From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[DragoFireheart]

Got to pharros cave or whatever its called. the first time i killed that elephant thing no problem then got whacked by a dwarf. now i cant get past the stupid elephant. i seem to be moving slower each time it kills me.

Well, that's what us rats pay him to do.

 

[Surf Solar]

The elephants and dwarfs are stupidly slow, just circle around them?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Dwarves you can block or just back out from (but circling for backstabuuu works too), with elephants the best thing to do is circle and poke them in the ass while they recover or finish their combo.

So I've got a Sorcerer going now and do I still need 20-30 adaptability or should I focus on another stat first?

20 INT / 20 FTH, talk to dark hexer, get cool gear, buy Resonant Soul, win.

Alternatively you can later on switch to Black Witch's Staff, which has the added benefit of functioning as both a Chime and a Staff, meaning you can use it to cast Hexes, Miracles and Sorceries (at +10 with a respectable 220 rating each unless imbued which makes it into 293/205/205; and can cause extra lulz with the name Dark Black Witch's Staff). I tend to alternate between the two, depending on if Dark Sunset Staff +5 can one-shot enemies with the Orb but the DBWS can't. With tougher bosses I keep DBWS handy because it can pack Great Resonant Soul. Also I'd say optimal INT/FTH value for a Hexer is 26/26 or 28/28, good scaling, can easily switch to Pyromancy if feeling bored with the chopstick, and unlocks majority of the good stuff.

Anyway, visited the Dragon Aerie and Dragon Shrine today, and finished getting Agility to 102. Rolls like a motherfucker now. Also got Defender's Shield to +5 (would have been much easier if I hadn't wasted effort on Dragonrider Greatshield +3; anyway it's awesome, Stability 68 while having parry and very low weight) and Alva's chestpiece to +10.

 

[praetor]

i don't understand people that say sorcery is crap. sure, it's not easymode "2 soul spears to the face game over" like it was in DeS/DaS, but crap? fuck no. invest in a bit of str/dex (12/9) and you get already infused fire/magic weapons quite early, upgrade them and you'll be dealing some serious damage melee. as for spells... you get shitloads of basic soul arrows (+4 basic sorc staff and ~30 int kill varangian shitheads in 2 casts... and you have more than 60 casts by then), and to recharge for the boss just put your summon sign before it (easily the best way to do it... plus you get some souls). i'd like a better staff early on (gonna farm for the lizard staff, i think it's in the undead purgatory?). i can still rape pretty much every early boss with the rather basic "great soul arrow". can't wait to try stuff like soul spear + spear barrage that you get early on and vortex + homing soul mass a bit later

Currently stuck on that tseldora cove blabla, in the pit where you find the Boss weapon Dealer. No idea how to move forward from there. And fuck those enemy casters there. That shit is fucking annoying.

outside the boss weapon dealer on the left there's a double door. go through there (i loathe the boss in that area)

 

[Kanedias]

I actually really enjoyed the Freja boss fight, for some reason. I found the fight to be fun.

Anyways, more physical scaling woes pissing me off:

Claymore+10. C/C scaling, with 40 dex and 40 strength = 395 AR

Black Dragon Greatsword+5, no scaling, raw infusion = 391 AR. It requires 25 strength and 16 dexterity to use.

Why is physical scaling so weak? I enjoy PvP and quality builds, once people catch up to this, I predict that min maxing will shit on physical scaling builds, because you can clearly get the same or better results with really low stat investment. In this game, base damage matters too much, since scaling is so retarded.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

FYI, Spear Barrage sucks ass, unless you find an enemy with a gigantic fat ass that likes to stay put for ~5 seconds.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I hate each and every one of you who play this game on consoles.

 

[80Maxwell08]

I hate each and every one of you who play this game on the console.

If it makes you feel better loading times are god awful and there's framerate issues along with connection problems on consoles.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

sea, so according to you Sunbro and Onionbro are evil?

IMO, laughter done by most characters in DS is just indicator that they are going crazy, not that they are evil.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Somebody care to give a short interim report? How does DaSII compare overall to it's predecessor(s)?

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Somebody care to give a short interim report? How does DaSII compare overall to it's predecessor(s)?

It's what Fallout 2 is to 1. Nonsensical cheese area variety themepark with solid gameplay. Prehistoric dwarves, crazy midgets, rat kings, swollen-testicle men, dreadlock lion warriors, etc. Oh and Dragon God moved to a magical lava fortress in the sky. He is protected by heavily armored katana-wielding ninajs though.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

This almost sounds like Prosper land then. Awesome!

 

[Jaedar]

Question: Are there any major gameplay changes? I hear about hexes, are they like pyromancy?

Besides the areas, are there any changes that suck dongs?

 

[Palikka]

Just beat La-queefa ^_^
49 hours, 133 levels and 436 deaths.

The normal enemies killed me the most, everyone just attacked so damn fast! Also dropping to my death a LOT.
The bosses could have been a little bit harder, maybe. Only bosses I died more than three times were the Gargoyles and the Mirror Knight. I'm guessing the real fun starts at NG+. Skipped few of the optional ones though, wanted to finish my first run so didnt really care about them.

Great game.

Also, if anyone of you are interested in the speedruns, the current WR for any% is ~90mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps8sbAxHMxg

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Question: Are there any major gameplay changes? I hear about hexes, are they like pyromancy?

Besides the areas, are there any changes that suck dongs?

Hexes are NOT like Pyromancy. Hexes are a new spellcasting category that contains the previous Dark Magic spells as a starting point (it's the same size as all the other spell lists), and the trick Hexes have is that they don't scale by one stat but BOTH Faith and Intelligence. Pyromancy gains more power from Faith and Intelligence now as well. Hexes have one type of spell that other categories don't, which is Resonant spells that require Souls per cast but are a LOT more powerful than almost any other spell (Climax is the highest damage spell in the game).

The biggest changes are in the way stats work (there's now a separate stat that covers Load Limit, and does not give Stamina), with added derived statistics like Agility (influences roll invulnerability frames and item use speed), and that riposte/backstab animation is no longer invulnerable. You can also selectively NG+ areas without going NG+ (this effect carries over), and you can respec too. Poise has also been mega-nerfed, some attacks will stagger you no matter what.

One change I think deserves special credit is the much improved crafting system, which now only uses one form of titanite and doesn't go around hiding embers all over the goddamn game. You now find one-use Stones that can be used to imbue weapons, you can remove those effects, and weapon quality is upgraded with one variety of titanite alone. The only obfuscated aspect in the new system is Mundane imbuement, since that changes the way scaling works (this could help with Claymore woes btw).

I'd say one change that annoys me personally is that DS2 *really* likes pitting you against multiple enemies, especially in hard bossfights. Some fights like the Ruin Sentinels are infuriatingly hard because of this.

 

[Surf Solar]

The Ruin sentinels arent hard IMO, just make sure all 3 are infront of you, roll into their attacks and block when they Do this whirlwindattack. Its more a Test of patience really

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

1. Kill the first sentinel
2. Circle-strafe around the other two with tower shield for 10 minutes
3. Win

 

[80Maxwell08]

Question: so in Dark Souls II, do they still do that thing where every evil character has The Laugh? And by The Laugh, I mean going "...heh... heh... heh..." at the end of every line of dialogue. I just remember in Dark Souls, all those characters like Lautrec had the tendency to telegraph their evilness in that very specific way.

Well several characters have that laugh but the evil ones are absurdly telegraphed. They do that same laugh you said but if you talk to other npcs as well you will know they aren't good with no doubt in your mind.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

So has anyone tried out the Drakewing Ultra Greatsword yet? Just wondering if it gets more bang for the buck at +5 when infused with Dark or Raw (144 Dark Bonus total, Str 35 and Dex 18). Doesn't do as much damage as the Greatsword with Dark at least, some twenty points less (with the exception of the awesome R2 attack).

EDIT: Also, getting Petrified Dragon Bones is p. awesome in this game. You can farm while you farm. Less than an hour of work got me 300k souls and +5 Drakewing Greatsword materials, and the area is so inconsequential that you don't even notice it's NG+7 level.

PS: The Abyss Seal is another reason to play Hexer.

 

[Jaedar]

Hexing seems pretty interesting. Maybe I should have my first ds2 character be a faith/int hybrid.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Given how you can get Covetous Silver Serpent Ring +1 even before the first boss of the game, unless you plan to play online actively there's no reason to restrict yourself to just one build aspect. Me, being a misanthrope, I prefer to play offline.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I find the Hexer kinda boring so far, but that's just me using it mainly as a nuker. Might be more fun if you'd play around with his other spells. Chucking Spears of Lightning is still the best and feels the best.

 

[DragoFireheart]

I actually really enjoyed the Freja boss fight, for some reason. I found the fight to be fun.

Anyways, more physical scaling woes pissing me off:

Claymore+10. C/C scaling, with 40 dex and 40 strength = 395 AR

Black Dragon Greatsword+5, no scaling, raw infusion = 391 AR. It requires 25 strength and 16 dexterity to use.

Why is physical scaling so weak? I enjoy PvP and quality builds, once people catch up to this, I predict that min maxing will shit on physical scaling builds, because you can clearly get the same or better results with really low stat investment. In this game, base damage matters too much, since scaling is so retarded.

Weapon with less than B scaling are ass it seems.

My dual Clubs rape everything. Took down The Last Giant in under a minute or so.

 

[praetor]

riposte/backstab animation is no longer invulnerable.

not quite true. the first part of the bs animation, the "smack", is not invulnerable, but the hitting part is. not sure about the riposte

Jaedar
other the the shitty world design (but really good level design), and some quite questionable art-direction here and there, there are some bullshit enemies, the hitboxes are by far the worst in the series, the constant warping from the get go is stupid, and the level up at NPC is by far the most retarded decision in a souls game ever. still great, just shy of the predecessor even though it's mechanically overall (probably PvE, definitely PvP) better.

btw, really disappointed they did away with the "first half will be slow and atmospheric and easier, then 2nd part will be more action packed, but if you're good you can skip most of the first part". the most linear Souls game to date

 

[80Maxwell08]

other the the shitty world design (but really good level design), and some quite questionable art-direction here and there, there are some bullshit enemies, the hitboxes are by far the worst in the series, the constant warping from the get go is stupid, and the level up at NPC is by far the most retarded decision in a souls game ever. still great, just shy of the predecessor even though it's mechanically overall (probably PvE, definitely PvP) better.

btw, really disappointed they did away with the "first half will be slow and atmospheric and easier, then 2nd part will be more action packed, but if you're good you can skip most of the first part". the most linear Souls game to date

I don't think the warping is bad but the npc level up is bad in itself. However it's also compounded by the slow loading and her 4 lines of dialog every time you talk to her.