Capcom Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

[StaticSpine]

Is it easy to switch vocations? I plan to try sword and board but I'm not sure if it's feasible and I can't just make another character as it will overwrite this one.

yeah, there is a dude in Grand Soren hotel, who switches your vocation any time you want.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I like the arbitrary equipment system because I usually enforce such arbitrariness on myself anyway. In Demon's Souls / Dark Souls, for example, you would never catch me playing as a Magic-User with heavy armor or vice versa. I always wore the part that I played. I'm really anal about roles having distinct uniqueneass and what equipment you can and cannot use is a part of it.

Is it easy to switch vocations? I plan to try sword and board but I'm not sure if it's feasible and I can't just make another character as it will overwrite this one.

Yeah, it's easy, but you have different stat gains depending on the vocation. Playing 50 levels as a mage and then switching to the Warrior will make you feel like a gimp if you wanna do Bitterback Isle. The base game is easy enough to not care but the expansion isn't such a cakewalk.

 

[Krraloth]

I like the arbitrary equipment system because I usually enforce such arbitrariness on myself anyway. In Demon's Souls / Dark Souls, for example, you would never catch me playing as a Magic-User with heavy armor or vice versa. I always wore the part that I played. I'm really anal about roles having distinct uniqueneass and what equipment you can and cannot use is a part of it.

Is it easy to switch vocations? I plan to try sword and board but I'm not sure if it's feasible and I can't just make another character as it will overwrite this one.

Yeah, it's easy, but you have different stat gains depending on the vocation. Playing 50 levels as a mage and then switching to the Warrior will make you feel like a gimp if you wanna do Bitterback Isle. The base game is easy enough to not care but the expansion isn't such a cakewalk.

But don't you need to level up in magic-y vocations to become a mystic knight for example?

 

[Delterius]

But don't you need to level up in magic-y vocations to become a mystic knight for example?

It depends on what exactly you want.

As you gain levels, each Job increases your stats differently. This means that on the long term, your characters will become much more effective at certain vocations. If you play a Sorcerer for the whole game, you'll become much more powerful with magical attacks. Etcetera.

However, the Mystic Knight is special because not only does his own gains support his variety of attacks, but those attacks each have different physical and magical damage components. True, some people play as Sorcerers/Assassins to maximize magic attack/physical attack, but that's unnecessary.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I like the arbitrary equipment system because I usually enforce such arbitrariness on myself anyway. In Demon's Souls / Dark Souls, for example, you would never catch me playing as a Magic-User with heavy armor or vice versa. I always wore the part that I played. I'm really anal about roles having distinct uniqueneass and what equipment you can and cannot use is a part of it.

Is it easy to switch vocations? I plan to try sword and board but I'm not sure if it's feasible and I can't just make another character as it will overwrite this one.

Yeah, it's easy, but you have different stat gains depending on the vocation. Playing 50 levels as a mage and then switching to the Warrior will make you feel like a gimp if you wanna do Bitterback Isle. The base game is easy enough to not care but the expansion isn't such a cakewalk.

But don't you need to level up in magic-y vocations to become a mystic knight for example?

Mystic Knight is a true hybrid. You can level up as a melee vocation and then use him with more melee oriented attacks. The Abyssal Anguish weapon buff is pretty powerful if you have lots of strength. It increases the reach of your weapon, but it also causes it to hit multiple parts at the same time meaning more damage. Or you can level up as a Sorc first to get lots of Int in which case you will have the most damaging spells in the game. Just drop your artillery and rip the enemies apart with your cannon fire. I wouldn't say it's unnecessary to maximize damage if you wanna kill high end shit efficiently.

 

[Krraloth]

So far I'm lvl 24 just switched to fighter to get some defense from strider. I have to say, fighter vocation is pretty fun, when I don't get bounced back and forth by bandits like a ping pong ball.
I fought my first golem yesterday and I managed to snatch up a couple of those magical medals. I died when it switched back on the first time, that was an impressing startup sequence.

Exploration is fun, you find all sorts of nice little places with loot although I guess all loot is randomized inside chests right? Is it level scaled or what?
I have to stop wandering around at night in unfamiliar territory unless I want to start fighting an ogre and die to the second one that I didn't see until it grabbed me(damned QTE to break free is hard as fuck).
Oh, the drake near the marsh is a persistent little fucker, I tought I shook it off and it just flew to my position and roasted my ass. I managed wipe one of its life dots (while killing hobgoblins) but died to a tail swipe when it was downed.

I switched my main pawn to ranger to give him more stamina (goddamn sniper) and then I dunno, I'd like to have him manage aggro but sadly I can't make him a Mystic Knight as I planned, I'm kinda worried about his magic defense

Spoiler

the tentacles in Everfall oneshotted him with fireballs

, any suggestions?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Chests have loot tables. There are about 1-3 different things you can find in any given chest.

 

[Delterius]

So far I'm lvl 24 just switched to fighter to get some defense from strider. I have to say, fighter vocation is pretty fun, when I don't get bounced back and forth by bandits like a ping pong ball.
I fought my first golem yesterday and I managed to snatch up a couple of those magical medals. I died when it switched back on the first time, that was an impressing startup sequence.

Exploration is fun, you find all sorts of nice little places with loot although I guess all loot is randomized inside chests right? Is it level scaled or what?
I have to stop wandering around at night in unfamiliar territory unless I want to start fighting an ogre and die to the second one that I didn't see until it grabbed me(damned QTE to break free is hard as fuck).
Oh, the drake near the marsh is a persistent little fucker, I tought I shook it off and it just flew to my position and roasted my ass. I managed wipe one of its life dots (while killing hobgoblins) but died to a tail swipe when it was downed.

I switched my main pawn to ranger to give him more stamina (goddamn sniper) and then I dunno, I'd like to have him manage aggro but sadly I can't make him a Mystic Knight as I planned, I'm kinda worried about his magic defense

Spoiler

the tentacles in Everfall oneshotted him with fireballs

, any suggestions?

The spoiler part is to be expected, dont worry.

 

[Ebonsword]

I have to stop wandering around at night in unfamiliar territory unless I want to start fighting an ogre and die to the second one that I didn't see until it grabbed me(damned QTE to break free is hard as fuck).

One of the best design decisions for this game was to make nighttime legitimately scary.

 

[Delterius]

I have to stop wandering around at night in unfamiliar territory unless I want to start fighting an ogre and die to the second one that I didn't see until it grabbed me(damned QTE to break free is hard as fuck).

One of the best design decisions for this game was to make nighttime legitimately scary.

And after a while, once you've learned the ropes, it becomes a thrill.

 

[deuxhero]

http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv212486123

DDO stream going on. I can't watch because Niconico doesn't support HTML 5 video.

 

[StaticSpine]

Bros

Spoiler

I killed the dragon, hell of a fight (QTE was shit tho), went to the duke, that faget badmouthed me and I fell to Everfall. Will it be a long sequence?

And how much time BBI takes?

(I really want to finish the stuff before Blooborne)

 

[4249]

Bros

Spoiler

I killed the dragon, hell of a fight (QTE was shit tho), went to the duke, that faget badmouthed me and I fell to Everfall. Will it be a long sequence?

And how much time BBI takes?

(I really want to finish the stuff before Blooborne)

Spoiler

Depends on how much you want to do after the dragon. The Everfall itself is pretty quick, you just need to collect 20 of those revival stones, which is easy as they drop alot in Everfall. But if you want to see all of the rooms in Everfall or a more completionist approach, there are a lot of powerful enemies spawned in the post-dragon part of the game. So if you want to find and kill those then it'll take a bit longer.

BBI in itself is a pretty short place iirc, maybe 10-15 hours? It's been a long time so I could be wrong. And it's a pretty tough area, so your mileage may vary. And just like the post-dragon changes to the regular game, after completing BBI for the first time, the "real" BBI opens with stronger monsters.

 

[Machocruz]

Greatness shouldn't be rushed. Bloodborne will still be there. Dark Arisen is probably better anyway

 

[StaticSpine]

Greatness shouldn't be rushed. Bloodborne will still be there. Dark Arisen is probably better anyway

I doubt it cause Souls kind of gameplay is more appealing to me. Anyway DD is cool, but I want to be among the first people playing Bloodborne, can't wait to play it actually.

 

[Krraloth]

I don't know what happened. I changed vocation to warrior and was fighting low-level bandits (from the encampment turn left up the hill where the boulders are) I was full health and got one-shotted by a sword thrust. Is there level scaling or some mechanincs I am not aware of?
I'm not playing on hard mode and I fail to see how I could get killed by a measly bandit like that when a fucking griffon landed on me and just halved my hp.

 

[empyrean]

I don't know what happened. I changed vocation to warrior and was fighting low-level bandits (from the encampment turn left up the hill where the boulders are) I was full health and got one-shotted by a sword thrust. Is there level scaling or some mechanincs I am not aware of?
I'm not playing on hard mode and I fail to see how I could get killed by a measly bandit like that when a fucking griffon landed on me and just halved my hp.

No, the bandits in the Verstad Hills are just overleveled compared to the wussies you fought on the Manamia Trail. I would suggest leveling up a bit more or looking for better equipment before going to Witchwood. (Or you could just run past them.)

 

[Delterius]

The Iron Hammer bandits have shieldbearers which are pretty crazy, yeah.

 

[Krraloth]

To be honest I steamrolled them 15 levels earlier as a strider but maybe I wasn't hit by the shieldbearers that time. Nice to know that me having more levels will still kill me if I take it easy.

 

[StaticSpine]

Bros, I'm in Everfall

Spoiler

Got rekt once by a hydra - can't manage to cut all heads...

And met an Ur-Dragon dude with the same result

 

[Martius]

Some gameplay footage. Sadly thanks to capturing from stream and then uploading framerate is pretty much crap.

 

[Krraloth]

Mh...dare I hope?

 

[DragoFireheart]

Mh...dare I hope?

Same. Video doesn't look to bad and the concept is sound...

I dunno, I just see Crapcom's reputation and still believe Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen was a fluke. It's not coming to the US so it doesn't matter anyways.

 

[Rahdulan]

Mh...dare I hope?

Really, it just has to stay Dragon's Dogma with additional multiplayer you can completely ignore if you feel like it, which is kinda what is sounds like so far. Although I imagine there will be "death by lag" stories aplenty.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Cross-poasting from General Gaming for anyone interested in speedrunning shenanigans in DDDA.

Speedrunning Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. My first few runs were pretty bad, at 4 and 3 hours respectively. I thought Strider->Assassin was the correct routing and didn't realize just how robust the game is against sequence-breaking.

Checked out some SDA strats (there aren't many people running the game), and found that the credited vocation selection is to go Mage->Ranger.

The Mage vocation helps you to get past the escort section much faster, as you can keep the ox topped off with regards to health. Not only does this allow you to continuously kick the ox, causing it to run, but higher health means that the ox runs faster and further with each kick.

The change to Ranger is made before undertaking the two Wyrm Hunt quests (Dragonforged and the Catacombs) and after the Catacombs, you essentially do nothing but spam Sixfold Blast Arrows with stacked periapts. Even though you are unlikely to go beyond level 38 in the run, your character still has tremendous damage potential. The Maker's Finger takes care of Grigori and then it's off to the Everfall for a particularly vexing RNG-fest.

I'm not entirely certain what is the optimal route in there. Obviously the chambers with quick access to "boss" enemies are a good bet, because they can be quickly blasted for high Wakestone drop rates. And any chamber with Hell Hounds should likely be avoided, because they can easily kill a naked, under-leveled character and their grab attack causes serious frame hemorrhaging. But aside from that, I'm not certain. There's a lot of room for optimization here.

Have had a couple of runs around 1 hour and 55 minutes, which is decent, but far from the world record of 1 hour and 20 minutes; I make a lot of mistakes, especially with regards to menuing or timing my route around NPC schedules. I even take a death or two in most runs (usually to Snow Harpies when I try to pick up the Signs of Valor or getting trampled to death by the ox).

Perhaps I will, with practice, gitgud. Or maybe I'll stumble upon some goofy glitches that will speed up the run.