Dark Souls II

[Lyion]

Wow, do I suck at PVP. Three invasions so far. First guy killed me in a fun fight. Second kited me...I Alt F4ed out of irk. Third guy actually went toe to toe and I had him down before he went berserk with some Pyromancy stuff that Toxined me, slowed me, and made it impossible to see. I actually let him kill me due to trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

Coop is fun, but I wish it was more of a 'normal' coop. Hopefully the next Dark Souls will have it.

[Tossica]

Invaders ALWAYS have the advantage because they are built for PVP. It's best to always have a buddy or two summoned in to your game if you're going to reverse hollow. 2-3 of you against an invader will even out the odds.

[Zanchief]

I suck at PVP too, but I enjoy it. It adds a different dimension to the gameplay.

[Lyion]

I'm trying to kill Laureic in Anor Londo. The three times Ive been human here I've been invaded every time. It's fairly annoying.

[Zanchief]

Depending on your build you will need to kite him. I had a bitch of a time with my melee build. Kite them around until one breaks away and kill (or hurt) him as quickly as possible then continue to run away. Remember Laurec will hurt you even if you block because he wields Shotels. He has no shield though, so he won't be blocking himself. He has very high poise though, so you'll probably be trading hits.

[Lyion]

I tried kiting him twice in light armor and was just lambasted by him. Finally I went full turtle and he ran up first and I just beat on him with my lightning spear until he died.

[Drem]

shoulda just kill him in the undead parish when you first met him. like i told you to, hahahaha. he doesn't do anything for you except kill your firekeeper at firelink. and if you kill him early you get a ring basically at the beginning of the game that ups your health, stamina, and carrying capacity by 30. you wouldn't be having armor weight issues w/ that and it's the only way to take stamina above the cap and is something i've used on every character. sure, you can't take it off without breaking it, but there is no better ring for a melee build

unless you're after the items that his buddies drop there is no reason to keep him alive. some games i like to kick his ass off firelink shrine down the chasm. backstabbing motherfucker

[Zanchief]

You get a souvenir of reprisal this way! And you also get a firekeeper soul (if you don't want to return it to her). Also, the Bloodstained Robe is one of the best light armors in the game once it's fully upgraded. I used it on a few characters.

[Drem]

like i said, unless you're going for the gear his buddies drop....

firekeeper souls don't matter who you give them to, and your flasks cap out at +7 iirc

souvenir of reprisal can be farmed from crow demons in painted world of ariamis

i think it's better to get that ring at the beginning of the game than anything else, and Lautrec's a dick anyway, but that's just me, hahahah

[Lyion]

I have missed so much stuff I'll need to play through the entire game on the PlayStation, I think.

[Tossica]

The ring is a cheat. It's best to do it the way you did first time through, Lyion. Having to do all the parts up to this without the ring is an achievement. Nice work.

[Tossica]

I've played it through several times on all the platforms and there is stuff I still haven't done. Over 400+ hrs in to it, easily.

[brinstar]

i don't know a thing about this game but in a weird way it makes this thread super entertaining to read because it's like there's an endless amount of shit you guys keep bringing up

i'm gonna be mad if i finally buy this game and it sucks haha

[Lyion]

It sucks hard, and is masochistic, and requires serious patience, and ganks worse than a Zek, but fuck if I am not addicted to it. I suggest reading the wiki before starting, not 20 hours in like I did. There is no hand holding in this game. I'm still missing a lot of pieces. I have started to die far less frequently, which is nice.

I've soloed all the bosses so far, but might try to coop the duo in Anor Londo. I killed one of them and the other turned uber and curb stomped me.

[Zanchief]

I've never had to summon on my kills, but have done some jolly cooperation on other peoples bosses. It is not required, although some bosses will be easier that way (obviously). I had played a fuck ton of demon's souls before hand so I knew all the mechanics and some of the behind the scenes things (like weapon upgrades) which helped a lot. It's true there's no hand holding, and it gets very difficult, very fast, and dying can lead to hours of lost gameplay. That's part of what makes it fun. There are no cheap deaths though. You die because you failed. The enemies all have patterns that can be exploited if you figure them out and don't screw up the timing.

[Drem]

The ring isn't a cheat if it's there for the taking! Also there is a point later that lets you buy it. Considering you can't switch it out for other useful rings i think it's fair enough

And alex, buy it. You won't regret it

[Lyion]

As much as a bastard as this game is, I have no qualms taking any help that is out there.

My biggest gripe about this game is it's more of a hardcore simulation of a dark AD&D world with a lot more pain then an actual, relaxing game. I can play an hour of two of Skyrim, and I can't recall any Elder Scrolls game making me Alt F4 out and want to stomp on my controller. On the flip side when you do master an area, you really master it. The PVP I think will be an added amount of fun. I've just started to coop and plan to do more of it.

I'm about halfway through the game, and I'm still baffled about weapons. I think the only way to really understand things is to experiment, which is cool. I'm sitting at SL 58 and I've mostly been focused on End and Vit, since I was on the fence of what to level next. I think that was somewhat of a mistake as I need a bit more DPS now.

The wiki has a lot of invaluable information that really makes sense the more one plays. I now carry around a divine, occult, and raw weapon and swap them. I had no idea what the difference of those weapons were until I was far into the game, which hurt me. My preferred personal weapons are a halberd when I'm in turtle mode and a spear when I'm in light armor. I'm still extremely cautious so I don't 2H very often unless I understand a boss/NPC mechanic completely.

Divine weapons have increased damage against Skeletons and Harpies.
Occult weapons have increased damage against Black Knights, Silver Knights.
Divine weapons will also prevent skeletons from re-assembling while their necromancer is still alive.

[Tossica]

I've never found much use for occult or divine weapons beyond the skeletons not reforming. Lighting and Chaos all the way.

[Zanchief]

Divine and Magic weapons (for Faith and Int Builds) are really crazy. I used a +10 divine baldur side sword with my first character and no fire/chaos weapons did as much dmg. If your DEX/STR stats are low go elemental (Lightning, Fire, Chaos). If your DEX/STR stats are higher (it's not a bad idea to go up to like 40 or so) you'll want a weapon with stat scaling. Near the end of the game you'll get a lot of chunks of titanite so don't worry too much about wasting it, but slabs can be very rare. I wouldn't upgrade any armor or weapon to max until I knew that was the best I was going to use.

[Tossica]

Even with a fully upgraded enchanted/magic weapon and a 50INT on my caster build, a +5 chaos weapon with a full humanity load did more damage.

[Zanchief]

You need full humanity which is fine for goofing around, but if you're doing hard parts, like difficult bosses, your going to lose that humanity. Also the divine/occult/magic/enchanted items retain some stat scaling, so if you have a high faith and high dex build your dmg will be higher.

[Lyion]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/10/ ... eal-coming

Dark Souls 2 Gameplay Reveal Coming

[Tossica]

God damn, I can't WAIT!

[Lyion]

I had a great time playing today.. I zoomed through the Catacombs, one shot the boss, had a nice 15 humanity, and was owning the world.

Then I walked into Tomb of Giants. I so hate this game right now. I swear if I had a hard copy CD, the second time I fell of a cliff I would've microwaved the fucker.

[Drem]

Hahahah. Did you get a lantern from one o the necromancers in catacombs? If not you'll get one soon after you hit the tomb bonfire