From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[aris]

Seriosuly, weapon durability in this game is just ridiculously low. It really needs to be patched. I need to use all three weapon slots through one area, just so that not all my weapons get broken along the way.

Dexterity weapons have incredibly low durability, yeah. My STR/FTH character can go through a level twice over on NG+ without having to hit a bonfire or use Repair Powder, but my Dexterity-based character has to have a couple extra weapons on-hand to round out a larger zone.

Also, avoid hitting corpses with your weapons. Destroys durability like no-one's business.

Seriously though? In basille's I can't even do the run from the second bonfire to the bosses, before my ultra greatsword goes from 100% to 20% durability. And during the boss fight, I need to burn through 2 other strength weapons.

 

[AngryEddy]

hurr hexer santiers spear sls 270 durr one shot everyone. yea maybe scrubs. twice when he meets some decent players he gets his ass wrecekd

That guy is fucking garbage, i don't know why the DS community is blowing this asshat up. His build has no synergy and he put dark infusions on his Santier's Spear instead of Mundane, that shows me what a retard he is, and the fact that he has an ego after beating obvious noobs is embarrassing.

I think I just raped the guy who made this Youtube video. He had the exact same build, magic setup, and everything, even the 2 humanity chasers. He didn't even land one hit on me.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Seriously though? In basille's I can't even do the run from the second bonfire to the bosses, before my ultra greatsword goes from 100% to 20% durability. And during the boss fight, I need to burn through 2 other strength weapons.

An Ultra-Greatsword when you are in the Bastille?

Let me guess, you picked up an Old Knight Ultra Greatsword. The entire Old Knight set, weapons and armor, all have extremely low durability. I suppose the idea behind the design was to place decent weapons and armor in the early game (Heide's Tower can easily be the first real area a player visits) with low durability as a balancing cost.

Most Old Knight stuff has 20 durability points. The typical Dexterity weapon has 30-40 durability and Strength weapons have 60+ durability.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Seriously though? In basille's I can't even do the run from the second bonfire to the bosses, before my ultra greatsword goes from 100% to 20% durability. And during the boss fight, I need to burn through 2 other strength weapons.

An Ultra-Greatsword when you are in the Bastille?

Let me guess, you picked up an Old Knight Ultra Greatsword. The entire Old Knight set, weapons and armor, all have extremely low durability. I suppose the idea behind the design was to place decent weapons and armor in the early game (Heide's Tower can easily be the first real area a player visits) with low durability as a balancing cost.

Most Old Knight stuff has 20 durability points. The typical Dexterity weapon has 30-40 durability and Strength weapons have 60+ durability.

Yea, I'd wager Old Knight Gsword myself too (this is one of the weapons that's never dropped for me, actually), unless he picked up Greatsword at No-Man's Wharf. But that wouldn't make much sense, given how Greatsword is the best Ultra Greatsword and one of the most durable weapons in the game.

Has anyone tried to find out what the "flash of power" those things description says means? Is it some kind of special mechanic or just flavour text?

Seriosuly, weapon durability in this game is just ridiculously low. It really needs to be patched. I need to use all three weapon slots through one area, just so that not all my weapons get broken along the way.

Dexterity weapons have incredibly low durability, yeah. My STR/FTH character can go through a level twice over on NG+ without having to hit a bonfire or use Repair Powder, but my Dexterity-based character has to have a couple extra weapons on-hand to round out a larger zone.

Also, avoid hitting corpses with your weapons. Destroys durability like no-one's business.

Seriously though? In basille's I can't even do the run from the second bonfire to the bosses, before my ultra greatsword goes from 100% to 20% durability. And during the boss fight, I need to burn through 2 other strength weapons.

Well, look on the bright side: You can just work the enemies leading up the Ruin Sentinels until they despawn, and get some levels in the progress. Also, for Ruin Sentinels it's a good idea to bring along at least the NPC phantom.

 

[Multidirectional]

Attention PC users, Durante has already released his first alpha version of the DS2 tool.

http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?p=487

Right now it's primarily for downsampling if your rig is hardcore enough to handle it.

I tried downsampling with that tool but it works same way it does when I create a custom resolution - it makes the image blurier. So, meh.. If he could do it same way he did in DS1, allowing us to change internal rendering resolution while allowing to keep native display rez it would be pretty cool then. For now those who have nvidia card powerful enough to handle it would do way better to enable 4xSGSSAA in nvidia inspector.

 

[Volrath]

Seriosuly, weapon durability in this game is just ridiculously low. It really needs to be patched. I need to use all three weapon slots through one area, just so that not all my weapons get broken along the way.

git gud

 

[aris]

By the way, I'm at Sinner's rise. Have I missed any high stability shields? The best I have so far, has stability 55, and it is the yellow quartz shield that I began with, having preordered... Since I'm at 96,7% carrying capacity (it feels like you can carry a lot less in DS2...), dodge rolling is not really an option...

 

[Volrath]

By the way, I'm at Sinner's rise. Have I missed any high stability shields? The best I have so far, has stability 55, and it is the yellow quartz shield that I began with, having preordered... Since I'm at 96,7% carrying capacity (it feels like you can carry a lot less in DS2...), dodge rolling is not really an option...

Have you visited

Spoiler

Heide's tower of flame yet? You can find a Tower Shield after defeating

Spoiler

Old Dragonslayer

 

[aris]

By the way, I'm at Sinner's rise. Have I missed any high stability shields? The best I have so far, has stability 55, and it is the yellow quartz shield that I began with, having preordered... Since I'm at 96,7% carrying capacity (it feels like you can carry a lot less in DS2...), dodge rolling is not really an option...

Have you visited

Spoiler

Heide's tower of flame yet? You can find a Tower Shield after defeating

Spoiler

Old Dragonslayer

Spoiler

Holy shit, I never realized that there was an alternative path here, since I always just ran past the room with 3 giants, thanks! That area shouldn't be super difficult now I'd wager

 

[aris]

Holy shit! The tower shield is a MASSIVE ugprade in every way. Gonna be easier now

Looks cool as hell too.

 

[Zetor]

I find it amusing that despite claiming that "we actually put proper kb&m support in this time!!", the keyboard/mouse experience is worse than (even unmodded) DS1 in a lot of ways.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Trying to decide whether to shell out for this on PC having borrowed a friend's copy of the PS3 version. Should probably wait for a sale. Is there even a Steam spring sale? I can't remember, seems a bit late for it to start now.

 

[AngryEddy]

By the way, I'm at Sinner's rise. Have I missed any high stability shields? The best I have so far, has stability 55, and it is the yellow quartz shield that I began with, having preordered... Since I'm at 96,7% carrying capacity (it feels like you can carry a lot less in DS2...), dodge rolling is not really an option...

The one on the body by the Pursuer fight. You drop down to get it as well as an armor set.

 

[Volrath]

By the way, I'm at Sinner's rise. Have I missed any high stability shields? The best I have so far, has stability 55, and it is the yellow quartz shield that I began with, having preordered... Since I'm at 96,7% carrying capacity (it feels like you can carry a lot less in DS2...), dodge rolling is not really an option...

The one on the body by the Pursuer fight. You drop down to get it as well as an armor set.

Drangleic shield has the same stability as the one he's using already.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

By the way, I'm at Sinner's rise. Have I missed any high stability shields? The best I have so far, has stability 55, and it is the yellow quartz shield that I began with, having preordered... Since I'm at 96,7% carrying capacity (it feels like you can carry a lot less in DS2...), dodge rolling is not really an option...

You can acquire the first high stability shield worth a damn, Tower Shield, after beating Pikachu at Heide's Tower of Flame.

And yes, you need to invest a lot more into Load Weight in DaS2 due to the combination of new ring balance (maximum possible Load Weight increase from Rings is 32.5%, other equipment can at most raise this further by 5% or 3%) and the separation of Stamina and Load in stats. On the upside, your threshold for standard roll is 70% load now.

 

[DragoFireheart]

every day i am astounded by the idiocy of drago & co. congrats to invictus for jumping on the idiotwagon

cool story bro.

And yet you keep me off your ignore list. Why I wonder, pondering the rage of praetor.

Drangleic shield has the same stability as the one he's using already.

It's also the only 100% physical block shield he'll find for 1/4-1/3 of the game.

 

[Hobo Elf]

So how is it my faggot brethren? I was gonna D1P the PC release, but I was still feeling fatigue after beating the game a bazillion times so I got Bravely Default instead damn that game is so good

 

[DragoFireheart]

so I got Bravely Default instead damn that game is so good

Yeah about that: how good was Bravely Default?

 

[Hobo Elf]

I went in cold and didn't know that much about the game other than that it had a job system and a new twist to the TB battle system. It's definitely one of the best TB jRPGs I've played in a while. If you liked the old FF games then this is easily the best one so far. It evolves the genre in all the right ways while still staying true to everything good about the genre. I just love all the options they give you to cut down tedium (you can set encounter rates higher or lower, beating enemies in a single turn and without taking damage nets you bonus XP and LP, you can speed up battle animations any time during combat) and the gameplay is really good. The Brave & Default system is really good since it makes dealing with trash fights faster and less tedious but also makes boss fights more strategic. I also like how the areas in the game are hand drawn, like you are adventuring in a pretty picture book.

 

[DragoFireheart]

I went in cold and didn't know that much about the game other than that it had a job system and a new twist to the TB battle system. It's definitely one of the best TB jRPGs I've played in a while. If you liked the old FF games then this is easily the best one so far. It evolves the genre in all the right ways while still staying true to everything good about the genre. I just love all the options they give you to cut down tedium (you can set encounter rates higher or lower, beating enemies in a single turn and without taking damage nets you bonus XP and LP, you can speed up battle animations any time during combat) and the gameplay is really good. The Brave & Default system is really good since it makes dealing with trash fights faster and less tedious but also makes boss fights more strategic. I also like how the areas in the game are hand drawn, like you are adventuring in a pretty picture book.

I think I just got a chubby.

 

[aris]

Fuck, any tip on making the jump for the pharros stone at the beginning of huntsman copse? I can hit the pillar just fine, but then he automatically continues to roll off the pillar, so that it's just out of reach.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Dudes, how to parry with your right hand weapon? I've managed it a few times somehow but damned if I know how to do it reliably (same goes for jumping attack, srsly how do u pull it off consistently ??)

 

[DragoFireheart]

Fuck, any tip on making the jump for the pharros stone at the beginning of huntsman copse? I can hit the pillar just fine, but then he automatically continues to roll off the pillar, so that it's just out of reach.

That jump is a pain. You have to jump sooner so your roll doesn't push you off the pillar.

Dudes, how to parry with your right hand weapon? I've managed it a few times somehow but damned if I know how to do it reliably (same goes for jumping attack, srsly how do u pull it off consistently ??)

Don't use medium shields. I find parrying much harder to do in this game compared with Dark Souls 1.

 

[AngryEddy]

Fuck, any tip on making the jump for the pharros stone at the beginning of huntsman copse? I can hit the pillar just fine, but then he automatically continues to roll off the pillar, so that it's just out of reach.

You can fall through the bridge that leads to the Executioner arena, on top of the big pillar, then you can roll, fall or jump to the pharros stone.

 

[JudasIscariot]

I can definitely NOT recommend playing a Swordsman for the first time in this game. I always wanted a proper dual wield build in DaS 1 but oooh lawd it's hard in this game. I died so many damn times ...