Dark Souls

Big Knox

Mickeroo wrote: »

Just picked up Iaito there, will start leveling it up now. Jesus Blightown is a bitch though

Any recommendations on shields? Have Spider Shield +4 at the moment and might stick with it.

The Iaito is a great weapon. You should also try for a Balder Side Sword that drop from the Balder knights in the Undead Parish and in Sens Fortress, it's such a good weapon for any situation for a DEX build however the drop rate is very low so you may need to farm them until one drops.

Spider shield is a solid choice early game. Later on you can't go wrong with the Silver Knight Shield upgraded with Twinkling Titanite (drops from Titanite Demons).

Also check out the silver knight spear which works great for a DEX build and complements something like the Balder Side Sword for two completely different setups on the fly.

danthefan

Uchigatana is another excellent Dex weapon, it's what I've been using for most of my playthrough.

That Silver Knight Spear looks awesome, didn't even know it existed, first thing I do next time I play is get one of them.

Big Knox

danthefan wrote: »

Uchigatana is another excellent Dex weapon, it's what I've been using for most of my playthrough.

That Silver Knight Spear looks awesome, didn't even know it existed, first thing I do next time I play is get one of them.

Yeah the Uchi works a treat aswel. That and the Iaito are similar it's just really down to preference on the different movesets and I believe the Iaito has a very slight reach advantage but they both work great for DEX builds.

My 3 favourite DEX weapons are the BSS (Balder Side Sword), Iaito and the SKS (Silver Knight Spear). I use all 3 for pvp as they are great in different situations. The BSS is used for buffing and burning down casters quickly but it has very limited range. The Iaito is my standard weapon for most situations and the SKS is fantastic for certain mobs where range is needed and for turtling in pvp.

Cravez

danthefan wrote: »

From the convention centre E3 is held in.

I knew July was way too early for a release date, I so got my hopes up

Cravez

Mickeroo wrote: »

Any recommendations on shields? Have Spider Shield +4 at the moment and might stick with it.

- Grass Crest shield (found in Darkroot Basin/Garden) allows quicker stamina regeneration.
- Dragon Crest Shield (found in Valley of the Drakes) has full Physical and very high fire resistance (spider shield AFAIK has high fire res also)
- Crest Shield (found in Undead Asylum) has full Physical and very high magical resistance
- If you're lucky in the loot drop, the black knight shield
- Forgot about the Blood Shield (found in Painted World), it has full physical, high fire and also high poison/toxic/curse resistance.

Cravez

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

i upgraded the **** out of my armour and i was a dex/vitality/endurance fella as well (love me some balder side sword)

towards the end it was really only the black/silver knights that could touch me.. unless I got swarmed by a load of skeletons, as well as the bosses.. but even then I was able to take some beating from all of them

i finished it a few hours ago and jumped into a ng+ but the interest is gone. I finished the game on SL 103, so way too high.. the latter portion of the game was kind of a chore as the challenge wasn't really there anymore. I kinda lost the run of myself farming new londo ruins for

a titanite slab, which i never ****ing got in the end

ill probably go back to it in the future and try a mage, easily one of the best games of all time.

Ideally i'd like to start a new game right now as a str focused character, with two handed swords and big ass shields.. but that's just not how I play these games. even severance blade of darkness (which dark souls reminded me of quite a bit) I've played 10-15 times.. but only ever as the knight.. every time I try the other 3 characters I get bored very early on and give up.

The best way to get back into the game is to focus on a particular build, usually involving PvP. I have a SL 2 character, with the Darkwraith covenant so I can invade pretty much anyone in the game anywhere.

I'll be starting a new game with a few mates (one who will be new to the game) so going to try a Paladin build. Getting co-op is definitely a good motivation to start the game. PM me if you want to get some co-op going actually.

My future idea build is to then do a Gravelord PvP player.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i ended up sticking with the hollow soldier shield, it actualy has pretty good stability for its weight and once it's upgraded well it's very good

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Michael Cravez wrote: »

The best way to get back into the game is to focus on a particular build, usually involving PvP. I have a SL 2 character, with the Darkwraith covenant so I can invade pretty much anyone in the game anywhere.

I'll be starting a new game with a few mates (one who will be new to the game) so going to try a Paladin build. Getting co-op is definitely a good motivation to start the game. PM me if you want to get some co-op going actually.

My future idea build is to then do a Gravelord PvP player.

yeah I've thought about messing about with the online play but.. I think I view online in dark souls as a great idea.. but something best experienced by other people

Kylo Ren

Picked this up during the sale on Xbox. I got 1200 points for 5 dollars and it was 840 points, a great deal.

I'm playing through Deus Ex at the moment but Dark Souls will be next. It looks a daunting task from the youtube videos I've seen of it.

Any noob tips for when I start?

Big Knox

Michael Cravez wrote: »

- Grass Crest shield (found in Darkroot Basin/Garden) allows quicker stamina regeneration.
- Dragon Crest Shield (found in Valley of the Drakes) has full Physical and very high fire resistance (spider shield AFAIK has high fire res also)
- Crest Shield (found in Undead Asylum) has full Physical and very high magical resistance
- If you're lucky in the loot drop, the black knight shield
- Forgot about the Blood Shield (found in Painted World), it has full physical, high fire and also high poison/toxic/curse resistance.

All of those are good shields for specific situations, particularly the Grass Crest shield but none of them have a particularly high stability rating which is definitely a shields most important stat (after 100% physical resist).

Cravez

Keno 92 wrote: »

Any noob tips for when I start?

- Use Master Key as starting item as it's the most useful
- If going Pyromancer, don't bother investing skill points into Intelligence as you can upgrade the Pyro flame
- I recommend Pyromancy for any build as it doesn't require investment into intelligence
- Upgrading weapons/armor is more important that leveling up
- Keep your shield up
- Don't increase the resistance stat, it's practically useless and some armor sets will do the job instead

Mickeroo

Keno 92 wrote: »

Picked this up during the sale on Xbox. I got 1200 points for 5 dollars and it was 840 points, a great deal.

I'm playing through Deus Ex at the moment but Dark Souls will be next. It looks a daunting task from the youtube videos I've seen of it.

Any noob tips for when I start?

Noob myself, only got the game in the last week and the biggest thing I had to adjust to was being way more careful than I usually would be in these types of games. You really get punished in this if you die compared to the likes of Skyrim or Dragon Age, moving through unexplored areas slowly with your shield up is the way to go.

Cravez

Big Knox wrote: »

All of those are good shields for specific situations, particularly the Grass Crest shield but none of them have a particularly high stability rating which is definitely a shields most important stat (after 100% physical resist).

True. but i'v also found stability (in my opinion) not to be a huge must either. If you are going for tanking, just build a character that can hold a Greatshield. If anything iv found that any shield that has a 100% physical resistance usually does the job for the game, but different shields do good for the job required (i.e the Crest shield for Magic Resistance, Fire Crest Shield for Fire Resistance)

It really depends on your overall playstyle, some people prefer stability over resistance buts iv found a 100% physical shield to be a bread and butter shield to use. Plus if you upgrade the shields listed, their stability increases anyway.

Mickeroo

Spent over an hour trying to beat the Stray Demon last night. Maybe I'm just too low a level yet but god, one slip up and your toast.

Not The Real Scarecrow

gone back to it for the 3rd time, furthest I ever got was a hydra thing in a swamp and can't remember why I gave up. Enjoying it immensely this time around even though I'm stuck on the bloody gargoyles. Think after playing so much of the crap that pasesd as aaa titles this year I can finally appreciate how good a game this is.

Mickeroo

Meatwad wrote: »

gone back to it for the 3rd time, furthest I ever got was a hydra thing in a swamp and can't remember why I gave up. Enjoying it immensely this time around even though I'm stuck on the bloody gargoyles. Think after playing so much of the crap that pasesd as aaa titles this year I can finally appreciate how good a game this is.

I sommoned the two NPCs (Lautrec and Solaire i think are their names) to fight the Gargoyles and beat them on my first go because of it, kind of felt like I cheated though

johnny_ultimate

I would never consider operating within the rules of the game cheating! Sure, there's much pleasure to be found tackling a fight on your own, but the game happily offers you various mechanics to overcome challenges, so there's no shame in using them (although please do be aware we all think less of you now )

Also, pretty sure the Stray Demon is a pretty high level, optional boss in first playthrough anyway? Wouldn't be too concerned about walking away and coming back when you're stronger!

Mickeroo

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I would never consider operating within the rules of the game cheating! Sure, there's much pleasure to be found tackling a fight on your own, but the game happily offers you various mechanics to overcome challenges, so there's no shame in using them (although please do be aware we all think less of you now )

Also, pretty sure the Stray Demon is a pretty high level, optional boss in first playthrough anyway? Wouldn't be too concerned about walking away and coming back when you're stronger!

It's optional yeah, will most likely go back to it later on. At the moment my strongest hits were only dealing about 230 damage on it so would have taken ages plus it was one hit killing me most of the time too.

Not The Real Scarecrow

Mickeroo wrote: »

I sommoned the two NPCs (Lautrec and Solaire i think are their names) to fight the Gargoyles and beat them on my first go because of it, kind of felt like I cheated though

cheers for that. I forgt you could summon npcs in the game, should ease me back into it a bit better.

hypersquirrel

Mickeroo wrote: »

It's optional yeah, will most likely go back to it later on. At the moment my strongest hits were only dealing about 230 damage on it so would have taken ages plus it was one hit killing me most of the time too.

I always found the stray demon difficult until I discovered it's weakness to bleeding. If you have defeated priscilla I would recommend making the lifehunt scythe. Every 3 hits takes a huge chunk out of it's health. The fall control sorcery also helps, entering on half health from the drop leaves you far to vulnerable.

Mickeroo

hypersquirrel wrote: »

I always found the stray demon difficult until I discovered it's weakness to bleeding. If you have defeated priscilla I would recommend making the lifehunt scythe. Every 3 hits takes a huge chunk out of it's health. The fall control sorcery also helps, entering on half health from the drop leaves you far to vulnerable.

Not got to priscilla yet, only just rung the second bell of awakening and it's on to Sen's fortress next. Was aware of the bleed weakness alright, so was hoping the Iaito would do the job, but it's not reinforced enough yet it seems.

Thinking of doing a bit of farming for titanite to level up weapons now and maybe get summoned to help with a few bosses to get more humanity. Few areas I've stumbled into that I want to explore too, namely deep root basin and valley of the drakes and possibly the great holllow.

Burning Eclipse

Mickeroo wrote: »

Not got to priscilla yet, only just rung the second bell of awakening and it's on to Sen's fortress next. Was aware of the bleed weakness alright, so was hoping the Iaito would do the job, but it's not reinforced enough yet it seems.

Thinking of doing a bit of farming for titanite to level up weapons now and maybe get summoned to help with a few bosses to get more humanity. Few areas I've stumbled into that I want to explore too, namely deep root basin and valley of the drakes and possibly the great holllow.

Bandit's Knife (for the bleed damage) should be easy enough to come across... That, combined with good timing, should see him off fairly handy!

danthefan

Mickeroo wrote: »

Spent over an hour trying to beat the Stray Demon last night. Maybe I'm just too low a level yet but god, one slip up and your toast.

He has a crapload of HP as you've mentioned.

I'll outline the strategy I used to get him if you're interested.

1. DON'T LOCK ON.
2. Do. Not. Lock. On.
3. Stay behind him and stay close to him at all times, this will limit him to just two attacks. They are his AoE fart attack and his fly up and slam down attack.
4. The AoE fart has no range directly behind him, so you can avoid it easily.
5. For the fly up and slam down attack just sprint/roll away as fast as you can, any direction will do.
6. It's a long fight, stick with it.

There's also a really cheap way of killing him which is:

Hide in under the pillars where he can't get you and throw dung pies at him, he'll go toxic and die.

Big Knox

Mickeroo wrote: »

Not got to priscilla yet, only just rung the second bell of awakening and it's on to Sen's fortress next. Was aware of the bleed weakness alright, so was hoping the Iaito would do the job, but it's not reinforced enough yet it seems.

Thinking of doing a bit of farming for titanite to level up weapons now and maybe get summoned to help with a few bosses to get more humanity. Few areas I've stumbled into that I want to explore too, namely deep root basin and valley of the drakes and possibly the great holllow.

Now would be a good time to look at weapon upgrades. Sens is where the game takes a notable jump in difficulty especially in terms of monster HP.

Colonel Panic

Make sure you're using a weapon that suits your stats too. The Iaito's got a high DEX requirement so I assume you're levelling that. If you get that to +10 for Sen's it'll do you right for a while. At +15 and 40 DEX it's one of the best weapons in the game.

That said, Balder Side Sword fo' life, yo!

Mickeroo

Colonel Panic wrote: »

Make sure you're using a weapon that suits your stats too. The Iaito's got a high DEX requirement so I assume you're levelling that. If you get that to +10 for Sen's it'll do you right for a while. At +15 and 40 DEX it's one of the best weapons in the game.

That said, Balder Side Sword fo' life, yo!

Yeah, have been leveling Dex, Vit and End mostly. Still waiting for one of them Baldur side swords to drop, have the Iaito at plus 10 now.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

if I have strength in the high 30's, 40's... will the black knight sword be less slow and awkward to swing?
or is that just the way it swings, and the str affects the damage output

2Mad2BeMad

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

if I have strength in the high 30's, 40's... will the black knight sword be less slow and awkward to swing?
or is that just the way it swings, and the str affects the damage output

just the way it swings
:mad:

iamanengine

Anyone know a site/where I could go to get this cheap-ish?

Mickeroo

iamanengine wrote: »

Anyone know a site/where I could go to get this cheap-ish?

If you have an xbox and xbox live gold it's only a tenner at the moment?