Dark Souls II

Jericho.

Mickeroo wrote: »

How you invade there is it random?

I'd imagine just by using a cracked eye orb (either colour maybe?) when you're in there? Haven't tried it myself.

Cravez

Grimebox wrote: »

I am so bad at PvP. Lost every fight so far. My strategy in PvE has revolved around blocking attacks with the shield. A lot of players seem to just break through my shield straight away.

It's best to not rely on your shield in PvP. The Guard Break pretty much makes sure of that. If I do PvP and anyone uses their shield too much you know they rely too much on it and it's very easy to guard break then riposte.

Always keep under 70% of your weight to fast roll unless you have heavy armor and big weapons that you can ensure you tank attacks to get the job done.

A tip I generally notice and use in PvP is that people are way too over impatient, they'll use most of their stamina in one go with a flurry of attacks so usually what I do is do one attack for them to intentionally block (they lose some stamina), I wait for them to attack and roll, they will most of the time then try use all their stamina to try hit you, when their last attack finishes just run in and attack. They'll have low stamina and they can't block leaving them very vulnerable.

Mickeroo

Worth having a dagger handy for ripostes/backstabs. The critical damage on them is crazy, I did over 2000 damage last night with a bog standard dagger +10 during a backstab.

Big Knox

Mickeroo wrote: »

Worth having a dagger handy for ripostes/backstabs. The critical damage on them is crazy, I did over 2000 damage last night with a bog standard dagger +10 during a backstab.

The Monastery Scimitar has turned all high level pvp into non stop Parry spam. People are using the Scimitar and dagger / halberd for one shot kills.

While it's manageable it's still very annoying. Makes you have to change your game up completely to not get parried.

iamanengine

Big Knox wrote: »

You use the tokens to enter the Arena and gain rank through wins in there!



90% of pvp is rolling. Shields are a bit more viable in this than Dark but most people can guard break or have a poison weapon on swap to deal with them.

But you dont actually use up the token of spite, all you need is to have one in your inventory to duel. So the reward seems kind of pointless no?

Cravez

You use Token of Fidelity's no?

For the Sentinels, you need Token of Fidelity's to spar and gain rank if you win. Everytime you spar you lose one Token of Fidelity from your inventory (confirmed it last night when I tried it). you also get a cracked blue eye orb if you win.

For the Brotherhood of Blood you don't need anything at all to duel and nothing is removed from your inventory. You gain a cracked red eye orb and gain in rank if you win.

Mickeroo

Big Knox wrote: »

The Monastery Scimitar has turned all high level pvp into non stop Parry spam. People are using the Scimitar and dagger / halberd for one shot kills.

While it's manageable it's still very annoying. Makes you have to change your game up completely to not get parried.

I'll be honest I've been using it too. I've only discovered it in the last week along with how effective daggers are. Between those and my poison infused Manslayer I've been able to take down players 300 levels above me.

I think it balances out though, even though the parry window on it is big it still has to be timed right and it usually only works once as people tend not to commit to an attack as easily once they've been parried.

As someone who has stuck at SL150 and can be killed in 2 or 3 hits by most opponents I face I don't find it too overpowered.

Arguabley not has as bad as the Santier's spears and Avalyns either. Its very good at parrying Santier's which is by far the cheapest weapon in the game imo, at least the OP magic attacks can be dodged.

Cravez wrote: »

For the Brotherhood of Blood you don't need anything at all to duel and nothing is removed from your inventory. You gain a cracked red eye orb and gain in rank if you win.

Apparently you lose rank each time you lose though so you need to be winning far more than you're losing to actually rank up the covenant.

Danonino.

Just invaded and was killed by a completely invisible guy. No hidden weapon or anything like that, he was completely invisible. Lame.

J_E

Danonino. wrote: »

Just invaded and was killed by a completely invisible guy. No hidden weapon or anything like that, he was completely invisible. Lame.

haha, that must have been a glitch, don't believe there's a Hidden Body spell in this game like the last one.

Danonino.

Cydoniac wrote: »

haha, that must have been a glitch, don't believe there's a Hidden Body spell in this game like the last one.

Yeah it was very strange, no ghosting or blur from weapon swing etc. Absolutely nothing except a flame effect every time I got hit. Was weird to say the least.

PandyAndy

Got around to finally getting buying this, I'm 16hrs in and so far I don't find it as engrossing as DS but feels like I'll start to like it more as time goes by. The bosses all seem to be fairly easy with the only two causing grief which were the Ruin Sentinels (took 15-20 tries...) and that Smelter Demon (which I haven't killed yet) but everything else was done on the first or second try. The Lost/Last Sinner seemed to be the Pinwheel equivalent.

Also thought that since I've played DS so much I figured I'd kill that ogre thing in the starting area straight away...nope, got killed instantly, bit my head off.

Digital Solitude

PandyAndy wrote: »

Got around to finally getting buying this, I'm 16hrs in and so far I don't find it as engrossing as DS but feels like I'll start to like it more as time goes by. The bosses all seem to be fairly easy with the only two causing grief which were the Ruin Sentinels (took 15-20 tries...) and that Smelter Demon (which I haven't killed yet) but everything else was done on the first or second try. The Lost/Last Sinner seemed to be the Pinwheel equivalent.

Also thought that since I've played DS so much I figured I'd kill that ogre thing in the starting area straight away...nope, got killed instantly, bit my head off.

I was cocky with the Ogre too Quickly had that slapped out of me

Still haven't managed to solo the last Sinner though, was she nerfed does anyone know?

Danonino.

The story and feel to the game is very different but I enjoyed it the first time through and its growing on me more and more.

I might be mistaken but the lore seems to have a foot in Irish/celtic mythology this time around, for example, the giants from across the sea and the doors of pharros resembling fingals cave and stuff... Maybe I'm looking for something that isn't there.

J_E

Danonino. wrote: »

The story and feel to the game is very different but I enjoyed it the first time through and its growing on me more and more.

I might be mistaken but the lore seems to have a foot in Irish/celtic mythology this time around, for example, the giants from across the sea and the doors of pharros resembling fingals cave and stuff... Maybe I'm looking for something that isn't there.

Wow! I think you're really onto something there, that's a really cool find. You should pass the info on to VaatiVidya or someone who could feature it as a theory on a video

It would make sense, I mean Dark Souls had a huge Celtic/Welsh influence between some of the locations and all the names of characters (Gwyn, Domhnall, Alvina, etc)


I always get a bit giddy at parallels between the game and real life, particularly Anor Londo and Lost Izalith.


Is Ceaseless Discharge from DS1 a giant? Exact same sounds, looks similar with wooden sort of body and hole in head; not sure if it's just a reused asset or a hint to a deeper link between the worlds!

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

caeseless discharge is the son of the witch of izalith, so dont think he could be a giant.. since you find the body of one of his sisters and you meet another two and they're normal enough sized human shaped.

SgtBob

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I was cocky with the Ogre too Quickly had that slapped out of me

Still haven't managed to solo the last Sinner though, was she nerfed does anyone know?

I solo'd the last sinner, as long as you dodge it's attacks and are patient with with your hits, it's not too bad.

Also,

Getting the Bastille key and lighting up the fight area in advance helped alot.

Digital Solitude

SgtBob wrote: »

I solo'd the last sinner, as long as you dodge it's attacks and are patient with with your hits, it's not too bad.

Also,

Getting the Bastille key and lighting up the fight area in advance helped alot.

Ah I was always too lazy to kill all them feckin dogs! Must try it with my next build

J_E

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

caeseless discharge is the son of the witch of izalith, so dont think he could be a giant.. since you find the body of one of his sisters and you meet another two and they're normal enough sized human shaped.

I guess they just borrowed assets then!

YouSavedMyLife

Anyone using any mods on the PC version? Specifically GeDoSaTo? Valve/FROM seem to be taking ages to give us the all clear on using the GFX mods. Lots of talk between people saying VAC is automated so any mod at all will ban you. Others saying its a team of people that hand out the bans after reviewing what mods are being used.

Tempted to just use the mod and **** it if they ban me. I just wont play without my nicer graphics :mad:

I'm such a PC whore

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

god, **** magic users. dark souls 2 equivalent of protoss


also that shortcut in lost bastille is pretty handy, i'd never have been brave enough to try it if I hadn't read it here

J_E

YouSavedMyLife wrote: »

Anyone using any mods on the PC version? Specifically GeDoSaTo? Valve/FROM seem to be taking ages to give us the all clear on using the GFX mods. Lots of talk between people saying VAC is automated so any mod at all will ban you. Others saying its a team of people that hand out the bans after reviewing what mods are being used.

Tempted to just use the mod and **** it if they ban me. I just wont play without my nicer graphics :mad:

I'm such a PC whore

I never got banned for using DSfix anyway on DS1. Maybe that was different, I don't know. It's usually dll injection that is some cause of auto VAC bans.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

what level did everyone finish NG at?

I'm in ng+ now for a while and i'm after levelling up loads and I'm only at level 112 or something, i'm seeing loads of people online saying they finished NG in their 120's ... was I stupidly underpowered for the end of NG ?

I was kind of afraid to level up too much as I ruined dark souls 1 on myself the first time, I took gwyn on around SL 130 and he was a piece of piss

Danonino.

Shrine of armana is so EASY now, first time passing through since the patch. Very different.

Icaras

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

what level did everyone finish NG at?

I'm in ng+ now for a while and i'm after levelling up loads and I'm only at level 112 or something, i'm seeing loads of people online saying they finished NG in their 120's ... was I stupidly underpowered for the end of NG ?

I was kind of afraid to level up too much as I ruined dark souls 1 on myself the first time, I took gwyn on around SL 130 and he was a piece of piss

I understand summons/invasions are based on soul memory not soul level. Im levelling up like a mad man - finished the game around 100 now around 140. Still getting summoned and summon signs regularly.

J_E

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

what level did everyone finish NG at?

Think it was around lv.100 but can't be sure. Did it on 70 second time around.

Mickeroo

Think I was around the 120's when i finished yeah. Found levelling much quicker in this game.

J_E

Mickeroo wrote: »

Think I was around the 120's when i finished yeah. Found levelling much quicker in this game.

Yeah, I attribute that to having the extra stats.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I ended up with no souls after spending lots so figured i'd spend my safe time dicking around in the iron keep trying some **** out on the alonne knights

i've come to the conclusion that duel wielding is ****e. i was duel wilding (power stanced) two bastard swords, right hand +10 left hand +6 and I hit a red phantom knight for 471. after he raped me in the face with his electric super sword I respawned at the bonfire and went to see how much I'd hit him for with a +10 bastard and a shield in my left. 361 damage. i'm leaving myself open to complete and utter domination for the sake of 110 points of damage a swing. that hardly seems worth it at all

even with the clubs (thge bog standard ones you get very early in the game), right +10 left +9 I found that duel wielding them (power stanced again) was **** compared to just +10 in one hand shield in the other.. enemies weren't being stunned at all and i was wide open to every sort of counter attack

it's a shame as I feel I could be doing way more damage at this stage in ng+ but i'm still doing ng levels with my +10 bastard, +10 claymore or +10 club. I have the large club and the great club too and they do great damage alright but all that has to happen is the camera moves a tiny bit and I miss my swing completely, then there's the half a minute while my character readjusts

should I be buffing weapons more often or should I have graduated on to ultra greatswords by now

Big Knox

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

I ended up with no souls after spending lots so figured i'd spend my safe time dicking around in the iron keep trying some **** out on the alonne knights

i've come to the conclusion that duel wielding is ****e. i was duel wilding (power stanced) two bastard swords, right hand +10 left hand +6 and I hit a red phantom knight for 471. after he raped me in the face with his electric super sword I respawned at the bonfire and went to see how much I'd hit him for with a +10 bastard and a shield in my left. 361 damage. i'm leaving myself open to complete and utter domination for the sake of 110 points of damage a swing. that hardly seems worth it at all

even with the clubs (thge bog standard ones you get very early in the game), right +10 left +9 I found that duel wielding them (power stanced again) was **** compared to just +10 in one hand shield in the other.. enemies weren't being stunned at all and i was wide open to every sort of counter attack

it's a shame as I feel I could be doing way more damage at this stage in ng+ but i'm still doing ng levels with my +10 bastard, +10 claymore or +10 club. I have the large club and the great club too and they do great damage alright but all that has to happen is the camera moves a tiny bit and I miss my swing completely, then there's the half a minute while my character readjusts

should I be buffing weapons more often or should I have graduated on to ultra greatswords by now

Power stancing is only worth it with the faster weapons that don't use too much stamina per swing. Power stancing the standard Maces or piercing weapons can be quite strong!

J_E

I'm currently using a +10 Blacksteel Katana with a +10 Lightning Scimitar as backup. Seems to be working well for me, the S scaling gives a lot of bonus damage.

Really good thing to note because it isn't obvious. I believe the + number beside the normal damage stat is the bonus damage added, just so you can gauge how your stats are affecting the scaling!