How do you like the optional "final boss", the dragon rider?
He was waaay tougher, put me in the ground at least 10 times. When i finally got it through my head that he had the same weaknesses as Ornstein he got much easier though.
On the final boss now, only tried once and I got murdered. He is super aggressive so safely throwing fireballs is kind of a mission. Also he is very resistant to dark.
Some of the bosses leading up to him need some work or at least a bigger health pool. Aldrich in particular, 4 great chaos fire orbs should not a lord of cinder kill. Also Pontiff Sulyvahn, he was a pretty cool fight as melee but as a caster it was 5 fireballs and dead, also he tends stand around looking at you for ages if you keep your distance.
My Pyro build isn't even maxed I have int/fth both at 35, soft cap is 40. Guess it should be better in NG+. I did kind of do things in the wrong order through so maybe that's why, I killed Dancer super early and then did both Dragon places as soon as I had finished the Boreal prison.
The Nameless king is probably my favorite boss in the souls series, I don't think I've felt so good about taking a boss down before. Well maybe Raime with my Hex build.
Anybody else think the Nameless king is Gwyns firstborn? He wears a getup similar to Gwyns, He fought on the side of the Dragons, which is a pretty good reason for him to be disowned and all his statues destroyed. Also Ornstein went to find him, Ornstein's gear doesn't say weather it was to fight him or ask him for aid, it just says went in search of him. I'm pretty much sold on the idea that after Gwyn sacrificed himself to the fire, Orestein took it upon himself to find the true heir to the throne as nobody trusted Gwyndolin and Gwynevere was far too kind to rule "also she shagged a dragon and I don't think Ornstein would look too kindly on that, being a dragonslayer and all." Then they couldn't find a accord and came to blows and Ornstein was on the losing side of that battle
Yorshka is most definitely Priscillas kin maybe her daughter or maybe a granddaughter. Finding her in that tower/prison was almost too much. So so sad. Anyways did you see just how fluffy her tail was?
So Siegward is the most badass character in the game, when he randomly rocked up for my Yhorm fight I surprised and pretty amazed. Now I want to know who the hell he was, all we know for sure is he is the friend that Yhorm gave one stormruler to. So was he just on a journey getting into trouble like all knights of Catarina seem to do, with Yhorm helping him out on the way, like all lords of cinder seem to do? Or he somebody important a nobleman or a ruler of Catarina, that befriended this Gaint Lord?
Rosaria, who is she? Is she a Lord? or maybe some other form of God "like Velka"? She reminds me so much of my Pale Lady
I actually had to stop playing for a bit when I found her corpse, Quelana's not Rosaria's , too many feels
Do you think Priscilla is still alive in the painted world? Aldritch dreamt of her but didn't eat her so I'm just going to assume her and her fluffy tail are fine and happy in the painting.
Hopes for DLC, some armour I can wear in dragonform.
@SethDavis Any thoughts on the game now that you've experienced it once (though probably not seen everything)? I'm sure many of us are interested in hearing your thoughts as a professional on one hand and enthusiast on the other. BTW, what is your build?
@SmilingSword You wanna try the password protected multiplayer one of these days? You're the only one on PC I think.
I think it's fine some fights are easier for casters, as long as others are harder. That's the whole point of having different character builds, isn't it?
So you went for the "secret" early game route on your 2nd time? How did it feel?
Nameless King is my favourite as well. I have literally taken him 100 times by now co-oping.
Re: Nameless King
Storm Curved Sword
Curved sword imbued with the strength of the Stormdrake.
The Nameless King, ally of the ancient dragons, fought beside the Stormdrake in countless battles. When the great beast fell, the king claimed his soul, as was the custom in the age of gods.
Dragonslayer Swordspear
A dragon hunting weapon from the age of the gods. The earliest form of the cross spear, serving as both a sword and a spear.
Its owner was the Nameless King, a deific hunter of dragons. The swordspear is imbued with lightning, of which he was the heir.
Golden Crown
Crown of a nameless king who was ally to the ancient dragons.
This golden crown, buried amidst long strands of bristling ash, is said to closely resemble that of the First Lord.
1. He was around in the "age of gods" 2. He is heir to lightning 3. His crown closely resembles that of Gwyn
@FinneousPJ cool I don't really know how to do co op in DS but I'm keen to try it out if you want. Only ever really did duels in DS2. Haven't even really been PvPing in DS3 yet, only fought a few invaders and invaded a few times, kinda waiting to see what the meta is or at least what the proper build level is. I hear it could be 120 which I think is a little low for a caster build, should be fine for melee though.
The secret early game was pretty hard to do, Dancer is a nightmare when you are hitting her for 90 dmg a shot and she has like 5000HP. Plus she two shot me with any of her normal attacks and 1 shot me with her specials. It took forever, the 45k souls at level 18 where pretty cool though.
Did feel pretty bad for killing the granny but it was worth it.
@SmilingSword I think 120 sounds fine since we don't have to put point into ADP anymore. It should be enough to max 4 stats, no? Plus the level range I think is host +- 20
Joining Rosaria's Fingers causes at least one NPC to turn on you and disappear. And even accepting the covenant item will cause this. Though looking into it I don't see the 5 or 6 trophies, though maybe one or two....
What NPC? I haven't noticed anyone missing, but Firelink shrine gets pretty crowded (I'm getting ready for the Pontiff)
@FinneousPJ casters just need more levels, well at least pyros do cause it's 40/40 for int/fth, then 30 for att "I can't see a way around having those 5 slots, 2 for great chaos fire orb cause it's the best thing in PvE ever, 2 for choas bed vestiges for PvP and one more for quality of life, I use dark fire orb mostly although sacred flame sometimes for the style points", then 40 for dex because casting speed and you still need at least 27 in vig for that sweet 1000 base HP, at least 20 end probably more ideally "i only have 20 on my current build.", then the most important stat vit for fashion. A maxed pyro build would probably be around 150 to 160 I think.
I feel like I should respect into something different for this final boss just so I don't have to play the same style in NG+, I also don't wanna touch Rosaria in my next playthough. Thing is I don't really know what I respect into. Thinking I'll maybe go balls to wall str build and just whack 50 into it, with 40 end, 35 or 40 vit and some dex.
Gonna level weapons and try a bunch out, I have 50 something twinkling titanites and 30 something titanite scales, I should probably go farm some more, also 4 titanite slabs, must remember to pick up the last one from pickle pee XD
It's Sirris of the Sunless Realms, she doesn't so much disappear as show up again to say that she can't be your friend anymore. It breaks her questline but at the same time progresses the questline of that douchebag Leonhard
@SmilingSword That's exactly why I prefer a lower level meta: you have to make choices
I respecced into a luck build for
Anri's Sword
and it's pretty fun, but I'm gonna respec again to try a buffbot build soon. There's an interesting sorcery staff that scales with STR that I'm gonna try.
@FinneousPJ I normally level to whatever the community says is the correct build level because that way you get invaded a bunch and can fight on a equal standing. Sometimes if I'm sick of PvP I'll just keep on leveling to get out of PvP range but at some point you will get back into PvP range where it's really weird place to be because everybody can do everything.
I do want to make a level 800 monster for a joke at some point.
@Yamch, I forget to say you can safely join Rosies Fingers after you finish that NPC's questline.
@Yamcha I check up on stuff sometimes, like when I met Siegward. I wanted to know where I would see him again. Mostly I don't really bother unless I really like the NPC but I do think a guide or wiki is something you definitely need if you want to do all NPC questlines in a playthrough or 2.
Dark souls is so harsh with NPCs, I mean you can kill them or they can kill each other or you can just screw up and ruin your relationship with no way of fixing it.
Any of you PC dudes have a spare Medicant's Staff? I'm trying to do a Solaire run and I don't want to wait till endgame for my shield. Might be able to get the sword early though I already screwed up the easy way to do that.
I figured out what I want to do, I want to use the twin Princes' Greatsword and keep my pyro a pyro. Only problem is you can only get this sword late in NG+
They all seem kind of underwhelming this time around.
Playing a pyro is strange because I feel like all 4 are mandatory picks. They go, great swamp ring, old witch ring, fire clutch ring and sage's ring. They add up to 37% bonus damage to fire based things, I only get 25% bonus damage to dark pyromancies though.
I was using Havels for a long time and tried out the ring of favor, but neither seemed worth the slot.
@SmilingSword I was using Lloyd's rings for a long time because usually you want to be at full health. At least on my builds which is evasion based. Now I have the invisibility ring for Pvp with Hornet ring, DEX ring and i-Frame ring.
Though looking into it I don't see the 5 or 6 trophies, though maybe one or two....
Sirris is tied to a LOT of things.
She's you backup way into the Moundmakers if you msised the... totally not obtuse way in. She lets you into the Darkmoon blades. She gives you a ring. She gives you a gesture. There is a miracle you can only get through the Darkmoons There is a pyromancy you can only get through the Moundmakers.
So that's the 6 I know of. To be fair though, you also need to join Rosaria's Fingers in order to get the gesture and ring trophies, so if you know what you're doing you can progress anyway... I didn't.
@SethDavis Any thoughts on the game now that you've experienced it once (though probably not seen everything)? I'm sure many of us are interested in hearing your thoughts as a professional on one hand and enthusiast on the other.
Mechanically, I'm not so sure that combining the elements from Bloodborne into the Dark Souls 2 mechanics worked. DS2 put a lot of work into dual wielding weapons, while Bloodborne, of course, had super aggressive enemies and tight dodging. With the slower darksouls dodging and the the added weight of a lot of dual wielding equipment, it's a bit less viable to go through and just dual wield greatswords. There was also a much greater focus on creating replayability through secrets, but I feel that the way they went about it was waaay to unfollowable. I know how to find patches in the cathedral of the deep, but I've missed him in both playthroughs now because I did something too soon or too late and there's no hints anywhere for anything, just backtrack... all the time... everywhere... before every boss. Found Anor Londo? Go back to the settlement.
Thematically I wish they didn't take the route where they could just say "The geography's not supposed to make sense and no one has to talk about the relations between the lords/kingdoms, things just suddenly showed up next to each other." It kind of cheapens the narrative and puts an emphasis on cameos and tieing off loose threads when the first Dark Souls got a lot of its following because people could piece things together into one continuous narrative.
I'm not sure if that's what you were after though lol.
I have 30 vigor and vitality, 40 strength and dexterity, and 20 faith. the rest are kind of lagging behind at ~10. I use the dragonslayer armour and spear, with the brass helm and the dragon crest shield. My rings are Loyd's sword ring, carthus milk ring, soldiers ring and ring of favour.
@SethDavis Interesting thoughts. And what do you think are the highlights?
I was never into DS2 dual wielding. I can see why others would think differently, though. As for the backtracking that's why we have warping from the start I guess. But I agree DS1 had the best world design by far.
I'm a sucker for architecture. The cathedral of the deep was beautiful. A lot of games have areas where rooms are just rooms and it's really hard to tell why those rooms existed or what they were used for. DS1's Anor Londo has a million hallways, tons of rooms and stairwells... and one bed. In DS3 it's really picked up and you can usually tell what's been going on in a room. Still not many beds though....
Mechanically... nothing really stands out I think. They've done almost everything before in other games and it turned out the same or slighlty less awesome... oooh except the bridge! having a dynamic setpiece that can turn to become a hazard then turn into a ladder was really neat.
As for the backtracking that's why we have warping from the start I guess.
The backtracking itself was fine, I like the areas enough to go back to them, and the enemies are never trivial. Until ng+ maybe. The problem is that you have no idea that you have to backtrack. If sirris told you that she was heading to the boreal bridge before the wanderer fight, or for some reason mentioned a problem with the mound makers before heading to the settlement that would be great! just obscure enough for darksouls etc. But we get nothing on triggers or locations.
Big thanks to @SmilingSword for hooking me up, now my Sunbro is almost complete. All thats left is for me to break into an endgame area at level 25. What could go wrong?
Though looking into it I don't see the 5 or 6 trophies, though maybe one or two....
Sirris is tied to a LOT of things.
She's you backup way into the Moundmakers if you msised the... totally not obtuse way in. She lets you into the Darkmoon blades. She gives you a ring. She gives you a gesture. There is a miracle you can only get through the Darkmoons There is a pyromancy you can only get through the Moundmakers.
So that's the 6 I know of. To be fair though, you also need to join Rosaria's Fingers in order to get the gesture and ring trophies, so if you know what you're doing you can progress anyway... I didn't.
@SethDavis Any thoughts on the game now that you've experienced it once (though probably not seen everything)? I'm sure many of us are interested in hearing your thoughts as a professional on one hand and enthusiast on the other.
Mechanically, I'm not so sure that combining the elements from Bloodborne into the Dark Souls 2 mechanics worked. DS2 put a lot of work into dual wielding weapons, while Bloodborne, of course, had super aggressive enemies and tight dodging. With the slower darksouls dodging and the the added weight of a lot of dual wielding equipment, it's a bit less viable to go through and just dual wield greatswords. There was also a much greater focus on creating replayability through secrets, but I feel that the way they went about it was waaay to unfollowable. I know how to find patches in the cathedral of the deep, but I've missed him in both playthroughs now because I did something too soon or too late and there's no hints anywhere for anything, just backtrack... all the time... everywhere... before every boss. Found Anor Londo? Go back to the settlement.
Thematically I wish they didn't take the route where they could just say "The geography's not supposed to make sense and no one has to talk about the relations between the lords/kingdoms, things just suddenly showed up next to each other." It kind of cheapens the narrative and puts an emphasis on cameos and tieing off loose threads when the first Dark Souls got a lot of its following because people could piece things together into one continuous narrative.
I'm not sure if that's what you were after though lol.
I have 30 vigor and vitality, 40 strength and dexterity, and 20 faith. the rest are kind of lagging behind at ~10. I use the dragonslayer armour and spear, with the brass helm and the dragon crest shield. My rings are Loyd's sword ring, carthus milk ring, soldiers ring and ring of favour.
You're right, I wasn't thinking about her having all that stuff. Regardless, you can't platinum the game without at least going through NG+2, and that's if you plan everything perfectly. My advice on Sirris in one play-through is to finish her quest and then join Rosaria's Fingers at the end, or whatever plan you can figure out over the course of 3 games.
It is a little bit too much like Bloodborne just in terms of enemy speed if nothing else. Melee bosses move as fast as Gascoigne and beasts are all lightning fast, yet you can't dash, only roll. Dashing in Bloodborne was an almost instantaneous movement to the side, and it was needed because of enemy speed. When you translate that into Dark Souls roll mechanics, things get mixed up, and there are points in this game where the enemy design is dropped in straight from Bloodborne without much thought into what Darks Souls gameplay mechanics mean.
As for the geography, this game is even more cryptic and unknowable than the previous two. I'm not sure what has happened or is going on in Lothric. We see Andre, but it isn't THE Andre. Siegward isn't Siegmyer. Eygon and Irina aren't Lautrec and Anastasia. But maybe they are?? And how long has rekindling the flame taken the powers or sacrifice of 5 former people who linked it?? Is this only when the flame is dangerously close to dying out??
Comments
Some of the bosses leading up to him need some work or at least a bigger health pool. Aldrich in particular, 4 great chaos fire orbs should not a lord of cinder kill. Also Pontiff Sulyvahn, he was a pretty cool fight as melee but as a caster it was 5 fireballs and dead, also he tends stand around looking at you for ages if you keep your distance.
My Pyro build isn't even maxed I have int/fth both at 35, soft cap is 40. Guess it should be better in NG+. I did kind of do things in the wrong order through so maybe that's why, I killed Dancer super early and then did both Dragon places as soon as I had finished the Boreal prison.
The Nameless king is probably my favorite boss in the souls series, I don't think I've felt so good about taking a boss down before. Well maybe Raime with my Hex build.
He wears a getup similar to Gwyns, He fought on the side of the Dragons, which is a pretty good reason for him to be disowned and all his statues destroyed. Also Ornstein went to find him, Ornstein's gear doesn't say weather it was to fight him or ask him for aid, it just says went in search of him.
I'm pretty much sold on the idea that after Gwyn sacrificed himself to the fire, Orestein took it upon himself to find the true heir to the throne as nobody trusted Gwyndolin and Gwynevere was far too kind to rule "also she shagged a dragon and I don't think Ornstein would look too kindly on that, being a dragonslayer and all." Then they couldn't find a accord and came to blows and Ornstein was on the losing side of that battle
Rosaria, who is she? Is she a Lord? or maybe some other form of God "like Velka"? She reminds me so much of my Pale Lady
Do you think Priscilla is still alive in the painted world? Aldritch dreamt of her but didn't eat her so I'm just going to assume her and her fluffy tail are fine and happy in the painting.
Hopes for DLC, some armour I can wear in dragonform.
@SmilingSword You wanna try the password protected multiplayer one of these days? You're the only one on PC I think.
I think it's fine some fights are easier for casters, as long as others are harder. That's the whole point of having different character builds, isn't it?
So you went for the "secret" early game route on your 2nd time? How did it feel?
Nameless King is my favourite as well. I have literally taken him 100 times by now co-oping.
Re: Nameless King
Storm Curved Sword
The Nameless King, ally of the ancient dragons, fought beside the Stormdrake in countless battles. When the great beast fell, the king claimed his soul, as was the custom in the age of gods.
Dragonslayer Swordspear
Its owner was the Nameless King, a deific hunter of dragons. The swordspear is imbued with lightning, of which he was the heir.
Golden Crown
This golden crown, buried amidst long strands of bristling ash, is said to closely resemble that of the First Lord.
1. He was around in the "age of gods"
2. He is heir to lightning
3. His crown closely resembles that of Gwyn
Yeah, I think it's as clear as Dark Souls can be
But who is the one Yhorm failed to protect?
The secret early game was pretty hard to do, Dancer is a nightmare when you are hitting her for 90 dmg a shot and she has like 5000HP. Plus she two shot me with any of her normal attacks and 1 shot me with her specials. It took forever, the 45k souls at level 18 where pretty cool though.
Did feel pretty bad for killing the granny but it was worth it.
I feel like I should respect into something different for this final boss just so I don't have to play the same style in NG+, I also don't wanna touch Rosaria in my next playthough. Thing is I don't really know what I respect into. Thinking I'll maybe go balls to wall str build and just whack 50 into it, with 40 end, 35 or 40 vit and some dex.
Gonna level weapons and try a bunch out, I have 50 something twinkling titanites and 30 something titanite scales, I should probably go farm some more, also 4 titanite slabs, must remember to pick up the last one from pickle pee XD
I respecced into a luck build for
I do want to make a level 800 monster for a joke at some point.
@Yamch, I forget to say you can safely join Rosies Fingers after you finish that NPC's questline.
Maybe my next character will have better luck with her.
Questlines such as hers a pretty tough without walkthru. Do you play with a guide?
Dark souls is so harsh with NPCs, I mean you can kill them or they can kill each other or you can just screw up and ruin your relationship with no way of fixing it.
Hmm. I've just got to use my head and think...
Boo From why do you do this?
They all seem kind of underwhelming this time around.
Playing a pyro is strange because I feel like all 4 are mandatory picks. They go, great swamp ring, old witch ring, fire clutch ring and sage's ring. They add up to 37% bonus damage to fire based things, I only get 25% bonus damage to dark pyromancies though.
I was using Havels for a long time and tried out the ring of favor, but neither seemed worth the slot.
She's you backup way into the Moundmakers if you msised the... totally not obtuse way in.
She lets you into the Darkmoon blades.
She gives you a ring.
She gives you a gesture.
There is a miracle you can only get through the Darkmoons
There is a pyromancy you can only get through the Moundmakers.
So that's the 6 I know of. To be fair though, you also need to join Rosaria's Fingers in order to get the gesture and ring trophies, so if you know what you're doing you can progress anyway... I didn't. Mechanically, I'm not so sure that combining the elements from Bloodborne into the Dark Souls 2 mechanics worked. DS2 put a lot of work into dual wielding weapons, while Bloodborne, of course, had super aggressive enemies and tight dodging. With the slower darksouls dodging and the the added weight of a lot of dual wielding equipment, it's a bit less viable to go through and just dual wield greatswords. There was also a much greater focus on creating replayability through secrets, but I feel that the way they went about it was waaay to unfollowable. I know how to find patches in the cathedral of the deep, but I've missed him in both playthroughs now because I did something too soon or too late and there's no hints anywhere for anything, just backtrack... all the time... everywhere... before every boss. Found Anor Londo? Go back to the settlement.
Thematically I wish they didn't take the route where they could just say "The geography's not supposed to make sense and no one has to talk about the relations between the lords/kingdoms, things just suddenly showed up next to each other." It kind of cheapens the narrative and puts an emphasis on cameos and tieing off loose threads when the first Dark Souls got a lot of its following because people could piece things together into one continuous narrative.
I'm not sure if that's what you were after though lol. I have 30 vigor and vitality, 40 strength and dexterity, and 20 faith. the rest are kind of lagging behind at ~10. I use the dragonslayer armour and spear, with the brass helm and the dragon crest shield. My rings are Loyd's sword ring, carthus milk ring, soldiers ring and ring of favour.
I was never into DS2 dual wielding. I can see why others would think differently, though. As for the backtracking that's why we have warping from the start I guess. But I agree DS1 had the best world design by far.
Mechanically... nothing really stands out I think. They've done almost everything before in other games and it turned out the same or slighlty less awesome... oooh except the bridge! having a dynamic setpiece that can turn to become a hazard then turn into a ladder was really neat. The backtracking itself was fine, I like the areas enough to go back to them, and the enemies are never trivial. Until ng+ maybe. The problem is that you have no idea that you have to backtrack. If sirris told you that she was heading to the boreal bridge before the wanderer fight, or for some reason mentioned a problem with the mound makers before heading to the settlement that would be great! just obscure enough for darksouls etc. But we get nothing on triggers or locations.
It is a little bit too much like Bloodborne just in terms of enemy speed if nothing else. Melee bosses move as fast as Gascoigne and beasts are all lightning fast, yet you can't dash, only roll. Dashing in Bloodborne was an almost instantaneous movement to the side, and it was needed because of enemy speed. When you translate that into Dark Souls roll mechanics, things get mixed up, and there are points in this game where the enemy design is dropped in straight from Bloodborne without much thought into what Darks Souls gameplay mechanics mean.
As for the geography, this game is even more cryptic and unknowable than the previous two. I'm not sure what has happened or is going on in Lothric. We see Andre, but it isn't THE Andre. Siegward isn't Siegmyer. Eygon and Irina aren't Lautrec and Anastasia. But maybe they are?? And how long has rekindling the flame taken the powers or sacrifice of 5 former people who linked it?? Is this only when the flame is dangerously close to dying out??