• 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 |OT4| Victory achieved for Scamco, text defeated

Status
Not open for further replies.

Astra

Member
Sounds epic! I need to finally get involved in the online scene, I do 95% of my Dark Souls gaming alone. I'll probably start getting active in helping people with bosses and invading soon.

By the way, would the Black Bow of Pharis be any use to my character that has roughly 30 DEX?

I suck so bad at invading. I killed maybe 2 or 3 out of the 10 times I invaded. I'm not patient and try for a quick end, ahah.

I am 40 Dex, and I do insane damage with the bow. So I'd say you would do some amazing damage at 30 Dex as well. It seems this game is the same as Demon's Souls, in that after you level a stat past 40, you start getting diminishing returns. While leveling my Dex, I was seeing a 5 increase to damage for my weapons, but beyond 40 it went down to a +1 increase.

I like when I'm higher level, waiting to get invaded in the burg, and some low level idiot with pinwheel mask / havels / elemental weapon will come into my game hoping I'm a low level player he can easily stomp on, and tries to black crystal out.

I will admit there is a grim satisfaction in messing up someone's game -- it's pretty satisfying killing a party of 3 inching their way through Sen's Fortress -- but when the other player doesn't stand a chance I don't see the point. Outsmarting and outmaneuvering your opponents is where the fun is, not instantly casting ascended great combustion on the dude hiding behind his shield in default pyro gear with a drake sword. So yeah, there's a lot of bullshit online, but tons of fun to be had as well.

And low level run of Demons Souls seems to me more difficult than a low level run of this game.

Sen's fortress is very fun. A black phantom was chasing us, but he got hit by one of those guillotine blades and knocked into the muck. I went after him and plunged as he was getting up and killed him. Was pretty great. It's been pretty hard trying to hit a player with the plunge attack.
Another invasion in Sen's Fortress, I was helping a player out as a Phantom, and he got invaded. I was behind a pillar, so I guess the invader didn't know I was there, and proceeded to attack the host. So I pop out and back stab him. I found that stealth kill pretty satisfying, haha.

Demon's Souls is pretty easy on low level, when you know all the enemy attack patterns. There are some problem bosses, though. Storm King was pretty annoying, with all of his projectiles. There is a safe zone where none can hit you, but I never really liked using it.

Oh crap, how much damage does power within add to archery?

I looked it up, and according to the Wiki it adds 40% to your damage. (I also learned just now that using a low level flame is best, since it decreases HP loss and still gives you a 40% boost). I like using it with that ring that increases your damage output at 30% health or whatever, since Power Within drains you anyway.
 
LVL1 Sif went down with relative ease. Two-handed R2 of Battle Axe is a beast. I need to get better at using R2 attacks too, usually I have just started the fights with it but with some weapons it has really useful moveset too.
 

Astra

Member
LVL1 Sif went down with relative ease. Two-handed R2 of Battle Axe is a beast. I need to get better at using R2 attacks too, usually I have just started the fights with it but with some weapons it has really useful moveset too.

Agreed. I especially like it with the Lifehunt Scythe (probably the same as other Scythe/Halberd weapons?). I also like the R2 attack with the Katana weapons, as they have pretty good range.
I haven't experimented much with strength based weapons, which I will do when I create my next character. Thinking of something along the lines of a spellsword.

Edit: Are there any good health regen items in this game? Sanctus is pretty worthless, and I have the Replenish Miracle, but it doesn't last nearly as long as I'd like it to. I actually enjoy farming in this game, but wearing the Symbol of Avarice drains my health constantly, and would like to offset that. Ring of the Evil Eye does great when farming the baby skeletons, since I kill so many at such a high rate, but I don't think it'll cut it with other enemies (Unless it restores more HP per kill for tougher enemies?).
 

Mxrz

Member
Usually when I invade, I'll do whatever I can get the kill. Being online, and human means they consented. But if they're alone and not using the typical giants / havels / claymore / zei / dwgr / etc. junk, I'll often wait before attacking.
 
I don't really know where to go about with my character
I'm level 53
Vit - 17
Att - 12
End - 40
Strength - 16
Dex 21

I usually wear Havel's armor + Gargoyle helmet+5 with Havel's and Hornet rings on.

Weapons are the Furysword+4 and Lightning Spear +4.

I'm pretty sure I only have Lost Izath and Catacombs to do
 

Zertez

Member
Usually when I invade, I'll do whatever I can get the kill. Being online, and human means they consented. But if they're alone and not using the typical giants / havels / claymore / zei / dwgr / etc. junk, I'll often wait before attacking.
Not really, being online and human may mean they want to co-op with friends and new players, not get attacked by gankers and twinks. Its bad enough trying to fight someone who is twinked or glitched to carry over all their gear, but even worse when they take the cheap route and wait until you attack a mob. Whenever someone does that, I will die to a mob rather than let them kill me. Humanity is easy to farm and there is plenty of places to pvp against people with similar skill and lvl, there is no reason to farm new players or gank much weaker players, outside of just wanting to grief other players.
 

2AdEPT

Member
Every time I fight somebody in PvP I can tell if he/she is Japanese or not and I'm right in 95% of the time.
This is sad. Western players have to learn how to play and respect other players :(

Yeah me too...Not that our own western friends on this site wouldn't do the same but I ahve yet to get ganked or griefed by a Japanese player....they are usually really well versed in the game and usually do something really humerous....one time I had one guy with BKGA and giants armour switch to whatever the other helper I summoned had .....which was a totally different magic build...I had two of those xanthous crown guys with channelers garb mimicking each other as twin melonheads to fight Tarus demon in NG+...I just stood on top the tower and watched and LMAO. Another time I had a guy that could tell I was new to Dukes show me around the latter part of dukes and crystal caves and gestured all the time pointing to all the missable items/chests etc. He might as well been doing pantomime he was so good at conveying what it was I should be doing, and not overusing anyone gesture.....kinda spoiled my first run of the caves, but memorable all the same and to be honest I think this experience was comparably awesome to having fell off the invisible ledges, or missed some shit......ironically I did not get the tail but was able to get it myself on a different character myself....just good custodianship at its best.
 

Mistouze

user-friendly man-cashews
I can't get mad at invaders with all the shit the game throws at you. Can't be worse than the first mimic encounter.

Getting invaded in Undead Burg near the shortcut gate and trolling the invader by closing it/opening it is pretty funny methinks.
 

Soulhouf

Member
Yeah me too...Not that our own western friends on this site wouldn't do the same but I ahve yet to get ganked or griefed by a Japanese player....they are usually really well versed in the game and usually do something really humerous....one time I had one guy with BKGA and giants armour switch to whatever the other helper I summoned had .....which was a totally different magic build...I had two of those xanthous crown guys with channelers garb mimicking each other as twin melonheads to fight Tarus demon in NG+...I just stood on top the tower and watched and LMAO. Another time I had a guy that could tell I was new to Dukes show me around the latter part of dukes and crystal caves and gestured all the time pointing to all the missable items/chests etc. He might as well been doing pantomime he was so good at conveying what it was I should be doing, and not overusing anyone gesture.....kinda spoiled my first run of the caves, but memorable all the same and to be honest I think this experience was comparably awesome to having fell off the invisible ledges, or missed some shit......ironically I did not get the tail but was able to get it myself on a different character myself....just good custodianship at its best.

The most awesome fight I had was against a Japanese player: Smough's Set with 2 of his gigantic hammers. He looked so funny with the 2nd hammer on his back that I couldn't help but laugh to tears during the fight. It was so hilarious to see and doing all these gestures/scratching his head.
The guy was of course fat rolling with all that and still I managed to hit him only once and eventually lost to him. He was a very good player and I enjoyed fighting him.
Japanese players often do their best to make a good show and that is so important and that's what makes the fight so memorable and enjoyable.
 

casabolg

Banned
We need:

1. Mimic Demon Walls
2. More wheel skeletons
3. More invincible enemies
4. Enemies with random placement
5. Immunity to backstabs if you have your shield on your back.
 

Derrick01

Banned
Curse those motherfucking blowdart guys when you're climbing down the ladders in blighttown. I always seem to get hit by 1 that gives that toxic status and those purple poison curing bushes I have don't work. I even have a bunch of poison resist gear on and it only seems to give me about a 1 or 2 dart advantage before giving that status to me.
 

Sullichin

Member
I find Demons souls a lot more confusing, though the system is probably a lot less complex. However, I think poise is a good concept that could use refinement.

if they severely nerfed the dark wood grain ring, there would actually be a reason to go under 25% equip weight and use armor that has no poise.

Curse those motherfucking blowdart guys when you're climbing down the ladders in blighttown. I always seem to get hit by 1 that gives that toxic status and those purple poison curing bushes I have don't work.
You need blooming moss clumps, the purple ones only stop poison. You can buy them from the undead female merchant in the aqueduct from firelink -> lower burg, or farm them from the ents in the forest. Also, if you kill those guys they don't respawn, and if you have the spider shield, that will protect you against them nicely.
 

zewone

Member
Can someone tell me where the blacksmith is below the cathedral I read in a FAQ?

I feel that I'm near, but I can't seem to find it.
 

krakov

Member
if they severely nerfed the dark wood grain ring, there would actually be a reason to go under 25% equip weight and use armor that has no poise.

Yeah at this point they may as well make the flip the standard roll from 0-50%. There is a lot of stuff that could be a bit more balanced and open up for variety. You can still play with little to no poise and I think it's also viable in PvP depending on build. There really is no use to do it though unless you want to cripple yourself.
 

Derrick01

Banned
You need blooming moss clumps, the purple ones only stop poison. You can buy them from the undead female merchant in the aqueduct from firelink -> lower burg, or farm them from the ents in the forest. Also, if you kill those guys they don't respawn, and if you have the spider shield, that will protect you against them nicely.

Oh yeah I didn't know there was a difference in the two status. I have the spider shield and it works great but it's how they pick me off from a side because I can barely hear the sound they make and they're very tiny.

Sooooo glad to hear they don't respawn though. I had to make a quick bail out to the nearest bonfire but I took like 3 or 4 down before I did it.
 

Mistouze

user-friendly man-cashews
Can someone tell me where the blacksmith is below the cathedral I read in a FAQ?

I feel that I'm near, but I can't seem to find it.
Haha so I'm not the only one who couldn't find him! When you arrive in the cathedral via the lift from Firelink, walk straight ahead and keep going. You'll find stairs going down.
 

2AdEPT

Member
if it's a small shield can we still get a kidneystab?

yes....... but only if you are using the kidney shaped dagger...... and only while in the library......and only on Mr. White, ....or in any place on MIss B Haven. Shanks of any kind always work while in jail.

Seriously though, I have always wondered that there should be at least some damge reduction for having these very protective items on your back.
 
I went down into the Catacombs with my archer to get the Darkmoon Seance Ring, then went farming in Painted World. Up to 8 Souvenir of Reprisal now before I can get this damn miracle. After that, I should have all but possibly one across two characters which should work for the Trophy. Last one is in Ash Lake in that case.
 

Sullichin

Member
I went down into the Catacombs with my archer to get the Darkmoon Seance Ring, then went farming in Painted World. Up to 8 Souvenir of Reprisal now before I can get this damn miracle. After that, I should have all but possibly one across two characters which should work for the Trophy. Last one is in Ash Lake in that case.

You need all of the miracles on one character. However, if you're BB glitched out of getting a covenant miracle that you acquired on the character you duped from, the game will think you have it on that character and the trophy will pop. At least it did for me, when I was glitched out of the first sunlight covenant miracle.

Actually I've seen some conflicting reports re: needing it one character or not. So maybe it wasn't a glitch for me.
 
Beat LVL1 Capra Demon and Iron Golem. Capra Demon was easy after I got the dogs down (took me 4 tries, ugh...) but Golem was surprisingly... tough. My R2 2H attack did only 60 damage so it was all about just waiting. I got nervous at some point and died at least 7 times because I wasn't dealing enough damage. Now I am in Anor Londo and some random Painting Guardian owned me so I quit... hopefully I can get past the archers, I got 50000 souls that I want to spent on Giant Blacksmith.
 

Derrick01

Banned
Uhh so I made the mistake of going into that one area past darkroot garden where it requires that key you can buy for 20k and it wouldn't let me out. I went in there as a human too and had to fight off a couple of people as well as the hard hitting mobs there. Killed the people but a mob got me and it gave me the option of indicting 1 of the players, which I did.

Did I do something bad to them?

More importantly is there a way to get my humanity and souls back and gtfo of that area? There was a white fog that wouldn't let me back out after I went in.

edit: Nevermind it let me out after getting my stuff back. I guess because there were 2 phantoms in my world it wouldn't let me out and I died after killing the 2nd phantom.

Still felt like a boss fighting those guys off. The 1 thief/assassin guy couldn't do shit against my elite knight armor. He was really polite though, when a tough AI enemy came up to me while we were fighting he jumped back and waited until I killed it to continue. He probably could have used it to kill me since he couldn't do anything at all to me yet that thing could have 2 or 3 shotted me.
 

Sblargh

Banned
Got the game today, gonna play it at some point today.
Any quick non-spoilered noob suggestions for someone who got the platinum trophy at Demons' Souls?
 

soultron

Banned
I keep randomly getting estus flasks added to my inventory. I'll see an orange mist (and the accompanying sound effect) moving towards my head and my est count will go up by 1.

It's happening all the time. Is this because I'm in the Princess' Guard covenant? I also got them when I was part of the Forest Hunter covenant.

So confused.
 

Mistouze

user-friendly man-cashews
I keep randomly getting estus flasks added to my inventory. I'll see an orange mist (and the accompanying sound effect) moving towards my head and my est count will go up by 1.

It's happening all the time. Is this because I'm in the Princess' Guard covenant? I also got them when I was part of the Forest Hunter covenant.

So confused.
I think it happens when someone "near" you in terms of the game's mp kindles a bonefire near your position. Feels good, right? The covenant might help this happen in some way.

EDIT : Feels good being able to help others out.
 

Zertez

Member
I keep randomly getting estus flasks added to my inventory. I'll see an orange mist (and the accompanying sound effect) moving towards my head and my est count will go up by 1.

It's happening all the time. Is this because I'm in the Princess' Guard covenant? I also got them when I was part of the Forest Hunter covenant.

So confused.

You get extra flasks when someone kindles a bonfire and you were the last one to visit the bonfire. It only happens when you are online.
 
Under 25% not 50%. People will still be flipping with giant/havel set if they keep it 50% which is ridiculous.

What I've always said they should do is make it where the type of roll you get is armor dependent instead of being dependent on encumbrance:

- People wearing "light" sets of armor (the ones that have 0 Poise) would have the fast roll (and flip if you have DWGR) regardless of encumbrance.

- With "middleweight" sets (like Knight, Elite Knight and Sliver/Black Knight) you CANNOT do the fast roll or flip; the best roll you can get is the medium if you wear any armor in this class (even one piece of it) but you get Poise.

- With "heavy" class armor (like Giant's, Smough's, Golem and Havel's) the player will be ONLY be able to heavy roll if any of it is equipped, again no matter what your encumbrance or how many pieces of it you wear. But as the trade off, you get the highest Poise (and I would also increase the "armor" effect on hits before you stagger when you get into really high Poise to show it is a real advantage).

- Wolf Ring would also get nerfed to like 5-15 Poise increase so that a medium build couldn't try to "min-max" and cheese his or her way into the heavy class and still have medium roll.

That way you're literally forced to sacrifice mobility for defensive capability (aka poise) just like you would in real life. Only the light armors would have fast roll but could get caught in heavy combos due to no poise, whereas heavy builds wouldn't be able to run and flip around but could tank hits. Encumbrance would only affect what gear you could carry all at once and not your maneuverability.
 

soultron

Banned
Neat, thanks! I was wondering why it started happening all of the sudden. I only started playing online recently since my XBL was expired.

Also, just wanted to give Zack Skyy a shoutout. Whoever that dude is, he helped me figure out how to unlock the
bookshelf
in the Duke's Archives so that I could
move onto the Cystal Cave.
Dude was sending me helpful messages over XBL even after I had gotten eaten alive by a mimic/trapchest. Aside from the asshats invaders who don't bow before engaging in a duel, the community in DS seems pretty swell.
 

Mike M

Nick N
What I've always said they should do is make it where the type of roll you get is armor dependent instead of being dependent on encumbrance:

- People wearing "light" sets of armor (the ones that have 0 Poise) would have the fast roll (and flip if you have DWGR) regardless of encumbrance.

- With "middleweight" sets (like Knight, Elite Knight and Sliver/Black Knight) you CANNOT do the fast roll or flip; the best roll you can get is the medium if you wear any armor in this class (even one piece of it) but you get Poise.

- With "heavy" class armor (like Giant's, Smough's, Golem and Havel's) the player will be ONLY be able to heavy roll if any of it is equipped, again no matter what your encumbrance or how many pieces of it you wear. But as the trade off, you get the highest Poise (and I would also increase the "armor" effect on hits before you stagger when you get into really high Poise to show it is a real advantage).

- Wolf Ring would also get nerfed to like 5-15 Poise increase so that a medium build couldn't try to "min-max" and cheese his or her way into the heavy class and still have medium roll.

That way you're literally forced to sacrifice mobility for defensive capability (aka poise) just like you would in real life. Only the light armors would have fast roll but could get caught in heavy combos due to no poise, whereas heavy builds wouldn't be able to run and flip around but could tank hits. Encumbrance would only affect what gear you could carry all at once and not your maneuverability.

Under your proposed alternative, I could wear Smough's helmet and nothing else and not be able to roll, but donning a full set of light or medium armor that weighs more than that one piece would allow rolling? How does that make a lick of sense?

The current system is fine the way it is, things like DWGR notwithstanding (But that's more an issue with that ring and not the armor system).
 

Alucrid

Banned
Heh. Just helped someone in Armored Core V as a Merc, he had a Sun Bros emblem.

Me: Praise the sun
Him: Jolly cooperation!

sun bros for life
 

AEGISX

Banned
After getting platinumed for this game I went back to demon's. Holy shit was that game hard. The first time play through was alright. Then the new game plus was way harder than dark souls.
 
Under your proposed alternative, I could wear Smough's helmet and nothing else and not be able to roll, but donning a full set of light or medium armor that weighs more than that one piece would allow rolling? How does that make a lick of sense?

About as much sense as someone in frickin' rock armor flipping around like a ninja? Even a fast roll should not be possible with that kind of equipment on, unless the dude is Goku or something.

It's not supposed to make sense at all from an aesthetic standpoint. But it makes a lot of sense (at least to me) from a gameplay one (so that both light sets and heavy sets wouldn't suck). Of course, you could have it where the pieces of gear have a "tiering" of sorts and having enough of one type determines it, but that's not any better than the current encumbrance system and would still have people min maxing and doing the same stuff they are now.

EDIT: Another thought about the system I proposed. Having it where wearing one or two pieces of armor and nothing else puts you in "light" status but as you equip more armor, the armor you wear begins to determine the roll speed instead of how much you have. That way you can wear your helmet and fast roll, but if you start putting on other pieces the "rule" of the heavy armor starts being enforced. That way the character still can't min max their way to a "standard" and builds will still be varied for playstyle rather than aesthetics or style.
 

2AdEPT

Member
Got the game today, gonna play it at some point today.
Any quick non-spoilered noob suggestions for someone who got the platinum trophy at Demons' Souls?

If you are a platinum, and you are wise enough not to use spoilers early on, you must like the style of the souls games enough to have a feel for what the developers were going for in Dark. THey changed the layout in that the world is more wide open. There are very few instances where you are forced to go down a linear path, much less than in Demon's Souls (despite the nexus allowing any of the 5 worlds in any order you still had to progress through each boss linearly within each world.)

My suggestion to you is that you either start as a thief and take a gift of your choice as you get the master key automatically, or you choose a character of your choice and select the master key as your gift. THe gifts other than the master key can be easily replaced/ignored, but the master key is only acquired later in the game otherwise. The master key enables you to easily go through more areas of the game preliminarily in order to search out the valuable equipment/items that makes you best able to handle certain environemntal situations (think of the benefit of hitting 3.1 before 5.1 in order to get poison resist for valley of defilement, or getting the dragon fire sword in 2.2 beofre heading into world 4), certain bosses better (fire resistance for flamlurker), and even simple things like hitting the best place to fit your preferred playing style wether this be tank/strength, vs. dexterity/mobility or magic vs. faith. If you are finding a set of enmies or a particular enemy too tough RUN BY THEM....there is always a reward on the other side whether it be an item or a short-cut to unlock for later. COnsidering suicide runs just to see what is there is a valuable option that didn'tlikely have as much use in DEmon's to be honest. By forging ahead, any item you acquire will stay in your inventory whether yuou die on your run or not. You can acquire items that prevent the need for suicide runs, but I will leave that up to you to figure out and not spoil it.

I suggest that Dark has more NPC characters like Ostrava that can influence your playthrough and that killing bosses before surveying the lay of the land is a mistake. THere may be specila questlines dealing with NPC's and allegeances you wish to maintain, but if you forge ahead to quick without perusing the options you may miss things that can only be experienced in a virgin playthrough in a virgin playthrough non-spoilered kind of way. THere is no penalty for taking your time with this game, perhaps as you kow from Demon's, its just the opposite.

THere is no world tendency but there are still multiple things to consider...you can even decide to go through one area backwards to what one mioght be lead to expect was the "intended" direction...but this option would be tough without the master key.

get the key one way or another early on, don't be afraid of areas that seem "too hard" at low level, because as you know, SL1 runs are possible on souls games, Dark is perhaps even easier than in Demon's (some debate.) THere is zero debate about the idea that any level, despite its seeming difficulty can be traversed with either the right equipment, the right strategy, or a combination of the two. FInding these secrets of the game was what the souls series is all about for me, and despite allowing myself to use the hard cover guide to figure out weapon development paths etc. I rarely used it until after I had expereinced the area in question first. I actually recommend limited and controlled use of a wiki simply to confirm your suspicions about certain NPC's, or certain paths....the commnity in this forum is stellar at being able to limit spoiler comments while ensuring small tidbits or questions you ask are explained enough to keep you on track...but remember always state your prefernce for what you want ot get out of the game and those that repsond can be mindful...each players intent is different as you know from Demon's. Some of the same custodial minded posters like indigo cyclops, Oracrest, Canova, and many others I can't all recall so easily helped me with Demon's originally and they are still here ready to help even after three years have passed....others have contrbuted prolifically mostly on Dark like xixx and Booshka.........impressive community here.

Enjoy!
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
Got the game today, gonna play it at some point today.
Any quick non-spoilered noob suggestions for someone who got the platinum trophy at Demons' Souls?

Don't hit barrels that have people in them. Roll into them.
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
There was a hint here. It's gone now.

I think this is something everyone should learn on their own.

It's one of those painful experiences that becomes hilarious with the passage of time.
 

soultron

Banned
I think this is something everyone should learn on their own.

It's one of those painful experiences that becomes hilarious with the passage of time.

I got smoked today, even though I know how to spot the danger now. Got a little careless and was punished for it. :p
 

krakov

Member
The buttefly forest is almost as active as the regular forest right now, perfect if you want to meet up with some lvl 200 dudes that will instabackstab from stunlock. I hope FROM realize the mistake that is the forest covenant. They should patch the game and have black phantom bonewheels spawn whenever someone has been there for longer than 10 minutes.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom