Dark Souls

[TrollHunter]

I do most of the leveling of my builds in ng+, where most monsters drop over 5k souls and bosses gives like 70k
My builds either go Lv.100 or 120, not much in between ^^
But wait... theres not even any good grinding pre-anor londo
where did you get all those levels if you were offline?

And... why did I never think of using those resins like that? Huh, it's the little things I guess.

[Quindiana Jones]

Mini-bosses, mostly. I've taken out the Moonlight Butterfly, Sif, the Hydra, the Undead Dragon. Grinding the Depths Slimes for Large Titanite and Green Shards got me about five levels too. Plus, I spent about an hour killing the Forest Hunters. They, plus the NPC invasions, are the closest I'll get to PvP, so I really enjoyed fighting them. Ended up spending about an hour there, haha. Don't know if that counts as grinding, though; it was too fun! It's worth noting that almost all the souls I make go on levelling, rather than purchasing items.

My favourite thing is that if they kill you in a frustrating way, you can just make them run off a cliff. The schadenfraude really cheers me up.

Oh, Pharis' Bow is also at +10. It's great fun. Usually I use standard arrows to pull, or to knock people off ledges from afar, but it's also really good in normal combat when you combine it with poison arrows. Made the ledge areas of Sen's go down a lot easier!

I have two hours before work, so I'm gonna try to blast through the start of Anor Londo and get to the Painted World!

[TrollHunter]

Yeah, I figured you'd either be in lower new londo farming titanite chunks or in the forest.
It's easy to overlevel when you're enjoying yourself.
I went from the late 40s to Lv.70 today through co-op in anor londo and Tomb of the giants. I was enjoying myself too much (well, totg is when I stopped co-oping, it may be AMAZING souls, but it can be a tad boring). Sadly I'm out of the primary level range of most anor londo runs now. It's easily the most varied in terms of runs. So much can go wrong there, and that's why I love it.

[krissy]

finally got past the archers
i just kicked the one on the right off haha
now i've opened the door near the circular staircase, the door to the dragon-head room, and got to what i assume to be the mist door before the easiest boss battle ever (from what i've read here heh)
anyway i want to invade that gold armor douche first, and get the fire keepers soul back so that i can revive that lady in the cage
i tried once but him and his cronies destroyed me

[Quindiana Jones]

Indeed. It never feels like a grind. Even the Slimes felt like a nice break from the nerve-wrecking thrill ride of Lordran.

Entered Anor Londo and Ariamis. Two phenomenally beautiful places. Might spend an hour going through the Painted World to open the shortcut to the bonfire.

Got Great Magic Weapon. Fully buffed, my AR is about 500. Ehehehehee!

[TrollHunter]

My murakumo unbuffed is roughly 460, and my dex is still quite low too~
Also, krissy, here's a tip: Don't try and fight them on the ground floor, they're nearly unstoppable there. Use the environment to your advantage. Get creative.

[Quindiana Jones]

Maybe so, but I can swing twice as fast as you.

I hear it's worth legging it towards the mage as soon as the fight starts. If you can take him out before the fight really starts, it can make the fight much easier.

I'll be heading down the well to open the boss gate when I get back from work. Will also explore the Annex. I'll return to farm the phalanx once I have some decent AoE attacks.

[Pete for President]

I'm trying to continue another playthrough of FFX, but you guys posting makes me want to play Dark Souls even more.

Been working on that low endurance high dex/faith build. Currently level 40-ish and farming for a Balder Sword at Sen's; the thing just won't drop, even with the Gold Serpent Ring. Stuff is ridiculous.

Luckily the occasional invasion to subdue the guilty makes up for it. Sen's top level is an awesome PvP arena and AoE miracles like Gravelord Greatsword Dance make battles on the ledges really epic.

Edit: Balder Sword finally dropped. Farming Chunks at New Londo Ruins is next, while stalking the area as a Darkmoon Blade.

[Quindiana Jones]

Come over to the Dark side, Pete. The Dark Souls side.

If I could get online, I'd give you one of my many Balder Swords.

I'm thinking of doing a Strength/Faith build after or alongside my current Dexterity/Intelligence one. It'll be interesting, because I've not played with any strength or faith mechanics whatsoever.

Oh, I've changed my gear. Eastern Armor, Eastern Gaunlets, Shadow Leggings aaaaaand... Velka's Mask. It looks badass, especially with the Iron Round Shield.

e; Smough and Ornstein have been defeated! Got them on my fourth or fifth attempt. Balder wasn't working out for me as well as I would like, so I took Ricard's Rapier for a spin. Buffed and two-handed, I took off over half of Smough's health in one R2 combo. Didn't even take any damage, other than from Power Within. Super Ornstein was a little harder, as this is when Solaire died (like he always does ). However, he stayed alive long enough for me to get a few hits in safely, which dropped Ornstein down to about half health. The rest was just a matter of time, patience, and occasionally legging it behind a pillar to heal.

Shame I lost 40000 souls because I got killed before I could make the retrieval, though.

[Jowy]

krissy, just kill him afterwards: there'll be a bonfire after the fog door giving you a mostly silver knight free path to run through between attempts. bring some healing miracles if you have any. you can blow up the sorcerer in a few attacks, backstab the spear guy when he charges at you like a fool, and try and land a riposte on mister dual-wield. he's got a red tearstone ring on, so be on your guard if he hits critical health.

[TrollHunter]

How did the BSS not carry you through O&S? That weapon is basically their one true weakness bar spears.
2-handing it and spamming R2 just demolishes them, and it's normal moveset makes it viable for both super smough and ornstein

Congrats on beating them though. They always give me so much trouble.

ALSO, I highly recommend these two SL 1 challenge runs of dark souls and demon's souls. SLv. 1 in New Game +7. It's crazy, and the text commentary is very fitting and well written.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs4jtMrCPV4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAqgcL6FbfE

[Quindiana Jones]

I'm loving the warp ability. Very well implemented feature, I think. Just as the world starts to feel a little too large, you obtain the ability to traverse it more quickly. Nice.

Did a couple runthroughs of the Silver Knights in the hope that my Balder luck might pay off here, but all I got was their spear. It's a sweet little thing, though, and I think I'll use it in the Catacombs, since it has Divine adjustment. It looks awesome, too. I reckon I'll do New Londo first, however, since I really want that Ember. I'll give the Four Kings a shot, though if they give me too much trouble I'll just head through the Duke's Archives, since I want Big Hat's magics and gear.

[Jowy]

You are gonna love putting Crystal Magic Weapon on your swag sword.

[TrollHunter]

I never get defeated in pvp when I use a cmw swag sword.
That's actually why I got bored of it in the first place. It's too damn perfect.

[Jowy]

So, I like to look stylish instead of being min/maxed. No helmet, bright ass short blue hair, witch's cloak, gold-hemmed black gloves, and chester's trousers. balder swag +15 main hand, crest shield/logan's catalyst in off-hand. RoFaP and Bellowing Dragoncrest. Fastroll looks sweet with a long cloak behind me.