Support NeoGAF

[Frank]

I need some advice, I finally decided to focus on the claymore and I have finally made it more powerful than the Drake sword, though not by much.

So im at +5 or +6 I think, and now its giving me the option of upgrading to RAW or keep going with upgrades?

What do you guys recommend? this is my first time playing the game and I have no idea.

If you have access to Sen's Fortress merchant and have obtain the Large Ember, then I would say Normal +10 is the way to go.

If you don't yet, and have the materials you need, go for Raw. After Sen's you'll be able to revert it back to Normal +5 and then go Normal +10 and continue on from here, or take it on another path (Fire etc).

The idea to keep in mind is you'll be able to revert everything back, and now it seems easier to farm/get the materials you need to upgrade in general. So, it's even more worthy to upgrade momentarily as much as it's possible, then when other options open up revert the upgrade and choose a different path.

 

[double jump]

Can someone tell me what magic this is?

http://youtu.be/ufnKIk9CTtA?t=19s

faith spell Wrath of the Gods

 

[Phonomezer]

Crystal weapons suck. What's the point if they're just going to break so quickly? :/

 

[cleveridea]

What does stability mean on weapons? Is that for blocking stamina use (like shields) or is it a knockdown effect on enemies?

I notice my zweihander +5 is amazing for knocking enemies down...

 

[perorist]

What does stability mean on weapons? Is that for blocking stamina use (like shields) or is it a knockdown effect on enemies?

I notice my zweihander +5 is amazing for knocking enemies down...

That's for when you block with the weapon. Higher stability = less stamina drain when hit

 

[Amirnol]

Question about some bosses in the DLC:

Spoiler

I'm up to Manus and like Artorias before him my weapons do fuck all damage! I've been using two Balder Side Swords (+5 fire and +5 lightning) for all other parts of the game with no trouble. Are the bosses in the DLC strong against elemental stuff? Should I just upgrade a plain weapon and use that?

Looking for an answer to this, as well. Been rocking a lightning iato +6 for a while, but it does a dismal 46 dmg to these bosses.

 

[Felix Lighter]

I need some advice, I finally decided to focus on the claymore and I have finally made it more powerful than the Drake sword, though not by much.

So im at +5 or +6 I think, and now its giving me the option of upgrading to RAW or keep going with upgrades?

What do you guys recommend? this is my first time playing the game and I have no idea.

Don't upgrade to Raw.
I'm guessing your best bet is to upgrade on the Fire or Lightning path

If you want to go Fire, you would stop at +5 if you don't want to waste materials.
If you want to go Lightning you would continue on to +10.

 

[zephervack]

Crystal weapons suck. What's the point if they're just going to break so quickly? :/

I bought a bunch of Crystal gear and noticed that later, I had a Rage attack....

Later in the game it became really useful though to defeat the

Spoiler

Gaping dragon

all my regular weapons, Claymore, greataxe, drake sword, were not dealing too much damage, but the crystal sword completely destroyed him, it was worth it.

 

[cleveridea]

is there any downside to making elemental weapons like fire/lightning? in particular, say you have fire damage and an enemy is immune to fire - does that mean enemy takes NO damage from that weapon, or just basic damage (and not the fire damage)?

 

[zephervack]

Don't upgrade to Raw.
I'm guessing your best bet is to upgrade on the Fire or Lightning path

If you want to go Fire, you would stop at +5 if you don't want to waste materials.
If you want to go Lightning you would continue on to +10.

I think im starting to understand this game.

Let me know if this is right:

To decide whether to go for lightning, fire or regular, I have to ask myself If I'd rather put souls into dex/str or vit/endurance??

If Im going the dex/str path then its better to continue regular upgrade.

If I want to focus on vit/endurance, its better to focus attention on the Fire/Lightning.

Right?

 

[Felix Lighter]

I think im starting to understand this game.

Let me know if this is right:

To decide whether to go for lightning, fire or regular, I have to ask myself If I'd rather put souls into dex/str or vit/endurance??

If Im going the dex/str path then its better to continue regular upgrade.

If I want to focus on vit/endurance, its better to focus attention on the Fire/Lightning.

Right?

The problem is, there aren't many weapons that scale well with dex/str so, unless it was greatly rebalanced, it will take a ton of dex or str to get a claymore +15 to match a fire claymore +10 or a lightning claymore +5, if it's even possible. Now, you can only use resins and magic weapon buffs on a normal weapons so that ups the potential damage.

 

[cleveridea]

anybody else sitting at work wishing they were at home playing Dark Souls?

I look at my co workers and visualize rotating around them and stabbing with my zweihander when their guard is down (WHICH IS ALWAYS mwa ha ha hah)

 

[double jump]

Looking for an answer to this, as well. Been rocking a lightning iato +6 for a while, but it does a dismal 46 dmg to these bosses.

from watching videos they seem to weak toward magic.
But I wont know for myself until my next build which is gonna be magic/dex based.

edit: and black knight weapons

 

[Ledsen]

I look at my co workers and visualize rotating around them and stabbing with my zweihander when their guard is down (WHICH IS ALWAYS mwa ha ha hah)

are... are you the guy staring maniacally at me right now?

 

[zephervack]

The problem is, there aren't many weapons that scale well with dex/str so, unless it was greatly rebalanced, it will take a ton of dex or str to get a claymore +15 to match a fire claymore +10 or a lightning claymore +5, if it's even possible. Now, you can only use resin's on a normal weapon so that ups the potential damage.

This game lol, so many things to worry about, im starting to get overwhelmed, but I love it too.

Ok with this information at hand, I think I will go with ......

I dont know, I love the novelty of seeing how my weapon keeps getting better as I put souls into dex/str

But I also want to make the weapon as powerful as possible without having to spend 2 hells worth of souls into it.

According to this:

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/claymore

It can do 532 damage when +15 regular and 40 dex/ 40 str.

lightining +5 or fire + 10 do half that....

But let me guess, taking dex and str to 40 will take ages and ages right?

Dont know what to do hahah.

 

[Rawket Lawnchair]

Is it just mine or is everyone's DS shortcut a white icon?

 

[perorist]

This game lol, so many things to worry about, im starting to get overwhelmed, but I love it too.

Ok with this information at hand, I think I will go with ......

I dont know, I love the novelty of seeing how my weapon keeps getting better as I put souls into dex/str

But I also want to make the weapon as powerful as possible without having to spend 2 hells worth of souls into it.

According to this:

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/claymore

It can do 532 damage when +15 regular and 40 dex/ 40 str.

lightining +5 or fire + 10 do half that....

But let me guess, taking dex and str to 40 will take ages and ages right?

Dont know what to do hahah.

First, you're only looking at the physical portion of the stats. Lightning claymore +5 does 283/0/0/288. That's 283 physical + 288 lighting = 571 damage total with only 16 STR / 10 DEX. This is why elemental weapons are recommended for low levels and people who want to stay low leveled.

Second, all the dark souls wikis are completely outdated at the moment since elementals were nerfed and stat scaling balanced. So a lightning claymore+5 now has an AR of around 515 damage total.

Whether you want a normal +15 weapon vs using an elemental weapon is dependent on the weapon. Some weapons with better A/B scaling will outdamage elementals eventually at 40-50 levels in on the scaling stat. Others with C/D scaling may not.

Damage calculation also depends on more than just the AR though. An all physical weapon at +15 only has to go through one defense stat (phys defense) to calculate damage normally. An elemental weapon has to go through two defense stats so an elemental with higher AR than what it gives you at normal +15 won't necessarily do more damage. The exception is with backstabs, where damage is calculated purely on AR and elementals sometimes have the edge here.

 

[NBtoaster]

Using the white dragon breath spell is fun, I think it gives a lot of phantoms a bit of a shock.

 

[zephervack]

First, you're only looking at the physical portion of the stats. Lightning claymore +5 does 283/0/0/288. That's 283 physical + 288 lighting = 571 damage total with only 16 STR / 10 DEX. This is why elemental weapons are recommended for low levels and people who want to stay low leveled.

Second, all the dark souls wikis are completely outdated at the moment since elementals were nerfed and stat scaling balanced. So a lightning claymore+5 now has an AR of around 515 damage total.

So whether you want a normal +15 weapon vs using an elemental weapon is dependent on the weapon. Some weapons with better scaling A/B will outdamage elementals eventually at 40-50 levels in on the scaling stat. Others with C/D scaling may not.

Damage calculation also depends on more than just the AR though. An all physical weapon at +15 only has to go through one defense stat (phys defense) to calculate damage normally. An elemental weapon has to go through two defense stats so an elemental with higher AR than what it gives you at normal +15 won't necessarily do more damage. The exception is with backstabs, where damage is calculated purely on AR and elementals usually have the edge here.

Thanks for this lesson, didnt know what those other numbers were for.

Ok with this info now at hand, I will go for the lightning path then, and stop using souls on dex/str for now, I think I want to use this weapon exclusively for the rest of the game.

Unless you guys think its a bad idea hehe.

 

[KarmaCow]

I just beat the

Spoiler

Moonlight Butterfly

and I can see why this game gets so much praise. It really captures how games felt a few generations ago, when they like stepping into unknown worlds and you had to learn how to play through playing it. Or having that friend who knows the little tricks because they've played it before, which the note system simulates pretty well.

I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to leave or rate notes yet but it seems like they're preset words which leaves just enough mystery in the messages. I just wish enemies didn't go zero-mass ragdolling once they died. The atmosphere is so dark and oppressive but seeing the giant knight I killed flailing about as he clips through me ruins it.

This has probably been said a billion times already but it's really refreshing to play.

 

[Phonomezer]

I just beat the

Spoiler

Moonlight Butterfly

and I can see why this game gets so much praise. It really captures how games felt a few generations ago, when they like stepping into unknown worlds and you had to learn how to play through playing it. Or having that friend who knows the little tricks because they've played it before, which the note system simulates pretty well.

My favourite fight.

Spoiler

Seeing it on the wall on your way there was a treat, I didn't want to kill it ;_;

 

[zephervack]

I just beat the

Spoiler

Moonlight Butterfly

and I can see why this game gets so much praise. It really captures how games felt a few generations ago, when they like stepping into unknown worlds and you had to learn how to play through playing it. Or having that friend who knows the little tricks because they've played it before, which the note system simulates pretty well.

I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to leave or rate notes yet but it seems like they're preset words which leaves just enough mystery in the messages. I just wish enemies didn't go zero-mass ragdolling once they died. The atmosphere is so dark and oppressive but seeing the giant knight I killed flailing about as he clips through me ruins it.

This has probably been said a billion times already but it's really refreshing to play.

You need the red stone to rate, write messages, just equip it like the flasks and press Square PS3, or X for Xbox360 controller.

Also I completely agree on the zero-mass thing, thank God the bosses dont do that.

Though on the other hand, It would been sweet if the bosses bodies stayed where they died, I would love to check their models in better detail.

 

[perorist]

Thanks for this lesson, didnt know what those other numbers were for.

Ok with this info now at hand, I will go for the lightning path then, and stop using souls on dex/str for now, I think I want to use this weapon exclusively for the rest of the game.

Unless you guys think its a bad idea hehe.

Depends how high of a level you plan to go. I prefer to stay low level for pvp, but also think it's more fun going through the game at a low level since it's more challenging.

If you plan to end up SL100+ then you're definitely going to be better off with a stat scaling weapon. If you only plan to level to maybe 50-60 or below then an elemental will be better since you won't have to waste stats on str/dex and can pour more into vit/end or invest in some magic

 

[Ledsen]

You need the red stone to rate, write messages, just equip it like the flasks and press Square PS3, or X for Xbox360 controller.

Also I completely agree on the zero-mass thing, thank God the bosses dont do that.

Though on the other hand, It would been sweet if the bosses bodies stayed where they died, I would love to check their models in better detail.

it's orange man, orange!

 

[JVIDICAN]

You dont find that ring in a chest. You get it when you kill

Spoiler

Sif

and you dont consume it when you go in

Spoiler

the abyss

Yeah, but if you happen to drop the ring it'll reappear in the empty chest in firelink behind frampt. Turns out it can't be seen by other players when dropped anyways. unfortunate.

 

[Tilian]

Has anybody under SL50 EVER made it into the

Spoiler

arena

? I'm about to give up and I'm finally good at pvp!

 

[zephervack]

Depends how high of a level you plan to go. I prefer to stay low level for pvp, but also think it's more fun going through the game at a low level since it's more challenging.

If you plan to end up SL100+ then you're definitely going to be better off with a stat scaling weapon. If you only plan to level to maybe 50-60 or below then an elemental will be better since you won't have to waste stats on str/dex and can pour more into vit/end or invest in some magic

Thanks for the tips, I think I want to stay high level but with tons of souls put into Vit/Endurance.

This is my very first time playing the game and this game scares me, so I want as much vitality/endurance as possible and also have the elemental weapon for attacks.

 

[dsk1210]

Absolutely in love with this game, had been waiting for ever since it was announced for PC.

It is one of these rare games that i am thinking about all the time, even when not playing. I was in work today and was gutted that none of my mates with their 360's and PS3's had played it, really just wanted to just talk shit about it, I almost have as much fun reading and talking about it as I do playing it.

I had played a little bit of demon's souls on my PS3, but had a lot of other games on the go at the time and i have grew to hate the PS3 controller nowadays, even though the PS pads were my favourite years ago, just goes to show how good the design of the 360 controllers are.

 

[cleveridea]

are... are you the guy staring maniacally at me right now?

[V]Yes. [/V]

 

[perorist]

Thanks for the tips, I think I want to stay high level but with tons of souls put into Vit/Endurance.

This is my very first time playing the game and this game scares me, so I want as much vitality/endurance as possible and also have the elemental weapon for attacks.

Well for reference, your VIT and END cap out at 50 and 40 respectively with severely diminished returns on health gains and no stamina gain past that. And no matter your level, make 40 END a priority once you have your attack stats down since stamina is the most important resource in this game.

 

[Wolf Akela]

I feel really dumb. Officemate asked me what Dark Souls was like, and I said "like Diablo but creepy and hard".

why
why
why

I could've at least compared it to Skyrim which he also knows.

 

[cleveridea]

I feel really dumb. Officemate asked me what Dark Souls was like, and I said "like Diablo but creepy and hard".

why
why
why

I could've at least compared it to Skyrim which he also knows.

its the opposite of skyrim, and I like both

 

[cleveridea]

can anyone comment on going back and playing demons souls after dark souls?

I never really got into demons souls too much, and I'm wondering how well it stands up to dark souls. Are there the same cool weapons and move sets for example?

man shame no demons soul pc right

 

[zephervack]

Well for reference, your VIT and END cap out at 50 and 40 respectively with severely diminished returns on health gains and no stamina gain past that. And no matter your level, make 40 END a priority once you have your attack stats down since stamina is the most important resource in this game.

Noted, thanks

 

[Soulhouf]

That's 283 physical + 288 lighting = 571 damage total

This is actually not correct since damage is split into 2 categories and thus will go against 2 resistances (physical and lightning).

 

[Lionheart1827]

can anyone comment on going back and playing demons souls after dark souls?

I never really got into demons souls too much, and I'm wondering how well it stands up to dark souls. Are there the same cool weapons and move sets for example?

man shame no demons soul pc right

A lot of people are gonna say Demon Souls is the better game, but I liked Dark Souls way better.

 

[perorist]

This is actually not correct since damage is split into 2 categories and thus will go against 2 resistances (physical and lightning).

I already explained that in the rest of my post if you bothered reading, as well as the fact that those numbers are out of date anyways.

 

[KarmaCow]

You need the red stone to rate, write messages, just equip it like the flasks and press Square PS3, or X for Xbox360 controller.

Also I completely agree on the zero-mass thing, thank God the bosses dont do that.

Though on the other hand, It would been sweet if the bosses bodies stayed where they died, I would love to check their models in better detail.

Do you get that early on? I had an NPC give me something for summoning but that's about it.

And I'd be fine with ragdolls if they weren't so easy fling about.

 

[dave is ok]

Do you get that early on? I had an NPC give me something for summoning but that's about it.

And I'd be fine with ragdolls if they weren't so easy fling about.

You can buy it at the Undead Burg shop for 100 souls

 

[derwalde]

I already explained that in the rest of my post if you bothered reading, as well as the fact that those numbers are out of date anyways.

do you think that the guys who run the wikis will update them anytime soon?

 

[Lost Fragment]

Haven't got the game yet, but I heard the dark wood grain ring got nerfed? That is possibly the most amazing thing ever.

Is there a list somewhere of all the changes (if they made any more than that) they made to the original content?

 

[KarmaCow]

You can buy it at the Undead Burg shop for 100 souls

Well that makes sense. I accidentally hit the merchant before talking to him. Someone earlier said there would be some way to make him not hostile after the first boss, which I assume was the

Spoiler

Tartarus Demon

but I haven't found the way yet.

 

[zephervack]

Well that makes sense. I accidentally hit the merchant before talking to him. Someone earlier said there would be some way to make him not hostile after the first boss, which I assume was the

Spoiler

Tartarus Demon

but I haven't found it yet.

No, not after Taurus, keep going and you will find how.

 

[KarmaCow]

Ah alright, I'll keep looking.

As long as he doesn't accidentally hit the other NPC.

I was really jumpy because it was early on and there was a badly placed note about a trap nearby.

 

[Mupod]

No, not after Taurus, keep going and you will find how.

As long as he doesn't accidentally hit the other NPC.

 

[FtHTiny]

Haven't got the game yet, but I heard the dark wood grain ring got nerfed? That is possibly the most amazing thing ever.

Is there a list somewhere of all the changes (if they made any more than that) they made to the original content?

Bottomless Box glitch has been fixed.
Cloning items by switching menus has been fixed.
Dragon Head has been fixed.
Lightning damage has been greatly reduced.
Hornet Ring has been nerfed. (50% → 30%)
Dark Wood Grain Ring has been nerfed. (50% → 25%, ineffective over 25%)
New warp locations.
Undead Parish (opposite Sen's Fortress)
The Depths
Painted World
Tomb of the Giants (and possibly more)
Elite Knight set now has the same poise as the Knight set.
Eagle Shield reduced damage from 100% to 95%.
Rolling while over 50% equipment load, yet under 75% has been buffed.
Mask of Father nerfed, now adds +5% equipment load.
Mask of Mother nerfed, now +10% HP.

 

[J-Rod]

I got invaded at lv 11 by some guy with high level spells and armor. Wth, I was just outside where the boar is and hadn't even fought a boss yet and this guy pops in and destroys me. I got a backstab off and it barely scratched him.

 

[Sullichin]

Ah alright, I'll keep looking.

Alternatively, you can get the soapstone if you kill this merchant. He also drops an uchigatana. Just make sure you don't want any of his other stuff.


And I love the buff to 50% roll speed as well as the DWGR nerf. I actually have to wear really light armor to roll fast, makes sense. And I can still roll away from enemy attacks with the 50% roll.

 

[perorist]

Haven't got the game yet, but I heard the dark wood grain ring got nerfed? That is possibly the most amazing thing ever.

Is there a list somewhere of all the changes (if they made any more than that) they made to the original content?

Edit - actually, here, someone's been busy updating: http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/PTDE+content+and+changes

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

so does the game perform at an acceptable level on pc yet? In terms of resolution and iq?

Also, how performance intensive is it with the patch applied?

I was going to buy this at launch, but apparently steam doesn't have it in my region. I'm wondering if it's worth the trouble to get someone from the US to purchase and gift it to me in exchange for cash.

my specs:
Windows 7 64
core i7 720 qm (1.6-2.8 Mhz quad core)
8 GB ddr3 @ 1333 Mhz
Geforce GTS 360M - 550 Mhz Core, 1323 Mhz Shaders
w/1 GB gddr5 @ 1800 Mhz