Dark Souls II

[Lyion]

I have no actual plan, I just try to clear out areas. Before going to the Capri Demon area, I was in some place where two skeletons beat the shit out of me, since I thought that was where the other bell might be located. I briefly looked at some Drake area too, but after getting cooked by the dude on the bridge I decided to wait a bit before going up there.

I killed the Capri guy last night. The problem I had is the dogs and demon would corner and shred me. I got around that by running at him, blocking, and backing up to the stairs. The dogs were pretty easy to kill at the top of the stairs. After, I tried to go toe to toe which was a huge mistake, even with my knight build. I finally kited the guy using firebombs on his head and smacking him when he jumped down.

I really wish the game had a first person view option when fighting in a small room like that.

I'm actually reading up and getting some more information on the wiki today. I have an upgraded longsword, but not sure what to get weapons or armor wise. I switch between it and a Catalyst for ranged attacks. I've also got a shortbow and try to sniper anything I can. I just hit 26. I've bought everything I could from every vendor that sounded important, that wasn't ridiculously expensive.

I'll admit the game is growing on me. When I compared it to Everquest, my point wasn't in design, but the danger and game mystery that was there when I first started playing.

[Zanchief]

Upgrades will make the game a lot easier. As for what weapons to get, it depends what your stats are like. If you want to go faith/int, just stick with the longsword and upgrade it to magic and devine for the int/faith dmg scaling. If you want to go dex, get a weapon with high dex scaling like Uchigatana or a spear/rapier. If you want to go str get something big and strong (I've never bad that type of build so don't know whats good). An INT->END->VIT build is very powerful. That's the last build I did. Keep your Encumberence under 1/4 and you can move quick, dish out a ton of dmg with magic and melee a lot as well. I used a long sword which I upgraded to max.

[Tossica]

My favorite weapons are the Balder's Side Sword (rare drop from the Parrish), the Gargoyle's Halberd (rare drop from Gargoyle) and the Flamberge (buy from merchant in Blight town after joining the Forest Hunter clan). The Flamberge upgraded to +5 Chaos, wielded 2h will tear shit up.

[Zanchief]

Flamberge also drops in Sens Fortress. I got a few there (but never used it). I really enjoyed the Bladur Side Sword, but replaced it with Uchigata eventually.

Never really used the halberds.

[Tossica]

Flamberge also drops in Sens Fortress. I got a few there (but never used it). I really enjoyed the Bladur Side Sword, but replaced it with Uchigata eventually.

Never really used the halberds.

Really? In all my times through Sens, I never saw one drop. I've never done a Dex build so never used any of the katanas.

[Zanchief]

The lady snakes drop them.

[Lyion]

I read the wiki and at lunch went and shot the Drake under the bridge until his tail fell off, and I got the Drake Sword. It seems a good chunk more damage. I guess the next area I am going to hit are the Depths?

So far I've cleared:

Undead Asylum
Burg
Parish
Lower Burg
Mothra Garden Area

[Tossica]

yeah. Depths and then Blight town. The 2nd bell is all the way at the bottom.

[Tossica]

Drake sword is a cheat. I never use it. It trivializes some of the early parts of the game.

[Zanchief]

I never had the recs so I didn't have to worry. It's a very good sword if you have the str for it until much later in the game.

The Depth I found to be pretty straight forward and pretty easy. The boss isn't very difficult either. Blighttown was my first ugh I hate this game moment though. I found it difficult.

[Drem]

Since you're a knight, you should go back to moonlight butterfly area and go down the path to the sentient armor lookin guys and grab the elite knight armor off a corpse. It upgrades really well. I used that til Anor Lando and in certain situations still switch to it. My guy is basically a silver knight build, using their spears and swords, with pyromancy and miracles like healing and the lightning bolt. I like to keep it agile and most other suits really weigh you down. You'll want a few different shields for resist properties too

Drake sword isnt a cheat. It sucks really quick since it doesnt scale with anything. Great for the beginning tho

Trying to do an archer/baldur side sword/rapier build right now. It's a lot of fun to play around with different ideas. Kinda wanna play a strictly magic user. Homing soul mass is ridiculous

[Zanchief]

Crystal Soul Spear will kill almost any boss in about 5 hits. Magic user is really powerful for PVE. Not so hot for PVP though. There's a spell in the expansion that really helps with PVP though. It's like Homing Soul Mass but it seeks on the target forcing the player to run away (similar to one of the spells the 4 Kings has). It's really brutal.

[Lyion]

Some guy attacked me while I was fighting a boss today. Not really happy about that mechanic. He basically sat on top of the area above the Gaping Dragon and bombed me with spells.

I'm wearing the Elite Knight Armor now, although I've swapped out two pieces so I can move a tad faster.

edit: Might have been an NPC.. Let me see if I can snipe him.

[Tossica]

Some guy attacked me while I was fighting a boss today. Not really happy about that mechanic. He basically sat on top of the area above the Gaping Dragon and bombed me with spells.

I'm wearing the Elite Knight Armor now, although I've swapped out two pieces so I can move a tad faster.

edit: Might have been an NPC.. Let me see if I can snipe him.

That's one of those Shaman guys. You fought one already in the Parish.

[Tossica]

You need to kill him prior to engaging the boss.

[Drem]

From the bonfire in Depths, go right into the rat area and after you go down the stairs past the trap rat that jumps out of the box, turn around and go in the tunnel. You'll go through a fog and then be at three huge rats and that channeler that's shooting you when you fight the boss

[Zanchief]

Players can't invade during a boss. If you go through the fog gate they get booted from your game. It's an NPC. There is a spot in the that lvl were you fight a black phantom. If you want his armor (which kind of sucks) you need to kill him three times including in the depths. If you kill the boss you can't get invaded in that lvl anymore.

[Lyion]

I really hate the camera in this game when fighting large bosses or in tight corners. On the good side I finally figured out the Black Knights. I just hug them and circle strafe and wear them down. The problem is half of them are in tight cooridors, which sucks.

Just killed Abysmal Demon 2.0. That guy was a pain, until I realized you just have to run behind him.

Weapon wise I've got my Halberd up to +9. What's the best route to go from there?

Just started Blighttown. Does everything fucking poison/toxin you? It's like a whole zone of Trak'anon.

[Drem]

purple moss, bro

[Zanchief]

Just ignore poison since it doesn't do much dmg. You'll get poisoned, it's unavoidable. Toxin is much harder to deal with since it runs through your health very quickly. Keep in mind the black assassins that toxin you do not return if you kill them. Find them, hunt them down and kill them, even if you die in the process.

[Lyion]

Cleared Blighttown and rang the second bell. I went and farmed a bunch of anti toxin, and I didn't even need them...

Still not sure what I want to do build wise. Right now I have just been slowly chunking away at Endurance <30>. Strength is 16, Dex is 12, Int is 12, Faith is 12.

I have the Dragon King Greataxe sitting in my bottomless box. Looks sick, but 50 Str requirement? Oi Vey.

[Drem]

If you arent concerned with pvp or coop (most people stay around lvl 100), you can get up to level 700something and new game +++++++ i think before difficulty stops increasing. I never used a named weapon. I just get a chaos and a lightning weapon and i'm usually good.

Dont fret too much over a build. Max endurance first as a rule of thumb because every build benefits from maxed stamina in obvious ways

Also if you wanna farm twinkling titanite to upgrade your unique weapons, like dragon king axe or silver knight stuff, farm the clam shells in ash lake. Also if you join the everlasting dragon's covenant while you're down there and eventually level it up to 2 you get items that turn you into a dragon and let you blow fire

Also congrats, after you get thru sen's fortress and anor lando and kill ornstein and smough the game truly begins imo. And there's no official order as far as what you do after you kill ornstein and smog, so have fun. I like to save dukes archives and crystal cave for the end because its so damn pretty. And i like getting the catacombs/tomb of the giants done ASAP because they're rugged and full of "oh shit" moments

[Lyion]

Ok, I'll admit I was way wrong about this game. It's a complete blast. Sens Fortress is like AD&D Tomb of Horrors. It's not just sick danger and thinking combat. It's sick danger, thinking combat, and way fucking addicting. I just spent most of my kids spring break playing this. I think I'll nab the PS3 version used and give it a go on my HDTV.

[Drem]

IT'S SO GOOD

And i haven't even got the artorias of the abyss dlc yet. Saving it for a rainy day

[Zanchief]

And the claws are in.

I played the game through completely, got my plat and couldn't find a game to kick the habit so I played it through again.