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Thread: Dark Souls

  1. #1456
    *permanent smite* Spuuky's Avatar
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    I guess I'm not SURPRISED that you didn't find Steady Hand McDuff but he's a pretty important dude to find in my opinion. Oh well! The way to find him is not a mechanic that was utilized in Dark Souls 1 or explained in this one except via the luck of discovering it.

    Titanite becomes much easier once you end up with a vendor for it in town, which is surely very soon. They're also a common drop from an enemy you'll soon encounter.

    I'm pretty sure this game has MULTIPLE stamina recovery shields. But they aren't as OP.

  2. #1457
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Oh I already found McDuff, but he just speaks gibberish at his anvil about needing a new flame. I take it he needs an Ember Item like the Blacksmiths in DS1. I've also encountered two people who teach Sorceries and Hexes but my stats are too low for them to want to talk to me about it. While my Faith is like 15 right now, my Intelligence and Attunement are both like 5, so most of the mage characters treat me like trout, except Straid, who looks down on everyone it seems.

  3. #1458

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    You can't currently talk to McDuff much as interacting with him is tied to another problem you're having at the moment

  4. #1459
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Attempted the Rotten once again, unlocked the second bonfire I didn't realize was in the room. I am having serious issues with him. He hits like a truck and can generally cleave me in two, and if I'm not getting thrown around by his attacks, he's making me walk through his fire traps all over the place which also does way more damage than you would think. I try to stay close and circle him, but I have this bad tendency to get the camera "stuck" on him which makes reading his attacks very difficult since the camera decides to zoom in on me, and through him, so I can only see parts of his model which makes it hard to know when to roll.

    So I dropped that and decided to go back to the Shaded Woods, and after getting a ton of my equipment destroyed in that awful Basilisk Trap in the main area, I was able to wander over and fight the Scorpion chick, who thankfully, didn't give me as hard of a time as her counterpart in DS1. This led to the Door of Pharos, where I found the boss room fairly quickly, and my bow came in handy with the normal mobs. I'm happy I went with the Dragonrider Bow since it not only does more damage than my poor shortbow, but also does magic damage, which makes it surprisingly useful against things with high physical defense. The Rat King's Authority is a bitch though. The freaking Toxic wolves are a bit of a cheap shot and I'm stuck in an awkward situation where I have to decide to sacrifice defense for speed and stamina recovery. The boss hits hard, but he would be manageable if I didn't have to worry about his toxic minions and the fact that despite having what I'm told is a fairly high adaptibility stat, chugging Estus is still criminally slow. To the point I've given up on using Estus in fights altogether cause it leaves me way too vulnerable.

    If the last few areas have taught me anything though, it's that I may either need to explore and find new gear, or I'm going to have to seriously find more regular and large Titanite shards cause all my gear has only been upgraded once or twice. The Rotten might be manageable if I could do decent damage to him, whereas the Rat Authority can be dealt with by putting some more points towards Endurance and trying to stay under him. Course, I guess I should suck it up and go fight the Skeleton Lords since they are the only thing standing in my way of obtaining the only person who sells Titanite.

  5. #1460
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    God I love the Skeleton Lords.

  6. #1461
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    Well last night was basically me kicking ass and taking names. My stubbornness wouldn't let me drop the Rat Authority boss, and after reading a message left by another player to use blocking as well as changing my tactics up a bit, I was able to conquer this guy. Basically I had to channel my inner Demon's Souls and Bloodborne for this fight. Despite being a large mother smurfer, even a mediocre shield like mine can tank the hit if you have enough stamina, which allowed me to stay free from his swipes while I dealt with the actual annoying part of the fight which were the Toxic Minions. After that, it was basically a case of being super aggressive like in Bloodborne. Initially I kept trying to keep the Rat Authority separated by his minions but that kept getting me killed, so instead, I rushed the boss with my shield up, and took out the remaining minions, whenever they actually did reach me under his legs. He did get me once cause he had some weird toxic breath I was unaware of and not watching my health since I got too greedy, but my next attempt saw great success after double downing on my aggression.

    After that, I attempted the Rotten again, and discovered another secret passage that led me to the swordwoman of Myriah, whose summon sign became available in the second bonfire area. Now that I had a companion who could deal real damage and hold aggro long enough for me to heal, I had a much easier time dealing with him and crushed him first attempt. Discovered the first DLC area, but decided to hold off since my weapon was doing tick damage at best against the enemies in the area.

    So finally I tackled the Skeleton Lords, who were amusing for the sole fact that I was way overleveled for them, and opening laughed when I screwed up and took both a pyromancy ball to the face with a follow up scythe attack from another lord, only to watch maybe a fifth of my health get taken out. This coming back from two boss fights where one hit would take three quarters of my health. So I took my time and dealt with them. The skeleton minions were a nice touch, even if I still really hate the wheel skeletons, though they were not as bad as the ones from the Catacombs since there are only four of them this time, and I wasn't fighting in near complete darkness this time.

    So I finally got the Stone Girl, picked up a healthy amount of stones, including the Large Titanite I desperately needed, and to kind of explain how off my stone collecting has been for this game. Once I got the Lg Titanite needed, I was able to upgrade my main weapon up to the Titanite Slab option, because I have been generously blessed with Titanite Chunks. So it's going to be interesting to see how much damage I do going from a half upgraded weapon to a mostly fully upgraded one. For those wondering, I've been using the Heide Straight Sword as my main weapon due to it's slightly greater length from regular swords, and the innate Lightning Damage it does cause it seems to me that the majority of things in this game are weak to Lightning. I have a few other weapons as well, and the whip turned out to be a real handy weapon in the Black Gulch for destroying those stupid statues. I am thinking of adding a Greatsword into the mix since that was my main weapon in DS1, but we'll see. It depends on how much upgrading has changed since it feels obvious that DS2 may be taking more of a Demon's Souls approach to weapon infusion than DS1 by keeping the blacksmiths down to two with one being basic and the other being for advanced stuff.

    I'm now debating on whether I should do Harvest Valley or Tseldora? I've unlocked Shulvan I think it was called, but I'm going to leave the DLC for after I acquire all of the Old Ones Souls since they seem to be the tougher challenges and I figure if I can conquer them, I'll have a good shot at the DLC then.

  7. #1462
    *permanent smite* Spuuky's Avatar
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    The DLC is very rewarding but infinitely harder than all the rest of the game. Harvest Valley vs Tseldora is a really irrelevant decision, but personally I'd pursue the Harvest Valley path first. I would not do any of the DLC until you are at the end of the game, or perhaps have even beaten the game (unlike DS1 and BB, the game does not automatically progress to NG+ when you win).

  8. #1463
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Completed Harvest Valley and Earthen Peak, as well as beat Duke's Dear Freyja netting me my third Old One's Soul and letting me be one more soul away from accessing the end game areas.

    The Medusa chick was surprisingly more difficult than I thought. I almost beat her my first try but got greedy and killed for my trouble. Sadly, I ended up losing the souls I had obtained due to an accidental poisoning, though I was likely not going to get them back anyway because I was invaded and I do terrible at PVP. I did eventually defeat her and reached the Iron Keep. Took one look at the Lava Land before me and had flashbacks of Stonefang Mines and Lost Izalith and decided I would deal with Tsedora instead.

    Have I ever mentioned that I'm arachnophobic? Yeah, not a pleasant place, but I found Orifex's shop where I can get BOSS WEAPONS! Though is it me or does it seem like a majority of the Boss Weapons are spears and halberds? Frankly, I've not been too impressed with many of them besides my Dragonrider Bow, but now that I have a Compact Bow, I may switch it out since the stamina drain from using the boss one is pretty steep for a bow. For now, I'm sticking to my Heide Sword, though I may begin experimenting with Dual-Wielding if it has a power stance.

    Fought the spider and conquered it after a few attempts, I'm really starting to get annoyed with all these bosses with minions or partners. It's like the devs heard everyone complain about the Capra Demon and O&S fights so much that they decided to make the majority of the bosses like them.

    I need to go back and explore the rest of Tsedora since I have what I'm hoping is the key needed for the area, and I also have a few places I still wish to explore. I also got to see the conclusion of the Pate/Creighton Feud and sided with the murderous maniac.

    I've also acquired the last two merchants for Majula, which is nice. Gives it that nice Nexus vibe from Demon's Souls except I feel only the starting characters in the area have any real personality with the exception of Swindling Gilligan. I'm starting to feel the complaint about the characters in this entry. While Pate and Creighton were great, and I liked Vengal (sp?) as well, a lot of the characters just kind of feel "meh". I mean I wasn't a huge fan of the characters in DS1 as well, but at least they all had some interesting narrative to follow like the Clerics and Big Hat Logan.

    With that said, I'm digging Drangleic. It has an interesting Eldritch vibe to it that was lacking in DS1. The fact the layout of the world doesn't make sense, due partially to the game kind of getting retooled halfway through development, actually adds to the more horror aspects of the region. The lore is pretty good, not as cohesive as DS1 and Demon's Souls, but we are talking about a region where hundreds of kingdoms have risen and fallen over the centuries, so the lore kind of being all over the place due to it applying to different kingdoms is interesting. It's also amusing since we're seeing how far ahead in time everything is that all of the events of DS1 are now myth, but it's also neat how the four Old Ones are hinted to be reincarnations of the four main "antagonists" from DS1 as well with the clever shout outs to them. Tsedora really gives off the vibe of a derelict Duke's Archive and the dead dragon in the area was a nice touch as well.

    I'm going to go talk to Manscorpion Tark, cause I've been told he has new dialogue once you beat the Duke's Pet, and I may check the wiki real fast to see what other places I can use the Branches of Yore for cause despite being a pain in my ass in terms of progressing the game due to never finding any of them, I'm now swimming in them and the Trap Keys as well. Also, I rejoined Solaire's Covenant, which made me happy cause while I don't necessarily get the hype surrounding the man, I do like him for being so out of place in the series.

    Iron Keep is next. Also, is it me, or are the secondary bosses in some areas a bit... on the easy side? I mean Covetous Demon was kind of a joke despite it's object of affection giving me a hard time with her range and poison. Similarly, the one against the Lich looking dude and his followers was pretty laughable and felt more like an annoying mob fight, as opposed to weapon breaking Freyja and it's death-wielding spider children. I'm curious to know if the Iron Keep is also going to give me two boss fights with one being pathetically easy and the other being a pain in my ass?

    I'm thinking of dabbling in the DLC areas once I've completed Dragon Aire and Aldia's Keep, since I've read somewhere they are some of the most challenging late game areas and feel they will get me prepared for the DLC.

    So what is everyone's favorite weapon in this game? Boss weapons? Hardest boss for you? Easiest? Favorite NPC?

  9. #1464
    *permanent smite* Spuuky's Avatar
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    DS2 has a ton of easy bosses. Part of it is just the product of having sooooooooo many bosses. Covetous Demon is so easy that he's basically a meme although when he shows up for a rematch it's not quite as easy. Let me know what you think of the "secondary boss" in the Iron Keep instead, who actually challenges some people.

    My favorite bosses are all DLC fights. The hardest bosses are all DLC fights. The best zones, and hardest zones, are all DLC zones.

    You have not encountered my favorite NPC(s) yet, although they are not DLC.

  10. #1465
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    I finished the Iron Keep, and as typical of the Souls franchise, I'm not a fan of their lava zones. Though I'll give the Iron Keep props for level design cause the main issue with Izalith was that it was kind of boring besides being filled with annoying enemies and the worst bosses in the game.

    Smelter Demon was certainly a challenge, and thank god for Lucretia who is easily this games Solaire in terms of being a powerful summonable ally that can actually tank damage. Made that fight more manageable once he goes into his third phase and starts using a flame sword that can reach across the room. Funny enough, I died more times to the rematch Pursuer fight than any of the actual bosses, and I ultimately gave up on trying to beat him cause I just can't seem to get his timing down to dodge or block, and I don't really have any more Human Effigies at the moment.

    I was not happy with the return of the Turtle Knights or the second coming of the Anor Londo Archers, but thankfully my fully upgraded sword wrecks most of them. As for the Old Iron King, he was pretty easy. In fact I probably died more times not looking where I was going and walking into the lava hole on the map than actually getting hurt from him. I'm chuckling to myself about the DeMocracy Video about DS2 Bosses where he basically summarized the Old Iron King as a joke with a 2 out of 10 difficulty ranking, and then followed it up by saying that the hole ranked at 10 out of 10 difficulty, "Please FROM Software, nerf it in the next patch".

    I met Adlai I believe, which was interesting, and I lit the first bonfire in the new DLC area like I did with the other one. The area is gorgeous by the way, finally a zone on par with Anor Londo or the Painted World in terms of excellent visual design. Now that I have the Four Old Ones, I'll be heading towards the new areas. I may do a little co-op before that just to regain my humanity and to build up my covenant some more since I'm working on a Strength/Faith build for this run, and I read that while my main weapon can't use items to boost it's elemental powers, it does get bonus from the Sunlight Sword Miracle. Considering how many things are weak to Lightning in this game, it feels like a good build to work towards.

  11. #1466
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Didn't get quite as much done last night as I would have liked. I tried to get a co-op battle going to restore my humanity, but I'm very likely way above the normal Soul Memory Level for the areas I have access to. So instead, I spent my evening trying to "Git Gud" with the Pursuer fight, and while the SOB gave me trout for Souls, I was very surprised and happy to get an upgraded Ring of Blades from him instead.

    Other than that, I spent my time exploring the Iron Keep a bit more and was able to find the Dull Ember which unlocked McDuff as a Blacksmith. I was unable to get any of the Chests/Items on the Lava Stones due to having absolute crap for Fire Defense since Intelligence and Attunement are my two most neglected stats. I was hoping there was a ring or something like in DS1 to walk on Lava, but apparently there is not.

    After that, I went to the Winter Shrine, unlocked the final DLC area and the one I'm kind of excited for the most, and then proceeded to Drangleic Castle. Aesthetically speaking? Cool place, and I love the ghost minister NPC, interesting twist. Enemy wise? smurf all the living statues and the game making the stupid Knight Bosses from the Lost Bastille into regular enemies. I discovered an easy, if long winded means to eliminate all of them in that one chamber, but my god was it a pain. I think I either need to switch up my Armor, or more likely, I need to level it up a bit. I did meet Nashandra and her stupid Cursed Picture, I imagine I've got to deal with her in the future. I reached the first boss gate and decided to call it a night.

  12. #1467
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    You can become incredibly lava-resistant by rolling through pots that are full of water, or dousing yourself by standing in water. This is how almost all the lava items are reached.

    When you go to warp between bonfires, there is a small (easy to miss if you aren't looking for it, impossible if you are) orange border around areas with "high player activity" for your Soul Memory.

    There are also a few PvP zones: The tower with the bellkeepers, for instance. And the bridge at the start of the Iron Keep is the game's long-standing PvP Duel Area although there aren't really dueler types at every Soul Memory.

    The Winter DLC is my least favorite one, but it does have the coolest final boss.

  13. #1468
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    So after a few missteps with the dual Dragonrider gank, and learning that one of them was laughably weak to my weapon, I conquered them and explored the rest of the castle. Thankfully, the rest of the castle is a lot less annoying than the early sections, especially the room with the living statues and the freaking Sentry Knight Bosses. I'm going to forever associate those bosses with how many gank fights there are in this game since they seem to pop up in the areas that have the worst examples of them.

    Speaking of them, I forgot to explore the room properly and backtrack to them, where I discovered this old man babbling on about the Dark like Kaathe from DS1 and I also discovered the Farrom Set (sp?) which for those who don't know, is the armor set used in all of the promotional materials. Being the basic bitch that I am, it's my new armor at the moment, and frankly, with a few upgrades, it is actually better than what I was using with the exception of my helmet. Still the armor looks cooler than my weird animal headress knight with flashy Michael Jackson pants, so I'm probably going to stick to this set for awhile. I did find a decent medium shield with 100% physical reduction I may also switch to once I upgrade it a bit.

    I fought the Looking Glass Knight and defeated him, but not without losing Jugo in the process and thus ending both his quest line and the ability to get his gear. So, I'm kind of annoyed by that, but it wasn't like I didn't screw up with the Siegmeyer quest in DS1 and accidentally let Boris of the Twin Fangs die in Demon's Souls either... I am pretty bad about keeping jolly "Big Guys" alive in these games it seems. It actually surprised me too, cause the Glass Knight spent most of the fight wailing on me up until he summoned an ally who went for Jugo before I back-stabbed him to death. After that, Jugo became the primary target and if Jugo and I didn't have half our attacks land on his stupidly huge ass shield, I probably would have finished him off before Jugo died. At east I still have Lucretia.

    I've reached the Shrine of Amana and called it knight. I probably would have gotten more done, but I wanted to do some more Co-Op cuse I've done very little in this game and I'm still miffed I was denied in Bloodborne and will likely be denied in Dark Souls 3 as well for the same dumb reason. Yet, I am having a seriously hard time getting this going for me. I'm not sure if I'm too overleveled in Soul Memory, or if there isn't as many new players for this entry and all the action is going down in NG+, or if it's just something I didn't even think of, but I wanted to level up the Heirs of the Sun covenant and no one wants my help. I get invaded enough times to know it's not my online service, though I did have one poor soul try to summon me for the Rotten and my connection kept getting lost and disconnecting us. I'm not even a huge fan of multiplayer shenanigans but I like Dark Souls treatment of the medium and some of my favorite memories of Dark Souls was camping out in front of the Capra Demon Boos room and helping players even the odds against that cheap smurf. So I'm a little annoyed that I've wasted two evenings for some "jolly cooperation" that never happened.

    I'm not exactly looking forward to the Shrine of Amana, it's reputation proceeds it, and it sounds like it's DS2's version of New Londo where ambushes and falling to your death are the norm cause everything is underwater. Have I mentioned how much I disliked New Londo? At least before I finally got a ghost to drop the weapons they are weak to so I didn't have to worry about using that consumable to hurt them.

    Speaking of consumables, I feel the one thing I'm going to give this game props for is having merchants in your hub area that actually sell upgrade materials for your gear. You got some in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, but they often involved traveling to specific locations and even then they only sold the most basic of upgrade material. Having easy access to Basic and Large Titanite, and in close proximity to the blacksmith has been a nice surprise. In fact, the only truly disappointing merchants have been the magic based ones, as many of their skills feel a bit too basic and I've honestly found most of their wares just traveling. Not a bad thing for me, since I still lack enough levels in Attunement to even equip magic, but it does seem to me like the selection is a bit too basic and you'll get your money's worth buying from all the others merchants.

  14. #1469
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Completed the Shrine of Amana tonight. Not quite as bad as I heard, but maybe it was because I was extra cautious and went into sniper mode for most of the place. I'll give it props for being one of the most gorgeous places in the game so far, though Dragnleic Castle and the Iron Keep were no slouches either in that department. My favorite thing about the place is the Song of the Milfanito, because it's basically an remixed version of Return to Slumber, the ending theme to the Seal the Great Old One Ending in Demon's Souls.


    Either way, it's a pretty good track overall. The boss of the area wasn't too bad, which was nice considering the slog getting to him. I also find it amusing that the Hollows in this area drop Human Effigies considering they've mutated to the point where they don't even look human anymore. Also the Archdrake Uniforms look like the Choir Uniforms from Bloodborne. Just about gave me a heart attack when the first one rushed me right as you leave the tower area. I had flashbacks of Bergynworth and that nightmare of a Hunter duel where you get to experience A Call from Beyond for the first time.

    I also used that Embbedded Key to free the one Milifanito, but curious to know if that "key" would have made a good weapon or not? Either way, this place did make me super happy I didn't drop off any of the shields I got from the living statue enemies, those shields have pretty incredible elemental and magic resistance, which made this area a hell of a lot easier to deal with.

    I think I also realize why I have not been able to get any co-op going for me. I checked my player data and realized I have a Soul Memory close to Two Million at this point, which from what I gather is actually pretty high for my part of the game as it seems like that something closer to end game. So I guess I'm not going to get anything done for the Heirs of the Sun Covenant. At least not until the DLC most likely.

    Undead Crypt is next, any tidbits or advice before I go in?

  15. #1470
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Okay, the Undead Crypt is the DS2's answer for New Londo, though honestly, the ghost enemies in this area are nowhere near as BS as the ones from DS1's "hey we've got mid range attacks, and can hide and attack through walls which you can't. Did we mention you need a special item and\or weapon to even hurt us and we can attack from any direction including above and below? Have fun.".

    It's also nice to see we're three games into the franchise and the team is still playing lip service to Vinland from Demon's Souls. First Havel, and now Velstadt with the whole Paladin with an impossibly cool hammer and armor set that lets him tank anything your throw at him. Makes me happy since Vinland was a favorite character of mine in that game.

    Also, the whole bell gimmick of the dungeon was annoying until I discovered the ghosts only spawn if their tombs are intact and the tombs will not respawn even if you use a bonfire once destroyed. I kind of miss this element from DS1, where they would throw a nasty curve ball at you, but make it a one game deal where the threat never respawns until NG+.

    So after meeting the former king and swiping his ring while he was busy pacing through his room trying to remember what he got up to a century ago that involved him Hollowing and stripping down to a loincloth, I backtracked to the Forest of Giants to open the one door that needed his ring, and also dealt with the Salamanders and collected all of that loot I missed on my first venture. Found a third dead giant tree, and called it a night. I'll hit up the door in Drangleic Castle next. I'm guessing the Door in the Shaded Woods is the one I need to access the next area?

    I know I'm not far from the end, which means I'll probably tackle the DLC soon. Any suggestions on what order to do them in?

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