From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[Average Manatee]

Priscilla seemed pretty nice, so I did not attack her.

Yes... nice...

 

[Wunderbar]

Fucking dragon crapped out on me in the painted world and I was able to sequence break it. Wonder if they bothered to fix that bug since, as I understand, it wasn't a 100% reproducible issue.

you can reliably sequence-break dragonbutt by performing jump attack.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

What does sequence break even mean, you nerds?

So I got into the expansion/DLC area. To get into it you have to kill the crystal dude in a hidden corner behind the waterfall, then get a drop off adifferent crystal dude in the Duke's Archives, and then come back and interact with a cloud in the secret area. So obviously I learned this on the wiki. How the fuck did people figure this out when the DLC came out? Was it in some manual? Was there massive nerd-rage?

Killed the sanctuary guardian after a zillion tries. That mother has so many different attacks, it's a royal pain. I finally took off my fancy armor, and fought it in the nude, with the rolling ring, that helped a lot.

 

[Wunderbar]

What does sequence break even mean, you nerds?

you're breaking the intended sequence of playthrough by skipping stuff that wasn't supposed to be skippable.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Oh man, I am sooo gonna rage about Buttwalker Artorias in the DLC.

Just fought him a bunch of times, fuck he is so annoying. He is like cheese mode, where the computer gets the cheese. Retarded range, half his attacks can hit you from half the hall away, and that's not when he is jumping across the whole hall. Super fast attacks, slow undwinding attacks that cover like 360 degrees, a whirlwind attack in case you manage to get close, that spin in the air 3 times shit with cc that you cant get out of, what an annoying prick.

And then he gets his damage upped every few blows. I had to dump my armor, because the only way to fight him without a high end tank character is to roll like crazy, so now im fighting him in a sheet with the spin ring. Got him down to quarter health a couple of times, but then he always catches me with a blow, and its over, cause he is buffed by then.

I tried interrupting him during the buffing but thats just ridiculous, his head bobs up and down, so kinda hard to hit with a bow every time, and to interrupt in melee, you have to stay close to him, which is exactly what I don't want to do, given his meatgrinder set of moves.

I am gonna kill this fuck just for being so annoying.

 

[agentorange]

You'll really enjoy Dark Souls 3 if you ever get to it because 80% of the bosses are Artorias clones.

Also the best way to kill Artorias is to do it as quickly as possible. You really don't want to waste time doing things like shooting him with a bow.

 

[Damned Registrations]

His buff wears off after a while.

 

[Wunderbar]

And then he gets his damage upped every few blows.

you can prevent that. As soon as you hear him buffing himself, run and hack him.

 

[No Great Name]

Two sessions into starting a Dark Souls playthrough on PC. Beat the Bell Gargoyles and rang the first Bell of Awakening at the end of the first session, and defeated Capra Demon and his annoying dogs and explored a bit of the depths in the second. So far Capra Demon was the toughest boss, but it wasn't even because of his moves. Most of that fight's difficulty came from those damn dogs. Took about 6 deaths to figure out how to open the fight without getting pincered between the dogs' attacks and Capra Demon. Once the dogs finally went down, I was able to slowly block and whittle away Capra Demon while barely taking any damage.

Really fun game so far. I like how there are a bunch of little hidden nooks that you can stumble upon like I did once when I accidentally rolled off a ledge. Thought I had died and I found myself in a hidden area with 4 chests.

 

[Somberlain]

Oh man, I am sooo gonna rage about Buttwalker Artorias in the DLC.

Just fought him a bunch of times, fuck he is so annoying. He is like cheese mode, where the computer gets the cheese. Retarded range, half his attacks can hit you from half the hall away, and that's not when he is jumping across the whole hall. Super fast attacks, slow undwinding attacks that cover like 360 degrees, a whirlwind attack in case you manage to get close, that spin in the air 3 times shit with cc that you cant get out of, what an annoying prick.

And then he gets his damage upped every few blows. I had to dump my armor, because the only way to fight him without a high end tank character is to roll like crazy, so now im fighting him in a sheet with the spin ring. Got him down to quarter health a couple of times, but then he always catches me with a blow, and its over, cause he is buffed by then.

I tried interrupting him during the buffing but thats just ridiculous, his head bobs up and down, so kinda hard to hit with a bow every time, and to interrupt in melee, you have to stay close to him, which is exactly what I don't want to do, given his meatgrinder set of moves.

I am gonna kill this fuck just for being so annoying.

Son, you are finally becoming a man. There is only one thing left to do.

Spoiler

Git gud.

 

[Ninefingers]

Time to start over and cower behind a greatshield like a real man?

 

[Somberlain]

Full Havel/Giant set + straight sword R1 spam

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Yeah, those of you whining about how easy this fight is, you gotta realize that Dark Souls is kind of like a "select your own difficulty" game. Your build sets the difficulty. I have an alt with a Knight who 2-hands a Zweihander, and uses it to block too when needed. Not even the full cheese build (Big Daddy or whatever), just a strength based Zweihander build. On that one, I killed the first Black Knight I met on the first attempt, and killed the Taurus Demon on the 2nd try. Same for tank builds, there is no skill involved, just hold up shield forever and attack with a spear or a rapier or something.

But my main build is the hardest one, Dexterity parry/dodge build, I actually have to time shit and all of that. So it's a lot more difficult.

In any case, I have just come back from tea-bagging Artorias's corpse for 2 hours. Well, his corpse kinda evaporated, but I pretended it was still there. Fuck that motherfucker...

Finally took him out today. What it was, apparently in addition to his other cheese (like for example not being parryable, even though he is a humanoid, same size as black/silver knights), apparently my main weapon (Ricard's Rapier) cannot interrupt him during his buffing. Like what were the odds of that?

So I switched to a silver knight sword, got right up into his mug, dodged like 95% of his bullshit, healed through the rest (this is hard, as his AI specifically waits for you to start healing and atttacks), and disrupted his first 2 buffing attempts. Then, he did get me a couple of times, and my health is low as fuck (like 10%), so I am thinking shit, I am dead. But then Buttfluffer Artorias fucked up. Instead of finishing me, he went to buff again. But his health was at one bar.

I laughed as I healed back to full health, dodged his next attack, and ended him like a bad episode of gonorrhea. Then, the tea-bagging started.

 

[Average Manatee]

You'll really enjoy Dark Souls 3 if you ever get to it because 80% of the bosses are Artorias clones.

Half of DaS3's bosses are Artorias clones that have no strict cooldown on their combos, and can randomly decide to continue into a 10-hit combo after you try to hit them at the end of what would normally be their 3-hit combo. Currently raging against Champion Gundyr with my Halberd build at the moment. I literally can't figure out an opening that lets me attack without getting randomly screwed whenever he decides to just not stop making attacks. Fucking broken boss design, even huge telegraphed slams can sometimes not end his combo. Of course he also 3-hits me and I only do around 200 damage per hit to him. I think I chose the worst possible weapon for this kind of boss, at least with a greatsword/axe/hammer I'd probably be doing 400 damage and could win by luck.

Artorias himself, on the other hand, is a well-designed boss.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Currently raging against Champion Gundyr with my Halberd build at the moment.

I beat that guy on the second attempt. Get on my level.
I have no idea how I did it though, that was the reaction-dodging feat of a lifetime. If I had died at that try I feel certain that it would've taken me another twenty to beat him. I still think Gundyr is one of the best bosses in the game. The DS3 boss that really grinds my gears is that sword wielding clerical whatever in the cathedral in Irithyll. I eventually gave up trying to melee him straight and just parried him to death, which was just as much of a cop out as it was with Gwyn.

 

[Average Manatee]

I have no idea how I did it though, that was the reaction-dodging feat of a lifetime. If I had died at that try I feel certain that it would've taken me another twenty to beat him. I still think Gundyr is one of the best bosses in the game. The DS3 boss that really grinds my gears is that sword wielding clerical whatever in the cathedral in Irithyll. I eventually gave up trying to melee him straight and just parried him to death, which was just as much of a cop out as it was with Gwyn.

It's not even reaction dodging that is the problem though. If I wanted to just dodge him I could go a long time without being hit. It's that I can't figure out when the opening is that allows a slow weapon to get a hit in without him continuing his combo. Whenever he does continue his combo I can straight up die, because in the 2nd mode when he knocks you on the ground and is nearby he can immediately follow up before you can roll away, guaranteeing death (or at least guaranteed with the level of HP I have now).

The 2-sword guy in Irithyll I found easier once he made his clone. At that point he only does really slow telegraphed moves and you can easily get in there and punish.

I know most of these guys are parry cheese-able but beating bosses with parry is sort of degenerate.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I know most of these guys are parry cheese-able but beating bosses with parry is sort of degenerate.

Agreed, resorting to parrying was like admitting defeat. I was actually using the Fume sword against Gundyr, so it's not like it's impossible with a slow weapon. That fight was the first time in my life where I regretted not recording my playing so I could upload my L337 skills to YouTube.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Ok, made my way through Oompa-loompacille, freed young great (not so great yet) gay wolf sifu, not sure why, since I killed him anyway before, but whatever...

Farmed humanity like burgers in the ghost cavern, and made my way to Manu Ginobilli's room. Yeah, he seems pretty annoying.

The attacks are super fast, gonna have to roll on anticipation. Hope this bastard doesn't buff himself like Buttbuffer Artorias.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Sooo, what do you get when you defeat Artorias and Manus on the same day? A parade?

I tried fighting Manus the same way I fought Artorias (ninja suit, 2 handing my rapier, rolling ring), but it was really annoying. Artorias was annoying but at least he had a fairly distinct set of attacks. This ugly mofo had like 20 different attacks, most of which look similar to others, but require completely different responses. Also he is way bigger than Artorias, so his range is just the entire space, and because of his size and jumping, I couldn't even get a good read on his animations. Then, of course, he also starts casting spells after a while. I found the silver thingie to block that shit, but with the retarded controls on PC, I don't see how I can possibly use that without getting a stroke. To scroll from estus to the pendant, you need to disengage the target (otherwise scrolling doesnt work), then scroll, then activate, and all this in the middle of dodging and you have to time the pendant activating to the spells arriving...

Anyways, dodging this motherfucker is possible, but with all the shit invovled, it would probably take at least a week of nonstop masochism, while you learn all the patterns, and practice doing 20 things at once. So I said fuck it, and decided to use a different approach.

Put on most of Havel's Set (everything except the helmet), Child's mask for stamina regen, and the Eagle Greatshield (the only one I can even use with my Dex build). I did upgrade the shield to +12 just for this fight (a few New Londo runs, those Darkwraith Knights must really hate me by now). Then this fight became much easier. Basically block all his bullshit in a timed way (not as exact as parrying, but you don't want to keep the shield up all the time for stamina reasons), hit his hand when he strikes you with it, back off during his combo, and when he starts casting spells, block 2-3 of them as normal, and the one where the spells come back from behind, disegnage and block backwards.

After 2-3 tries, got him real low, when I realized i am running out of estus. Once my flask went down to zero, he was still at like 3 bars, so I just go berserk. Start poking him with my +15 rapier like a pin cushion. I think even he was surprised. Anyways, it was real close, with both of us next to death, but Porky the Slayer came through.

Wondering if I should do the Kalameet Dragon, who seems pretty optional, or just continue with the 4 Kings. By this point, I am kinda weary of retardedly hard bosses in the DLC, so might just go back to the main game.

 

[No Great Name]

So while exploring the Depths, I unfortunately discovered what it means to be cursed. Incredibly annoying. I remembered that there was an undead woman near the entrance to the Depths that sold an item that can break the curse, but I didn't have enough souls and had spend some time grinding for them. Continuing through the Depths, my main weapon, a +5 scimitar ended up running low on durability and was about to break. It took me a couple minutes to also realize that weapons do less damage when they are close to its breaking point, which was unfortunate because I found myself fighting the Gaping Dragon boss with that scimitar. Thank god I figured out how to manipulate it into an easy pattern by just standing still when the Gaping Dragon would rear up on its hind legs, because I spent at least 10 minutes chipping away at its health with a broken scimitar each time I hit it. I couldn't switch weapons to something stronger either because my strength stat is so low that my character wasn't capable of wielding any other weapon that I was carrying.

After finally beating the Gaping Dragon, I decided to go all the way back to the Undead Burg to the blacksmith there since I had enough of dealing with weapons in terrible conditions. While I was there I realized I had never explored the bottom portion of that area and I found myself exploring Darkroot Garden and Darkroot Basin. Going through the Basin, I found myself in the Valley of Drakes, but after getting my ass thoroughly whooped by the first lightning drake I encountered, I turned right around and decided to come back again when I'm stronger. Also in the Basin I got my ass whooped again by some giant Hydra sitting in a lake, as well as a shortcut to the first portion of the Undead Burg. After turning back to explore the rest of Darkroot Garden, I found a locked door that I figured I would need the Crest of Artorias that I saw the blacksmith had for sale, but 20k souls is too steep of a proce for me at this point. I continued through the Garden with relative ease until I came across the Moonlight Butterfly. It was a really serene and chill enemy, at least until it was below half health and started through energy bombs at me from above that took me at least 6 deaths to figure out how to avoid.

After finishing off the Butterfly and finding the Divine Ember on a petrified blacksmith, a returned back to Firelink in order to prepare entering Blighttown when I noticed in the distance some stairs around a building I haven't been up before. After experimenting and jumping around a bit, I finally found the way to get up there and I found a bird's next with a funny prompt where I could just roll up into a ball. After laughing for a good minute at how ridiculous the situation looked and wondering if something would happen, I was surprised when the giant crow came returned and took me back to the Undead Asylum. A lot of new enemies were placed around the entire area and so I decided to explore to see if anything has changed. I found a couple of really good shields and rings, and a peculiar doll back in the cell where the game had originally started. I know that the doll is a key to something, but I honestly don't know what for. I figure it must be for something though since it was placed in such an out of the way location.

Anyways, on my way to return to Firelink, I ended falling through the floor and immediately taking a club to the face from behind because I didn't realize that I fell into the Stray Demon's pit. It was a really annoying boss. Just like the Capra Demon fight, the beginning ended up being the hardest part of it since I discovered that staying behind the Stray Demon was the safest place to be to avoid his giant explosion attack. After spending a good 30 minutes on multiple failed attempts, I finally put the Demon down for good and decided to call it a night.

Tomorrow I plan to explore Blighttown since I know that the second Bell of Awakening is down there somewhere.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Being cursed aint that bad for most things, except boss fights, since all it does is half your health, but for non-boss enemies, that shouldn't be too bad. I got a ring that protects against curses somewhere, but totally forgot where. It came in handy in the Depths.

You can buy repair powder from the undead merchant in the undead burg, it's very cheap (500 souls I think) per use. Later, you can buy a repair thingie that you can use to repair stuff at the bonfire.

The Stray Demon was pretty annoying. I ended up using a shield against him (only like one of two bosses I did that for, otherwise I just roll/dodge), because that delayed explosion is a pain to time the dodge correctly. Crest Shield is perfect against him with its super-high magic blocking, makes the fight much more manageable, but still tough.

Moonfly Butterfly, on the other hand, was probably the easiest boss for me. Almost killed it on the first try, then did it on the second. Arrow to the face, roll from the energy balls.

Try to get the Crest of Artorias ASAP. 20K seems steep, but you can get it in a few runs through the Parish, and it unlocks the best early game soul farming area by far. There are 3 dudes right next to a bonfire that drop 2k souls each, so 6k souls in a minute run. Then, that area has a lot of other neat stuff too.

 

[Silva]

Anyways, dodging this motherfucker is possible, but with all the shit invovled, it would probably take at least a week of nonstop masochism, while you learn all the patterns, and practice doing 20 things at once.

I'll introduce you to a hot chick friend of mine, then. People call her DANCER OF THE BOREAL VALLEY. If you like Manus dozens of moves, you'll love her. I know my dodge/parry build did.

 

[DragoFireheart]

DANCER OF THE BOREAL VALLEY

Bitch ain't got shit on the King.

hahahahaha fucking noobs

Pthumerian Descendant Cursed Depth 5 Chalice dungeon shits on both of those bosses.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Pthumerian Descendant Cursed Depth 5 Chalice dungeon shits on both of those bosses.

Lel scrub just parry him, btw Ludwig said hi.

Yeah you better parry him scrub because if you don't you're fucking dead.

Ludwig is only a wall for retards like DarkSidePhil.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Well, it is done. I have officially mastered Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition and made it my bitch.

After finishing off Manus and Artorias yesterday, returned to New Londo Ruins, to take on the 4 Kings. The things is, my equipment has become a lot better since I last saw them, and after facing the rage-inducing rapist bosses in the DLC, the 4 Kings were like a helpless gazelle. I don't think I even dodged or blocked in that fight, just spammed R1 with +15 Ricard's Rapier, and they all melted like grilled cheese. Had to drink maybe 2 estus potions.

So then, I filled the Lordvessel, and went into the Fire Kiln. Killed all 5 Black Knights there the first time, with parrying, and faced Gwynn. Now, with everybody whining how he can be parried, and how broken that is, I imagined he would be a weak push-over final boss. So imagine my surpise when he brutalized me. And again. And again. Lost probably 9-10 fights.

See, I went in thinking parriable means parry him like normal enemies, ie watch for attack, hit parry, etc. But that doesn't really work against Gwyn, since for the parry to work, you need to be up close, and he will hit you like 3 times before you even get there. And if by some chance you do, his first attack is usually so fast and unpredictable, good luck parrying that.

I also tried dodging against him, but his attacks are way too fast for my reflexes. Some of them hit you before you even realize he started moving, and one hit will stagger you and then good bye.

Not gonna lie, went online to vent, when I saw that people were actually saying you should block his first attack, and then try to parry the second. So I tried that, and on 2nd attempt, was about to get raped, when my third parry attempt on his 3rd attack actually worked. My health was already low by that point, and I was thinking, well, he is going to kill me now, but at least I parried him once. BUt the thing is, once you parry him once, I think his AI becomes more predictable.

Every time he would get up from the riposte, I would hit parry early, and every time catch him. So 3-4 parries later , Gwyn is roast, and Porky has finished Dark Souls. I thought it would take me waaaaaaay longer to kill him, based on my earlier fights against him, but I will take it.

Not sure how I feel about Dark Souls in total, after finishing it. On one hand, it definitely has some cool stuff in it. The layered world with all the inter-connected parts, the tons of hidden things and exploration, the subtle way the story is told, the way you gain mastery over combat and game systems. On the other hand, I just don't think all these frustrating boss fights are how gaming is meant to be enjoyed. There is a difference between reasonable challenge and masochism. So it's an interesting experience, but I am ready to go back to more traditional RPGs.