Dark Souls II

Burkie7

YouSavedMyLife wrote: »

Big difference from Dark Souls to BB is that in most cases you have to fight defensively in Dark Souls. Backing up and not depleting you're stamina rolling around all over the place, unlike BB. Also getting your hands on a bow and some arrows for pulling individual enemies will help you alot. In BB you can in most cases walk into areas, dash all over the place and cleave through 6+ enemies at a time.

Just gotta take it slow or slower than BB. That's the best advice to be honest. Also the dodge/roll is not nearly as good in Dark Souls as it is in BB, so maybe running with a shield for the start of the game would be a good idea till you get the timing down

Yes that seems to be my main problem. I'm playing it exactly like I did Bloodborne but you can't play that way in this game. I have a shield equipped now but I still take damage when I'm hit when using it so I don't bother.

I'm not going to give up I just got on after a long day today and played stupidly which frustrated me.

I'll give it a go tomorrow again and hopefully things improve.

noodler

Burkie7 wrote: »

Yes that seems to be my main problem. I'm playing it exactly like I did Bloodborne but you can't play that way in this game. I have a shield equipped now but I still take damage when I'm hit when using it so I don't bother.

I'm not going to give up I just got on after a long day today and played stupidly which frustrated me.

I'll give it a go tomorrow again and hopefully things improve.

Shields have a certain % effectiveness against various things, physical attacks, magic etc. The shield you have won't be 100% versus physical attacks, hence the damage.

J_E

Burkie7 wrote: »

Yes that seems to be my main problem. I'm playing it exactly like I did Bloodborne but you can't play that way in this game. I have a shield equipped now but I still take damage when I'm hit when using it so I don't bother.

I'm not going to give up I just got on after a long day today and played stupidly which frustrated me.

I'll give it a go tomorrow again and hopefully things improve.

Check your stats when equipping. You can press Select to see what each icon means. There are shields with 100% physical defense but may have lower stability, i.e they take more stamina to defend with. there are a few early game shields that can defend decently though. If you want to play like a pro you have to learn how to roll efficiently. As long as you are not heavily burdened (also called fat roll), if you roll at the right time when an enemy attacks, you can completely evade them. Keep on playing though - you are not too far off the Drangleic Shield which will keep you going through most of the game. Make sure to explore any extra areas you see too. Just take your time - if you rush into any area this early in the game, you will just get mauled. It all becomes easier after first boss, and you have the choice of exploring a different area from Majula if you are fed up with this one.

Big Knox

Burkie7 wrote: »

Yes that seems to be my main problem. I'm playing it exactly like I did Bloodborne but you can't play that way in this game. I have a shield equipped now but I still take damage when I'm hit when using it so I don't bother.

I'm not going to give up I just got on after a long day today and played stupidly which frustrated me.

I'll give it a go tomorrow again and hopefully things improve.

Don't try dodge attacks until you have your agility around 100. In bloodborne you start out with invincibility frames when dodging meaning you can roll or dodge through most attacks and not take damage right from the start and it is encouraged as you are invincible for very small periods of each dodge.

In Dark Souls 2 the invincibility frames come from levelling the Adaptability stat which raises your agility. This means starting out you will not have those very important frames where you dont take damage when dodging and most enemy attacks will hit you mid roll.

Get a shield, take things slow. Bait out attacks and then strike. Don't attack until an enemy is recovering or open. If you prefer the dodging no shield approach start levelling your Adaptability stat and when your agility is high enough (99 is recommend) then you can ditch the shield and dodge everything!

Burkie7

Thanks for the tips lads the shield I have now is one I found in a chest in majula I seeing a good shield in the shop there that I have to be level 20 in strength for I'm level 15 now so I'll get that the second I turn level 20 that should improve things.

Mickeroo

Burkie7 wrote: »

Sadly not I'm getting killed just after leaving the bonfire in that area ha

The bonfire in the building? Is it the guys down the ladder getting you?

Burkie7

Mickeroo wrote: »

The bonfire in the building? Is it the guys down the ladder getting you?

Yes that bonfire.

No I can kill them no bother it's the big guy up on the bridge sometimes I kill him sometimes I don't and sometimes he hits a barrel and blows us both up ha.

I went up on the roof after him when I killed him and killed the people up there then I went back down the ladder and crossed the whole bridge and then got killed when I got down the ladder on that side and that's as far as I have got ha.

NotorietyH

Just a heads up I picked up Dark Souls II for the PS4 for around 43 euro today in Argos, not sure how long it's staying that price.

p38

Late to the party again just picked up DS II with the expansions first impressions you cant kick the grunts down steps or off ledges anymore and they dont stick to your legs while running I miss that. Any how havent had much time playing yet so will reserve judgement for awhile. Prob wont hear from me until I meet first boss:o

noodler

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Black steel Katana, farm from Knights in Iron Keep
Poison infused manslayer from Shrine of Amana

I +10 the black steel katana but not doing my head more damage than my raw dragon axe or +10 Richards lighting rapier was doing.

Only 35 dex tho.

Fighting this dragon, I don't remember having so many shots at a boss in these games and making so little progress.

First time I've ever fought a boss and am thinking to myself that life is too short. It reminds why I took so long to come to the DLC.

Digital Solitude

Dex 40 I was doing about 250dmg with the katana iirc. Is it unbuffed?

noodler

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Dex 40 I was doing about 250dmg with the katana iirc. Is it unbuffed?

I haven't put any resin on it. It's plus ten tho

J_E

noodler wrote: »

I +10 the black steel katana but not doing my head more damage than my raw dragon axe or +10 Richards lighting rapier was doing.

Only 35 dex tho.

Fighting this dragon, I don't remember having so many shots at a boss in these games and making so little progress.

First time I've ever fought a boss and am thinking to myself that life is too short. It reminds why I took so long to come to the DLC.

Which dragon is this now?

noodler

J_E wrote: »

Which dragon is this now?

The big one!

Sinh in Sunken King.

J_E

noodler wrote: »

The big one!

Sinh in Sunken King.

Oh yeah, that boss has way too much HP to be honest, makes it an endurance battle and loses the excitement. The co-op summons really help.

noodler

J_E wrote: »

Oh yeah, that boss has way too much HP to be honest, makes it an endurance battle and loses the excitement. The co-op summons really help.

Yeah, I remember reading the reviews of the DLC as they came out last year and reading some criticism about some bosses that seemed to designed to be beaten only with Co-op.

I might skip ahead to the next DLC piece anyway - come back to this.

J_E

noodler wrote: »

Yeah, I remember reading the reviews of the DLC as they came out last year and reading some criticism about some bosses that seemed to designed to be beaten only with Co-op.

I might skip ahead to the next DLC piece anyway - come back to this.

The only benefit is the crown - it's only useful if you use spells a lot.

sniper_samurai

Seems the next patch is going to fix the durability glitch for the versions running at 60FPS.

Yo Mamma

sniper_samurai wrote: »

Seems the next patch is going to fix the durability glitch for the versions running at 60FPS.

Source ?

I would love if they can find a way to stop the game crashing all the friggin time ! Has done so now a few times on me, luckily never during PVP as I have been hearing about Bans being doled out for quitting etc, and people having to use some sort of 'Bone' to play back online again......anyway sounds nasty !!

sniper_samurai

Yo Mamma wrote: »

Source ?

I would love if they can find a way to stop the game crashing all the friggin time ! Has done so now a few times on me, luckily never during PVP as I have been hearing about Bans being doled out for quitting etc, and people having to use some sort of 'Bone' to play back online again......anyway sounds nasty !!

It's in the patch notes on the Japanese Dark Souls website
http://info.darksouls.jp/other/pc/information_detail/2015-04-16-01.html
It's the first bullet point on the list.

Rough translation wrote:

Fix behavior when attacking enemy corpses, such as weapon durability value decreases dramatically

Lemlin

Is this worth picking up on PS4 before I get Bloodborne?Have never played any of this series of games.

sweetie

Lemlin wrote: »

Is this worth picking up on PS4 before I get Bloodborne?Have never played any of this series of games.

I haven't played this yet but Bloodborne would seem to be more accesible with faster/easier combat.

iamanengine

Dark Souls 2 is awesome, highly recommend both DS2 and DS1.

Big Knox

So those who returned to SOTFS from Vanilla, was it worth the purchase? Was it fresh enough to enjoy a full play through or did it all feel too similar? I'm going to pick it up but can't pull myself away from GTA online!

iamanengine

Big Knox wrote: »

So those who returned to SOTFS from Vanilla, was it worth the purchase? Was it fresh enough to enjoy a full play through or did it all feel too similar? I'm going to pick it up but can't pull myself away from GTA online!

Waiting until it goes on sale before I pick it up!

J. Marston

Traded in Bloodborne and got SOFTS.

Looking forward to diving into it again. It's not without its flaws but the PVP is far better than Bloodborne's and the variety in weapons and builds is huge. Plus there are three huge DLC's that I haven't played yet.

YouSavedMyLife

Never had trouble with the durability bug from the vanilla PC release. In most cases i would be rolling with two weapons, in some cases 3 and never had problems where all my weapons had broke before reaching a boss. Plus the game throws repair powder at you.

Haven't played SotFS yet so maybe the new enemy placements also means more enemies in each area? Is that the case or are people just crying for no justifiable reason? Besides whats the point in having durability if it doesn't need to be "managed" They should just remove it...

Cravez

The durability bug (from my experience) seemed to impact certain weapons more. I found that whips, ricards rapier, Masotden Halberd and the Pickaxe (amongst others) have huge weapon deterioration rate compared to other weapons. I wanted to do a whip build but couldn't because the whip would nearly break after killing 2-3 enemies with it.

Thankfully From are patching the durability bug soon. But if you are planning on doing a Santier Spear build, I would get it now and break it beforehand as I imagine it will take alot longer to do so after the bug is fixed.

In my experience of SoTFS so far:
- They sometimes put harder/later enemies from vanilla Dark Souls 2 in certain spots early in the game. E.G Syan Knights, Falconers etc
- Pursuer has multiple appearances, but I've only found seen him in the Lost Bastille so far (besides Forest of the Fallen Giants, Iron Keep and Drangleic Castle)
- More NPC Invaders, including Forlorn who invades mutliple times throughout your playthrough.
- There generally is more enemies per area now. Brightstone Cove Tseldora has loads of spiders hanging off walls as an example.
- They've add more set pieces to areas. I'd say because DX11 can handle more rendered objects some areas look different such as the camp area at Bightstone Cove.
- They have made higher tier and rare armor from vanilla Dark Souls 2 way more accessible (which I personally dislike). It's easy to get the Aurous Armor, farm the Shadow Set and you can get Havel's Dragon Tooth at the start of the game.
- Most of the Estus Flask Shards and Sublime Bone Dust locations have changed.
- New DX11 graphics are noticeable at first for things like crushing gems, torches and Soul Items and shadow effects but after a while the game overall looks exactly as how DX9 looked tbh.

iamanengine

Bright stone Cove was my least favourite area if I recall correctly, throwing more spiders in there can only help matters...sigh




Oh and obviously that other place with all the casters firing homing spells at you, that was head wrecking.

Cravez

Overall, the game feels easier in parts and harder in others. They've made areas that were previously harder, easier and they've made areas that used to be easy, harder. It's kind of balanced itself out but it's been enough to keep me engaged so far even though I played the original Dark Souls 2 for nearly 400 hours. Boss battles can seem easier as well because you can bring in 3 co-op partners instead of 2