i laboriously clear out the six guys, run past the phantom into the boss room, then double back when i'm done for the phantom. he's a cheap bastard.
Agreed on clearing those 6 guys leading up there, I just avoid the shit out of that red phantom outside chariot. His overhead tracking is out of this world. I mean, I can beat him more than half the time in a fair fight, but too much hassle for practically nothing.
edit:
Iron keep "speed runner jump" starts around 58:44 in case linking start time doesn't work.
i laboriously clear out the six guys, run past the phantom into the boss room, then double back when i'm done for the phantom. he's a cheap bastard.
Agreed on clearing those 6 guys leading up there, I just avoid the shit out of that red phantom outside chariot. His overhead tracking is out of this world. I mean, I can beat him more than half the time in a fair fight, but too much hassle for practically nothing.
edit:
Iron keep "speed runner jump" starts around 58:44 in case linking start time doesn't work.
I'm overjoyed to hear that I'm not the only one that despised the run-up to the chariot. I ended up killing all of those dudes until they stopped spawning; not out of convenience, but out of personal satisfaction.
You know what? Nanowrimo's cancelled on account of the world is stupid.
So, I hit the end credits with a reaper...but I maaaaay have skipped the DLC. Debating whether to call it or switch to the Scythe of Want and continue on.
Bleed Scythe of the Forlorn is pretty good, apparently, because it has really high bleed and barely changes its damage from uninfused, but I don't wanna run hollowed all the time (it scales with hollowing).
Dark Bone Scythe isn't much weaker than Scythe of Want either, but it doesn't have the good R2.
edit: And you can buff those two, so actually...hmm.
Ugn. Blasted through Shulva, got to Elana and had her literally one hit from death when I died getting greedy on the first shot. But I missed her bonfire, because fuck they love hidden bonfires in this DLC.
edit: sooo, bone scythe breaks after about 20% of Sinh's health bar. I went through 6 repair powders and almost got him but then it just randomly blew up from ~1/3rd durability. Ultimately, I went for 'naked with three different scythes equipped, just in case' to win.
Heh. After the ridiculous difficulty I had with the normal Smelter Demon run this time around, I accidentally wandered into the challenge area of Blue Smelter and one-shot the gauntlet+boss (I've been using the jump skip down to Fume Knight the last few times through here, so I'm a bit lost this time around doing it right).
edit: oops. I respecced for full strength no-infusion Bone Scythe to dodge the bloated DLC resistances (it's barely less damage with 50 strength than you'd get from a Dark build if you're running RoB+Flynn, so way more actual damage in the DLC), but now I can't equip my other reapers. Which is a problem, because I forgot Aava shreds weapon durability too.
Working on my curved sword character, I discovered that as ridiculously strong as the Warped Sword may be in PvE, it does something...weird, sometimes.
If I'm locked onto an Alonne Knight and swing, and they run into me to attack, I slide off them to the side. Missing them completely, and potentially getting dumped into lava on one of the many narrow walkways of Iron Keep.
PS, I really need to stop parking characters at Iron Keep. It's not a great way to come back to a character, even with a weapon that chews through the gauntlet no problem.
i've tried curved swords but the only way i've found to make them much fun is running the dual swords in DS3 or powerstancing them in DS2
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BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
Powerstance scimitar in DS2 is one of my all time favorite Souls runs. Thankfully scimitars/flashers are a little more effective in Dark Souls 2 and 3 than this:
Got to the bonfire in Sen's. Went to use some humanity before I lit it so I could kindle and get 10 full estus heals. Used a homeward bone by accident instead and ended up above the blacksmith's shop. FML.
Any plus/minuses to using a Royal Greatsword over a Bastard Sword besides the Bleed damage? Also, should I buy a Mace for armored enemies or am I fine with the Morning Star and Club that I have?
So after rolling through everything to that point with only 4-5 'oops that was stupid and I deserved that' deaths, Lost Sinner is wrecking me on my DS2 SL1 run.
Feel my low agility on some of those attacks, lots of active frames. And she just will NOT stand still for my slow, short-range mace swings.
edit: Oh, got her on the 3rd pull no trouble, after getting annihilated with maybe 10% of her health down the first two tries. Nevermind!
I did the path through Freya next, so I could easily +10 my mace and work on farming up the peasant set for some extra agility. The congregation feels intense when anything can kill you, but still not particularly difficult. Freya being able to incidentally one-shot me with a misplaced foot made that fight a bit sketchy, also I had to use a +6 dagger instead of my +10 mace since I needed a torch. Still, one-shot congregation and 4-5 for Freya.
I can either use cat ring and life ring (I think that's enough to get down the pit? But I've never done it without a few levels in health...) to rush through Rotten into Shulva so I can get Flynn's Ring and the Puzzling Stone Sword, and maybe man up and get the Crown for that +1 str.
Or I push through the Iron Keep route so I can go to that DLC and grab the stat rings and simpleton's ring so I can equip all sorts of stuff and roll okay.
...actually, I don't want to run through the pit areas with my +6 dagger to allow for a torch so I'll do Iron Keep route first.
I hope some day some ambitious modder just remakes DS2, but in DS1 or 3 or BB or any of the games on the good engines where you aren't a lumbering tiny-headed asshole with ugly animations matched up against enemies that are as fast and mobile as they are in these other games.
...yes I'm at Iron Keep on my SL1 run, why do you ask?
edit: holy shit Alonne Knights can literally walk into you to and force your model to rotate without you doing anything to cause it. I always figured it was a result of walking forward slightly at the same time as them, but nope. Dead still, swing timed so he'll move into it, I rotate 45 degrees and attack the air as he blasts half my life bar away.
SL1 in DS2 sounds painful, mostly because of the slow roll
It's been easier than my reaper run was so far, tbh. +10 mace, then +10 rapier is plenty of damage even without any scaling (scaling is pretty weak in DS2 anyway).
You start at 86 agi, so 0.2667 sec rolls (better than the .2 of Sekiro side- or back-dashes, fewer iframes than a DS1 fat roll). You can use the peasant set from the guys along the path to Duke's Dear Freya to push to 88 agi (89, actually, but 88's the breakpoint) for 0.3 rolls, equal to a fat roll or Sekiro forward-dash. When you get to Brume Tower you can get the Simpleton's Ring and push up to 92 agi (more, actually, but that's the breakpoint) for .3333, just shy of a DS1 midroll or Bloodborne dash (wtf the Bloodborne dash has midroll iframes). And of course the recovery time is always the same in DS2, so 'as bad as a midroll' is misleading.
Not as comfy as running 105 for .4333 (just shy of a DS1/3 fast roll) but plenty. If you need to you can also drop your equip percent way down for longer ground coverage on your rolls, to pass through attacks cleaner or run away as you prefer.
Currently, I'm on Fume Knight. I'd have cleared him but I ran out of effigies because I'm in the habit of never being hollow and the tower was a bit taxing on my supply.
So now he one-shots my halved SL1 health with pretty much any attack.
Elana was absolutely brutal, my hardest fight by a lot thus far. Then I got Sinh in like, 5 pulls?
I still need to do Eleum Loyce and everything from Drangleic Castle forward for the main plot. And then maybe go mop up optional DLC bosses I've run from (I like fighting Alonne, but the run there is pure concentrated antifun).
SL1 in DS2 sounds painful, mostly because of the slow roll
It's been easier than my reaper run was so far, tbh. +10 mace, then +10 rapier is plenty of damage even without any scaling (scaling is pretty weak in DS2 anyway).
You start at 86 agi, so 0.2667 sec rolls (better than the .2 of Sekiro side- or back-dashes, fewer iframes than a DS1 fat roll). You can use the peasant set from the guys along the path to Duke's Dear Freya to push to 88 agi (89, actually, but 88's the breakpoint) for 0.3 rolls, equal to a fat roll or Sekiro forward-dash. When you get to Brume Tower you can get the Simpleton's Ring and push up to 92 agi (more, actually, but that's the breakpoint) for .3333, just shy of a DS1 midroll or Bloodborne dash (wtf the Bloodborne dash has midroll iframes). And of course the recovery time is always the same in DS2, so 'as bad as a midroll' is misleading.
Not as comfy as running 105 for .4333 (just shy of a DS1/3 fast roll) but plenty. If you need to you can also drop your equip percent way down for longer ground coverage on your rolls, to pass through attacks cleaner or run away as you prefer.
Currently, I'm on Fume Knight. I'd have cleared him but I ran out of effigies because I'm in the habit of never being hollow and the tower was a bit taxing on my supply.
So now he one-shots my halved SL1 health with pretty much any attack.
Almost got him, though!
edit: got him
If you have the ring of binding, you can bring yourself back up to something like 75% base health.
SL1 in DS2 sounds painful, mostly because of the slow roll
It's been easier than my reaper run was so far, tbh. +10 mace, then +10 rapier is plenty of damage even without any scaling (scaling is pretty weak in DS2 anyway).
You start at 86 agi, so 0.2667 sec rolls (better than the .2 of Sekiro side- or back-dashes, fewer iframes than a DS1 fat roll). You can use the peasant set from the guys along the path to Duke's Dear Freya to push to 88 agi (89, actually, but 88's the breakpoint) for 0.3 rolls, equal to a fat roll or Sekiro forward-dash. When you get to Brume Tower you can get the Simpleton's Ring and push up to 92 agi (more, actually, but that's the breakpoint) for .3333, just shy of a DS1 midroll or Bloodborne dash (wtf the Bloodborne dash has midroll iframes). And of course the recovery time is always the same in DS2, so 'as bad as a midroll' is misleading.
Not as comfy as running 105 for .4333 (just shy of a DS1/3 fast roll) but plenty. If you need to you can also drop your equip percent way down for longer ground coverage on your rolls, to pass through attacks cleaner or run away as you prefer.
Currently, I'm on Fume Knight. I'd have cleared him but I ran out of effigies because I'm in the habit of never being hollow and the tower was a bit taxing on my supply.
So now he one-shots my halved SL1 health with pretty much any attack.
Almost got him, though!
edit: got him
If you have the ring of binding, you can bring yourself back up to something like 75% base health.
Ring slots are at a premium in an SL1 run, though. RoB, Flynn, Leo, Simpleton, spell slots, Strength and/or Dex, Dragon, Chloranthy, etc.
If I ever make an RPG it's going to have a super in depth ring wearing system totally out of proportion to other systems in the game. Your character's finger size and the size of rings will be a factor, both gauge and width. Too many rings and you can't grip anything. Interfering magical properties repelling each other er, etc.
If I ever make an RPG it's going to have a super in depth ring wearing system totally out of proportion to other systems in the game. Your character's finger size and the size of rings will be a factor, both gauge and width. Too many rings and you can't grip anything. Interfering magical properties repelling each other er, etc.
Will I able to remove the fingers of my enemies and then perform home surgery on my hands to achieve P E R F E C T R I N G S I Z E?
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
If I ever make an RPG it's going to have a super in depth ring wearing system totally out of proportion to other systems in the game. Your character's finger size and the size of rings will be a factor, both gauge and width. Too many rings and you can't grip anything. Interfering magical properties repelling each other er, etc.
Optimizing my character's finger size for the most build-appropriate ring combination is, probably, one of the few utterly obtuse tasks an RPG has yet to ask me to perform.
And yet, if you abstract the concept, there are a ton of games that have pretty much exactly that sort of mechanic strewn about various subsystems. I'm not sure I'd even blink too hard at learning a game wanted me to do this.
I wholeheartedly adore this absolutely absurd genre.
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
I spend a lot more time in my inventory than most I'd wager, shifting around weapons and rings and things on the fly so that, for example, I can switch in the bow/caster implement/sword/shield combo, with some other settings being weapon/weapon/caster implement/shield, implement/shield/sword/implement, shield/mace/implement. Basically whatever I need to switch out to keep under weight but also be equipped for whatever's coming.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
The spell bombardment in Shrine of Amana was spicy but now I'm headed to Aldia's Keep. Think I'll rush it, can't think of anything important I'll need from there. If you're in a hurry you can just walk up the stairs, fight the ogre, then walk down the hallway, being careful not to let the ogres bust anything extra open.
...I'm a little nervous about the drake, tbh, since sometimes it's tricky to avoid one of its fire attacks and I'm not exactly sturdy. Though I guess I can stack fire res.
edit: fucking drakekeepeeeeers
double edit: I'm not sure I've ever complained about him because he's not difficult, but Vendrick is the worst. it's like...so simple it's boring, but he's so sturdy and instakills on a single mistake even if you're not SL1. and you think you can get behind him and do work quickly, but then he spams backhops until he's against a wall and hten you have to try to bait him out and get behind him safely...
Like several of DS2's worst challenges, it's more a measure of your ability to endure tedium and do things slow and safe than anything satisfying or fun.
triple edit: I've made it to the last serious challenge between me and the ending, Ivory King. Off the top of my head, it's my single least favorite fight in any Souls or Soulslike.
Without the padding of high health and damage, the inherent RNG of Burnt Ivory King's '3-6 hyper aggressive enemies vs 4 barely-active NPC allies' phase is completely unbearable.
I thought I hated it before. But that was when it was like 'Ugn, will getting through this take 1 try or 5, I hate how rng this is' and not 'I have three or four hours of attempts and have only fought the king 5 times.'
Without the padding of high health and damage, the inherent RNG of Burnt Ivory King's '3-6 hyper aggressive enemies vs 4 barely-active NPC allies' phase is completely unbearable.
I thought I hated it before. But that was when it was like 'Ugn, will getting through this take 1 try or 5, I hate how rng this is' and not 'I have three or four hours of attempts and have only fought the king 5 times.'
I still haven't done the optional DLC bosses or the Pilgrims of Dark, but I think I'll put that off forever now.
You know, of all the bosses you listed, Nashandra was the most trouble no matter what type of playthough I was doing. Something about the timing and ranger of her scythe always gave me fits.
Without the padding of high health and damage, the inherent RNG of Burnt Ivory King's '3-6 hyper aggressive enemies vs 4 barely-active NPC allies' phase is completely unbearable.
I thought I hated it before. But that was when it was like 'Ugn, will getting through this take 1 try or 5, I hate how rng this is' and not 'I have three or four hours of attempts and have only fought the king 5 times.'
I still haven't done the optional DLC bosses or the Pilgrims of Dark, but I think I'll put that off forever now.
You know, of all the bosses you listed, Nashandra was the most trouble no matter what type of playthough I was doing. Something about the timing and ranger of her scythe always gave me fits.
I usually one-shot her as long as I don't get greedy and get got by the curse/damage over time. Think I might have needed a second attempt?
One boss that gave me fits but I didn't mention it here was Aava. I had to relearn the fight, because I always do it at 105 agility and roll through all of his attacks and that's not really an option at SL1 with 92 agility, his moves are active for too long (or I'm not precise enough, anyway).
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
If I ever make an RPG it's going to have a super in depth ring wearing system totally out of proportion to other systems in the game. Your character's finger size and the size of rings will be a factor, both gauge and width. Too many rings and you can't grip anything. Interfering magical properties repelling each other er, etc.
I look forward to the inevitable boss enemy that is five million squeedily fingers waving about, each with it's own shiny ring.
Posts
Agreed on clearing those 6 guys leading up there, I just avoid the shit out of that red phantom outside chariot. His overhead tracking is out of this world. I mean, I can beat him more than half the time in a fair fight, but too much hassle for practically nothing.
edit:
Iron keep "speed runner jump" starts around 58:44 in case linking start time doesn't work.
Yeah, I can do that jump pretty consistently, but it doesn't help if your weapon doesn't do the 'fight two knights at once' thing well.
Dark Bone Scythe isn't much weaker than Scythe of Want either, but it doesn't have the good R2.
edit: And you can buff those two, so actually...hmm.
edit: might not actually be the case. huh
edit: sooo, bone scythe breaks after about 20% of Sinh's health bar. I went through 6 repair powders and almost got him but then it just randomly blew up from ~1/3rd durability. Ultimately, I went for 'naked with three different scythes equipped, just in case' to win.
edit: oops. I respecced for full strength no-infusion Bone Scythe to dodge the bloated DLC resistances (it's barely less damage with 50 strength than you'd get from a Dark build if you're running RoB+Flynn, so way more actual damage in the DLC), but now I can't equip my other reapers. Which is a problem, because I forgot Aava shreds weapon durability too.
If I'm locked onto an Alonne Knight and swing, and they run into me to attack, I slide off them to the side. Missing them completely, and potentially getting dumped into lava on one of the many narrow walkways of Iron Keep.
PS, I really need to stop parking characters at Iron Keep. It's not a great way to come back to a character, even with a weapon that chews through the gauntlet no problem.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
Feel my low agility on some of those attacks, lots of active frames. And she just will NOT stand still for my slow, short-range mace swings.
edit: Oh, got her on the 3rd pull no trouble, after getting annihilated with maybe 10% of her health down the first two tries. Nevermind!
I can either use cat ring and life ring (I think that's enough to get down the pit? But I've never done it without a few levels in health...) to rush through Rotten into Shulva so I can get Flynn's Ring and the Puzzling Stone Sword, and maybe man up and get the Crown for that +1 str.
Or I push through the Iron Keep route so I can go to that DLC and grab the stat rings and simpleton's ring so I can equip all sorts of stuff and roll okay.
...actually, I don't want to run through the pit areas with my +6 dagger to allow for a torch so I'll do Iron Keep route first.
...yes I'm at Iron Keep on my SL1 run, why do you ask?
edit: holy shit Alonne Knights can literally walk into you to and force your model to rotate without you doing anything to cause it. I always figured it was a result of walking forward slightly at the same time as them, but nope. Dead still, swing timed so he'll move into it, I rotate 45 degrees and attack the air as he blasts half my life bar away.
It's been easier than my reaper run was so far, tbh. +10 mace, then +10 rapier is plenty of damage even without any scaling (scaling is pretty weak in DS2 anyway).
You start at 86 agi, so 0.2667 sec rolls (better than the .2 of Sekiro side- or back-dashes, fewer iframes than a DS1 fat roll). You can use the peasant set from the guys along the path to Duke's Dear Freya to push to 88 agi (89, actually, but 88's the breakpoint) for 0.3 rolls, equal to a fat roll or Sekiro forward-dash. When you get to Brume Tower you can get the Simpleton's Ring and push up to 92 agi (more, actually, but that's the breakpoint) for .3333, just shy of a DS1 midroll or Bloodborne dash (wtf the Bloodborne dash has midroll iframes). And of course the recovery time is always the same in DS2, so 'as bad as a midroll' is misleading.
Not as comfy as running 105 for .4333 (just shy of a DS1/3 fast roll) but plenty. If you need to you can also drop your equip percent way down for longer ground coverage on your rolls, to pass through attacks cleaner or run away as you prefer.
Currently, I'm on Fume Knight. I'd have cleared him but I ran out of effigies because I'm in the habit of never being hollow and the tower was a bit taxing on my supply.
So now he one-shots my halved SL1 health with pretty much any attack.
Almost got him, though!
edit: got him
I still need to do Eleum Loyce and everything from Drangleic Castle forward for the main plot. And then maybe go mop up optional DLC bosses I've run from (I like fighting Alonne, but the run there is pure concentrated antifun).
Ring slots are at a premium in an SL1 run, though. RoB, Flynn, Leo, Simpleton, spell slots, Strength and/or Dex, Dragon, Chloranthy, etc.
Will I able to remove the fingers of my enemies and then perform home surgery on my hands to achieve P E R F E C T R I N G S I Z E?
And yet, if you abstract the concept, there are a ton of games that have pretty much exactly that sort of mechanic strewn about various subsystems. I'm not sure I'd even blink too hard at learning a game wanted me to do this.
I wholeheartedly adore this absolutely absurd genre.
don't wanna
But if you do without, then you're a braver player than I.
DS2 group fights aren't the hardest thing
...I'm a little nervous about the drake, tbh, since sometimes it's tricky to avoid one of its fire attacks and I'm not exactly sturdy. Though I guess I can stack fire res.
edit: fucking drakekeepeeeeers
double edit: I'm not sure I've ever complained about him because he's not difficult, but Vendrick is the worst. it's like...so simple it's boring, but he's so sturdy and instakills on a single mistake even if you're not SL1. and you think you can get behind him and do work quickly, but then he spams backhops until he's against a wall and hten you have to try to bait him out and get behind him safely...
Like several of DS2's worst challenges, it's more a measure of your ability to endure tedium and do things slow and safe than anything satisfying or fun.
triple edit: I've made it to the last serious challenge between me and the ending, Ivory King. Off the top of my head, it's my single least favorite fight in any Souls or Soulslike.
I thought I hated it before. But that was when it was like 'Ugn, will getting through this take 1 try or 5, I hate how rng this is' and not 'I have three or four hours of attempts and have only fought the king 5 times.'
edit: BIK defeated, TD&TW defeated, Nashandra defeated, Aldia defeated, throne left, woo.
I still haven't done the optional DLC bosses or the Pilgrims of Dark, but I think I'll put that off forever now.
You know, of all the bosses you listed, Nashandra was the most trouble no matter what type of playthough I was doing. Something about the timing and ranger of her scythe always gave me fits.
I usually one-shot her as long as I don't get greedy and get got by the curse/damage over time. Think I might have needed a second attempt?
One boss that gave me fits but I didn't mention it here was Aava. I had to relearn the fight, because I always do it at 105 agility and roll through all of his attacks and that's not really an option at SL1 with 92 agility, his moves are active for too long (or I'm not precise enough, anyway).
I look forward to the inevitable boss enemy that is five million squeedily fingers waving about, each with it's own shiny ring.
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