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

Mogwai

Member
Starting as a deprived is rough. Can't use shit but the dagger and that breaks ridiculously fast thanks to our friend durability bug. There are also a lot more enemies than I remember.

The forest is really crowded after the ladder, but you can pull them most of them one by one with a little care.
 

Mifec

Member
I still can't believe how badass the Burnt Ivory King is, like holy fuck no other char in DeS,DS or BB lore is this cool.

Starting as a deprived is rough. Can't use shit but the dagger and that breaks ridiculously fast thanks to our friend durability bug. There are also a lot more enemies than I remember.

It doesn't break ridiculously fast at all.(probably because I am used to the PC version heh) I never had trouble with it, not to mention you can get the fire sword in 5 mins.
 

Rurunaki

Member
I still can't believe how badass the Burnt Ivory King is, like holy fuck no other char in DeS,DS or BB lore is this cool.



It doesn't break ridiculously fast at all.(probably because I am used to the PC version heh) I never had trouble with it, not to mention you can get the fire sword in 5 mins.

He's pretty much Gwyn. There are other bosses that have deeper lore than him.
 

takriel

Member
Bloodborne is amazing, but playing this again in 1080p and at 60 fps is already better for me. And I don't mind 30 fps, but this just plays so much better it's not even funny.
Are you kidding me? The combat is miles better in Bloodborne, at least for me!
 
Not really digging this "new enemy placement". Seems like all they did was add more enemies, and ambushes. Still in the Giant Forest, but this it's already getting annoying. Doesn't help that the enemies are still super aggressive.
 
I still can't believe how badass the Burnt Ivory King is, like holy fuck no other char in DeS,DS or BB lore is this cool.



It doesn't break ridiculously fast at all.(probably because I am used to the PC version heh) I never had trouble with it, not to mention you can get the fire sword in 5 mins.

Which breaks after like 3 enemies as well...;-)
 

Ayt

Banned
Just cheesed that fucking
dragon
. 20 arrows. Oh so challenging...

What's the point of placing it right there? Maybe because the level design and enemies are boring and people just run past everything. "But oh ho ho players will have a surprise. Dark souls is suposed to be haaard."

B team at its best.

I have to agree. They should have done it right and given you a completely overpowered weapon for shooting the tail off from a distance (because that makes sense) followed by running past the dragon breath or avoiding the enemy completely.
 

gelf

Member
It works the other way around aswell. A lot of BBS problems would have been ripped apart DS2 style if it wasn't for the "Miyazaki tax" as I call it, and i loved that game and think it's second only to Dark souls 1. Oh well
Agreed. There are a few sections in BB that I think would have been much more ripped to shit if Miyazaki wasn't involved. He's given much more benefit of the doubt then the DS2 guys.
 

duck_sauce

Gold Member
Finally reached Dranlaic Castle.....i forgot how much i like the armor / weapon / level up options in this game. In that regard i really prefer it to Bloodborne. Bloodborne is a terrific game, but i fell like DS2 has more things to disover and experiment with.

Coop seems all but dead once you reach Dranlaic Castle though.
 

Mogwai

Member
Coop seems all but dead once you reach Dranlaic Castle though.

I noticed this yesterday too. I've set my network settings to worldwide but no one wanted my help for Mirror Knight. Gave it a good 15-20 min wait but nothing happened. There were no summon signs either, except for the NPCs.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
didnt there used to be a kick ass item in the chest before
old dragonslayer
in
hildes tower
? its just 5 humanity now :/

edit: the REAL Dark Souls 2 starts now

onxfvt.png


:3
 
didnt there used to be a kick ass item in the chest before
old dragonslayer
in
hildes tower
? its just 5 humanity now :/

edit: the REAL Dark Souls 2 starts now

http://a.pomf.se/onxfvt.png

:3[/QUOTE]
Is the greatsword still in the location Gavlan use to be?
 
Starting as a deprived is rough. Can't use shit but the dagger and that breaks ridiculously fast thanks to our friend durability bug. There are also a lot more enemies than I remember.

Well now the deprived class is actually deprived

You can clear the forest with the dagger rather easily. The circular area with the tree is actually quite easy as you can kill most of the enemies by backstabbing. If you manage to aggro too much of them at the same time you only have yourself to blame. That area also contains two broken swords should your dagger run out before the second bonfire (it probably will towards the end). Once you get to the second bonfire, you can probably buy a better weapon and/or level up.
 

addyb

Member
i am on my first play through of DS2 SotFS and there is a guarding dragon at the cathedral of the blue? How could i beat him??


I stocked up on arrows and bought a longbow from mcduff and on the platform below him I kept pumping him with arrows, whilst running indoor when he got annoyed and shot a fireball. Around 35 arrows and he was dead.
 

smashism

Member
so
mcduff
is selling infinite large titanite shards pretty early in the game. Anywhere I can farm regular titanite shards as of now?
Just finished No Man's and am halfway through Lost Bastille
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Is the greatsword still in the location Gavlan use to be?

sure is

does anyone remember what was (or what is now if its changed) in that
body inside the cage in lost bastille, the one you have to drop from above
? I can never get that drop onto the small ledge and if its nothing important ill just ignore it

edit: oh wow, you get the
lost bastille key IN the lost bastille now (logic!) so you can actually open the lost sinner side doors and light up the room, cool
 

bigol

Member
so
mcduff
is selling infinite large titanite shards pretty early in the game. Anywhere I can farm regular titanite shards as of now?
Just finished No Man's and am halfway through Lost Bastille

There is
Harvest Valley past Huntsman Copse
 

drotahorror

Member
Just cheesed that fucking
dragon
. 20 arrows. Oh so challenging...

What's the point of placing it right there? Maybe because the level design and enemies are boring and people just run past everything. "But oh ho ho players will have a surprise. Dark souls is suposed to be haaard."

B team at its best.

This guy....

What's the point of fighting it if you're gonna cheese it and then complain on a message board?
 

addyb

Member
So my thoughts. Before I started this a couple of days ago I'd got just past halfway in my bloodborne play through.

Never played the vanilla version of this so new changes are irrelevant to me. I've also finished demons and dark souls in the past. I was worried I would find this mediocre compared to BB but nothing could be further from the truth. I instantly got hooked again and the game kicked my ass all over the forest and heides tower. Honestly I felt like I was playing DeS for the first time again.

Progress wise I'm 4 bosses in. 3 areas done and scoping out a couple more. Never thought I'd say this but I've not even thought about going back to BB and I'm shocked as I frickin LOVE that game. One of the best I've played.

I'm mainly rocking the falchion upgraded to +6. Gotta love the weapon choices on souls. I've always had a soft spot for falchions after falling in love with the crescent one on demons.

The faster loading times are a welcome addition and I think it looks quite nice (PS4 version)

So I'm at that stage again where only souls games matter to me. DSII and bloodborne will occupy my time for the next few months.

This leads me to my final question. I originally played DS on the ps3 and would like to play it again on my laptop once I'm done with these other 2. Is there a definitive edition to buy and any must have mods to make it as good as can be?
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
oh yeah, the poison zone >_>

welp, gonna call it here for now, to be continued

edit: wasnt the
carriage boss
in
huntsman copse
? I didnt find it
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
This guy....

What's the point of fighting it if you're gonna cheese it and then complain on a message board?

This excuse again...

No, this is not how it works. This is Dark Souls: you are supposed to take every opportunity you have, because the game in itself is hard enough as it is. There is no "cheesing" an enemy. If you are able to game the system (without resorting to actual cheats or hacks), then more power to you, because the game will not pull its punches with you. FROM must have known (or, at least, one hopes so) that players will immediately try to find a way to kill that dragon without having to put themselves at immediately risk. How did most people get the Drake Sword in DaS1? By shooting arrows until the tale of the Hellkite Dragon fell off. If FROM didn't anticipate that players would use the same for this dragon, then they clearly don't understand their own games.

The thing with this dragon is that it serves absolutely no purpose beyond making new players go "oh, shit, a dragon!". It has very low health (at least, during NG) and fighting it with melee isn't that much harder than fighting it with arrows from a safe distance. Once you survive the first barrage of fire, you can kill it easily but attacking it repeatedly in the legs. It's not a challenge: it's an annoyance, and a mild one at best. The Heide Knights are a much more dangerous threat in this area: they are fast, they aggro automatically once you've beaten the boss and they have pretty long leashes, so getting rid of them by running away is not that easy.

Seriously, though. Compare it with the Hellkite Dragon from Dark Souls 1 and you'll see how pointless its presence in Scholar of the First Sin is.
 

Sami+

Member
Most enemies have had their placement tweaked to be harder, more fair or just different. But there are other major changes.

Some examples:

Things Betwixt: Sex change coffin blocked by a stone statue, added curse frogs and a pursuer fight
FOFG: Ogre wandering around at the first bonfire, more ironclads thoughout the level
Heide's: Heide Knights added, plus a dragon in front of the cathedral
No Man's Warf: The masked enemies that used to be NG+ only are now regular enemies, additional shortcut between the ship and bonfire.
Bastille: 3x Pursuer fights, enemies near Straid are no longer hostile

FOUR EXTRA PURSUER FIGHTS?

Jesus, that's all I needed to hear. Actively makes the game worse imo. Hated that guy.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
FOUR EXTRA PURSUER FIGHTS?

Jesus, that's all I needed to hear. Actively makes the game worse imo. Hated that guy.

All of them are optional, he despawns if you run away (basically like the
first time you encounter him in for rest of giants
)
 

derFeef

Member
Starting tips for Sorcerer? First time playing an INT class and hopefully it's as satisfying as str/dex like I always did in the past games. I guess I will put some points into dex early as well.
 

Divius

Member
Feels like I am making some progress. Beat the five
Bellfry gargoyles
, '
Ornstein
',
Dragonrider
and
The Lost Sinner
. Some solo, some with help from co-op but when you have a 4 man ganksquad it kinda takes the fun out of it. During the
Ornstein
fight 2 mages shot him from a far, one guy was a tank and I could just sit back and relax.

I also looked up the first thing yet: how to light a torch. lol. Now I can go into the dark area after
Dragonrider
.

Getting more into the game now, thanks to you guys for telling me to raise my adaptability. Feels better already.
 

addyb

Member
Feels like I am making some progress. Beat the five
Bellfry gargoyles
, '
Ornstein
',
Dragonrider
and
The Lost Sinner
. Some solo, some with help from co-op but when you have a 4 man ganksquad it kinda takes the fun out of it. During the
Ornstein
fight 2 mages shot him from a far, one guy was a tank and I could just sit back and relax.

I also looked up the first thing yet: how to light a torch. lol. Now I can go into the dark area after
Dragonrider
.

Getting more into the game now, thanks to you guys for telling me to raise my adaptability. Feels better already.

How do you light a torch?
 

Goldmund

Member
Starting tips for Sorcerer? First time playing an INT class and hopefully it's as satisfying as str/dex like I always did in the past games. I guess I will put some points into dex early as well.
I'd like to know as well. I think I'm doing something wrong.

I'm playing as a sorcerer myself (currently in the Iron Keep), and from my experience it's not worth going past the first soft cap for Intelligence for a long, long time. Faith is much more valuable afterwards for miracles and hexes; Attunement so you have at least four spells available.

Going pure magic hasn't been viable for me, so I put enough in Strength and Dexterity to carry a longsword.
 

addyb

Member
Approach a bonfire with your torch ready or consume a flame (dear flame) butterfly.

Edit: Pretty sure a previously lit sconce or brazier works too.

Near a bonfire hit Triangle or Y and it'll let you light a torch provided you have one.


Ahh yes I have done that before. Do you have to have the torch already equipped? I'm sure last time it just prompted me regardless.
 
It's kind of a bummer that to progress some storylines you have to summon for bosses as I've generally avoided doing that. In my view the greatness of Souls' boss fights is how tough but fair they are and you really feel that sense of relief and accomplishment after beating them, but with summons it feels like you are beating the crap out of an enemy on the defensive and disadvantage which kind of brings it down. I wish there was a way to progress for example Lucatiel's story without having to summon.

Gotten a bit farther now and here are my impressions of the new enemy placements. Pretty much everything so far has been improved. S
haded
W
oods
was much better, instead of throwing tons of the same enemy at you they vary it up with different enemies that are more sparsely placed. And no
giant basilisk
.

B
rightstone
C
ove
is also much improved. They got rid of the tons of annoying enemies that took forever to kill, and now there is only one or two of them.

I
ron
K
eep
is the one I take issue with but it comes with a caveat. It is definitely tougher, and it definitely seems like they used the 'up the enemy count' rule here. However it is only super tough when you want to do the optional
Smelter demon to get the bonfire
. When progressing and avoiding that it is actually not a big deal, because the second part is not nearly as tough.
 

addyb

Member
I know nothing about the npc sidequests. Is it obvious when you have to summon one for a boss in order to continue/complete there quests or is it easy to miss.
 

Shmuppers

Member
Double dipped with the Steam release. My friend and I are loving it so far, the G
uardian
D
ragon
right in front of the B
lue
C
athedral
was a pleasant surprise. Can't wait to see all the other new enemy placements.
 
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