From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

...or just Havel's Greatshield +5 it.

 

or it could just break permanently, like it did in DaS1.

 

I have been checking the artbook and wow do some things look amazing, I wish they could have been able to portray them in-game as these areas are in the art.

Look at the Gutter:



and Brightstone Cove Tseldora:



Also, it looks like whoever designed Gwynevere is still around, or he has a successor:

 

this shit with 256mb ram of last gen its like blightown just twice as big. and we know how blightown was on consoles


those tights...

 

That's Desert Sorceress set btw. You can farm it and wear it. As a man. Or you can change gender and also wear it. Not as a man.

 

So, I'm not very far in the game (only played about 10-12 hours) but so far I'm having fun.

Thoughts so far:

Some things are more convenient and this is good because all they did was reduce tedium and not dumb-down; use of many souls at once, no need to reload for crow item drops, item box right out the gate.

Some things are more convenient but at the cost of dumbing-down/reducing planning; many quick-slots, 4 rings, 3 weapons per arm;, insta-teleportation.

Some things are weird and make no sense; cannot level at bonfire.

The areas: I like that outdoor areas actually feel like outdoor areas. Darkroot garden/basin all felt like you were in a big cave, partly because it was dark but partly because it just felt weird. There are tons of cramped areas but there are also large spaces nearby, so if you are stick in a tunnel you can try to reclaim previous territory to avoid breaking your weapon. Also, I like that weapon durability matters and doing dumb shit like swinging through walls is a bad idea.

From still has their tight-rope fetish where multiple 'mandatory' routes are basically a 2 foot wide ledge that you can die if you try to turn to the left. Lots of "haha, gotcha" moments which I am OK with but can see how others get tired of.

I have no idea who/what/why anything is happening. In DS 1 I felt like I understood what was going on more where-as in DS 2 I am just exploring seemingly random areas. So far the only real "connection" of in-game content I've seen is the Rotten being upset about something and making statues. Otherwise I guess there used to be giants? and now there are not? I get that these games have minimalist story-telling but I feel like I'm getting no story-telling at all. The Emerald Herald is p stupid and I don't like her or her use unless it has some OMFG story element, but even then I don't like that she's mandatory for leveling, estus upgrades, or whatever else.

If you are near a bonfire then you can warp back to it so why the fuck not just let us upgrade estus at a bonfire (or level up)?

Anyway, more rambling thoughts later.

Oh, I do like the pacing of combat. It feels slower and heavier to me and I appreciate that more. Also, it obviously runs wayyy better than the travesty that was DS1.

On the Gutters: blight-town legitimately terrified me, the gutters was an easy-mode version of blight town. I think that From needs to stop recycling their ideas on some of these aspects. We get it, Valley of Defilement -> Blightown -> The Gutters but c'moonnn try to come up with something else. Especially since this one was... meh.

Also, do you ever actually NEED a torch? I have yet to light one for actual vision purposes and I am doing just fine. Was the darkness nerfed in a patch or something? I could have sworn a big selling point was that you will need a torch or something?

Or is there some Tomb of Giants like area yet to come? (also, lol at the tomb with a giant skeleton in the grave of saints).

 

Or just make it not save your souls and still leave a bloodstain. It becomes more interesting in preserving your humanity but at the cost of a ring slot and 3000 each time you die.

Though to be fair dying in Dark Souls 1 nearly zero penalty since you can farm souls or humanity. Demon's Soul was almost perfect but they fucked it up with world tenancy.

 

So I am starting my deprived char on the PC and I want to go sorcerer\hex should I upgrade the staff found in Forest of the Giants or make a mad dash to Heide's to open the path the Huntsman and get that good hexing staff?

 

Make a mad dash for that hexing gear! Resonant Soul (needs a chime) rapes everything and when you get low on Souls you can Dark Orb spam with Sunset Staff like you were playing a Royal in Demon's Souls. Get to Drangleic castle after blowing everything up and infuse the Cathia's Chime with Dark and continue to nuke the game into irrelevance! Utilize Dark Fog + Bat Staff with Great Resonant Soul and win 99.999999999999999999999999999% of your PvP matches (80% if you're terrible).

 

People are really catching onto this whole GRS thing. Everybody rolls like a boss through it now and it's very rare to actually hit someone with it in PvP. Resonant washing poles rape me every time though. That's not going away for sure.

 

These same people need to use Bat Fog. Bat Fog + GRS + Resonant Washing Pole and yer fucked.

btw:

 

Thanks Draco, I guess the chime in the majula cliff works for that, should I infuse it too or just hold on for Cathia's?
I plan on still doing FoG to get enough levels for hexing and decent stats...then to lay the smackdown!

 

Yeah winning PvP is pretty much:
0. Mad warrior set (optional)
1. Profound Still while the phantom is still "waking up"
2. Resonant dark washing pole ready
3. Backstep + L1 or run + L1 spam
4. GRS when you're running/healing

Fighting this shit is a fucking nightmare

 

When I was grinding for smooth & silky stones and sunlight medals I saw tons of hexers so it's definitely catching on.

 

If I join another covenant, can I sitll use the sunlight spear?

 

Yes.

 

So, just installed it on PC and had a frustrated experience with the Explorer - once you use all his stuff its simply a guy with little knife. So what my options here ? I dont like Strenght-based builds. In DS1 I ended up with Pyro + Uchigatana. I looked awesome, like a dark wraith in that Izalith robe mixed with black leather thief armor. Is it possible to replicate it here somehow ?

Also, what about these Hex something you guys talking about ? Can I be a "Kataneiro Hexer" ? What do I need for it ?

 

Thinking again, I just saw an hexer in youtube that looked like a friggin shaman with a staff in a hand and a cool spear in the other.

How do I do that ?

 

Had my first PvP experience 12 hours in. Got summoned as a Grey phantom into some Ratbro's world. Dude tried to poke me to death with a spear. I proceeded to annihilate him with my Fire Longsword. Amusing. Got a Pharros' Lockstone out of it at least.

Also, I have still yet to encounter a tough boss. So far the "hardest" has been the Rat Authority but he was just an easier version of Sif with a minor gimmick to start the fight off.

 

Man, FromSoft managed to make multiple souls consumable but couldn't allow multiple covenant offerings at once. Here I am sitting like a retard, offering 50 awestones to this stupid fucking altar.

 

So, finally got to try this today. Some thoughts:

It's way too fucking linear so far. And from the looks of things it's going to stay that way. URGH.
Big weapons still seem to be the best option. Once again, the only thing small/fast weapons are good for is fighting enemies with no poise, which are a joke to begin with, you can punch those to death. Now Strength isn't just for shields, but armor too. Speaking of armor, I had a fast roll all the way until 70% burden, so weapon weight doesn't matter at all either.
After trying melee out and not wanting to repeat my darksouls 1 experience by grinding everything between a big shield and fat sword, I decided to try a sorceror. Oops. Sorcery is awful too. Everything takes forever to kill (since you need to bait them into an attack and then dodge anyways, why waste the time casting spells? And you can't even aim at the ground properly so all the fucking zombeies playing dead have to be baited too when they'd normally die before getting up), and hollows apparently have 80% magic resist fucking shields. Riiiight. I thought there were supposed to be fire sorceries and laser swords and two handing for upgraded spells and shit? All I got was dinky soul arrows again. I guess they're faster now? yay.
I'm liking the variety of weapons. Lots of random special shit being thrown around even this early, like the heide sword and drangleic sword, and I'm seeing all sorts of shit show up in the loading screens that looks nice. Lots of cool rings too, and having 4 slots is nice.

Some questions:

Is it actually worthwhile to level up adaptation? The stat adjustment seems really underwhelming, but for all I know +10 agi means you roll twice as fast or some shit. Does it affect attack speed too?
Did I actually miss some way to sequence break the whole Majula > Last Giant > Pursuer > wherever that bird took me progression? I just want to know yes/no not the actual method.
Is dual wielding actually worthwhile? I experimented with it a bit and it seems like you can get a really fast 1-2 chain going, but then there's a big normal length delay for the next attack so I'm not seeing the point unless you're going to kill or poise break the enemy with that second swing when the first wouldn't have. And even then, the second hit is going to happen later than just two handing a weapon into someone's face, so you could have just done that instead and rolled away sooner. Am I missing something?

 

Yes

AGI gives you more invincible frames and your guy rolls a greater distance.

 

This is the most non-linear Souls game. There's like a potential of 10+ bossfights to be your first boss. We also established before that you are even given the option to skip 70% of the game content . Big weapons are no better than small weapons since poise is REALLY sketchy in both PvE and PvP. Actually I much prefer the smaller weapons for PvE, in PvP both are good for different reasons.
Armor scales with strength, but it doesn't make that much of a statistical difference. I have a mage in a full set of fully upgraded Looking Glass armor and I only noticed a significant difference in damage taken from shit mobs. Big guys who would 1-2 shot me still do so. The 100+ poise I get from the armor doesn't help at all either. I'm still stunned the instant anything pokes me.

 

I can't run past the final two guards, since they're camping right outside the fog door, and interrupt the entry animation. Why lie?

 

If you stand in front of them, you can bait them to attack forwards, roll between them, and enter the fog door.