Astora Straight Sword is ASS (oh wow that's an accurate acronym) for anything other than early game. Even if you dump a bunch of TT into it, it still sucks. Imo.
I don't know for sure, but I suspect pretty much any weapon in the game would be better if you ascended it yourself.
The ASS is quite fast and light, it's got that going for it. With a 20 Faith you end up doing nearly 225 damage total, which isn't quite what you want it to be but with a 20 Sta you can swing it five times in a row. It works but for later game soemthing else is needed.
I'm wondering whats the better way to go for Divine weapons. Do you pick a weapon with an A strength rating or one of those C strength - D dexterity weapons? Physical scaling gets downgraded with Divine but I don't really know by how much?
So anyways, I'm running around with a lvl20 char mostly because I wanna see if I can finish the game with that (yeah I know people slvl1 Manus, but I'm not there yet) and as I was working my way to the next in Firelink I look down... and you can clearly see the trap door from which Frampt emerges.
It's the first time I see it from above, and man... this game, this game... using just the environment they're telling you something's gonna happen there at some point. And before you say you can't miss him, I've seen more than one guy miss Frampt.
Anyways, environmental storytelling... one of the sacrificial lambs of AAA++++ guns blazing "Oscar Worthy" cinematic storytelling.
Just a heads up to xbox owners. May 28th through June 3rd the xbox live gold deals for the week include dark souls on demand (price unknown right now) and the DLC for 50% off.
Starting to really dig the game now. I'm pretty much a Padalin guy...selected Knight in the beginning and ended up getting pyromancy, an elite knight set and...*gulp* the drake sword.
But now that my understanding of the game is much better I'm interested in possibly restarting. Still want to be primarily primary/offense based, but I want to ditch the drake sword and heavy armor off the bat.
I saw an interesting build online where a guy was using a ninja sword that was doing crazy damage and some cool black light armor. I suppose it was a dex build?
Starting to really dig the game now. I'm pretty much a Padalin guy...selected Knight in the beginning and ended up getting pyromancy, an elite knight set and...*gulp* the drake sword.
But now that my understanding of the game is much better I'm interested in possibly restarting. Still want to be primarily primary/offense based, but I want to ditch the drake sword and heavy armor off the bat.
I saw an interesting build online where a guy was using a ninja sword that was doing crazy damage and some cool black light armor. I suppose it was a dex build?
I killed him wearing only two Caestus once. My recommendation is just to dodge almost all of his attacks, and only attack him when he does that attack where he stands up and blows a bunch of wind at you with his wings. If you can dodge it, he's stationary for long enough to get two or three hits in without any danger. Most of his other attacks are a tad too dangerous to be attacking him during, without a shield.
Huh. That's exactly the kind of character I'm using, although I am also using Black Iron pants and gloves with the Wolf Ring for that nice 76 Poise. At least it's possible then! Time to roll for it then, thanks.
Just a heads up to xbox owners. May 28th through June 3rd the xbox live gold deals for the week include dark souls on demand (price unknown right now) and the DLC for 50% off.
The thing as a sorcere is that some bosses are pretty hard, but most of them are piss easy. Once you get homing soulmass/soulspear, lingering dragoncrest ring and crown of desk. It's really easy mode.
Huh. That's exactly the kind of character I'm using, although I am also using Black Iron pants and gloves with the Wolf Ring for that nice 76 Poise. At least it's possible then! Time to roll for it then, thanks.
I could see myself being stuck at Smough and Ornstein in a very permanent way soon. I don't have an Internet connection so I can't get any help with it besides Solaire and I've only got like 4 humanity left so that's four more non-solo tries at beating them.
What keeps happening is I kill Smough and then I get a couple shots in on Ornstein before he kills Solaire. And then I run out of flasks before I get Ornstein down to 3/4 health and he kills me.
I don't know what to do because there's no way for me to get humanity once I run out. Any tips?
Edit: and I already got the humanity from beating Lautrec
I could see myself being stuck at Smough and Ornstein in a very permanent way soon. I don't have an Internet connection so I can't get any help with it besides Solaire and I've only got like 4 humanity left so that's four more non-solo tries at beating them.
What keeps happening is I kill Smough and then I get a couple shots in on Ornstein before he kills Solaire. And then I run out of flasks before I get Ornstein down to 3/4 health and he kills me.
I don't know what to do because there's no way for me to get humanity once I run out. Any tips?
Edit: and I already got the humanity from beating Lautrec
What kind of character do you have? Your stats? And if you don't care about the item you have, you can try and kill Ornstein first and then take on Smough. Smough's attacks are much much easier to dodge than Ornstein's.
What kind of character do you have? Your stats? And if you don't care about the item you have, you can try and kill Ornstein first and then take on Smough. Smough's attacks are much much easier to dodge than Ornstein's.
State of your character is really good. Always remember, in the first part of the fight, you can take Smough between you and Ornstein and strafe as Smough moves to keep it that way. Once you do this, the fight will be won. Also you can kindle the bonfire closest to them to get more than 5 flasks for one humanity.
I was so close to winning just now. Had Smough down to four bars and was sure I was going to win. Still had an estus flask too, but he did his move where he swipes his hammer to the side after a delay. I never can dodge/block that one and it killed me.
I was so close to winning just now. Had Smough down to four bars and was sure I was going to win. Still had an estus flask too, but he did his move where he swipes his hammer to the side after a delay. I never can dodge/block that one and it killed me.
Try getting yourself under 25% equip load. Your vit is so low that Havel's armor doesn't really matter. Mix and match some armor and fast roll around. Also, try to 2h your weapon for more damage. Bleed buildup helps a ton as well, so try to get enough hits in to stagger and bleed them, then get the fuck out and try it again.
on my own, no Solaire, no co op. Nothing. Good bye Anor Londo! Not nice meeting ya!
People, check up the upgrades wiki or whatever if this is your first playthrough, I was afraid of using the Twinkling Shard think it was extremely rare or limited, but it helped me increase the shit out of the Titanite Catch Pole and it was incredibly helpful in the battle.
Fuck the electric buttdrop though, I don't know how I evaded two near death, I would have crushed my fucking DS3.
EDIT: Ugh, hang in there Kwixotik, I kept going for about two hours and a half but I did it.
I beat Smough on my final humanity. Royally kicked his ass too. I took your advice and 2-handed my weapon to make him bleed, but I also increased my Vit to 20 and kept Havel's set. That was INTENSE, my heart was beating like crazy lol. The events that happened afterward were very rewarding as well.
I do wish I'd beaten Ornstein last because I wanted his items, but at that point I was just desperate to move on. Thanks for the advice.
Thinking about putting the 70000 souls I got into dex, but I can't decide if I need more Vit or want to do some pyromancy as well... Decisions, decisions
I beat Smough on my final humanity. Royally kicked his ass too. I took your advice and 2-handed my weapon to make him bleed, but I also increased my Vit to 20 and kept Havel's set. That was INTENSE, my heart was beating like crazy lol. The events that happened afterward were very rewarding as well.
I do wish I'd beaten Ornstein last because I wanted his items, but at that point I was just desperate to move on. Thanks for the advice.
Thinking about putting the 70000 souls I got into dex, but I can't decide if I need more Vit or want to do some pyromancy as well... Decisions, decisions
upgrade your pyro glove for now, and buy spells. You can level up whenever. For the future of your character, try to shoot for 40 end, 40 vit and 40 dex. go for 30 vit as soon as possible, it's a great break point and big jump in HP, then take your dex to 30-40 depending how comfortable you are with your vit and endurance. Don't level Endurance or Dex past 40, and Vit past 50. The scaling for stat gains falls off hard for most stats after 40, and 50 for Vit.
At least Artorias is much easier to dodge. Except that one stab, you know what I mean. But I agree that the biggest problem Caestus has is the reach; I've gotten punished so damn often for swiping the air one meter from the enemy :/
I beat Smough on my final humanity. Royally kicked his ass too. I took your advice and 2-handed my weapon to make him bleed, but I also increased my Vit to 20 and kept Havel's set. That was INTENSE, my heart was beating like crazy lol. The events that happened afterward were very rewarding as well.
I do wish I'd beaten Ornstein last because I wanted his items, but at that point I was just desperate to move on. Thanks for the advice.
Thinking about putting the 70000 souls I got into dex, but I can't decide if I need more Vit or want to do some pyromancy as well... Decisions, decisions
You should think about phasing out from Havel to something like Black Iron or Giant. They're lighter, offer better protection when fully upgraded, and you can buy Twinkling Titanite from the Giant Blacksmith. The loss of Poise is negligible.
At least Artorias is much easier to dodge. Except that one stab, you know what I mean. But I agree that the biggest problem Caestus has is the reach; I've gotten punished so damn often for swiping the air one meter from the enemy :/
You should think about phasing out from Havel to something like Black Iron or Giant. They're lighter, offer better protection when fully upgraded, and you can buy Twinkling Titanite from the Giant Blacksmith. The loss of Poise is negligible.
So hey, I'm new here but this is one of my few subbed threads, and allow me to say that you people do good work.
Now a question: I have Dark Souls on my 360 and my Gold lapsed a month ago, and I was waiting for the X1 reveal to renew it. Now I'm not renewing it.
So, I'm 50 hours into it, about to invade
the guy who killed the Firelink Shrine fire keeper and kill him, and then S&O I guess right?
(a lot of "pause" time, exploring, and practice time in there)
Im already having trouble with that first battle I'm on, and I know from reading that I'll need a summon on S&O. I did on the Gargoyles lol.
But I'm also not big on the PvP, only been invaded like 3 times (was fun tho), haven't ever summoned a live player I dont think, and am hollow like 99% of the time.
So for someone like me, who probably needs help on the harder bosses but not the rest of the time, will not being able to summon live players be a problem? I'm just wondering what to do since I have so much time invested but now I'll have to start from scratch if I want to play online
Separate question: how shitty is my character? I'm melee, with a heavy bow and crossbow and a couple of spells that are pretty worthless (soul arrow, great magic weapon, fire surge, force-- heal is an ok back up, but they all take waay too long to cast in the heat of battle) so in combat Im basically all melee. I have the Dragon Bow but arrows seem hard to find, and i have pyromancy but I like JUST got it, mostly just to try, so I have no experience or leveling with it. Claymore. Equipment is the one area I'm ok with, but (if you didn't notice) I suck at RPGs and for some reason have never been able to get my head around all the different leveling (weapons, magic, skills) and augmentation combinations in RPGs.
Anyway:
SL 60
Vit 22
Att 10
End 23
Str 24
Dex 22
Res 12
Int 16
Fai 13 (oops lol)
I always go for a balanced build, maybe that's my problem, because now I'm wondering if I should be more specialized. But I don't have the time for multiple playthroughs to play around with builds so I go for a rounded experience on my one trip through
So hey, I'm new here but this is one of my few subbed threads, and allow me to say that you people do good work.
Now a question: I have Dark Souls on my 360 and my Gold lapsed a month ago, and I was waiting for the X1 reveal to renew it. Now I'm not renewing it.
So, I'm 50 hours into it, about to invade
the guy who killed the Firelink Shrine fire keeper and kill him, and then S&O I guess right?
(a lot of "pause" time, exploring, and practice time in there)
Im already having trouble with that first battle I'm on, and I know from reading that I'll need a summon on S&O. I did on the Gargoyles lol.
But I'm also not big on the PvP, only been invaded like 3 times (was fun tho), haven't ever summoned a live player I dont think, and am hollow like 99% of the time.
So for someone like me, who probably needs help on the harder bosses but not the rest of the time, will not being able to summon live players be a problem? I'm just wondering what to do since I have so much time invested but now I'll have to start from scratch if I want to play online
Separate question: how shitty is my character? I'm melee, with a heavy bow and crossbow and a couple of spells that are pretty worthless (soul arrow, great magic weapon, fire surge, force-- heal is an ok back up, but they all take waay too long to cast in the heat of battle) so in combat Im basically all melee. I have the Dragon Bow but arrows seem hard to find, and i have pyromancy but I like JUST got it, mostly just to try, so I have no experience or leveling with it. Claymore. Equipment is the one area I'm ok with, but (if you didn't notice) I suck at RPGs and for some reason have never been able to get my head around all the different leveling (weapons, magic, skills) and augmentation combinations in RPGs.
Anyway:
SL 60
Vit 22
Att 10
End 23
Str 24
Dex 22
Res 12
Int 16
Fai 13 (oops lol)
I always go for a balanced build, maybe that's my problem, because now I'm wondering if I should be more specialized. But I don't have the time for multiple playthroughs to play around with builds so I go for a rounded experience on my one trip through
Pyromancy is pretty much a free class built into any build, you just have to pay for it. A little extra into attunement will help with spell slots and dex can speed up cast times of pyromancer spells, but no other stat will help with damage. Basically any build can be a pyromancer and benefit from it without any drawbacks. To increase the power of pyromancer spells, you need to upgrade the glove and buy stronger spells. Im not sure what they were thinking, but pyromancy is a cheap way to get through the game no matter what kind of build you are using.
With that being said, you are spreading your points around a little too much already. Try to pick a couple stats and stick with those until you start hitting soft caps, like dex for bow/bs builds, int for sorcerers etc. Rather than trying to keep 4 stats around the same level. Dont be afraid to start over, if you feel your build is screwed. It doesnt take long to get back once you have done it before. S&O can be one of the toughest fights in game, next to the 4 Kings. Killing order can make the fight easier or tougher on you depending which one you killed first. I would recommend spending some time and farming some souls to spend on pyromancy, buying some resins or spells to enchant your weapon with an element.
So hey, I'm new here but this is one of my few subbed threads, and allow me to say that you people do good work.
Now a question: I have Dark Souls on my 360 and my Gold lapsed a month ago, and I was waiting for the X1 reveal to renew it. Now I'm not renewing it.
So, I'm 50 hours into it, about to invade
the guy who killed the Firelink Shrine fire keeper and kill him, and then S&O I guess right?
(a lot of "pause" time, exploring, and practice time in there)
Im already having trouble with that first battle I'm on, and I know from reading that I'll need a summon on S&O. I did on the Gargoyles lol.
But I'm also not big on the PvP, only been invaded like 3 times (was fun tho), haven't ever summoned a live player I dont think, and am hollow like 99% of the time.
So for someone like me, who probably needs help on the harder bosses but not the rest of the time, will not being able to summon live players be a problem? I'm just wondering what to do since I have so much time invested but now I'll have to start from scratch if I want to play online
Separate question: how shitty is my character? I'm melee, with a heavy bow and crossbow and a couple of spells that are pretty worthless (soul arrow, great magic weapon, fire surge, force-- heal is an ok back up, but they all take waay too long to cast in the heat of battle) so in combat Im basically all melee. I have the Dragon Bow but arrows seem hard to find, and i have pyromancy but I like JUST got it, mostly just to try, so I have no experience or leveling with it. Claymore. Equipment is the one area I'm ok with, but (if you didn't notice) I suck at RPGs and for some reason have never been able to get my head around all the different leveling (weapons, magic, skills) and augmentation combinations in RPGs.
Anyway:
SL 60
Vit 22
Att 10
End 23
Str 24
Dex 22
Res 12
Int 16
Fai 13 (oops lol)
I always go for a balanced build, maybe that's my problem, because now I'm wondering if I should be more specialized. But I don't have the time for multiple playthroughs to play around with builds so I go for a rounded experience on my one trip through
With those Str/Dex stats you could go for the Dex-based greatswords, like Murakumo(1-handed 28 Str) and Server(1-handed 24 Str). But like Zertez said, you're spreading your stats a bit thin. I would recommend keeping Str/Dex/Int where they are and get that End higher(30 to 40), or if you keep dying, your Vit to 30. If you keep up leveling your Int, you'll end up with Crystal Magic Weapon which'll augment your damage quite nicely. If you just level to 40Vit/40End/25Int(for CMW), you'll be sitting at a comfortable SL of 104 and still have pretty good co-op/PVP access. With those Str/Dex stats you might be better off opting out from sorcery enchants and going for the elemental upgrades instead though.
Pyromancy is a great route to take as it doesn't affect your co-op/PVP possibilities, and is absurdly powerful with the low effort it takes.
This Artorias guy. Fuck this guy. I can't seem to get any hits on him, damn Queelag sword and he hits hard and constant. Rolling and dodging forever but only get a few scratches on him. Tried using pyro but he is very good at dodging fireballs.
This is probably the breaking point for me. Only have Gwyn left so might skip this guy and come back in NG+ or is he even harder? This Artorias guy. Fuck this guy.
This Artorias guy. Fuck this guy. I can't seem to get any hits on him, damn Queelag sword and he hits hard and constant. Rolling and dodging forever but only get a few scratches on him. Tried using pyro but he is very good at dodging fireballs.
This is probably the breaking point for me. Only have Gwyn left so might skip this guy and come back in NG+ or is he even harder? This Artorias guy. Fuck this guy.
Try a weapon that does mostly physical damage. The DLC bosses are highly resistant to elemental weapons. Try to upgrade a weapon to +15 and you will a lot more damage. You would barely scratch Artorias with the Kellogg sword on NG+
This Artorias guy. Fuck this guy. I can't seem to get any hits on him, damn Queelag sword and he hits hard and constant. Rolling and dodging forever but only get a few scratches on him. Tried using pyro but he is very good at dodging fireballs.
This is probably the breaking point for me. Only have Gwyn left so might skip this guy and come back in NG+ or is he even harder? This Artorias guy. Fuck this guy.
When he start charging up, run up and smack him two-handed a couple of times to knock him out of it. Dodge his 3-jump combo and he'll be open for a while, same after some of his bigger attacks; The long lunge and the heavy overhead attack.
Poison helps, except against the sorcerer, and kiting them around and plinking at them is good if you want to be extra careful. You only need to kill Lautrec to finish the fight, so if you stay far away and manage to poison him you only need to wait it out. He's pretty good at rolling under shots/knives though.
I think I have a Dark Souls addiction. Went back and beat all the Darkroot Garden stuff, maxed out my Uchigatana, got Giant's head and hands +5, upgraded my pyro flame and bought all available spells, and beat the Four Kings.
Now I'm just struggling with whether I want to buy the DLC or not before I beat the game, as it will probably be a long time before I do another playthrough.
Now I'm just struggling with whether I want to buy the DLC or not before I beat the game, as it will probably be a long time before I do another playthrough.
Dont count on staying away long. This game has a habit of sucking you back in. I have beat the game so many times using all kinds of builds and handicaps, and I just started a new character last week. I dont use the bag glitch either, so I start from scratch each time.
Try a weapon that does mostly physical damage. The DLC bosses are highly resistant to elemental weapons. Try to upgrade a weapon to +15 and you will a lot more damage. You would barely scratch Artorias with the Kellogg sword on NG+
When he start charging up, run up and smack him two-handed a couple of times to knock him out of it. Dodge his 3-jump combo and he'll be open for a while, same after some of his bigger attacks; The long lunge and the heavy overhead attack.
Thanks fellas, finally beat him! Yeah I did it! Woo fucking hoo!!!
Got my Ricard sword to +15 and just attacked after dodging his jump and lunge. Took what felt like forever and was down to my last estus. My nephew was watching me and we high fived and danced like maniacs when I finally took him down.
I had a similar experience fighting the Sanctuary Guardian. It was a major pita for me. My +5 lightning murakumo was barely scratching its skin. Got a +14 sword instead and it went down. Pure relief!
Poison helps, except against the sorcerer, and kiting them around and plinking at them is good if you want to be extra careful. You only need to kill Lautrec to finish the fight, so if you stay far away and manage to poison him you only need to wait it out. He's pretty good at rolling under shots/knives though.
It can be a bit tricky, but try to shoot arrows with Lautrec out of sight. You should be able to position yourself near the wall so you only have one minion it sight. This way only the minions will run towards you. Lautrec is positioned slightly further down the hallway, which might be why he doesn't aggro. At least that's my theory.
Had a bit of trouble myself at that battle and only killed the main guy, while the sorcerer remained alive.
If you have Pyro, what worked for me was to lure them to the stairs whilst taking care of the goddamn Soul Ray, since they do a Three Stooges routine trying to climb the stairs at once, I just threw my Great Chaos Fireball at them. I only had to finish up the fight against the main guy and got one shotted by the ray, but the target was killed. ;P
Damn, yeah? I'll give it a try. Just tried him a handful of times, got kinda close, but I always aggro Laurtec when I aggro his buddies
Too dangerous, his strikes ignore the shield and you'll get hurt anyway, best to take them out at distance or being real careful at backstabbing because there are other two minions to worry about.
The ASS is quite fast and light, it's got that going for it. With a 20 Faith you end up doing nearly 225 damage total, which isn't quite what you want it to be but with a 20 Sta you can swing it five times in a row. It works but for later game soemthing else is needed.
I'm wondering whats the better way to go for Divine weapons. Do you pick a weapon with an A strength rating or one of those C strength - D dexterity weapons? Physical scaling gets downgraded with Divine but I don't really know by how much?
For shits and giggles I put ASS in the character builder with 50STR,50DEX,50FAI. 400AR total, split 227/173 phys/magic. That's pitiful.
You can see how the scaling is affected on the divine path on the character builder (i(https://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/) too, or on the wikis. I like to use a quality-ish (c/c or c/d str/dex scaling) weapon but then just focus on leveling faith, and keeping str/dex at their minimum requirement becuase the scaling is lowered a lot. Divine zweihander hits pretty hard, but if properly specced the +15 path will do more damage (but only physical)
Just killed manus on my sorcerer. Goddamm he hits like a truck with low vitality. Had to rely on dodging because my shield and endurance were kind of crap. But the thrill of beating him after a few tries is what makes this game so freaking amazing.
Yeah that's true. Gotta learn new timings since sorceries are sorta slow and the tracking can easily miss, most annoyingly when the enemy starts its attack animation as it gets close to you. Suddenly it looks like you need more room haha.
Most of this gets resolved as soon as you free Logan and get soulmass.
I strongly suggest you get hidden body, it's an amazing spell. It only lasts 45 secs with the ring but... So good.
