The frost sword from early in the game prevents casting Magic Weapon or using item buffs, so that is probably a no on enchanted weapons and additional buffs of any kind.
I'm not really talking about boss weapons or ones with any kind of infused property. I wouldn't expect to be able to apply anything to the katana I got killing Yuria, but I would think the original one you get from the Swordmaster would take it, since it's the base-type of the weapon that just so happens to have bleed damage as part of it's innate appeal. I would think some daggers or curved swords do as well....
So now it turns out that From is saying that poise is "working as intended" (and anyone who has spent ever played WoW over the years knows what an ominous phrase that is). It's fine if they want to push players toward a dodge/roll, more skillful style, I mean they already made a whole game based around doing so. But if that's the case, and poise only affects something called "hyper-armor" (which is connected to weapon arts), then what the hell is the point of ANY heavy armor sets, which you have to invest in an otherwise nearly useless stat to wear without breaking your equipment load?? Or the ring that is BASED around poise?? Why does every RPG ever made have to have at least one totally broken stat that is utterly useless??
Fair enough. But let's look at the iconic "heavy" armor in the series, Havel's Set. Compared to something light like the Assassin Set, it has roughly 15-40 more points of defense and resistance in various slots. The question is, do those points tangibly affect your ability to survive in the game?? Because if it ends up being marginal, then what in the world is the point of leveling up Vitality?? These are honest questions....
@jjstraka34 that is pretty much what I expected to happen. In previous games there have been VERY FEW scenarios where you weren't 100x better off avoiding the blow and then you had to invest HUGE amounts into such a build that it was almost not worth the effort. And then Bloodborne. It appears to be the way they are driving.
Anor Londo really only turns out to make a cameo appearance in the game, I was entirely mistaken thinking this was going to be another full-fledged tour there. Essentially it's a re-hash of the archers on the roofs, one of the elevators, a couple Silver Knights (whose pathing is the real challenge) and a room with another deformed beast mini-boss that serves as a one-time clear for the boss run. This area really drives home the point that things are simply converging on Lothric, since most of the city isn't there or accessible, only the greatest hits, so to speak. Haven't ventured to take on Aldritch yet, but it's clear that he and the Pontiff are portrayed more as villians than just about anyone in the entire series, and they are the overriding constant throughout the game up until this point.
Bumped up my intelligence to a minimum of 10 to get the flame weapon buff and upgraded both the Pyromancy Flame and one Tailsman to +3 for the moment. Though I have relatively high Faith at the moment, I've essentially done the game all melee up til this point, as nothing comes close to being as important stat-wise as Vigor and Endurance on a first play-through. A decent farming trick if you are in an area with mobs you don't fear at all is to put on the Mimic head and just go to town. The bone-spiders in the sewer near the water bonfire in Irithyll usually give around 800 souls, with the Symbol of Avarice they pump out more than 1200, which is a 50% boost.
@SethDavis What NG cycle are you on? Still NG+1? It's certainly quite easy because your best scaling range is around NG+1 levels and the enemies don't scale up enough. However, once you hit diminishing returns and further NG+ levels I would expect the difficulty to rise up quite well.
@jjstraka34 Once you learn to take the silver knights near the bonfire rapidly, you can get about 10 000 souls per minute.
10,000 a minute?? There are two of them, not sure how much they give, but what is your strategy?? I've been having trouble pulling one and taking him out before the other pulls, and the one with the spear has insane range. One on one they are just dodge, turn and hit.
I finished NG++ last monday. It's not much different from NG or NG+. Basic enemies are still just a couple hits and bosses only do a little bit more damage. I was able to solo every boss without dieing too often, finally clearing away that bit of shame from the Pontiff.
@jjstraka34 You can take all three of them in about a minute when you learn to dodge through their attacks and go for a quick backstab. It gives well over 10k with souls boosting equipment.
@jjstraka34 You can take all three of them in about a minute when you learn to dodge through their attacks and go for a quick backstab. It gives well over 10k with souls boosting equipment.
I haven't tried my hand at the red-eyed one off to the right yet, what's his special skill-set??
more health and damage mostly, with a slightly more awkward area to fight in. he might also be more likely to do a three chop lightning attack and is harder to backstab.
There was a nasty rumor as of a couple hours ago that Demon's Souls servers had been shut down, though it is apparently just maintenance, as the game is actually coming to PSNow soon, which is good news for the entire community. I'd hate to see any of these games go dark, especially since Demon's already was brought back from the abyss once before.
I've been playing a Royal in Demon's Souls (been playing frequently the last day to see if the servers have been fixed yet) and magic is super, super overpowered in this game, even compared to Dark Souls. I didn't even have to be on the ground for the Tower Knight fight.
So the thing with Demon's Souls....if you come to it after having played the other 4 games, I feel like the challenge is significantly reduced. It's still awesome, the level design top-notch (more Zelda-esque than the other games in fact). But I'm not falling for any tricks. Yes, magic is OP, but I feel like I wouldn't be having a much harder time if I was primarily melee either. The bosses all seem to have a gimmick that is easily exploitable in some way, I haven't died to any of the three I've faced. The first level of Stonefang Tunnel is very much like No-Man's Wharf, except No-Man's Wharf is 10 times harder. I don't doubt the game was brutal in '09, but these games have only gotten harder in my estimation with each installment. And after 100 hours of Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne, Demon's Souls feels like a game with a great design, but clearly a rough draft for better things to come. Don't get me wrong, it's still awesome and it's amazing to see the genesis of everything.
It's the same going the other way. The cues and patterns are generally the same throughout the games, so every game trains you for the others.
For instance, since I played the games in the order that they came out I have exactly the opposite opinion of stonefang and the warf. Stonefang was difficult because the enemies have such high damage resistance (except to piercing and magic) and do enormous damage for an area you can come to so soon. The Warf was kinda boring, enemies did low damage unless you fell for their oil gimmick and the big guys are completely negated by using a lockstone.
Three bosses is kind of early to say that they "all seem to have a gimmick that is easily exploitable in some way" though. You've pretty much just beat an elite mob, the tutorial boss and the first actual boss, coincidentally all members of a 4 boss group that have no answer to being attacked from range. That's not to say that you'll have a lot of trouble with the remaining bosses, just that they'll be better able to fight you.
My favourite is the Old Monk. By now the chances of getting an unlucky roll with him are pretty low, but he was an absolute murder house when the game was new.
I probably shouldn't have picked the Royal if I wanted to get any sense of the game's difficulty, because, as has been stated before, magic is just frickin' ridiculous in this game, plus I just picked up a knife that boosts it if held in the left hand. It borderline breaks the game as far as I can tell at the moment.
So I defeated the two beasts guarding the Aldritch Faithful Covenant by using a time honored tradition as old as the Taurus and Capra Demon fights. Pulling them individually with one arrow, climbing on the ladder and baiting their lightning spew, then plunging. Repeat 4 times with a Carthus-flame buffed weapon, running them around a pillar each time to be able to safely climb the ladder again. Even this method resulted in 5 deaths between them. If you miss the plunge you are wide open, and these things will two shot you easily. I'd like an opinion on this strategy. Is it legit, or would you feel I'm manipulating the game to the point where it wasn't meant to be done this way?? Regardless, the Ring of Favor is goddamn AMAZING (40 extra HP and a full extra swing with a full stamina bar than before), easily the best piece of equipment in the game thus far, so I have a feeling From Software knew very well how tough these bastards were.
Edit: Archdeacon McDonnell seems to confirm The Deep's tie to water. As far as I can tell the Covenant leader of the Aldritch Faithful is a bloated corpse, or maybe this is the kind of transformation Aldritch himself undertook but managed to survive on his way to dark blob form. Indeed many of the Covenant leaders in this game are either dead (Archdeacon, Wolf, at times Rosaria based on events) or barely seem to exist in this world (Yorshka).
Ha, I never thought of doing that, that's a pretty good plan. I gather it's possible to jump off the ladder itself?
Hmm, now I kinda wanna go and test to see if the cat ring allows you take that whole fall without damage, and if falling further increases the plunge damage.
Comments
Bumped up my intelligence to a minimum of 10 to get the flame weapon buff and upgraded both the Pyromancy Flame and one Tailsman to +3 for the moment. Though I have relatively high Faith at the moment, I've essentially done the game all melee up til this point, as nothing comes close to being as important stat-wise as Vigor and Endurance on a first play-through. A decent farming trick if you are in an area with mobs you don't fear at all is to put on the Mimic head and just go to town. The bone-spiders in the sewer near the water bonfire in Irithyll usually give around 800 souls, with the Symbol of Avarice they pump out more than 1200, which is a 50% boost.
For instance, since I played the games in the order that they came out I have exactly the opposite opinion of stonefang and the warf. Stonefang was difficult because the enemies have such high damage resistance (except to piercing and magic) and do enormous damage for an area you can come to so soon. The Warf was kinda boring, enemies did low damage unless you fell for their oil gimmick and the big guys are completely negated by using a lockstone.
Three bosses is kind of early to say that they "all seem to have a gimmick that is easily exploitable in some way" though. You've pretty much just beat an elite mob, the tutorial boss and the first actual boss, coincidentally all members of a 4 boss group that have no answer to being attacked from range. That's not to say that you'll have a lot of trouble with the remaining bosses, just that they'll be better able to fight you.
My favourite is the Old Monk. By now the chances of getting an unlucky roll with him are pretty low, but he was an absolute murder house when the game was new.
Edit: Archdeacon McDonnell seems to confirm The Deep's tie to water. As far as I can tell the Covenant leader of the Aldritch Faithful is a bloated corpse, or maybe this is the kind of transformation Aldritch himself undertook but managed to survive on his way to dark blob form. Indeed many of the Covenant leaders in this game are either dead (Archdeacon, Wolf, at times Rosaria based on events) or barely seem to exist in this world (Yorshka).
Hmm, now I kinda wanna go and test to see if the cat ring allows you take that whole fall without damage, and if falling further increases the plunge damage.