Dark Souls II

[Drem]

http://kotaku.com/5966805/dark-souls-ii-introduces-a-new-hero-a-new-world-new-multiplayer-and-a-new-game-director

boner

and i finally just beat dark souls. after months and months, once i got to anor londo and got the lordvessel the game really opened up and sunk its teeth into me. dukes archives and crystal caverns might actually top some velious content as my favorite zones in a video game. and lost izalith was so reminiscient of everquest mob spawning patterns and overall feel it was stupid. i'd say that game has enough content to fill two games like skyrim. new game+ is awesome and i love how they let you go ng++++++ or something til it stops ramping up the difficulty. really brilliant throwback. it's like a 3d Faxanadu. it's mystical almost. has like an aura about it. even useless items like the pendant that no one understands. and the creator said new secrets won't be revealed for multiple playthroughs. game is deep as the ocean

cant wait for a true sequel to expand on this cryptic story

toss if you're still playing i'm on 360 playing dark souls quite a bit. i have a dude around 20 that isnt' very far but that i also don't want to level up, for pvp reasons, and i have my 117 or whatever main character. do you still fuck with this or are you just playin vanguard?

[brinstar]

Faxanadu

damn son, brilliant game

i still pull it out and play through it from time to time

couldn't tell you where i found this but i bet you'll love it:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7699320/Faxanadu%20Funk.mp3


edit: the random castlevania lick near the end still makes me guffaw

[Zanchief]

Faxanadu has possibly the best music in any NES video game. Awesome stuff.

[brinstar]

definitely in my top 5

[Tossica]

I can't wait! I haven't played DS in a while. I bought the PC version and played through that and recently did another run through on both the ps3 and Xbox box. I haven't been doing any PvP though except when invaded.

[Zanchief]

You guys finally broke me and I descided to take this off my shelf and play it. I loved Demons Soul, so this should be more of the same.

So far its very good, almost identical to demon souls. I've only recently gotten to the first bonfire where you can upgrade. I want to play a mage type, but I did that in demons souls so I want something a bit different. Archer would be nice, but the build i'm most interested in is a Halberd Warrior. Is this viable? Does it even exist? Also what stats govern spears/halberds. If it's dex I might just make also make him an archer.

[Tossica]

You guys finally broke me and I descided to take this off my shelf and play it. I loved Demons Soul, so this should be more of the same.

So far its very good, almost identical to demon souls. I've only recently gotten to the first bonfire where you can upgrade. I want to play a mage type, but I did that in demons souls so I want something a bit different. Archer would be nice, but the build i'm most interested in is a Halberd Warrior. Is this viable? Does it even exist? Also what stats govern spears/halberds. If it's dex I might just make also make him an archer.

Yeah, builds are an art form. You can do pretty much whatever you want. You can be a spell casting warrior if you want but once you start spending your souls on levels, the costs start ramping up very quickly. You should build your character around a specific minimum item that you find. I think the first Halberd you find is outside the church on your way up to ring the first bell. I don't recall the minimum stat requirements to wield it but it's something like 16 dex, 16 str. It's best not to spend your points until you have a reason to. Once you find a weapon you like, the stats of that weapon will tell how the damage output scales with your stats. An "S" rating in Dex or Str or whatever means that putting points in to that stat will give you a good return on damage output. A, B, C, D, etc are diminishing return ratings. You'll still get benefit but it won't be great.

After many, many play throughs, my favorite weapons are still the Gargoyle Halberd, the Balder Side Sword and the Flamberge. Get them enhanced with lightning or chaos and tear through shit.

[Tossica]

You will most likely play through the first few areas several times until you find a character type that really suits your play style. I totally fucked up my first few characters, wasting souls on levels and item upgrades that I ended up not using. I just kept starting over til I found a combo that was great.

[Tossica]

Good source of info.

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/

[Zanchief]

Yea I remember the letter thing from Demons Souls (SABCDE). It was strange. I had a crescent sword that did a ton of dmg because my int was so high, even though my str was crap. Just to clarify a few rules. Str does not give you an inherent bonus on any weapon unless the weapon has a letter in that stat (SABCDE), correct? So Str is only used for str based weapons and to meat min requirements for gear? I know if you use a weapon two handed you get 50% bonus to your str. Does this mean if the weapon had a S in str (for example) the bonus dmg would then be higher and would have no benefit to, say, a crescent weapon that only has an A or S in int(assuming crescent is still in the game). This would make Str pretty much useless in most builds.

So far I don't think I've flubbed my build since it's been spending my points in Endurance and Vitality, since I assume I'll use those anyway. I'll likely go DEX heavy archer/spear user since there's synergy there. I like the idea of a Halberd, but non have higher then a D in any stat so they won't scale well, which disappoints me.

One more thing. If a weapon has a C in str and a C in Dex do you get a bonus for both or do you only get a bonus for the best of the two?

[Tossica]

Yea I remember the letter thing from Demons Souls (SABCDE). It was strange. I had a crescent sword that did a ton of dmg because my int was so high, even though my str was crap. Just to clarify a few rules. Str does not give you an inherent bonus on any weapon unless the weapon has a letter in that stat (SABCDE), correct? So Str is only used for str based weapons and to meat min requirements for gear? I know if you use a weapon two handed you get 50% bonus to your str. Does this mean if the weapon had a S in str (for example) the bonus dmg would then be higher and would have no benefit to, say, a crescent weapon that only has an A or S in int(assuming crescent is still in the game). This would make Str pretty much useless in most builds.

So far I don't think I've flubbed my build since it's been spending my points in Endurance and Vitality, since I assume I'll use those anyway. I'll likely go DEX heavy archer/spear user since there's synergy there. I like the idea of a Halberd, but non have higher then a D in any stat so they won't scale well, which disappoints me.

One more thing. If a weapon has a C in str and a C in Dex do you get a bonus for both or do you only get a bonus for the best of the two?

If you use the weapon two handed, you only need 1/2 the str to wield it. If you want to wield some of the bigger weapons and shields, you need a high str but someone with a high dex or int and a weapon that scales well could still out damage you. Correct, no bonus unless it's lettered. Once you start infusing weapons with fire, lightning, chaos, etc. the stat bonuses go away so keep that in mind. A +5 chaos Flamberge wielded two handed will take down most baddies in 1-2 blows and most invaders in a handful. You really need to have an arsenal of weapons available for different situations. Endurance and Vitality are good. Pick one or two other stats to get you to the bare minimum to wield your weapon of choice. I generally wear very light armor and use light weapons so I can maintain my maneuverability. Once you go over 25% your load limit, you start to slow down. At 50% and higher, you can only do slow rolls to avoid attacks. I wear robes and keep a small shield to maintain that <25% until I get my endurance up high enough to allow heavier armor. You get a bonus for both stats if there are letters in each.

[Zanchief]

Sounds good. So Chaos weapons get a bonus to dmg based on your humanity? And elemental weapons geta flat bonus based on the weapon bonus I guess? So if I were to make a Halberd character it's best to just make it a chaos or elemental weapon so none of the stats are very good?

[Tossica]

Sounds good. So Chaos weapons get a bonus to dmg based on your humanity? And elemental weapons geta flat bonus based on the weapon bonus I guess? So if I were to make a Halberd character it's best to just make it a chaos or elemental weapon so none of the stats are very good?

You want an arsenal of weapons. Chaos is great. It gets a base damage bonus plus a higher bonus for humanity. Lightning is next best, IMO. Divine, occult, magic, enchanted and fire have fewer uses. Magic and Enchanted I do believe will still scale with Int to give casters a path to high melee damage output. You can't use spells on elemental weapons though and the highest damage ratings in the game come from some of the heavier weapons that have been enhanced to +15 and then buffed with some of the weapon buffs available to casters, priests, etc. There's really so much to the game, it's hard to say which way is right. It's all a matter of what feels right to you. I've had my ass handed to me in PvP by naked players wielding clubs. If you learn the intricacies of the combat system and using the environment to your advantage, you can take out invaders with low end gear. Speaking of... I now find myself frustrated with any combat system that isn't DS. The whole thing is brilliant. The "lock on" function, dodge, parry, riposte, timing, gauging distance, etc. Fucking awesome.

[Drem]

no, elemental (lightning, fire) got nerfed last patch. i use a +5 silver knight sword and spear trading off depending on the fight. i also use silver knight armor because it's only slightly heavier than elite knight armor and the magic resistances are much, much better. for pvp i switch over to black knight armor/sword for the physical D without ridiculous amounts of weight so i can stay under 50%

which brings me to this point. for a knight type you'll want 40+ vitality and 40 endurance. if it's your first play through don't fuck with trying to stay level 20 or whatever. there are 700 something levels in the game. stamina caps at 40 endurance (160 stamina) so stop there. you'll get rings that up your equip load as that's all any more points into endurance will benefit

STR or DEX is up to you. if you plan to mainly do PvE the extra DEX will benefit your archery, like you said, which is useful in a lot of situations, especially undead dragon legs in lost izalith. or the drake on the bridge in undead burg. if you plan on PvP, you'll never use a bow, so have a good DEX weapon.

keep in mind paths like divine/occult, magic/enchanted, will retain scaling bonuses and add a faith or intelligence scaling bonus. it can turn something like solaire's sunlight straight sword into something pretty badass. those two are great upgrades but i still find raw physical damage to be the best. especially with the nerfing of fire/lightning weapons. i used to use a +10 fire bastard sword til the nerf. now my silver knight weapons are better because they actually scale and i'm lvl 120. it's not a huge difference, but about 50dmg per hit, whereas the fire bastard sword used to be hands-down the best and everyone ran around PvP with a claymore or zweihander doing fire or lightning. all that changed

if you manage to have someone in co-op give you an elemental weapon, it'll be huge til you get further in the game and mobs generally start having better resists. i use my straight physical weapons everywhere except duke's archives. i think it's the best way to go. just take something to +15 or take a unique weapon to +5. keep elemental weapons around for certain situations. like lighthning for duke's archives, fire for slimes in the depths, divine (magic dmg) for the catacombs, fire for the shitty exploding things that make you toxic in ariamis because it makes them not explode, etc.

and if it's got two scaling bonuses or even three then you get bonuses from all

if you've freed Lautrec from the undead parish i would go to firelink and immediately kill him for his amazing ring. boost your HP, stamina, and equip load. he's useless to the story. way better than just using havel's ring for equip load increase. no other ring gives you more than one benefit at once. but if you take it off it breaks and disappears from your inventory. you can get another one on NG+ etc though

if you want a really nice starting weapon, go underneath the bridge in undead burg and shoot the dragon's tail til it falls off. that sword will hold you over til you can get a halberd/spear/whatever upgraded properly. and, assuming you took master key to start, go to valley of drakes and get the elite knight gear and the astora sword and dragon crest shield. that's sitting on dead bodies in front of the undead dragon. you should be able to run in, loot, dash out np. you'll be good to go for like 3/4 of your first playthrough. and astora's sword is divine so it'll work in catacombs

i dunno i could go on and on about this. i'll just wait til you ask questions tho hahahah

[Drem]

another thing to add on active humanity is that it's like wearing another piece of equipment. you'll notice the top PvP players all have 99 humanity. it ends up adding the stats of another breastplate more or less. huge

and learn how to parry. this skill will benefit you in so many ways i cant even begin to describe. it'll turn "scary" mobs into total pussies. you just have to actually put the time in and learn what every attack from almost every weapon looks like and when exactly you need to parry it. the only part of the parry that's active is like a split second after you press the button. some shields have larger parry windows. some weapons have longer hit windows. a good way to understand how to parry a weapon you don't understand is to get the weapon then get on the the elevator face the wall and attack it while it's moving up or down. the amount of time you see sparks on the wall is when you should be parrying and attack of that type. some weapons, like silver knight spear, have an attack that actually hits you before the animation really starts, so you have to parry extremely early, while they're holding it up above their head

and try to stay in close after the parry for the riposte. you really have to be right up in their shit or it might not work. sometimes i feel like i'm just 1 foot away from the dude and the riposte won't go off. the amount of time you have to riposte after a successful parry is something like a whole second

and some parries turn into a partial parry where you don't get stunned and their attack goes though but you only take a fraction of the damage

but yeah i agree with you toss. i don't even want to play any other RPGs at this point. the combat is excellent in DS. fighting in EQ is incredibly boring after playing this. this game also scratchs lots of EQ itches for me. like level design, learning curve, difficulty, death penalties, co-op, pvp, etc. glad i finally sat down and played through the whole thing

[Arlos]

Still haven't played this (and kinda unlikely to play ANYTHING non-PC based), but found amusing the comment a friend of mine made on Facebook about the game:

ancient cultures would send their children out hunting as a rite of passage when they came of age, ordering them to return with a trophy or not at all. my children will be given Demon's Souls/Dark Souls in the same fashion

-Arlos

[Drem]

Hahahahah

It's on pc bro

Prepare to Die edition

[Tossica]

Hahahahah

It's on pc bro

Prepare to Die edition

Highly recommended to play it with an Xbox controller though. I just don't see how its possible to play with keyboard and mouse..

[Arlos]

Hahahahah

It's on pc bro

Prepare to Die edition

Highly recommended to play it with an Xbox controller though. I just don't see how its possible to play with keyboard and mouse..

Yeah, not gonna happen. Physically can't use a gamepad for more than 5-10 minutes at once without serious pain, like I've said before. (can't hold chopsticks, either, for the same reason; i.e. nerve damage in that arm) So, not the game for me, obviously. That's fine, though, I've got enough games to keep me busy for the moment.

-Arlos

[Zanchief]

Played for a few hours today. Not sure where I'm at right now, but it's a series of castles and bridges similar to 1-2 and 1-3 in Demon's Souls. I went down into a graveyard and looted a bunch of stuff and ran away. Died a few times in the process, but snagged me a Winged Spear, which is doing awesome. I think I'm just going to pump all my lvls in DEX right now for extra dmg and I don't really have to think about my build. I might dabble in faith down the road to give my character more versatility. I don't care about PVP at all. Not a big fan. What I love about these games is the PVE. I won't hold my character back to make myself ubber for PVP or whatever.

I ran into a high lvl Knight in that lvl. I knew he was high because when I shot him in the back with an arrow I did very little dmg so I decided to just run away from him back to the campfire. I assumed once I rested and the enemies reset he would go away. Nope, he came right up to me and wacked me while I was resting, and as an added bonus all the enemies came back too! That was fun. Almost got him too. I'm digging the spear combat. It simplifies things enough for me right now that I can easily kill most enemies that aren't too high.

Still a lot of stuff I don't understand though, like Humanity. I read the wiki entry and it still confused me. I guess its the number on the top left next to the health bar? It goes up from time to time but I'm not sure what I'm doing to achieve that. I also don't know how or when my health items restore. I thought they all came back when I rested but that's not the case. I get them back from time to time, but not aware of the mechanism either.

Is crafting similar to Demon's Souls? I killed my first slug today too. God I hated those guys in Demon's Souls.

[Drem]

Hahahahah

It's on pc bro

Prepare to Die edition

Highly recommended to play it with an Xbox controller though. I just don't see how its possible to play with keyboard and mouse..

Yeah, not gonna happen. Physically can't use a gamepad for more than 5-10 minutes at once without serious pain, like I've said before. (can't hold chopsticks, either, for the same reason; i.e. nerve damage in that arm) So, not the game for me, obviously. That's fine, though, I've got enough games to keep me busy for the moment.

-Arlos

it'd be fine. probably even easier with mouse control. though the joystick is nice, it really wouldn't matter as long as there's a walk button. i wouldn't write off one of the best games ever made because of some supposed technical aspect. thousands of others are enjoying it on PC. i doubt they are all using controllers. just play the game. it's what you've been looking for since Everquest and i absolutely shit you not

[Drem]

Played for a few hours today. Not sure where I'm at right now, but it's a series of castles and bridges similar to 1-2 and 1-3 in Demon's Souls. I went down into a graveyard and looted a bunch of stuff and ran away. Died a few times in the process, but snagged me a Winged Spear, which is doing awesome. I think I'm just going to pump all my lvls in DEX right now for extra dmg and I don't really have to think about my build. I might dabble in faith down the road to give my character more versatility. I don't care about PVP at all. Not a big fan. What I love about these games is the PVE. I won't hold my character back to make myself ubber for PVP or whatever.

I ran into a high lvl Knight in that lvl. I knew he was high because when I shot him in the back with an arrow I did very little dmg so I decided to just run away from him back to the campfire. I assumed once I rested and the enemies reset he would go away. Nope, he came right up to me and wacked me while I was resting, and as an added bonus all the enemies came back too! That was fun. Almost got him too. I'm digging the spear combat. It simplifies things enough for me right now that I can easily kill most enemies that aren't too high.

Still a lot of stuff I don't understand though, like Humanity. I read the wiki entry and it still confused me. I guess its the number on the top left next to the health bar? It goes up from time to time but I'm not sure what I'm doing to achieve that. I also don't know how or when my health items restore. I thought they all came back when I rested but that's not the case. I get them back from time to time, but not aware of the mechanism either.

Is crafting similar to Demon's Souls? I killed my first slug today too. God I hated those guys in Demon's Souls.

sounds like undead burg. fyi some mobs don't respawn. that black knight is one of them. you should practice parrying on him, too. those are apparently servants to lord gwyn, the main boss you're going after. but if you can parry/riposte he's easy even at lvl 1. that's what tossica was saying about learning the mechanics.... at low level with no gear you can fuck up anyone if you can control the fight. might as well practice at low level when you have nothing to lose

as far as humanity, it's probably one of the most important aspects of the game. i try to sit around 25 or 30 active humanity (the number at the top left) because i still experiment and die and lose everything a lot. that number gives you about 10 to 12 physical D and some resists.... but anyways, i'll try to break humanity down as best i can. im sure toss can add more

humanity directly effects your item discovery. aka the drop rate. 10 humanity is the max that it changes your item discovery. cant remember what it is but i think it's 210? then you wear covetous gold serpent ring and boost it to 410. undead rats drop humanity and there are shitloads of them in the depths, which you'll get to soon. so spend some time there and get yourself to 10 humanity, find the gold serpent ring in the basement with the basilisks, and then farm humanity for a while.

when you have active humanity, you use it at the bonfire to reverse hollowing and return to human form (your face will turn back to normal color). you can only see summon signs in human form. whether that be NPC summons like solaire, who you'll meet real soon, or other players that drop signs before bosses or around bonfires

after you've reversed hollowing, you can use more humanity to kindle the bonfires. so instead of 5 estus flasks, you'll get 10. and after you get rite of kindling you can get up to 20 from a bonfire.

you're receiving random humanity for killing mobs in and area where the boss hasn't been beaten yet. there's a limit on how much you get but it's like 15 or 20?

you also might notice an orange glow going into your head that looks like you're getting souls but you just randomly get one more estus flask. that's people kindling bonfires in the area you're in on your server

humanity is also the only way to heal yourself if you're engaging in jolly cooperation. aside from miracles. you can't use estus flasks if you're summoned. the host using estus flasks will heal you, though, but you shouldn't rely on it in a boss fight. obviously you're sort of the group cleric if you're the host. but you won't heal the NPCs like solaire or lautrec etc. when you start farming titanite shards from goos and humanities from rats in the depths, you'll want to lay down your summon sign at the bonfire so that every now and then you get summoned up to help someone beat the gaping dragon. you'll get half the souls from the boss and if you do happen to die during it you lose nothing and resume your solo game where you left off. co-op and pvp end up being the best ways to farm souls later on. it's also nice to trade shit you dont need like dragon scales to people for titanite slabs etc

humanity's also a form of advancement if you offer it to a certain covenant, but i can't remember which one atm

i'm sure i'm not remember everything about it but that's the gist

just remember that when you're human you shouldn't ever go afk or not pay attention, because you can get invaded at any time. i've even set it down for 5 seconds to get a drink and missed an invasion notification. and a message from my friend that said someone invaded. so i started summoning a third guy (you can only summon two at once) and my friend stopped to write him a message we were invaded. he was afk doing that while i was afk reading the message about how we got invaded when the invader came in and killed all three of us huddling around the bonfire afk like a bunch of newbs. he even sent me a message saying "slaughtered"

[Tossica]

Learn the multiplayer aspect of the game early. Once you find Solaire, make sure to finish the entire conversation with him and he'll give you your summon stone. You will NEED to use the stone to get practice runs in on the bosses. Some are easy to beat solo, some are next to impossible. Like Drem said, it's also the best way to farm souls. You may not be interested in the PvP aspect of the game but you have to turn yourself human in order to summon helpers for boss areas. Once you are human, you can be invaded. You'll need to learn how to defend yourself from invaders or you will find some areas of the game very hard to beat. The place you're in now and the next few levels are feeding grounds for low level invaders. Many people have cheated by duping character slots or have actually played through the entire game and collected all the high end loot without ever going over level 10 or so and they continually invade in the Burg and other areas, griefing noobs. Frustrating as fuck. You'll need to turn human and try to summon 2 friends as quickly as possible and get to the boss area before the invader finds you. The Burg is actually easy to finish solo once you figure out the strategy.

[Tossica]

The player base on all 3 systems is much different as well. The PS3 has WAY more people playing. There are constant summon signs and I generally get summoned up within a few minutes of putting down my sign. On the 360, summons seem much less frequent and I'd go through entire levels sometimes without seeing a summon sign. The PC was a ghost town last time I played. Rarely saw any multi player action.

[Zanchief]

Apparently the PC has a lot of people hacking that will just invade your game and glitch so they can kill all your NPCs and ruin your save. Sounds fun!