Dark Souls

Digital Solitude

Blood borne is pretty dead for Co-op, PvP still lives on though.

Dark Souls is 100% soloable, still a bit of Co-op going on, sure give a shout here if you need advice. Not sure who here is on PS3 to help out though

Pickpocket

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Blood borne is pretty dead for Co-op, PvP still lives on though.

Dark Souls is 100% soloable, still a bit of Co-op going on, sure give a shout here if you need advice. Not sure who here is on PS3 to help out though

Thanks a million. You've given me plenty of advice already with BB and DS3 so you'll be hearing a lot more from me!

I'll try to solo DS as its clearly more satisfying and represents a greater achievement, but beating the game is priority number 1, so I'll summon if necessary. I'm not a natural by any stretch. I've always had it hard clearing a game so summoning has been a godsend for me. I estimate I've summoned for about 40% of the bosses in DS3 and BB, but without that option I very likely would have quit both games.

Pickpocket

I notice in one of your earlier comments that you said you'd beaten DS in all manner of different ways. I've seen clips of guys like you on YouTube. Beating these games without levelling up, etc. It makes me feel awful about myself. Forgive the crude analogy, but it's like finding out that my girlfriend's ex has a bigger, faster, stronger dick than I do, and it casts spells.

Digital Solitude

Ah I wouldn't be too anal about summoning, generally if I'm getting frustrated and can't figure out the pattern, I summon, or I'm just not arsed soloing I'll summon.

Then I might be tearing my hair out at the Dragonslayer Armour cos I was getting fed up, but loved the fight so kept soloing, all depends on the boss for me.

Just go with what works, at the end of the day, they're games to have fun with, not slog and slog and slog because someone online will laugh because you had to summon.

I gave up on Bloodbornes DLC and just watched the woman finish it because it was too difficult for me, same experience, **** it if it didn't cost me 5 hours I didn't want to solo against the Orphan.



Regardless, Dark Souls is definitely the most strategic of the games, you need to switch Armour up depending on the area, it's got the most nuanced upgrade system and where their strengths lie too, but that's for later in the game too.

Are you pre-planning a build/play style?

Digital Solitude

Pickpocket wrote: »

I notice in one of your earlier comments that you said you'd beaten DS in all manner of different ways. I've seen clips of guys like you on YouTube. Beating these games without levelling up, etc. It makes me feel awful about myself. Forgive the crude analogy, but it's like finding out that my girlfriend's ex has a bigger, faster, stronger dick than I do, and it casts spells.

Well like, I've beaten Demons once, Dark 12-15 times, Dark 2 about 12 times, Bloodborne 5 or 6 times and Dark 3 once.

There's so much of the game is purely knowledge based, the hardest area of the game is 100% skippable, but you wouldn't know that without exploring later portions, you need to take arseways paths past late level enemies to do that kind of stuff, you know what enemies to fight, who to skip, all your timings and strategies are second nature by the time you're on the third play through.

I can't do slow builds. If I made a tank tomorrow it'd take me 30hrs plus to finish the game. Dex takes me about 8-10, all depends on what you know you like and how to play.

None of those people did the SL1 on their first run, or their second or third. Unlikely even their fourth. Even my SL1 was my 8th or 9th run, it took me over 6 months to complete the run. While I can do regular builds no problem, challenge runs are still challenging.

Regardless of the other guys cock, he's not getting it now and you're both having a good time so let him show off, there's more to Dark Souls than the challenge runners like me (I'm not even a very good one), there's more to you than your non-spellcasting dick

The only real way to do the challenge runs is to enjoy the game enough to play it numerous times and know the game and bosses inside out. You'll know what you want for each area, the easiest path to it and the order you'll do areas in.

Basically there's a lot more to challenge runs that skill alone.

Pickpocket

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Are you pre-planning a build/play style?

I don't like magic or spells of any type, so I want the least amount of that as possible. None, preferably. That's the approach I took in DS3 but clearly if DS calls for a more mixed approach then I'll have to give it some consideration.

In DS3 I went with a big, heavy Knight. That feels natural and allows me to jump in and get in their faces. That's what I enjoy most. However I think I should take a slightly different approach this time, just for the hell of it. Maybe rely less on my shield and be a bit lighter on my feet. I definitely want to be strong and physical though, so perhaps something in the middle. A light Knight :P

Pickpocket

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Well like, I've beaten Demons once, Dark 12-15 times, Dark 2 about 12 times, Bloodborne 5 or 6 times and Dark 3 once.

There's so much of the game is purely knowledge based, the hardest area of the game is 100% skippable, but you wouldn't know that without exploring later portions, you need to take arseways paths past late level enemies to do that kind of stuff, you know what enemies to fight, who to skip, all your timings and strategies are second nature by the time you're on the third play through.

I can't do slow builds. If I made a tank tomorrow it'd take me 30hrs plus to finish the game. Dex takes me about 8-10, all depends on what you know you like and how to play.

None of those people did the SL1 on their first run, or their second or third. Unlikely even their fourth. Even my SL1 was my 8th or 9th run, it took me over 6 months to complete the run. While I can do regular builds no problem, challenge runs are still challenging.

Regardless of the other guys cock, he's not getting it now and you're both having a good time so let him show off, there's more to Dark Souls than the challenge runners like me (I'm not even a very good one), there's more to you than your non-spellcasting dick

The only real way to do the challenge runs is to enjoy the game enough to play it numerous times and know the game and bosses inside out. You'll know what you want for each area, the easiest path to it and the order you'll do areas in.

Basically there's a lot more to challenge runs that skill alone.

Jesus that's some amount of effort, not to mention hours. Fair play! My aim at the moment is modest in comparison, I just want to beat each game. I'm completely hooked on them and I want to see every location and enemy.

In relation to different builds, equipment, etc. That's probably the one key obstacle in terms of my really getting under the hood of each game. Stats screens and upgrade paths are not my type of thing at all. Even changing tactics in sports games drives me crazy.

But I've started to come around. Trying out different rings/runes, attire and weapons, then seeing the difference it makes, be it good or bad, has began to intrigue me. I'm still not mad about it and I have to force myself to experiment, but I feel it's key to really embracing each game in an individual manner. They are role-playing games after all...

Digital Solitude

You can rock none if you want, I normally don't use spells and miracles aren't my style.

Dark Souls has 3 weight classes, based on percentage of your carry weight total. Under 25% is the fastest, quick, far dodges with 12 iframes, faster running and the ability to ninja flip with an item. 25%-50% is Medium, slow rolls, 10 iframes and medium speed, and over 50% is slow, you fat roll, only 8 iframes and no distance covered.

Ninja-flipping give a super fast dodge with 14 iframes so it's amazing for dodging builds, but takes a valuable ring slot and needs under 25% weight.

Dex is fairly powerful in this game, not sure about strength in general but the Claymore and Zweihander are fairly well respected.

Melee is generally better craic I'd say. I'd also recommend that you lern2parry, it trivialises a lot of enemies

Digital Solitude

Pickpocket wrote: »

Jesus that's some amount of effort, not to mention hours. Fair play! My aim at the moment is modest in comparison, I just want to beat each game. I'm completely hooked on them and I want to see every location and enemy.

In relation to different builds, equipment, etc. That's probably the one key obstacle in terms of my really getting under the hood of each game. Stats screens and upgrade paths are not my type of thing at all. Even changing tactics in sports games drives me crazy.

But I've started to come around. Trying out different rings/runes, attire and weapons, then seeing the difference it makes, be it good or bad, has began to intrigue me. I'm still not mad about it and I have to force myself to experiment, but I feel it's key to really embracing each game in an individual manner. They are role-playing games after all...

I started out wanting to beat them, then wanted to beat them again but a little differently, then Dark Magic sounded interesting and suddenly you're at the stage I'm at :pac: If you've got the bug there's no turning back.

I didn't mean to scare you with the changing Armour part and strategy. For exploration builds like yours, yes you need to change stuff up but after that you won't really need to unless you're spending a lot of time in a poisonous or firey area. My standard start is the thief, and I normally finish the game without having taken off any of the thief set bar the head piece for one area, and even then it's optional, just my preference.

The weapon upgrades are probably easier than Dark Souls 3 when I think about it, and you don't have Sharp for Dex or Heavy for Str, but you have elementals like Magic, Occult, Divine, Lightning, Fire etc and most are optional. For a pure Melee you won't be messing with them anyways, they remove stat scaling, they're for the melee side of magic builds

um7y1h83ge06nx

So I have the Drake Sword but should I use it?

It would be handy for getting past the Gargoyles (haven't tried them with it yet as I had build up my strength) but i wonder would it make me a bit lazy for a decent part of the game?

J. Marston

From what I remember, it's only really handy quite early on. It gets outclassed quickly. I can't remember strolling through a big sized chunk of the game with it.

Digital Solitude

Never once used it, but it's excellent at the start of the game

penev10

Nyla Odd Tannery wrote: »

So I have the Drake Sword but should I use it?

It would be handy for getting past the Gargoyles (haven't tried them with it yet as I had build up my strength) but i wonder would it make me a bit lazy for a decent part of the game?

You'll be handed two or three other "leg up" weapons as the game progresses, all of which can be bettered by most standard weapons that scale with an appropriately levelled stat. You could research the latter but might be best to save it for a subsequent play through if you don't want to spoil anything.

Basically use whatever the developers have given you as you'll need it.

quelaag furysword all the way , ditched the drake as soon as I was able to make it and never looked back all the way to NG+++ with it. scales with humanity though so you need to farm some rats to get it maxed and recover that after death but I really felt like it was the cheat sword in the game. Well maybe not but its weapon art really suited my style of play so much so that I was lost in 2 and 3 in the beginning as I never found anything that handled the same.

The main + with it is Fire damage, and there is plenty weak to fire in that game.

Stone Deaf 4evr

Nyla Odd Tannery wrote: »

So I have the Drake Sword but should I use it?

It would be handy for getting past the Gargoyles (haven't tried them with it yet as I had build up my strength) but i wonder would it make me a bit lazy for a decent part of the game?

Absolutely use any and all means of fighting that you come across. No amount of damage output is going to simply trounce the bosses so it still takes plenty skill.

The_Captain

No weapon in dark souls will make you lazy. You're never going to reach a point where you run through the game killing guys without slowing down


Drake sword is great at low levels because it has strong output and poor scaling, but once your strength or dex are higher, weapons with good scaling quickly outpass it.

Zweihander is the games standard strength weapon
Balder Side Sword is the standard dex weapon

Focus on either str or dex, pick up one of those and use them until you're familiar enough with the game to try something different

Digital Solitude

Iaito is the best dex weapon imo, followed by two handing Uchi. I just don't like the BSS and it takes too long to farm.

Icaras

Stick with the drake sword, it wont be useful for all of the game.

I went dex/strength build and when I could got

Quelaag's Furysword

, my end game weapon was the

Black knight halberd

um7y1h83ge06nx

So Dark Souls is not a bad game is it...

I just started playing it 3 weeks ago (was away for a week in between) and I absolutely love it, bloody amazing. Can't believe I had the game on my shelf for about 2 years before having the guts to play it.

A rare occasion where all the hype for a game is justified.

Right now I

have The Depths well explored and will be having a go at the Gaping Dragon next.

thomas anderson.

This thread continues to remind me of my failures.

Digital Solitude

thomas anderson. wrote: »

This thread continues to remind me of my failures.

Just get to the next bonfire buddy

Stone Deaf 4evr

Nyla Odd Tannery wrote: »

So Dark Souls is not a bad game is it...

I just started playing it 3 weeks ago (was away for a week in between) and I absolutely love it, bloody amazing. Can't believe I had the game on my shelf for about 2 years before having the guts to play it.

A rare occasion where all the hype for a game is justified.

Right now I

have The Depths well explored and will be having a go at the Gaping Dragon next.

yup, I had put off getting it for ages because of the near mythic way the difficulty is talked about. Turns out, its not crazy difficult, it just punishes carelessness.

I reckon the series as a whole might be one of my all time favourite things in gaming now.

pablomakaveli

I started playing a couple of weeks ago after putting it off for ages. I'm absolutely loving it now though and wish I'd played it sooner. The combat is brilliant and a nice change from the button bashing combat which is very common in games now.

I managed to beat the

Capra Demon

yesterday which felt really rewarding as I'd heard about that one long before playing the game. I'll definitely be picking up DS2 when I'm done with this.

IvoryTower

I've never played any of them and I have an xbox one. Will ds1 work on it? Will I just get 3 cause it prob looks sweeter?

Stone Deaf 4evr

IvoryTower wrote: »

I've never played any of them and I have an xbox one. Will ds1 work on it? Will I just get 3 cause it prob looks sweeter?

Yup, ds1 is backwards compatible. 2 and 3 are available cheap in Argos and Smyths respectively.

IvoryTower

Should they be played in order... Like what if I only get to play one what wpuld you pick

Digital Solitude

The first one

um7y1h83ge06nx

I'm playing Dark Souls 1 Prepare To Die Edition on my Xbox One. It looks pretty decent, only thing is the framerate in places but that is well known. Being honest I'm usually too busy being scared sh*tless and killing things to notice!

mrkiscool2

Return to Lordran is on October 4th too so if anyone wants to get back into it for 3 weeks to have lots of invasions and summonings that's the day to do it!

The_Captain

IvoryTower wrote: »

Should they be played in order... Like what if I only get to play one what wpuld you pick

I'd play 3 right now to benefit from the multiplayer. DS1 is a ghost town outside of certain areas, still lots of multiplayer in DS2 but not as much as there was