@FinneousPJ, yeah that is true but they are far and few between. Also nothing really ever takes that much faith or int to use, besides whatever version of Artorias's sword we are going to get.
The other reason I stay away from lvling int/fth is I don't want to use spells on my first playthrough. Souls games are generally set up for melee combat and spamming ranged spells feels like cheating most of the time. Don't get me wrong I love spell casters and will definitely be trying all the different spell schools out, just on later playthroughts. Might take a spell school just for the weapon buff but at the point I levels to spare for that, it's probably easier to just farm souls and buy pine resins.
As for starting classes, I'll pick the one with the best looking armour.
People say this, and certain bosses are definitely easier, but there are many that aren't. The Pursuer as a Sorcerer in DS2 is a great example. He's highly resistant to magic damage, and maybe have a nearly useless shield and the Fire Short-sword, with very little defense if you're focusing on magic. You have to be nearmy perfect with your rolls to beat him, and you have to do a ton of them. Meanwhile you're lucky if you can survive two hits. Magic gets much more powerful later, but early on it's only useful if you are capable of constantly keeping range.
Miracles are even more useless initially. You get extra heals, but they are painfully slow. Force is good when you get it, but your offensive abilities are only coming later. I can't speak to Hexes. Pyromancy is a mixed bag in both games, though in 3 we are able to get it right of the bat again until waiting until the 3rd level.
In the end, magic makes things easier in general compared to strictly melee skills, but it isn't quite the cakewalk it's made out to be.
I know this a bit late but I just want to say the Pursuer is probably not the best example of a boss that's harder to beat as a caster than as a melee meathead. The reason being is the fight plays out the exact same way, the Pursuer charges in and you parry his big underarm strike and then hit him for many unblockable damage. Pursuer only has 45% spell resistance but a huge 65% dark resistance and I destroyed him with my Hexer build.
Yes the first ambush is annoying but his first boss fight is really just parry and ballista then win. By the time you fight him again you should have more than enough int/fth/gear/good spells to destroy him.
The only bosses that I found harder as a caster are some of the DLC bosses like Raime, just because the magic/fire/dark resistances in the DLC were insane.
I would like to point out that the method you describe here isn't necessarily a good example. While a sorcerer based character can indeed use this method, it is not USING sorcery and it depends on things that are sorcerer doesn't necessarily have.
What is more, actually using sorcery in this scenario can make it harder to defeat the pursuer.
Of course I'm using sorcery, I'm just using a parry to set up huge sorcery damage. A parry into crystal soul spear or into two crystal greatswords are both completely legitimate strategies for any mage. Hell even buffing your weapon with crystal magic weapon is a sorcery.
The thing is it doesn't make it a harder fight than if I was using a normal weapon doing normal damage because some sorceries put out so much damage the pursers 45% resistance doesn't really make a difference, unless of course your on a very high NG+.
If you are talking about the first fight then still no, it's not harder as a caster than as a melee person. The fight is designed to be easily won by using the environment and I would go so far to say that if it wasn't possible to use the environment to win, it would still be a easier fight as a caster or at least quicker. The range damage would add up and when he comes in close it's parry and smack him then back off. While as a melee all your damage would come from the punishment after the parry if you would want to play it safe.
Also I saw in a previous post you said sorcery was gimped in PvP and it is most certainly not. It's a really strong style of play, I have to completely change my entire play style when fighting a caster and most of time one misstep equals instant death. Yes some spell are easy to aviod "pretty much all the soul arrows" but just never knowing what a caster is going to throw at you is such a pain to deal with. You just don't know if it's going to be one of those Crystal soul spear and only Crystal soul spear guys or somebody using tricksy things like soul shower and soul spear barrage or the classic homing soul mass into crystal greatsword spam. All you know for certain is you are gonna have to dodge a whole lot or out range them with a fast bow.
Anybody else having DS3 crash issues on steam? Mine worked fine the whole of yesterday and now won't stop crashing. Set the lighting to low and it worked for about a hour and then crashed again.
@FinneousPJ not yet, been trying different setting and such first. Gonna post soon but From is not known for being very helpful when it comes to fixing whatever they screwed up on pc releases.
/me had to look up where katana guy was. There was a fog gate blocking me from going back, but it looks like it just disappears if you wait long enough? Cuts down on loading times for the hub I guess.
@FinneousPJ, yeah that is true but they are far and few between. Also nothing really ever takes that much faith or int to use, besides whatever version of Artorias's sword we are going to get.
The other reason I stay away from lvling int/fth is I don't want to use spells on my first playthrough. Souls games are generally set up for melee combat and spamming ranged spells feels like cheating most of the time. Don't get me wrong I love spell casters and will definitely be trying all the different spell schools out, just on later playthroughts. Might take a spell school just for the weapon buff but at the point I levels to spare for that, it's probably easier to just farm souls and buy pine resins.
As for starting classes, I'll pick the one with the best looking armour.
People say this, and certain bosses are definitely easier, but there are many that aren't. The Pursuer as a Sorcerer in DS2 is a great example. He's highly resistant to magic damage, and maybe have a nearly useless shield and the Fire Short-sword, with very little defense if you're focusing on magic. You have to be nearmy perfect with your rolls to beat him, and you have to do a ton of them. Meanwhile you're lucky if you can survive two hits. Magic gets much more powerful later, but early on it's only useful if you are capable of constantly keeping range.
Miracles are even more useless initially. You get extra heals, but they are painfully slow. Force is good when you get it, but your offensive abilities are only coming later. I can't speak to Hexes. Pyromancy is a mixed bag in both games, though in 3 we are able to get it right of the bat again until waiting until the 3rd level.
In the end, magic makes things easier in general compared to strictly melee skills, but it isn't quite the cakewalk it's made out to be.
I know this a bit late but I just want to say the Pursuer is probably not the best example of a boss that's harder to beat as a caster than as a melee meathead. The reason being is the fight plays out the exact same way, the Pursuer charges in and you parry his big underarm strike and then hit him for many unblockable damage. Pursuer only has 45% spell resistance but a huge 65% dark resistance and I destroyed him with my Hexer build.
Yes the first ambush is annoying but his first boss fight is really just parry and ballista then win. By the time you fight him again you should have more than enough int/fth/gear/good spells to destroy him.
The only bosses that I found harder as a caster are some of the DLC bosses like Raime, just because the magic/fire/dark resistances in the DLC were insane.
I would like to point out that the method you describe here isn't necessarily a good example. While a sorcerer based character can indeed use this method, it is not USING sorcery and it depends on things that are sorcerer doesn't necessarily have.
What is more, actually using sorcery in this scenario can make it harder to defeat the pursuer.
Of course I'm using sorcery, I'm just using a parry to set up huge sorcery damage. A parry into crystal soul spear or into two crystal greatswords are both completely legitimate strategies for any mage. Hell even buffing your weapon with crystal magic weapon is a sorcery.
The thing is it doesn't make it a harder fight than if I was using a normal weapon doing normal damage because some sorceries put out so much damage the pursers 45% resistance doesn't really make a difference, unless of course your on a very high NG+.
If you are talking about the first fight then still no, it's not harder as a caster than as a melee person. The fight is designed to be easily won by using the environment and I would go so far to say that if it wasn't possible to use the environment to win, it would still be a easier fight as a caster or at least quicker. The range damage would add up and when he comes in close it's parry and smack him then back off. While as a melee all your damage would come from the punishment after the parry if you would want to play it safe.
Also I saw in a previous post you said sorcery was gimped in PvP and it is most certainly not. It's a really strong style of play, I have to completely change my entire play style when fighting a caster and most of time one misstep equals instant death. Yes some spell are easy to aviod "pretty much all the soul arrows" but just never knowing what a caster is going to throw at you is such a pain to deal with. You just don't know if it's going to be one of those Crystal soul spear and only Crystal soul spear guys or somebody using tricksy things like soul shower and soul spear barrage or the classic homing soul mass into crystal greatsword spam. All you know for certain is you are gonna have to dodge a whole lot or out range them with a fast bow.
The main point to take here is that I would venture to guess your might be more skilled at the game than myself or the_spyder. I've only come to the games recently, and I play often, but I am very slow and methodical, essentially mastering areas then often beating my head against a boss for hours. The first boss in this game was legit hard for me, not Gascoigne-level, but close. I have read alot of comments about people one shotting him, and I never had a ton of trouble with the first phase, but it took me awhile to realize his reach was killing me, and I had to negate it. A pyromancer would obliterate him, I would shudder doing the fight with an assassin or deprived. All in all, I'm not really that "good" at the game, maybe I haven't played them all long enough, or maybe I just never will be. But for mediocre players, the first boss in Dark Souls 3 is a fait bit harder than Last Giant or Taurus Demon.
@SmilingSword -The spells you are taking for granted aren't available until late in the game which makes me think that you are talking about NG+ or beyond. The initial play through, you don't have crystal sorceries at the time that you take on the Pursuer. So you are not using the strategies that you describe. And if you are heavily focused on sorcery, you may not have a good damage weapon.
well, technically, you don't have to fight him at all. you can go through no mans wharf and skip him, or grind 1 million souls and skip straight to drangleic castle, then come back with whatever firepower you want.
/me had to look up where katana guy was. There was a fog gate blocking me from going back, but it looks like it just disappears if you wait long enough? Cuts down on loading times for the hub I guess.
As my friend pointed out to me, that particular fog gate seems to be to mask loading times. Also for Geforce 560Ti, 570 and 580 users with an Intel i7 920 or better CPU:
Dark Souls 3 performs considerably better at 1280x720 with the 314.22 display drivers than it does with the 361.xx and newer display drivers (Didn't test drivers between 314.22 and 361.xx). With 314.22 display drivers I achieve an average 40FPS at 1280x720 and 25FPS at 1920x1080. With the 361.xx and newer drivers I achieve an average 17FPS at 1280x720 and 14FPS at 1920x1080, that's more than a 100% improvement at 1280x720 when using the old drivers!
I can even configure the video settings to High with no detrimental effects on FPS (as far as I can tell/I have played beyond the 5th Bonfire)! There is micro stutter when looting items and occasional micro stutter when in a location that is swamped with summon signs, when fighting/exploring/resting at bonfires the FPS is very consistent.
My friend achieves 45FPS on Maximum settings at 1920x1080 and 55FPS on High settings at 1920x1080 with the same CPU and Motherboard but with a Geforce 960 GPU, he notices the same micro stutters.
So the game is largely dependent on you having a good GPU, not a good CPU but it is perfectly playable with a Geforce 560Ti or better 500 series card (I expect the 570 and 580 to do okay at 1920x1080).
I'm so glad I bought a PS4 at this point. Yeah, I guess it's only 30 fps, but both this and Bloodborne are a remarkably steady FPS. Is it ever going to be as good as a powerhouse desktop?? No, but you don't have to mess around with anyone, and honestly, when I play games on my PS4, I have a hard time figuring out how anything would look better than this does on my TV screen in 1080p. At a certain point, how good do your graphics have to be??
@SmilingSword -The spells you are taking for granted aren't available until late in the game which makes me think that you are talking about NG+ or beyond. The initial play through, you don't have crystal sorceries at the time that you take on the Pursuer. So you are not using the strategies that you describe. And if you are heavily focused on sorcery, you may not have a good damage weapon.
But you fight the Pursuer lots of times,
1. Ambush in the forest of fallen giants.
2. first boss fight.
3. 4 or 5 dark Pursuers in Lost Bastille.
4. Iron Keep in the first Smelter Demon room, after killing the Demon.
5. Drangleic Castle in the Dragon Rider twins room after you kill them, this ones a fun fight because it's 2 Pursuers at the same time. "requires a bonfire ascetic"
Pursuer is possibly the most reused boss in the history of gaming XD
Just checked the wiki and I missed one, they added another one in the things betwixed by the Orges guarding the gender bender coffin.
So the game is largely dependent on you having a good GPU, not a good CPU but it is perfectly playable with a Geforce 560Ti or better 500 series card (I expect the 570 and 580 to do okay at 1920x1080).
If this were true I wouldnt have troubles with the GTX 960
Oh! Maybe that's the difference. In non scholar version you fight him in his room or ambush, after the smelter demon, and a pair in the throne room of drangleic castle in ng+x. Everything but the main fight is pretty well hidden, so most people only ever fought him once per playthrough at the beginning.
PSA to all playstation buddies: There's going to be network maintenance tonight (10:30 to 12:30 MDT), try not to get into a boss fight with two summons around then, could get nasty real quick.
PSA to all playstation buddies: There's going to be network maintenance tonight (10:30 to 12:30 MDT), try not to get into a boss fight with two summons around then, could get nasty real quick.
EDIT: NVM, I'm dumb. It's on the 18th
I haven't summoned or spent more than 10 minutes with an ember active yet, but I'm gonna in a bit for Vordt just to see how things work on that end.
I tried it once last night, first phase was easy, second I think the frostbite mechanic got me, though since I'm not entirely sure what it does I can't be sure....
I guess I don't know if I'd call it a phase really. It's when the rolls start and his frostbitten mechanic is really ramped-up. Ultimately, I just ran underneath him and got him down to 45% or so just wildly swinging and dodging here or there. I'm not even sure how I died. Anyway, I'm gonna summon on him since I'm ready to move onto a new area. Pride for the solo kill can come later for this one.
Hello friends. I am having an excellent time with this game. I hope you all are too.
I would strongly recommend trying bosses solo for the first couple of times, because you can't beat that feeling and you don't really get it when a pal helps you out. Not that its shameful to summon, just if you beat a tough boss by yourself then you are a pretty rad dude.
Also if you are nervous about fighting a boss for the first time then just throw down a summon sign! You get to see how the boss works in a consequence free way and help a bro out at the same time.
Hello friends. I am having an excellent time with this game. I hope you all are too.
I would strongly recommend trying bosses solo for the first couple of times, because you can't beat that feeling and you don't really get it when a pal helps you out. Not that its shameful to summon, just if you beat a tough boss by yourself then you are a pretty rad dude.
Also if you are nervous about fighting a boss for the first time then just throw down a summon sign! You get to see how the boss works in a consequence free way and help a bro out at the same time.
This is true....I summoned on Vordt just because I haven't tried online yet to this point (I'm very stingy with embers). It was a Warrior of Sunlight, and the boss was dead in 30 seconds, and this guy had some insanely good pyromancy going on. Anyway, after spending about 10 hours learning every nook and cranny of the High Wall, I was ready to move on. And I got my dex to 16 and....well, let's just say I now understand why everyone always asks "where is the earliest I can get a katana??" The uchigatana I got from me and the Swordmaster both falling to our deaths makes my spear seem like a child's toy, and is even cutting up the Lothric Knights like butter comparatively, even at only +1 (and my spear is raw).
Very clear that there are enemies in this installment (more than the others even) that you are meant to try fight once, succeed or fail, then safely go around because they are a hassle. The Lothric Knights with long patrols, Smough-lite in the courtyard, and the obese evangelist in the Undead Settlement are all very tough enemies, but more importantly, they don't give nearly the amount of souls you would expect from such tough enemies, and fighting them isn't remotely productive to your time or advancement unless you are farming for their gear. Unless you love the challenge of course. :P
Protip: If you help someone beat a boss you get your ember status restored and also get an Ember item. If you are a Sunbro then you also get the Covenant item. So always be helping people.
Comments
The thing is it doesn't make it a harder fight than if I was using a normal weapon doing normal damage because some sorceries put out so much damage the pursers 45% resistance doesn't really make a difference, unless of course your on a very high NG+.
If you are talking about the first fight then still no, it's not harder as a caster than as a melee person. The fight is designed to be easily won by using the environment and I would go so far to say that if it wasn't possible to use the environment to win, it would still be a easier fight as a caster or at least quicker. The range damage would add up and when he comes in close it's parry and smack him then back off. While as a melee all your damage would come from the punishment after the parry if you would want to play it safe.
Also I saw in a previous post you said sorcery was gimped in PvP and it is most certainly not. It's a really strong style of play, I have to completely change my entire play style when fighting a caster and most of time one misstep equals instant death. Yes some spell are easy to aviod "pretty much all the soul arrows" but just never knowing what a caster is going to throw at you is such a pain to deal with. You just don't know if it's going to be one of those Crystal soul spear and only Crystal soul spear guys or somebody using tricksy things like soul shower and soul spear barrage or the classic homing soul mass into crystal greatsword spam. All you know for certain is you are gonna have to dodge a whole lot or out range them with a fast bow.
First Lord of Cinder is down!
Dark Souls 3 performs considerably better at 1280x720 with the 314.22 display drivers than it does with the 361.xx and newer display drivers (Didn't test drivers between 314.22 and 361.xx). With 314.22 display drivers I achieve an average 40FPS at 1280x720 and 25FPS at 1920x1080. With the 361.xx and newer drivers I achieve an average 17FPS at 1280x720 and 14FPS at 1920x1080, that's more than a 100% improvement at 1280x720 when using the old drivers!
I can even configure the video settings to High with no detrimental effects on FPS (as far as I can tell/I have played beyond the 5th Bonfire)! There is micro stutter when looting items and occasional micro stutter when in a location that is swamped with summon signs, when fighting/exploring/resting at bonfires the FPS is very consistent.
My computer hardware?
Geforce 560Ti 2GB (2011 GPU)
Intel i7 920 @ 2.66GHZ (2008 CPU)
8GB DDR3 RAM
ASUS P6T
My friend achieves 45FPS on Maximum settings at 1920x1080 and 55FPS on High settings at 1920x1080 with the same CPU and Motherboard but with a Geforce 960 GPU, he notices the same micro stutters.
Geforce 960 4GB (2015 GPU)
Intel i7 920 @ 2.66GHZ (2008 CPU)
8GB DDR3 RAM
ASUS P6T
So the game is largely dependent on you having a good GPU, not a good CPU but it is perfectly playable with a Geforce 560Ti or better 500 series card (I expect the 570 and 580 to do okay at 1920x1080).
1. Ambush in the forest of fallen giants.
2. first boss fight.
3. 4 or 5 dark Pursuers in Lost Bastille.
4. Iron Keep in the first Smelter Demon room, after killing the Demon.
5. Drangleic Castle in the Dragon Rider twins room after you kill them, this ones a fun fight because it's 2 Pursuers at the same time. "requires a bonfire ascetic"
Pursuer is possibly the most reused boss in the history of gaming XD
Just checked the wiki and I missed one, they added another one in the things betwixed by the Orges guarding the gender bender coffin.
EDIT: NVM, I'm dumb. It's on the 18th
I would strongly recommend trying bosses solo for the first couple of times, because you can't beat that feeling and you don't really get it when a pal helps you out. Not that its shameful to summon, just if you beat a tough boss by yourself then you are a pretty rad dude.
Also if you are nervous about fighting a boss for the first time then just throw down a summon sign! You get to see how the boss works in a consequence free way and help a bro out at the same time.