From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[praetor]

Ah, thought so. Not that ABCDE tells me anything but whatever. My STR is abysmal anyway but I have IIRC 17-18 DEX (for faster spell casting ofc). Gotta find a weapon for that.

faster casting doesn't kick in until ~35dex for pyros, 40-45 for sorceries

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

Just checked on the wiki - its jagged ghost blade and its OBVIOUSLY superior to my trusty battle axe. I guess its got to do with ability bonus to damage? No idea how that works.

Also I think the battle axe has a higher poise breaking ability, so it will be more effective at breaking through enemy defenses.

 

[Jasede]

this game has so many derp moments. like fucking bridge with archers in anor lando. just finished beatiful painted worl. did you have fun? yes! ok so how about random deaths on some retarded bridge? dont have ring of fog , ohh you silly enjoy being raped by two fuckers you cant even kill . herp derp we make hard games

Probably the best part of that place, seeing those huge fuck-off arrows impale the shit out of you.
2-H hammer no fog ring master race suggests rolling past them until you get close enough to the right archer for him to draw a melee weapon, moving back and killing him / knocking him down.

BTW, done with everything but Valley of Defilement and False King Allant in Demon's Souls and still haven't encountered anything that felt cheap; feels more fair than Dark Souls at times. But that's probably just because after Dark Souls, you approach everything carefully, listening and checking dead camera angles carefully observing enemy patterns.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

2-H hammer no fog ring master race suggests rolling past them until you get close enough to the right archer for him to draw a melee weapon, moving back and killing him / knocking him down.

thanks. already past them, i just run naked to the one on the right and pushed him off the balcony, took like 20 attempts before i dodged every single arrow. before even with iron flesh on+ stone set armor+ great shield with high poise i got staggered and fall over
after smaoug+ornstein fight. what a great fight, so far the best in the game. fucking difficult but without cheap moves and tactics from enemies. i almost shat bricks when ornstein absorbed smaug skills and size. great music, awesome scenery, really memorable encounter. and ornstein armour is fucking eye candy

i wish i could make saves before boss fights so i could return to them without ng+ or some "arena" shit where you could fight every boss in the game. so far boss fights are easier for me than most trash mobs and much more memorable.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

this game has so many derp moments. like fucking bridge with archers in anor lando. just finished beatiful painted worl. did you have fun? yes! ok so how about random deaths on some retarded bridge? dont have ring of fog , ohh you silly enjoy being raped by two fuckers you cant even kill . herp derp we make hard games

Probably the best part of that place, seeing those huge fuck-off arrows impale the shit out of you.
2-H hammer no fog ring master race suggests rolling past them until you get close enough to the right archer for him to draw a melee weapon, moving back and killing him / knocking him down.

Sometimes he'll even fall off by himself when you move back. I've never done it, but apparently you can kick him off too. ( Also if you don't have the ring of fog, there is a merchant who sells an invisibility spell that does the same thing, which can help).

BTW, done with everything but Valley of Defilement and False King Allant in Demon's Souls and still haven't encountered anything that felt cheap; feels more fair than Dark Souls at times. But that's probably just because after Dark Souls, you approach everything carefully, listening and checking dead camera angles carefully observing enemy patterns.

I don' t think its just that. I played Demons' Souls first and found it to be scrupulously fair. Dark Souls is generally fair, but it seemed like I had more targeting/camera deaths.

 

[Jasede]

i wish i could make saves before boss fights so i could return to them without ng+ or some "arena" shit where you could fight every boss in the game. so far boss fights are easier for me than most trash mobs and much more memorable.

Me too! I'd revisit the final boss fight over and over again; I love it. O+S, too.

 

[Tommers]

Poison arrows are a cheesy way past those archers.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

I got past those archers on my 2nd try, they were no problem at all. I managed to outrun them in Elite Knight Armor, blocked a few arrows once I got to that ledge and ran to the Silver Archer - that makes him switch to melee.

O&S was awesome, but Queelag's Furysword +5 and Fire Orb felt kinda like a cheat killed them on my 4th try, 3rd with Queelag's sword. So far, the only really fucked up cheap Boss moment was when the Bell Gargoyles started spamming the shit out of fire breath.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

Perhaps the resident weapon bros can help me out. I managed to get a rare drop from the demons at the bottom of Sen's Fortress, the Titanite Catch Pole. It seems tight, and in my character status, it is projected to do something like 300+ damage (part regular, part magic). That's slightly less than my +10 gargoyle halberd. However, when I actually try to use it, it does hardly any damage, not even close to 300. We're talking like 67 dmg vs the Lizard guys. Any ideas what's going on here? I have basically no intelligence, but it's not listed as a requirement to use the weapon. I do notice that it's listed as getting a D stat bonus from STR, DEX, and INT.

So is the projected damage in the status screen just flat out inaccurate?

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

Perhaps the resident weapon bros can help me out. I managed to get a rare drop from the demons at the bottom of Sen's Fortress, the Titanite Catch Pole. It seems tight, and in my character status, it is projected to do something like 300+ damage (part regular, part magic). That's slightly less than my +10 gargoyle halberd. However, when I actually try to use it, it does hardly any damage, not even close to 300. We're talking like 67 dmg vs the Lizard guys. Any ideas what's going on here? I have basically no intelligence, but it's not listed as a requirement to use the weapon. I do notice that it's listed as getting a D stat bonus from STR, DEX, and INT.

So is the projected damage in the status screen just flat out inaccurate?

Each damage type has its own defense. The raw damage number is the damage before that defense value is taken into account. So if the lizard guys have high defense against physical and magic, then you won't see much damage at all. I don't think I tried magic weapons on them, but I remember that they were very strong against physical damage. Lightning not so much.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Dark Souls definitely has a few blatant camera traps. The worst has to be near the firekeeper soul in New Londo, a chunk of a doorway shoves your camera about 90 degrees left while you're on a super narrow walkway.

There's a similar thing in Anor Londo near the begining.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Perhaps the resident weapon bros can help me out. I managed to get a rare drop from the demons at the bottom of Sen's Fortress, the Titanite Catch Pole. It seems tight, and in my character status, it is projected to do something like 300+ damage (part regular, part magic). That's slightly less than my +10 gargoyle halberd. However, when I actually try to use it, it does hardly any damage, not even close to 300. We're talking like 67 dmg vs the Lizard guys. Any ideas what's going on here? I have basically no intelligence, but it's not listed as a requirement to use the weapon. I do notice that it's listed as getting a D stat bonus from STR, DEX, and INT.

So is the projected damage in the status screen just flat out inaccurate?

Each damage type has its own defense. The raw damage number is the damage before that defense value is taken into account. So if the lizard guys have high defense against physical and magic, then you won't see much damage at all. I don't think I tried magic weapons on them, but I remember that they were very strong against physical damage. Lightning not so much.

Yep, this. This is why Black Knight weapons are so incredibly strong, and why upgrading weapons makes a huge difference. This is also why light weapons tend to be fairly shitty for anything other than critical hits. Light weapons with split damage types doubly so.

Don't know about the catch pole myself, but generally any weapon splitting it's damage types is going to be shitty until upgraded at least a bit, and even then you need the stat scaling working hard if it has any.

 

[Niektory]

I'm sure it's possible to use some trickery to assign a mouse button to a keyboard button and use that. Aside from mouse buttons being unassignable, numeric keys are also out just to fuck with us. That could be fixed through similar hacks.

AutoHotkey is what you're looking for.

Really the main problem is the mouselook. It's so bad that you are probably better off playing entirely with keyboard unless/until this gets fixed by mods. The game really isn't that bad keyboard-only. Not having any analog input at all sucks hard, but OTOH once you get used to them you have less problems actually handling all the keys in certain situations where it's nigh-impossible with a controller. It's still worse off but not entirely useless.

I'm near the end of the game, only the black dragon (which makes me go FUUU) and final boss left. Played on keyboard only, could be better but it's alright when you get used to it.

Also, what's going on with this whole Artorias of the Abyss DLC bundled in Prepare to Die Edition? I haven't seen any hint about its content, trigger, or any details whatsoever on the interweb, nor in the game, but I can't say I'm surprised by the latter.

Yeah, good luck finding it without spoilers. First you need to kill the golden golem in the cave behind the hydra in Darkroot Basin (which isn't always there, I don't know what the trigger is). Then kill another golem in Duke's Archives and pick up the broken pendant. Then go back to the cave.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Status update on wild adventure:

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Status update on wild adventure:

What's up with HP and (especially) Stamina bar? Looks low. But then again, I make a lot of mistakes, and 30+ Vitality suits me just fine.

Also, this game is amazing.

 

[Niektory]

Fun fact: On my first playthrough I missed the Depths, including the Capra Demon and Gaping Dragon, and got to Blighttown from the Valley of Drakes. Only found them much later when sweeping areas for secrets. Capra Demon died in 2 or 3 spell hits.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Fun fact: On my first playthrough I missed the Depths, including the Capra Demon and Gaping Dragon, and got to Blighttown from the Valley of Drakes. Only found them much later when sweeping areas for secrets. Capra Demon died in 2 or 3 spell hits.

So where have you been after Undead Parish?

 

[Niektory]

Fun fact: On my first playthrough I missed the Depths, including the Capra Demon and Gaping Dragon, and got to Blighttown from the Valley of Drakes. Only found them much later when sweeping areas for secrets. Capra Demon died in 2 or 3 spell hits.

So where have you been after Undead Parish?

I went Undead Burg -> Undead Parish -> Darkroot Garden/Basin -> Valley of Drakes -> Blighttown.
With the master key you could actually go to Blighttown right from the Firelink Shrine. Now THAT would be hardcore.

 

[felipepepe]

With the master key you could actually go to Blighttown right from the Firelink Shrine. Now THAT would be hardcore.

Is not that big of a jump, and you often die more in blightown due poison and falling than due proper combat...

Now, going from Firelink Shrine to fucking Tomb of Giants....

 

[Damned Registrations]

You can also go straight to Sif, then to New Londo.

 

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

Dark Souls is too hardcore for me even if I see its beauty. I'm having more fun with the PS2 King's Field nowadays.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

What's up with HP and (especially) Stamina bar? Looks low. But then again, I make a lot of mistakes, and 30+ Vitality suits me just fine.

Also, this game is amazing.

I dunno, maybe. None of my stats are 30+, I've got maybe 20ish VIT, 24ish END and STR, 14 faith and 18 DEX I think. Don't really know what I'm doing so I've been mostly putting stuff in VIT END and STR, then I wanted faith for that divine sword I found early on, then DEX for the black knight sword I'm using now.

Speaking of which, really damaging sword. Only bummer is the thrust is fucking awful and it has far less range than the claymore, but the damage seems to make up for it. Especially since I haven't upgraded it yet, gotta get some twinkling.

 

[Jasede]

So I'm 1 boss away from beating Demon's Souls (the predecessor) and I'm still using nothing but a Dark Purple Shield +1 / Adjudicator's +1 and a Claymore +9. Wearing Freke's robes. Rushed through Valley of Defilement because I didn't want to be there longer than needed.

I can't figure out reliably how upgrading works (without a guide)- the components are a bitch to get. Plus, I can't be assed anymore at this point. Once I get to the lategame of any game I tend to rush to the credits rather than taking my time & upgrading my crap.

Whatever; if I beat the rest of the game with this gear I can beat Allant. Also I didn't find a spell vendor until it was too late to invest in magic... Same thing happened to me in Dark Souls.


My Dark Souls gear was Havel's Armor & a +12 or so Great Club. I also had a +15 Demon's Great Hammer but I couldn't beat the last boss with it. No magic.


The beauty of this is that I can try out magic for the first time in either game when I replay 'em years from now.

 

[Grimlorn]

So I'm 1 boss away from beating Demon's Souls (the predecessor) and I'm still using nothing but a Dark Purple Shield +1 / Adjudicator's +1 and a Claymore +9. Wearing Freke's robes. Rushed through Valley of Defilement because I didn't want to be there longer than needed.

I can't figure out reliably how upgrading works (without a guide)- the components are a bitch to get. Plus, I can't be assed anymore at this point. Once I get to the lategame of any game I tend to rush to the credits rather than taking my time & upgrading my crap.

Whatever; if I beat the rest of the game with this gear I can beat Allant. Also I didn't find a spell vendor until it was too late to invest in magic... Same thing happened to me in Dark Souls.


My Dark Souls gear was Havel's Armor & a +12 or so Great Club. I also had a +15 Demon's Great Hammer but I couldn't beat the last boss with it. No magic.


The beauty of this is that I can try out magic for the first time in either game when I replay 'em years from now.

Once you read a guide and realize all the stuff you missed you might want to play the game again. There's a lot of stuff you miss and is based around world and character tendency. Some events can only happen when world tendency is pure white or pure black. Same with character tendency being pure white or pure black. You also get colorless demon souls during these events which upgrade a lot of that stuff.

I think magic makes the game too easy. You can stay at range and it's pretty powerful. I'd recommend trying to beat the game with a 2 hander if you want some challenge, but magic can be fun too if you want to check it out.

 

[Grimlorn]

Are there any mods for Dark Souls yet besides the resolution fix? Was thinking of waiting for a few mods before playing it on PC. Can't even find a mods section on some of the main mods websites. Weird it's been out for a couple weeks now.