• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

Corpekata

Banned
Anybodies controller not working on PC with the DX11 version? It just doesn't work at all for whatever reason.

I had the issue, it doesn't like my Dolphin Bar. Similar issues in the forums. It doesn't like anything that could be considered a controller. So might need to unplug/uninstall some stuff. Remembered seeing it occur with racing wheels, Shield tablets, and even someone talking about Shadowplay for some reason assigning itself as a controller.
 

derwalde

Member
Im so close to buying this, I didn't get very far in 2 on PS3.

What are the chances I could play without a shield and not face a ton of frustration? I'd love to wield some huge 2 hander but I only ever made it far in DS1 by using a spear and a shield.

Any thoughts? Is a 2 hander viable? What sort of stats should I go for?

I basically want to play as Guts from Berserk

It's very viable. I finished the game about six times soloing all bosses with pure melee dual wield or 2handing. Get about 100 agility and your fine.
 

Neff

Member
Holy shit the weapon durability of 60fps DSII is no joke. I've broken almost everything I've bought/picked up before I've even got the blacksmith's shack unlocked.
 

Mogwai

Member
Holy shit the weapon durability of 60fps DSII is no joke. I've broken almost everything I've bought/picked up before I've even got the blacksmith's shack unlocked.
Yeah. For low durability weapons like curved swords you need two if you want to go anywhere.
 

Neoweee

Member
I'm getting completely owned by the Pursuer, talking 30 to 40 attempts. This feels much harder than Demons, Dark 1 & Bloodborne. Only O&S and 4 Kings during my one bro run gave me anything like this kind of trouble.

He just destroys me in one or two hits, tried parrying, tried the ballista, tried dodging. Main issue being its nearly impossible to line him up for the ballista, the one time I did get the shot off was the closest I've come to killing the fucker.

I may have to come back later in the game but my pride is telling me I have to beat him now.

The game is quite open up to you by that point. Look around more. Going down "that" path of progression is a really steep difficulty curve.

It's a result of the game being so much less linear than the others. if you do Heide's first, there's, like, 7 or 8 bosses you could realistically do next?

After fighting the Pthumerian descendant who throws his boomerangs through the fucking walls I don't want to hear about this ds2 hitbox nonsense anymore. That shit was way more infuriating than anything I've experienced in 150 hrs of DS2. A team my ass.

The Chalice dungeons are like "Everything everyone ever complained about in Dark Souls 2, TO THE EXTREME."

Generally, From software has a bunch of technical issues. Dark Souls 2 has quite a few hurt box issues, but so do all the other games. It's actually the least bad with regards to clipping though, at the expense of shoving almost every boss fight into an open arena.
 

Cyrano

Member
After fighting the Pthumerian descendant who throws his boomerangs through the fucking walls I don't want to hear about this ds2 hitbox nonsense anymore. That shit was way more infuriating than anything I've experienced in 150 hrs of DS2. A team my ass.
Yeah, I'm pretty much in agreement. The hitboxes in Bloodborne are way worse and there are a ton of problems with stuff like grabs and phantom hit detection (though the memory leak bug is still by far the worst bug I've ever seen in a From Software game). At this point, my response is of a, "that's a part of From Software games" mindset. It sucks but it's part of the package.

I still think Bloodborne's a better game overall but yeah, the hitboxes in From Software games? Sketchy.

No matter what part of the series you play, you'll die to bad hitboxes at least once. I feel like I've died to them way more in Bloodborne so far and I haven't even put as many hours into it as DS2 yet!
 

Xeilyn

Member
Bought it yesterday and started playing today. I regretted it at first because its just so slow and the durability really is a huge annoyance.. But then i notcied that there are a bunch of new weapons from the DLC bosses so i guess i can have some fun after all
 

Mogwai

Member
Bought it yesterday and started playing today. I regretted it at first because its just so slow and the durability really is a huge annoyance.. But then i notcied that there are a bunch of new weapons from the DLC bosses so i guess i can have some fun after all
I had the same feeling. It feels a lot slower than Bb, but after a few hours you'll get used to the speed of combat.
 

purg3

slept with Malkin
I never did Lucatiel's quest in vanilla, just found her in Bastille so what bosses do we have to summon her at for the quest again?

3 of the 4 and she has to survive the fight

No-Man's Wharf, Sinner's Rise, Iron Keep, Black Gulch

There's also that ring that pulls aggro, helps with her not getting killed. Forget the name of it though. Or you could always just homeward out if she dies
 

Cyrano

Member
I had the same feeling. It feels a lot slower than Bb, but after a few hours you'll get used to the speed of combat.
I actually greatly prefer the speed of Souls combat to the speed of Bloodborne's combat. Bloodborne's combat despite being visually, for lack of a better term, cooler, is far less satisfying to me. Feels like a pacing issue where Miyazaki wanted faster combat but that meant speeding everything up and as a result there's not a lot of room for rumination. The Souls combat experience being a bit more heady was what I really dug about it.
 

Neoweee

Member
keep losing my souls and enemies aint respawning

dun goofed

farmed 40k souls,died from falling

all gone

Spend them! How much does a Soul Level cost for you now?

Homeward Bones are the equivalents of Bold Hunter Marks. Very useful for not losing souls.
 
The aggro changes can be kind of infuriating. If you try to run past enemies in No Man's Wharf you'll look behind you and have a 20 man mob following.
 
It's very viable. I finished the game about six times soloing all bosses with pure melee dual wield or 2handing. Get about 100 agility and your fine.

This ^

Time your dodges, and invest points in agility to improve the invulnerability time of your dodges. Shields are for players who don't want to bother with dodge timing.
 

purg3

slept with Malkin
The aggro changes can be kind of infuriating. If you try to run past enemies in No Man's Wharf you'll look behind you and have a 20 man mob following.

haha, this is going to be fun. Hated that area, after my first time through I would always just run past everything.
 

idonteven

Member
Spend them! How much does a Soul Level cost for you now?

Homeward Bones are the equivalents of Bold Hunter Marks. Very useful for not losing souls.

i tried to but each time i wanted to go get my souls back i died,fell,or got ganked by dudes that i didnt see because they appeared to be dead

i am in some forrest and i think i died here more than bloodborne in total
 

Neoweee

Member
i tried to but each time i wanted to go get my souls back i died,fell,or got ganked by dudes that i didnt see because they appeared to be dead

i am in some forrest and i think i died here more than bloodborne in total

When you have enough souls to get 2 levels or so, head back. It isn't worth losing them over nothing. That's always been one of the keys to the series for me; claw out every bit of level advantage that you can.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Are we coming to terms that FROM creates janky, but ultimately great games?

That makes a quite big difference from he original.

And makes quite a bit of sense seeing as the one dragon they're protecting is also friendly unless provoked.

It was a feature even when it was just in the PC version.

I always said so :p

Well, the bug does exist. In the 360 and PS3 versions. No wonder so many people claimed it was easier with enemy attacks being slowed down and weapon durability doubling!
 

Cyrano

Member
When you have enough souls to get 2 levels or so, head back. It isn't worth losing them over nothing. That's always been one of the keys to the series for me; claw out every bit of level advantage that you can.
Yeah, Dark Souls 2 requires a bit more patience than Bloodborne.

Also can you name the area specifically?

http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/file/view/drangleic_map_dlc.jpg
Are we coming to terms that FROM creates janky, but ultimately great games?
I suspect whatever disappointed community that will inevitably emerge out of any FROM videogame will likely never come to terms. We built this city on Eldritch Horrors! Woo!
 

idonteven

Member
Yeah, Dark Souls 2 requires a bit more patience than Bloodborne.

Also can you name the area specifically?

http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/file/view/drangleic_map_dlc.jpg

I suspect whatever disappointed community that will inevitably emerge out of any FROM videogame will likely never come to terms. We built this city on Eldritch Horrors! Woo!

huntman copse,trying to get over some huge bridge to get my souls back,but each time i get 1 hit killed by some red phantom

edit:and i lost 15k souls again
 

Cyrano

Member
huntman copse,trying to get over some huge bridge to get my souls back,but each time i get 1 hit killed by some red phantom

edit:and i lost 15k souls again
Hm... that's not a terribly difficult area, is there a specific part you're dying at a lot? The enemies in the Copse (especially the skeletons) are all pretty weak to strike damage, though that's probably overly-generic advice you've heard already. If you're trying to beat the Chariot, I would suggest trying the boss later.
 
Im so close to buying this, I didn't get very far in 2 on PS3.

What are the chances I could play without a shield and not face a ton of frustration? I'd love to wield some huge 2 hander but I only ever made it far in DS1 by using a spear and a shield.

Any thoughts? Is a 2 hander viable? What sort of stats should I go for?

I basically want to play as Guts from Berserk

If you're good at dodging it's certainly possible. When I first got the game I literally did a powerstance run with no shield. Ruined Sentinels gave me a ton of deaths, but I didn't know how to do the fight and I was using battle axes (atleast the initial launch patch maces did so much more damage in pve). It's certainly possible but I'd say pump some points into ADPT early (to 20 atleast). Two hand should be easier than pure power stance because of your ability to handle packs of mobs easier.

I've been out of the loop awhile but are blunt(strike?) weapons still far better for pve? I remember the difference that most mobs took in damage was significant. The club was a godly starting weapon.
 

Steel

Banned
Im so close to buying this, I didn't get very far in 2 on PS3.

What are the chances I could play without a shield and not face a ton of frustration? I'd love to wield some huge 2 hander but I only ever made it far in DS1 by using a spear and a shield.

Any thoughts? Is a 2 hander viable? What sort of stats should I go for?

I basically want to play as Guts from Berserk

If you're going for a guts build it's pretty easy actually. The reach and stopping power of Ultra Greatswords trivialize PvE when you two-hand. On the other hand that type of build sucks for PvP because you'll either never hit anyone with it or get parried all the time because they see your attacks coming from a mile away(though with the way blow trading works in DS2 it's more viable than DS1).

2H only really gets hard if you use short weapons(Which were great for PvP in DS1 but suck in PvP in DS2 due to broken poise). In that case you actually have to worry about your enemy not being staggered the first hit, about getting well into the enemy's range and dodging.

I never used a shield in any souls game and most the friends I got into souls never bothered with shields either. You'll probably be fine.
 

idonteven

Member
Hm... that's not a terribly difficult area, is there a specific part you're dying at a lot? The enemies in the Copse (especially the skeletons) are all pretty weak to strike damage, though that's probably overly-generic advice you've heard already. If you're trying to beat the Chariot, I would suggest trying the boss later.

everything is just 1 or 2 hitting me
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
It was a feature even when it was just in the PC version.

I always said so :p

feels worse now. I finished vanilla never had any trouble, now my fire sword barely lasts a few fights in bastille for example /shrug

not gonna lie, might be Souls fatigue (just finished BB afterall) but im not feeling this. Think ill move on to Pilars of Eternity for now (which seems neat!) and tackle this in a few months
 

Cyrano

Member
everything is just 1 or 2 hitting me
Make sure you've got the
Ring of Binding equipped and if you don't already, go purchase a Royal Kite Shield from Steady Hand McDuff
. These will generally keep you alive through most any hit. Also, I guess coming from Bloodborne, in general you don't want to get hit by things in Dark Souls 2. Better to dodge or block an attack and respond while the enemy is recovering.

edit: I would play Pillars but there are just too many bugs for me to want to risk it right now. Don't wanna lose a save in a game as large as that.
 

Xeilyn

Member
I had the same feeling. It feels a lot slower than Bb, but after a few hours you'll get used to the speed of combat.
Yeah ive been playing a bit more now and im starting to get more comfortable. Still feeling that BB itch though so i might go back and forth between em
 
Does this version still have the stat upgrades where it is more efficient to flip flop between two different stats (for instance endurance and adaptability) to get more gains? I remember that being a thing in the original, where doing that you would end up with higher stats than if you were to just dump points into either of those all at once, even if it ended up being the same amount of points.

I've gotten a little farther now and am getting back into the feel of DS2 combat coming off of Bloodborne. Bloodborne's speed and generous invincibility frames gives you so many bad habits. You can't just spam out dodge in this game and hope for the best, you really have to watch your stamina meter and time them right.

I think they've made some changes to the overall flow of the game to ease people in better with how you explore the world. I noticed there is now a statue blocking the way to the Ruin Sentinels that wasn't there before, and this is probably to deter people who went straight into the Forest and beat the Fort and
Pursuer then flew to Lost Bastille immediately.
. This is what I did when it originally came out and ended up beating my head stubbornly against the Ruin Sentinels until I beat them, however I knew there had to be another path to go but newer fans might not. With the statue in the way it makes it obvious that it's gated by something so you could spend the item or money and go through or go find another path that might be give better progress.
 

Cyrano

Member
I've gotten a little farther now and am getting back into the feel of DS2 combat coming off of Bloodborne. Bloodborne's speed and generous invincibility frames gives you so many bad habits. You can't just spam out dodge in this game and hope for the best, you really have to watch your stamina meter and time them right.
Yeah, they are really different feelings. Out of curiosity, do you prefer one or the other, or are they too different to make that kind of comparison?
 

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
When you have enough souls to get 2 levels or so, head back. It isn't worth losing them over nothing. That's always been one of the keys to the series for me; claw out every bit of level advantage that you can.

This is really important on your first run through.

If you wind up losing lots of souls and get frustrated, remember you can bank a decent amount of souls by summoning on bosses. I farmed the boss of Lost Bastille a decent amount my first play through. It's MUCH smoother in DS2 than it is in BB's broken-ass system.
 

ghostjoke

Banned
I got through there like 2nd time in my first playthrough. Next playthrough, I died like 25 times trying to do it.

I also beat the Capra Demon my very first time. Doesn't always mean it doesn't have some level of cheapness to it.

I dunno, I just died once on first playthrough, thought "those arrows are smarts, I need to make sure any kickback hits me against the wall" and I never had a problem. I'm just annoyed that Dark Souls 2 is frustrating instead of fun to me. I feel like I'm trying to grasp concepts that I already know. I've learnt shields are not the way to go most of the time, that briefly helped, but then they stick an archer in an annoying place with a half a dozen tanky enemies and everything turns into a mess of stun locking and kickback.

I'm praying that there is just some fundamental aspect of DS1 engrained in me that doesn't carry over well to DS2 and once I understand that I will reach clairvoyance and begin having fun. I've been pouring out souls (which is seriously worrying to me) to test different weapons/combos/tactics with the exact same underlining enemy placement/swarming problem corrupting the entire thing. I want my friend to be wrong and that Dark Souls 2 actually hard, not just pretends to be hard through artificial means as its primary thing.

Maybe I was more forgiving to DS1 because of the world. DS2 feels weird with its overpopulation (relatively) and lack of general, how to put it, DS1's world felt like it was on it's last grasps, but now I'm to believe it just kept trucking and improved? It doesn't feel right.

I never got the Capra Demon either, kill wolves asap, bombs help, then the boss itself is a cakewalk. The one boss (on my first time) I had major issues with was The Four Kings (like 10+ deaths) but then realised I was just doing it wrong and had to be all out assault.
 

Pimpn Drop Bear

Neo Member
Nah it's nothing to do with the dragon egg, I took the egg and then continued the rest of the way. I still maintain its now thought of as spectators watching a series of duels, in each area the onlookers go through animations once you arrive, as your fighting, and before you leave. The only time I ever caught aggro on them was in the second group, when I tried to run past the stone knight and run to the next area they followed me. When I respawned at the bonfire and went back to that area they were back to neutral.

I found the run up to the ancient dragon actually easier here, as in the vanilla version there were a dozen dudes to fight, here there were only four or five

Yep I'll just leave this here again....
 

Gbraga

Member
I guess i am only one who like the new enemy placements , it feels more alive and for example Heide knights are actually in Heide or Pursuer acrually pursuing ;-)
Only in IK they went bit overboard but its not really that bad, some pople just oveexagerate it as i never aggroed that much guys like on some screens without stupidly running around

More Pursuer fights is indeed cool, I agree.

Heide knights in Heide seems like they just listened to random complains instead of actually thinking their enemy placement.

So they put a few Heide Knights in Heide, and instead of having one Heide Knight and a few soldiers in Forest of the Fallen Giants, you have a billion soldiers.

They seem to think that more is always better. We have more memory now? Then up the aggro range, 99x99 pvp, 999 players co-op, 2 billion troops.

And remove the lion warriors because reasons.

EDIT: Oh, right, they also added a ton of NPC invaders, especially mages, just because they apparently hate people who rush through enemies.

I had to kill the invader in Iron Keep to procceed, I wasn't able to before that.

About the Dragon Aerie millions of enemies in the stairways, they weren't a problem at all, actually. You can easily run past them, but when you do get to the Ancient Dragon and look back and see 6 million dragon dudes chasing you, I couldn't help but laugh at how absolutely ridiculous that was. The enemy placement is at best nonsensical, and very frustrating at worst.

finding most of the bosses easier than the mobs in this game

They are, unfortunately. One of the main reasons why Dark Souls II was inferior to the first to me is the less inspired and less challenging boss fights.
 

Gbraga

Member
Everything but your weapon constantly breaking.

I will have to get that spear that never breaks, unless it was nerfed.

I never had a weapon breaking in 150 hours of vanilla Dark Souls II or the 8~9 hours I played of Scholar of the First Sin.

Stop hitting dead bodies, I guess?

I'm not gonna defend how much durability you lose by hitting dead bodies, it's indeed absurd, but having weapons breaking is not really inevitable, it's still your fault.

And I played Dark II for the first time with katanas, they did shit damage/stagger compared to other weapons and had low durability.

Use the generous bonfire placement in your favor, time your attacks, use the ring that helps with durability. Carry a couple of repair powders with you just in case.
 
The bottom floor outside the exile bonfire is pretty great. They added 3 more dogs, multiple archers sniping you, and a mini boss all at once. Huzzah!
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
aw man, Pursuer despawns if you run away in bastille, I opened that chest near the first bonfire, he showed and I ran out the door, and he despawned :(

I didnt even see what the chest had when I opened lol, I got the items whatever they were and I was outta there!
 
I'm not planning to buy the upgrade because I find the vanilla game to be shit.


But did they fix the AI for the NPC like Lucatiel?

Do enemies still aggro all at once instead how it is in Dark Souls and Bloodborne?

Is the hitreg still bad in PvP?
 

Mogwai

Member
About the Dragon Aerie millions of enemies in the stairways, they weren't a problem at all, actually. You can easily run past them, but when you do get to the Ancient Dragon and look back and see 6 million dragon dudes chasing you, I couldn't help but laugh at how absolutely ridiculous that was. The enemy placement is at best nonsensical, and very frustrating at worst.
It wasn't really an easy sprint. You could easily end up dying if the small one before the door did a jump at you. You would then be smashed by the big guys.
 

Tarkus

Member
If you're going for a guts build it's pretty easy actually. The reach and stopping power of Ultra Greatswords trivialize PvE when you two-hand. On the other hand that type of build sucks for PvP because you'll either never hit anyone with it or get parried all the time because they see your attacks coming from a mile away(though with the way blow trading works in DS2 it's more viable than DS1).
The light and strong attacks of a 2-handed ultra greatsword cannot be parried. Ultras are fine for PvP, you just have the timing down.
 
Top Bottom