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[koryuken]

I love this game and I am trying to learn PVP, but I don't get many things. Sometimes I'm fighting a guy and I'm not doing any visible damage. Sometimes it doesn't look like I'm doing damage but the person dies... I can't tell if it's lag or if they are cheating. Anyone else have this issue? A lot of times I get backstabbed when I'm not even close...
Right now I'm trying to make a build using the lifehunt scythe, we'll see how that goes.

 

[The Anti-Monitor]

But what if I want to, and what if I want to be challenged at the same time?

Wouldn't this be solved by giving the bosses a higher magic defense?

Who knows how the bosses are for Dark Souls 2 or Dragon's Souls or whatever the next game is.

 

[AcceptableGhost]

I said this a while back but I think the Souls games would be better overall if you just picked a class and there was no stats whatsoever. It would fix a ton of problems with the game getting too easy. Or at the very least the game should have (harsh) level caps (that get upped when you defeat bosses) or better yet make it so that when you spend souls from an enemy the enemy won't drop souls ever again.

 

[zkylon]

Which is stupid. Really don't see why adding more variety would be a bad thing?
You can pretty much just skip the character creator as it doesn't really matter what class you choose or what (horrible) starting gift you chose. Class specific traits would be pretty awesome IMHO, another reason to keep playing and try new stuff. I think someone else mentioned Origin-style starting locations for classes which would also be pretty cool. I want a super depraved class that starts out at the bottom of Blight town with low health and shitty gear. (and 1 fps)

The classless nature of Dark Souls is what gives it variety. You can do a lot more things by having no class restrictions.

I like the Origin locations idea though. You start in a different place with each class, but can access to all of them later. Or maybe it's not even class-based, you just get to pick it.

 

[Thrakier]

I don'T know but is it possible that Demons Souls was a lot more polished? I'm currently at Darkroot where these weird...I don't know...crystal enemies appear. In this sequence the game reminds me of a cheap "early 3D game with low budget" like you had them in the early PS1 times. Just seems off. I don't remember moments like that in Demon's Souls.

Anyway...I don't know where to go. I'm stuck, anywhere I go I die. Wasn't able to do the belltower demon as well. The tree monsters were easy to defeat, the water enemies not...

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Wouldn't this be solved by giving the bosses a higher magic defense?

I think that's a poor solution. The real problem imo is that high damage sorceries like Soul Spear or Dark Pursuers have a very short cast time or can be cast safely out of range and then just require you to get close.

 

[rogerroger22]

Which is stupid. Really don't see why adding more variety would be a bad thing?
You can pretty much just skip the character creator as it doesn't really matter what class you choose or what (horrible) starting gift you chose. Class specific traits would be pretty awesome IMHO, another reason to keep playing and try new stuff. I think someone else mentioned Origin-style starting locations for classes which would also be pretty cool. I want a super depraved class that starts out at the bottom of Blight town with low health and shitty gear. (and 1 fps)

And why is adding restrictions a good thing? a big part of the 'spirit of the game' is that it is so open, why change that by making certain things class-limited?

The souls games offer such a wide range of play-styles and the ability to 'create your own challenge', do you want to face-roll with a strong build? challenge yourself by refusing to use shields? Then that is up to you.

What makes your character in the game is the stats you spend, the abilities you use, and the items you equip - and the synergy between stats / spells / gear defines your class and build. I find this much more interesting, and adds much more re-play value then a more restricted class system.

Do you want to be a pure mage? a mage/dex build? a mage/str build? There are various items to accommodate that - the new talisman scales dark magics up with strength and not int, this is where they can add 'replay and diversity' to the game. No need to slap on artificial class restrictions.

 

[ArynCrinn]

Which is stupid. Really don't see why adding more variety would be a bad thing?
You can pretty much just skip the character creator as it doesn't really matter what class you choose or what (horrible) starting gift you chose. Class specific traits would be pretty awesome IMHO, another reason to keep playing and try new stuff. I think someone else mentioned Origin-style starting locations for classes which would also be pretty cool. I want a super depraved class that starts out at the bottom of Blight town with low health and shitty gear. (and 1 fps)

I agree. I wouldn't be opposed to a class-based trait system where certain things will always be inherent to a class. Whether it's stat-based, item based, move set and control based, it would be cool to invest different nuances of play like that. As long as it kept a ability to grow into something else if you wanted to farm it or quest for it. I'd also like to see the mechanics for each play style to gel together a bit better, more of a seamless flow to going from sorcery-miracles-melee and mixing and matching to your tastes. And, I'd like to see From bring back Demon's Souls speed to the action and controls, it just feels better and more responsive to me.

Starting gifts is also a great point, they should actually mean something beyond one item.

 

[Zeliard]

I agree about the starting items. They shouldn't be next to useless. Meaningful starting gifts is actually the perfect way conceptually to add some permanence to character creation while still keeping the class system relatively open and free-flowing.

The souls games offer such a wide range of play-styles and the ability to 'create your own challenge'

The Souls games are pretty adept at this. Right now I'm on a VIT 9 build and using the Chaos Blade.

 

[derFeef]

The Elite Knight armor serves me well so far. I like the sturdiness. Wolf Ring does it's part as well. I think I am in the "slow but sturdy" camp for this game.

 

[Ezduo]

How much damage should I be doing on this gargoyle? I looked up a guide on IGN and he was doing 100+ damage with each shot while I'm at about 20 of 40 with each and get half my health lobbed off with each hit. I'm thinking about restarting because I've lost pretty much every soul I ever got from a boss fight and apparently there was some merchant I missed somewhere. Either way fighting the same few enemies over and over is getting tiring and I need souls in the thousands to upgrade so I need to be doing something different.

 

[ixix]

The game was quite a thing in those early days. So much mystery. I played with the Master Key in my very first playthrough on release, back when relatively little info was available, and I've rarely played a game that felt so adventurous and mysterious. Had no idea what could possibly be around the next corner and it was so much fun venturing into new areas.

I visited places like Blighttown, Darkroot, and Valley of the Drakes at the start of the game, before ever messing with the Gargoyles. Saw the

Spoiler

Hydra

and said "NOPE." Killed Havel in a very intense fight, bled some Drakes out with my Bandit's Knife, and danced with the Titanite Demon who hangs out with Andre.

Them's were the days. It's also why I always shake my head at people who tell others never to pick the Master Key their first go-around. It makes it a much truer open-world experience.

I thought I was being beyond clever when I made my first character a Thief for the free Master Key then took the Tiny Being's Ring as my gift. Starting the game with a free pass to open any door and regenerating health? I was beating the system before I even finished character creation!

Then the ring didn't regenerate my health and the key led me to my first Dark Souls death courtesy of Havel. Not exactly living up to my lofty expectations. At least the Master Key eventually redeemed itself. The Tiny Being's Ring... not so much.

Necromancers have a low chance to drop it, and there's also a chest near the first bonfire of the Tomb that has it.

Interestingly, one of the things they changed with the 1.05 patch is that one of the Necromancers in the Catacombs will always drop a lantern. If you clear the place out you're guaranteed to have a lantern before entering the Tomb.

Almost a bit of a shame, really. Navigating the Tomb blind is one of my fondest Dark Souls memories.

Well, I didn't really look upon it fondly at the time and I've never done it again, but, you know, in retrospect it was pretty neat.

 

[Ridley327]

Speaking of versatility, I've commited myself to NOT accidentally kill or send to their demise the people that can upgrade my pyromancy glove on this go-around.

 

[Zeliard]

I thought I was being beyond clever when I made my first character a Thief for the free Master Key then took the Tiny Being's Ring as my gift. Starting the game with a free pass to open any door and regenerating health? I was beating the system before I even finished character creation!

Then the ring didn't regenerate my health and the key led me to my first Dark Souls death courtesy of Havel. Not exactly living up to my lofty expectations. At least the Master Key eventually redeemed itself. The Tiny Being's Ring... not so much.

I find it hilarious that they still haven't changed the item description on the Tiny Being's Ring.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

I find it hilarious that they still haven't changed the item description on the Tiny Being's Ring.

Did they nerf the ring or something or has the description always been wrong?

 

[Zeliard]

Did they nerf the ring or something or has the description always been wrong?

It's always been wrong. It gives you a tiny being percentage buff to your HP total. It has nothing to do with HP regeneration.

To this day, the starting gift screen still says that it regens HP.

 

[B-Genius]

How did you end up doing that? It seems like such a random thing to stumble onto without any foreknowledge. Who would think to sit around taking potshots at his tail? Or I guess you get it if you just out and out kill him, too.

Actually yeah, after experience with Demon's, I was inclined to stock up on arrows and just chip away at him from under the bridge. Was pleasantly surprised to find the Drake Sword suddenly pop up!

Funnily enough though, I've never really used it, not even on that first playthrough. Kind of glad I didn't know its potential at the time, hehe.

 

[antitrop]

Actually yeah, after experience with Demon's, I was inclined to stock up on arrows and just chip away at him from under the bridge. Was pleasantly surprised to find the Drake Sword suddenly pop up!

Funnily enough though, I've never really used it, not even on that first playthrough. Kind of glad I didn't know its potential at the time, hehe.

Drake Sword is overrated, anyway. It starts to become pretty worthless around Blighttown, which isn't even that far into the game.

Using it doesn't ruin the game or cheapen the experience, that's all rubbish.

 

[Lyriell]

Can you guys explain something for me?

I just killed the umm Taurus demon? And got invaded for the first time....

Now I've only leveled up a few times but I felt pretty comfortable with going one on one...
Unfortunately I feel like I may have been cheated against? The guy who invaded me did nothing but walk into my attacks taking no visible damage, he walked around and around me trying to get behind me, and even though I managed to backstabbing him first (which did no damage) he just one hit me.

Was he cheating? And if so..l why? What does he have to gain by killing someone with practically nothing?

 

[antitrop]

Can you guys explain something for me?

I just killed the umm Taurus demon? And got invaded for the first time....

Now I've only leveled up a few times but I felt pretty comfortable with going one on one...
Unfortunately I feel like I may have been cheated against? The guy who invaded me did nothing but walk into my attacks taking no visible damage, he walked around and around me trying to get behind me, and even though I managed to backstabbing him first (which did no damage) he just one hit me.

Was he cheating? And if so..l why? What does he have to gain by killing someone with practically nothing?

Haven't had any experience with cheating myself (SL75), but that sounds like it.

As far as what cheaters gain, just schadenfreude. Same reason all the rampant cheating that plagued Counter-Strike back in the day or the death of DayZ today. Lonely nerds who get made fun of and picked on daily in high school got some kind of sick thrill out AWP headshotting the entire other team in the first 30 seconds of the round and then watch as all the players quit from the server (given no mods or votekick). Pathetic, but griefing has been around as long as online gaming and always will, given the opportunity.

 

[Ridley327]

Can you guys explain something for me?

I just killed the umm Taurus demon? And got invaded for the first time....

Now I've only leveled up a few times but I felt pretty comfortable with going one on one...
Unfortunately I feel like I may have been cheated against? The guy who invaded me did nothing but walk into my attacks taking no visible damage, he walked around and around me trying to get behind me, and even though I managed to backstabbing him first (which did no damage) he just one hit me.

Was he cheating? And if so..l why? What does he have to gain by killing someone with practically nothing?

Yeah, that sounds like a classic cheater to me. The key is checking to see if any damage is registering when you strike them; you'll see the health bar and a number corresponding to the amount of damage that's done to them. If you're making clear attacks to him, and it sure doesn't get any clearer than a successful backstab, and it's not showing up, something about it stinks.

If you don't know already, players you meet in Dark Souls show up in the Players list when you bring the guide up. If he's the last player you met in the game, he'll be at the top of the list. It'd be worth it to jot down his name so you can share with others of his douchebaggery.

 

[EasyMode]

I was killing lizards in

Spoiler

The Great Hollow

and they gave me 2 titanite slabs :O

Thanks little guys!

 

[zkylon]

By the way, what's the honor code for PVP? I know backstabbing is frowned upon but what else?

 

[NBtoaster]

By the way, what's the honor code for PVP? I know backstabbing is frowned upon but what else?

Bow or say hello before fighting. Don't use estus or humanity.

 

[epmode]

By the way, what's the honor code for PVP? I know backstabbing is frowned upon but what else?

No throwing!

 

[perorist]

By the way, what's the honor code for PVP? I know backstabbing is frowned upon but what else?

Whoa, no way is this frowned upon unless you're playing in some low leveled mash-fest. For duels anything goes, backstabs, parries, dead angles, etc. All of them are viable and have a counter / punish. While it's very common to do a greeting to each other, it's recommended to wait for the other person to greet first, because if someone backstabs you while you're bowing then yeah he's a dick. Chain backstabs are also looked down upon unless the person you're fighting is significantly higher leveled than you or you're fighting 2 or 3 on 1.

 

[RockTurtle]

By the way, what's the honor code for PVP? I know backstabbing is frowned upon but what else?

backstabbing is frowned upon now?

i mean obvious backstab fishing (i.e getting up close and just circling) was a nuisance, but if someone ran away and got stuck on a tree or somethign you know i sure as hell gonna punish you for it.

other than that bowing (with ample distance to see them coming) generally precedes an honorable* match. chain back stabbing is kinda of a jerk move unless you give the person a courtesy roll to get away from you. running towards enemies if your are the invader to protect yourself is also a jerky move in a duel.

my favorite jerk move is the presumed duel with honor where your opponent bows and gets into fighting stance to fool you into a false sense of security. then while you have your attention on him, his buddy who was invisible or camouflaged as a tree pops out and backstabs you.

 

[Varna]

I hope the next Souls game has a more rigid class system so bosses can act differently depending on what class you are using. Four-shotting bosses with sorcery while not having to get close in NG+ is a little ridiculous.

I agree. The system is far to forgiving and certain things are ridiculously overpowered (rolling, magic/pyromancy and elmental/magic weapons).

I want the opposite actually, I'd like to create my own whacky classes.

This is the current system. I have nothing against making your own classes, but if you are building a class to fight in a certain way you shouldn't be able to fall back on overpowered skills. Add a respec NPC somewhere, make it cost a million souls.

Can you guys explain something for me?

I just killed the umm Taurus demon? And got invaded for the first time....

Now I've only leveled up a few times but I felt pretty comfortable with going one on one...
Unfortunately I feel like I may have been cheated against? The guy who invaded me did nothing but walk into my attacks taking no visible damage, he walked around and around me trying to get behind me, and even though I managed to backstabbing him first (which did no damage) he just one hit me.

Was he cheating? And if so..l why? What does he have to gain by killing someone with practically nothing?

I've had quiet a few encounters like this. Yup, he is a cheater. If that ever happens, I suggest just closing the game. No reason to lose souls to a cheater.

As for why.. it's the internet. Some people are just assholes.

 

[rybrad]

Just unlocked the final area, when I kill the boss does that automatically end the game? I have a bunch of stuff I still want to do and don't want to kill the boss if it ends the game.

As for NG+, can I kill all the NPCs at the end of my regular game without any repercussions occuring in NG+?

 

[Varna]

Just unlocked the final area, when I kill the boss does that automatically end the game? I have a bunch of stuff I still want to do and don't want to kill the boss if it ends the game.

As for NG+, can I kill all the NPCs at the end of my regular game without any repercussions occuring in NG+?

Yes, don't kill the final boss unless you want to move on. You can kill the NPCs.

 

[paperspace]

⁣

 

[perorist]

So, I just defeated Sif, before entering the

Spoiler

Chasm of the Abyss

. Is this bad in any way?

Spoiler

I'm asking because I read that Sif would have some sort of relevance in the Chasm of the Abyss.

You miss out on a new cutscene if you do Sif before Chasm. You can just go youtube it later

 

[zkylon]

Awww, I just did Sif myself :/

 

[paperspace]

⁣

 

[Conciliator]

Just defeated

Spoiler

Ceaseless Discharge

LEGIT. MANO Y MANO. Eyes locked(she has way more eyes which is unfair, but you see where I'm going) while we fought to one of our respective deaths(mostly mine, but I only have to win once). And now I'm officially further than I was my 360 locked up last year.

Spoiler

Lost Izalith is lame. The enemy layout looks like it took someone 45 seconds to click around a bit

EDIT: Durante's ambient occlusion is fucking grand. It looks so good in motion and has no perceivable effect on performance for me(at medium quality).

 

[Ridley327]

The thing I don't get about Lost Izalith is

Spoiler

why so many dragon butts?

 

[Ingueferroque]

I don't really want to hang out here too much due to spoilers.. but I just gotta say that this game is so overwhelmingly good! I'm grateful it came to PC, even if Durante had to fix it.. FROM are masters of atmosphere. I'm so excited about what they are doing next!

Imagine a Souls game on next-gen consoles/PC!

 

[Zeliard]

The thing I don't get about Lost Izalith is

Spoiler

why so many dragon butts?

They are apparently the

Spoiler

bottom halves of Undead Dragons

.

There's probably a whole mess of lore behind them.

We need scholar ixix on the case.

 

[rybrad]

Yes, don't kill the final boss unless you want to move on. You can kill the NPCs.

Great, thanks for the info, time to get my serial killing on.

 

[Zeliard]

Kill Vamos first.

He keeps wheel skeletons around.

Wheel skeletons.

 

[Ridley327]

They are apparently the

Spoiler

bottom halves of Undead Dragons

.

There's probably a whole mess of lore behind them.

We need scholar ixix on the case.

Spoiler

Maybe Ornstein thought that decapitating all of those dragons to display in that one room in Anor Londo wasn't enough punishment enough for them?

 

[Vaporak]

Yeah, that sounds like a classic cheater to me. The key is checking to see if any damage is registering when you strike them; you'll see the health bar and a number corresponding to the amount of damage that's done to them. If you're making clear attacks to him, and it sure doesn't get any clearer than a successful backstab, and it's not showing up, something about it stinks.

Na Lag just fucks up fights some times I think. I've backstabbed and been backstabbed for no damage before with legit players.

 

[Zeliard]

Spoiler

Maybe Ornstein thought that decapitating all of those dragons to display in that one room in Anor Londo wasn't enough punishment enough for them?

Maybe he teamed up with

Spoiler

Seath, the dragon-slaying dragon.

 

[NBtoaster]

Spoiler

Lost Izalith is lame. The enemy layout looks like it took someone 45 seconds to click around a bit

You don't have fight any of the stompy things if you take the right path, and they don't respawn. Much better than at PS3 launch.

 

[Sarcasm]

Loving Anor atm those golden knights are a blast to fight. About to head into Duke's.

 

[ixix]

They are apparently the

Spoiler

bottom halves of Undead Dragons

.

There's probably a whole mess of lore behind them.

We need scholar ixix on the case.

I didn't know I was considered an expert on fictional lizard posteriors.

This seems like a dubious honor, somehow.

Spoiler

Maybe Ornstein thought that decapitating all of those dragons to display in that one room in Anor Londo wasn't enough punishment enough for them?

Don't get me started on that room.

Spoiler

If you look carefully, those aren't really dragon heads. They're the heads of drakes like the one guarding the bridge in the Undead Parish, which aren't really dragons, as I think the Drake Sword item description testifies. All the actual dragons in the game, like the ones in the intro, the one in Ash Lake, Seath, and now Kalameet look pretty much nothing like the heads on the wall in that room.

Either Ornstein is padding his dragon killing numbers by preying on the smaller, weaker, stupider cousins of actual dragons, or -- and this where we go totally through the looking glass -- it isn't Ornstein's room at all.

Spoiler

I submit for your evaluation this hypothesis: that isn't Ornstein's trophy room; it's Smough's. Smough wants to be one of the Four Knights really bad, and Ornstein is pretty much supreme arbiter of who is and isn't a knight these days. Therefore, Smough is either brown-nosing hard or he's just naturally Ornstein's number one fanboy. So he built a shrine to his idol made up of the heads of what he thought were dragons, not knowing the difference. Ornstein, being a proper knight, is polite to a fault, and therefore never corrects Smough's mistake while quietly coming up with excuses for rejecting his bi-annual knighthood applications, because the dude is clearly underqualified. Doesn't know what a dragon looks like and is a cannibal? Let's face it, Smough is just not knight material.

The actual dragon butts are explained by

Spoiler

ha ha ha, I wish I had an explanation to put in this spoiler tag. Lost Izalith was made by an intern on a tight deadline, and that's pretty much the best explanation you're going to get for that place.

My best stab in the dark is that they're what's left of the dragons that you see being killed en masse in the intro movie, reanimated by... something. The Witch of Izalith or the demons that she unleashed or what have you. That leads us into the obvious question of what the butts are doing in Izalith when the actual battle in the intro movie appears to take place in Ash Lake before it was actually a lake, and with that we fall back on the intern on a deadline explanation.

You just can't make sense of an army of lava-wading dragon butts. Practically all the environments in Dark Souls make sense and tell a story when you stop and examine them, but performing a close examination of Lost Izalith just makes the whole place make even less sense. I've tried to make sense of the place, and I've failed.

 

[ArynCrinn]

You don't have fight any of the stompy things if you take the right path, and they don't respawn. Much better than at PS3 launch.

You can actually run past literally everything in Izalith, especially if you take the

Spoiler

shortcut

in. Huge amount of wasted potential in this area. Even

Spoiler

Bed of Chaos'

whole gimmick is mostly about avoidance.

 

[Zeliard]

I didn't know I was considered an expert on fictional lizard posteriors.

This seems like a dubious honor, somehow.

The resident Dark Souls lore scholar.

With a special focus on dragon hindquarters, naturally.

Don't get me started on that room.

Spoiler

If you look carefully, those aren't really dragon heads. They're the heads of drakes like the one guarding the bridge in the Undead Parish, which aren't really dragons, as I think the Drake Sword item description testifies. All the actual dragons in the game, like the ones in the intro, the one in Ash Lake, Seath, and now Kalameet look pretty much nothing like the heads on the wall in that room.

Either Ornstein is padding his dragon killing numbers by preying on the smaller, weaker, stupider cousins of actual dragons, or -- and this where we go totally through the looking glass -- it isn't Ornstein's room at all.

Spoiler

I submit for your evaluation this hypothesis: that isn't Ornstein's trophy room; it's Smough's. Smough wants to be one of the Four Knights really bad, and Ornstein is pretty much supreme arbiter of who is and isn't a knight these days. Therefore, Smough is either brown-nosing hard or he's just naturally Ornstein's number one fanboy. So he built a shrine to his idol made up of the heads of what he thought were dragons, not knowing the difference. Ornstein, being a proper knight, is polite to a fault, and therefore never corrects Smough's mistake while quietly coming up with excuses for rejecting his bi-annual knighthood applications, because the dude is clearly underqualified. Doesn't know what a dragon looks like and is a cannibal? Let's face it, Smough is just not knight material.

Spoiler

Smough is clearly pissed off about things. If you kill Smough first, Ornstein gently lays his hand on Smough to absorb his power. If you kill Ornstein first, Smough smashes the shit out of him with his massive hammer. Quite the contrast.

That's centuries of bottled-up envy and anger on display. Oversized Pinwheel isn't a happy camper.

 

[ArynCrinn]

Spoiler

I submit for your evaluation this hypothesis: that isn't Ornstein's trophy room; it's Smough's. Smough wants to be one of the Four Knights really bad, and Ornstein is pretty much supreme arbiter of who is and isn't a knight these days. Therefore, Smough is either brown-nosing hard or he's just naturally Ornstein's number one fanboy. So he built a shrine to his idol made up of the heads of what he thought were dragons, not knowing the difference. Ornstein, being a proper knight, is polite to a fault, and therefore never corrects Smough's mistake while quietly coming up with excuses for rejecting his bi-annual knighthood applications, because the dude is clearly underqualified. Doesn't know what a dragon looks like and is a cannibal? Let's face it, Smough is just not knight material.

Spoiler

Yeah, but how would Smough even fit through the door, maybe Anor Londo has a secret fireman's pole for Smough hidden somewhere... Or maybe he just puts his hammer down somewhere and slides down it. But I guess Ornstein just lives in Gwynevere's chamber, obviously.

And while I'm quoting a Souls scholar, how could From negate the detail of how inhabitants use the bathroom? Because as far as I can tell O&S and all the Silver Knights just go off the side of Anor Londo, for Gwyndolin that would explain the empty chest.

 

[Gvaz]

Why you mad though?