From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[DragoFireheart]

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?

Make a mad dash for that hexing gear! Resonant Soul (needs a chime) rapes everything and when you get low on Souls you can Dark Orb spam with Sunset Staff like you were playing a Royal in Demon's Souls. Get to Drangleic castle after blowing everything up and infuse the Cathia's Chime with Dark and continue to nuke the game into irrelevance! Utilize Dark Fog + Bat Staff with Great Resonant Soul and win 99.999999999999999999999999999% of your PvP matches (80% if you're terrible).

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

People are really catching onto this whole GRS thing. Everybody rolls like a boss through it now and it's very rare to actually hit someone with it in PvP. Resonant washing poles rape me every time though. That's not going away for sure.

 

[DragoFireheart]

People are really catching onto this whole GRS thing. Everybody rolls like a boss through it now and it's very rare to actually hit someone with it in PvP. Resonant washing poles rape me every time though. That's not going away for sure.

These same people need to use Bat Fog. Bat Fog + GRS + Resonant Washing Pole and yer fucked.

btw:

 

[Invictus]

Thanks Draco, I guess the chime in the majula cliff works for that, should I infuse it too or just hold on for Cathia's?
I plan on still doing FoG to get enough levels for hexing and decent stats...then to lay the smackdown!

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Yeah winning PvP is pretty much:
0. Mad warrior set (optional)
1. Profound Still while the phantom is still "waking up"
2. Resonant dark washing pole ready
3. Backstep + L1 or run + L1 spam
4. GRS when you're running/healing

Fighting this shit is a fucking nightmare

 

[80Maxwell08]

When I was grinding for smooth & silky stones and sunlight medals I saw tons of hexers so it's definitely catching on.

 

[aris]

If I join another covenant, can I sitll use the sunlight spear?

 

[80Maxwell08]

If I join another covenant, can I sitll use the sunlight spear?

Yes.

 

[Silva]

So, just installed it on PC and had a frustrated experience with the Explorer - once you use all his stuff its simply a guy with little knife. So what my options here ? I dont like Strenght-based builds. In DS1 I ended up with Pyro + Uchigatana. I looked awesome, like a dark wraith in that Izalith robe mixed with black leather thief armor. Is it possible to replicate it here somehow ?

Also, what about these Hex something you guys talking about ? Can I be a "Kataneiro Hexer" ? What do I need for it ?

 

[Silva]

Thinking again, I just saw an hexer in youtube that looked like a friggin shaman with a staff in a hand and a cool spear in the other.

How do I do that ?

 

[Castanova]

Had my first PvP experience 12 hours in. Got summoned as a Grey phantom into some Ratbro's world. Dude tried to poke me to death with a spear. I proceeded to annihilate him with my Fire Longsword. Amusing. Got a Pharros' Lockstone out of it at least.

Also, I have still yet to encounter a tough boss. So far the "hardest" has been the Rat Authority but he was just an easier version of Sif with a minor gimmick to start the fight off.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Man, FromSoft managed to make multiple souls consumable but couldn't allow multiple covenant offerings at once. Here I am sitting like a retard, offering 50 awestones to this stupid fucking altar.

 

[Damned Registrations]

So, finally got to try this today. Some thoughts:

It's way too fucking linear so far. And from the looks of things it's going to stay that way. URGH.
Big weapons still seem to be the best option. Once again, the only thing small/fast weapons are good for is fighting enemies with no poise, which are a joke to begin with, you can punch those to death. Now Strength isn't just for shields, but armor too. Speaking of armor, I had a fast roll all the way until 70% burden, so weapon weight doesn't matter at all either.
After trying melee out and not wanting to repeat my darksouls 1 experience by grinding everything between a big shield and fat sword, I decided to try a sorceror. Oops. Sorcery is awful too. Everything takes forever to kill (since you need to bait them into an attack and then dodge anyways, why waste the time casting spells? And you can't even aim at the ground properly so all the fucking zombeies playing dead have to be baited too when they'd normally die before getting up), and hollows apparently have 80% magic resist fucking shields. Riiiight. I thought there were supposed to be fire sorceries and laser swords and two handing for upgraded spells and shit? All I got was dinky soul arrows again. I guess they're faster now? yay.
I'm liking the variety of weapons. Lots of random special shit being thrown around even this early, like the heide sword and drangleic sword, and I'm seeing all sorts of shit show up in the loading screens that looks nice. Lots of cool rings too, and having 4 slots is nice.

Some questions:

Is it actually worthwhile to level up adaptation? The stat adjustment seems really underwhelming, but for all I know +10 agi means you roll twice as fast or some shit. Does it affect attack speed too?
Did I actually miss some way to sequence break the whole Majula > Last Giant > Pursuer > wherever that bird took me progression? I just want to know yes/no not the actual method.
Is dual wielding actually worthwhile? I experimented with it a bit and it seems like you can get a really fast 1-2 chain going, but then there's a big normal length delay for the next attack so I'm not seeing the point unless you're going to kill or poise break the enemy with that second swing when the first wouldn't have. And even then, the second hit is going to happen later than just two handing a weapon into someone's face, so you could have just done that instead and rolled away sooner. Am I missing something?

 

[Surf Solar]

Did I actually miss some way to sequence break the whole Majula > Last Giant > Pursuer > wherever that bird took me progression? I just want to know yes/no not the actual method.

Yes

AGI gives you more invincible frames and your guy rolls a greater distance.

 

[Hobo Elf]

This is the most non-linear Souls game. There's like a potential of 10+ bossfights to be your first boss. We also established before that you are even given the option to skip 70% of the game content . Big weapons are no better than small weapons since poise is REALLY sketchy in both PvE and PvP. Actually I much prefer the smaller weapons for PvE, in PvP both are good for different reasons.
Armor scales with strength, but it doesn't make that much of a statistical difference. I have a mage in a full set of fully upgraded Looking Glass armor and I only noticed a significant difference in damage taken from shit mobs. Big guys who would 1-2 shot me still do so. The 100+ poise I get from the armor doesn't help at all either. I'm still stunned the instant anything pokes me.

 

[Jaedar]

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

I can't run past the final two guards, since they're camping right outside the fog door, and interrupt the entry animation. Why lie?

 

[Kanedias]

If you stand in front of them, you can bait them to attack forwards, roll between them, and enter the fog door.

 

[praetor]

Yes

AGI gives you more invincible frames and your guy rolls a greater distance.

no, only Inv frames. Eq load determines roll distance. Agi also increases shield raising and estus chugging speed (but i'd like to see some tests that confirm it)

This is the most non-linear Souls game. There's like a potential of 10+ bossfights to be your first boss.

huh? LG, Orn, RRV, Rotten, Dragonrider are the only ones you can fight as "first" (i guess Najka, too). or yeah, the unrealistic notion that someone will grind in co-op for 1mil souls to unlock the Shrine and fight the twin dragonderpers as the first. and even 2 (3 with Najka) of those require either grinding for the 13k souls for the cat ring or actually killing a boss (much faster to get souls that way). plus, after the Shrine it's by far the most linear Souls game

meanwhile, DaS1 gives you 9 bosses with the master key as starting gift (and since all the other gifts are useless...). i've already given hard numbers to show that "most non-linear" souls game claim is BS, but apparently nobody cares about evidence so whatever

Armor scales with strength, but it doesn't make that much of a statistical difference. I have a mage in a full set of fully upgraded Looking Glass armor and I only noticed a significant difference in damage taken from shit mobs. Big guys who would 1-2 shot me still do so. The 100+ poise I get from the armor doesn't help at all either. I'm still stunned the instant anything pokes me.

armour scales with your phys defence stat, not Strength, which is increased iirc by both Str, Dex and Vit. and it does make a difference. every 100 point of phys defence negates ~20 points of damage. and elemental resistances are flat %-reductions. and poise only works on your attack animations

 

[AngryEddy]

So, finally got to try this today. Some thoughts:
I thought there were supposed to be fire sorceries and laser swords and two handing for upgraded spells and shit? All I got was dinky soul arrows again. I guess they're faster now? yay.


Some questions:

Is it actually worthwhile to level up adaptation? Does it affect attack speed too?
Is dual wielding actually worthwhile?

1. As a sorcerer, I had the most success with ignoring early game spells, and using attunement slots for weapon buffs. Early game sorcery spells, and sorcery staves are absolute shit, and in the off chance of being invaded, you'll need that fire longsword that you get from the lizard cave or you'll get raped since sorcery absolutely blows pvp.

2. Yes, 30 ADP makes you basically invincible to all bosses. No, it doesn't affect attack speed.

3. It can be.

 

[Hobo Elf]

huh? LG, Orn, RRV, Rotten, Dragonrider are the only ones you can fight as "first" (i guess Najka, too). or yeah, the unrealistic notion that someone will grind in co-op for 1mil souls to unlock the Shrine and fight the twin dragonderpers as the first. and even 2 (3 with Najka) of those require either grinding for the 13k souls for the cat ring or actually killing a boss (much faster to get souls that way). plus, after the Shrine it's by far the most linear Souls game

meanwhile, DaS1 gives you 9 bosses with the master key as starting gift (and since all the other gifts are useless...). i've already given hard numbers to show that "most non-linear" souls game claim is BS, but apparently nobody cares about evidence so whatever

DaS2 possible first boss encounters:

1. Last Giant
2. Pursuer
3. Royal Rat Vanguard
4. Rotten
5. Dragonrider
6. Dragonriders
7. Najka
8. Ornstein
9. Darklurker

DaS:

1. Asylum Demon

armour scales with your phys defence stat, not Strength, which is increased iirc by both Str, Dex and Vit. and it does make a difference. every 100 point of phys defence negates ~20 points of damage. and elemental resistances are flat %-reductions. and poise only works on your attack animations

This is true. For some reason I thought Armor had statistical scaling because some of them have E,D,C,A and S values on them in the place where they show wich stat scales with what weapon.

 

[Jaedar]

Sorcery isn't very good in general. Even the mighty soul spear barely does more damage than a regular great soul arrow. It's cool that they added a lot more unique spells, it's a shame they all kinda suck, with the exception of the soul greatsword.

So bros, tell me how I'm doing hexing wrong. I have 40 int and faith. And while your resonant souls and what have youz deal quite a bit of damage, they still deal less damage than great lightning spear and really not that much more damage than great soul arrows. Considering it takes twice as many stat points that seems rather little.

Also, what's the best way to shorten the path between bonfire and darklurker? He is the first boss in Das2 I actually like, both in terms of difficulty and design.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Soul Geyser is good for damage, but you have to be really close to the enemy for it to reach its potential damage output. Soul Spear is kinda garbage-ish, but Crystal Soul Spear is alright. All in all this is little comfort when Faith based magics out perform Sorcery right from the get go and continue to do so throughout the whole game. Not to mention that you can get the best pure Faith catalyst before even fighting your first boss fight and you get all the good spells really early in the game. Sorcery only gets good when you get to the Dragon Shrine, which is when the game is practically over.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Also, what's the best way to shorten the path between bonfire and darklurker? He is the first boss in Das2 I actually like, both in terms of difficulty and design.

fight him from bonfire in Drangleic castle.dont die to phantoms

 

[AngryEddy]

Sorcery isn't very good in general. Even the mighty soul spear barely does more damage than a regular great soul arrow. It's cool that they added a lot more unique spells, it's a shame they all kinda suck, with the exception of the soul greatsword.

So bros, tell me how I'm doing hexing wrong. I have 40 int and faith. And while your resonant souls and what have youz deal quite a bit of damage, they still deal less damage than great lightning spear and really not that much more damage than great soul arrows. Considering it takes twice as many stat points that seems rather little.

Also, what's the best way to shorten the path between bonfire and darklurker? He is the first boss in Das2 I actually like, both in terms of difficulty and design.

You shouldn't rely on your hexes for damage, you should use them to finish off your opponent, I love fighting GRS spamming noobs. You need a Dark melee weapon like a +5 Dark Chaos Blade that you can buff with Great Resonant Weapon. I hit for like 800 damage per onehanded swing against non-Havels at NG+Cap.

If you want to easily rape 3v1's, get a Bat Staff, upgrade it all the way, and use Dark Fog, then kill them with the weapon of your choice. I definitely suggest investing in stats so you can get a Mundane Avelyn.

 

[Jaedar]

So bros, tell me how I'm doing hexing wrong. I have 40 int and faith. And while your resonant souls and what have youz deal quite a bit of damage, they still deal less damage than great lightning spear and really not that much more damage than great soul arrows. Considering it takes twice as many stat points that seems rather little..

You shouldn't rely on your hexes for damage, you should use them to finish off your opponent, I love fighting GRS spamming noobs. You need a Dark melee weapon like a +5 Dark Chaos Blade that you can buff with Great Resonant Weapon. I hit for like 800 damage per onehanded swing against non-Havels at NG+Cap.

I'm mainly PvE. Also I don't have the stats for any bigass melee weapons. Currently using a fire longsword.