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Dark Souls III |OT2| Welcome to NG+, Unkindled One

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chaos
orb thing is godly. Also
dark
orb for fire resistant enemies. Supposedly, the
chaos vestiges
is the best, but it seems to me to have a longer windup or something? It's pretty good for damage, though. Buffing the raw infused sword with the fire pyromancy is AMAZEBALLS, too.

Chaos Bed Vestiges
is what I use for bosses, as it's the single most powerful projectile pyromancy spell, and doesn't seem to take noticably longer to cast. I use
Great Chaos Fire Orb
for clearing out general areas, as the FP cost is lower, it 's more than powerful enough to do the job, it staggers enemies more than
CBV
, and the lava after-effect can help out.

Does a pyromancy-buffed Raw-infused sword outperform a Chaos-infused sword (which can't be buffed) if INT and FAI are both 40?
 

Minamu

Member
Not sure if there's a weapon that does so, but there are definitely weapon arts that do. Mail Breaker's is the most obvious one.

I think the
Darkdrift
has a weapon art that does.

According to weapon description Lucerne's horizontal swings do.

Shotels still do.

Shotels exist in this game as well.

Cool, lots of responses :lol I wonder if they're viable in pvp.
 
I only just learned from this thread that a Simple-infused shield will gradually restore FP over time. I'm definitely using that, as I'm carrying around the
Shield of Want purely for the 20%+ souls gained
effect anyway. May as well make it even more useful.

Can you also Simple-infuse a chime/talisman? I alternate between a shield and chime in my left hand; I may infuse both if so, so the effect is always active no matter what.
 

Audioboxer

Member
Cool, lots of responses :lol I wonder if they're viable in pvp.

Shotels don't do a ton of damage but are still useful to disturb turtles. I guess on a dex luck bleed build they will wreck a bit. They're fast and that builds up bleed quickly. The Carthus one like all the other Carthus weapons is built for bleeding.
 

Sanctuary

Member
And at 40/40 the damage will still be considerably less because there aren't as many pieces of equipment that buff Pyromancy. An average Great Heavy Soul Arrow will be doing about 1k damage at endgame, whereas
Chaos Bed Vestiges
will only be hitting for around 850 (worth noting that the FP cost difference between these two is quite disparate as well). This is just a result of the Sorcery having more things that buff its damage. DLC may fix this, or rebalancing.

If you're fully kitted out in Sorc gear your damage will be considerably higher, though the gains from those items will continue up until
Irithyll
at the very earliest (depending on your questing), whereas the last major upgrade for Pyro is
Smouldering Lake
.

As for why you wouldn't want to use those, slots are a pretty good reason in my mind, and there will be better spells - particularly Dark spells, that will scale just fine with INT alone.

This really isn't true at all. I'm not talking from a lack of experience either. I've finished the game twice as a Sorcery focused build, and twice as a Pyromancy focused build. The Pryomancy build is so much more consistent throughout the entire game, and you don't have to wait until the game is almost over (which so many people keep ignoring). Sorcery does not "get good" until around Anor Londo, and you're still going to just be using the basic Soul Arrow, Great Soul Arrow and Great Heavy Soul Arrow (which has a terrible casting time, even at the casting cap).

I'm sorry, but 700+ damage for 22 mana with a much greater casting speed is better in this game any day, all day over something that costs 14 FP and won't finish casting the second one you need to actually kill off an enemy unless you cast the first one at max range, and the enemy doesn't happen to have a shield that blocks the second.

You also get to use a shield, and don't have to use an off hand item that requires FTH to boost your damage slightly, nor do you have to wear the dumbest looking helm ever created. Sorcery requires two more slots to do higher damage. Using equal slots, it does close to the same, is more efficient per cast, but much, much slower overall, and there are very few enemies weak against magic aside from specific knights, and a lot that are weak against fire. There's just not many enemies that are actually highly resistant to magic in this, and there's like three (?) mini bosses that have fire resistance, as well as an optional area that's filled with marginally resistant enemies. I can't even think of more than a single actual boss that has much of a resistance to fire either. And for that, you have another spell that's not fire based anyway. INT is a part of Pyromancy too, so it's kind of redundant to talk about Dark spells as though they are somehow a Sorcery exclusive. Those that have no FTH requirement anyway are terrible in both PvE and PvP too.

I don't know where you're getting the 850
Vestiges
damage either. At 30/30 it hits for over 900, and against enemies with a weakness to fire, it can hit for 1200+.
 

Cyborg

Member
Whats the story about getting the ring trophy and you need to play NG+ and NG++ to get it.

Hmm anyone care to explain it.
 

J-Rod

Member
The short of it is that getting all the rings in the game gives a trophy and some +1 & +2 rings can only be obtained in NG+ and NG++. Generally, in completely different locations than the +0 versions of the ring.
 

Mogwai

Member
65-70 hours into the game and I have found the pyromancy trainer and the last bonfire in Undead Settlement.

Better late than never, I guess.
 
So onion bro flaked on me.

Here's what I did

1) Meet him at the lift but not fight the fire demon with him. (If his quest was broken I wouldn't have seen him at Profound Capital later in a cell)
2) Talk to him while he is trapped in the well.
3) Get his armour back.
4) Meet him in the kitchen and toast with him.
5) Free him from his cell in Profound Capital, he gave me a slab.
6) Go kill the fire demon while I am scavenging around Undead Settlement searching for leftovers.
7) Start the Yhorm fight with a player summon...but he doesn't show up, I die. So I do it again, but without a summon but he doesn't show up still.

8) Go back to his cell, and he is sitting there telling me to be on my way and that he will be going his way soon.

Wtf?
I want the armour but I don't wanna kill mah bro for it.

You broke it by not killing the demon. That quest messed up for me as well, since I didn't meet him in the
Kitchen
. I got the slab from him in P
rofaned
C
apital
, but he didn't show up for the
Yhorm
fight
 
So onion bro flaked on me.

Here's what I did

6) Go kill the fire demon while I am scavenging around Undead Settlement searching for leftovers.

Wtf?
I want the armour but I don't wanna kill mah bro for it.

I think you were suppose to do that first...
He is supposed to help you with the fire demon
otherwise it breaks his story chain
 
hm. The fextralife wiki says that a seed of a giant tree will spawn "each time a player invader has been banished from your world". 3 invaders (1 mound-maker, 2 aldrich faithful) were just killed in my world, and there isn't one there. I was really looking forward to having a second one. I wonder if it's only a chance that it will spawn?
 

LiK

Member
Whats the story about getting the ring trophy and you need to play NG+ and NG++ to get it.

Hmm anyone care to explain it.

better versions of some rings only exist in NG+ and NG++.

hm. The fextralife wiki says that a seed of a giant tree will spawn "each time a player invader has been banished from your world". 3 invaders (1 mound-maker, 2 aldrich faithful) were just killed in my world, and there isn't one there. I was really looking forward to having a second one. I wonder if it's only a chance that it will spawn?

i think if it works like DkS2. it has a chance to spawn.
 

Sanctuary

Member
Is this with a fully upgraded pyro glove?

No, I stop at +9, unless I have extra slabs that I don't need. It's at 30/30 INT/FTH, only using two rings (and you can use up to a total of four damage boosting rings for both Pyromancy or Sorcery if you really want to). I only ever use two though so I can keep the Covetous on until I'm done leveling, and I usually have Chlroanthy or the Sage ring too. Regardless, that's not the spell you would just be firing away at most trash enemies anyway. It's very inefficient, but it absolutely destroys what needs to die quickly. For enemies that are larger and slower that don't move around a lot, there's an even better option though.
 

Cyrano

Member
This really isn't true at all. I'm not talking from a lack of experience either. I've finished the game twice as a Sorcery focused build, and twice as a Pyromancy focused build. The Pryomancy build is so much more consistent throughout the entire game, and you don't have to wait until the game is almost over (which so many people keep ignoring). Sorcery does not "get good" until around Anor Londo, and you're still going to just be using the basic Soul Arrow, Great Soul Arrow and Great Heavy Soul Arrow (which has a terrible casting time, even at the casting cap).

I'm sorry, but 700+ damage for 22 mana with a much greater casting speed is better in this game any day, all day over something that costs 15 FP and won't finish casting the second one you need to actually kill off an enemy unless you cast the first one at max range, and the enemy doesn't happen to have a shield that blocks the second.

You also get to use a shield, and don't have to use an off hand item that requires FTH to boost your damage slightly, nor do you have to wear the dumbest looking helm ever created. Sorcery requires two more slots to do higher damage. Using equal slots, it does close to the same, is more efficient per cast, but much, much slower overall, and there are very few enemies weak against magic aside from specific knights, and a lot that are weak against fire. There's just not many enemies that are actually highly resistant to magic in this, and there's like three (?) mini bosses that have fire resistance, as well as an optional area that's filled with marginally resistant enemies. I can't even think of more than a single actual boss that has much of a resistance to fire either. And for that, you have another spell that's not fire based anyway. INT is a part of Pyromancy anyway, so it's kind of redundant to talk about Dark spells as though they are somehow a Sorcery exclusive. Those that have no FTH requirement anyway are terrible in both PvE and PvP too.

I don't know where you're getting the 850 Vestiges damage either. At 30/30 it hits for over 900, and against enemies with a weakness to fire, it can hit for 1200+.
For enemies with a weakness to abilities the damage isn't really comparable. I know certain enemies are particularly weak to fire, and stating that you can do 3200 damage to very specific enemies doesn't mean you will to most. I wasn't getting those numbers at 30/30, but I'll trust you tested them against a fair number of enemies and saw that as an average or median.

As for casting speed - once you get
Hidden Body
, it really, really doesn't matter how fast or slow you cast your spells. But their FP cost starts to matter a lot. Also, you do not need to meet the FTH requirement to get the buff you're referring to and the offhand's damage boost is considerably more than slight (same with the helm, though I agree it looks silly).

Great Deep Soul
is a really good Dark spell and has no FTH requirement, so it seems weird to me that you say it's bad. Its damage isn't as high but the tracking and cast time it has is great against enemies that are quick.

The one other big disadvantage that hasn't been discussed is that the range of Pyromancy is much shorter and especially in the early game with all the archers, it can be quite frustrating. The long range of Sorceries is a huge boon to their efficacy over Pyromancy (manual aiming with Binoculars is nice as well, though optional).
 

BraXzy

Member
Why would you not want to reinforce it? Do you like the moveset and can use it? Then spend the titnite, not much to really think about here. You'll get a lot bigger returns on your souls by upgrading weapons than you will on levels.

Upgrading equipment is much more important than levels. If you like using the broadsword (it's moveset, speed, attack length, etc.), by all means upgrade it! Every weapon is viable in DS.

Here's a little tip though after watching someone use broadsword as their main in a twitch stream: it's an absolute beast if you infuse it with a heavy gem (dunno if you can do that yet though) and reinforce it

If course, using a weapon you love using and are most comfortable with is the most important thing. Because again, every weapon is viable when you upgrade it and infuse it towards the scaling it's naturally good at.

I didn't realise every weapon was viable, I figured further along I'd get some great sword with way more damage or something. Good to know, thanks.

Haven't really had any other weapon drop to give it a go yet but I'll keep that info in mind!
 

Seyavesh

Member
Great Deep Soul
is a really good Dark spell and has no FTH requirement, so it seems weird to me that you say it's bad. Its damage isn't as high but the tracking and cast time it has is great against enemies that are quick.

The one other big disadvantage that hasn't been discussed is that the range of Pyromancy is much shorter and especially in the early game with all the archers, it can be quite frustrating. The long range of Sorceries is a huge boon to their efficacy over Pyromancy (manual aiming with Binoculars is nice as well, though optional).

i'm not really sure why but i really dislike great deep soul. like, a lot despite so many folks swearing by it.
it never really feels useful in the situations where i'd be spellcasting since i could just be casting another ghsa at that point (or soul greatswording i guess)- the speed difference isn't so significant as to really deter me from just going for a killshot since i'm starting most engagements from further away anyhow

i mostly agree w/ sanctuary on his points but the range thing is pretty big too. however, i don't think that even remotely offsets the staleness of sorcery's singular spell advancement vs. pyro's more versatile moveset/allowance of versatility

hopefully 1.06 shakes things up enough to where it's a more even progression/fight in terms of making interesting playthroughs/giving you reasons to use other spells
 

Sanctuary

Member
Great Deep Soul
is a really good Dark spell and has no FTH requirement, so it seems weird to me that you say it's bad. Its damage isn't as high but the tracking and cast time it has is great against enemies that are quick.

The one other big disadvantage that hasn't been discussed is that the range of Pyromancy is much shorter and especially in the early game with all the archers, it can be quite frustrating. The long range of Sorceries is a huge boon to their efficacy over Pyromancy (manual aiming with Binoculars is nice as well, though optional).

Uh, I seriously have no idea what you're talking about regarding archer range. In the spots you would want to be at to actually cast a Sorcery anyway, you are completely in range of the Pyromancy spells. The actual lock-on distance seems identical, and the main difference is that Sorcery technically goes farther before it dissipates outside of lock-on, so it's easier to use a bow or binoculars to snipe with it. Rarely has that ever been an advantage though. You also don't have to keep wasting FP on Hidden Body just to cast spells thanks to a) being able to wear a shield and still do extremely high damage and b) casting at a much greater speed overall. Actually, I'm not even sure what archers you're talking about that are a problem early on. There's only even a few in the game that can truly hurt you, and they aren't until later on. Up until those, a basic shield pretty much negates them.

In terms of
Great Deep Soul
I can't imagine a single scenario where you would actually want to use that aside from enemies that are actually weak against Dark. For those that are neutrally resistant, it's a much slower version of the basic Soul Arrow...
Yes, I actually farmed the dregs for it, hoping that it would actually be a much better version of
Deep Soul
. It's just a much worse version of Dark Souls 2 Homing Soul Arrow.

I didn't realise every weapon was viable, I figured further along I'd get some great sword with way more damage or something. Good to know, thanks.

Haven't really had any other weapon drop to give it a go yet but I'll keep that info in mind!

Depends on what you view as "viable". Technically all weapons are viable, but there's definitely only a handful that truly shine overall for both PvE and PvP.

PvP: Estoc, Rapier, Halberd, Straight Sword (pretty much any), Katana >>>> everything else.
PvE: Straight Sword, Estoc, Halberd, Rapier >>>> everything else.

There are outliers like Fume's, two Greataxes and two Spears, but that's about the current state of the game. Until poise gets fixed. A year from now...
 

Arjen

Member
Ok, one item is driving me fucking crazy, can't figure out how to get it, early game
crucifixion woods, just before you enter the swamp meeting heart club and curved sword bro. There's an item on a slight elevation, how the hell do I get there?is it a drop down from somewhere?
 
Not sure what to do with my stats.

Vigor 25
Attunement 24
Endurance 20
Vitality 8
Strength 12
Dexterity 16
Intelligence 20
Faith 20
Luck 7

Pyro build with Uchigatana, Carthus Flame Arc and Chaos Bed Vestiges.

Might start pumping points into dex? Or just keep bumping int/faith?
 

Cyrano

Member
i'm not really sure why but i really dislike great deep soul. like, a lot despite so many folks swearing by it.
it never really feels useful in the situations where i'd be spellcasting since i could just be casting another ghsa at that point (or soul greatswording i guess)- the speed difference isn't so significant as to really deter me from just going for a killshot since i'm starting most engagements from further away anyhow

i mostly agree w/ sanctuary on his points but the range thing is pretty big too. however, i don't think that even remotely offsets the staleness of sorcery's singular spell advancement vs. pyro's more versatile moveset/allowance of versatility

hopefully 1.06 shakes things up enough to where it's a more even progression/fight in terms of making interesting playthroughs/giving you reasons to use other spells
Most of my Pyro playthroughs have just been a progression of Fireball ->
Fire Orb -> Chaos Bed Vestiges (using Great Chaos Fire Orb for farming, typically)
. I'm not really sure what other "variety" you're experiencing. You could try and make the other spells useful but most of them just aren't. The weapon buffs are better but if we're talking pure builds that point is moot (though yeah, buffs in general favor Pyromancy).
 

LiK

Member
Ok, one item is driving me fucking crazy, can't figure out how to get it, early game
crucifixion woods, just before you enter the swamp meeting heart club and curved sword bro. There's an item on a slight elevation, how the hell do I get there?is it a drop down from somewhere?

need to drop down from the dilapidated building to the left of the area.
 

Avadon

Neo Member
At last, I finished the game and I loved it, also if this is really
the last dark souls game
, the ending I got was really fitting
(The End of Fire)
, after the ending my girlfriend smiled at me since she saw me not even breathing until the credits stop rolling, that ending really touched my soul hehe.

Solo every boss to get the best of the game, one shot:
Iudex Gundyr
,
Vordt of the Boreal Valley
,
Oceiros the Consumed King
and
Dancer of the Boreal Valley
, the hardest where:
Old Demon King
,
Pontiff Sulyvahn
,
Nameless King
and
Soul of Cinder
, with
Nameless King
being the hardest of the game, the only one that made me change full gear to adapt to him and took me like 30 tryes, the rest of the bosses I didn´t mention took me between 2 to 5 tryes

For me the fights I like the most where
Abyss Watchers
and
Pontiff Sulyvahn
, not the hardest fights in the game but the music and the fact
they where like a duel between 2 (or more) knights, I felt like I was proving myself to them worthy of pass that point
, and like no other fight they leave my heart pumping like a drum

Overall a great game, here I leave a link to the playlist where I put all my boss fights if someone wants to see them: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWjnUFYUiUsquXcsfh5IuqtHzm3_PQwLq
 

Seyavesh

Member
Most of my Pyro playthroughs have just been a progression of Fireball ->
Fire Orb -> Chaos Bed Vestiges (using Great Chaos Fire Orb for farming, typically)
. I'm not really sure what other "variety" you're experiencing. You could try and make the other spells useful but most of them just aren't. The weapon buffs are better but if we're talking pure builds that point is moot (though yeah, buffs in general favor Pyromancy).
idk if it's just weird stubbornness or whatever but i used way more than that- great combustion, black flame, fire whip and chaos firestorm were pretty strong mainstays in my arsenal- especially fire whip. i think that spell might be overlooked 'cuz it does a really huge amount of damage and costs a pretty decent amount of MP

with sorc. it was soul arrow->heavy soul arrow->great heavy soul arrow and then trying out various stronger spells and being disappointed that they dealt crap damage for their MP cost or were literally weaker than ghsa. i stuck soul greatsword and farron flashsword in there for variety but really never used them besides boredom because it was so dangerous to do so

i guess the big thing is that it feels like pyro's damage and utility keeps up throughout the entire game and never feels like it's holding you back while sorcery just continually feels like a slog until you get that second damage boosting ring and the scholar's candlestick. getting new spells as a pyro was exciting for me to some degree (though there's still a bunch of crap too, haha) while literally every single sorc. scroll and spell was wildly disappointing. seeing soul stream's damage:cast time+active time ratio p. much cinched it for me even though i love that spell for really stupid shit like pvp dumbfiring/narrow arena firing and doing gimmicky one-shot attacks on miniboss mobs

edit:
chaos firestorm is still disappointing vs. it's ds1/2 counterparts though. something about the spread of that move/hit properties of it makes it so it doesn't just obliterate everything anymore but it's still fun to use
 

LiK

Member
one thing about playing offline during NG++ was i finally located the NPC summons and they're not awful and helped out a lot. wish i knew that cuz summoning players was annoying as hell since it took too long or it didn't work.
 

Novocaine

Member
one thing about playing offline during NG++ was i finally located the NPC summons and they're not awful and helped out a lot. wish i knew that cuz summoning players was annoying as hell since it took too long or it didn't work.

I summoned
Sirris
for Dragonslayer Armour and she ripped him apart. I might give more of them a try through NG++
 

Cyrano

Member
Uh, I seriously have no idea what you're talking about regarding archer range. In the spots you would want to be at to actually cast a Sorcery anyway, you are completely in range of the Pyromancy spells. The actual lock-on distance seems identical, and the main difference is that Sorcery technically goes farther before it dissipates outside of lock-on, so it's easier to use a bow or binoculars to snipe with it. Rarely has that ever been an advantage though. You also don't have to keep wasting FP on Hidden Body just to cast spells thanks to a) being able to wear a shield and still do extremely high damage and b) casting at a much greater speed overall. Actually, I'm not even sure what archers you're talking about that are a problem early on. There's only even a few in the game that can truly hurt you, and they aren't until later on. Up until those, a basic shield pretty much negates them.

In terms of
Great Deep Soul
I can't imagine a single scenario where you would actually want to use that aside from enemies that are actually weak against Dark. For those that are neutrally resistant, it's a much slower version of the basic Soul Arrow...
Yes, I actually farmed the dregs for it, hoping that it would actually be a much better version of
Deep Soul
. It's just a much worse version of Dark Souls 2 Homing Soul Arrow.
I'd say the main difference is that the spells start from higher up and proceed in a more straight line, rather than an arc. I miss a lot more often just because of this and given that Pyromancies are more expensive to begin with, missing hurts a lot more.

Also, there is no way you can argue that you could be more efficient not using
Hidden Body. Hidden Body
is probably the most efficient spell in the entire game. If the choice is between fighting enemies or using
Hidden Body
, the latter always trumps the former, because I will not play perfectly, and neither will anyone else, and
Hidden Body
will always allow you to make far more mistakes than engaging enemies. This is especially true as enemy numbers continue to increase and bonfires continue to be spread farther apart.

Cathedral of the Deep is one of the places where archers are super-obnoxious, but obviously Anor Londo and even early Lothric (as well as late Lothric)
all have archers that are in positions that are easier for Sorceries to tackle.

I use
Great Deep Soul
quite a lot and it's mostly to stop enemies that are too aggressive or beefy - due to the fact that it tends to stagger enemies a lot more, I use it against heavies and other enemies that shrug off Soul Arrows.
 

gk1225

Neo Member
Would anyone be willing to help me get Vertebra Shackles? I'm on PS4 and farming wasn't working well and lag is making PvP very frustrating. PSN: gk1225. Thanks!
 

Sanctuary

Member
Most of my Pyro playthroughs have just been a progression of Fireball ->
Fire Orb -> Chaos Bed Vestiges (using Great Chaos Fire Orb for farming, typically)
. I'm not really sure what other "variety" you're experiencing. You could try and make the other spells useful but most of them just aren't. The weapon buffs are better but if we're talking pure builds that point is moot (though yeah, buffs in general favor Pyromancy).

Assuming he's talking about the various FTH spells that have a 40 or less requirement. The only ones that I ever consider using are Medium Heal, Caressing Tears (although not really needed), Deep Protection, Dark Weapon and Lightning Weapon, but those are still significantly more options. Basically, Pyromancy is the closest to "jack of all trades" in this game, except it's simply better than that. I'm not sure it's even correct to call it "Pyromancy" though, since it's an INT/FTH build that can use all three schools fairly easily. I guess you could limit yourself to the offensive fire spells only, but I'm not sure why you would want to.

Also, I have never used
Hidden Body
on my offensive ranged Sorcery playthroughs, because I typically stop at 24 ATT, 30 at most. I normally don't have the slots to spare, or I simply don't feel like spending an additional 15 FP every few encounters. It might actually be more viable if you can rush to getting a
Simple Shield
, but until then it just seems really inefficient, other than the fact that you're almost guaranteed to not have an enemy in your face after casting your first spell.

edit: Honestly, I may consider trying this at some point. I normally have at least 4-5 healing estus banked, but this might actually make a complete ashen run possible. At least until the bonfire prior to a boss anyway.

I am using it on my current playthrough, but I am just playing a stealth melee build right now that is 100% undetectable aside from red phantoms and bosses.
 
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