Sooo I think I might have accidentally screwed myself out of getting one of the people for the Oeden Chapel. I went to the Hypogean Gaol to fight Darkbeast Paarl, but I never got the lamp there, I was too focused on killing him and talking to Djura
Now when I get killed by Snatchers... I don't go to the Gaol. Can I not ever get there again in its current form or will it just take a loooong time now?
You can return to the Gaol, though that NPC won't be there. That said, you may not want to bring everyone to Oedon Chapel.
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
Well crap. Also, why? Would she become a monster or something? So far I just have the one woman and the prostitute, couldn't get the suspicious guy but I'll try him again most likely.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
There's no Trophy or much in-game benefit to rescuing them, so it's not a big deal. You've already got the only one that can help you with one of the endings.
Well crap. Also, why? Would she become a monster or something? So far I just have the one woman and the prostitute, couldn't get the suspicious guy but I'll try him again most likely.
It felt good to cheese the bloody Crow of cainhurst after he had killed me twice with a visceral attack right when he was almost dead. Having a fight where the wooden Shield is useful made my day.
Also someone tell me that the Beast claws suck so I don't have to do so many chalice dungeons.
But the Chalice Dungeons are fun. Except for that one. You know the one.
Have you tried just using the Stake Driver? It's like a punch! A big punch with an explosion.
Boy did I want to like the stake driver, but the move set just felt so limited, and the big punch really situational and too difficult to use consistently.
Luckily the reiterpallasch is a sword that is also a gun and I can get behind that fully.
Battletag: Threeve#1501
PSN: Threeve703
+2
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
edited January 2018
So I think I
Accidentally sent the skeptical man to the Clinic. I didn't know he'd go to the opposite place than what I suggested! Went back to check and he's gone. Poor skeptical man...
Also Eileen the Crow showed up after I killed Amelia but I didn't realize it was her so I took a swing and I tried to check it but it clipped her. Strangely (fortunately) she didn't seem to notice. Hopefully the next time I see her she won't try to kill me.
Also also, I killed Vicar Amelia on my first try! I feel like I missed the opportunity to do visceral attacks on her but fortunately, it worked out okay.
the giant Great One squatting on the side of the Chapel.
Hooray!
Lord_Asmodeus on
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
Well, Lower Pthumeru is gonna have to wait for me to get some levels, because the Triple-Watchers in a very small room are wrecking my shit. Need more vit.
Well, Lower Pthumeru is gonna have to wait for me to get some levels, because the Triple-Watchers in a very small room are wrecking my shit. Need more vit.
Which is a little disappointing, but oh well.
Those guys are pushovers if you can visceral attack them. When I went against them I visceraled them so hard that those nasty bugs showed up. I hate those bugs so much!!!
+1
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Well, Lower Pthumeru is gonna have to wait for me to get some levels, because the Triple-Watchers in a very small room are wrecking my shit. Need more vit.
Which is a little disappointing, but oh well.
I don't even waste my time on that shit, I just cheese it. There's an open cell in a connecting room where you can run in and shut the door, and the then the whole group will jam up against the bars trying to hit you. Then you just poke them to death through the bars.
If they wanted me to not cheese that fight, then they shouldn't have thought it was any kind of decent idea to make the player fight three hunter enemies at once that all cheat on at least a couple of game rules.
But the Chalice Dungeons are fun. Except for that one. You know the one.
Have you tried just using the Stake Driver? It's like a punch! A big punch with an explosion.
Tried the Stake Driver and liked it at first but as GoodKingJay said the limited moveset and then needing to reset the driver after the power attack with the long charge time and limited range made it not click. But like I said, still a sucker for fist weapons. But if no opinions of Beast Claws then I'm fine ignoring them.
Really the Chalice Dungeons are alright, with some neat bosses not in the main game. But getting to them is done by going through a bunch of repetitive rooms and only minor changes and just a few unique enemies that are pretty quickly recycled.
I want to like it, but seeing how long I'd have to grind through to get to ailing chalice (assuming there are 4+ per section, means ~8 before getting to unlock beast claws.
This wouldn't be a problem if the ending didn't force you into NG+ that way I could finish the game for my dad (streaming it for him while he is away) and then keep working through the chalice dungeons.
But the Chalice Dungeons are fun. Except for that one. You know the one.
Have you tried just using the Stake Driver? It's like a punch! A big punch with an explosion.
Tried the Stake Driver and liked it at first but as GoodKingJay said the limited moveset and then needing to reset the driver after the power attack with the long charge time and limited range made it not click. But like I said, still a sucker for fist weapons. But if no opinions of Beast Claws then I'm fine ignoring them.
Really the Chalice Dungeons are alright, with some neat bosses not in the main game. But getting to them is done by going through a bunch of repetitive rooms and only minor changes and just a few unique enemies that are pretty quickly recycled.
I want to like it, but seeing how long I'd have to grind through to get to ailing chalice (assuming there are 4+ per section, means ~8 before getting to unlock beast claws.
This wouldn't be a problem if the ending didn't force you into NG+ that way I could finish the game for my dad (streaming it for him while he is away) and then keep working through the chalice dungeons.
You can finish your stream without worry and get an ending. Chalice Dungeons do NOT scale with NG+. No matter how many times you restart, enemies in Chalice Dungeons will remain the same level and power. NG+ will also keep all of your unique items (so you don't have to find things like the Workshop tools again), weapons, gems, etc.
Go for it Hunter!
Here's a breakdown of what does and does not carry over to NG+
What will carry over to NG+
Player Level
Blood echoes
Insight
Most consumable items, and all projectiles
All your weapons and armor, including 'Item Box' items
All Caryll Runes (runes already obtained will be replaced by Madman's Knowledge at their locations in NG+)
Covenant and covenant level
All badges and unlocked items (messengers will still sell all the items they did in NG).
Chalice dungeons and their progress
Workshop tools (Rune, Gemstone upgrades). The locations where you picked up these tools in NG will now have Kin Coldblood of varying levels.
All unlocked Messenger Skins
What doesn't carry over
Keys that open doors and the like (key items such as badges and the Yharnam Stone carry over)
All unlocked doors, shortcuts, etc. will need to be reopened
Any unconsumed One Third of Umbilical Cord items[\spoiler]
Well, Lower Pthumeru is gonna have to wait for me to get some levels, because the Triple-Watchers in a very small room are wrecking my shit. Need more vit.
Which is a little disappointing, but oh well.
Those guys are pushovers if you can visceral attack them. When I went against them I visceraled them so hard that those nasty bugs showed up. I hate those bugs so much!!!
I can visceral the one easily but the one with the cleaver I can't get the timing right.
But the Chalice Dungeons are fun. Except for that one. You know the one.
Have you tried just using the Stake Driver? It's like a punch! A big punch with an explosion.
Tried the Stake Driver and liked it at first but as GoodKingJay said the limited moveset and then needing to reset the driver after the power attack with the long charge time and limited range made it not click. But like I said, still a sucker for fist weapons. But if no opinions of Beast Claws then I'm fine ignoring them.
Really the Chalice Dungeons are alright, with some neat bosses not in the main game. But getting to them is done by going through a bunch of repetitive rooms and only minor changes and just a few unique enemies that are pretty quickly recycled.
I want to like it, but seeing how long I'd have to grind through to get to ailing chalice (assuming there are 4+ per section, means ~8 before getting to unlock beast claws.
This wouldn't be a problem if the ending didn't force you into NG+ that way I could finish the game for my dad (streaming it for him while he is away) and then keep working through the chalice dungeons.
You can finish your stream without worry and get an ending. Chalice Dungeons do NOT scale with NG+. No matter how many times you restart, enemies in Chalice Dungeons will remain the same level and power. NG+ will also keep all of your unique items (so you don't have to find things like the Workshop tools again), weapons, gems, etc.
Go for it Hunter!
Here's a breakdown of what does and does not carry over to NG+
What will carry over to NG+
Player Level
Blood echoes
Insight
Most consumable items, and all projectiles
All your weapons and armor, including 'Item Box' items
All Caryll Runes (runes already obtained will be replaced by Madman's Knowledge at their locations in NG+)
Covenant and covenant level
All badges and unlocked items (messengers will still sell all the items they did in NG).
Chalice dungeons and their progress
Workshop tools (Rune, Gemstone upgrades). The locations where you picked up these tools in NG will now have Kin Coldblood of varying levels.
All unlocked Messenger Skins
What doesn't carry over
Keys that open doors and the like (key items such as badges and the Yharnam Stone carry over)
All unlocked doors, shortcuts, etc. will need to be reopened
Any unconsumed One Third of Umbilical Cord items[\spoiler]
Awesome, thanks for the info!
Also further research showed that the Beast Claws aren't as bad to get as I thought. Only need to do like 2-3 chalice dungeons (and grind the last for ritual blood) to get them.
Turning Beast Cutter into a flame weapon is getting awfully tempting in the meantime.
Well, Lower Pthumeru is gonna have to wait for me to get some levels, because the Triple-Watchers in a very small room are wrecking my shit. Need more vit.
Which is a little disappointing, but oh well.
Those guys are pushovers if you can visceral attack them. When I went against them I visceraled them so hard that those nasty bugs showed up. I hate those bugs so much!!!
I can visceral the one easily but the one with the cleaver I can't get the timing right.
Well I killed them so on to Lower Pth level 2! I really like the chalice dungeons, they're a nice break from the story.
0
KlatuAussie Aussie AussieOi Oi OiRegistered Userregular
I want to like chalice dungeons, but I just can't.
I don't like the way they linked the same tileset together in different ways, I have no real better alternative, they just felt like such a boring grind, and 2-3 summoning bitches can piss right off. Especially if they're all doing spiders.
They have illusory walls and traps, so they were some of my favorite parts of the game. The atmosphere definitely isn't as fun or varied as the rest of the game, though.
The Chalice Dungeons are way easier to stomach if you do them from time to time as a break from the main campaign rather than all at once in a big rush at the end. Like, any time when you're wondering about whether to farm blood echoes or vials? Do a Chalice instead.
That doesn't make them any less repetitive in nature, but it's a lot more bearable.
If you guys are just doing the chalices for certain weapons or runes I may have an alternative for you. There are now something called 'false chalices' that are essentially hacked lvl1 chalices that have lvl5 loot and enemies- so for instance you can get any weapon in the main game and most of the top tier runes after beating the second layer of the first chalice you get. The spreadsheet is below.
And here again is the chalice dungeon material guide for the quickest legit path. Only thing I'd do differently is go to the treasure room on the second layer of Lower Loran instead of re-running Ailing Loran.
Chalice dungeons were a great concept that they clearly didn't have time to flesh out more. The same thing with more tilesets and rooms and layouts could be really cool. A procedurally generated dark souls dungeon... that's something worth attempting.
+9
GoodKingJayIIIThey wanna get mygold on the ceilingRegistered Userregular
I find chalice dungeons really unnerving and foreboding in a way that I don't anywhere else in the game.
The whole game has great atmosphere but man I feel claustrophobic and uncomfortable wandering around chalice dungeons.
And the lady with her endless retinue of angry spiders.
Battletag: Threeve#1501
PSN: Threeve703
+8
FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
Yeah, chalice dungeons are my "I just got a new weapon, I don't want to progress the story, I'm going to go test it out in some spooky caverns and pick up modified versions of other weapons on the way, as well as blood gems."
also on my new character I swore I would go full Dexterity build, but approaching Cainhurst I started building bloodtinge again because I just can't help myself, I love Evelyn and Chikage.
Oh yes, the fire enchanted Uncanny Beast Cutter is good times. It's all I wanted out of the cane but more savage.
Edit: Also just picked up the Tiny Tonitrus and this thing is rad. Limited use due to 6 QS bullet cost but rad. I think this is the most fun I've had as a caster build in a souls game--which is to say primarily using weapons with some sweet spells.
Doing Arcane after Strength might be a mistake. Skill and Bloodtinge don't seem to have half as many fun toys as arcane.
Holy Moonlight Sword has been hit or miss. I appreciate the damage it can do, but sometimes I need speed, though I need to get better about using its reach.
I'm trying to get a bolt radial so I can have another option than the Tonitrus. I love it but the limited range can be killer sometimes.
Edit 2: Now I've cheesed two bosses with my anime eye lasers. Yes I know I'm way overleveled but I have a big stupid grin on my face.
I find chalice dungeons really unnerving and foreboding in a way that I don't anywhere else in the game.
The whole game has great atmosphere but man I feel claustrophobic and uncomfortable wandering around chalice dungeons.
And the lady with her endless retinue of angry spiders.
The art and enemies in the chalice dungeons are totally cool, and on a room-by-room basis, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with them. It's just that you see the same rooms so many times, and often without any connectivity that seems more than arbitrary (which it is, because it's not like it generates whole new rooms, it's just got a palette of rooms that it stitches together) compared to the regular game that the illusion wears out fairly quick.
I hope that Old Hunters isn't just full of hunters that are normal, respawning enemies or I will probably hate this more than any of the other souls dlcs. Hunters are never fun to fight.
I hope that Old Hunters isn't just full of hunters that are normal, respawning enemies or I will probably hate this more than any of the other souls dlcs. Hunters are never fun to fight.
I haaaaate fighting Hunters, if I had to fight the Hunters I've met so far every time I wanted to go past their areas I'd go crazy. The one with the Rifle Spear was a real piece of shit.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
+1
GoodKingJayIIIThey wanna get mygold on the ceilingRegistered Userregular
It's kinda front-loaded with those in the first area.
Yeah this. The beginning of that DLC is rough, especially the first time you go through it, but ESPECIALLY if you go in there underleveled. There are a bunch of respawning hunters, they hit like trucks and have a ton of hitpoints and variety of fuck-you weapons.
But, once you understand the layout of the area, they are easy to avoid.
And, everything else about that DLC is sooo good. You must play it, it is an essential part of the Bloodborne experience.
Fought Logarius with my Arcane. It wasn't too bad, even with me being pretty sloppy during it. I dunno what it was, felt like he wasn't as aggressive or mean as he usually is. I mean, it's not possible that i've just gotten good at this game i've played through two and a half times or anything.
Another Chalice Dungeon boss helped cheese by my eye laser and the range on Beast Cutter!
I...I don't know if I can play anything other than arcane now. The rad weapons of other builds don't compare to the rad weapons + all the toys I get as arcane.
Another Chalice Dungeon boss helped cheese by my eye laser and the range on Beast Cutter!
I...I don't know if I can play anything other than arcane now. The rad weapons of other builds don't compare to the rad weapons + all the toys I get as arcane.
Edit: This is me now:
A properly built and gemmed arcane character makes most of the base game a joke. Only thing that really poses a challenge at that point is FRC chalices.
+1
GoodKingJayIIIThey wanna get mygold on the ceilingRegistered Userregular
I've always been a little unclear how to build an arcane character, as it's something I've just never tried. Other than just using hunter tools (which of course I have), don't you need to get pretty deep into chalices to get the proper gems?
I've always been a little unclear how to build an arcane character, as it's something I've just never tried. Other than just using hunter tools (which of course I have), don't you need to get pretty deep into chalices to get the proper gems?
For the really good ones? Sure, and bolt and arcane gems seem to be a bit rarer, but it's plenty easy to get fire ones and the Tonitrus does excellent bolt scaling. I'm working on getting the bolt gems but I either get lucky grinding in the Nightmare Frontier or yeah deep into the chalice dungeons. You won't really get the right gems until later on so I recommend just doing the usual 30 Vit, 20 End in the meantime.
As for weapons, other than weapons that are geared towards arcane scaling (Tonitrus, Holy Moonlight Sword) you just take a weapon that does pure physical damage (Saw Spear, etc.) and slot in the elemental type you like and it will switch to doing that kind of damage and further scaling based on it. You cannot benefit from different elements in the same weapon so just make that number as high as you can go. I'm currently using an Uncanny Beast Cutter (Waning, that is the circular looking gem, is the easiest elemental enhancement slot though there are regular and triangle ones as well, just rarer, so best to go for a weapon with a circle slot) with fire enhancements and coupled with its serrated bonus and long range I'm liking it a lot.
This build is far less effective with weapons that have split damage like Blades of Mercy or Boom Hammer as the pure % increases will be far less to the element already on that weapon since it does not switch the physical damage to the elemental. Still possible to make them viable but you'd want more flat pluses to damage instead of %. There is enough variety of pure physical weapons that can be switched to give you plenty of options. Heck if I put in enough strength I could use stuff like the whirlygig saw again. Working on getting the Uncanny Beast Claws to see if they are a nice option as well.
Then you just use the right weapon, arcane, bolt, or fire, to do maximum damage to your enemies. This coupled with the wonderful toys and you have what I think is the best rendition of a mage in the Souls series.
I believe ARC scaling for weapons ends at 50? Or at least good scaling does. I'm getting only 1 point of AR per two ARC points invested, if I'm remembering correctly.
That said, this character has 30 VIT, 12 STR (for Tonitrus), and like 54 ARC right now. I'm loving it. Saw Cleaver with fire gems is wrecking some things. Tonitrus is taking care of the rest. I just got to Rom in the Lower Pthumerian CD. Keep dying to stupid mistakes. I get the fight, just need to lock down my caution and not take major risks.
@Karoz re: the Tiny Tonitrus, that's what blood bullets are for! It's pretty much 1:1, blood vial:blood bullets (5). You could theoretically melt something down with 20 hits from TT, if you're willing to burn that much healing.
Posts
You can return to the Gaol, though that NPC won't be there. That said, you may not want to bring everyone to Oedon Chapel.
Oedon Chapel NPC Spoilers:
Also someone tell me that the Beast claws suck so I don't have to do so many chalice dungeons.
Have you tried just using the Stake Driver? It's like a punch! A big punch with an explosion.
PSN: Threeve703
Boy did I want to like the stake driver, but the move set just felt so limited, and the big punch really situational and too difficult to use consistently.
Luckily the reiterpallasch is a sword that is also a gun and I can get behind that fully.
PSN: Threeve703
Also Eileen the Crow showed up after I killed Amelia but I didn't realize it was her so I took a swing and I tried to check it but it clipped her. Strangely (fortunately) she didn't seem to notice. Hopefully the next time I see her she won't try to kill me.
Also also, I killed Vicar Amelia on my first try! I feel like I missed the opportunity to do visceral attacks on her but fortunately, it worked out okay.
Edit: Oh, also I now have enough Insight to see
Which is a little disappointing, but oh well.
Those guys are pushovers if you can visceral attack them. When I went against them I visceraled them so hard that those nasty bugs showed up. I hate those bugs so much!!!
I don't even waste my time on that shit, I just cheese it. There's an open cell in a connecting room where you can run in and shut the door, and the then the whole group will jam up against the bars trying to hit you. Then you just poke them to death through the bars.
If they wanted me to not cheese that fight, then they shouldn't have thought it was any kind of decent idea to make the player fight three hunter enemies at once that all cheat on at least a couple of game rules.
Tried the Stake Driver and liked it at first but as GoodKingJay said the limited moveset and then needing to reset the driver after the power attack with the long charge time and limited range made it not click. But like I said, still a sucker for fist weapons. But if no opinions of Beast Claws then I'm fine ignoring them.
Really the Chalice Dungeons are alright, with some neat bosses not in the main game. But getting to them is done by going through a bunch of repetitive rooms and only minor changes and just a few unique enemies that are pretty quickly recycled.
I want to like it, but seeing how long I'd have to grind through to get to ailing chalice (assuming there are 4+ per section, means ~8 before getting to unlock beast claws.
This wouldn't be a problem if the ending didn't force you into NG+ that way I could finish the game for my dad (streaming it for him while he is away) and then keep working through the chalice dungeons.
You can finish your stream without worry and get an ending. Chalice Dungeons do NOT scale with NG+. No matter how many times you restart, enemies in Chalice Dungeons will remain the same level and power. NG+ will also keep all of your unique items (so you don't have to find things like the Workshop tools again), weapons, gems, etc.
Go for it Hunter!
Here's a breakdown of what does and does not carry over to NG+
Player Level
Blood echoes
Insight
Most consumable items, and all projectiles
All your weapons and armor, including 'Item Box' items
All Caryll Runes (runes already obtained will be replaced by Madman's Knowledge at their locations in NG+)
Covenant and covenant level
All badges and unlocked items (messengers will still sell all the items they did in NG).
Chalice dungeons and their progress
Workshop tools (Rune, Gemstone upgrades). The locations where you picked up these tools in NG will now have Kin Coldblood of varying levels.
All unlocked Messenger Skins
What doesn't carry over
Keys that open doors and the like (key items such as badges and the Yharnam Stone carry over)
All unlocked doors, shortcuts, etc. will need to be reopened
Any unconsumed One Third of Umbilical Cord items[\spoiler]
I can visceral the one easily but the one with the cleaver I can't get the timing right.
Awesome, thanks for the info!
Also further research showed that the Beast Claws aren't as bad to get as I thought. Only need to do like 2-3 chalice dungeons (and grind the last for ritual blood) to get them.
Turning Beast Cutter into a flame weapon is getting awfully tempting in the meantime.
Well I killed them so on to Lower Pth level 2! I really like the chalice dungeons, they're a nice break from the story.
I don't like the way they linked the same tileset together in different ways, I have no real better alternative, they just felt like such a boring grind, and 2-3 summoning bitches can piss right off. Especially if they're all doing spiders.
That doesn't make them any less repetitive in nature, but it's a lot more bearable.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12mBIId1RRGbYiSEGjEUT9fquQrHNgfET9Fc4gDdmccs/edit#gid=266417879
And here again is the chalice dungeon material guide for the quickest legit path. Only thing I'd do differently is go to the treasure room on the second layer of Lower Loran instead of re-running Ailing Loran.
https://www.reddit.com/r/bloodborne/comments/3oqcqw/how_to_guide_for_unlocking_all_cds_ice_cream/?st=jc8i3gxe&sh=ace66147
The whole game has great atmosphere but man I feel claustrophobic and uncomfortable wandering around chalice dungeons.
And the lady with her endless retinue of angry spiders.
PSN: Threeve703
also on my new character I swore I would go full Dexterity build, but approaching Cainhurst I started building bloodtinge again because I just can't help myself, I love Evelyn and Chikage.
Edit: Also just picked up the Tiny Tonitrus and this thing is rad. Limited use due to 6 QS bullet cost but rad. I think this is the most fun I've had as a caster build in a souls game--which is to say primarily using weapons with some sweet spells.
Doing Arcane after Strength might be a mistake. Skill and Bloodtinge don't seem to have half as many fun toys as arcane.
Holy Moonlight Sword has been hit or miss. I appreciate the damage it can do, but sometimes I need speed, though I need to get better about using its reach.
I'm trying to get a bolt radial so I can have another option than the Tonitrus. I love it but the limited range can be killer sometimes.
Edit 2: Now I've cheesed two bosses with my anime eye lasers. Yes I know I'm way overleveled but I have a big stupid grin on my face.
The art and enemies in the chalice dungeons are totally cool, and on a room-by-room basis, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with them. It's just that you see the same rooms so many times, and often without any connectivity that seems more than arbitrary (which it is, because it's not like it generates whole new rooms, it's just got a palette of rooms that it stitches together) compared to the regular game that the illusion wears out fairly quick.
I haaaaate fighting Hunters, if I had to fight the Hunters I've met so far every time I wanted to go past their areas I'd go crazy. The one with the Rifle Spear was a real piece of shit.
Yeah this. The beginning of that DLC is rough, especially the first time you go through it, but ESPECIALLY if you go in there underleveled. There are a bunch of respawning hunters, they hit like trucks and have a ton of hitpoints and variety of fuck-you weapons.
But, once you understand the layout of the area, they are easy to avoid.
And, everything else about that DLC is sooo good. You must play it, it is an essential part of the Bloodborne experience.
PSN: Threeve703
I...I don't know if I can play anything other than arcane now. The rad weapons of other builds don't compare to the rad weapons + all the toys I get as arcane.
Edit: This is me now:
A properly built and gemmed arcane character makes most of the base game a joke. Only thing that really poses a challenge at that point is FRC chalices.
PSN: Threeve703
For the really good ones? Sure, and bolt and arcane gems seem to be a bit rarer, but it's plenty easy to get fire ones and the Tonitrus does excellent bolt scaling. I'm working on getting the bolt gems but I either get lucky grinding in the Nightmare Frontier or yeah deep into the chalice dungeons. You won't really get the right gems until later on so I recommend just doing the usual 30 Vit, 20 End in the meantime.
As for weapons, other than weapons that are geared towards arcane scaling (Tonitrus, Holy Moonlight Sword) you just take a weapon that does pure physical damage (Saw Spear, etc.) and slot in the elemental type you like and it will switch to doing that kind of damage and further scaling based on it. You cannot benefit from different elements in the same weapon so just make that number as high as you can go. I'm currently using an Uncanny Beast Cutter (Waning, that is the circular looking gem, is the easiest elemental enhancement slot though there are regular and triangle ones as well, just rarer, so best to go for a weapon with a circle slot) with fire enhancements and coupled with its serrated bonus and long range I'm liking it a lot.
This build is far less effective with weapons that have split damage like Blades of Mercy or Boom Hammer as the pure % increases will be far less to the element already on that weapon since it does not switch the physical damage to the elemental. Still possible to make them viable but you'd want more flat pluses to damage instead of %. There is enough variety of pure physical weapons that can be switched to give you plenty of options. Heck if I put in enough strength I could use stuff like the whirlygig saw again. Working on getting the Uncanny Beast Claws to see if they are a nice option as well.
Then you just use the right weapon, arcane, bolt, or fire, to do maximum damage to your enemies. This coupled with the wonderful toys and you have what I think is the best rendition of a mage in the Souls series.
Steam: YOU FACE JARAXXUS| Twitch.tv: CainLoveless
That said, this character has 30 VIT, 12 STR (for Tonitrus), and like 54 ARC right now. I'm loving it. Saw Cleaver with fire gems is wrecking some things. Tonitrus is taking care of the rest. I just got to Rom in the Lower Pthumerian CD. Keep dying to stupid mistakes. I get the fight, just need to lock down my caution and not take major risks.
@Karoz re: the Tiny Tonitrus, that's what blood bullets are for! It's pretty much 1:1, blood vial:blood bullets (5). You could theoretically melt something down with 20 hits from TT, if you're willing to burn that much healing.
Guild Wars 2: Kendrik.5984