From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[praetor]

i agree with you... only if we talk about DeS. DaS1 & 2 clearly saw the potential and tried to expand and improve on it, and then you're equating "PvP" with "invasions" which is just wrong because the game(s) clearly offers, supports and encourages duels (in the arenas). so yeah, bullshit. goddamn, the PvP community is half (if not more) the reason the series has become so popular and the games are so longeve

 

[Hobo Elf]

Like I said, it's pretty clear that the devs are going at it with the same mind set as they had in DeS, they are just giving it some make up to be more appealing to some people. Not everyone wanted to be a dick an invade someone to steal their body, but maybe they'll enjoy the idea of having their own spit of forest that they need to defend with their bros. The duel arenas are just crumbs to the hungry, not validation. They are so half assed that you are only looking deeper into it than you should if you think it's anything more than that.

 

[praetor]

then we'll agree to disagree because with all the balance patches in DaS1 geared for the best part specifically towards making PvP a more balance affair, the increased focus on covenants and multiplayer, the changes in balance and mechanics in DaS2 being mainly a product of what was broken in PvP in DaS1 clearly point towards them trying to balance (and miserably failing) both the PvP and PvE aspects of the game and listening to the PvP community about what is broken and what isn't. they just suck at it, badly

 

[Hobo Elf]

Again you make assumptions that FROM balanced the game for PvP. There were only a small handful of changes that directly applied to PvP such as Tranquil Walk of Peace and Ring of Fog, yes, but most of the changes that tweaked damage and stats for items applied to PvE as well. Take for example the nerf for DWGR: it wasn't strictly a change made for PvP as it was to the item as a whole. People used it to flip flop in heavy armor in PvE as well, not just PvP. Or the Elemental weapons, they weren't just an issue in PvP but also a problem how they trivialized nearly all other weapons in PvE as well. It wasn't the PvP that needed fixing but just the game as a whole. You are looking at the game from a small tunnel that only sees the PvP side of the game. FROM has been actively trying to balance the game, not the PvP. That's a big difference that needs to be taken into consideration.

I mean if FROM was so hellbent on making an online PvP game then DaS2 would've probably looked a lot more like Verdict Day with a skimpy SP campaign and a focus on faction based online PvP.

 

[praetor]

the DWGR nerf, elemental nerfs, greatsword nerf etc were borderline inconsequential for PvE. they affected it but in all likelihood weren't motivated by PvE (occam's razor and all that) since nobody cared about it for PvE (it made dodging slightly easier, and most people, "the majority of players" as you put it, suck at it anyway), next to nobody cried "DWGR is OP for PvE! it makes me roll through *insert boss name here* attacks too easily", it was all "flipping havel moms everywhere (in PvP)". the 3 major (probably the only 3 noticeable ones) nerfs were the Iron flesh nerf (that still remained powerful and easymode for lots of bosses), crystal ring and the fixing of the bug that gave strong magic shield complete invincibility for like a minute. hell, most of he combat mechanics changes in DaS2 were because people bitched and moaned how broken they were in PvP, not PvE (it's maybe slightly more difficult to backstab mobs. maybe. personally, after the first few hours of adapting to the way too sluggish and unresponsive controls, i've found it to be the same shit it's been in DeS and DaS1, except the animation takes longer and sometimes the enemies randomly escape from the "slap" part of the animation). it's like there's 2 dudes working on balance at From, one reads what people say and comes up with ways to fix it, the other goes "lolololo DIZ SHIZ BE OSUM, I CAN HAZ ONESHOT WITH NO SKILLZ! #YOLO LOLO" and they implement what both do, without thinking how the 2nd might interact with the 1st. it's shit balance/game design, you can excuse it however you like it (like how people excused the DaS1 and DeS netcode working like 3rd world shit by saying "it's supposed to be like that, it's supposed to be a lonely experience"), but that doesn't change

 

[Surf Solar]

Srs bsns apparrently

I have been playing more pvp and coop each day because I am waiting for that patch to fix the drangleic castle thing before O go there.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

NG+ question guys:

Do I have to store my shit in the item box, or do anything else for my shit to carry over with me?

 

[DragoFireheart]

PSA: Poise explained.

http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/225yxb/the_secrets_of_poise_are_revealed/

Courtesy of GameFaQQots (the only reason I still read that site. People like to post informative shit on GameFAGs for some reason):

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/693331-dark-souls-ii/68945708

#1
Laggy_Sob
Posted 4/3/2014 12:08:53 PM
message detail

First of all again big thanks to westcurry.

In the equipment status of each weapon, there is a poise damage number.This number determines the poisebreak of each weapon.I know there was a rumor about it being stamina damage against a blocking opponent but this is incorrect.

Of course the values listed in the game ARE NOT the exact breakpoints.Exact breakpoints are determined by that number though, which is sometimes different between weapon classes too.For example a mail breaker breaks more poise than a rapier but less than an estoc.We tested this for over 4 hours and it was consistent. Let me say that this determines the 1HR1 and 2HR1 poisebreaks AND NOT the R2s.

ALL 2HR2s broke the most poise we could get (159).I will be listing such attacks that break ALL poise as poisebreakers (pb for short from now on).

Another interesting thing is that hitting someone with the tip of your weapon breaks less poise than a head on hit.Exactly how much less poise i cant tell.Would take too long and it wouldnt be reliable cause we cant measure range.

Poisebreak chart:

10 Poise damage on equipment screen

(dagger, royal dirk, parrying dagger, bandits knife, mythas bent blade, shadow dagger, thief dagger, manikin knife, spider fang, rapier, ricards rapier, chaos rapier, black scorpion stinger, spiders silk, espada ropera, handmaids ladle, claws, malformed claws, manikin claws, work hook)

1HR1 36 poise 2HR1 95 poise 1HR2 44 Poise

15 poise damage on equipment screen

(All whips except bloodied whip, broken straight sword, broken thief sword, all scythes except silverblack sickle, melu scimitar, monastery scimitar, shotel, manikin sabre, darkdrift katana, mail breaker, caestus)

1HR1 46 poise 2HR1 122 poise 1HR2 76 poise

20 poise damage on equipment screen

(shortsword, longsword, yellow quartz longsword, black dragon sword, broadsword, varangian sword, heide knight sword, sun sword, blue flame, scimitar, falchion, all katanas except darkdrift, estoc, aldia hammer, silverblack sickle, all spears, bloodied whip)

1HR1 60,5 poise 2HR1 PB 1HR2 76 poise

25 poise damage on equipment screen

(all twinblades except red iron twinblade, mace of the insolent, black dragon warpick, barbed club, foot soldier sword,, red rust sword, drakekeepers sword, red rust scimitar, warped sword, bound handaxe, infantry axe, homonculus mace, club, reinforced club)

1HR1 76 poise 2HR1 PB 1HR2 94 poise

30 poise break on equipment screen

(dragonslayers crescent axe, battle axe, bandit axe, gyrm axe, crescent axe, craftmans hammer, mace, morning star, blacksmiths hammer, heide lance, heide great lance,, red iron twin blade)

1HR1 91 poise 2HR1 PB

EVERY WEAPON WITH A POISE DAMAGE OF 35 OR MORE STUNS EVEN WITH 1HR1.

Extra stuff:poising through a hit is a lot different than dks, here u are gonna get slowed down even if you tank a hit (to prevent poisestabs i guess) but you are still able to attack, roll etc

Most roll frames have hyperarmor i think anyone with a brain knows this by now

Innate poise plays no role by itself, it only adds to total poise as it seems

Same testing methods as last time were used in case anyone is wondering.

So yeah, inb4s***storm i guess?

 

[Invictus]

Finished the game today; all in all I would say it is a very good game, maybe not as consistent as the other Souls games but when it was good (amala, shrine of dragons, the gutter) it was spectacular and when it was so so (shaded woods, iron keep) it was better than 90% of all games out there. The fight with Vendrick was more frustrating than challenging (reminded me of the fight with Kalameet where you could spend 20 minutes and die on a stupid mistake) and but the final boss was fun.
I cannot understand how they managed to make the best bosses of the series on the DLC and then make a whole new game where none of the bosses reached that level of fun & challenge; most of the bosses here followed the templates of the prior games (armored big guy mostly, I prefered by far the gruesome monsters like the rotten) with some cheap bosses like the rat authority. Guess they could have added some variation where the bosses would change of pace mid fight and pull a few new moves to spice things up but seems that NG+ takes care of that.
Seems to me the "real" game is the NG+ and I am itching on getting my hands on the PC version
As thing stand with the changes done here and a few tweaks on the formula, like getting rid of videogamey levels like Iron keep, getting more creative on bosses with multiple attack patterns like the DLC guardian and finaly taking advantage of new technology THEN we should be getting the best Souls experience ever...imagine what would have happened if the Rotten was a kind of grand fallon from Castlevania where each hit would drop undead bodies which tried to swarm you while dodge his clever hits...

 

[Invictus]

Oh and I felt almost no connectiom towards any of the NPC and the only memorable ones for me were Straid and the cat by far.
Funny how NPCs like Tarkus and Oscar made such a great impression on me with such limited exposure (not to mention Solaire of course) while we got a whole bunch of interesting one shot summons (like Jester Thomas) and a whole lot of braindead and boring as hell new NPCs
Oh and now seeing the Emerald Herald's story it feels like the original draft for Pricilla would have been almost the same and I think that they did the right thing cutting her "guide role" from Dark Souls and kind of a mistake having her here

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

NG+ question guys:

Do I have to store my shit in the item box, or do anything else for my shit to carry over with me?

 

[Tripicus]

NG+ question guys:

Do I have to store my shit in the item box, or do anything else for my shit to carry over with me?

I haven't gotten NG+ in DS2 yet, but have with DS and DeS, and there you kept everything you had whether it was stored or on your character. Only certain items are actually removed on your transition to NG+. I would assume the same here.

 

[Kanedias]

NG+ question guys:

Do I have to store my shit in the item box, or do anything else for my shit to carry over with me?

You don't have to do anything, both the item box and the inventory carry over. You only lose the usual stuff like keys and plot items.

--

About NPCs, I finished Lucatiel's quest and I really liked it. Apparently I had never finished it before because I didn't find her obscure location in Black Gulch.

 

[Elwro]

I just finished No Man's Wharf; nice location. I didn't have any lockstones so I didn't turn on the light (I guess). Is the wheel just for trolling players? I honestly thought it'd open a shortcut from the beginning of the level but Gavlan doesn't seem interested in moving it in spite of repeating "Gavlan wheel? Gavlan deal!" etc.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Gavlan will relocate after you talked to him, only his third location is permanent (not going to spoil where he goes next).

 

[Kanedias]

Ok, so the Soul Vessel appeared. It's not removed, it's just that the trigger for it appearing is Cale coming to the mansion, and he doesn't do this until you kill the skeleton. If you go to the basement, clear it and loot the chest, the Soul Vessel won't be there, you'll have to reload. I don't know why this was altered.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Well I just fought the boss of Iron Keep on another character. I managed to get 2 summons and one of them knew lightning spear so I was basically set. 30 seconds into the fight I was backing up and fell right into the lava. I think I'm going to wait until tomorrow before trying again.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Iron King? You're making your life harder by summoning help. I suck and dodging and it took me just a few tries to get the hang of it.

 

[Jick Magger]

I just get the Gyrm Greatshield and hang around that little corner that has the entrance to the primal fire. It blocks most of its AOE attacks, so the only move you'll genuinely have to dodge is his beam attack that'll knock you in the lava if it connects. Basically just spent the fight popping out of it whenever he's open and throwing lightening at it. Even if I do get caught in one of the flame attacks, the shield blocks most of the initial damage, and the rest is solvable by just popping back around cover and taking a sippy.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Well this character is entirely melee and I plan on staying that way to see how hard it is (I'm dreading the shrine of amana already) but I mostly summon help for so other people can get souls (or for sun medals). I might put up my summon sign for a while and start learning his patterns then just solo him myself if I feel like it.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Iron King is easy for melee. The good king has the courtesy of resting his arm after his big attacks, so you can chop at it quite a bit.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Iron King? You're making your life harder by summoning help.

This seems to be the case all the time for me. I summon people not because I want to make the game easier but because I enjoy it, but on my current character who I've finished the game completely I haven't killed a single boss fight successfully with any phantoms alive. They all go ahead like a retard and get OHKO'd and then I have to manage the whole fight alone on Hard mode. I mean what's going on? Are people just trolling now, did player skill plummet down after release or is everyone else just hanging about in NG+ while I'm still trying new builds in NG with the worst players ever?

 

[praetor]

IK is random like BoC. sometimes he'll spam his "here's my hand, feel free to whack it for 15 seconds" attacks and it'll be trivial and over in under a minute, at other times he'll just spam his firebreathing attacks to no end (once he spammed it for something like 5 straight minutes without stopping) and melee will take forever. yeah, you can attack him even during his firebreathing (his arm opposite the firebreath attack is near land) but his hitbox is so random and retarded (like 90% of the shit in the game) that he'll hit you even if you're not near the fire so it's really not worth it. btw, buy some poison knives (if that still fits in the "melee only" build ). shittiest boss in the series (particularly visually)

 

[DragoFireheart]

So dual wielding Ultra Greatswords is pretty awesome. Shit just dies. Lovein it!

Oh and I felt almost no connectiom towards any of the NPC and the only memorable ones for me were Straid and the cat by far.

I liked the blacksmith's daughter. She has a nice rack... of stones.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I never really realized just how slow and clunky DaS2 feels compared to the other games until I started replaying DeS today. Enemies doing leap attacks at me and still able to block them when I press the block button just before their attack connects and just general flow of movement when attacking, walking, running, dodging etc. feels so much better in DeS. They definitely were taking major ques from Monster Hunter when they were designing the combat for DaS2.