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.
[Dark Souls] Greetings undead warrior, please enjoy your stay and praise the Sun!
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.
25: 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.
Mag 16: Oolacile Catalyst, all utility spells, Dark Beads
Mag 25/32: Crystal Magic Weapon/Tin Crystallisation Catalyst and 5 orbs with the Soul mass spells and the Pursuers dark sorcery
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/
Dark Souls Connectivity Fix 1.0
Darks Souls II announced at the VGAs, see the trailer yourself!
http://youtu.be/pV8mbFxZHO4
Namco Bandai has officially announced the existence of “Dark Souls II” in a release from the Japanese developer last night. From Software has revealed that the sequel to what many fans claim to be one of the hardest games ever created, “Dark Souls II” will be releasing on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. A new teaser website for the game was also launched today, which will inform fans with information from the upcoming title when it becomes available.
Perhaps the most important bit of info given about the upcoming sequel so far is the change to the game’s multiplayer network. In the first “Dark Souls,” gamers connected in a peer-to-peer format with one player hosting the session.
“Dark Souls II,” however will feature dedicated game servers that will host all players on a single networked system.
http://youtu.be/pV8mbFxZHO4Namco Bandai has officially announced the existence of “Dark Souls II” in a release from the Japanese developer last night. From Software has revealed that the sequel to what many fans claim to be one of the hardest games ever created, “Dark Souls II” will be releasing on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. A new teaser website for the game was also launched today, which will inform fans with information from the upcoming title when it becomes available.
Perhaps the most important bit of info given about the upcoming sequel so far is the change to the game’s multiplayer network. In the first “Dark Souls,” gamers connected in a peer-to-peer format with one player hosting the session.
“Dark Souls II,” however will feature dedicated game servers that will host all players on a single networked system.
****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.
25: 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.
Mag 16: Oolacile Catalyst, all utility spells, Dark Beads
Mag 25/32: Crystal Magic Weapon/Tin Crystallisation Catalyst and 5 orbs with the Soul mass spells and the Pursuers dark sorcery
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/
Dark Souls Connectivity Fix 1.0
What DSCfix does do:
-- Intercepts GFWL matchmaking functions to return a friend's session if available. This is repeated until all online friends are connected to, at which point it resumes normal behavior of looking for random peers.
-- Allows near-instantaneous summoning / invasion of friends, as well as other network info exchanged such as bloodstains, visible blue ghosts / bonfire phantoms, bonfire kindling, etc.
What DSCfix does NOT do:
-- Change any rules of summoning or invading (area boss must not be defeated, players must still be within level range, host must be human, etc.)
-- Fix any NAT related problems. If you have a strict NAT (as reported by GFWL) and have not been able to successfully summon/be summoned, DSCfix will probably not help.
-- Otherwise tamper with any aspect of Dark Souls gameplay. The connections it establishes with friends are the exact same as those established after successfully summoning / invading a player.
Satsumomo on
0
Posts
Though I'd like to point out that you trade off mobility to use those high poise armours. Having 0 poise is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be if you really suck at dodging attacks (ie: me).
WiiU Username: MordaRazgrom
Steam Username: MordaRazgrom
WoW/Diablo 3 Battlenet Battletag: MordaRazgrom#1755
Me and my wife have a gamer YouTube page if interested www.youtube.com/TeamMarriage
It means that it'll play like Demon's Souls did and online will just work 99.9% of the time instead of the peer to peer summoning/invasion failed of Dark Souls. All players (or all players in a region) connect to one server instead of connecting to each other in a bittorrent like way.
And PvP has been a crucial part of both Souls games so far. I highly doubt it's going away. If you don't like it, play in Soul/Undead form and don't co-op.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
*Note: I am completely okay with this since it also means more jolly co-op as well.
WiiU Username: MordaRazgrom
Steam Username: MordaRazgrom
WoW/Diablo 3 Battlenet Battletag: MordaRazgrom#1755
Me and my wife have a gamer YouTube page if interested www.youtube.com/TeamMarriage
Still going to buy it and love it, probably just Quit every 5 minutes until I beat a boss.
WiiU Username: MordaRazgrom
Steam Username: MordaRazgrom
WoW/Diablo 3 Battlenet Battletag: MordaRazgrom#1755
Me and my wife have a gamer YouTube page if interested www.youtube.com/TeamMarriage
Hopefully, they will be fixing issues with PVP, such as a possible removal of backstabs. I honestly believe PVP would become much more enjoyable without them, or if they are harder to execute, like needing the other player to be in the middle of an attack animation, or that only daggers can do backstabs.
WiiU Username: MordaRazgrom
Steam Username: MordaRazgrom
WoW/Diablo 3 Battlenet Battletag: MordaRazgrom#1755
Me and my wife have a gamer YouTube page if interested www.youtube.com/TeamMarriage
You can do that now. Just don't go online!
We're not sure what it'll mean, really. It could mean that it'll be like Demon's Souls, which worked much better. Or it could mean that it has regular co-op with lobbies and shit.
I'd be okay with either.
Here's my point, spoilered for possibly huge screenshots
and here he is in his sexy human form
WiiU Username: MordaRazgrom
Steam Username: MordaRazgrom
WoW/Diablo 3 Battlenet Battletag: MordaRazgrom#1755
Me and my wife have a gamer YouTube page if interested www.youtube.com/TeamMarriage
I hope PC gets Demon's Souls at some point too, I want to give that game a whirl, but I'm strictly a PC gamer.
WiiU Username: MordaRazgrom
Steam Username: MordaRazgrom
WoW/Diablo 3 Battlenet Battletag: MordaRazgrom#1755
Me and my wife have a gamer YouTube page if interested www.youtube.com/TeamMarriage
WiiU Username: MordaRazgrom
Steam Username: MordaRazgrom
WoW/Diablo 3 Battlenet Battletag: MordaRazgrom#1755
Me and my wife have a gamer YouTube page if interested www.youtube.com/TeamMarriage
Two thirds of my personal invasions on Demon's were against parties of three.
And in there, soul form people had half health.
The only problem with backstabs are lagstabs. Also, piercing swords are better than daggers at backstabing in Dark.
But I'd be fine with the counter during-attack. I got lots of fun using the Leo Ring in Dark for non-backstab counters (like backstep/sidestep and pelt with Avelyn).
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Servers are still up!
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
I've been watching some dude do an LP of it, and it looks extremely awesome. The weapon crafting system is rather robust.
The drop rates for some of the upgrade materials were terrible, but the upgrade system outside of that is way better than Dark. There wasn't really any elemental weapons outside of Dragon weapons (which were only good for low level), but you could upgrade almost any weapon to max/near-max scaling with any stat. And you had more options for spellcaster weapons: more melee spell damage or constant mana regen and less damage. And who can forget the fun of multiple status effect weapons?
Weapon stat requirements were also lower across the board. You could see spellcasters rolling around with heavy executioner's great axes.
Armor however, was near worthless as there was no Poise and it was much weaker.
Yeah. In Demon's both invasions and co-op were on as soon as you beat 1-1 more or less. The covenant requirement system and limited invasion items really hurts PvP in Dark.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Yeah. I mean, the main invasion covenant required you to basically go against the grain of the game so completely that you basically HAD to know the game entirely before joining, which means Darkwraiths are most of the time going to be a lot better than their oponents.
Gravelord and Dragon are pretty bad with the secrecy thing, too. One is accessed by a small unsuspicious tomb in an annoying place, and one requires going through not one but two illusory walls that if you don't see other players' messages you're never going to find. And while Darkmoon is a bit less opaque (in that the ring gives you a clue), it's still pretty damn out of the way. And that's most of the PvP-based covenants IIRC, with the exception of the Forest one, which is really easily found accessed.
I consider my character to be fairly robust, but when my enemy is 100% immune to magic and physical damage, something's fishy. Hell, a backstab didn't do any damage.
The exceptions were mostly twinks that had gotten themselves lightning weapons and good gear before I had even reached the Gargoyles, and one kept murdering me half a dozen times in a row because I had to be in human form to summon help for the Gargoyles(this was shortly after I started playing the game).
IMO, fuck PVPers. Only place I've seen decent PVP is in the forest, where many new people do it, and even there some twinks and hackers love to camp just to fuck with other people's experience.
Now with my second and third characters, as long as people don't invade me in the annoying areas (invading in the Tomb of Giants, for example, is just a jerk move) I find I rarely mind.
And talking of characters, considering remaking a Dex character, this time actually online. That or just making a full strength and endurance character and wielding the biggest sticks I can find!
To leave my summon sign somewhere and not have it disappear at all except when I am actually summoned by someone.
For something other than SL alone to account for who you can PVP. Game should know the difference between a level 20 who has killed the Taurus demon and a level 20 that has filled the lordvessel and completed the DLC.
http://imgur.com/a/q34ES
I am now going out to buy EDGE.
Which explains why most 'beginner' guides I run into recommend Tomb of Giants as a perfect place to invade.
This game is incredible. I've never died so many times in such a short period of time and not been angry at the game for it. It's because I'm not paying enough attention.
STEAM | XBL | PSN
Even staying hollow as much as I could, I had eight player (non-npc) invasions across two characters; three were blatant hackers, the rest twinks that had shit like poison crossbows and dual lightning daggers as early as the goddamned burg and level 12 or somthing. PvP in this game is clownshoes. If they got rid of the hackers and actually learned that the way they designed their game level can be removed as a factor with some build planning, maybe we'd see some actual interesting fights. But I don't have much faith in that being done well enough, and consistently enough (people who want to hack or twink aren't just going to stop, they'll keep finding new holes in security or the mechanics, meaning you have to keep patching, and I don't see that happening), so I'd rather just have a proper no-pvp mode. Or make it so trying to force GFWL into offline didn't result in so much annoying bullshit. Or, better yet, stop using GFWL.
The rest of the game I loved though, even the constant cheap deaths. Which is why it's such a shame that one part is just pants on head retarded. Let's hope they learned something and it'll get better. But I'll admit I'm not optimistic.
Learning experience. Damn if it doesn't sting, though.
STEAM | XBL | PSN
Yeah, impatience is pretty dangerous.
Not that it made me more... enthusiastic. The old director did not seem super happy about not being involved...
Still think its going to be a fantastic game.
How and where do I upgrade weapons?
I like the difficulty of the game, but I feel that things like this are obfuscated to the player to no purpose.
If you're heading down the faith route both Gravelord and SunBros are good covenants for that and provide really solid miracles, Gravelord especially. You can actually get gravelord really early if you want.