Dark Souls -- PC Version Launches On Steam August 23rd!

VALVEjunkie

it's all the same animation, just played at different speed depending on what's in your left hand.

basically, go to the firelink>burg stairs and practice on those five dudes sitting there until you get the hang of it.

Nerdgasmic

I think the gravelord sign moves with you, so it's best to stay in one place and wait for people to come to you


also, it only works in areas whose bosses you haven't defeated yet

Nerdgasmic

man, I love the demon great machete

it looks really cool, and the stats are just insane

Barcardi

Ohhhh, I wish I knew that last part before

Nerdgasmic

actually, I think it might still curse people in areas you've cleared

but you won't be able to be invaded

CorporateLogo

Best place to set up a gravelord invasion: right between the two archers in anor londo

Barcardi

Does it also scale with the character level? Or is it like the forest covenant where I can invade a lvl 10 poor soul or a lvl 999 maxed asshole as well?

Barcardi

CorporateLogo wrote:

Best place to set up a gravelord invasion: right between the two archers in anor londo

I know this is Dark Souls but that's just mean.

Nerdgasmic

Barcardi wrote:

Does it also scale with the character level? Or is it like the forest covenant where I can invade a lvl 10 poor soul or a lvl 999 maxed asshole as well?

I don't know, there isn't a lot of research on the gravelord stuff

maybe you could test it out by going to a populous area like Anor Londo and trying it out, and if you get anyone, ask them for their SL

SLyM

I really wish eastern armor was better. I really want to wear it, but it's hard when silver knight weighs less and is better in pretty much every stat.

TheStig

roll instead of run death

god damnit i have lost almost 40k souls in this place to falling

(sen's fortress)

Barcardi

man... i really dislike how pvp players suddenly took it upon themselves to set up whole "pvp arenas" in front of boss gates, as if no one is actually trying to recruit people to fight the boss.

Its especially annoying with the centipede, hope it isnt the same with the main fire demon thing.

TheStig

yay, fatty plate armor

I now look like a fat pig

Depressperado

so like, this is on Xbox 360, right?

'cause I got one for Crimmas, totally gonna buy this.

Nerdgasmic

it is

TheStig

if you want the same experience for less you could try putting your balls in a vice

CorporateLogo

TheStig wrote:

yay, fatty plate armor

I now look like a fat pig

Catarina Armor is the best armor

Smough's Armor is even fatter though

Personface

Is there any build that will allow me to make simultaneous use of vast magical bolts of lightning AND armour/weaponry
Because I love the animation and appearance of magic but desperately want to see and use every possible piece of equipment.
I'm still early on enough that I think a reroll would be possible, only Level 10 and running around the Burg. Currently a Knight.

Nerdgasmic

definitely

it's actually fairly difficult to be a pure caster, the best options are generally to put some investment into your melee stats and upgrade weapons so that they scale with your Int or Faith

SLyM

Pyromancy requires no stats outside of attunement, and low to mid teens in that are fine.

Personface

So I should stick with what I have and grind up attunement/intelligence for a few levels?

CorporateLogo

I wouldn't put attunement past 16-19, honestly

4-5 slots is likely all you'll need at a given point when you can swap out spells at any bonfire, and few if any of the 2 slot spells are worth using

Nerdgasmic

Get your strength to 12 and your dex to 10 and leave them there for a while, those levels will be enough to equip most early weapons

CorporateLogo

Here's a very good breakdown for stats from the G&T thread:

Shen wrote:

Because I’m bored at work, I thought I might do a stat guide for the OP?

Humanity: Occasionally obtained from defeating enemies, that number to the left of your health/stamina bar. Used to return to human form (to summon others), kindle bonfires (5 more estus flasks), increases item drop rates (cap at 20), increases “Chaos” damage (cap at 10), used for raising allegiance with some covenants.

Endurance: Increases stamina and maximum equip burden. Stamina is used for attacking, blocking, sprinting and rolling – basically everything. Equip burden determines what gear you can use and how mobile you are. Under 25% of your max burden and you can roll freely. Under 50% and your movement speed and roll are slower, but workable. Under 100% and you’re much slower and roll heavily with a long animation to get up. Over 100% and you plod ridiculously slowly and can’t roll at all.
40: The stamina cap, and therefore the only number worth mentioning.

Attunement: Determines how many spell slots you have for all sorceries, miracles and pyromancies.
10/12/14/16/19/23/28/34/41/50: 1-10 spell slots. (6 or 7 is probably enough for anyone.)

Vitality: Your health 8->
30-50: Enough to let you take a few hits in PvP and NG+.

The following stats suffer greatly from diminishing returns past 40, but I’ll jot down any reason to go past it for completion’s sake.

Strength: Determines whether or not you can swing a weapon or use a shield effectively, as well as increasing damage with weapons that scale with it.
16: Claymore, Zweihander (two handed), Eagle Shield, Black Knight Shield. The go-to value for non-strength builds.
27: Optimal benefit for using weapons two-handed, lets you use anything that might benefit from both strength and dexterity (28 for the Murakumo one handed).
40: Optimal benefit for using strength weapons in one hand, can one hand anything worthwhile and two hand everything else.
(51/58/66): Every shield/one hand every weapon/max possible damage two handing (For the love of God, don’t go this high >.>).

Dexterity: Increases damage for weapons that scale with it, slightly increases casting speed.
18: Lets you use all Black Knight weapons and crossbows.
24: Covers every weapon that has a dexterity requirement to wield at all.
40: Optimal benefit from dexterity weapons.
(45): Max casting speed (not worth it).

Magic: Requirement for sorceries, increases damage for sorceries and weapons that scale with it (Magic/Enchanted).
10: Let’s you buy spells from the vendor at Firelink and Logan at the Archives, can use some basic utility spells.
12/16: Lets you use the best Catalyst for non casters/ more advanced utility spells (Resist Curse/Poison, Cast Light, Great Magic Weapon/Shield).
25/32: Crystal Magic Weapon/Tin Crystallisation Catalyst and 5 orbs with the Soul mass spells.
44: Crystal Soul Spear sorcery.
(50): White Dragon Breath sorcery (not really worth it).

Faith: Increases magic defence, requirement for miracles, increases damage for miracles and weapons that scale with it (Blessed/Occult).
18: Emit Force and Homeward utility miracles.
28/30: Wrath of God miracle/Darkmoon and Sunlight Blade weapon buffs.
40: Optimal benefit from faith scaling.
(50): Sunlight Spear (nifty knockback, but takes up two slots with just 5 uses. Not really worth it).

Resistance: Joke stat, disregard. (Increases poison resistance, and increases defence slightly faster than other stats).

Poise: The most important stat on your armour. Higher poise means that you won’t get staggered when you’re hit by heavier attacks, which is particularly useful in PvP.
40: One hit from most one-handed weapons.
55: One hit from larger weapons (notably the Claymore and its ilk).
76: One hit from very large weapons, eg. Black Knight Greataxe and Zweihander.

SLyM

The thing is, your first character is not going to do anything optimally.

That requires a shitload of planning and research to figure out what weapon you're going to use and what spells you need and then having only exactly enough for those and a shitload of points in vitality and endurance.

Just put the points where you want whenever you find a shiny new toy to mess with. It's hilariously easy to breeze through all this stuff that's giving you trouble with a new character later on once you get the hang of it.

TheStig

someone thought it would be hilarious to put up a fake "illusory wall" message

also damn this hidden path in anor, why do they gotta make it so hidden?

Nerdgasmic

wait, which hidden path? the one that leads to havel's armor?

TheStig

no like the only path you can take after the gargoyl

Nerdgasmic

oh, the one where you climb the the rail and then walk across some rungs?

TheStig

yeah

i mean, in a game where i have fallen to my death at least 10 times, I wasn't exactly looking to walk down a narrow path of roofing shingles

Nerdgasmic

yeah, that one really isn't so obvious

it's cool, though

Personface

Nerdgasmic wrote:

Get your strength to 12 and your dex to 10 and leave them there for a while, those levels will be enough to equip most early weapons

Oh haha I already pushed my strength to 16 and dex to 11 soooo
I really have no idea of the scales involved, I assumed I was barely pushing minimum.

TheStig

well 12 dex is good for a bow and more str is always good for the heavier weapons

CorporateLogo

16 STR is what you need to use the Eagle Shield, which is the one of the best shields for non-STR builds (also it's the only greatshield for non-STR builds)

Barcardi

Fuck. Getting a blue stone slab sucks. It's like getting the red stone gem in demons souls for me.

Same for the dukes archives magic user guy and his spear. It never drops.

CorporateLogo

There should be one in the Crystal Caves for you pick up, right?

Unless you meaning farming the butterflies for one, which is blurgh

Barcardi

If there is I cannot find it. I fall and die there all the time.

So yeah, butterflies.

Is it already in the caves somewhere?

CorporateLogo

It's been a while since I found it but I think there's one past the tunnel with the 3 crystal lizards at the end of a long curving invisible walkway

Nerdgasmic

Personface wrote:

Nerdgasmic wrote:

Get your strength to 12 and your dex to 10 and leave them there for a while, those levels will be enough to equip most early weapons

Oh haha I already pushed my strength to 16 and dex to 11 soooo
I really have no idea of the scales involved, I assumed I was barely pushing minimum.

16 is a great break point too

Slider

I think my strength is around 56...