The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Trailer for [Dark Souls] sequel shown at VGA, PC and dedicated servers promised. *squeal!*
Satsumomo
Rated PG!Registered User regular
Rated PG!Registered User regular
Original post by @mere_immortal
Humanity: The number to the left of your health bar, occasionally obtained from defeating enemies. Used to return to human form to summon others, kindle bonfires (5 more estus flask uses) and level up some covenants. Increases item drop rates and Chaos damage (cap at 10).
Endurance: Increases stamina and maximum equip burden. Stamina is used for attacking, blocking, sprinting and rolling – basically everything. Under 25% of your max burden and you can roll freely, 25-50% and your movement speed and roll are slower, 50-100% 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 hard cap, increasing past this point will only raise your equip burden.
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, 4-6 is generally sufficient.
Vitality: Your health. 30-50 is a good number for PvP and NG+.
Strength: Determines whether or not you can swing a weapon or use a shield effectively, increases damage dealt with weapons that scale with it. Multiplied by 1.5x when two handing a weapon.
16: Claymore, Zweihander (two handed), Eagle Shield, Black Knight Shield. The go-to value for non-strength builds.
28: Covers every weapon that might benefit from both dexterity and strength, hits 40 when two handed.
40: Diminishing returns on damage scaling past this point. Can one hand almost everything and two hand everything else.
(51/58/66): Every shield/one hand every weapon/max possible damage two handing (none of these are worth it).
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: Diminishing scaling returns past this point.
(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: Oolacile Catalyst, all utility spells and a few offensive ones.
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: Diminishing returns past this point.
(50): Sunlight Spear (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.
53: One hit from larger weapons (notably the Claymore and its ilk).
76: One hit from very large weapons, eg. Black Knight Greataxe and Zweihander.
Helpful status calculator here:
https://sites.google.com/site/darksoulstats/
****ATTENTION PC PLAYERS, GET THE RESOLUTION FIX HERE: http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/****
Click here for nice example of a high-res PC screenshot.
It's being update fairly regularly so check the guy's blog for the latest version.
Comparison of different options:
(See second post for guides/in-depth info)
Welcome to the Dark Souls thread! Take a seat over the- oh wait you've died already. Yeah you should probably get used to that.
Dark Souls is a hardcore action-RPG by From Software, a spiritual successor to their previous game Demon's Souls. It's also as difficult as you've heard it is, but provides an experience that you rarely get in other modern games. There are no difficulty levels and no manual saves, you cannot pause and combat is entirely skill based. By defeating enemies and using certain items you gain souls, which are everything. You use them to level up your character, buy and upgrade items and magic and in certain cases create powerful unique weapons.
As well as souls, there is a secondary resource you'll be collecting called humanity. You start the game as an undead (hollow), weaker and overall less effective than you are in human form. By collecting and spending humanity you can revert yourself back to human form, increasing certain resistances and improving your item discovery rate. Becoming human also allows you to be summoned to and invade other players worlds.
Doesn't sound too bad right? Well let's talk about death.
You'll see this a lot. Death is as much a part of Dark Souls as collecting the precious souls themselves. If you die you keep your items but lose all your souls and humanity and leave behind a bloodstain. If you make it back to your bloodstain you can recover them, but die on your way back to your corpse and you lose them for good.
Rush forward with abandon to pick up that shiny item? You're going to die. Let your guard down because you've been through the starting enemies 20 times before? You're going to die. You'll learn to respect death as it starts out by beating you into the ground but then teaches you that every step forward, every dark corner and every closed door in this place demands respect.
Despite the shadow of death following you everywhere you go, there is one place you can gain some respite.
Bonfires are the one place you can rest and restore. You can spend your souls to increase your character stats, repair your weapons and armour and restore a limited number of healing flasks. Spend your humanity here and you can also make them more powerful and have them restore more healing items. Bonfires are also your only checkpoints, as long as you've lit one you will return to it once you die.
Of course it's not that easy. Anytime you touch a bonfire or warp back to one after dying, every enemy you've previously killed respawns ready to take you down again.
So that's Dark Souls. Prepare to die.
Multiplayer
or as we prefer to call it
Co-op
When co-opping in Dark Souls you can either summon players to your world or be a phantom summoned to another's world. To summon you must be human but phantoms can be either human or hollow. The summoning system isn't your normal "invite to game" thing though. In game you throw down a summoning sign and anyone within 10 levels of you can bring you into their world until you die, exit or kill the boss of that area.
PVP and Invading
Although becoming human allows you to summon others to your world when you want, it also opens you up to being invaded by anyone with an easy to obtain consumable item. The invader however doesn't choose what world to invade, it is random but limited to the zone you are currently in. Invasions and PVP can also be initiated by joining certain covenants that hold specific conditions.
Other Online Stuff
If you're not engaging in co-op or PVP, it still pays to play while online. Players can leave messages around the world warning of traps or monsters, giving instructions for hidden items or just being dicks and fucking you over. You'll also see other player's bloodstains throughout the world that show you how they met their maker.
Screenshots
Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekqkHjfw9Z0&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93LFz_j5fQA&feature=player_embedded
Release date August 24th
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition will include an untold chapter in the world of Lordran where the player must stop the spread of darkness at all costs by facing and defeating the Dark Knight Artorias.
- New Bosses - Including Artorias of Abyss, Chimera of Tomb, and more -
- PVP Online Matchmaking System - Quick matching for co-op or PVP -
- New Areas – Including Oolacile Tomb, Old Ruins and more -
- New Enemies – Including Abyss Guard, Chained Prisoner and more -
- New NPCs – Including Hawkeye Gough and more -
- New Weapons and Armor – Equip some from the new bosses, enemies, and NPCs -
More details to be revealed...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzSqBfPQIEk
Click here for nice example of a high-res PC screenshot.
It's being update fairly regularly so check the guy's blog for the latest version.
Comparison of different options:
(See second post for guides/in-depth info)
Welcome to the Dark Souls thread! Take a seat over the- oh wait you've died already. Yeah you should probably get used to that.
Dark Souls is a hardcore action-RPG by From Software, a spiritual successor to their previous game Demon's Souls. It's also as difficult as you've heard it is, but provides an experience that you rarely get in other modern games. There are no difficulty levels and no manual saves, you cannot pause and combat is entirely skill based. By defeating enemies and using certain items you gain souls, which are everything. You use them to level up your character, buy and upgrade items and magic and in certain cases create powerful unique weapons.
As well as souls, there is a secondary resource you'll be collecting called humanity. You start the game as an undead (hollow), weaker and overall less effective than you are in human form. By collecting and spending humanity you can revert yourself back to human form, increasing certain resistances and improving your item discovery rate. Becoming human also allows you to be summoned to and invade other players worlds.
Doesn't sound too bad right? Well let's talk about death.
You'll see this a lot. Death is as much a part of Dark Souls as collecting the precious souls themselves. If you die you keep your items but lose all your souls and humanity and leave behind a bloodstain. If you make it back to your bloodstain you can recover them, but die on your way back to your corpse and you lose them for good.
Rush forward with abandon to pick up that shiny item? You're going to die. Let your guard down because you've been through the starting enemies 20 times before? You're going to die. You'll learn to respect death as it starts out by beating you into the ground but then teaches you that every step forward, every dark corner and every closed door in this place demands respect.
Despite the shadow of death following you everywhere you go, there is one place you can gain some respite.
Bonfires are the one place you can rest and restore. You can spend your souls to increase your character stats, repair your weapons and armour and restore a limited number of healing flasks. Spend your humanity here and you can also make them more powerful and have them restore more healing items. Bonfires are also your only checkpoints, as long as you've lit one you will return to it once you die.
Of course it's not that easy. Anytime you touch a bonfire or warp back to one after dying, every enemy you've previously killed respawns ready to take you down again.
So that's Dark Souls. Prepare to die.
Multiplayer
or as we prefer to call it
Co-op
When co-opping in Dark Souls you can either summon players to your world or be a phantom summoned to another's world. To summon you must be human but phantoms can be either human or hollow. The summoning system isn't your normal "invite to game" thing though. In game you throw down a summoning sign and anyone within 10 levels of you can bring you into their world until you die, exit or kill the boss of that area.
PVP and Invading
Although becoming human allows you to summon others to your world when you want, it also opens you up to being invaded by anyone with an easy to obtain consumable item. The invader however doesn't choose what world to invade, it is random but limited to the zone you are currently in. Invasions and PVP can also be initiated by joining certain covenants that hold specific conditions.
Other Online Stuff
If you're not engaging in co-op or PVP, it still pays to play while online. Players can leave messages around the world warning of traps or monsters, giving instructions for hidden items or just being dicks and fucking you over. You'll also see other player's bloodstains throughout the world that show you how they met their maker.
Screenshots
Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekqkHjfw9Z0&feature=player_embeddedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93LFz_j5fQA&feature=player_embeddedRelease date August 24th
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition will include an untold chapter in the world of Lordran where the player must stop the spread of darkness at all costs by facing and defeating the Dark Knight Artorias.
- New Bosses - Including Artorias of Abyss, Chimera of Tomb, and more -
- PVP Online Matchmaking System - Quick matching for co-op or PVP -
- New Areas – Including Oolacile Tomb, Old Ruins and more -
- New Enemies – Including Abyss Guard, Chained Prisoner and more -
- New NPCs – Including Hawkeye Gough and more -
- New Weapons and Armor – Equip some from the new bosses, enemies, and NPCs -
More details to be revealed...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzSqBfPQIEk
And now, I present to you...
SHEN'S GREAT GUIDE TO STAT ALLOCATION
SHEN'S GREAT GUIDE TO STAT ALLOCATION
Humanity: The number to the left of your health bar, occasionally obtained from defeating enemies. Used to return to human form to summon others, kindle bonfires (5 more estus flask uses) and level up some covenants. Increases item drop rates and Chaos damage (cap at 10).
Endurance: Increases stamina and maximum equip burden. Stamina is used for attacking, blocking, sprinting and rolling – basically everything. Under 25% of your max burden and you can roll freely, 25-50% and your movement speed and roll are slower, 50-100% 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 hard cap, increasing past this point will only raise your equip burden.
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, 4-6 is generally sufficient.
Vitality: Your health. 30-50 is a good number for PvP and NG+.
Strength: Determines whether or not you can swing a weapon or use a shield effectively, increases damage dealt with weapons that scale with it. Multiplied by 1.5x when two handing a weapon.
16: Claymore, Zweihander (two handed), Eagle Shield, Black Knight Shield. The go-to value for non-strength builds.
28: Covers every weapon that might benefit from both dexterity and strength, hits 40 when two handed.
40: Diminishing returns on damage scaling past this point. Can one hand almost everything and two hand everything else.
(51/58/66): Every shield/one hand every weapon/max possible damage two handing (none of these are worth it).
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: Diminishing scaling returns past this point.
(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: Oolacile Catalyst, all utility spells and a few offensive ones.
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: Diminishing returns past this point.
(50): Sunlight Spear (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.
53: One hit from larger weapons (notably the Claymore and its ilk).
76: One hit from very large weapons, eg. Black Knight Greataxe and Zweihander.
Helpful status calculator here:
https://sites.google.com/site/darksoulstats/
Satsumomo on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
haha, will do! I'm gonna get that
I think you have a chance to get the boar helmet off of that miniboss. I've been using it on my xbox character since I got it because it's a fucking boar head.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
About 15 seconds after the fog wall popped up I was invaded by a Forest Hunter. We had a good little back and forth and I hope he took note of the fact that I didn't Estus once during the fight. I beat him but I didn't see another invasion for the 10 minutes I spent running around the area
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Item drop rates are improved by holding more humanity (risky) or equipping certain items (The one you want is the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring, which gives +200).
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Things have been going well on my sorcerer. Both bells rung and and Sen's fortress cleared (although I realized I forget to look for the onion knight.. shit). I skipped the depths this time, but I may go back just to clear the boss. Alt-itis is hitting me hard though, so I may have to switch to my bandit and start building up my str/faith sunbro.
I figured humanity would fare into it. I've thrown down a few messages now. There's no limit to the amount of messages you rate, right? Because I'll just keep rating shit up to help folks.
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
As far as I know, nope. You can literally upvote every one you see to give humanity out. Come to think of it, I should idle overnight for humanity for Chaos Servant. See how much I get.
I'm now up to O&S on my no-shield playthrough, with a +10 Balder Side Sword to poke things with. Still missing like half my parries, good thing I have +3 estus. (For the record, there are three fire keeper souls that are just sitting for the looting - Undead Parish on the altar, Blighttown, in the side area on the shortcut to Firelink with the toxic snipers, and very early in New Londo Ruins, across a bridge hidden under the water in the first spot with ghosts. Collecting them all will make Lautrec kill if he hasn't already/isn't dead though).
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
The drake sword makes a big portion of the early game quite easy,so you should be fine for now
Yeah, it takes a decently upgraded weapon to outdo it, but sometime around Sen's Fortress you'll probably have better options. (The Lightning Spear from the mimic there, if nothing else!)
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
He's no different from the sword and board silver knights - parry kill is fairly simple. Heck, I think he might be weaker than them.
The Drake Sword's durability is fine, unless you're using the special.
Still, there's nothing like the Dragon Bone Fist... with 999 durability. And no durability-eating special (It has a special - shoryuken - but its free).
Edit: You really should change the fix link to point to the main blog instead of the long-outdated post for version 0.3.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
XBL: GamingFreak5514
PSN: GamingFreak1234
I finally managed to get the Moonlight Greatsword for my sorcery character the other day. I love how absurd that build can get. Crown of the Dark Sun, Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring, all the crystal versions of spells... damage output is crazy. Only problem is all your points go into Int so if something sneezes on you you go down. Gotta keep it interesting I suppose.
How so? Using whatever weapon is effective is a pretty good strategy. You can get better weapons, that's for sure, and do so pretty quickly (I usually grab the Straight Sword of Astora since I typically like to go Faith, and at +4 it's about as good, with better attacks) but I don't see any problem with using it until you have something better. Not everyone wants to play through as a no-leveling deprived :P I think people should find their own level of challenge.
Your damage output could be even crazier if you replace the the Dark Sun Crown with the Crown of Dusk. Dark Sun gives a 10 % boost but Dusk Crown gives 20%. Magic defence is weakened but if you have a fully upgraded Crest shield you should be ok.
So basically, Faith builds have the easiest early-game if you know what you're doing. But there's no reason for other builds to not pick up such a good early-game shield though.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Especially with how many classes have awful shields (<100 physical). I mean, the small shields have their place, but not for starting out.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Dragon crest is better. Bloodshield, Crest Shield, and Dragon Crest Shield basically covers everything (except lightning... which is harder to deal with. Eagle Shield or Silver Knight for that I guess).
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
I don't even know what ya'll are blockin.
There a lots of better quality shields than the Heater but nothing can beat it for its defence/weight combo.
The other item* is +200 now as well.
*
Item find from humanity reaches its cap at 10 after patch 1.05, which is the current one.
Lifehunt is basically Super Great Scythe. It's just a straight upgrade in every way (Except damage - +15 Great Scythe is slightly stronger I think).
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy