Dark Souls

Mickeroo

weiland79 wrote: »

Came in last night with 8 pints on my fired it up and beat the archers first time.

Hurrah for pints!

Praise the pints!!

Harps

Had a few too many pints last night myself, never thought of starting up Dark Souls unfortunately!

The next part is simple enough anyway, I've found parry and riposte to be the best tactic for those black knights, there's a couple right next to the bonfire to practice on.

Made it to the blacksmith yesterday, is it worth upgrading my +10 Iaito to lightning or should I go for +15? Haven't used any lightning weapons yet so not sure of the benefits

Mickeroo

Harps wrote: »

Had a few too many pints last night myself, never thought of starting up Dark Souls unfortunately!

The next part is simple enough anyway, I've found parry and riposte to be the best tactic for those black knights, there's a couple right next to the bonfire to practice on.

Made it to the blacksmith yesterday, is it worth upgrading my +10 Iaito to lightning or should I go for +15? Haven't used any lightning weapons yet so not sure of the benefits

I found +15 Iaito to be a beast. Made a lightning one in NG+ but don't find it as good.

weiland79

Harps wrote: »

Had a few too many pints last night myself, never thought of starting up Dark Souls unfortunately!

The next part is simple enough anyway, I've found parry and riposte to be the best tactic for those black knights, there's a couple right next to the bonfire to practice on.

Made it to the blacksmith yesterday, is it worth upgrading my +10 Iaito to lightning or should I go for +15? Haven't used any lightning weapons yet so not sure of the benefits

Christ i must have been more pissed than i thought. Totally forgot i lit a bonfire and was fighting those black knights on the spiral staircase, till you mentioned them.:o

Mickeroo

weiland79 wrote: »

Christ i must have been more pissed than i thought. Totally forgot i lit a bonfire and was fighting those black knights on the spiral staircase, till you mentioned them.:o

I hope you didn't get chucked out of the pub for scribbling summon signs on the floor, this game can take a psychological toll sometimes :P

iamanengine

When starting Dark Souls I was reading the early pages of this thread, it seemed that lightning weapons triumphed all and were seriously overpowered, was that patched?

ziggyman17

boss fight with atorias... have been killed about 30 times, have tried heavy shield and armour, have tried to dodge and roll.. nothing works.. only getting his health down to half.. its starting to put me off the game....

Cravez

iamanengine wrote: »

When starting Dark Souls I was reading the early pages of this thread, it seemed that lightning weapons triumphed all and were seriously overpowered, was that patched?

Lightning is powerful but scaling trumps it. You'd only go for lightning if you wanted to fight something specifically weak to lightning or if you had a character that had no high stats in STR or DEX (or possibly INT/Faith). Basically upgrading to lightning gives it high base damage and high added lightning damage but it loses its scaling.

ziggyman17 wrote:

boss fight with atorias... have been killed about 30 times, have tried heavy shield and armour, have tried to dodge and roll.. nothing works.. only getting his health down to half.. its starting to put me off the game....

Are you on PC?

Danonino.

Very strange thing happened today, first time in a while playing and wasn't wanting to jump back into my lv1 cleric run as its headwrecking. Anyway. Started a new game, wanting to play as an Astora knight around lv12 blah blah. Heading back to firelink shrine I noticed an orange pick up like someone had dropped an Item while summoned/invaded. It was a prism stone left infront of the little well.
After doing a bit of searching I guess its the first vagrant item I've ever seen I knew there were vagrant enemies but items you drop changing to another item and appearing in someone elses world is kinda cool.

Gonna start dropping stuff all over the place now

iamanengine wrote: »

When starting Dark Souls I was reading the early pages of this thread, it seemed that lightning weapons triumphed all and were seriously overpowered, was that patched?

Yeah there was a large patch where lots was changed including homeward bones being dropped by bosses and elemental weapons getting a nerf. A lot of weapons now scale differently too, pretty sure this should be up to date:
http://darksouls.lljk.net/1.04/weapons

ziggyman17 wrote: »

boss fight with atorias... have been killed about 30 times, have tried heavy shield and armour, have tried to dodge and roll.. nothing works.. only getting his health down to half.. its starting to put me off the game....

I never beat Atorias solo I don't think. I spent a long time learning his moves and how to avoid but I think I always had another player to help distract him. Did beat him after a summon died almost immediately though.
Best advice I have is to head to the boss fight with the intention of learning the signs for each attack and how to avoid. A few trips made just to learn his moveset will be worth the effort. You can mid roll pretty much everything, but I'd recommend getting to fast roll and sacrificing the armour, he hits like a truck anyway so the few extra points in defence isn't worth the roll speed.

The Power within pyromancy will grab you a fairly good damage bonus against him too

ziggyman17

Michael Cravez wrote: »

Lightning is powerful but scaling trumps it. You'd only go for lightning if you wanted to fight something specifically weak to lightning or if you had a character that had no high stats in STR or DEX (or possibly INT/Faith). Basically upgrading to lightning gives it high base damage and high added lightning damage but it loses its scaling.



Are you on PC?

no ps3

[CrimsonGhost]

ziggyman17 wrote: »

boss fight with atorias... have been killed about 30 times, have tried heavy shield and armour, have tried to dodge and roll.. nothing works.. only getting his health down to half.. its starting to put me off the game....

Use a shield with 100% physical resistance, and high stability. High poise is good too, as his attacks can be relentless at times. Also, stop blocking when he's not attacking for much faster stamina regen. Then it's just learning when there'll be windows to get an attack off, and whittle him down. Summons also help, if you can get them.

spiritcrusher

Is this game still fairly active online with summonings, assistance from other players and whatnot? Only just got a PS3 and thinking about this game but would like to see all the famous online features in action.

2Mad2BeMad

spiritcrusher wrote: »

Is this game still fairly active online with summonings, assistance from other players and whatnot? Only just got a PS3 and thinking about this game but would like to see all the famous online features in action.

im on xbox
so i cant really comment
but its active on this
some areas are dead(which use to be summon hotspots for bosses) but most are not
specially the pvp
so id say the ps3 is quite active since its were souls games originally came from

Danonino.

spiritcrusher wrote: »

Is this game still fairly active online with summonings, assistance from other players and whatnot? Only just got a PS3 and thinking about this game but would like to see all the famous online features in action.

PS3 is still very active. Lots of headwrecking low level combustion heroes though

I have no idea how good the game is now that its matured, it easily is in my top 3 of the last generation but I'm not sure Id feel the same starting now and having to compete with the low level creeps and their nonsense. Can't recommend the game enough though even with that factored in


Rant:

There are players who are able to progress past the first boss fight without activating it. They can then continue the game as normal to grab end game weapons, armour and pyromancy but remain under lv 12 or so. Pyromancy is strange because it doesn't require stat investment just souls (cash basically), enough grinding and you can have end game pyromancy very quickly. They then stalk low level players being... well dickheads. I'd guess any new players in human form are going to be put right off. I spent yesterday evening doing the same and got an Astora knight build made at lv12 but was trying to act as a body guard and guided 10 players to the first boss fight

Guess some people think spamming overpowered bull**** against underpowered foes with no answer is entertaining... to be honest the fact they are making the start game in Dark Souls 2 more linear could be a very good thing.

Heck in the save I mentioned, I'm at Ornstien and Smough (late mid game Bosses) with a maxed out weapon and shield, maxed pyromancy, +9 (maxish) full Elite Knight armour and every pyromancy in the game bar one. Yet I'm still lv 12 and can head back to the first boss and stalk players with eyes of death or invasions. Its a bit silly really.

weiland79

So I'm in a bit of a sticky situation. I warped back and got the Doll and went through the painting. I keep getting made toxic because i cant keep those feckers at bay because my bow conveniently broke shortly after i arrived here. I never bought the repair box for the bonfires!
I've been trying to summon for nearly an hour here but it keeps failing. I just keep runningback to the fire to heal and then it starts all over again.

Ideas anyone?

Cravez

The bloated hollows that give you toxic, use fire! They don't toxic after you kill them with fire so if you have pyromancy or charcoal resin to buff a weapon you will be fine.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

or just as you hit your last swipe, roll backwards. you'll avoid their toxic death cloud

[CrimsonGhost]

Fire is good, if you have it. The roll away isn't guaranteed. It'll work sometimes, not others. A backstab however, will have the same effect as fire, they won't release the toxic cloud.
Oh, and I found myself in a similar situation without fire. Although I did still have a bow. It's actually one of my favourite areas in the game for some reason.

weiland79

I have plenty of firebombs so hopefully that will work. Any ideas why summoning wasn't working last night? There were loads of summon signs but they just kept failing.

MOC88

weiland79 wrote: »

I have plenty of firebombs so hopefully that will work. Any ideas why summoning wasn't working last night? There were loads of summon signs but they just kept failing.

They generally hit you with toxic if they die so... leg it past them and if you're finding the walkways too narrow lure them into areas with more space.

weiland79

So the plot thickens.

I've taken care of the toxic undead, I've beaten the toxic dragon on the bridge i've just opened the fog gate at the bottom of the tower and am now faced with these spear guys.

I have three bars of health, no estus flasks,no fire bombs and no bow. I honestly don't think i can make it back to this point in the level without supplies again.:(:(:(:(:(

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i died! i ran past all thespear guys up some stairs, and what got me?

A fvcking undead bastard climbing over a wall!!!!!!!!

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

the phalanx, i just ran by them every time

there is uh... a spoiler to follow that might irritate the pants off you

when you enter that area the first time, run past the phalanx and open the door in front of you. it opens right outside the bonfire at the start of the level

weiland79

I said I'd give summoning one more go before bed and wadda ya know, It worked, i explained my situation to the kind soul (Scottish as it turns out) And off we (he) went making short work of the level.:D

calex71

Starting this today after it being in my back catalog since it came out

Only a short way in, enter new area run away because I don't think i'm ready for it, finding if I die it's usually my fault. Have to get used to the controls keep in inadvertently pressing X and using potions.

I get the impression there is going to be lots and lots kiting in this short term when there is more than one enemy

I went with a thief to get the master key and the gift of bombs, which made short work of the 1st boss. Was this wise?

ANyway, I'm more confused about hollow and being human ???? I understand you can summon and the higher humanity they better items you find but are there any differences other than that effecting gameplay?

Also I can't get my head around encumbrance? I can carry 50 according to stats I am carrying 30 or so but since I picked up the demon hammer I'm not moving as quickly now, this should only happen if I'm over encumbered no ?

chickenboy

calex71 wrote: »

Starting this today after it being in my back catalog since it came out

Only a short way in, enter new area run away because I don't think i'm ready for it, finding if I die it's usually my fault. Have to get used to the controls keep in inadvertently pressing X and using potions.

I get the impression there is going to be lots and lots kiting in this short term when there is more than one enemy

I went with a thief to get the master key and the gift of bombs, which made short work of the 1st boss. Was this wise?

ANyway, I'm more confused about hollow and being human ???? I understand you can summon and the higher humanity they better items you find but are there any differences other than that effecting gameplay?

Also I can't get my head around encumbrance? I can carry 50 according to stats I am carrying 30 or so but since I picked up the demon hammer I'm not moving as quickly now, this should only happen if I'm over encumbered no ?

Starting class isn't that important, you can choose which direction to go based on which stats you level up. That being said, the master key is generally accepted to be the best starting item; i think everything else can be found in-game.

Being human at this stage means the ability to summon and greater item drop rates; the drop rate will increase based on the amount of soft humanity you have (the number up in the top-left corner). Once you get a bit further, you'll also find some weapons that scale with humanity, so they get more powerful the more humanity you have equipped. I've read that some characters have different dialogue based on whether you're human or not, but into my 3rd playthrough, I haven't noticed!

Encumbrance is a tricky one, I've never found it explained anywhere in game. Basically, your stat is your max value. Above that, you can't roll or run. Then, between 50% - 100% of the value, you'll fat-roll and move slowly (this is where you are now). Between 25% - 50% is normal movement, and below 25% you fast-roll. So if you want to move normally, you need to stay below 25 load or else upgrade endurance.

calex71

chickenboy wrote: »

Starting class isn't that important, you can choose which direction to go based on which stats you level up. That being said, the master key is generally accepted to be the best starting item; i think everything else can be found in-game.

Being human at this stage means the ability to summon and greater item drop rates; the drop rate will increase based on the amount of soft humanity you have (the number up in the top-left corner). Once you get a bit further, you'll also find some weapons that scale with humanity, so they get more powerful the more humanity you have equipped. I've read that some characters have different dialogue based on whether you're human or not, but into my 3rd playthrough, I haven't noticed!

Encumbrance is a tricky one, I've never found it explained anywhere in game. Basically, your stat is your max value. Above that, you can't roll or run. Then, between 50% - 100% of the value, you'll fat-roll and move slowly (this is where you are now). Between 25% - 50% is normal movement, and below 25% you fast-roll. So if you want to move normally, you need to stay below 25 load or else upgrade endurance.

Ah thanks, that makes sense now the hammer would have tipped me over that point alright, is there a stash or vault in the game to store items?

Mickeroo

calex71 wrote: »

Ah thanks, that makes sense now the hammer would have tipped me over that point alright, is there a stash or vault in the game to store items?

You can buy a thing called a bottomless box or something from merchants. You can store stuff at the bonfire then. If you're going for a dexterity build try and keep your load under 25% for speed. There's an item called

havel's ring

which is very handy for this if you want to carry spare equipment.

calex71

Mickeroo wrote: »

You can buy a thing called a bottomless box or something from merchants. You can store stuff at the bonfire then. If you're going for a dexterity build try and keep your load under 25% for speed. There's an item called

havel's ring

which is very handy for this if you want to carry spare equipment.

Ha borderlands has ruined me, I've become obsessed with the lootz :pac:

Mickeroo

calex71 wrote: »

Ha borderlands has ruined me, I've become obsessed with the lootz :pac:

At least in dark souls you can keep everything thanks to the bottomless box! I'm freaking out about not being able keep every single thing I find in borderlands!!

Harps

You can carry as much stuff as you want so there's no need to stash anything other than to make scrolling through your inventory easier, its only your equipped weapons & armour that count towards encumbrance

I never bothered with the master key, apparently its better to go without it on your first playthrough as you just end up confused with so many different routes, without it most doors are locked from one side so its fairly easy to know where you need to go