Quote Originally Posted by Pete for President View Post
Quote Originally Posted by TrollHunter View Post
I've officially found my biggest complaint with dks2 pvp that makes me want to just put it down entirely.
Estus
Estus is absurdly overpowered in this game.

I invade either as a blue phantom or in the bell covenant. I can put a ton of work on an opponent but as soon as they go for the estus.... if they have high adaptibility there really is no real way to punish it. With my SPEARS I cant even reach high adp characters in time... and thats with them estus'ing in my face. My attack always comes out 1 half a second too late. And good luck powering through the absurd amount of hp it recovers. The only weapon I've had success with punishing estus spammers with is the MLGS, and even then its useless if someone hides behind a wall.

This would be less of an issue if invaders could actually heal, but no... there's no option for that here unless you pump into faith. This ends in me destroying the host for the entire fight but losing the battle of attrition due to my inability to heal. It's ridiculous, and it makes this pvp so much more infuriating than dks1 pvp. I don't care about dark magic, it's easy to dodge. I don't care about the MLGS, it's easy to read. I care about estus, and I really do feel that it is a HUGE issue. I'm taking a break from dks2 honestly. I'm going to focus on other games. This just isn't fun to me right now.
What about Lloyd's Talismans? Or poison arrows? Or firebombs/throwing knives that stun?


I've been going through the game with something resembling a Str/Fai build, although I haven't pumped strength high at all. I find two-handing a weapon way more viable in DkS2 compared to 1 and haven't felt the need to raise strength above 20 because of it. My faith is at 37 right now, but I don't think I'll level it any higher either. With (SPOILER)the Ring of Prayer it's high enough to cast Great Lightning Spear and the higher faith miracles seem kinda meh.

I think I'll turn this into a Str/Hex build instead with faith being the higher stat. Might raise Int to 20 and (SPOILER)use spices or Int boost equipment to still be able to use Profound Still.

Loving the smaller axes and blunt weapons this time around. Maybe I'll even keep strength at 20 and just rock these smaller powerhouses or just two-hand the bigger guns while pumping vitality, adp or attunement.

With DkS1 I already got into the habit to not raise endurance but get nifty with stamina management instead, and that seems a big plus in DkS2 where End doesn't raise equipment load anymore. Base endurance ftw.
Poison Moss is a thing, and anyone with a poison build can attest to how long it takes to build up in the first place. Poison arrows especially take extremely long to build up the meter.
Lloyds talismans are extremely expensive in this game, but it is definitely an option. It requires taking many breaks from pvp to farm souls for them though. They cost 1600 souls compared to dks1's 500. Hmmm... I need to check when shalquoir starts to sell infinite ones.
Throwing knives could work actually, but you also need to realize that those leave you stationary and if you miss or a second too late... they still get the estus off.

I may start packing a short bow in my left hand to see if I can catch etus spammers off guard, but at least in the bellfry sol area they tend to try and break your lock-on behind pillars. This makes throwing knives/MLGS/arrows effectively useless. I may just have to farm souls for lloyds. They cost 1600 souls a pop so I may have to do some co-op.

Guess I was being a bit blood-thirsty after my earlier invasions today. But it really sucks that it's absurdly difficult to punish it with melee, and there's still the huge problem that comes from being unable to heal without faith. They seriously need to fix that by the way.