From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[The_Mask]

SL 120 is officially Oolacile PvP pro meta, last I checked. No noobs.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Meh, to be honest i don't care about end game PvP i just like to have invasions during normal play doesn't seem like i have an affinity for parking my character in Oolacile and PvP indefinitely.

So i went ahead and killed Gywnn, got the dark ending and i'm now parked in NG2+.

To be honest though i'm tired of this character i think i'll do a pyro next time i feel like playing this game. I believe i can still get the Knight's Honor achievement even if i obtain the weapons across multiple characters, right?

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

I don't know about the achievement, but why don't you try a SL1-run with your pyro character. It's easier than you'd think, especially when you use pyromancy, and quite satisfying.

Edit:
It's kinda unclear whether you can collect them on different characters:
https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Knight's+Honor+Achievement+Guide
http://darksouls.wikidot.com/rare-weapons

 

[Lyric Suite]

I don't know, i doubt i'll have the patience for that. Just the fact i'm one point away from 10 dex means i'll probably eventually succumb to the temptation.

 

[The_Mask]

I believe i can still get the Knight's Honor achievement even if i obtain the weapons across multiple characters, right?

Getting all the weapons means running for the Trident. That stuff is really grindy and tedious.

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

Best place for that would be the Archives, right? Not that bad iirc. Maybe I was just lucky.

I don't know, i doubt i'll have the patience for that. Just the fact i'm one point away from 10 dex means i'll probably eventually succumb to the temptation.

Took me less time than my very first playthrough and it really was a lot of fun.

 

[The_Mask]

Best place for that would be the Archives, right? Not that bad iirc. Maybe I was just lucky.

Yes. And if you had it drop for you with anything less than 10 humanity and the ring, you should count yourself lucky, yes.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I got the trident a long time ago. All i need i think is the third item from Sif's soul and the sword from Gywnn.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Took me less time than my very first playthrough and it really was a lot of fun.

But then i can't use that knewl flame sword from the spider boss.

Unless i do normal game at SL1 then start leveling in NG+. Or i take my dex to 13 and do a SL5 run lul.

The fact the flame upgrades count for PvP takes some of the fun away of doing a SL1 run where you can invade n00bs for shits and giggles. All though i'm not much for griefing people i probably wouldn't be doing that anyway. I feel already bad if i invade people normally. It's why i liked the Darkmoon covenant because it gave me an excuse to invade invaders. Hell, i remember when i was ranking up the cat covenant all i met were people trying to farm those NPC guys near the bonfire for souls lmao i remember i invaded this guy three times and on the third time he just rolled off the cliff and i felt so bad i went to do something else to make sure i wouldn't connect with him again heh.

Speaking of which, i assume it's going to be extra hard to rank up covenants at SL1, even though farming for the tokens or whatever is not that bad in Dark Souls 1 compared to the other games.

Another run i was also planning was an Artorias run. Highly inefficient, but i have to try it one of this days.

 

[Lyric Suite]

One question if i do a SL1 run how does summoning work?

One thing i don't understand is whether weapon level overrides soul level. Say i'm at SL1, which for a white sign allows me to connect with players 1-11, but i have a +15 weapon, which allows me to connect with people with weapon upgraded between +9 and +15.

Will the weapon upgrade override the SL1? Will i get summoned by anyone with an upgraded weapon, regardless of SL, or do they both apply?

Not that it matters as i don't need to do the sun covenant for instance to get lighting spears since i already got all the achievements with my main character, but i'm just curious. There's other covenants i never tried, like the dragon one. How would match making work there?

Then again, if i finish the game at SL1, i can always start leveling at NG+ and do all the covenants there.

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

I'm not certain, but pretty sure Remaster (which is what you're playing, right?) takes weapon level into account, yes. My SL1 run was on PTDE through Xbox One back-compatibility. That one only used SL for matchmaking, which was glorious for an hour or so and then got boring kinda quickly.

Not present in the original version of Dark Souls, a weapon level matchmaking system has been introduced to prevent players with drastically-different levels of gear from pairing.
Both the Soul Level (SL) ranges and Weapon Level (WL) ranges have to match for two players to connect.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So it's both. Gonna be a lonely journey lmao, until NG+ where i guess i can play with NG people again, heh.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i'm trying the SL1 pyro shit lmao. Was going to take a brake but it doesn't feel like i'm burned out actually. Just rang the second bell Quelaag was the hardest thing i did so far just because she is immune to fire. Used a +10 hand axe with lighting resin but i got a +5 fire reinforced club for everything else. Pyro hand is at +10 too. So far i'm just melting through everything easily, just need to be careful not to get hit.

This is so doable i think i'm going to try this with every other character i make. Not SL1 specifically as you can only do that with a pyro but basically keep the base level as much as i can even with other characters.

Predictably though, online play is dead. I was able to get summoned for the bull demon in the beginning just to get past the sunlight covenant requirement and i got ONE summon in 2 hours in the cat covenant, against another onebro lmao which i was able to win so i got my divine blessing but i think i'll just get the ring of fog trading the skull lantern instead, since i got one when getting to pinwheel and there's another one in the pit Patches kicks you down into.

Next step, Sen's Fortress then Ornstein and Smoug. If i can get past that i think i'm good until the DLC bosses, which should be the final hurdle.

BTW, power within is a beast indeed. I kinda like the theme i'm going for i got the tattered clothes, the club and hand axe and i'm using the heater shield which is excellent for its weight. I look like an hobo but there's a fire burning within!

 

[d1r]

I'm not certain, but pretty sure Remaster (which is what you're playing, right?) takes weapon level into account, yes. My SL1 run was on PTDE through Xbox One back-compatibility. That one only used SL for matchmaking, which was glorious for an hour or so and then got boring kinda quickly.

Not present in the original version of Dark Souls, a weapon level matchmaking system has been introduced to prevent players with drastically-different levels of gear from pairing.
Both the Soul Level (SL) ranges and Weapon Level (WL) ranges have to match for two players to connect.

Absolutely disgusting, that they had to fiddle with that as well. Fuck this Demaster.

 

[Wunderbar]

The only thing it changes is that you can no longer be raped by some SL1 twink armed with zweihander +10 in the undead parish. And that's a good thing.

 

[d1r]

The only thing it changes is that you can no longer be raped by some SL1 twink armed with zweihander +10 in the undead parish. And that's a good thing.

Yeah, and now you, as a Invader, have fucking four man gank squads waiting at you at the Perish (thanks to the increased player MP limit), without any tools to counter them. It's the same shit that happens / happened in Dark Souls 3.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Lmao the iron golem took like 5 hits of the orb to go down (and even though i summoned Tarkus i did him solo because the lazy fuck wouldn't move from the entrance. Faggot). On to Anor Londo!

 

[Silva]

Yeah pyro gets pretty OP in this game. I just beat the Golem too and sumonned Tarkus only to realize I could take the golem alone anyway. Just don't forget to get Power Within in Blightown, under that grotesque worm. It's very useful in Anor Londo.


Back to the dark hand...

Doesn't ranking up in Kaathe covenant allow you to get 4 or 5 humanities per hit with the Dark Hand? I think that's what I did to that player online. 1 hit = 4 humanities at once. Dude goes Wut!?

 

[Lyric Suite]

Damn i had to stop playing as i've had relatives in my house for the past couple of days. I'm parked in front of the fog of Ornstein and Smog!

Gotta say, this SL1 run doesn't feel much different from my other runs, or rather, it doesn't feel any different from what i expect a caster build to feel like (proverbial glass cannon). It looks like gear upgrade does all the work and levels don't actually do a whole lot. I can still block the attacks of most enemies and even bosses. I couldn't block Sif's double spin attack but i think that was hard to block even when i got there with 30 stamina with my paladin build. Obviously you are not supposed to block anything but i was curious to see how far i could push it.

I mean i got past the archers in Anor Londo in less then a second. Power Within then run up to the first, rolled at his last arrow and one shot him with a greater combustion hit and i did the same on the other. It was actually harder with my leveled paladin run.

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

Pyromancy makes it kinda trivial, yes. Next step would be SL1 without Pyro.
That's another great thing about DS: You can make it as hard or as easy as you'd like.
There are some annoying bosses still: I hated Stray Demon, Kalameet and Manus.

 

[The_Mask]

SL 1 without pyro is kinda lame too, because you get the Blacksmith's Hammer, +15/+5 lightning it and just do your thing.
Personally, I never understood the challenge, but if it's fun for you, God bless you... you have your fun.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Well, beat Ornstein and the Fatso. The latter took four greater combustions to go down. Starting to feel kinda cheap here.

 

[Funposter]

SL1 is, paradoxically, probably the easiest of all the "base level" runs. You have auspicious stat distribution, access to the pyro glove right from the start, and although you only start with a combined 84 points in your stats, that's actually the highest seen at SL1 (most other classes would have 83) and makes you even with the Cleric, and actually 2 points ahead of the Sorcerer. Sorcerer is definitely true suffering due to your horrific STR and DEX (8 and 11, respectively) and while the early game isn't too bad thanks to your access to extra Soul Arrows from Rickert, the damage falls off hard even before the game's midpoint. Knight is an interesting choice, since the high-ish starting FAI and STR/DEX means that running an Occult Claymore/Bastard Sword is a good way to deal damage to most of the difficult bosses and I'm pretty sure it outdamages +15 or Raw enhancement, although Fire is probably outright better as in most cases. Bandit is miserable because you don't have enough STR for proper weapons and not enough DEX for the Zweihander. Warrior gets access to the most weapons, but it doesn't amount to much. Basically you get to use the Sunlight Straight Sword if you want. Probably worth noting that the Wanderer can use the BSS and Uchi one-handed, so that's a big factor in that classes' favour. Thief has to two-hand the BSS and can't use the Uchi, in comparison, although has enough INT to buff BSS with Magic Weapon for whatever that's worth. Free Master Key, too. Hunter also gets Uchi and BSS.

They all become noticeably worse in the expansion due to the buffed resistances on all bosses. If I were to guess, just in terms of raw weapon damage, the Wanderer, Hunter or Thief would probably end up coming out ahead due to naturally high DEX and the ability to use the BSS or Uchi and just take them to +15.

 

[Silverfish]

Sorcerer is definitely true suffering due to your horrific STR and DEX (8 and 11, respectively) and while the early game isn't too bad thanks to your access to extra Soul Arrows from Rickert, the damage falls off hard even before the game's midpoint.

I disagree slightly. Granted, the 8/11 Str/Dex is pretty rough, but it's enough to use either the basic dagger if you want crits or the short sword if you want to spam. Also, Sorc has the most attunement slots (3 to the Pyro's 2), so once you get access to pyromancy, you have more variety.

 

[Caim]

How does the humble Mace fare in Dark Souls 1? I know from experience that they melt half the game in Dark Souls 2 and there's plenty of dudes in armor in Dark Souls 3 to justify it there, but what about Dark Souls 1? It's a lot harder to obtain if you don't start as a Cleric, since you have to either get it from the hidden ledge right before the Pinwheel fight and it's not very easy to get there as a new player, OR you have to wait until Patches goes to Firelink and you have to beat Nito for that to happen. So is it worth the hassle to get it, start as a Cleric and build around your stat block or can you get away with picking something like the Morning Star as alternative until you find the Mace?