dragonslayer, the soldiers attacking the dead giants, the undead resting or doing anything at the Harvest Valley, the one dude hanging from the bridge at Huntsman Copse and one message saying "Don't give up, hollow", lol.

Oh, and the Pursuer finally lives up to its name, right? It just needs to scream "S.T.A.R.S." and it's full house.

I wonder if they changed stuff in the DLC areas or they left them as is.

Also,
what's up with that Silent Hill-ish shadow in Forest of the Fallen Giants? I learned that attacking stuff that is resting can end up really bad.

So far, been enjoying this rediscovery of the game... but I can see how it's merciless as hell for the newbies. This thing is crushing me from time to time as well!
 
W

watervengeance

Member
I'm playing this game shieldless and stamina management is such a pain in the ass. So far, I've beaten 3 bosses. I must've died to the pursuer like 30 times. He wasn't even that hard back when I was playing with shields. The max-health drain is the worst fucking thing ever.
 
C

Carlius

Banned
watervengeance said:
I'm playing this game shieldless and stamina management is such a pain in the ass. So far, I've beaten 3 bosses. I must've died to the pursuer like 30 times. He wasn't even that hard back when I was playing with shields. The max-health drain is the worst fucking thing ever.
Click to expand...

haha ya, am going shieldless too. so much fun.
 
S

Syder

Member
Just booted this up and I caught out by
the ogre at Crestfallen's Retreat
. I checked out Heide's Tower of Flame [to quickly cheese Dragonrider] to get some quick souls as it's one of my favourite areas and the addition of
the Heide Knights
is an interesting choice, I wonder if the drop rates of their armour has gone up?

Also, does anyone know when GeDoSaTo is going to work with Scholar? I need my pretty Majula.
 
G

Gbraga

Member
Syder said:
Just booted this up and I caught out by
the ogre at Crestfallen's Retreat
. I checked out Heide's Tower of Flame [to quickly cheese Dragonrider] to get some quick souls as it's one of my favourite areas and the addition of
the Heide Knights
is an interesting choice, I wonder if the drop rates of their armour has gone up?

Also, does anyone know when GeDoSaTo is going to work with Scholar? I need my pretty Majula.
Click to expand...

It won't. GeDoSaTo is only for DX9 games.
 
KiteGr

KiteGr

Member
watervengeance said:
I'm playing this game shieldless and stamina management is such a pain in the ass. So far, I've beaten 3 bosses. I must've died to the pursuer like 30 times. He wasn't even that hard back when I was playing with shields. The max-health drain is the worst fucking thing ever.
Click to expand...
You should have been in the Demon's Souls era, where not being human meant half life by default!
 
P

Pimpn Drop Bear

Neo Member
Can anyone point me to a list of where the new locations of sublime bone dust are? I have finished the game and done a pretty thorough check of every area and have only ended up with Estus+4 so I am assuming I am missing one... All optional bosses done just haven't done the dlc
 
L

luckygodzilla

Member
So i boot this up and i notice that the moment that i two hand my sword, my character instantly starts blocking without me actually pressing block. This been happening to anyone else?
 
G

Gbraga

Member
Robot Pants said:
No good? Too random and frustrating with enemy placement?
Click to expand...

Yes, but mainly the new enemy aggro. It makes the original flaws of the vanilla game even worse.

My ranking of the souls series is Dark Souls > Dark Souls II > Demon's Souls, but I'd play Demon's over Scholar any day.

gogosox82 said:
Did you really not like it?
Click to expand...

I really didn't.

Most of the time it isn't really a big issue, Iron Keep is the only place where it gets truly frustrating, but even when it isn't, it feels so pointless. It's like they built an RNG machine to remake the enemy placements. It's so dumb.

Having to use branches to unlock bonfires that are seconds away from another bonfire also isn't really a fix to the bonfire placement, From, haha.
 
P

Pimpn Drop Bear

Neo Member
There were a heap of new petrified people but I don't remember any bonfires being blocked off? Other than the one in lost Bastille which was blocked off in the original too
 
G

gogosox82

Member
Gbraga said:
I really didn't.

Most of the time it isn't really a big issue, Iron Keep is the only place where it gets truly frustrating, but even when it isn't, it feels so pointless. It's like they built an RNG machine to remake the enemy placements. It's so dumb.

Having to use branches to unlock bonfires that are seconds away from another bonfire also isn't really a fix to the bonfire placement, From, haha.
Click to expand...

Hmm. That kinda makes me not want to get this when its cheaper. One of the things I didn't like about DS2 was the way they had packs of enemies aggro on you in awkward places. Just made those encounters annoying instead of challenging and fun for me. Sounds like its much worse in this update. I guess they did this to make you co op. That seems to be a focus in this game which sucks for players like myself who don't want to do co op on every area and every boss and just want do co op when I need some souls or want to get better at fighting a boss.
 
D

Deified Data

Banned
luckygodzilla said:
So i boot this up and i notice that the moment that i two hand my sword, my character instantly starts blocking without me actually pressing block. This been happening to anyone else?
Click to expand...
On PC I take it? M or Z is the hotkey for autoblocking, I think. You can tell if it's off or on by the shield icon below your health bar.
 
G

Gbraga

Member
Pimpn Drop Bear said:
There were a heap of new petrified people but I don't remember any bonfires being blocked off? Other than the one in lost Bastille which was blocked off in the original too
Click to expand...

The one in Black Gulch, for example.

Also a petrified dude in front of the door that leads to the Ruin Sentinels was pretty obnoxious. I'm glad I got one somewhere.

gogosox82 said:
Hmm. That kinda makes me not want to get this when its cheaper. One of the things I didn't like about DS2 was the way they had packs of enemies aggro on you in awkward places. Just made those encounters annoying instead of challenging and fun for me. Sounds like its much worse in this update. I guess they did this to make you co op. That seems to be a focus in this game which sucks for players like myself who don't want to do co op on every area and every boss and just want do co op when I need some souls or want to get better at fighting a boss.
Click to expand...

I'm not really a fan of co-op either. Makes the boss fights too easy, especially in this game, where they're already too easy.
 
S

SiegfriedFM

Member
watervengeance said:
I'm playing this game shieldless and stamina management is such a pain in the ass. So far, I've beaten 3 bosses. I must've died to the pursuer like 30 times. He wasn't even that hard back when I was playing with shields. The max-health drain is the worst fucking thing ever.
Click to expand...

I never use a shield against him. He gets much harder if you try to block.
 
Manus

Manus

Member
I love the new enemy placements and the different locations for some items. Plus the game is a huge step up in visuals from the original.
 
A

AJLma

Member
Played a couple hours of this so far.

Dark Souls 2 is still a really good game, and this may be the best version of it so far. I like the idea of this game being more multiplayer centric. Dark Souls 2 has a huge amount of variety and lends itself well to that.
 
D

def sim

Member
I helped a dude out against the Dragonrider and he already had two other people with him. It was excessive; poor dragonrider didn't deserve that.
 
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