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ArchAngel
Joined: 18 Nov 2000
Posts: 2826
Location: Rochester, NY, USA |
Dark Souls 2 review
love the soul series by From Software.
I recently played through Dark Souls 1 in anticipation of 2 and beat it down for a 2nd time on NG+. The game is really good.
2 was released with so much anticipation but the smallest things are creeping out of nowhere to make it a much more frustrating experience. for example, every time you die you lose a bit of your max health total in becoming more and more "hallow". You can use an item to restore humanity to reset this back to normal but they don't drop very often. Ive only found about 16 of them so far. and you die in the game a fucking -lot-.
the other thing that makes it stupid hard is that you can be invaded at any time by PvPers. Not just when humanity is restored like the 1st game. This would be fine but combat feels really broken.. Every time you get hit you become somewhat staggered and opponents can chain you up to 4 times or all of their stamina worth. certain gear raises your poise to stop this but even when equipped I still can't get out of the way.. so PvP is kind of like whoever gets the first couple hits in wins. hope that gets fixed.
the game offers so much in terms of entertainment and character progression / path. and right now i'm stuck on the Belfry Gargoyles in the bastille keep.
but overall thats what ive been up to with gaming recently. i highly recommend the souls series for anybody interested in a really fun and ridiculously challenging game.
i play on 360 live if anybody has that and wants to co-op gamer tag add me my nickname is Swiftbane.
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Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:38 am |
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Fast Luck
Joined: 11 Oct 2001
Posts: 22805
Location: Penis |
Doesn't sound like a game for idiot casuals. Im impressed _________________ i zero bagged your mother
quote:
Originally posted by Fast Luck
hassan-i-asher: majorin in takin pictures
dreamin bout wayne from catalina wine mixers
listen little friend stay outta the deep end
cuz you're less street than vampire weekend
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Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:45 am |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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i like ds1 a lot but i got stuck at the beginning of the undead parish with the armored rhino thing for awhile because im a noob and when i went back to play it again recently it crashed on startup. this is on PC btw. i uninstalled it but haven't gotten around to reinstalling and seeing if it works. how do you beat that guy btw?
i've heard similar things about ds2, that kinda sux. isn't the ds2 team different from the ds1 team? still seems pretty top-tier compared to most releases these days though _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:57 am |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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quote:
Originally posted by Fast Luck
Doesn't sound like a game for idiot casuals. Im impressed
its a kinda hard game but i think how difficult it is is exaggerated because people are so used to games that hold your hand like a little babby now. like it seriously blows people's minds these days to play a game that doesn't have the first few hours of gameplay dedicated to tedious tutorials, to not have a pop up hint come up on screen with every new enemy or obstacle the player faces, or to not have an arrow/compass pointing you exactly which way you're supposed to go in an ostensibly open world _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:05 am |
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ArchAngel
Joined: 18 Nov 2000
Posts: 2826
Location: Rochester, NY, USA |
quote:
Originally posted by hassan-i-sabbah
i like ds1 a lot but i got stuck at the beginning of the undead parish with the armored rhino thing for awhile because im a noob and when i went back to play it again recently it crashed on startup. this is on PC btw. i uninstalled it but haven't gotten around to reinstalling and seeing if it works. how do you beat that guy btw?
i've heard similar things about ds2, that kinda sux. isn't the ds2 team different from the ds1 team? still seems pretty top-tier compared to most releases these days though
ds1 undead parrish is a bitch 1st time around i died to that fucking thing atleast 10 times. but if you go up top there's an alluring skull on the bridge (above the rhino where the 2 archers are) and you can throw that skull in to the fire next to the rhino and he walks over and burns himself to death. you can also plunge attack him from the bridge and that pretty much 1 shots him. so when i went to play again I did the skull + plunge to finally be able to proceed there.. best of luck if you get it workin again! epic game.
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Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:32 am |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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cool thanks, i'll come back to this thread and try that when i get around to reinstalling. yeah i do love what i've played of it, gameplay is great and i really love the setting and atmosphere _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:33 am |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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i got this working on my new pc and i beat the warthog thing last weekend and killed the gargoyles and i think i finally "get" this game and its so epic... _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Thu Apr 24, 2014 5:09 pm |
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BanMe
Joined: 24 Jul 2003
Posts: 2472
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I was waiting for DS 2 but I wonder if I should play through Dark Souls 1 first?
I played the initial Demon Souls back in the day but put it down after beating the first few bosses _________________ Kanuks - The fact is you and foonew tried a double gay on me and ended up being BOTH behind me. Enough fucking said.
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Fri Apr 25, 2014 4:29 pm |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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i don't see why not personally, its only $20 on steam (cheaper if on sale, i got it for $7.50) so if its not your thing you're out less money than if you got ds2. i've also heard some people say the first one is better anyway, though i haven't played 2 yet so i cant say _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Fri Apr 25, 2014 4:32 pm |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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the capra demon in lower undead burg is pissing me off. i keep getting owned by the camera and it seems like a crapshoot when you walk in whether hes going to use his one attack you can block or if hes going to use the two-hander i can't block or dodge and takes off 3/4 my life :\ _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Sun Apr 27, 2014 9:52 am |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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lmao, just met havel. opened that watchtower basement door in the darkroot basin, walked in and got brained from the side _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Sun Apr 27, 2014 10:15 am |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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yeah i got capra last night. i'm doing a kind of dexy fast rolly guy and had been using an upgraded scimitar and i read somewhere he's more manageable with a thrusting weapon, so i got the winged spear from the graveyard and upped that one to +5 and that helped a whole lot. just did basically what you said, ran up the stairs, got the dogs, and kept running up the stairs, jumping down, and waiting for him to crash down so i can get some hits in. i got the hang of him eventually where i could dodge his two-handers, its really the size of the arena in that fight that makes it so tough. if it was only like six feet wider it'd be a totally different fight. was so frustrating to walk down those sewers from firelink shrine 50 times to get to him and half the time roll/block the wrong way and get stun locked by the dogs
i love how every time i beat a boss in this game i end up hooting and hollering and "YEAH BITCH"ing all over the place (except the gargoyles who were easy), its so fucking satisfying _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:00 am |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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also i'm trying to figure this out from the wiki but its not that clear, how exactly does dexterity affect my weapon damage? does dex only affect your damage on some weapons and not others, or does it affect different weapons at different rates (i think its the latter)? is there any easy way to tell this in game so i don't have to look at a wiki (and even the wiki i can barely make sense of)?
edit: oh it looks like this is the weapon info i was looking for actually http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Dexterity
my char is kind of a dex-based fighter build and i've been putting most of my points into dex and end and some vit at this point, but i was thinking of at some point mixing some magic into my build. is that something worth doing or is it better that i be more specialized and save that kind of stuff for ng+? i'm about SL 27 i think and just got to the depths for context. leveling is kind of weird in this game, i know its not super super important but i also have a hard time figuring out how i should balance out levels with buying loot and upgrades with souls, and how much grinding i should be doing _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:08 am |
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ArchAngel
Joined: 18 Nov 2000
Posts: 2826
Location: Rochester, NY, USA |
rofl love it! that is why the game is so epic!! The satisfaction from finally kicking an area's ass is unreal I know exactly what you mean. I played with my roommate and we shouted like our team just won the superbowl at so many parts. the environment IS a bitch for capra him and taurus demon are regular enemies later in the game.. and they're much much easier cause you actually have room.
I think you have to do Depths -> Blighttown next for the 2nd bell.. is that where you are?
oh and leveling.. hmm.. Dex is probably one of the best methods to go.. lots of weapons scale with dexterity if you look at the weapon screen -> extra info (where you see the wep requirements) they will have a rating in there. You generally if you're going Dex want an "A" or "B" scaling Dex weapon. I think Scimitar is one of them actually..
great dex weapons are bandit knives, the great scythe (this is the strongest dex weapon in the game but it's in catacombs cant get it just yet) , estoc.. few others like the balder side sword , scimitar and falchion (B scaling) are good also. That just means the more points you have in Dexterity the better the weapon becomes.. (move sets open up and damage goes way up) As a rule of thumb, I would suggest for your first playthrough to pump points in to vitality and Endurance as much as possible early on.. except for when you find a weapon you want to use and need a certain requirement to use it. the health bar and stam bar tho need to go way up to make lots of the game more manageable.. if you dont pump those shit will just one shot flatten you. weapon ascension is important also.... so many embers in the game allow you to do diff shit with your weapon. here's a good resource for that.
http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Weapon_Modification
heres a pic:
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/613885029114433531/C4414FD9FB22E7A4B5774D8894060DC57562134F/
here's an example of a long sword he upgraded to +15 (which he needed to find the large ember and very large ember to do) but if you look on the bottom ParamBonus this has C scaling on STR and DEX so he gets a "C" bonus to whatever his str and dex stats are + the weapon's main damage.
the weapon is upgraded to it's fullest through non-magic progression +15 is as high as it goes, but he's still not as strong as he could be because the weapon just isnt that good with scaling with his stats. You want something with "S" (best-in-slot) or "A" / "B" scaling with your main stat. some weapons scale with several diff parameters and all of the parambonuses apply.
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Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:11 am |
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ArchAngel
Joined: 18 Nov 2000
Posts: 2826
Location: Rochester, NY, USA |
dexterity is good with either int or faith.. depending on if you want to use miracles or sorceries. (Pyromancy is completely unaffected in DS1 by any of your stats)
spells have stat requirements also though.. sorceries include magic weapon / crystal magic weapon / shield.. fall control etc that offer situational buffs and uses. and the same with miracles really.. you can use sunlight/darkmoon blade miracle as one of the highest bonus modifiers in the game. but they require lots of points invested in faith. plus, you can only use these spells on standard equipment non-magic stuff only.. so if you ascend a weapon to divine/chaos/lighning/dark(ds2), or if you use a boss-soul to create a unique weapon you cant cast it on there.
thats why great scythe is so ridiculous its an "A" Dex scaling STRONG ass regular weapon which can have these spell modifiers on it as well provided you dont ascend it in to a magic item.
my dex character has a great scythe +15 with 50 points in dex and i use crystal magic weapon on it.. it hits for roughly 700 a swing light attack and 1300 on backstab/riposte criticals. varies depending on armor and shit of what you're fighting. but dex/faith is probably the best right now for pvp. dex/int best for pve. what's scary is he's not even my strongest character. D:
sorcerers end-game are stupid overpowered. you can 1 or 2 shot just about every boss in the game as one of those with the right combo of gear / spells. here's a video of me 1 shotting the hellkite dragon (this guy has 2,200 HP on NG) just yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCv36_i9kO0
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Mon Apr 28, 2014 9:36 am |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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damn, i cant read all that at the moment but thanks a lot for the info dump, i'll check it out for sure. don't like relying too much on faq's and wikis and stuff for this game because it really benefits from the surprises _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Mon Apr 28, 2014 11:32 am |
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ArchAngel
Joined: 18 Nov 2000
Posts: 2826
Location: Rochester, NY, USA |
also when you get a while to watch a video and laugh your fuckin ass off watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SNrS1yWWFA
its' how NOT to play dark souls 2 but its spoilery. It's God damn hilarious cause the guy bitches so hard every time he dies. several hours of entertainment in here.
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Thu May 01, 2014 1:25 pm |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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quote:
Originally posted by ArchAngel
also when you get a while to watch a video and laugh your fuckin ass off watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SNrS1yWWFA
its' how NOT to play dark souls 2 but its spoilery. It's God damn hilarious cause the guy bitches so hard every time he dies. several hours of entertainment in here.
lol he has another one for dark souls 1, i'm not sure if the guy is trolling or actually retarded but its hilarious. i think hes actually really fucking stupid, he's apparently a semi-pro in the comp fighting game scene and he's just as much a retard at those events
there's another really funny one of him playing one of the MGS games, there's one point where he spends like 10 minutes bitching about the game not telling you how to use a ration lol _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Thu May 01, 2014 2:14 pm |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZfxcLMN8r0#t=210 _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Thu May 01, 2014 2:18 pm |
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ArchAngel
Joined: 18 Nov 2000
Posts: 2826
Location: Rochester, NY, USA |
rofllllllllllllll this is an epic find. his bitching is priceless. We need to get him in to war2 just for that.
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Thu May 01, 2014 2:33 pm |
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Winchester
Joined: 04 Oct 2011
Posts: 980
Location: Melbourne, Australia |
There was this one guy who chainsaw'd his door down for dieing in pvp in an mmo several years ago.
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Thu May 01, 2014 4:33 pm |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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damn i think i neglected vit awhile, need to grind a bit and get at least a level or two in that maybe. i finally killed the fucking hydra and lost all the souls to those trees in the upper garden :[ they're tougher up there than they are at the undead parish entrance, they got me with the grab once and one shotted me
arch can you just run past those tough guys, the knight and bandit and sorcerer and shit, to the one place where the covenant lady is and join the covenant so they won't fight you?
also what do you think the most important weapon upgrade paths are at the stage of the game i'm at? i killed the dragon in the depths and opened blight town, i've killed the hydra in the basin but not sif, i went back to the asylum but couldnt kill the demon. right now i'm maining a +5 scimitar and a raw winged spear, i'd like to upgrade the scimitar more but don't know where to get more large titanite other than grinding slimes but thats a pretty rare drop it seems. i have like 22 dex 22 end and 18 vit (i know i should have prioritized the vit especially with a raw dmg weapon im dumb). i grabbed astoria's straight sword from the valley of the drakes, should i try upgrading that a bit and go to the catacombs? should i try to upgrade something else to divine instead, like the katana i got from murking the merchant? or should i just suck it up and put on a bunch of anti-poison equipment and go into blight town with what i have? it seemed pretty intimidating so i was trying to do some side stuff _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Sun May 04, 2014 2:49 pm |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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hm got a bunch of poison resist gear and blighttown doesn't really seem that bad, i died before the first bonfire but i feel like i can probably handle it now that i've put a few points into vit, still need to figure out how i want to do my weapons though. havel's ring is fucking win, love having a decent roll with medium armor or a super fast one with light _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Mon May 05, 2014 7:15 am |
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ArchAngel
Joined: 18 Nov 2000
Posts: 2826
Location: Rochester, NY, USA |
quote:
Originally posted by hassan-i-sabbah
arch can you just run past those tough guys, the knight and bandit and sorcerer and shit, to the one place where the covenant lady is and join the covenant so they won't fight you?
also what do you think the most important weapon upgrade paths are at the stage of the game i'm at? i killed the dragon in the depths and opened blight town, i've killed the hydra in the basin but not sif, i went back to the asylum but couldnt kill the demon. right now i'm maining a +5 scimitar and a raw winged spear, i'd like to upgrade the scimitar more but don't know where to get more large titanite other than grinding slimes but thats a pretty rare drop it seems. i have like 22 dex 22 end and 18 vit (i know i should have prioritized the vit especially with a raw dmg weapon im dumb). i grabbed astoria's straight sword from the valley of the drakes, should i try upgrading that a bit and go to the catacombs? should i try to upgrade something else to divine instead, like the katana i got from murking the merchant? or should i just suck it up and put on a bunch of anti-poison equipment and go into blight town with what i have? it seemed pretty intimidating so i was trying to do some side stuff
woooo! Hydra down! Yes once you join the forest hunter covenant the enemies in that area will stop attacking you. I usually fight them but you can cheese them off the cliff also by aggroing them and running back to the steps and facing outward.. the AI is screwed up that they jump right off. good way to farm hefty # of souls if you're not in that covenant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp6IKCG1U8U
this stage of the game is still very very early. +5 should be good but you should get the large ember from the chest behind the butcher in the depths to get what you're using closer to +10. stick with dex scaling weapons for now until you decide if you want to put any points in to faith or int. you will find a lightning spear in Sen's fortress upcoming (that is a +10 spear ascended to lightning) which is a really good weapon for a short period of time.
Astora's sword I believe scales with Faith and is magic weapon already. (so it requires twinklight titanite to ascend) it is a decent sword but its more for clerics. the moveset is good though. Blighttown is very scary your first time thru lol I hated that place. stock up on purple and blooming moss clumps you will need them to cure toxin and poison. much later you will need to make a divine weapon (eventually) for the catacombs cause the skeletons come back alive if you don't kill them with one. but dont worry about that just yet. get past blight / sen's next and backtrack to get that large ember if you missed it.
Last edited by ArchAngel on Wed May 07, 2014 8:20 am; edited 1 time in total
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Wed May 07, 2014 8:03 am |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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thanks for advice. yeah i got the large ember but i stupidly upgraded a weapon to raw instead of +6 and wasted a large shard on it. at the time the raw upgrade gave me more damage but i've read since that in the long term its a pretty bad decision since it doesn't scale very well. oh well, it looks like i can reverse it if i want and large shards seem to become more common and purchasable soon so no big deal, and at this stage of the game its still doing some decent damage even if its going to be gimped later on
yeah based on what you said it sounds like it would make more sense to upgrade something to divine rather than use astora's sword. i was thinking of just trying it anyway since a lot of people apparently do catacombs kinda early and i want that scythe, but i think i'm going to try to do blighttown first since i've been hanging around at the depths bonfire so much. although i read its not too hard to get the scythe with a suicide/homeward bone run even if you can't handle the catacombs so i might try that if nothing else. last time i played was sunday after doing some prep and with poison resist equip blighttown doesn't seem like its going to be that bad, i have a shitload of the moss clumps too from being in the garden so much. even the blowdart guys haven't bothered me much, i haven't got too deep yet though
the hydra was the most nerve wracking fight so far probably. it took me forever because i was trying to do it without the rusted iron ring and i was so fucking sick of killing those crystal golems over and over. the fight where i finally killed it took forever because i got all its heads really fast but one and i was so scared of dying and having to do it again i was afraid to run too fast in the water for fear i'd fall off the cliff ~_~ i finally killed the last head with a lucky firebomb throw lol. i know its just a mini boss but the environment for that fight is so punishing if you don't have the right equipment _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Wed May 07, 2014 8:18 am |
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ArchAngel
Joined: 18 Nov 2000
Posts: 2826
Location: Rochester, NY, USA |
making a weapon divine also gives it a faith scaling element. and raw as you mentioned makes a weapon base more powerful but at the expense of scaling it usually downgrades it's main stat. best to do that on already dull scaling weapons like C/D/E.
for pure dexterity the regular weapon ascension path is the one youll want to stick to. magic/enchanted/chaos for dex+int builds, divine/occult for str/dex+faith builds, regular/raw/lightning/crystal for pure builds without int or faith.
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Wed May 07, 2014 8:30 am |
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hassan-i-sabbah
Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Posts: 27424
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rofl, i killed quelaag and then accidentally bought the wrong pyromancy and wasted 20k souls on great fireball >_< i mean i'm sure i'll get my money's worth out of it but i had plans for those souls. sigh... _________________
quote:
Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.
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Fri May 09, 2014 6:59 pm |
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