Support NeoGAF

[CountAntonius]

Really dreading ng+ Artorias. Guy nearly gave me fits first time around.

Also I'm surprised I've managed to do reasonably well using a mouse and kb with out the mouse fix. Definitely makes things a lot more challenging and navigating menus is a complete pain in the ass, but I feel like I have now this super human control of my mouse to keep it from being so jumpy. It's taken me longer than anticipated to get my control but I couldn't wait till I did to play.

Holy shit this is gold.

 

[Dyno]

Artorias is making me want to hurt someone.

I discovered Artorias has a weakness; he cannot penetrate his own shield!

If you have the Greatshield of Artorias then use it and his sword strokes will fail to to do much stamina. Makes the fight a hell of a lot easier.

 

[RVinP]

I discovered Artorias has a weakness; he cannot penetrate his own shield!

If you have the Greatshield of Artorias then use it and his sword strokes will fail to to do much stamina. Makes the fight a hell of a lot easier.

But, isn't that because the Greatshield of Artorias has very high stability?

 

[GRIP]

how do you access the dlc?

-Place the Lordvessel at Firelink Altar.
-Kill the Hydra in Darkroot Basin.
- A Golden Crystal Golem will appear in the far corner of the lake (I think you have to either quit out of the game and restart or go to a bonfire before the Golem will appear), defeat him and rescue Dusk.
-Go to Dukes Archives and kill the regular Crystal Golem at the beginning and you'll get the Broken Pendant (can't remember if he drops it or if it's behind him).
-Go back to the same area the Golden Crystal Golem was in the lake and you'll see a dark fog. When you approach it a hand will grab you and take you to the DLC area.

 

[CloudWolf]

I feel like I cheated the game. I kept losing to the Taurus Demon and couldn't think of a good strategy, so I just kinda gave up and decided to just hack mindlessly at him with my battle axe like it's a God of War game. The result? I killed the boss in less than ten seconds without sustaining a single hit. What an anticlimax.

 

[RiccochetJ]

Woo! 1000 points for the 360 and now for the PC! GFWL, you can now go away.

Now I should go get platinum for Demon's. I had all the materials but I put my ps3 controller down and accidentally slapped Thomas upside the head. He was mad.

Actually want to go make a halberd build. That looked fun for pvp. I was using the great axe this time around and it was fun as hell to use when I was invaded and for the bosses.

 

[GRIP]

Probably been posted here before, but it's one of my favorite Dark Souls videos....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_kSPvCBryM

O&S, no damage.

Edit:

Spoiler

I don't even like Korn that much, but this song gets my blood flowing and it goes great with the video.

 

[Valnen]

So I've been holding off on playing this for the longest time because I wanted to play Demon's Souls first which I still haven't gotten around to doing, but about a week ago I decided to power through it on the off chance GFWL doesn't get patched out. Glad I made the choice. I'm about 37 hours in now, just hit Anor Londo today. That's probably really slow but I'm okay with that as I backtrack a lot to explore and farm stuff. I haven't done very much PvP because it seems every time I go human some seemingly impossible to kill person invades and there's nothing I can do to stand a chance except for one bizarre occurrence where some guy who was pretty much naked charged right at me and I killed him in a few hits.

I will say one thing about this experience, it's made Dark Souls 2 an instant buy for me when it hits PC, and I'll double dip if it hits PS4. And I'm definitely going to restart Demon's Souls when I beat this.

 

[Wired]

I'm looking for some weapons advice. Even though I've played through the game like 4 times on the 360 I seemingly forgot quite a bit since then. And as a result I'm somewhat uncertain what I should be aiming for weapons wise.

I know what my end goal is, the BK Greataxe. Since I damn well love that thing. However that is ways of. So I'm looking for recommendations here. Currently I'm using a Zweihander +5 and a BSS +5.

Oh yeah, stats wise I have 33 STR and 25 DEX. I forgot I was aiming for a STR weapon and stupidly leveled my dex a bit too much but oh well.

edit: oh yeah. I just rung the second bell. To give you an idea where I'm at.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

You're going good. BK Gaxe is a monster, but those are decent replacements in the meantime. If you already have a BK sword you could use that too, unupgraded it might hit as hard as your +5 weapons already. You could use a claymore or halberd with those stats too, as well as a composite bow for ranged attack. My bk gaxe toon uses the bkgaxe (duh) and the composite bow +15 for the odd sniping/baiting parts.

 

[Wired]

You're going good. BK Gaxe is a monster, but those are decent replacements in the meantime. If you already have a BK sword you could use that too, unupgraded it might hit as hard as your +5 weapons already. You could use a claymore or halberd with those stats too, as well as a composite bow for ranged attack. My bk gaxe toon uses the bkgaxe (duh) and the composite bow +15 for the odd sniping/baiting parts.

Right, thanks! I've decided to work towards a Zwei +15 for now at least.

Two follow up questions:

1. Would I be better off going for a +10 fire or just regular +15 for the BSS, I'm assuming fire would be better considering I'm not going to raise my DEX further? At first I thought about going for lightning, but I could use those mats for my Zwei, also it was nerfed right?

2. Should I even keep using the BSS since I'm going for a STR build, are there any other fast weapon I should consider instead? Although I suppose if I go fire this is a moot point.

 

[Duster]

So I'm enjoying the beautiful sights of Andor Londo when I get stuck in a bloody painting, sadly I think I'm going to have to resort to consulting a guide before entering new areas.

 

[Clear]

So I'm enjoying the beautiful sights of Andor Londo when I get stuck in a bloody painting, sadly I think I'm going to have to resort to consulting a guide before entering new areas.

Ariamis is fun, one of my favourite zones in the game. Fantastic for farming, and lots of loot to grab on your initial explore. Very bow and pyro friendly though, which suits me but YMMV.

 

[Duster]

Oh the area seems to be a good one and I'm sure I'll enjoy it but it's the being stuck there I'm not too fond of.
Luckily I'm a pyromancer so should be OK but I could have been a position where I'd want to leave to get some firebombs/resin, I just don't want to get caught in a situation I'm unprepared for in the future.

 

[RustyNails]

So I've been holding off on playing this for the longest time because I wanted to play Demon's Souls first which I still haven't gotten around to doing, but about a week ago I decided to power through it on the off chance GFWL doesn't get patched out. Glad I made the choice. I'm about 37 hours in now, just hit Anor Londo today. That's probably really slow but I'm okay with that as I backtrack a lot to explore and farm stuff. I haven't done very much PvP because it seems every time I go human some seemingly impossible to kill person invades and there's nothing I can do to stand a chance except for one bizarre occurrence where some guy who was pretty much naked charged right at me and I killed him in a few hits.

I will say one thing about this experience, it's made Dark Souls 2 an instant buy for me when it hits PC, and I'll double dip if it hits PS4. And I'm definitely going to restart Demon's Souls when I beat this.

You hit Anor Londo at 37th hour? I'm somewhere in mid 50s and hit Anor Londo couple of hours ago. I just dont know how to play this game good. I am hoarding every soul (including boss), have been using Drake Sword+2 for the better half of the game.

I really liked Demon's Souls, but I just wanna get this game done and be over with.

 

[Clear]

Oh the area seems to be a good one and I'm sure I'll enjoy it but it's the being stuck there I'm not too fond of.

Well yeah, it is a bit of a shock but luckily the zone boss is entirely optional and as a whole its probably a bit of a step back in overall difficulty from Anor Londo.

Be careful in human form though, its a real hotspot for invasions.

 

[acidagfc]

Hey guys. I finally decided to try this game. Turns out I bought it on a Steam sale a while back and it was just sitting there.
I started it and immediatly run into problems. None of my gamepads are recognised (Dualshock 3, Logitech F540 and I didn't even try Wii U pad). When I was tired of fighting with gamepads setup, I just decided to go with the kb/m, aaaaaand the game crashed right after the intro movie. 3 times in a row.

So my question is, should I try to fix my PC issues or just order a PS3 version? Is it inferior in any way besides the obvious performance dips?

 

[Red Liquorice]

You hit Anor Londo at 37th hour? I'm somewhere in mid 50s and hit Anor Londo couple of hours ago. I just dont know how to play this game good. I am hoarding every soul (including boss), have been using Drake Sword+2 for the better half of the game.

I really liked Demon's Souls, but I just wanna get this game done and be over with.

The bolded statements are probably related. Get rid of that thing and use at least a +10 weapon, you should have plenty to chose from if you've been playing 50hrs and only just reached Anor Londo. If you've explored pre-Anor enough you might even be able to take a weapon to full 15+ then it will really put the Drake Sword to shame.

So I'm enjoying the beautiful sights of Andor Londo when I get stuck in a bloody painting, sadly I think I'm going to have to resort to consulting a guide before entering new areas.

I wouldn't worry about that too much, there aren't really any other areas like that where you can get stuck until you kill the boss like Painted World, except one

Spoiler

Dukes Archives after the first Seath encounter

- you don't have to kill a boss in order to escape though, just you aren't able to warp out till you've done that particular section of the area.

Spoiler

Might want to keep a ring of sacrifice handy though!

 

[phoenixyz]

None of my gamepads are recognised (Dualshock 3, Logitech F540 and I didn't even try Wii U pad).

It works perfectly with DS3 Tool if you enable Xbox controller emulation. That way the DS3 also works with pretty much every other controller enabled game out there.

I just decided to go with the kb/m, aaaaaand the game crashed right after the intro movie. 3 times in a row.

Are you using DSfix?

 

[RustyNails]

The bolded statements are probably related. Get rid of that thing and use at least a +10 weapon, you should have plenty to chose from if you've been playing 50hrs and only just reached Anor Londo. If you've explored pre-Anor enough you might even be able to take a weapon to full 15+ then it will really put the Drake Sword to shame.

Oh I have a ton of swords, scimitars, halberds and great axes. I just don't have all the upgrade materials, and I am really not looking forward to mining for them.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Oh I have a ton of swords, scimitars, halberds and great axes. I just don't have all the upgrade materials, and I am really not looking forward to mining for them.

Upgrade materials are so easy to come by in Dark Souls, you're already at a point where you just buy everything you need to get a weapon to +10 if you don't want to farm, and you probably have them already - just 9 each of titanite and large titanite. Titanite Chunks for getting to +14 do need farming, but they're easy enough to get if you have max item discovery (10 humanity and the gold serpent ring).

 

[acidagfc]

It works perfectly with DS3 Tool if you enable Xbox controller emulation. That way the DS3 also works with pretty much every other controller enabled game out there.

Are you using DSfix?

Ok, I finally managed to beat MotioninJoy settings to make the gamepad recogised.

It still crashes after the intro movie. There's a short loading screen and then I'm back to Windows.

I do use DSfix. Any options to be careful with?

 

[RustyNails]

Upgrade materials are so easy to come by in Dark Souls, you're already at a point where you just buy everything you need to get a weapon to +10 if you don't want to farm, and you probably have them already - just 9 each of titanite and large titanite. Titanite Chunks for getting to +14 do need farming, but they're easy enough to get if you have max item discovery (10 humanity and the gold serpent ring).

Sounds ok I guess. What's a good weapon to upgrade for a 22 dex and 21 str build? I can't live without my black bow of Pharis which I always keep.

 

[phoenixyz]

Ok, I finally managed to beat MotioninJoy settings to make the gamepad recogised.

That's what I meant. For some reason I created a shortcut named "DS3 Tool" for it ... .....

It still crashes after the intro movie. There's a short loading screen and then I'm back to Windows.
I do use DSfix. Any options to be careful with?

Are you using the most recent version? I know that a recent patch broke the old DSfix versions. And you mean the intro movie when starting a New Game, so GFWL works?
Does it work if you don't use DSfix (to rule everything else out)?

 

[acidagfc]

That's what I meant. For some reason I created a shortcut named "DS3 Tool" for it ... .....
Are you using the most recent version? I know that a recent patch broke the old DSfix versions. And you mean the intro movie when starting a New Game, so GFWL works?
Does it work if you don't use DSfix (to rule everything else out)?

I use DSfix 2.2. Game runs without it.
The crash happens after character creation movie.
Also I use the latest beta AMD driver, no idea if that can interfere with DSfix.

EDIT: OK, found it. Some SSAO settings are causing it.
I'm good now. Thanks!

Spoiler

Phew, what a game! Haven't done anything and my Steam clocks at 50 minutes already

 

[RustyNails]

Do Sentinels in the main hall (before Smough and Ornstein boss fight) respawn if you kill them?

 

[Toxi]

Do Sentinels in the main hall (before Smough and Ornstein boss fight) respawn if you kill them?

Yes. They're actually a pretty good way to farm XP if you're killing them.

 

[Booshka]

Sounds ok I guess. What's a good weapon to upgrade for a 22 dex and 21 str build? I can't live without my black bow of Pharis which I always keep.

Claymore, Longsword, Halberd, Zweihander, Bastard Sword, Composite Bow, and plenty others. The 20K souls it took you to upgrade the Drake Sword could have gone to buying upgrade items for much better weapons that scale through the entire game.

Do Sentinels in the main hall (before Smough and Ornstein boss fight) respawn if you kill them?

Yes. They're actually a pretty good way to farm XP if you're killing them.

They also have a decent chance to drop Titanite Chunks, so you can kill them both, and use their souls to buy Large Titanite Shards from the Giant Blacksmith. I used to do this while waiting for summons in Anor Londo, good way to get your gear upgraded.

 

[CountAntonius]

Seen you on chatting on a 360 players stream yesterday Booshka. I'd have joined but for some reason Twitch chat isn't loading on my pc.

 

[Booshka]

Seen you on chatting on a 360 players stream yesterday Booshka. I'd have joined but for some reason Twitch chat isn't loading on my pc.

Ya I frequent Dark Souls streams often, mostly Xbox because that is where I play the most. LoL Championships has been murdering Twitch lately, a lot of users are having issues with the chat. Maybe now that those are over, things might settle down back to being their normal levels of inconsistent.

 

[CountAntonius]

Ya I frequent Dark Souls streams often, mostly Xbox because that is where I play the most. LoL Championships has been murdering Twitch lately, a lot of users are having issues with the chat. Maybe now that those are over, things might settle down back to being their normal levels of inconsistent.

It's odd I had this problem before when I first built my PC then it just started working one day. Two weeks ago I reformatted and the issue is back again. I have no idea what it is.

 

[neoemonk]

So I've been holding off on playing this for the longest time because I wanted to play Demon's Souls first which I still haven't gotten around to doing, but about a week ago I decided to power through it on the off chance GFWL doesn't get patched out. Glad I made the choice. I'm about 37 hours in now, just hit Anor Londo today. That's probably really slow but I'm okay with that as I backtrack a lot to explore and farm stuff. I haven't done very much PvP because it seems every time I go human some seemingly impossible to kill person invades and there's nothing I can do to stand a chance except for one bizarre occurrence where some guy who was pretty much naked charged right at me and I killed him in a few hits.

I will say one thing about this experience, it's made Dark Souls 2 an instant buy for me when it hits PC, and I'll double dip if it hits PS4. And I'm definitely going to restart Demon's Souls when I beat this.

I just hit Anor Londo at around 36 hours on my save file. I don't think that's extremely slow, but I have done a fair bit of exploring.

 

[Orochinagis]

So what is the max armor upgrade ? I got at +5 the Witch breatice armor set and god lord Smoug N+ is still kicking my ass

 

[Booshka]

So what is the max armor upgrade ? I got at +5 the Witch breatice armor set and god lord Smoug N+ is still kicking my ass

+5 for Twinkling Titanite Armors, +10 for Normal upgrade armors. Other armor sets can not be upgraded but have inherently high stats to make up for it.

If you are on NG+ throwing on more armor isn't really going to do much, you just need more Vitality, or even better, just don't get hit as often. Get yourself Fast rolling and avoid the damage, instead of trying to tank it with better armor.

 

[fierrotlepou]

My game crashes when I unlock the fps in the DSfix. Does anyone have a solution?

 

[Soulhouf]

So what is the max armor upgrade ? I got at +5 the Witch breatice armor set and god lord Smoug N+ is still kicking my ass

In addition to what Booshka said, if you want to tank, it's doable with the Eagle Shield which is light(for its size), has a very high stability and good protection against lightning.
Upgrade it to +15 and you will be safe behind it in that fight.

Using good shield is the way to go if want protection in NG+ and beyond.

 

[Sullichin]

My game crashes when I unlock the fps in the DSfix. Does anyone have a solution?

Make sure you are using the newest version of DSfix from Durante's blog. The latest patch broke unlockFPS in previous versions.

 

[Nabs]

My game crashes when I unlock the fps in the DSfix. Does anyone have a solution?

Are you using the latest DSFix (2.2)? If so, try this: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=82055169&postcount=7225

 

[Orochinagis]

Finally, after giving up Solaire help I tried to solo it and Kill the Smough with my cristal spears and got his Armor set which made me remember I forgot to buy Orstein armor set in my first run.

If you are on NG+ throwing on more armor isn't really going to do much, you just need more Vitality, or even better, just don't get hit as often. Get yourself Fast rolling and avoid the damage, instead of trying to tank it with better armor.

In addition to what Booshka said, if you want to tank, it's doable with the Eagle Shield which is light(for its size), has a very high stability and good protection against lightning.
Upgrade it to +15 and you will be safe behind it in that fight.

Using good shield is the way to go if want protection in NG+ and beyond.

I am trying to follow a pure mage class but some encounters are in really close space so I am currently using the Grass Shield for the stamina bonus and sometimes the bloodshield for the poision resistance but I will give it a try then. Thank both of you for the advice.

 

[Booshka]

New World Record for Any % 52:45 In-Game Time.
http://www.twitch.tv/noobest/c/3032247

Nearly perfect run, using the Red Tearstone Black Knight Halberd route, with the occasional permanent moveswap glitch for Estoc running/backstep attacks on some boss fights. This is the guy that has had the talent to beat Santzo84's Any% run, he kept choking over and over, but finally got his Urn.

 

[Sullichin]

New World Record for Any % 52:45 In-Game Time.
http://www.twitch.tv/noobest/c/3032247

Nearly perfect run, using the Red Tearstone Black Knight Halberd route, with the occasional permanent moveswap glitch for Estoc running/backstep attacks on some boss fights. This is the guy that has had the talent to beat Santzo84's Any% run, he kept choking over and over, but finally got his Urn.

Amazing. The BKH with estoc moveset swap completely destroys O&S and 4K. The RTSR activation in Demon Ruins from still being poisoned from Blighttown and doing the ceaseless skip was pretty crazy. He's also insanely good at free aiming firebombs and arrows.

 

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

I've only seen noobest live once. I have no idea when he streams.

What are peoples' favorite weapons for Oreos and S'mores? If the PC community was more active, I would make a character just for getting summoned against them.

 

[CountAntonius]

Invading Tomb of the Giants was a dick move.

 

[super-famicom]

I've only seen noobest live once. I have no idea when he streams.

What are peoples' favorite weapons for Oreos and S'mores? If the PC community was more active, I would make a character just for getting summoned against them.

Baller Swag Sword, for sure. Throw some fire pine resin on it and roast that fat S'more. Double R2 stabs are glorious.

 

[Creamium]

New World Record for Any % 52:45 In-Game Time.
http://www.twitch.tv/noobest/c/3032247

Nearly perfect run, using the Red Tearstone Black Knight Halberd route, with the occasional permanent moveswap glitch for Estoc running/backstep attacks on some boss fights. This is the guy that has had the talent to beat Santzo84's Any% run, he kept choking over and over, but finally got his Urn.

I watched noobest stream a bunch of times, but like you said, he always messed up and every run I'd catch was him in the very beginning of the game. I'm glad his hard work and determination paid off, because he must've done countless runs. This is an insane time, doubt it'll be broken anytime soon. Doesn't it beat Santzo's time by 5 minutes? Impressive.

Like watching all boss runs better though, more entertaining.

 

[ebullientprism]

I honestly dont think the move swap glitch should count as a record. Or at least as THE world record. Its like the OoT glitch or the Kiln skip.

I know that the WR (non move swap glitch) run does have the Duke Skip in it. But thats not really a glitch, is it?

I do love the DaS twitch community though. Some really amazing players on it.

 

[Wired]

Woho! The Black Knight in

Spoiler

the catacombs

dropped a BKGA, very nice was afraid I would have to wait. I usually never have any luck with my drops

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Woho! The Black Knight in dropped a BKGA, very nice was afraid I would have to wait. I usually never have any luck with my drops

Nice. Now enjoy wrecking everything.

 

[Red Liquorice]

New World Record for Any % 52:45 In-Game Time.
http://www.twitch.tv/noobest/c/3032247

Nearly perfect run, using the Red Tearstone Black Knight Halberd route, with the occasional permanent moveswap glitch for Estoc running/backstep attacks on some boss fights. This is the guy that has had the talent to beat Santzo84's Any% run, he kept choking over and over, but finally got his Urn.

Is this considered legit for a world record? I would've assumed glitches and such were frowned upon?

 

[Booshka]

Is this considered legit for a world record? I would've assumed glitches and such were frowned upon?

In-game glitches have always been a part of Speedruns. Yes this run is valid and pretty much all glitches that are used for the sole purpose of beating the game as fast as possible are accepted. At least the Kiln glitch isnt still around, runs were a lot more boring when they pretty much ended after O&S.

I'm not a big fan of huge sequence breaking glitches in general, I like to see Runners get through as much of the game as possible, games with insane skips are a lot less fun to watch in my opinion. Dark Souls is pretty good in that respect, the two major skips, Lava and Duke's, don't really miss out on much, actually cuts down on a good amount of boring gameplay for the most part.