oh man, that would be rough. I guess I just happened to build correctly to fight them, the first stage was the only threat and it was set up in such a way that I was able to get through it before the first bell stopped ringing.
The trick to Abyss Watchers is basically don't panic. Which is good advice for life in general actually my friends. The boss don't have much poise to speak of so you can knock them out of their combo really easily. I did lots of jolly co-operation with this boss and sometimes they didn't even get to attack if we were aggressive enough.
and DS3 doesn't save to steam cloud because From hates it's PC player base. The really stupid thing is DS1 saved to the cloud and DS2 didn't, wtf From.
So 35 hrs of gameplay gone, guess I'll restart tmr. So if you have a toon you really like, back it up.
and DS3 doesn't save to steam cloud because From hates it's PC player base. The really stupid thing is DS1 saved to the cloud and DS2 didn't, wtf From.
So 35 hrs of gameplay gone, guess I'll restart tmr. So if you have a toon you really like, back it up.
Sucks to lose it at this point, though I don't think it's ever been a matter of hating PC players, but the fact that programming for it was never their forte. The port of the original was only done on demand, and the Undead Asylum soapstone messages still had Xbox buttons on them. It's only playable at all because of fan mods. 3 is the first with a PC release that is simultaneous. They just aren't that good at PC ports, and it only makes up a fraction of their console player-base.
Today is a day of great shame.... This is the first time in any souls game that I felt that I had to summon to beat a boss... the Pontiff has beaten me.
There is no shame in getting help to beat a boss as long as you tried to fight them yourself at least once. If you are truly in despair my friend then you can regain your honour through jolly co-operation. Become like the friendly fellow who helped you in your hour of need.
@FinneousPJ nah gonna restart as a pyro and build around those demon fire fists. I really like the idea of punching things to death, it's even better when your fists are on fire XD
Still trying to figure out the frostbitten effect, but from what I can tell, it halts stamina generation completely, which means no rolling, running, blocking or attacking. Vordt gets this in stage two, but he isn't nearly as fast. This knight has the frost aura from the beginning, and his swings do it in a wide cone. You gotta get away from him, but he closes quick. Two hits with that thing and your meter is almost full, and if it's full, you're dead. I almost killed him the first time by just doing a balls-out two hand spam after the first roll, but was one hit off. I'm not sure what the melee strategy is for a guy who is emanating this status effect from his body. But there is probably a consumable that counters it. Regardless, he may have nasty skills, but he's a moron. Pull with one arrow, run back into the previous room, and he'll just pace in front of the doorway letting you pot-shot him. Enemies in these games simply cannot deal with even the most basic arrows.
The melee strategy is the same as with pretty much everyone else. Hug his side, roll under his first swing and get some hits in. He's not that tough in terms of health, just scary.
I feel like the Cemetery of Ash and Iudex Gundyr are really the ultimate expression of a Souls-game tutorial level. First, you are thrown enemies that even complete neophytes will likely have no trouble with. You see a soapstone warning you off the path to a mini-boss, and then....
I love Gundyr simply as a amazing design choice even though he kicked my ass for an hour. His name translates to "judge of battle" or "battle judge". And he's literally going to determine if you are worthy of even PLAYING the game. More importantly, he makes your starting class matter more than any other encounter in the series. You will beat him with what you woke up with, or you won't beat him at all.
As for the fight (and only having 3 estus), it's best to get to the second phase without taking a hit. If you stay at a distance, he won't take long to jump, and if you roll to his side, you'll never get hit and you can get at least 2 licks in. Keep baiting him into the jump til he transforms. The second phase messes with you, but the fact is you have to get under all that glop (and it is hard to see what the bottom half is doing under there). When you can tell he'said getting ready to pounce down, get out, heal if nescessary. I barely got him. I imagine this fight is piss-easy on NG+.....but as your initiation, I agree it's a rough one, but it has a purpose.
This one gets the beginning right. Phalanx, Taurus Demon and Last Giant are essentially jokes in retrospect. Father Gascoigne in far too difficult to be where he is in the game's progression. Gundyr is perfect, and teaches you to play better or go do somitting else. And this is coming from someone who died to him at least 10 times.
It's a great fight true. He's mainly there to train you in your dodging skills in terms of the game design I think. He's big and slow with easy to predict attacks that punish you for getting hit. He's "easy" but you have to master the basics of dealing with tough enemies in Souls games: hugging their side and circle strafing, positioning so attacks go over your head, rolling through attacks etc etc. All the stuff they can't assume you'll get the hang of training on the hollows earlier in the tutorial, since you can just rush those guys, run past them or block all their attacks etc.
Like a lot of "scary" enemies in the early game he doesn't have that much health. So once you master the techniques they are trying to get you to learn he goes down pretty quick. Like the knights in the High Wall who train you to parry/backstab/not block constantly. You get a bunch of firebombs before you face the first baby Gundyr hollow, where you learn throwing items and elemental weaknesses. It's all really cool stuff my friends!
The Lothric Knights (and others) seem to have built in backstab counters that I haven't seen before. If you wander behind them they kind of bash their shield over their shoulder and stagger you. The cauldron wielding guys in the Undead Settlement (and you REALLY are better off getting them to toss that thing before you engage) also have a long saw that somehow hits you when you're behind him even though he's clearly attacking in the other direction (this one seems a little unfair to me, but those instances are rare). The Gundyr hollows (first of which made me say out loud "you gotta be kidding me) are meant to be bum-rushed and taken out before they transform. Easy enough for the first, I've never managed it for the one on the roof, but you just run past. No one in their right mind would take those fights each time. There are plenty of "Undead Burg Black Knights" in this installment.
You can backstab the knights and the cauldron guys you just gotta do it intelligently instead of just holding up your shield and circling. You gotta avoid the shield slam the knights do and bait an attack, if you are just blocking the whole time you'll get stunned and punished. Cauldron guys are easy once they lost the cauldron since they have a long recovery time, especially on their mad flailing attack.
You can bum rush the Gundyr dudes but I feel like thats more of a strategy for experienced players than something they want to train news players in. It also teaches you to straight up avoid some fights for sure though which is another useful skill that is hard to get most players to accept in any game.
I love Gundyr simply as a amazing design choice even though he kicked my ass for an hour. His name translates to "judge of battle" or "battle judge". And he's literally going to determine if you are worthy of even PLAYING the game. More importantly, he makes your starting class matter more than any other encounter in the series. You will beat him with what you woke up with, or you won't beat him at all.
For what it is worth, I went back and created a Sorcerer and the battle was almost a joke. Since all you are doing is staying out of the way of his jumps and blasting him from a distance, it was not very challenging at all.
I love Gundyr simply as a amazing design choice even though he kicked my ass for an hour. His name translates to "judge of battle" or "battle judge". And he's literally going to determine if you are worthy of even PLAYING the game. More importantly, he makes your starting class matter more than any other encounter in the series. You will beat him with what you woke up with, or you won't beat him at all.
For what it is worth, I went back and created a Sorcerer and the battle was almost a joke. Since all you are doing is staying out of the way of his jumps and blasting him from a distance, it was not very challenging at all.
Yeah, I don't doubt it....I started as a Herald, and the spear is fine (though it's far more useful against regular enemies) but the Miracle heals were useless in that fight, since by the time you switched left-hands and tried to get it off the boss has smacked you across the room. I heard Knights have no issue whatsoever, and Pyromancers will absolutely own him because the second form is supremely weak to fire. Assassins and Deprived would have it the worst I imagine, possibly Mercenary as well. As I said before, it's probably the one boss in the entire series that your starting class means a hell of a lot (though I guess your starting weapon in Bloodborne does to an extent as well).
Summoned after a few tries at Crystal Sage, makes it trivial clearly, but the fight isn't hard, it's just getting surrounded by 4 clones at once. Didn't seem worth continuing solo, and jolly cooperation is just as fun, which might be the best thing about playing this at launch. Which is another thing....clearly nothing beats the feeling of taking down bosses solo, but even since it's inception, it seems like these games were designed to get you to co-op summon. The Gargoyles and Ornstein and Smough from the original are almost begging for it. The vast majority of bosses have NPC summons as well.
Fun tip: once you get the bonfire here, there is a mage sitting outside where the boss fog was facing the other direction who is worth 300 souls with the Covetus Serpent Ring. Easy way to get a few levels quickly.
Yeah, I don't doubt it....I started as a Herald, and the spear is fine (though it's far more useful against regular enemies) but the Miracle heals were useless in that fight, since by the time you switched left-hands and tried to get it off the boss has smacked you across the room. I heard Knights have no issue whatsoever, and Pyromancers will absolutely own him because the second form is supremely weak to fire. Assassins and Deprived would have it the worst I imagine, possibly Mercenary as well. As I said before, it's probably the one boss in the entire series that your starting class means a hell of a lot (though I guess your starting weapon in Bloodborne does to an extent as well).
Yeah, I went back to my Mercenary just to see. I can get through the first half of the battle with relative (ease????), which is to say that I can do it without taking a hit just about. But then the second half just kills me every time. I've even tried using fire bombs on the second phase form and although that helped, he still kicked my sorry @$$ all over the place. I just couldn't get the hang of when to strike and when to dodge.
Shame really, because I really like the merc class from the really small amount that I've played it. Seems like my style, a hunter stealth character. And starting stats seem reasonable as well. but if I can't make it past the first boss into the game proper, I see that as a flaw rather than a challenge. And I am not exactly a novice when it comes to these games.
I think alot of people who ripped on Darks Souls 2 for being too linear, warping and having too many bonfires might want to take a look at this.... I mean, this almost makes Dark Souls 2 seem like a open world game in comparison. There are bonfires everywhere in this game, and you can warp from the beginning. It would seem (and I don't fall into this camp for ANY of the games) that if you hated Dark Souls 2 for those reasons, Dark Souls 3 almost doubles down on them. I actually think 3 is a smidgen better than 2 (barely) but I feel like some perspective is in order.
@jjstraka34 For me the bigger problem in DS2 was the "linear" area design. There is often just one path to follow. DS3 areas are a bit more interesting.
@the_spyder I've beaten Gundyr with a mercenary. Not the easiest but quite manageable. When to strike and when to dodge is basically the same for every class. Comboing with your dual scimitars is tempting but use restraint
Lothric was an amazing fight. The dragon rider from the trailer even more so. I spent a few hours co-oping the dragon rider, it's just so intense. Final boss to go.
@jjstraka34 For me the bigger problem in DS2 was the "linear" area design. There is often just one path to follow. DS3 areas are a bit more interesting.
@the_spyder I've beaten Gundyr with a mercenary. Not the easiest but quite manageable. When to strike and when to dodge is basically the same for every class. Comboing with your dual scimitars is tempting but use restraint
Lothric was an amazing fight. The dragon rider from the trailer even more so. I spent a few hours co-oping the dragon rider, it's just so intense. Final boss to go.
There was a reason people thought it was Gwyn in the trailers, because it is clear The Nameless King is the most anticipated character in the series, Gywn's Firstborn, who it seems sided with the dragons.
Here are the softcaps from a Reddit thread for anyone interested:
50 VIG. (27 puts you smack at 1K you get less from there 19 each afterwards) 40 END. Stop getting stamina. 10 extra stam from 40-99 40 VIT. You still gain 1 equipload each level and but gain much less defense. This stat is hugely essential for raising your physical defense and making you into a tank. 40 Soft for both Str and Dex, 60 for the next softcap. Strength also raises your defense a shit ton until 40 and even a little bit afterwards. Finally, 40-60 Faith and Intelligence get a fairly consistent boost all throughout but you'd still get a lot of dmg from plenty of stuff after 60. Keep in mind those stats under 40 will be brutal in the crazy crazy end game kind of stuff but they should flourish for a great deal of the game at first. Mages need more than stats to be strong. Luck is 40-60-99
Jesus, maybe I should have made my way to Farron Keep first. The gauntlet making your way toward the Cathedral of the Deep bonfire is probably the most intimidating gauntlet I've seen yet in these games. I'm gonna mention again, but the amount of bonfires in this game is blowing my mind compared to Bloodborne. I mean there is one after every single hard section, with almost no exceptions. I'm not complaining, but it makes the amount in Dark Souls 2 areas seem almost trivial. My guess is they want you to press on rather than farm endlessly, and in that regard, it is working. I would normally be over-leveled at this point, but the bonfires are placed to give incentive to not look back constantly.
Cool, I'd love to hear your theories about the last boss, from what I've seen it's obvious what it's SUPPOSED to represent. Did you do most of this solo??
As for me, in the words of Boromir, one does not simply WALK into the Cathedral of the Deep....no, no....
@jjstraka34 Most of it sure, but definitely not all solo. I've been dropping white signs a lot now after I beat all the bosses. It's fun to relive those battles and help folks. I didn't multiplayer in the previous games.
What do you find problematic about the Cathedral?
Final boss
When I first saw it I thoughtit was Gwyn after endless cycles. Apparently it is the deific form of all the Lords of cinder who have linked the flame.
Comments
So 35 hrs of gameplay gone, guess I'll restart tmr. So if you have a toon you really like, back it up.
I love Gundyr simply as a amazing design choice even though he kicked my ass for an hour. His name translates to "judge of battle" or "battle judge". And he's literally going to determine if you are worthy of even PLAYING the game. More importantly, he makes your starting class matter more than any other encounter in the series. You will beat him with what you woke up with, or you won't beat him at all.
As for the fight (and only having 3 estus), it's best to get to the second phase without taking a hit. If you stay at a distance, he won't take long to jump, and if you roll to his side, you'll never get hit and you can get at least 2 licks in. Keep baiting him into the jump til he transforms. The second phase messes with you, but the fact is you have to get under all that glop (and it is hard to see what the bottom half is doing under there). When you can tell he'said getting ready to pounce down, get out, heal if nescessary. I barely got him. I imagine this fight is piss-easy on NG+.....but as your initiation, I agree it's a rough one, but it has a purpose.
This one gets the beginning right. Phalanx, Taurus Demon and Last Giant are essentially jokes in retrospect. Father Gascoigne in far too difficult to be where he is in the game's progression. Gundyr is perfect, and teaches you to play better or go do somitting else. And this is coming from someone who died to him at least 10 times.
Like a lot of "scary" enemies in the early game he doesn't have that much health. So once you master the techniques they are trying to get you to learn he goes down pretty quick. Like the knights in the High Wall who train you to parry/backstab/not block constantly. You get a bunch of firebombs before you face the first baby Gundyr hollow, where you learn throwing items and elemental weaknesses. It's all really cool stuff my friends!
You can bum rush the Gundyr dudes but I feel like thats more of a strategy for experienced players than something they want to train news players in. It also teaches you to straight up avoid some fights for sure though which is another useful skill that is hard to get most players to accept in any game.
Fun tip: once you get the bonfire here, there is a mage sitting outside where the boss fog was facing the other direction who is worth 300 souls with the Covetus Serpent Ring. Easy way to get a few levels quickly.
Shame really, because I really like the merc class from the really small amount that I've played it. Seems like my style, a hunter stealth character. And starting stats seem reasonable as well. but if I can't make it past the first boss into the game proper, I see that as a flaw rather than a challenge. And I am not exactly a novice when it comes to these games.
I think alot of people who ripped on Darks Souls 2 for being too linear, warping and having too many bonfires might want to take a look at this....
I mean, this almost makes Dark Souls 2 seem like a open world game in comparison. There are bonfires everywhere in this game, and you can warp from the beginning. It would seem (and I don't fall into this camp for ANY of the games) that if you hated Dark Souls 2 for those reasons, Dark Souls 3 almost doubles down on them. I actually think 3 is a smidgen better than 2 (barely) but I feel like some perspective is in order.
@the_spyder I've beaten Gundyr with a mercenary. Not the easiest but quite manageable. When to strike and when to dodge is basically the same for every class. Comboing with your dual scimitars is tempting but use restraint
Lothric was an amazing fight. The dragon rider from the trailer even more so. I spent a few hours co-oping the dragon rider, it's just so intense. Final boss to go.
40 END. Stop getting stamina. 10 extra stam from 40-99
40 VIT. You still gain 1 equipload each level and but gain much less defense. This stat is hugely essential for raising your physical defense and making you into a tank.
40 Soft for both Str and Dex, 60 for the next softcap. Strength also raises your defense a shit ton until 40 and even a little bit afterwards.
Finally, 40-60 Faith and Intelligence get a fairly consistent boost all throughout but you'd still get a lot of dmg from plenty of stuff after 60. Keep in mind those stats under 40 will be brutal in the crazy crazy end game kind of stuff but they should flourish for a great deal of the game at first. Mages need more than stats to be strong.
Luck is 40-60-99
The final boss was also really cool. I had trouble getting summoned for co-op in that area though, but it's all good. Here's my game-beating gal:
So yeah, my assassin ended up with an ultra greatsword: the Astora Greatsword
Moveset
As for me, in the words of Boromir, one does not simply WALK into the Cathedral of the Deep....no, no....
What do you find problematic about the Cathedral?
Final boss