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

P

psy18

Member
NEO0MJ said:
Nope. You have
to talk to the scholar at all points you meet him and answer his questions correctly, get all crowns, talk to Vandrick in the past using the ashen mist heart to activate the crowns, and then fight Nashandra.
Click to expand...

So
The crowns are mandatory, and you don't have to kill Ven?
Already met the scholar 4 times and answered yes to his questions
 
N

NEO0MJ

Member
psy18 said:
So
The crowns are mandatory, and you don't have to kill Ven?
Already met the scholar 4 times and answered yes to his questions
Click to expand...

You have to kill undead Vendrick in order to take his crown from Shrine of Amana. But you don't have to kill the one in the past. In fact, you can't even kill him.
 
W

watervengeance

Member
NEO0MJ said:
Nope. You have
to talk to the scholar at all points you meet him and answer his questions correctly, get all crowns, talk to Vandrick in the past using the ashen mist heart to activate the crowns, and then fight Nashandra.
Click to expand...

I got the new ending option without going through the DLC. All I did was defeat Vendrick but I didn't get his crown. Also, I'm pretty sure I didn't say Yes to all of the scholar's questions.
 
T

takriel

Member
ironcreed said:
I was clearly talking about the framerate and how that it plays so much better as a result. But yeah, the fast quick-step combat in Bloodborne is fantastic. Although I do still prefer the balance and diversity of the Souls series now that the dust has settled. I just like the freedom to play how I want, instead of being shoehorned into a particular style. And having that freedom at 60 fps makes a world of difference. Here is to hoping they do the same for Dark Souls 3.
Click to expand...

Very true, 60 fps makes a big difference. I'd like to see some of the faster-paced combat of Bloodborne and the build variety of the Souls series in Dark Souls 3, that would be amazing!
 
N

NEO0MJ

Member
watervengeance said:
I got the new ending option without going through the DLC. All I did was defeat Vendrick but I didn't get his crown. Also, I'm pretty sure I didn't say Yes to all of the scholar's questions.
Click to expand...

Strange, I thought you need to collect the crowns. Did you fight the scholar as well?
 
M

mkvl

Neo Member
Ok you did it, buying the game tomorrow! Excited to see the differences, DLC and be eaten by some chests!
 
J

jtar86

Member
Well I had a change of heart. Finally got use to the slower combat and weird stagger mechanic stuff. I still think the world in all the other souls games flow a lot better, but it's fine. I will see it through to the end. The trailer on psn got me to push through to the dlc stuff since it looked so cool.
 
Z

Zocano

Member
jtar86 said:
Well I had a change of heart. Finally got use to the slower combat and weird stagger mechanic stuff. I still think the world in all the other souls games flow a lot better, but it's fine. I will see it through to the end. The trailer on psn got me to push through to the dlc stuff since it looked so cool.
Click to expand...

The DLC Trio is amazing and the first of the three I would argue is as good as any of the Demon's Souls levels (and Bloodborne now, too!)
 
sobaka770

sobaka770

Banned
SRTtoZ said:
Its good but start pumping more points into STR. It should be way higher than your other stats until you hit softcap.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to go Dual-Wield and use swords that scale with AGI. Is it a viable tactic throughout the game or I should sill Max out strength instead as I saw multiple comments?
 
C

ClayKavalier

Banned
I'm not sure I can take two From games simultaneously, but I'm really tempted to buy this. I've been banging my head against
Vicar Amelia
(spoiler is just a boss name, people were spoilering them in the OT so I figured I should here) for a few days now, I don't know what it is but it's the hardest fight for me personally in a From game by far.

Going back to Dark Souls 2 with its shields and magic would be like cozying up with a security blanket at this point.
 
SRTtoZ

SRTtoZ

Member
sobaka770 said:
I'm trying to go Dual-Wield and use swords that scale with AGI. Is it a viable tactic throughout the game or I should sill Max out strength instead as I saw multiple comments?
Click to expand...

It depends entirely on the weapon(s). Look at them and see what letter they scale with. S>A>B>C>D>E. The better the letter, the more stats you will gain by pumping points into that attribute. So for example the Large Club I have is an A scale in strength, so that means the higher my strength gets the more damage my club will do compared to the other stats.
 
L

Lollipop Dave

Member
ilnadmy said:
I'm coming into this conversation a little late but are the R
uin
S
entinels
really considered one of the harder bosses in the game? Because I beat them on my first try and I didn't think they were particularly difficult. It's more a test of patience than a test of skill, and granted I did go through about 5 lifegems, but it wasn't that bad. I will say that you probably want to learn how to use your iframes because that's how I avoided 95% of the swings they made at me.
Click to expand...

With the two npc summons nearby it was incredibly easy, I just knocked the
Sentinel
right below off the ledge and let the summons have at them.
 
R

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Lucatiel isnt in
Earthen Peak
bonfire anymore?
 
drotahorror

drotahorror

Member
Joey Ravn said:
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.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with cheesin some encounters. I'm sayin why would you cheese AND THEN complain on a message board about it? And then even diss From Software. Doesn't make sense to me. I cheese things in Dark Souls and in Bloodborne when I feel like I need to.
 
Z

Zocano

Member
Should I feel bad for using the mace to just burn through the game so I can see all the changes?

I don't feel bad for one shotting every boss so far.
 
R

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Somnium986 said:
She's in the room before the boss where you use the pharros lockstone. Didn't expect her to be there. Almost attacked her.
Click to expand...

fuck I already killed the boss before I went to that room...baaaaaaaaah

Zocano said:
Should I feel bad for using the mace to just burn through the game so I can see all the changes?

I don't feel bad for one shotting every boss so far.
Click to expand...

Im doing the same so I can do the dlc which is what I didnt do in vanilla
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Gormenghast said:
That's technically not a different light system. They just expanded screen gamma, like a SweetFX profile.

That's the kind of effect you see when you expand output levels from 16-235 to 0-255. Maybe reapplied twice for added strength.

The effect you obtain is that the bright spots white out, become even whiter, and dark ones are also pushed out, and so all shadows are much darker.

I'm pretty sure that I can take one of those DX9 screenshot and make it appear exactly like a DX11 one with just some calibration.
Click to expand...

Difference is that From can calibrate it on a per room/area basis. Stuff like sweetFX takes one profile and applies it to everything
 
N

Neoweee

Member
Foffy said:
I would disagree. Dark Souls II is the only game in the franchise where I found the hitboxes actually effected tactics entirely, forcing you to play differently than you should. Getting behind a Mimic, especially before it's already active, will have you bitten by its teeth, which you aren't even near. I can't even put into words how bad that is, and I've seen nothing as consistently poor in any of From's other Souls games.

If I am wrong, please enlighten me. One offs or oddities are given, but I can't think of something so consistent and puzzlingly bad as the mimic's from Dark Souls II.
Click to expand...

No, I think Dark Souls 2 has the worst hit detection, but not by much. Bloodborne sometimes feels like Grab Attacks: The Game, and snapping into place is as jarring as ever. Dark Souls 2 is likely the lightest on clipping and weapon collision issues. Tracking is pretty close to what it is on the other games it feels like. Maybe somewhere between Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne.
 
T

takriel

Member
So I really hate that you can't swing the follow-up attack in the direction you want after rolling. Instead, if you click the attack button while rolling, you will execute the attack in the way you were facing while rolling.

There's a specific term for this, but I can't think of it right now. Its absence is literally one of the biggest complaints I have regarding the combat. There's no excuse for this and a big backstep.
 
R

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
seems they changed a estus flask location, there used to be one in
earthn peak at the start near where lucatiel is

edit: Iron Keep still looks amazing when you first step in the zone
 
G

Grassy

Member
HeelPower said:
Yup its a lot of fun.

This is adding a lot to the game.Pretty intense.
Click to expand...

Yep, I'm finding it as tense as my first play-through with vanilla DS2. Enemies having an extended aggro-range plus the new enemy placements have caught me off-guard a few times and I'm only just past the second bonfire in FotFG.
I actually tried to
fight the Pursuer in the first encounter
, but I bitched out, then got destroyed anyway by the 5 or 6 enemies now up there...brutal.

The early game reminds me of how much I struggled initially with DS2. The fact you have a low amount of HP, combined with only a few charges of the Estus Flask makes the game really hard early on. Once you get 5+ Estus charges though, you're laughing.
I'm also trying dual-wielding this time. Am I stupid or what? Is this a legit way to play or will I get smacked down later on? It's tough, especially when you've played every Souls game so far with your shield up as you move around every corner. With vanilla DS2 I went the mace/Bastard sword + shield combo which saw me through NG+. I'll push on through for now. Game looks really good on PS4 too.
 
G

Gnome Scat

Member
So I'm terrible at Dark Souls but I want to give it another go on Xbox One. I know the basic controls, but could I have some tips on how to not suck when starting Dark Souls II?
 
T

tuna_love

Banned
takriel said:
So I really hate that you can't swing the follow-up attack in the direction you want after rolling. Instead, if you click the attack button while rolling, you will execute the attack in the way you were facing while rolling.

There's a specific term for this, but I can't think of it right now. Its absence is literally one of the biggest complaints I have regarding the combat. There's no excuse for this and a big backstep.
Click to expand...
Dont click while rolling. Just wait a little bit.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Gnome Scat said:
So I'm terrible at Dark Souls but I want to give it another go on Xbox One. I know the basic controls, but could I have some tips on how to not suck when starting Dark Souls II?
Click to expand...

Take things slow. Try to dodge if the enemy is huge instead of blocking. Watch your stamina closely. Especially while learning just getting in a hit and backing off with full stamina is not a bad idea. Explore every nook and cranny. Become human (item called Human Effigy) and don't be afraid to summon help if you need it.
 
S

Somnium986

Member
Neoweee said:
It isn't, though. You can visually inspect the durability loss and what you hit and count it out.
Click to expand...

I haven't had the best experience with durability on my playthrough so far. It's just that I don't remember my weapons degrading this fast on vanilla PS3 or, PC. Starting to think I'm going crazy. :[
 
N

Neoweee

Member
Somnium986 said:
I haven't had the best experience with durability on my playthrough so far. It's just that I don't remember my weapons degrading this fast on vanilla PS3 or, PC. Starting to think I'm going crazy. :[
Click to expand...

Some of the new enemy placements really don't gel well with the issue. FotFG was already one of the worst areas for durability, and the extra (optional hollows) AND the few extra in the tight hallway almost guarantee massive durability loss from wall hits if you aren't using thrust attacks, which isn't even an option for all weapons.

Most weapons/areas are really unaffected by the new placement, though.
 
V

Victrix

*beard*
The early game is much, much harder than later. Be persistent, use friend summons, and don't hesitate to do exploratory death runs to get items and open shortcuts. Losing souls isn't even a worry.

Once you're out of the first few areas, your options start to open up immensely and combat gets less frustrating.

Oh, and use a bow.
 
sublimit

sublimit

Banned
Gnome Scat said:
So I'm terrible at Dark Souls but I want to give it another go on Xbox One. I know the basic controls, but could I have some tips on how to not suck when starting Dark Souls II?
Click to expand...

If you are going for a melee build focus on raising strength,dex,endurance and adaptability.The later is particularly important if you like to dodge/roll a lot.
 
R

Red Liquorice

Member
Gnome Scat said:
So I'm terrible at Dark Souls but I want to give it another go on Xbox One. I know the basic controls, but could I have some tips on how to not suck when starting Dark Souls II?
Click to expand...
I would say don't go for crazy big weapons at the start. If you're not great at Dark Souls putting all your stat points into STR/DEX early on won't help much. Better to put them into making your character survive longer

So use a basic longsword or similar low stat requirement weapon, get a 100% physical block shield and level up Vigor (more HP), Endurance (more stamina), Vitality (Equip load for equipping more/better armour) and Adaptability (more i-frames on your roll etc).

Once you've got a decent health bar and more adaptability, then put points into STR/DEX for a sexier weapon. Good thing is leveling up is so cheap in DS2, it's quicker to get to mid-high level than previous games.
 
R

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
fuck me lol. So, im just clearing
Iron Keep
, I get to
Lucatiel
summon and I summon her right, but I want to continue clearing, so im killing all the mobs, getting all the items while shes waiting near
Smelter Demon
for some reason (I guess because Im dropping down and shit), anyway, Im sloppy so I use up all my estus except 1, my greatsword is at 1/3 durability, I got like 15k souls so I think "ok better go to the bonfire"

...nope, no bonfire for you friend, you have a summon out. ok then, Ill just use a homeward bone. nah son, no bone for you either lol. I didnt know summons prevented that. So im like, ah fuck it, its just 15k souls, lets fight
smelter demon
.

and we kill him haha. very close, and she almost died, but I got him. or we got him. so the quest continues!

also I completely forgot about
Alonne Captain
armor, and now I must farm it, its so good
looking

oh and btw, Iron Keep seems about the same. some archers changed position, but overall it feels the same so far. Im also overlvled as fuck and loving it lol
 
S

Somnium986

Member
Victrix said:
The early game is much, much harder than later. Be persistent, use friend summons, and don't hesitate to do exploratory death runs to get items and open shortcuts. Losing souls isn't even a worry.

Once you're out of the first few areas, your options start to open up immensely and combat gets less frustrating.

Oh, and use a bow.
Click to expand...

Made me not like the game the first time I played it on PS3 tbh. Now I like the FoFG even less now due to new enemy placement and volume. Game started to click with me again after I got out of No Man's Wharf.
 
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