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Dark Souls |OT5| Definitely better than the sequel

Chitown B

Member
There is a way back, there is a door you probably haven't opened or a path you haven't taken yet, the Depths loops back completely, and the frogs do respawn so look out for them! :)

thanks! weird that I went to areas I'd been after dying many times and they didn't seem to be there.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
So I spent the weekend battling my way through the rest of Sen's Fortress and into Anor Londo. The Iron Golem boss on top of Sen's went down pretty easy for me honestly, it only took me two attempts to best him. Had to be careful about it, and it took awhile, but fairly painless boss.

Then I get to Anor Londo and repeatedly get smashed by the big shield wearing pike wielding giants, lol. After a bit though I figured out their patterns and now I can beat them most of the time, as long as I take them on one at a time and have lots of room to maneuver. So I explore all over Anor Londo, what a great area. The gargoyles weren't too bad, nor were the white assassin guys in the church, again as long as I took them down one at a time. Slowly but steadily I worked my way all the way to the Big White doorway that leads to Ornstein and Smoug.

And there I hit my brick wall.

I've fought them a dozen times now, trying different tactics, and man I could barely put a dent in either one of them before defeat. I decided it was time to change / upgrade my gear and see if that helped. So I switched from a <25% endurance armor setup to a just barely sub 50% setup, putting on the Silver Knight armor that I'd just found in Anor Londo. I'd roll slower but it would give me better lightning and physical resist. I also switched out my Divine Longsword +5 for my Claymore +10 while keeping the Eagle Shield. I figured attack less, but make it count more. This setup did better but I still couldn't best them.

So next I decided it was time to upgrade some stuff. With the new Giant blacksmith opened up I could now buy shards to upgrade my shield and Silver Knight armor, And thus I proceeded to grind on the giants at the start of Anor Londo near the bonfire. They are 1500 soul per kill, and with my new armor and Claymore I find that they actually go down much easier. I killed, bought shards, upgraded, killed more, etc etc. My Eagle Shield is now maxed, my new armor has +2 across the set, and so I tried Ornstein and Smoug once again.

And lost embarrassingly, every time.

I'm at an impass. I think I'm going to wander around exploring some other areas for a bit. I'm SL51 now, maybe I just need to be higher level? Maybe I just suck, lol.
 

mannerbot

Member
So I spent the weekend battling my way through the rest of Sen's Fortress and into Anor Londo. The Iron Golem boss on top of Sen's went down pretty easy for me honestly, it only took me two attempts to best him. Had to be careful about it, and it took awhile, but fairly painless boss.

Then I get to Anor Londo and repeatedly get smashed by the big shield wearing pike wielding giants, lol. After a bit though I figured out their patterns and now I can beat them most of the time, as long as I take them on one at a time and have lots of room to maneuver. So I explore all over Anor Londo, what a great area. The gargoyles weren't too bad, nor were the white assassin guys in the church, again as long as I took them down one at a time. Slowly but steadily I worked my way all the way to the Big White doorway that leads to Ornstein and Smoug.

And there I hit my brick wall.

I've fought them a dozen times now, trying different tactics, and man I could barely put a dent in either one of them before defeat. I decided it was time to change / upgrade my gear and see if that helped. So I switched from a <25% endurance armor setup to a just barely sub 50% setup, putting on the Silver Knight armor that I'd just found in Anor Londo. I'd roll slower but it would give me better lightning and physical resist. I also switched out my Divine Longsword +5 for my Claymore +10 while keeping the Eagle Shield. I figured attack less, but make it count more. This setup did better but I still couldn't best them.

So next I decided it was time to upgrade some stuff. With the new Giant blacksmith opened up I could now buy shards to upgrade my shield and Silver Knight armor, And thus I proceeded to grind on the giants at the start of Anor Londo near the bonfire. They are 1500 soul per kill, and with my new armor and Claymore I find that they actually go down much easier. I killed, bought shards, upgraded, killed more, etc etc. My Eagle Shield is now maxed, my new armor has +2 across the set, and so I tried Ornstein and Smoug once again.

And lost embarrassingly, every time.

I'm at an impass. I think I'm going to wander around exploring some other areas for a bit. I'm SL51 now, maybe I just need to be higher level? Maybe I just suck, lol.

Here are some tips, if you like:
Use the geometry of the stage (the pillars) to separate the two. Since it's easier to catch Smough on a pillar, and Ornstein teleports to the player as part of his moveset, it's generally easier to kill Ornstein first. So just run to get some separation and get Ornstein alone, then get him to whiff an attack (dodge as late as possible, as always), and punish. Try to keep your camera positioned such that you always know where both of them are at all times. Once you get to phase 2 the fight is pretty trivial, but you can also cheese it with ranged spells or arrows.
 
I'm at an impass. I think I'm going to wander around exploring some other areas for a bit. I'm SL51 now, maybe I just need to be higher level? Maybe I just suck, lol.
Your level is fine, O&S are a rite of passage for everyone, no one finds them easy at first (unless they summon two OP vets or something to help).

If you want a break from them you could go and do the Catacombs if you haven't yet, the boss gives a very useful item and your divine weapon will come in handy for the area.

General tips for O&S are to try to keep both in view at all times so you don't get any nasty surprises. Use the pillars to your advantage, although their weapons can go through them if they do a big attack from the other side (but they can't move through them). Concentrate on hitting one of them only, whichever you kill last determines what soul you get (and armour you can buy) so bear that in mind if you want one over the other, but most people feel Smough is easier to kill second. Ornstein is weak to fire, Smough to Lightning. Two handing your weapon is a must really, as speed is key when both are alive. Oh and don't get greedy, the downfall of many a boss fight is going for those extra couple of swings when you should've retreated and healed!

It feels great to kill them solo, but there's no shame in summoning. If you don't want to summon possibly OP human players, Solaire isn't much use in dealing damage but he can tank for you and help to separate them. Good luck!
 

E92 M3

Member
Man, how cool would it be if this game had Boss Rush Mode -- tons of fun to be had with that. Though, it might not be in the spirit of a Souls game.
 

LogicStep

Member
So I spent the weekend battling my way through the rest of Sen's Fortress and into Anor Londo. The Iron Golem boss on top of Sen's went down pretty easy for me honestly, it only took me two attempts to best him. Had to be careful about it, and it took awhile, but fairly painless boss.

Then I get to Anor Londo and repeatedly get smashed by the big shield wearing pike wielding giants, lol. After a bit though I figured out their patterns and now I can beat them most of the time, as long as I take them on one at a time and have lots of room to maneuver. So I explore all over Anor Londo, what a great area. The gargoyles weren't too bad, nor were the white assassin guys in the church, again as long as I took them down one at a time. Slowly but steadily I worked my way all the way to the Big White doorway that leads to Ornstein and Smoug.

And there I hit my brick wall.

I've fought them a dozen times now, trying different tactics, and man I could barely put a dent in either one of them before defeat. I decided it was time to change / upgrade my gear and see if that helped. So I switched from a <25% endurance armor setup to a just barely sub 50% setup, putting on the Silver Knight armor that I'd just found in Anor Londo. I'd roll slower but it would give me better lightning and physical resist. I also switched out my Divine Longsword +5 for my Claymore +10 while keeping the Eagle Shield. I figured attack less, but make it count more. This setup did better but I still couldn't best them.

So next I decided it was time to upgrade some stuff. With the new Giant blacksmith opened up I could now buy shards to upgrade my shield and Silver Knight armor, And thus I proceeded to grind on the giants at the start of Anor Londo near the bonfire. They are 1500 soul per kill, and with my new armor and Claymore I find that they actually go down much easier. I killed, bought shards, upgraded, killed more, etc etc. My Eagle Shield is now maxed, my new armor has +2 across the set, and so I tried Ornstein and Smoug once again.

And lost embarrassingly, every time.

I'm at an impass. I think I'm going to wander around exploring some other areas for a bit. I'm SL51 now, maybe I just need to be higher level? Maybe I just suck, lol.

Summon Solaire. I always summon the NPC guys to help. :)
 

Nerokis

Member
I had a revelation last night: I'm horrible. I thought I was decent because I win against ~85% of the people who invade me, but after engaging in some Forest Hunter invasions and going something like 2-8, I've realized I know nothing.

Also, beat the game last Friday. Doing NG+ now. I missed an incredible amount: the DLC (I am too nice - I did not want to hurt the golem that seemed to be immersed in a book or something), the
existence of another primordial serpent
(I so regret learning about this online!), and
Gwyndolin
(this, as well). Going through the game again has been quite fun. It's been much easier the second time around, with the exception of the worse than ever Tomb of Giants.
 

JustinBB7

Member
Man, how cool would it be if this game had Boss Rush Mode -- tons of fun to be had with that. Though, it might not be in the spirit of a Souls game.

I really wish Dark Souls 1 had just a boss mode, some bosses are so fun to fight. Having to replay the entire game just to face a boss once is kinda annoying. Wanna fight O&S/Manus/Artorias a few more times.
 

Mindlog

Member
I really wish Dark Souls 1 had just a boss mode, some bosses are so fun to fight. Having to replay the entire game just to face a boss once is kinda annoying. Wanna fight O&S/Manus/Artorias a few more times.
I've also wanted this at times. I remember after finally taking that DLC boss tail I was so angry with it that I immediately wanted to do it again.

Also would help for weird experimenting. When I was using my Dex character I had a huge amount of trouble dealing with Havel for some reason. All my dodging and backstabs still got me killed about a dozen times. Next playthrough with my INT build I didn't bother getting naked and just kept circling and backstabing and chain backstabbing him. It was stupid easy and I don't know how I kept getting hit the run before.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
I've also wanted this at times. I remember after finally taking that DLC boss tail I was so angry with it that I immediately wanted to do it again.

Also would help for weird experimenting. When I was using my Dex character I had a huge amount of trouble dealing with Havel for some reason. All my dodging and backstabs still got me killed about a dozen times. Next playthrough with my INT build I didn't bother getting naked and just kept circling and backstabing and chain backstabbing him. It was stupid easy and I don't know how I kept getting hit the run before.

Dumb question: How does INT help with backstabbing? I love backstabbing and had no idea that's what I should have been boosting.
 
So I've been having some fun at the forest lately and I have come to the sudden realization that the claymore is the best weapon in the game.

Im doing 600+ dmg with buffs, combos are so easy and do 1500+ dmg, one of the best movesets in the game, R2 practically prevents any backstabbing when used without lock on, dead angles and it only weighs 6 units.

1v1 I would say choas blade or uchi is better since I have had the rare situations where someone parries me on my first strike.
 

mannerbot

Member
Dumb question: How does INT help with backstabbing? I love backstabbing and had no idea that's what I should have been boosting.

It doesn't, he was just talking about two different characters. There's a ring that boosts critical attacks, and it makes backstabs/ripostes op. Other than that, look at your weapons and see what they scale with to see what you should level if you want to do more damage.
 

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Unlike the others, I believe in you. You can do it solo Mengy.

And when you do the sense of satisfaction you get will be amazing.

I have one rule for my first playthrough of Dark Souls: do the entire game once on my own. After that, when I get to NG I'll try out co-op and PvP and such. It's not that I'm against having others help me or that I look down on other players who do, but I personally want to beat this sadistic masochist evil game on my own first so that I know that Dark Souls hasn't beaten me.

It tasks me.....
 

Mindlog

Member
Dumb question: How does INT help with backstabbing? I love backstabbing and had no idea that's what I should have been boosting.
Yeah, INT doesn't effect backstabs. It was just inexplicable poor play on my part that I want to investigate. With the INT character and an SL 50 Solaire I created since I defeated Havel without getting hit.

I hadn't planned on playing again, but I am tempted to mess with the Red Tearstone and Leo rings. Two fairly powerful rings that I haven't given a chance to yet.

Hornet ring is an obvious choice to further trivialize some encounters if you chose to do so.
 
So I invaded someone today (my very first invasion),










I fell off a cliff.

My first invasion...I was SL15 invading the Parish with my newly-obtained cracked red-eye stones. Invaded a ganker with two phantoms decked out in end-game gear, probably on NG+++ or some shit. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off. Turned me off from invading for a good long while.
 

Chitown B

Member
My first invasion...I was SL15 invading the Parish with my newly-obtained cracked red-eye stones. Invaded a ganker with three phantoms decked out in end-game gear, probably on NG+++ or some shit. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off. Turned me off from invading for a good long while.

lol. yeah screw that noise..... and I stay hollow when at all possible.
 

Kelas

The Beastie Boys are the first hip hop group in years to have something to say
Run into a lot of gankers in the Parish for some reason. They'll only ever get a couple hundred souls for killing me, but some advice if you want a quick way to see if you've invaded a group of assholes: check your recently met players list in GFWL as you're invading. If you're invading a duo/trio of gankers, two/three names will show up at the same time.
 
Beat Manus last Sunday. Fuck I wish I knew how the silver pendant worked before I got into the manus fight. I was also doing 130ish damage per hit. Fight was so long my boy got drunk with estus lol. Kalameet fight seems kinda easy but going for his tail specifically to get the sword might make it more difficult than manus fight.

Now time to check out enb lore vids.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
So in that case there's no reason to even feel bad about losing a million souls and just fake it to seem like its a big loss?
All those souls, s/he earned from PvP. It's like a trophy, in a way. In Demon's Souls, I had accumulated over 100 million souls on my dex build at some point, all from PvP (and keep in mind that when you lose a red sign duel in DeS, you lose a soul level, so if you don't win consistently you can get in a deficit of souls xD). When I stupidly lost them after forgetting to pick up a bloodstain in the Nexus, it did sting a bit. It stung less when my PS3 got the YLOD a bit later, so I would have lost 'em all anyway, but hey. xD

In Dark, there's also the humanity you can accumulate from PvP, and those increase your defense stat, so losing 99 humanity can be a bit of a bummer.

Why does Lost Izalith catch so much hate? I found the place to be rather straight forward and easy. The boss is a dick though. But is that it? That it's simple, easy and boring compared to the rest of the game?
The lava area is kinda shitty, because exploration isn't rewarded at all, there's no reason to not just speed run straight through, the glare hurts the eyes, and the krkrkrkrkrkrkrr sound is annoying too. Plus those stupid dinosaurs that are just annoying to fight instead of fun, everyone usually just runs past them.

The non-lava area isn't so bad though, I kinda like it. I dig the Angkor Wat architecture, and there's at least some stuff to find. The boss is utter shit though, everyone unanimously agree on that one. :)

Yeah, probably because there's not much in terms of an intricate level layout and the boss sucks. Wasted potential because there's some really cool architecture there. I do love invading in Izalith though.
Yeah, ditto. What's fun about invading in Lost Izalith is that even if you spawn far away from the player, you can usually tell where they are from afar, because of the HP damage above their head from the lava. :D
 

Sirstaroth

Neo Member
Hello Gaffers,

So I made a warrior and I saw the covenant way of white guy in firelink shrine and I got a talisman and I purchased the Heal spell, but when I try to attune my magic, it doesn't work. What did I do wrong? Should I restart my character? Or should I not bother with Heal, and just focusing on making a pure melee character? (This is my first time playing Dark Souls)

Soul Level 17
Vit 13
Attunement 8
Endurance 16
Strength 16
Dex 13
Resistance 11
Intelligence 11
Faith 12
 

mannerbot

Member
Hello Gaffers,

So I made a warrior and I saw the covenant way of white guy in firelink shrine and I got a talisman and I purchased the Heal spell, but when I try to attune my magic, it doesn't work. What did I do wrong? Should I restart my character? Or should I not bother with Heal, and just focusing on making a pure melee character? (This is my first time playing Dark Souls)

Soul Level 17
Vit 13
Attunement 8
Endurance 16
Strength 16
Dex 13
Resistance 11
Intelligence 11
Faith 12

Think you need to level attunement to 10 for your first attunement slot.
 
Hello Gaffers,

So I made a warrior and I saw the covenant way of white guy in firelink shrine and I got a talisman and I purchased the Heal spell, but when I try to attune my magic, it doesn't work. What did I do wrong? Should I restart my character? Or should I not bother with Heal, and just focusing on making a pure melee character? (This is my first time playing Dark Souls)

Soul Level 17
Vit 13
Attunement 8
Endurance 16
Strength 16
Dex 13
Resistance 11
Intelligence 11
Faith 12
You don't have any Attunment slots, which is governed by the Attunement stat. I believe you need 10 Attunement to gain a slot, +1 slot per 2 Attunement afteward. Currently, you have Attunement 8.
 
Imo heal is really really good for low levels and new players, until you learn how to
maximize kindling, reinforcing estus, and farming humanity.
(spoilered just incase, but they're just better healing options)
 

Nerokis

Member
I have one rule for my first playthrough of Dark Souls: do the entire game once on my own. After that, when I get to NG I'll try out co-op and PvP and such. It's not that I'm against having others help me or that I look down on other players who do, but I personally want to beat this sadistic masochist evil game on my own first so that I know that Dark Souls hasn't beaten me.

It tasks me.....

I did the same thing, and I completely support your decision. On another level, though, I feel I missed out on summoning NPCs during my first playthrough - not summoning was more accidental than a conscious choice. I'm going out of my way to find summoning signs this time around, even though every boss so far has actually been much easier to deal with. Having friendly NPCs around has been neat. Solaire is a surprisingly great guy!

I may avoid summoning for O&S, though. That was such a fun fight, and I feel having Solaire there would trivialize it a little too much.
 

Sirstaroth

Neo Member
So I hear the Claymore is a really good weapon that can last a player the entire game right? I just got it from the Dragon. I should keep it and reinforce? How do I get it reinforced?

Also how I get more swings out of it? I have to raise my endurance right? Because its a heavy sword?
 

Dwayne

Member
Annoying, I go to play today and it crashes on boot. Have reinstalled GFW so far, just verified the cache, still crashes (DATA.EXE). Full reinstall incoming.
 
So I hear the Claymore is a really good weapon that can last a player the entire game right? I just got it from the Dragon. I should keep it and reinforce? How do I get it reinforced?

Also how I get more swings out of it? I have to raise my endurance right? Because its a heavy sword?
Any weapon can take you through the game, the Claymore has a very balanced moveset and is very popular/solid choice yes.

Reinforce weapons at a Blacksmith, there is one coming up very soon and one in an area you could've already been too, but sounds like you haven't.

More swings before your stamina bar (green) drains fully, yes level up Endurance (Vitality and Endurance are always safe bets to level up when starting out). Also if you two-hand a weapon it does more damage (but obviously takes more stamina per swing).
 

Sirstaroth

Neo Member
Any weapon can take you through the game, the Claymore has a very balanced moveset and is very popular/solid choice yes.

Reinforce weapons at a Blacksmith, there is one coming up very soon and one in an area you could've already been too, but sounds like you haven't.

More swings before your stamina bar (green) drains fully, yes level up Endurance (Vitality and Endurance are always safe bets to level up when starting out). Also if you two-hand a weapon it does more damage (but obviously takes more stamina per swing).

Thanks. Sorry another question, I just upgraded the Claymore up to +5 and now I can't upgrade it past that. Is it because that blacksmith only goes up that high?
 

mannerbot

Member
Thanks. Sorry another question, I just upgraded the Claymore up to +5 and now I can't upgrade it past that. Is it because that blacksmith only goes up that high?

You need to find items to unlock the ability to upgrade higher than that, and then in other paths later on. Stop worrying about this and play the game already!
 

TripleT1

Member
Just finished a new play-through in anticipation for Dks2. Went with a dex CMW build using the falchion. Can't wait another month
 

E92 M3

Member
Is it weird that I nearly have 200 hours and when I stop playing Dark Souls I just want to go back? I just constantly want to try new things out and mess around in PVP (forest invasions lead to a lot of shenanigans).
 

Dwayne

Member
Annoying, I go to play today and it crashes on boot. Have reinstalled GFW so far, just verified the cache, still crashes (DATA.EXE). Full reinstall incoming.

Uninstalled, renamed my old folder and reinstalled, and it still crashes D:
Please don't be my save game Please don't be my save game Please don't be my save game. Won't know until I get home and try on that PC.
 

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
Uninstalled, renamed my old folder and reinstalled, and it still crashes D:
Please don't be my save game Please don't be my save game Please don't be my save game. Won't know until I get home and try on that PC.

It shouldn't be your save game.

Try disabling 60fps in DSFix and tell me if that changes anything.

If not, then try disabling Skip logos and HUD scaling.
 

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
I thought you guys might appreciate this thing I made.

It's the terrifying Asylum Demon.

12449387964_8efceff266_o.gif
 
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