From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[DragoFireheart]

What?

priest's chime, infused with lightning, is the best sub 50fth miracle chime in the game. and it's found in lost bastille (after the boss)

Holy shit, I can infuse it with lightning. Didn't even realize I could do that, brb!

You can also infused weapons* that already have X element with infusion of the same element.

(Some weapons don't accept any infusions).

 

[80Maxwell08]

That early?

Man Sorcerer's got the shaft this game.

unless you get luck with the lizard staff... yeah

Hey I'm still waiting for you to get near my sorceror so I can give you my +10 lizard staff. Also there's the staff of wisdom in dragon shrine that blows everything out of the water.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

That early?

Man Sorcerer's got the shaft this game.

unless you get luck with the lizard staff... yeah

Hey I'm still waiting for you to get near my sorceror so I can give you my +10 lizard staff. Also there's the staff of wisdom in dragon shrine that blows everything out of the water.

Talk was really about how early you can get decent stuff. Sorcerors have to wait a lot longer than Faith/Hex.

EDIT: Besides the Lizard Staff, I'd say relatively early on there's just Witch Tree Branch besides it.

 

[praetor]

i know... that's why i wanted that staff early on... it's an excellent mid-game staff (arguably the only one), but by the time i hit your SM i'll have both the amana and staff of wisdom, which are just better. ugh, From and their shitty drop rates

 

[aris]

What?

priest's chime, infused with lightning, is the best sub 50fth miracle chime in the game. and it's found in lost bastille (after the boss)

Holy shit, I can infuse it with lightning. Didn't even realize I could do that, brb!

You can also infused weapons* that already have X element with infusion of the same element.

(Some weapons don't accept any infusions).

Yes, I had discovered that

 

[Kanedias]

I don't find Vestaldt to be a bad boss, he's one of my favorite bosses, in fact. His attacks aren't random, he just extends his combos if you're still in front of him, which I think is good design. For example, he may do the same three hit combo, but if you stand in front of him after the third attack, he chains a fourth one to catch you.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

The picture on the left has a picture of the four Old Ones and the picture on the right has a picture of the Ancient Dragon.

The tallest man is the man who would become the Iron King. The shorter man is the duke that would stumble upon and be corrupted by the Writhing Ruins. The woman is the Lost Sinner who would throw herself on the Fire. The child is the lonely wretch who would become the Rotten and offers sanctuary to all those discarded or thrown away.

Speculation Souls

I don't find Vestaldt to be a bad boss, he's one of my favorite bosses, in fact. His attacks aren't random, he just extends his combos if you're still in front of him, which I think is good design. For example, he may do the same three hit combo, but if you stand in front of him after the third attack, he chains a fourth one to catch you.

i wish he and Throne Duo would use their buffs/spells earlier in fight than around at 50% of their hp.

 

[DragoFireheart]

The picture on the left has a picture of the four Old Ones and the picture on the right has a picture of the Ancient Dragon.

The tallest man is the man who would become the Iron King. The shorter man is the duke that would stumble upon and be corrupted by the Writhing Ruins. The woman is the Lost Sinner who would throw herself on the Fire. The child is the lonely wretch who would become the Rotten and offers sanctuary to all those discarded or thrown away.

Speculation Souls

Where is that image from?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Shrine of Winter I think.

The picture on the left has a picture of the four Old Ones and the picture on the right has a picture of the Ancient Dragon.

The tallest man is the man who would become the Iron King. The shorter man is the duke that would stumble upon and be corrupted by the Writhing Ruins. The woman is the Lost Sinner who would throw herself on the Fire. The child is the lonely wretch who would become the Rotten and offers sanctuary to all those discarded or thrown away.

Speculation Souls

Spoiler

Alternatively those might be Aldia, Emerald Herald, Vendrick and Nashandra.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

The picture on the left has a picture of the four Old Ones and the picture on the right has a picture of the Ancient Dragon.

The tallest man is the man who would become the Iron King. The shorter man is the duke that would stumble upon and be corrupted by the Writhing Ruins. The woman is the Lost Sinner who would throw herself on the Fire. The child is the lonely wretch who would become the Rotten and offers sanctuary to all those discarded or thrown away.

Speculation Souls

Where is that image from?

walls in shrine of winter?. speculation is some random post from 4 chan

 

[DragoFireheart]

Ok Codexers, what are your thoughts on this item?

 

[Kanedias]

I believe it should not exist. Effigies should be more common but that ring should not exist.

It removes the consequences of dying. 3000 Souls is nothing.

 

[DragoFireheart]

I believe it should not exist. Effigies should be more common but that ring should not exist.

It removes the consequences of dying. 3000 Souls is nothing.

Ironically this ring is terrible early on.

 

[Jaedar]

All of the early bosses. Saved all the great souls and onwards.

Not too bad. What did you do with the Dragonrider soul(s)?

I think I ate the first one. Probably still have second.

Anyway, I call bullshit on your vendrick apologism. Killing 6 kings guard is really annoying(fuckers have a lot of hp and have their shields raised all the time) and boring. And the boss sometimes does followups even when I roll behind him. And every time I get him below 50% hp he jumps off into a corner and casts his dark magic so I can't dodge it.

I have to admit I'm sort of losing interest in this game. It's just too random and directionless in terms of the story, and so far every boss with an interesting design(covetous daemon, demon of song) has been ridiculously easy. Not to mention that the game has become entirely linear.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I believe it should not exist. Effigies should be more common but that ring should not exist.

It removes the consequences of dying. 3000 Souls is nothing.

Ironically this ring is terrible early on.

I for one think that the ring is perfectly fine and functions more like an extra life. You only have four ring slots which an extra life drops to three, so it all evens out in my book.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

I believe it should not exist. Effigies should be more common but that ring should not exist.

It removes the consequences of dying. 3000 Souls is nothing.

Ironically this ring is terrible early on.

I for one think that the ring is perfectly fine and functions more like an extra life. You only have four ring slots which an extra life drops to three, so it all evens out in my book.

Except you don't lose your souls when you die and warping to Majula/Bastille/Tseldora for repairs takes no time at all. By the end of NG you can have 2 soul protection rings and 3 regular without any ascetics. It literally took away all the tension of DS1. I just don't give a shit running around with thousands upon thousands (millions in ng+) of souls. This is def. one of those "dumbed down" or "streamlined" mechanics in the game.

 

[Kanedias]

Anyway, I call bullshit on your vendrick apologism. Killing 6 kings guard is really annoying(fuckers have a lot of hp and have their shields raised all the time) and boring. And the boss sometimes does followups even when I roll behind him. And every time I get him below 50% hp he jumps off into a corner and casts his dark magic so I can't dodge it.

You can run past the guards, and you can dodge the dark magic easily even if he's in a corner.

He does the little bell animation with the hammer and then he stops moving it and prepares to shoot the dark magic, he always faces you when he's about to shoot but the attack otherwise doesn't track, so if he's against a corner simply stand next to the wall, wait until he stops moving his hammer, and quickly move to his side.

PS: he's called Velstadt

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

...or just Havel's Greatshield +5 it.

 

[praetor]

I believe it should not exist. Effigies should be more common but that ring should not exist.

It removes the consequences of dying. 3000 Souls is nothing.

or it could just break permanently, like it did in DaS1.

 

[Kanedias]

I have been checking the artbook and wow do some things look amazing, I wish they could have been able to portray them in-game as these areas are in the art.

Look at the Gutter:

and Brightstone Cove Tseldora:

Also, it looks like whoever designed Gwynevere is still around, or he has a successor:

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

this shit with 256mb ram of last gen its like blightown just twice as big. and we know how blightown was on consoles


those tights...

 

[Shadenuat]

That's Desert Sorceress set btw. You can farm it and wear it. As a man. Or you can change gender and also wear it. Not as a man.

 

[Murk]

So, I'm not very far in the game (only played about 10-12 hours) but so far I'm having fun.

Thoughts so far:

Some things are more convenient and this is good because all they did was reduce tedium and not dumb-down; use of many souls at once, no need to reload for crow item drops, item box right out the gate.

Some things are more convenient but at the cost of dumbing-down/reducing planning; many quick-slots, 4 rings, 3 weapons per arm;, insta-teleportation.

Some things are weird and make no sense; cannot level at bonfire.

The areas: I like that outdoor areas actually feel like outdoor areas. Darkroot garden/basin all felt like you were in a big cave, partly because it was dark but partly because it just felt weird. There are tons of cramped areas but there are also large spaces nearby, so if you are stick in a tunnel you can try to reclaim previous territory to avoid breaking your weapon. Also, I like that weapon durability matters and doing dumb shit like swinging through walls is a bad idea.

From still has their tight-rope fetish where multiple 'mandatory' routes are basically a 2 foot wide ledge that you can die if you try to turn to the left. Lots of "haha, gotcha" moments which I am OK with but can see how others get tired of.

I have no idea who/what/why anything is happening. In DS 1 I felt like I understood what was going on more where-as in DS 2 I am just exploring seemingly random areas. So far the only real "connection" of in-game content I've seen is the Rotten being upset about something and making statues. Otherwise I guess there used to be giants? and now there are not? I get that these games have minimalist story-telling but I feel like I'm getting no story-telling at all. The Emerald Herald is p stupid and I don't like her or her use unless it has some OMFG story element, but even then I don't like that she's mandatory for leveling, estus upgrades, or whatever else.

If you are near a bonfire then you can warp back to it so why the fuck not just let us upgrade estus at a bonfire (or level up)?

Anyway, more rambling thoughts later.

Oh, I do like the pacing of combat. It feels slower and heavier to me and I appreciate that more. Also, it obviously runs wayyy better than the travesty that was DS1.

On the Gutters: blight-town legitimately terrified me, the gutters was an easy-mode version of blight town. I think that From needs to stop recycling their ideas on some of these aspects. We get it, Valley of Defilement -> Blightown -> The Gutters but c'moonnn try to come up with something else. Especially since this one was... meh.

Also, do you ever actually NEED a torch? I have yet to light one for actual vision purposes and I am doing just fine. Was the darkness nerfed in a patch or something? I could have sworn a big selling point was that you will need a torch or something?

Or is there some Tomb of Giants like area yet to come? (also, lol at the tomb with a giant skeleton in the grave of saints).

 

[DragoFireheart]

I believe it should not exist. Effigies should be more common but that ring should not exist.

It removes the consequences of dying. 3000 Souls is nothing.

or it could just break permanently, like it did in DaS1.

Or just make it not save your souls and still leave a bloodstain. It becomes more interesting in preserving your humanity but at the cost of a ring slot and 3000 each time you die.

Though to be fair dying in Dark Souls 1 nearly zero penalty since you can farm souls or humanity. Demon's Soul was almost perfect but they fucked it up with world tenancy.

 

[Invictus]

So I am starting my deprived char on the PC and I want to go sorcerer\hex should I upgrade the staff found in Forest of the Giants or make a mad dash to Heide's to open the path the Huntsman and get that good hexing staff?