right up until the part where you kinda had to jump up and down while hammering a cyclops in the taint
i liked that bit
i'm a jumping kind of guy.
suddenly we've worked out why we differ so much in our love of warrior.
i was doing the jumping attacks most of the time and loving them since they were op. the light attack had great knockdown and the heavy attack hit like five times and did great damage.
used to put the strider 30% increased damage for air attacks on my warrior for just running around when you don't know what you'll find.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
just, playing a warrior was kind of a drag because there were so many situations clearly designed around the ranged ability and extra mobility the other classes had
at best it had you doing repeat jump attacks at an ogre's butthole, at worst it made some fights out and out unwinnable
but fucking god if unloading one of those big swings into a dragon's heart wasn't the best feeling
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited November 2014
I won every fight with warrior. Sooner or later. The climbing attack they had did a massive chunk of damage. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Anyway, so MrGrimoire, are you planning to double greatsword? Because I've been meaning to make that character at some point.
I remember there was someone else earlier in the thread basically thrilling over the damage they did.
Also have you found any other greatswords as good as the basic greatsword? It's got such great base damage even if its scaling isn't the best.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
I've tried it. While the damage is amazing (and good for getting people in the Belltower), I think running around with two of them looks really, REALLY silly. So I just can't do it for aesthetic reasons. And for the same reason I've not gone overboard on other Ultragreats. Pursuers is cool, but when you're running around in retainer's robes+Alonne's pants, it doesn't really fit the aesthetic. Drake-keepers looks cool, but the moveset is meh. Sinner's is in my opinion the best looking sword in the game, but the health-loss on hit kinda hurts and unless I remember all wrong, it's got kinda bad durability. And so on and so forth. I do need to upgrade a few more of them for experiments, though. And I've not really gone into crypt since I'm not interested in mucking about with caster stats to get the most out of it.
Edit: Additional thing about Dual greatswords: They eat stamina like there's no tomorrow. So much so I found it annoying.
MrGrimoire on
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Ah. My havel build was only using a greatsword cos the dragon's tooth isn't till the end game.
The durability thing really hurt with the dragon's tooth though. When you hit the ground it does an aoe. The aoe will cause you to lose durability. It'll hit multiple things.
It was super annoying.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
For a spellsword build based on the sorcerer, with strength and dexterity around 18, is there a good weapon that is similar in use to an upgraded, magic Heide Knight's Sword but does more damage?
Also, is the Crystal Soul Spear worth the hassle of NG+ing bloody Freja?
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
For a spellsword build based on the sorcerer, with strength and dexterity around 18, is there a good weapon that is similar in use to an upgraded, magic Heide Knight's Sword but does more damage?
Also, is the Crystal Soul Spear worth the hassle of NG+ing bloody Freja?
You may want to ascetic Freja to get the Moonlight Greatsword AND Crystal Soul Spear. MLGS is 18/18 str/dex requirement, and though it's been nerfed and can't be enchanted any more, I'm pretty sure magic infused it's probably still one of the highest damage weapons for that kind of build.
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
edited November 2014
So I'm catching up on a lot of the balance changes since I played last. Looks like the Thor's Paladin template got nerfed in to the ground. I'm still going to rebuild him, because I loved playing him. Just have to get used to the lower spell uses and the non-OP DGS. I'm reading that Heide Knight's Sword may be better now overall? I'm still going f or the standard Fire Long Sword -> Lightning Claymore +10 -> Lightning DGS +5 route, but I'm willing to be convinced I should go Heide's (or something else entirely).
Just about finished with the DLC, got to what I can assume is the optional area Frigid Outskirts and. . .yea I'm done. I think I'll just watch a video of this fight and experience it that way because wow. I hopped on The Google to see what folks impressions of that area is and it about matched what I'd expect.
The most shocking thing about this area. . .it's just not at all inspired. I could give them props if it weren't just a single corridor, but the fact that the area is so fucking bland, and to make it "difficult" they spawn high damage horses that love to jump out of melee range and a snowstorm on a timer - please.
For a spellsword build based on the sorcerer, with strength and dexterity around 18, is there a good weapon that is similar in use to an upgraded, magic Heide Knight's Sword but does more damage?
Also, is the Crystal Soul Spear worth the hassle of NG+ing bloody Freja?
You may want to ascetic Freja to get the Moonlight Greatsword AND Crystal Soul Spear. MLGS is 18/18 str/dex requirement, and though it's been nerfed and can't be enchanted any more, I'm pretty sure magic infused it's probably still one of the highest damage weapons for that kind of build.
Isn't the Ice Rapier a good weapon for int users if infused with magic?
Lower stats, higher dos and a special attack.
Equip the Old Leo ring and all rapiers are a BEAST.
Thanks for the replies. I've progressed a bit further in the meantime and have acquired the Crystal Soul Speak - and of course I've stupidly lost ~200,000 souls due to playing first thing in the morning while waiting for my wife to get ready to leave. I shouldn't play when I'm barely awake...
The Ice Rapier sounds good. That's in the final DLC, right? Wondering if I should give Old Iron King a rest and check out Ivory King instead to get myself a new weapon. It's annoying how you can't swing the Heide Knight's Sword without scraping the ground.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Quick update: thanks for the Ice Rapier tip! It took some getting used to, as I played through 95% of DS2 with the Heide Knight Sword, but it definitely does a lot more damage and is enjoyable to use.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Welp, I fell off the backlog bandwagon and have jumped into Dark Souls 2. Playing blind and enjoying it so far, but I feel like a Souls Snob for complaining about (so far) the lack of difficulty compared to DeSo and DaSo1. At what point does this game get proper punishing? Not even the Ruin Sentinels thrashed me like the Gargoyles in DaSo or Flamelurker...
Maybe I'm just jaded.
EDIT - Also, not a single invasion yet! I've seen lots of phantoms and messages, but nobody wants to invade me on PS3. I feel slighted.
Your first Souls game just feels harder. I played Dark Souls 2 first, then Demon Souls, then Dark Souls 1, and while I didn't have trouble with many bosses in Dark Souls 2, Demon Souls and Dark Souls 1 just felt downright easy by comparison. Demon's Souls had 0 bosses that gave me any trouble at all. Flamelurker, Maneaters, everything I heard was hard in that game I killed on the first attempt.
Then in Dark Souls 1 the only bosses I even had to do more than a couple attempts on were Artorias and Manus. Coincidentally, the DLC bosses in Dark Souls 2 are also the ones that are harder. Fume Knight is harder than Artorias IMO, though they're very close and similar fights really.
If you want the game to be hard, join the covenant of champions. Otherwise, you'll never have another Souls game be as hard as the first one for you. The games just aren't that hard once you understand what they're about and have done it so much.
RE: Invasion, it's unlikely you'll get invaded at all until NG+. There's no full invasion orb in DaS2, and the cracked orbs cannot be purchased in unlimited quantities until NG+. They did it on purpose, presumably to ease people in to the game more and leave most of the PvP for NG+.
The great sword vs smaller weapon decision is quite interesting
For a boss I always have two criteria: how long/frequent their openings are, and how important stamina management is.
If you're only going to be able to get one hit in, then you have to see whether that hit leaves you enough time to recover and dodge when using a higher-damage weapon. If you get a really long opening, a small weapon will usually be better.
If you can safely empty your stamina bar on attacks, a good two-handed small weapon will probably do more total damage than a big stamina hog that only lets you swing three times.
I used a sun sword against the Fume Knight for example; the damage output was higher for a given opening and used less stamina than a great weapon, and I also had to have the time to dodge after attacking because he's so aggressive.
In general I found the great weapons were best suited for mobs - the whole point is to do a single high poise hit for tons of damage at longer range, and then hit them again after the stagger or pancake, killing them. Drakekeeper knights were very tough with a smaller weapon and trading blows, but the demon great hammer trivialized them.
Sometimes I'd go with dual wielding straight swords instead if I wanted the big damage and stagger but better recovery, like if I'm fighting three dangerous mobs instead of one or two.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited November 2014
All that is important in dark souls is winning.
How you do that is entirely up to you.
It's important not to lose sight of that when thinking about this stuff.
If you want to use a giant fuck off greatsword, use it. You can make it work.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
The undead curse continues to spread across the kingdom of Drangleic with **Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin**, available on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, and Steam on the following dates:
EU: April 3, 2015
Americas: April 7, 2015
This ultimate Dark Souls II experience features additional in-game events and NPCs along with new deadlier enemies and gameplay improvements. This experience includes the original Dark Souls II along with the three DLC chapters - Crown of the Sunken King, Crown of the Old Iron King, and Crown of the Ivory King. It will also take advantage of the advanced power of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and DirectX11 capable PCs to provide enhanced graphics for those platforms!
XBL - ArchSilversmith
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Your first Souls game just feels harder. I played Dark Souls 2 first, then Demon Souls, then Dark Souls 1, and while I didn't have trouble with many bosses in Dark Souls 2, Demon Souls and Dark Souls 1 just felt downright easy by comparison. Demon's Souls had 0 bosses that gave me any trouble at all. Flamelurker, Maneaters, everything I heard was hard in that game I killed on the first attempt.
Then in Dark Souls 1 the only bosses I even had to do more than a couple attempts on were Artorias and Manus. Coincidentally, the DLC bosses in Dark Souls 2 are also the ones that are harder. Fume Knight is harder than Artorias IMO, though they're very close and similar fights really.
If you want the game to be hard, join the covenant of champions. Otherwise, you'll never have another Souls game be as hard as the first one for you. The games just aren't that hard once you understand what they're about and have done it so much.
While generally true, I think you would probably agree that the player has a very great control over difficulty in all the games in terms of choosing whether to make use of every kind of top-tier spell and long distance bow snipes or charge in everywhere with suboptimal melee.
I would add that I felt like many if not most of the bosses and enemies were primarily designed to engage with melee classes.
Man I got downvoted to hell on Reddit when I suggested they'd port Dark Souls 2 to next gen a bunch of months back. Suckers. I've already bought and played this on PS3 and PC, and I'll be buying it again on PS4.
Not rich by any means. Just a middle class family that doesn't carry revolving debt, and bought a house and cars that are much cheaper than we can actually afford so that we could spend money on our kids, vacations, and video games.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Is there a good let's play of DS2 that goes through all of the DLC?
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Not rich by any means. Just a middle class family that doesn't carry revolving debt, and bought a house and cars that are much cheaper than we can actually afford so that we could spend money on our kids, vacations, and video games.
It's just too much Dark Souls for me. Bloodborne just seems much more enticing.
XBL - ArchSilversmith
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
This is a bit too blatant a cash in on the Bloodborne Fever Dream that people will be under. Good marketing but would have been nicer earlier.
As someone who dipped in the PC (300+ hours and counting) and PS3 version. . . not sold. At least on the changes given so far. I can fight a dragon before Old Dragonslayer? So.
I'm more excited about Bloodborne than I am replaying Dark Souls 2 again, for certain. But I still really like Dark Souls 2, and I was going to play it again in the future anyway. I bought all the DLC on PS3 but not on PC because despite it performing better, there are other factors which make gaming on my PC less convenient for me. So having a PS4 version with all the DLC that I can use the next time I get the itch to do a playthrough is nice for me. There's no way I'm going to be buying it in April though, because there are sooooo many games out right now and between now and then that I'm going to buy that there's no way I'll be through them all by April. I'll buy it in the summer drought most likely.
Your first Souls game just feels harder. I played Dark Souls 2 first, then Demon Souls, then Dark Souls 1, and while I didn't have trouble with many bosses in Dark Souls 2, Demon Souls and Dark Souls 1 just felt downright easy by comparison. Demon's Souls had 0 bosses that gave me any trouble at all. Flamelurker, Maneaters, everything I heard was hard in that game I killed on the first attempt.
Then in Dark Souls 1 the only bosses I even had to do more than a couple attempts on were Artorias and Manus. Coincidentally, the DLC bosses in Dark Souls 2 are also the ones that are harder. Fume Knight is harder than Artorias IMO, though they're very close and similar fights really.
If you want the game to be hard, join the covenant of champions. Otherwise, you'll never have another Souls game be as hard as the first one for you. The games just aren't that hard once you understand what they're about and have done it so much.
While generally true, I think you would probably agree that the player has a very great control over difficulty in all the games in terms of choosing whether to make use of every kind of top-tier spell and long distance bow snipes or charge in everywhere with suboptimal melee.
I would add that I felt like many if not most of the bosses and enemies were primarily designed to engage with melee classes.
Welp, I finally hit the difficulty spike. Belfry Gargoyles whooped my butt for 2 hours before I prevailed.
...that said, I'm still knocking over a boss or two per play session, compared with getting stuck on the Gargoyles in DS1 for almost two weeks, or having to take a 6 month break on Allant because he was filling me with so much rage. And the levels are so short! Super super short! Nothing like the long, agonising exploration of Blighttown or DeSo's huge levels. I dropped down into the Grave of Saints expecting something like the extended horror of the Tomb of Giants, but nope - a corridor, a right hand turn, a bonfire and a boss. Everything just feels kinda compacted.
The gargoyles in DS2 are definitely a bit of a DPS check so to speak. Because of the way the additional ones spawn you have to really be able to finish them off when you get one low.
And to be anecdotal in response to yours, having played DS2 first, then Demon's, then Dark 1, I thought the gargoyles in Dark Souls 1 were a complete cakewalk. Beat them solo on the first attempt, and was like wait, there aren't more of them? Because i'd fought the much harder gargoyle fight in DS2 way before. And Allant in DeS took me maybe 3 tries total.
Grave of Saints is just an optional PvP area. I think you'll find a few of the levels in DS2 are nice and big too. Especially the DLC areas. If you're really exploring them, there's some serious meat to some of those areas.
probably the easiest gargoyles run i had was pyromancy
why manage your damage dealing to keep three on the field at at time when you can just YOLO it and dump a bunch of flame swathes in the middle of a swarm of five of them
Posts
i liked that bit
i'm a jumping kind of guy.
suddenly we've worked out why we differ so much in our love of warrior.
i was doing the jumping attacks most of the time and loving them since they were op. the light attack had great knockdown and the heavy attack hit like five times and did great damage.
used to put the strider 30% increased damage for air attacks on my warrior for just running around when you don't know what you'll find.
just, playing a warrior was kind of a drag because there were so many situations clearly designed around the ranged ability and extra mobility the other classes had
at best it had you doing repeat jump attacks at an ogre's butthole, at worst it made some fights out and out unwinnable
but fucking god if unloading one of those big swings into a dragon's heart wasn't the best feeling
Anyway, so MrGrimoire, are you planning to double greatsword? Because I've been meaning to make that character at some point.
I remember there was someone else earlier in the thread basically thrilling over the damage they did.
Also have you found any other greatswords as good as the basic greatsword? It's got such great base damage even if its scaling isn't the best.
Edit: Additional thing about Dual greatswords: They eat stamina like there's no tomorrow. So much so I found it annoying.
The durability thing really hurt with the dragon's tooth though. When you hit the ground it does an aoe. The aoe will cause you to lose durability. It'll hit multiple things.
It was super annoying.
Also, is the Crystal Soul Spear worth the hassle of NG+ing bloody Freja?
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
You may want to ascetic Freja to get the Moonlight Greatsword AND Crystal Soul Spear. MLGS is 18/18 str/dex requirement, and though it's been nerfed and can't be enchanted any more, I'm pretty sure magic infused it's probably still one of the highest damage weapons for that kind of build.
On the other hand, more time for Witcher 3, Evolve and possibly Persona 5.
The most shocking thing about this area. . .it's just not at all inspired. I could give them props if it weren't just a single corridor, but the fact that the area is so fucking bland, and to make it "difficult" they spawn high damage horses that love to jump out of melee range and a snowstorm on a timer - please.
Isn't the Ice Rapier a good weapon for int users if infused with magic?
Lower stats, higher dos and a special attack.
Equip the Old Leo ring and all rapiers are a BEAST.
The Ice Rapier sounds good. That's in the final DLC, right? Wondering if I should give Old Iron King a rest and check out Ivory King instead to get myself a new weapon. It's annoying how you can't swing the Heide Knight's Sword without scraping the ground.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Maybe I'm just jaded.
EDIT - Also, not a single invasion yet! I've seen lots of phantoms and messages, but nobody wants to invade me on PS3. I feel slighted.
Then in Dark Souls 1 the only bosses I even had to do more than a couple attempts on were Artorias and Manus. Coincidentally, the DLC bosses in Dark Souls 2 are also the ones that are harder. Fume Knight is harder than Artorias IMO, though they're very close and similar fights really.
If you want the game to be hard, join the covenant of champions. Otherwise, you'll never have another Souls game be as hard as the first one for you. The games just aren't that hard once you understand what they're about and have done it so much.
RE: Invasion, it's unlikely you'll get invaded at all until NG+. There's no full invasion orb in DaS2, and the cracked orbs cannot be purchased in unlimited quantities until NG+. They did it on purpose, presumably to ease people in to the game more and leave most of the PvP for NG+.
For a boss I always have two criteria: how long/frequent their openings are, and how important stamina management is.
If you're only going to be able to get one hit in, then you have to see whether that hit leaves you enough time to recover and dodge when using a higher-damage weapon. If you get a really long opening, a small weapon will usually be better.
If you can safely empty your stamina bar on attacks, a good two-handed small weapon will probably do more total damage than a big stamina hog that only lets you swing three times.
I used a sun sword against the Fume Knight for example; the damage output was higher for a given opening and used less stamina than a great weapon, and I also had to have the time to dodge after attacking because he's so aggressive.
In general I found the great weapons were best suited for mobs - the whole point is to do a single high poise hit for tons of damage at longer range, and then hit them again after the stagger or pancake, killing them. Drakekeeper knights were very tough with a smaller weapon and trading blows, but the demon great hammer trivialized them.
Sometimes I'd go with dual wielding straight swords instead if I wanted the big damage and stagger but better recovery, like if I'm fighting three dangerous mobs instead of one or two.
How you do that is entirely up to you.
It's important not to lose sight of that when thinking about this stuff.
If you want to use a giant fuck off greatsword, use it. You can make it work.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Do season pass holders on PC get this? Curious about the enhanced graphics
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
While generally true, I think you would probably agree that the player has a very great control over difficulty in all the games in terms of choosing whether to make use of every kind of top-tier spell and long distance bow snipes or charge in everywhere with suboptimal melee.
I would add that I felt like many if not most of the bosses and enemies were primarily designed to engage with melee classes.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
It's just too much Dark Souls for me. Bloodborne just seems much more enticing.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
As someone who dipped in the PC (300+ hours and counting) and PS3 version. . . not sold. At least on the changes given so far. I can fight a dragon before Old Dragonslayer? So.
Of course my wife is due in April, so... yeah. Still.
Welp, I finally hit the difficulty spike. Belfry Gargoyles whooped my butt for 2 hours before I prevailed.
...that said, I'm still knocking over a boss or two per play session, compared with getting stuck on the Gargoyles in DS1 for almost two weeks, or having to take a 6 month break on Allant because he was filling me with so much rage. And the levels are so short! Super super short! Nothing like the long, agonising exploration of Blighttown or DeSo's huge levels. I dropped down into the Grave of Saints expecting something like the extended horror of the Tomb of Giants, but nope - a corridor, a right hand turn, a bonfire and a boss. Everything just feels kinda compacted.
And to be anecdotal in response to yours, having played DS2 first, then Demon's, then Dark 1, I thought the gargoyles in Dark Souls 1 were a complete cakewalk. Beat them solo on the first attempt, and was like wait, there aren't more of them? Because i'd fought the much harder gargoyle fight in DS2 way before. And Allant in DeS took me maybe 3 tries total.
Grave of Saints is just an optional PvP area. I think you'll find a few of the levels in DS2 are nice and big too. Especially the DLC areas. If you're really exploring them, there's some serious meat to some of those areas.
What do you mean you're not doing a strength build?
why manage your damage dealing to keep three on the field at at time when you can just YOLO it and dump a bunch of flame swathes in the middle of a swarm of five of them
i expect this probably don't work so good on ng+