Dark Souls 3

Pickpocket

Pontiff has just whooped me for two hours straight. I only managed to get him to the second phase 4 times. The game feels like it's went up a couple of gears with this boss fight. I'm not sure I have what it takes to go much further. There's been plenty of stressful moments before, but they've been adrenaline rushes as well. But this is just a slog. Not enjoyable whatsoever. I'm finally getting the Dark Souls experience.

Pickpocket

Pickpocket wrote: »

Pontiff has just whooped me for two hours straight. I only managed to get him to the second phase 4 times. The game feels like it's went up a couple of gears with this boss fight. I'm not sure I have what it takes to go much further. There's been plenty of stressful moments before, but they've been adrenaline rushes as well. But this is just a slog. Not enjoyable whatsoever. I'm finally getting the Dark Souls experience.

I summoned some help and three of us smashed him up. It's nowhere near as satisfying as a solo victory but my god it feels good to have him out of the way.

nix

Its a tough fight, most summon for him (i did), hes just so aggressive, constantly up in your grill :pac:

Digital Solitude

Pickpocket wrote: »

But this is just a slog. Not enjoyable whatsoever. I'm finally getting the Dark Souls experience.

That is not the Souls experience, the Souls experience is the rush you get after you finally beat a boss who's been hammering you.

Glad to hear you've beaten him anyways, he was probably the hardest boss for me, I summoned for him too. I presume most non-turtles would have needed help with him.

J. Marston

Don't know if it was mentioned already but after you beat a boss, there's about 10-15 seconds before you get the souls and you can throw on farming gear to increase the souls you get for that boss.

The wiki says that you get 58,000 souls for beating

Oceiros

but after I beat him, I quickly put equipped the Shield of Want and the Symbol of Avarice and got 104,400.

Probably only handy for repeat players because, as Digital Solitude said, after you beat a boss for the first time, you're probably busy basking in euphoria.

Mickeroo

J. Marston wrote: »

Don't know if it was mentioned already but after you beat a boss, there's about 10-15 seconds before you get the souls and you can throw on farming gear to increase the souls you get for that boss.

The wiki says that you get 58,000 souls for beating

Oceiros

but after I beat him, I quickly put equipped the Shield of Want and the Symbol of Avarice and got 104,400.

Probably only handy for repeat players because, as Digital Solitude said, after you beat a boss for the first time, you're probably busy basking in euphoria.

Souls mean nothing to me after farming for concordes all morning. Lost 4 million at one point and I didn't even care

heebusjeebus

Mickeroo wrote: »

Souls mean nothing to me after farming for concordes all morning. Lost 4 million at one point and I didn't even care

I just lost 5.6 million and didn't give a sh1t!
PVPing now for shakles and really enjoying it.
Great action in the area after the Pontiff. Throw down a red soapstone sign with the mound maker covenant selected.

Evade

I've started a SL1 solo run, this should be interesting.

Pickpocket

Digital Solitude wrote: »

That is not the Souls experience, the Souls experience is the rush you get after you finally beat a boss who's been hammering you.

Glad to hear you've beaten him anyways, he was probably the hardest boss for me, I summoned for him too. I presume most non-turtles would have needed help with him.

Cheers!

Yeah, that's fair.

I think I've just read so much about how depressingly difficult these games are that I've bought into the hype. In truth, the game strikes me as being much more nuanced than that. It's difficult, very difficult at times, but you always have options.

Compare that to something like Dead Space (or even Resident Evil back in the day, or The Last of Us' 'grounded' difficulty). Now, I'm not suggesting that they're more difficult than DS3, but in those games you can run out of ammo or focus on the wrong upgrades and be in very serious trouble. You can get yourself into almost game-ending bottlenecks because of the lack of resources.

You're just stuck in the middle of it all, grossly underpowered and/or out of ammo. Screwed, basically. And it's unfair because you're relying on the game to provide you with ammo or health. You might have got yourself into that situation, but you can't rely on yourself to get out of it because the conditions central to your escape are out of your hands.

In DS3 you can always head off and grind somewhere. Bump up your stats and come back at a comparative advantage. And depending on your skill you could make it all the way to the end with a starting weapon because it doesn't require ammo drops. All the game requires is that you're skilful. The game is just fundamentally fair, whereas the above mentioned games are inherently unfair.

We've all played those survival horror games where you walk into a room and half your health gets blasted away through a scripted event. And then you're relying on a health pack somewhere along the line. They made for challenging scenarios but ultimately they were just artificial difficulty spikes. Perhaps I'm being over-reverential here, and correct me if I'm wrong , but the real difficulty of DS3 rests with the player. I wasn't good enough to beat the Pontiff on my own. There's no variables at play. I just wasn't good enough.

CiDeRmAn

The games, from the beginnings in Demon's Souls right up to Bloodborne and DS3, are all about the players wits and skill vs the designers, it's always about the players ability and the games never kill you because they're broken.
It can be cheap sometimes, but then so can we, and the way the games bring community, cooperation and competition, not to mention the lore and guides out there, written by other players.
It's one of the few times that a walkthrough isn't great at spoiling because you as the player still have to walk the walk.

muff03

My first time trying a Souls game, just spent at least 5 hours this week with Vordt, and I finally got him. Oh the joy! Good god that was horrible

froog

Pickpocket wrote: »

Pontiff has just whooped me for two hours straight. I only managed to get him to the second phase 4 times. The game feels like it's went up a couple of gears with this boss fight. I'm not sure I have what it takes to go much further. There's been plenty of stressful moments before, but they've been adrenaline rushes as well. But this is just a slog. Not enjoyable whatsoever. I'm finally getting the Dark Souls experience.

yep that's exactly where i stopped playing. i had to summon for him and after beating him with help got no satisfaction from it and kind of ruined the game for myself. dare i say it, i think that boss is too hard?

*hides*

nix

froog wrote: »

yep that's exactly where i stopped playing. i had to summon for him and after beating him with help got no satisfaction from it and kind of ruined the game for myself. dare i say it, i think that boss is too hard?

*hides*

ahem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DRI_tcYgdw

SeantheMan

I'm still wanting to play DS3...but at the same time still trying to finish DS and DS2 (in between other games).

petes

I'm relatively new to the souls games, played Bloodborne but never really gave it a chance... was dying far too much. It wasn't that that pissed me off, it was the loading time after you die.

So playing 3 at the minute and yes it pissed me off too but I died at some silly places...

The Knights in Lothric really fcuked me over but now I can kick their ass!!

I get somewhere, die a few times, turn it off but 10 minutes later I'm playing it again, I really enjoy it and getting by a boss is very rewarding.

Im not far in but I think I'll definitely give the others a go and maybe crank up Bloodborne again when I've a spare million hours!

I'm not online so exploring away on my own. Think I need a week off to get stuck in although I have about 15 other games to finish ha!! And with Uncharted on the way....

All in all I'm enjoying it rage quits and all!!

Taltos

aldritch

is just destroying me.
If I fire sorcery at him, I get a barrage.
If I run in and swipe

his tail

I get a few shots in and rinse and repeat a few times but so far have only gotten his health to 2/3rds.

Invisibility seemed to work a bit for me but I've focused so heavily on sorcery my stamina is still in the teens.

Pickpocket

froog wrote: »

yep that's exactly where i stopped playing. i had to summon for him and after beating him with help got no satisfaction from it and kind of ruined the game for myself. dare i say it, i think that boss is too hard?

*hides*

On my third attempt I had him at about 15% health, but I then I proceeded to lose my cool and from that point on he had me in his pocket. I never got a look in. I couldn't say he's too hard because I nearly had him beat. If I was even slightly more dextrous on the controller I'd have had it wrapped up. The problem was me.

Perhaps he appears too early in the game though. Look up "Dark Sous 3 bosses ranked" and you'll consistently see people placing him in their top 3 most challenging fights. He's more of a late game boss where the reward for beating him is even greater.

In saying that, it was a real surprise to come across something so difficult only halfway through the game. Apparently there's some relatively straight-forward fights ahead, which is an odd way to structure boss fights, but I appreciate developers taking an unorthodox approach. It certainly knocked the breath out of me at a time when I thought I was getting good. Nicely played, Miyazaki.

I agree with you that taking down a boss in co-op is nowhere near as satisfying as doing it yourself. I simply felt relieved yesterday, rather than the sense of achievement I got from the previous boss fights. So this morning I feel disappointed in myself.

On the other hand, I'm not willing to let a boss end my experience when there's other options built into the very fabric of the game. I've been reading down through the Bloodborne thread and every now and then you'll see someone say that they've finally beaten such a boss after nearly 2 weeks of trying. Fair play to their dedication but I just haven't got that in the locker.

Canis Lupus

muff03 wrote: »

My first time trying a Souls game, just spent at least 5 hours this week with Vordt, and I finally got him. Oh the joy! Good god that was horrible

Just to annoy you, I literally could die to a lothric knight repeatedly but I beat Vordt first go as a warrior. Might have just got lucky but ran in and just smashed his face in with an axe. He dropped in a few seconds.


On a personal note just read today that once your equip load is over 70% your roll turns to ****. I switched back to my med armor and the difference to difficulty is light and day.

Mickeroo

Canis Lupus wrote: »

On a personal note just read today that once your equip load is over 70% your roll turns to ****. I switched back to my med armor and the difference to difficulty is light and day.

Yeah unfortunately because poise just isn't in the game at the moment anything above 70% equip load is pretty pointless.

Retr0gamer

RopeDrink wrote: »

Not sure I get this. I have 25% poise and that allows more favourable trades (if I don't blast right through damage, which happens frequently enough). If I throw on Yhorms GShield, I get 78% Poise and you'd need to be a flailing mad Estoc PvP'er to interrupt my attacks. Only reason I don't is that I go beyond 70% at my current Vitality (working on it).

Might just be a psychological thing because it's been pretty much confirmed poise is broken in pvp.

Pickpocket

I decided to take a break from DS3 this morning by jumping into Bloodborne. I first played it a few weeks ago and I really struggled to get as far as the Cleric Beast, who absolutely slaughtered me. It was such an unexpected play-style. I'd never experienced anything as demanding.

So it was interesting replaying that section this morning having been battling away at DS3 for the past couple of weeks. Obviously the speed and emphasis on attack require a different approach, but the fundamental mechanics aren't all that different. Pick an opening, unleash hell and then move ass. I battered the Cleric Beast!

Which of the two games is the most difficult? My (new) first impressions of BB leads me to think that it might be slightly harder for me personally, although that's probably because of how defence oriented I am in DS3. Having to drive the attack is really gonna put me out of my comfort zone.

Retr0gamer

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Might just be a psychological thing because it's been pretty much confirmed poise is broken in pvp.

It's actually not broken at all, they dug into the files and confirmed it's simply turned off for players but not for enemies from what I recall seeing so I assume it's the case for PvP then too.

Mickeroo

Someone data mined the game and the poise system is there but it's currently switched off by default.

Zero-Cool

Wow worst ending ever :pac:

Only Boss i didn't beat was the one in archdragon, will have to go back for him but will check out some lore videos in the mean time.

Evade

I'm up to Farron Keep with my SL1 run. I've beaten the two optional bosses so far so I could get Havel's ring. I'm going to get to the bonfire before the Abyss Watchers then swing around to Crystal sage and try get through Cathederal of the Deep.

Finally got my 1000gs ,in the end I think it almost took longer to get the concords than it did to do NG++

Evade

So it turns out Crystal sage doesn't like

poison. A little rotten pine resin made the fight laughably easy. A full dose of poison takes away about a third of his health.

Evade

Evade wrote: »

So it turns out Crystal sage doesn't like

poison. A little rotten pine resin made the fight laughably easy. A full dose of poison takes away about a third of his health.

Oh yeah did that on NG++ using Anri's sword and it melted him :pac:

Just beat Deacons of the Deep, not sure where to go next

Evade

Deleted User wrote: »

Just beat Deacons of the Deep, not sure where to go next

Explore the poison swamp at Farron Keep.