Hm, interesting, so strength scaling is static across all weapons
This means that the DPS contribution is greater for weapons that hit faster
Unfortunately, yes. It appears that, especially when dealing with other high level players, faster weapons tend to be more and more favored - and reasonably so - due to that exact cause.
That's interesting to know. I tend to prefer really huge weapons.
But then I've kind of gotten this impression from certain weapons in the first Dark Souls, too. Like, Crystal Magic Weapon is amazing on a shortsword, but I don't think the DPS contribution is as good or noticeable on something like a suped up Greataxe or Zweihander.
It feels like heavy weapons might benefit more from things that add damage according to their base power. Does elemental infusion do that, now, like it did in DS1?
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Base damage is dead.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
I don't understand what you mean. Do you mean it's no longer a significant contributor? Like, justl ooking at the stats for (say) the Bluemoon Greatsword, its base damage moves from 160 to 320 when fully upgraded, which seems like a big difference?
Second question:
What does the attribute bonus mean in this game? Is it a percentage of your strength bonus, say, that determines how much each weapon gains off of your total strength bonus?
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited April 2014
I meant that it is not part of the scaling formula. It used to be that upgrading the base damage of the weapon had a multiplying effect on the scaling. Say your scaling bonus damage is 200. If the weapons scaling did not change as it was upgraded, it would be 160 + 200 and 320 + 200. Stats held constant in this example.
What it does is normalize weapons in the same class so that base damage differences don't result in ridiculous runaway multiplicative effects on bonus damage.
To balance this upgrading also usually improves the scaling of the weapon itself.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
The Blue Flame is something I wanna try out one day.
The ultimate question is: How's the durability usage on casting?
Typically weapons with (strong) special attacks consume a ton of durability, like the Dragonslayer Spear, Defender/Watcher Sword etc. So without the Bracing Knuckle Ring you can only use those a few times.
I haven't tested that, but I don't think having the R2 cast spells takes extra durability. It's a little different use case than the others because it's just trading in the power attack for being a catalyst as opposed to doing an actual special attack.
Base damage not scaling just means that one greatsword won't have really good base damage and B scaling and somehow be better than one with lower base damage and S scaling.
When people are talking about "This means fast weapons will always be better," I think it's important to realize that From knew the consequences going in, and there are very few small weapons that have extremely high strength scaling. The club has S STR scaling because hitting people with chunks of wood is hardcore, but for the most part, if you want really good scaling strength weapons you're looking to large weapons.
Not to mention, base damage definitely comes into play when doing a comparison between weapon classes.
Great club has S scaling with 420 base damage on top of that. A Longsword has 225 base damage and C scaling. And even if we're comparing apples to apples, the aforementioned S STR scaling 1 handed club only has 210 base damage at +10. It's half as powerful base as the giant one.
On top of that, you get double your STR bonus when 2 handing a weapon in DaS2 instead of 1.5 like DaS.
I don't understand what you mean. Do you mean it's no longer a significant contributor? Like, justl ooking at the stats for (say) the Bluemoon Greatsword, its base damage moves from 160 to 320 when fully upgraded, which seems like a big difference?
Second question:
What does the attribute bonus mean in this game? Is it a percentage of your strength bonus, say, that determines how much each weapon gains off of your total strength bonus?
Every weapon has a scaling. There's a hidden multiplier tied to that letter.
The following only applies to STR:
Str scaling:
E: around 0.3 * STR BNS
D : around 0.5 * STR BNS
C: around 0.7 * STR BNS
B: around 1 * STR BNS
A: around 1.2 * STR BNS
S: above 1.3. Large club +10 is 1.45 for instance
So let's use the large club as an example. Let's say you have 100 listed strength bonus. If you equip the large club +10, you're going to get 145 bonus damage of STR scaling.
The multiplier varies inside of a letter. For a DEX example, a Blacksteel Katana uninfused has a crazy high S DEX scaling. I'd have to do the math on one of my characters, but it's high. When infused, it remains S DEX scaling, but it drops down to a much lower S, to the point where it's not even worth infusing IMO.
I am attempting a dual wield character. I fall back on my great shield more than I would care to admit, but I am trying. What are some dual wield and power stance tips? What weapons should I seek out?
I am attempting a dual wield character. I fall back on my great shield more than I would care to admit, but I am trying. What are some dual wield and power stance tips? What weapons should I seek out?
Get really, really good at rolling. I tried this too, started out dual-wielding but quickly switched to a shield around my meeting with the Pursuer. Finally, about 80% of the way through my first run through, I said "fuck it" and went back to dual wielding (mostly because I wanted to dual wield Uchigatana + Blacksteel Katana like a boss). At that point, my agility was high enough, and I understood the game well enough, for it to actually be feasible. Plus, there's so many bosses where, even if you block, you're just gonna get hit again and die, that I wanted to master rolling.
As for what weapons to seek out, dual katanas are always fun. The rapier + scimitar combo is good, too, as it gives you some nice variety. I'm currently rocking a Blacksteel Katana + the Curved Sentry sword (I traded the Sentry's boss soul for it, I think), and I really love that....
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I am attempting a dual wield character. I fall back on my great shield more than I would care to admit, but I am trying. What are some dual wield and power stance tips? What weapons should I seek out?
I started out my second guy like this and I am currently using a twin-blade that I normally two-hand but I will quick swap back to the shield in emergencies. Judging from how fast I've gone through the content with him I will probably get to the point like Hyperion was saying and hardly need to use it because I got good at dodging or just killing stuff fast.
You'll notice the power stance attacks come out pretty fast. The reason this is is that power stance works with a priority system that determines which hand your weapon is in. What it results in is stuff where you can power stance an ultra greatsword and a greataxe and get a faster powerstance moveset than you can with for example 2 ultra greatswords.
There is a weird oddity in that the Bandit Greataxe results in the straight sword power stance moveset no matter which hand it's wielded in(unless you wield it with another greataxe). So you can pair the bandit greataxe with the super long ultra greatsword or great club and get a super long range insanely fast straight sword power stance moveset. Likely it's a bug with that weapon having a unique moveset, but it's worth noting.
I posted something that was kind of a precursor to this some time ago here at PA. My discovery was mainly in relation to how the disparate weapon classes could be powerstanced together as well as the moveset hierarchy.
I did not discover the R1 priority moveset override, though. This is quite intesting and I'm curious to see what will replicate this effect along with my +10 ultra greatsword.
Game gets more and more interesting. Its so much like a fighting game in this sense.
I went home and did some more testing, respecced a character to be able to Powerstance pretty much anything.
I think I may have discovered something new. In addition to the Bandit Greataxe and Gyrm Greataxe, the Lion Greataxe also has the override property. All three will force a straight sword L1/L2 moveset if held with either hand. They also retain the speed of the straight sword dualstance moveset.
The crazy thing is, they all are compatible with a LOT of additional weapon classes, including Greatswords, ultra greatswords and great hammers. So yeah, if you want to swing your giant UGS faster, try this.
Further, I feel that the Lion's Greataxe is the best choice for this moveset due to better scaling than the Bandit Greataxe and much lower STR requirements that the Gyrm Greataxe. Less weight than Gyrm also.
If you want to retain the damage of the Gyrm Greataxe, you are better served by using the Gyrm axe instead. Better damage and less weight.
My plan is to roll up a new character this weekend. ( I know, I have an addiction ) and go with the Lions Greataxe in the left hand and Gyrm Axe in the right. He's going to be the tAXEman.
Hiryu02 on
Sev: Your gameplay is the most heavily yomi based around. Usually you look for characters that allow you to force guessing situations for big dmg. Even if the guess is mathematically nowhere near in your favor lol. You're happiest when you have either a 50/50, 33/33/33 or even a 75/25 situation to go crazy with. And you will take big risks to force those situations to come up.
wish it was next week already, getting really bored of firing up dark souls and going through the same kind of frustrating shit stopping me from progressing in my ng+ and new character. i want new frustrating shit!
I was just talking about the formula. I think there are a lot of strength weapons that are kickass.
Instead of tying base damage to a formula they have adjusted base damage on weapons that should have high damage.
In some cases you get extremely high base damage and extremely high static scaling (like the big clubs). Or extremely low base damage with extremely high scaling. But you can also get extremely high base damage and pathetic scaling. The only variable to consider now when comparing is how high your stat is, how well that stat compares and the letter grade.
For everything else you can treat them as constant numbers.
Also regarding how stats work, it turns out once you raise your stat to the 70's + you end up getting good returns for your investment again. Which happens to be round about the area you need to be to power stance the biggest weapons or naturally cast the most powerful spells....
If you want to be a specialist it's worthwhile to keep on pumping. for example if you want to dual wield great clubs at 90s. You haven't wasted all those points after 50 just to get power stancing.
50-70 is more like a brief dip than a harsh cut off.
Note that I'm only talking about damage stats here. Vigor returns clamp down hard at 50 and stay that way all the way to 99. Ditto for agility once you hit 110.
Then there are a couple of stats that actually hit their hardest dr really early and then sort of coast unchanged all the way to 99. Like End, which gives you 100 stamina at 10, 120 at 20...then only 1 stam per point until 99. That's extremely early.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Lets say I want to blaze through Dark Souls, having only ever gotten as far as Tomb of the Giants in the past. I want to do this before Dark Souls 2 comes out, and it has been a while so I'm rather rusty. I already grabbed the drake shield and astore sword thing. I'm terrible at planning builds. Is a faith/str build a good idea? I went pyro/master key. Build/run tips?
Faith/strength is a good build that will let you put out a lot of damage. Do not neglect Vit and End, though. You'll want to get your Attunement up to at least 19 for 5 spell slots, or 23 for 6.
You want my advice for making the run easier and faster? Boost your pyromancy flame. Do not skip the Depths; run down there to free the pyromancer, hoof it back to Firelink, and get your pyromancy flame up to something like +10 before you go to Blighttown. Speak to the old witch in the swamps and use her to advance your flame past that point. Ascend the flame when you can. Buy Fire Whip and Great Combustion. Do not worry about the others as much. Make sure to get Power Within.
Pyromancy is not stat-dependent in any way, and all of its power comes from your pyromancy flame and whatever buffs you have. Pyromancy fits easily into any build, and you already have a flame so you might as well use it.
Get the Crown of Dusk when you can; you'll take more magic damage but you'll be able to mitigate that with a decent shield (I recommend the Crescent Shield, upgraded, for NG). Get the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring.
Fight regular enemies however you want. Put lightning on a cool sword, or a hammer, or whatever. Remember that buffs like Sunlight Sword and what have you give more benefit to weapons that hit faster, so don't be afraid to buff a smallish sword with decent strength scaling and go to town with it. Power Within is percentage-based, though, so you get a flat DPS increase, which means you can use it according to taste.
When you are fighting bosses? Put on your pretty princess tiara, your pretty blue dragon ring, turn on Power Within, and burn them down. Larger enemies, including almost all bosses, get hit with Flame Whip twice when it's fired from about a body length away. This will tear apart the vast, overwhelming majority of bosses, and for the one or two that don't you'll be able to kill them with your lightning axe or what have you. When you run out of the whip, use Great Combustion.
I don't know if Miracles are good at damage. I kind of assume they can be.
Anyway, yeah, as a guy who's about to beat NG+: fire will serve you through the entire thing, no questions asked, and will slot easily into any build you want. It takes a lot of investment (something like 340k souls to fully upgrade your flame) but it is completely worth it.
So i've rung the first bell after the gargoyles and haven't found anyone that can upgrade my pyromancy. Where should I be heading? Also using the Astora's Straight Sword, any weapons I want to aim for long term? Or right now as upgrades? This one is starting to feel the age and I haven't seen any of the upgrade material. I never managed to do weapon enchanting or anything in the past so that's all new to me.
Lets say I want to blaze through Dark Souls, having only ever gotten as far as Tomb of the Giants in the past. I want to do this before Dark Souls 2 comes out, and it has been a while so I'm rather rusty. I already grabbed the drake shield and astore sword thing. I'm terrible at planning builds. Is a faith/str build a good idea? I went pyro/master key. Build/run tips?
Faith/strength is a good build that will let you put out a lot of damage. Do not neglect Vit and End, though. You'll want to get your Attunement up to at least 19 for 5 spell slots, or 23 for 6.
You want my advice for making the run easier and faster? Boost your pyromancy flame. Do not skip the Depths; run down there to free the pyromancer, hoof it back to Firelink, and get your pyromancy flame up to something like +10 before you go to Blighttown. Speak to the old witch in the swamps and use her to advance your flame past that point. Ascend the flame when you can. Buy Fire Whip and Great Combustion. Do not worry about the others as much. Make sure to get Power Within.
Pyromancy is not stat-dependent in any way, and all of its power comes from your pyromancy flame and whatever buffs you have. Pyromancy fits easily into any build, and you already have a flame so you might as well use it.
Get the Crown of Dusk when you can; you'll take more magic damage but you'll be able to mitigate that with a decent shield (I recommend the Crescent Shield, upgraded, for NG). Get the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring.
Fight regular enemies however you want. Put lightning on a cool sword, or a hammer, or whatever. Remember that buffs like Sunlight Sword and what have you give more benefit to weapons that hit faster, so don't be afraid to buff a smallish sword with decent strength scaling and go to town with it. Power Within is percentage-based, though, so you get a flat DPS increase, which means you can use it according to taste.
When you are fighting bosses? Put on your pretty princess tiara, your pretty blue dragon ring, turn on Power Within, and burn them down. Larger enemies, including almost all bosses, get hit with Flame Whip twice when it's fired from about a body length away. This will tear apart the vast, overwhelming majority of bosses, and for the one or two that don't you'll be able to kill them with your lightning axe or what have you. When you run out of the whip, use Great Combustion.
I don't know if Miracles are good at damage. I kind of assume they can be.
Anyway, yeah, as a guy who's about to beat NG+: fire will serve you through the entire thing, no questions asked, and will slot easily into any build you want. It takes a lot of investment (something like 340k souls to fully upgrade your flame) but it is completely worth it.
So i've rung the first bell after the gargoyles and haven't found anyone that can upgrade my pyromancy. Where should I be heading? Also using the Astora's Straight Sword, any weapons I want to aim for long term? Or right now as upgrades? This one is starting to feel the age and I haven't seen any of the upgrade material. I never managed to do weapon enchanting or anything in the past so that's all new to me.
You should have found a key in that area that will let you open a door in the Burg you couldn't before. That's your next destination.
Can't really recommend weapons without knowing what weapon movesets you like. Any weapon is viable if you like the moveset though. People finish the game with Longswords and Page has been getting great mileage from the club in his Let's Play.
Lets say I want to blaze through Dark Souls, having only ever gotten as far as Tomb of the Giants in the past. I want to do this before Dark Souls 2 comes out, and it has been a while so I'm rather rusty. I already grabbed the drake shield and astore sword thing. I'm terrible at planning builds. Is a faith/str build a good idea? I went pyro/master key. Build/run tips?
Faith/strength is a good build that will let you put out a lot of damage. Do not neglect Vit and End, though. You'll want to get your Attunement up to at least 19 for 5 spell slots, or 23 for 6.
You want my advice for making the run easier and faster? Boost your pyromancy flame. Do not skip the Depths; run down there to free the pyromancer, hoof it back to Firelink, and get your pyromancy flame up to something like +10 before you go to Blighttown. Speak to the old witch in the swamps and use her to advance your flame past that point. Ascend the flame when you can. Buy Fire Whip and Great Combustion. Do not worry about the others as much. Make sure to get Power Within.
Pyromancy is not stat-dependent in any way, and all of its power comes from your pyromancy flame and whatever buffs you have. Pyromancy fits easily into any build, and you already have a flame so you might as well use it.
Get the Crown of Dusk when you can; you'll take more magic damage but you'll be able to mitigate that with a decent shield (I recommend the Crescent Shield, upgraded, for NG). Get the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring.
Fight regular enemies however you want. Put lightning on a cool sword, or a hammer, or whatever. Remember that buffs like Sunlight Sword and what have you give more benefit to weapons that hit faster, so don't be afraid to buff a smallish sword with decent strength scaling and go to town with it. Power Within is percentage-based, though, so you get a flat DPS increase, which means you can use it according to taste.
When you are fighting bosses? Put on your pretty princess tiara, your pretty blue dragon ring, turn on Power Within, and burn them down. Larger enemies, including almost all bosses, get hit with Flame Whip twice when it's fired from about a body length away. This will tear apart the vast, overwhelming majority of bosses, and for the one or two that don't you'll be able to kill them with your lightning axe or what have you. When you run out of the whip, use Great Combustion.
I don't know if Miracles are good at damage. I kind of assume they can be.
Anyway, yeah, as a guy who's about to beat NG+: fire will serve you through the entire thing, no questions asked, and will slot easily into any build you want. It takes a lot of investment (something like 340k souls to fully upgrade your flame) but it is completely worth it.
So i've rung the first bell after the gargoyles and haven't found anyone that can upgrade my pyromancy. Where should I be heading? Also using the Astora's Straight Sword, any weapons I want to aim for long term? Or right now as upgrades? This one is starting to feel the age and I haven't seen any of the upgrade material. I never managed to do weapon enchanting or anything in the past so that's all new to me.
You should have gotten a key called a Lower Undead Burg Key or a Tower Key or somehting like that. Check the descriptions of the keys. Go down to the Lower Undead Burg, and you can choose to either fight the Capra Demon or just go into the Depths by unlocking the door across from the shortcut to the Firelink Shrine (you'll find it, don't worry - it's a little ways past the boss door, up a winding staircase)
When you get to the Depths, kill the Butcher, and then cross the watery bit, and you'll find a dude in a barrel. Break the barrel he's in by rolling - if you hit it, you might aggro him, and mess up the whole thing. When he's free, hoof it back to Firelink, and he will upgrade your stuff for you. He will also sell the spell Combustion, which you want to have as your bread-and-butter close-range fire spell.
On New Game you can use whatever kind of weapon you want and it will be fine.
Astora's Straight Sword is good early on but eventually you're going to want to drop it to get a more specific strength weapon and/or a divine-enchanted one. When I finished the game I had a Battle Axe +15 and a Chaos Greataxe +5. Try a battle axe, or a longsword. The Broadsword in particular, which you can buy from the blacksmith in the Undead Parish, can be bought for a thousand souls and does good damage.
There are two kinds of elemental buffs. The first kind is a spell enchantment, which you will get about halfway through the game in Anor Londo. It adds a set amount of damage to whatever weapon you use it on, so feel free to use it on a slightly weaker weapon that can hit a lot of times (like a short sword).
The second time is a blacksmith ascension, which makes the weapon into a different type. Different blacksmiths can infuse weapons with different elements, and most of these have the extra elemental damage based on the weapon's base damage, which makes things like Greataxes or Ultra Greatswords particularly good for them. If you get the Zweihander in the graveyard, that sword will last you pretty much the entire game, and it's excellent for enchanting at a blacksmith!
So if you want concrete advice:
1. Go into the graveyard and get the Zweihander. Kill the skeletons using Astora's Short Sword, which does extra damage to them (I think). The Zweihander hits like a truck and later on will be excellent when given elemental enhancements.
2. Buy a Broadsword from the blacksmith. THis is a great general purpose weapon that hits fast, so you can use it to fight smaller enemies and to rack up big damage using Sunlight Blade or different Pine Resins.
Base damage not scaling just means that one greatsword won't have really good base damage and B scaling and somehow be better than one with lower base damage and S scaling.
When people are talking about "This means fast weapons will always be better," I think it's important to realize that From knew the consequences going in, and there are very few small weapons that have extremely high strength scaling. The club has S STR scaling because hitting people with chunks of wood is hardcore, but for the most part, if you want really good scaling strength weapons you're looking to large weapons.
Not to mention, base damage definitely comes into play when doing a comparison between weapon classes.
Great club has S scaling with 420 base damage on top of that. A Longsword has 225 base damage and C scaling. And even if we're comparing apples to apples, the aforementioned S STR scaling 1 handed club only has 210 base damage at +10. It's half as powerful base as the giant one.
On top of that, you get double your STR bonus when 2 handing a weapon in DaS2 instead of 1.5 like DaS.
2 handed weapons are most definitely not dead.
That might be true but take into account that in PVP a lot (A LOT) of people spec into faith/int just so they can use sunlight blade/dark buff on their weapons. The former also increases range noticeably, but they both add quite a bit of damage to the weapon. Then there's the fact that typically both shields and armor have weaker elemental defense than physical defense. Now top it off with the fact that faster weapons obviously consume less stamina per hit and hit faster and you're looking at quite a few advantages shorter weapons have.
That's why I really wanna try out shorter weapons myself. Been looking at the Longsword so far, that one doesn't look too bad.
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited April 2014
I wouldn't use a quality weapon as a buffing weapon no matter how fast it is. There are better weapons for that kind of thing. I'd test out some dex weapons first.
In particular, if you are using a buff, you want to infuse it. You can still buff an infused weapon and you wont want to triple split your damage so it'll have to be the same
Your best bet is something like lightning + sunlight blade on something fast with good initial scaling. Then pump faith.
Or hell, get something super quick with low initial base and go mundane. Then you get dark + stupid good S scaling that renders the low base irrelevant.
You also get mundane avelyn which is just woah.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
the take-a-break-and-come-back method worked; got past the archers without any trouble at all.
Then I got invaded. The invader politely waited for me to finish with a mob I was fighting and heal up, then we exchanged bows, then he absolutely murdered me in the span of like two seconds. But it was all very classy.
I got invaded a second time a bit later and the guy kept doing stuff and using weapons I'd never seen before. He even turned his head into a mimic or something? Then he burned everything and killed me. It wasn't classy at all.
Professor Phobos on
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Sirialisof the Halite Throne.Registered Userregular
edited April 2014
I really hate Soul Memory, I dont give a fuck about low level twink PVP, but Soul Memory kicks my OCD about everything having to go perfectly into overdrive, it also seems to actively punish experimenting.
I also enjoyed being able to farm mobs for items with no downside.
I'm thinking of retiring my Strength/Int-buff character for now. I have a feeling I'd enjoy them more if they were pure Strength, but I started Sorc on this character so it's impossible. I'll have to later create a Strength dual-wielder+Avelyn or something at a later date, when I know how to better manage my upgrade materials.
Debating between Dark Caster or Pure Quality. The later will probably dual wield + pyromancy flame unless I find an awesome curved greatsword.
I'm thinking of retiring my Strength/Int-buff character for now. I have a feeling I'd enjoy them more if they were pure Strength, but I started Sorc on this character so it's impossible. I'll have to later create a Strength dual-wielder+Avelyn or something at a later date, when I know how to better manage my upgrade materials.
Debating between Dark Caster or Pure Quality. The later will probably dual wield + pyromancy flame unless I find an awesome curved greatsword.
I'm thinking of retiring my Strength/Int-buff character for now. I have a feeling I'd enjoy them more if they were pure Strength, but I started Sorc on this character so it's impossible. I'll have to later create a Strength dual-wielder+Avelyn or something at a later date, when I know how to better manage my upgrade materials.
Debating between Dark Caster or Pure Quality. The later will probably dual wield + pyromancy flame unless I find an awesome curved greatsword.
The Curved Dragon Greatsword is ridic.
So I've heard. Quality it is!
Then sometime later I'll create a dual-wield Red Rust Sword user with a backup Avelyn. I really enjoy the 1handed Strength weapons over the 2handers.
So I think I want to do a Faith/Warrior/light-throwing/PRAISETHESUN character when the game comes out.
How would I go about that? Also the OP is in some dire need or an update!
Well you're gonna want to spec into faith for the lightening throwing. After that it's pretty much up to you.
There's a pretty good sword that has innate lightning damage early in the game, for example. I'm talking about "first area after the tutorial" early.
After that it's more up to your equipment than anything. For offensive miracles you'll want a decent ammount of faith as well as a good chime. Later on you can infuse that chime with lightening to boost your damage even further.
As for Warrior-ing you'll want strength and Vigor. Depending on your preferred choice of armor type you will also need Vig for more equip load. Endurance is always nice to have. So is Adaptability.
Any armor pieces I should be looking for? Still wearing leather/pyro gear at the moment. Super appreciate the advice Wyborn!
Also no probs
In general armor doesn't matter as much as your weapon choices, if you keep your Vitality reasonably high. Wear whatever you think looks cool and try to stay under 50% of your weight limit. I like the Elite Knight set, which can be found in the part of Darkroot Gardens with the Stone Knights in it, but everybody wears that armor and it's pretty heavy
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Hm, interesting, so strength scaling is static across all weapons
This means that the DPS contribution is greater for weapons that hit faster
Unfortunately, yes. It appears that, especially when dealing with other high level players, faster weapons tend to be more and more favored - and reasonably so - due to that exact cause.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
But then I've kind of gotten this impression from certain weapons in the first Dark Souls, too. Like, Crystal Magic Weapon is amazing on a shortsword, but I don't think the DPS contribution is as good or noticeable on something like a suped up Greataxe or Zweihander.
It feels like heavy weapons might benefit more from things that add damage according to their base power. Does elemental infusion do that, now, like it did in DS1?
Second question:
What does the attribute bonus mean in this game? Is it a percentage of your strength bonus, say, that determines how much each weapon gains off of your total strength bonus?
What it does is normalize weapons in the same class so that base damage differences don't result in ridiculous runaway multiplicative effects on bonus damage.
To balance this upgrading also usually improves the scaling of the weapon itself.
I haven't tested that, but I don't think having the R2 cast spells takes extra durability. It's a little different use case than the others because it's just trading in the power attack for being a catalyst as opposed to doing an actual special attack.
FUCK
38,000 souls
down the GOD DAMN drain
When people are talking about "This means fast weapons will always be better," I think it's important to realize that From knew the consequences going in, and there are very few small weapons that have extremely high strength scaling. The club has S STR scaling because hitting people with chunks of wood is hardcore, but for the most part, if you want really good scaling strength weapons you're looking to large weapons.
Not to mention, base damage definitely comes into play when doing a comparison between weapon classes.
Great club has S scaling with 420 base damage on top of that. A Longsword has 225 base damage and C scaling. And even if we're comparing apples to apples, the aforementioned S STR scaling 1 handed club only has 210 base damage at +10. It's half as powerful base as the giant one.
On top of that, you get double your STR bonus when 2 handing a weapon in DaS2 instead of 1.5 like DaS.
2 handed weapons are most definitely not dead.
Every weapon has a scaling. There's a hidden multiplier tied to that letter.
The following only applies to STR:
Str scaling:
E: around 0.3 * STR BNS
D : around 0.5 * STR BNS
C: around 0.7 * STR BNS
B: around 1 * STR BNS
A: around 1.2 * STR BNS
S: above 1.3. Large club +10 is 1.45 for instance
So let's use the large club as an example. Let's say you have 100 listed strength bonus. If you equip the large club +10, you're going to get 145 bonus damage of STR scaling.
The multiplier varies inside of a letter. For a DEX example, a Blacksteel Katana uninfused has a crazy high S DEX scaling. I'd have to do the math on one of my characters, but it's high. When infused, it remains S DEX scaling, but it drops down to a much lower S, to the point where it's not even worth infusing IMO.
Get really, really good at rolling. I tried this too, started out dual-wielding but quickly switched to a shield around my meeting with the Pursuer. Finally, about 80% of the way through my first run through, I said "fuck it" and went back to dual wielding (mostly because I wanted to dual wield Uchigatana + Blacksteel Katana like a boss). At that point, my agility was high enough, and I understood the game well enough, for it to actually be feasible. Plus, there's so many bosses where, even if you block, you're just gonna get hit again and die, that I wanted to master rolling.
As for what weapons to seek out, dual katanas are always fun. The rapier + scimitar combo is good, too, as it gives you some nice variety. I'm currently rocking a Blacksteel Katana + the Curved Sentry sword (I traded the Sentry's boss soul for it, I think), and I really love that....
You might know me as D'Brickashaw on Steam.
I went home and did some more testing, respecced a character to be able to Powerstance pretty much anything.
I think I may have discovered something new. In addition to the Bandit Greataxe and Gyrm Greataxe, the Lion Greataxe also has the override property. All three will force a straight sword L1/L2 moveset if held with either hand. They also retain the speed of the straight sword dualstance moveset.
The crazy thing is, they all are compatible with a LOT of additional weapon classes, including Greatswords, ultra greatswords and great hammers. So yeah, if you want to swing your giant UGS faster, try this.
Further, I feel that the Lion's Greataxe is the best choice for this moveset due to better scaling than the Bandit Greataxe and much lower STR requirements that the Gyrm Greataxe. Less weight than Gyrm also.
If you want to retain the damage of the Gyrm Greataxe, you are better served by using the Gyrm axe instead. Better damage and less weight.
My plan is to roll up a new character this weekend. ( I know, I have an addiction ) and go with the Lions Greataxe in the left hand and Gyrm Axe in the right. He's going to be the tAXEman.
To sniper's run.
I was just talking about the formula. I think there are a lot of strength weapons that are kickass.
Instead of tying base damage to a formula they have adjusted base damage on weapons that should have high damage.
In some cases you get extremely high base damage and extremely high static scaling (like the big clubs). Or extremely low base damage with extremely high scaling. But you can also get extremely high base damage and pathetic scaling. The only variable to consider now when comparing is how high your stat is, how well that stat compares and the letter grade.
For everything else you can treat them as constant numbers.
Also regarding how stats work, it turns out once you raise your stat to the 70's + you end up getting good returns for your investment again. Which happens to be round about the area you need to be to power stance the biggest weapons or naturally cast the most powerful spells....
If you want to be a specialist it's worthwhile to keep on pumping. for example if you want to dual wield great clubs at 90s. You haven't wasted all those points after 50 just to get power stancing.
50-70 is more like a brief dip than a harsh cut off.
Note that I'm only talking about damage stats here. Vigor returns clamp down hard at 50 and stay that way all the way to 99. Ditto for agility once you hit 110.
Then there are a couple of stats that actually hit their hardest dr really early and then sort of coast unchanged all the way to 99. Like End, which gives you 100 stamina at 10, 120 at 20...then only 1 stam per point until 99. That's extremely early.
So i've rung the first bell after the gargoyles and haven't found anyone that can upgrade my pyromancy. Where should I be heading? Also using the Astora's Straight Sword, any weapons I want to aim for long term? Or right now as upgrades? This one is starting to feel the age and I haven't seen any of the upgrade material. I never managed to do weapon enchanting or anything in the past so that's all new to me.
You should have found a key in that area that will let you open a door in the Burg you couldn't before. That's your next destination.
Can't really recommend weapons without knowing what weapon movesets you like. Any weapon is viable if you like the moveset though. People finish the game with Longswords and Page has been getting great mileage from the club in his Let's Play.
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You should have gotten a key called a Lower Undead Burg Key or a Tower Key or somehting like that. Check the descriptions of the keys. Go down to the Lower Undead Burg, and you can choose to either fight the Capra Demon or just go into the Depths by unlocking the door across from the shortcut to the Firelink Shrine (you'll find it, don't worry - it's a little ways past the boss door, up a winding staircase)
When you get to the Depths, kill the Butcher, and then cross the watery bit, and you'll find a dude in a barrel. Break the barrel he's in by rolling - if you hit it, you might aggro him, and mess up the whole thing. When he's free, hoof it back to Firelink, and he will upgrade your stuff for you. He will also sell the spell Combustion, which you want to have as your bread-and-butter close-range fire spell.
On New Game you can use whatever kind of weapon you want and it will be fine.
Astora's Straight Sword is good early on but eventually you're going to want to drop it to get a more specific strength weapon and/or a divine-enchanted one. When I finished the game I had a Battle Axe +15 and a Chaos Greataxe +5. Try a battle axe, or a longsword. The Broadsword in particular, which you can buy from the blacksmith in the Undead Parish, can be bought for a thousand souls and does good damage.
There are two kinds of elemental buffs. The first kind is a spell enchantment, which you will get about halfway through the game in Anor Londo. It adds a set amount of damage to whatever weapon you use it on, so feel free to use it on a slightly weaker weapon that can hit a lot of times (like a short sword).
The second time is a blacksmith ascension, which makes the weapon into a different type. Different blacksmiths can infuse weapons with different elements, and most of these have the extra elemental damage based on the weapon's base damage, which makes things like Greataxes or Ultra Greatswords particularly good for them. If you get the Zweihander in the graveyard, that sword will last you pretty much the entire game, and it's excellent for enchanting at a blacksmith!
So if you want concrete advice:
1. Go into the graveyard and get the Zweihander. Kill the skeletons using Astora's Short Sword, which does extra damage to them (I think). The Zweihander hits like a truck and later on will be excellent when given elemental enhancements.
2. Buy a Broadsword from the blacksmith. THis is a great general purpose weapon that hits fast, so you can use it to fight smaller enemies and to rack up big damage using Sunlight Blade or different Pine Resins.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
I once lost 800,00 and 99 humanity at Bed of Chaos.
Don't sweat it. Souls aren't really all that useful or important.
As for the archers, that spot is waaaaaaay easier than most people make it for themselves. There's a trick to it.
That might be true but take into account that in PVP a lot (A LOT) of people spec into faith/int just so they can use sunlight blade/dark buff on their weapons. The former also increases range noticeably, but they both add quite a bit of damage to the weapon. Then there's the fact that typically both shields and armor have weaker elemental defense than physical defense. Now top it off with the fact that faster weapons obviously consume less stamina per hit and hit faster and you're looking at quite a few advantages shorter weapons have.
That's why I really wanna try out shorter weapons myself. Been looking at the Longsword so far, that one doesn't look too bad.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
In particular, if you are using a buff, you want to infuse it. You can still buff an infused weapon and you wont want to triple split your damage so it'll have to be the same
Your best bet is something like lightning + sunlight blade on something fast with good initial scaling. Then pump faith.
Or hell, get something super quick with low initial base and go mundane. Then you get dark + stupid good S scaling that renders the low base irrelevant.
You also get mundane avelyn which is just woah.
Then I got invaded. The invader politely waited for me to finish with a mob I was fighting and heal up, then we exchanged bows, then he absolutely murdered me in the span of like two seconds. But it was all very classy.
I got invaded a second time a bit later and the guy kept doing stuff and using weapons I'd never seen before. He even turned his head into a mimic or something? Then he burned everything and killed me. It wasn't classy at all.
I also enjoyed being able to farm mobs for items with no downside.
Debating between Dark Caster or Pure Quality. The later will probably dual wield + pyromancy flame unless I find an awesome curved greatsword.
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The Curved Dragon Greatsword is ridic.
So I've heard. Quality it is!
Then sometime later I'll create a dual-wield Red Rust Sword user with a backup Avelyn. I really enjoy the 1handed Strength weapons over the 2handers.
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How would I go about that? Also the OP is in some dire need or an update!
Well you're gonna want to spec into faith for the lightening throwing. After that it's pretty much up to you.
After that it's more up to your equipment than anything. For offensive miracles you'll want a decent ammount of faith as well as a good chime. Later on you can infuse that chime with lightening to boost your damage even further.
As for Warrior-ing you'll want strength and Vigor. Depending on your preferred choice of armor type you will also need Vig for more equip load. Endurance is always nice to have. So is Adaptability.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
Edit: Oh. Hello twinks.
Edit 2: They invaded another players game right after when I went to white phantom to regain my humanity. REVENGE GET!
Edit 3: Forgot to mention. Killing blow was with a buckler parry --> riposte.
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// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Is doing way more damage than the first game just par for the course in this one?
Well, it's probably semi-auto.
Also no probs
In general armor doesn't matter as much as your weapon choices, if you keep your Vitality reasonably high. Wear whatever you think looks cool and try to stay under 50% of your weight limit. I like the Elite Knight set, which can be found in the part of Darkroot Gardens with the Stone Knights in it, but everybody wears that armor and it's pretty heavy
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
Six bolts at once, with super high base damage, and S scaling thanks to Mundane.
That's just cruel. And very very broken.
And this is coming from someone who considered it their favorite weapon in DS1.
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