From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[sullynathan]

Get a heavy weapon and spank Artorias when he goes for his buff. It deals ridiculous damage and he gets stunned for a short while.

 

[No Great Name]

Get a heavy weapon and spank Artorias when he goes for his buff. It deals ridiculous damage and he gets stunned for a short while.

My character has 12 Strength. He's a wimp that can't even hold half the shields I've found.

 

[sullynathan]

Get a heavy weapon and spank Artorias when he goes for his buff. It deals ridiculous damage and he gets stunned for a short while.

My character has 12 Strength. He's a wimp that can't even hold half the shields I've found.

the funny thing I've found is that playing patiently with Artorias just makes the fight last longer than it should. If you match his aggressiveness, you can kill him quite quickly. Giving him breathing room just allows him to get you. Then again, I never wasted time with a dex build.

 

[No Great Name]

Well it also didn't help that my character also doesn't have a lot of health or defense in general so Artorias was easily able to 2 or 3-shot me even when unbuffed. I could only get 1, maybe 2 attacks inwith each opening before his next attack would come out and then I risked getting hit while still in lag from my own attack.

 

[L'Montes]

If you're already getting one-shot, and you're reliant on dodging to survive - you can also take the Power Within + Red Tearstone sort of approach. Sure, your health will be low, but that would be the case anyway.

You'd only need one spell slot to do it. Power Within hijinks were also popular for caster types trying to take him down, because he doesn't give you many openings (or stand still long enough) for you to hurl fireballs and/or spells at him.

 

[No Great Name]

I can't even begin to imagine how casters would deal with Artorias without a method like that.

Anyways, today's session has been pretty productive. I've completed the DLC having successfully defeated both Kalameet and Manus. Both of these fights were pretty fun for me as I got to learn what their attacks and visual cues were and how to safely avoid them, and with the new Gold Tracer I got, I'm dealing more damage than ever before. These two boss fights were much easier than Artorias in my opinion, partly because I was able to deal more damage which meant the fights didn't last as long as Artorias, but also because both Kalameet and Manus had a bit more downtime in between their attack patterns that allowed me to heal or reposition myself better compared to Artorias.

Anyways, with the DLC completed I moved onto the last area that has the Lord Soul I need which is the ruins of New Londo. What a weird area this is. The ghosts were a bit annoying to deal with, especially when walking through narrow hallways and a group of them started attacking you from behind the walls on all sides. I met with some guy who said that I need something from Artorias in order to enter the Abyss where the boss is located and so I realized that there was an area locked behind the Crest of Artorias I still hadn't explored yet. After returning to Darkroot Garden, I eventually reached Artorias' grave and found that Sif had grown up since being in the DLC. It was a bit sad that I had to fight him, especially when he was low on health and started feebly swinging the sword and limping. Having said that, the fight itself was pretty easy and I emerged victorious without dying once.

After obtaining Artorias' ring needed for the the Abyss, I returned to New Londo and made my way to fight the Four Kings. It was a really strange fight since it was taking place in the Abyss after all, and it was really difficult to gauge my distance from the boss since the arena was just pitch black. Just like the fight against Sif, I beat the Four Kings on the first try as well and got the last Lord Soul I needed. I think all that's left now is to use the Lord Souls to open the way to the final boss and that'll be that. I guess that means the next session will be my last for this game.

 

[sullynathan]

I can't even begin to imagine how casters would deal with Artorias without a method like that

I had an easier time spanking Artorias as a mage especially one with lots of points put into INT. Both homing crystal soul mass, both soul spears, dark bead & pursuers allow you to do ridiculous amount of damage to him. He's magic resistant but high enough INT meant for spells would still do a good amount of damage while the new dark magic from the DLC did physical damage IIRC

 

[L'Montes]

Pyromancy in Dark Souls 1 scales off nothing but the upgrade level of your flame. So, as long as you have a few spell slots, you can throw together a relatively strong build.

Depending on your confidence, you can throw together Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring + Crown of Dusk + Red Tearstone Ring + Power Within... all the damage bonuses will stack.

Would you die easily? Of course. Will Artorias die quickly? Also, yes. It's possible to get him in one cast at SL 1 even, iirc.

 

[No Great Name]

Alright it's official. I have defeated Gwynn and beaten the game. I know that Gwynn can be easily parried to death, but I honestly wanted to try beating him without relying on parry.

It definitely took a good hour or so to get a feel for how he likes to attack and when I can safely hit him or heal myself up. Just like the Artorias fight, I had to play patiently and conservatively against him in order to properly manage my stamina. There is one attack of his in particular that just comes out incredibly fast with almost no windup time whatsoever that I've given up on trying to dodge on reaction alone. My general strategy basically revolved around keeping a mid-range distance in front of him as much as I could and dodge everything he threw out at me mostly by rolling backwards. If he used his kick or his command grab, then I can easily get 2 hits in of my own while being in no danger. If he did his 4-hit attack sequence, I can roll forwards on the fourth attack and counterattack. If he did his weird delayed vertical slice, then I could get a hit in there, too. Anything else he did wasn't safe for me to attack him. All I had to do was make sure that my health was as topped up as possible and be aware that I don't get cornered into a wall.

After defeating Gwynn, I then went up to the bonfire in the area and basically sacrificed myself to the fire to finish the game. From what I understand of the lore, doing this merely prolongs the Age of Fire but it wouldn't stop the same situation from occurring again in the future. I would have preferred a more permanent solution to the problem of the dwindling Fire, but it's too late for that now.

 

[Wunderbar]

Alright it's official. I have defeated Gwynn and beaten the game.

now play dark souls 2 sotfs

 

[No Great Name]

Alright it's official. I have defeated Gwynn and beaten the game.

now play dark souls 2 sotfs

Not for a while unfortunately, especially since I don't own the game and I can't really be spending any money on new games right now. I'm already planning on playing Wizardry I next anyways.

 

[RoSoDude]

More footage from the real Dark Souls Remastered:



Too bad they dumbed it down for kids; they got rid of the Hollow that's supposed to spring out of the crates at 1:12 and there's no flaming barrel at 3:02. Tsk tsk.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

I defeated my first DS2 boss the other day, The Last Giant. The fight wasn't easy with all his long range moves, especially once he rips off his arm to use it as a club, but it wasn't super hard either.

I outfitted myself in Elite Knight Set, upgraded it a bit with titanite, and mostly upgrading vigor and dexterity. Got a +4 regular rapier and a buckler. Got about 1400 health now. Bought myself the cat ring and fell down the well. Gonna explore down there.

I am much better at parrying now, kinda got most attack patterns down to memory now. Plus, for some enemies that were giving me problems earlier, the trick is to ignore their first attack. This is for enemies like sword and shield hollow infantry and the spear/shield royal soldier. Their first attack does very little damage and comes very fast, so if you look for it, it's easy to miss it, and then it throws you off the timing for their later, slower attacks. But if you ignore it, and start parrying on the 2nd attack, works like a charm.

Armorer Dennis, man. This guy invaded me a couple of times, and at first I thought it was a player, but then he kept doing it in the same spot, so I figured it's an NPC, and googled him. That mother spams spells like a D&D recovering addict. I think I am too weak to take him on now without cheese.

 

[Grimlorn]

Is there any way for you to record and post a video of yourself and your attempts on the next boss, The Pursuer?

 

[Strange Fellow]

I defeated my first DS2 boss the other day, The Last Giant.

Wrong thread, man.

 

[Average Manatee]

Armorer Dennis, man. This guy invaded me a couple of times, and at first I thought it was a player, but then he kept doing it in the same spot, so I figured it's an NPC, and googled him. That mother spams spells like a D&D recovering addict. I think I am too weak to take him on now without cheese.

Sadly From decided after Dark Souls that NPC invaders should have the damage and HP of mini-boss fights in order to make up for their AI rather than have them resemble PCs.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Armorer Dennis, man. This guy invaded me a couple of times, and at first I thought it was a player, but then he kept doing it in the same spot, so I figured it's an NPC, and googled him. That mother spams spells like a D&D recovering addict. I think I am too weak to take him on now without cheese.

Sadly From decided after Dark Souls that NPC invaders should have the damage and HP of mini-boss fights in order to make up for their AI rather than have them resemble PCs.

Yeah, they are pretty annoying. I think they even have unlimited stamina or something, because they keep swinging.

 

[Explorerbc]

I also started playing DS2 SotfS a few days ago and it feels easier than DS1

I still don't know how to parry, and this time I don't even try to block. I just spam the light attack on enemies and roll around. I haven't upgraded any weapons or armor, I use some basic nameless sword I got early on, and I just dump all my souls on 4 skills randomly just so that I won't lose them if I die. Most bosses I got on the first try with the help of NPC (not even player) phantoms. That pursuer dude looked hard, except he stood in front of the balista and died in two hits.

In DS1 I had trouble in the early game until my character became a walking death machine after Anor Londo, but here it looks like a walk in the park from the start. I just breezed through No Man's Wharf slaughtering everything and then watched my two NPC summons gank on that poor boss in the ship. Now, I know you are gonna say this is the pleb way of doing things, but my point is, for a game series renowned for its difficulty it offers way too much of a helping hand if you are a noob.

 

[janior]

DS2 FAGS GTFO

 

[L'Montes]

I also started playing DS2 SotfS a few days ago and it feels easier than DS1

[...] here it looks like a walk in the park from the start. I just breezed through No Man's Wharf slaughtering everything and then watched my two NPC summons gank on that poor boss in the ship. Now, I know you are gonna say this is the pleb way of doing things, but my point is, for a game series renowned for its difficulty it offers way too much of a helping hand if you are a noob.

Dark Souls 2 tried to give you more of a range of self-selected difficulty, with... mixed results.

Join the Way of the Blue, and Blue Sentinels can be summoned to your side to protect you from those nasty PvPers! Except, mechanically and player-side, the system barely worked.

That aside, if you're really wanting to show off the size of your e-peen, the covenant choice for you was the Champions covenant. It blocks co-op summoning - you can't summon help or be summoned (but you can still be invaded), and is a slight difficulty tweak upwards (you do less damage, enemies do more damage).

The game also has special rewards for beating the game without dying and without ever resting at a bonfire, if you like challenges.

Whatever Dark Souls 2 faults' (there are many), some player opt-in adjustable difficulty isn't a bad thing. Any vision of the series being a meticulously curated "experience" kinda went out of the window with player messages, bloodstains, Ass-lover345 invading to toss dung at you, and the various wonky AI mechanics.

 

[Wunderbar]

I still don't know how to parry, and this time I don't even try to block. I just spam the light attack on enemies and roll around. I haven't upgraded any weapons or armor, I use some basic nameless sword I got early on, and I just dump all my souls on 4 skills randomly just so that I won't lose them if I die. Most bosses I got on the first try with the help of NPC (not even player) phantoms. That pursuer dude looked hard, except he stood in front of the balista and died in two hits.

In DS1 I had trouble in the early game until my character became a walking death machine after Anor Londo, but here it looks like a walk in the park from the start. I just breezed through No Man's Wharf slaughtering everything and then watched my two NPC summons gank on that poor boss in the ship.

you are pleb for doing this.

 

[Explorerbc]

Whatever Dark Souls 2 faults' (there are many), some player opt-in adjustable difficulty isn't a bad thing. Any vision of the series being a meticulously curated "experience" kinda went out of the window with player messages, bloodstains, Ass-lover345 invading to toss dung at you, and the various wonky AI mechanics.

I actually prefer the easier difficulty, trying the same boss 10 times is not really fun for me. I just don't understand how so many people can claim that this is one of the hardest games out there when it gives you so many ways to gain an advantage.

As for the multiplayer stuff, yeah, it feels like they became the main feature of the series rather than a gimmick.

 

[L'Montes]

I just don't understand how so many people can claim that this is one of the hardest games out there when it gives you so many ways to gain an advantage.

It's always struck me as a marketing gimmick. The game doesn't hold your hand, and can be occasionally unforgiving to mistakes. I don't think that makes it "hard" necessarily.

Anyone alive in the NES/SNES era can probably think of lots of games that had limited lives/continues, and you literally had to restart the entire game when you ran out.

Dark Souls gives you checkpoints. Dark Souls lets you approach enemies/bosses/objectives multiple ways. Dark Souls doesn't really require you to memorize anything. Dark Souls lets you level up to the point that what you're fighting will be trivial. Dark Souls lets you "phone a friend" to cheese levels and bosses.

I like Dark Souls, but the difficulty gets played up too much. The game isn't going to jerk you off, while killing the boss for you during a QTE - that much is true. They added plenty of difficulty-release valves for the frustrated player though. Namco just really liked pushing the narrative about difficulty in their marketing I think, like it's novel that a player can be sent back to a checkpoint after fucking up.

 

[newtmonkey]

People claim DS games are difficult precisely for that reason—they are not used to playing games where you actually have to think about gaining an advantage. They are used to games where you can just put in the hours and you'll blow through the game; where there is no "advantage" to be gained because the game can be finished without even thinking about it.

They aren't "hard" and are actually quite fair. I mean, how many games save the world state to your benefit even if you die? Most games just kick you back to the title screen or (more frequently) to your last checkpoint.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

That aside, if you're really wanting to show off the size of your e-peen, the covenant choice for you was the Champions covenant. It blocks co-op summoning - you can't summon help or be summoned (but you can still be invaded), and is a slight difficulty tweak upwards (you do less damage, enemies do more damage).

Wtf, I didn't know that. I joined it just because I liked the badge. Had no idea it changed the damage of everyone.