From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Tripicus]

So I finally stopped mucking around on alternate characters, and finished the game on the first character I started. Most things have been covered, but here are a few random quick thoughts/feelings:

The game felt most solid up until finishing Sinner's Rise, with Lost Bastille being the height of the game's enjoyment for myself. The level design and theme felt most in line with what I expected from a Souls game. After that things just start becoming disjointed, and a certain level of cohesiveness is lost in not only level design but game pacing. Go through this area where you'll be summoned into another's mage world for handicapped pvp. Now wander around across boards carrying torch. Now break/dodge a bunch of statues that spit poison. If the levels were visually more correlated and blended it wouldn't be noticeable.

I missed quite a bit of content, so I had to go back through and kill some additional bosses like Ancient Dragon, Darklurker etc.

There are a lot mroe enemies susceptible to normal damage in DS2 compared to DS1, so the mace was a great one handed weapon against many foes and bosses. The move set was improved significantly from DS1.

Having 4 ADP (26 ATT, don't remember what that translates to in AGI), is not really an issue in NG, aside from PvP. The only bosses that Ir eally wish I had the extra frames at the time was Smelter Demon and it's ridiculous hitbox issue, and dodging through Freja's beams while dealing with other spiders. There were some timing issues initially on Old Sinner but those were quickly resolved.

Fuck the hit-boxes on crystal lizards. It was annoying before, but somehow they made it worse. Lizards were the most rage inducing part of this game.



Anyway, onto NG+. Let's see how they stir this game up now.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

get ambushed, shit yourself and accidently an NPC brehs.

 

[Kanedias]

broken shit in PvP, episode #142:

backstep parry is "a thing". by pressing circle and L2 at the same time you pretty much "leave" the parry hitbox in front of you while enjoying the plentiful backstep i-frames... all the reward of the parry, with severely reduced risks. and it's piss-easy to pull off

I agree, this is beyond stupid. Parrying was nice in this game, but this technique lets them do it risk free, which defeats the entire purpose of the parry.

On another PvP note, I have been using the Syan's Halberd a lot, and this thing is the Mirdan Hammer from Demon's Souls making a return. The 2h r1s are thrust attacks followed by downward attacks, they infinite stunlock, and the pokes push the enemy back a bit so that the downward attacks almost always hit the enemy with the sweet spot. It's absolutely hilarious. The rest of the moveset is very good, too, better than other halberds.

This character of mine is on the NG arena, and I can't stress how much more fun it is than the NG+ arena. My other 2 characters are on the NG+ arena and sadly, I now regret it. NG arena has nowhere near the same amount of broken shit as the NG+ arena, low number of level grinders and such things, people actually stick to the meta here. The only bad thing is that people have worst builds overall, especially in terms of defense, so the majority of the fights are piss easy if you have a buffed weapon. Sometimes you do find better people that present a challenge, though, so it is not that bad. NG+ arena is filled with level grinders, I see more and more every day, they take so little damage from my buffed Dark Ruler's Sword or Butcher's Knife, it's ridiculous how many times I have to hit them until they die. I wish I could somehow send these two characters back to NG so I don't have to deal with that scum. I don't mind people that are mildly overlevelled and I always appreciate a challenge, but some of these have their soul levels inflated to the point where fighting them is completely broken. Fighting high levels in Dark Souls 1 wasn't this hard because stuff had more diminishing returns.

So yeah, if any of you wants more fun PvP with more build variety, at the cost of easier fights, stay in NG.

It's still interesting people die so easily in the NG arena, they have really crappy defense...I have killed people in two hits with my halberd. I guess these are the same that complain about buffed weapons being broken in terms of damage, but in NG+ I see Sl 150 people that actually take a decent amount of hits to kill (without Havel's, mind you). It's like a big part of the PvP community didn't understand that in this game elemental defense is the best stat for armor. People tend to complain a lot about buffs and now I see why, they wear unupgraded paper instead of decent stuff, so they get demolished. I'll always say that the problem isn't buffs, it's scaling, and that physical scaling needs to be buffed (no pun intended) but buffs do not need to be nerfed. Or at least, if they nerf buffs, they need to nerf defenses as well (this would be the best course of action, but I doubt they'll overhaul the defense system completely).

Oh, and something else, I have been trying 39% equipload with the Cloranthy Ring +2 and it's extremely good. I normally used 59% weight on my builds, but this is much better. You have lower defense, yes, but your roll is quite long, has lower recovery, and the best thing, you have absurd amounts of stamina regen. It feels like I'm in Dark Souls 1 again, with a grass. It makes me get hit much less so the lower defense isn't a problem. I may have to rework my main build into using 39% as well.

All in all, I'm having a lot of fun in PvP, more so than when I had to deal with backstab fishing in every fight, but fuck level grinders in the arena.

 

[praetor]

I'll always say that the problem isn't buffs, it's scaling, and that physical scaling needs to be buffed (no pun intended) but buffs do not need to be nerfed. Or at least, if they nerf buffs, they need to nerf defenses as well (this would be the best course of action, but I doubt they'll overhaul the defense system completely).

i'd rather they left physical scaling as it were (maybe even a very slight nerf, particularly to backstabs and ripostes and some obscenely damaging weapons), nerfed a bit the infused/buffs weapons and gave more health & defences to armours so that matches (on average!) actually last longer than the loading screens (and, to compensate, definitely take down a notch the HP, damage and def bloat of NG+ and beyond. shit's ridiculous)

 

[Damned Registrations]

So I popped a soul vessel to rebuild so I could try out blue flame + weapon enchants, because I love that thing's moveset. Huge mistake. I basically tickle things again, urgh. And of course the weapon buffs don't last long enough and have fuck all uses and take forever to cast. Huge waste of souls and all my twinkling titanite.

Also, I got the heart of mist thing now, but no idea what to do with it. Which rock in a dark room did they hide a tiny lever behind this time bros?

 

[praetor]

So I popped a soul vessel to rebuild so I could try out blue flame + weapon enchants, because I love that thing's moveset. Huge mistake. I basically tickle things again, urgh. And of course the weapon buffs don't last long enough and have fuck all uses and take forever to cast. Huge waste of souls and all my twinkling titanite.

Also, I got the heart of mist thing now, but no idea what to do with it. Which rock in a dark room did they hide a tiny lever behind this time bros?

Nashandra has the answers (they really fucked this up... there's exactly 0 indication you should go consult Nash Bridges for further instructions). anyway, now you can visit the Memories of dead things, i.e. the strange, dead Giants that look like trees in the Forest of Fallen Giants (plus one more neat tidbit in Brightsone)

 

[Silva]

Funny how the game is getting better the more I play it. Even the sensation of emptiness and lack of plot is subsiding the more I advance. Where Dark Souls 1 had the tendency to be fantastic till the last third or so and go downhill from there, Im feeling Dark Souls 2 is the opposite.

Is it a real thing, or staying awake for the last 48 hours playing it is driving me hollow ?

 

[Damned Registrations]

So I popped a soul vessel to rebuild so I could try out blue flame + weapon enchants, because I love that thing's moveset. Huge mistake. I basically tickle things again, urgh. And of course the weapon buffs don't last long enough and have fuck all uses and take forever to cast. Huge waste of souls and all my twinkling titanite.

Also, I got the heart of mist thing now, but no idea what to do with it. Which rock in a dark room did they hide a tiny lever behind this time bros?

Nashandra has the answers (they really fucked this up... there's exactly 0 indication you should go consult Nash Bridges for further instructions). anyway, now you can visit the Memories of dead things, i.e. the strange, dead Giants that look like trees in the Forest of Fallen Giants (plus one more neat tidbit in Brightsone)

Oh of course, the trees. I actually talked to the cat but was under the impression I was supposed to do something with Vendrick's corpse. Which is also gigantic and who was in a war with giants across the sea blah blah blah.

God damnit game. There seems to be a lot of weird crap like this. I'd have never found Ornifex either, 'over yonder' means sweet fuck all apparently. Majula is just as close as where she actually shows up, and why would I burn a branch of yore on freeing a useless npc before any of the other, more useful things I could use it for. Plenty of other things I know I'm missing, I wanted to just play and find on my own, but I should probably just go ahead and spoil myself given the way this game was designed.

 

[Elwro]

You can go through Gutter in different directions. I went through the whole thing before I realised you could destroy the poison-spitting statues; and got to the fog from the other side (you even get a different message, not 'traverse the fog', but 'traverse the fog from the other side', which is weird since you'd think the fog is there to block unloaded parts of the level). It's nice that you can also use the rope there and in general it was a fun level, with the added nice touch of lighting more and more 'candles' and illuminating it.

 

[Kanedias]

Funny how the game is getting better the more I play it. Even the sensation of emptiness and lack of plot is subsiding the more I advance. Where Dark Souls 1 had the tendency to be fantastic till the last third or so and go downhill from there, Im feeling Dark Souls 2 is the opposite.

Is it a real thing, or staying awake for the last 48 hours playing it is driving me hollow ?

Some people here were saying the second part was worse, but I believe the game gets better in the second half. I really loved the areas of the second half of the game, even if the game gets more linear.

And yes, the feeling of aimlessness goes away the more you find out about the plot, at least, it did in my case.

 

[Murk]

Replaying 3rd time and I think I'm done. Got to Iron Keep and just... fuggit. I donno if I want to go through this section again. I'll burn out for goods if I keep it up, so I think I'm gonna put the game down for a bit.

This game's co-op is great, and while PVP isn't as bustling as I thought I did have fun with the bellkeepers and the ratbros (on both sides). The online stuff improved for sure but I think the game could do with more incentive for conventional red phantom invasions. Oh well.

Also, got punked by a hacker (or was lagging heinously). dudebro was naked and punching me but everytime I landed a hit, no damage. I assume hacker but maybe I just suck.

 

[aris]

So I joined the little blue bros, and I've got invaded thrice without receiving any help at all. Either there is nobody playing blue sentinels, or I'm doing something wrong, or it is broken. I'm not wearing the ring, because as of patch 1.04 you shouldn't have to. At the very least they could summon 1 or 2 AI blue phantoms, seeing that the AI actually isn't terrible on the AI red phantoms I've had to face, that would actually be to some help, and they said this would happen to in the previews, I have no idea why they cut this, which makes this covenant kind of broken either way.

Edit: 4th time, still no assistance. Beat the crap out of the invader this time though


Really hope they fix this broken shit, because for playing a solo character with no sins, I sure do get invaded a lot. It's fundamentally unfair too, for the reason I've stated above, and because PvE gear and PvP gear are two completely different gears most of the time. Lightning spear and dark hail are great against bosses, but work like shit against PvP. And I have 90% equipment load. And people that invaded me are ALWAYS people that have read the wikis, and have some silly trick that is almost impossible for me to beat.

 

[praetor]

man, Aldia's Keep could've been so, sooo goood if they put some thought into it and didn't castrate it. it could (should!) have been this big, abandoned mansion full of monstrosities, grotesque labs, unwilling desperate prisoners and experiments gone awry, a festival of the macabre... it could've been a mix of say, Latria -1, -2 and Sen's fortress, with some Dr Moreau thrown in for good measure. what we got is barely more than an empty hallway where you fight hippos, funny astronauts, a big basilisk and a boring "enhanced" undead, with the only non-shitty fight are the mirror dudes. and it's even more disappointing since they showed it in its full glory in all the trailers/videos.

 

[aris]

Aldia's keep could have benefited from being better I agree. It's definitely one of the better areas in the game.

 

[Surf Solar]

Wish I would get as many invasions as you apparently have.

Also, what the hell is the matter with people summoning me, afking and then black crystal-ing me out? Stop wqsting my time ffs

 

[Cyberarmy]

I'm trying to get a higher rank as a sunbro but man dat summonners... Possibly the worst players ever(or best trolls?), can't imagine how they did get this far most of the time...

 

[Surf Solar]

And then they rush in directly into the charge of the sinner without dodging or a shield and die before we sunbros can even walk through the fog.

 

[praetor]

when i farmed for Sunbro3 i did it mostly at Smelter (most frequent co-op spot, imo), and man how i raged: people run with half HP over and over again into the Smelter AoE even though it almost killed them 3 times before at full HP. how stupid can you be? i feel your pain, sunbros

 

[Surf Solar]

Aaaaaaand.. I lost 400k souls due to the most stupid mistake.

Put down my sign infront of Sinner as said. Neighbor rings the door for some stupid question, I feather back to last bonfire. Turns out the last bonfire was the one with the 4 crossbow ones.

Didn't need the souls anyway so w/e

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

I'm trying to get a higher rank as a sunbro but man dat summonners... Possibly the worst players ever(or best trolls?), can't imagine how they did get this far most of the time...

3:30 and onward

i dont want to make any shitty flame wars which platform is better and why.... but amount of retarded players on pc is much bigger than on ps3. or at least i met much more shitty players in co-op on pc than on ps3. i got 30 sunmedals in one fucking evenning helping guys in iron keep and earthen peak on ps3 while last weekend i was summoned around 50-60 times and only 18 hosts killed the boss some of those fuckers did not even learn how dodging work and somehow they managed to fight their way to fucking iron keep. shit like turtling the hole fucking fight and be suprised that boss shield breaks you once you run out of stamina or spending the hole fight as far away as possible and simply spamming shitty magic is of a daily occurence

 

[Steve]

I know that feel bros. Getting 30 sunlight medallions was probably the most frustrating part of the game. People refuse to heal themselves and get themselves killed before I can enter the fog gate. Best part is when you put your sign in front of the fog gate, you get summoned and then the host goes to the opposite direction.

Never again.

 

[80Maxwell08]

I grinded my sun medals at Smelter on PS3 and believe me there's tons of idiots there too. I would say of all the summons I did there maybe 1 in 4 were a win. Plenty of others either didn't dodge or fell for that ground stab and explosion. God it was annoying but getting the sunlight spear and wiping the floor with darklurker after it split without letting it get more than one hit off was so worth it.

 

[praetor]

wiping the floor with darklurker after it split without letting it get more than one hit off was so worth it.

now go fight him melee. easily the best, most satisfying PvE fight in the game fought him pure melee last night with a fire chaos blade... killed him with the hit that killed me so i had to do it all over again 'cause in the excitement i forgot about the CB health drain :D

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Dudes give me some fucking guidance:
I've explored whole of the Heide Tower of Flame area, been to the Wharf, Lost Bastile, Sinner's Rise and belltower, grave of the saints (discovered the Gallows but then quickly fucked away from there because of NOPE), Forest of the Giants, that forest with cursing lionhead dudes, Gates of Pharros, that nice mining area, maybe Im forgetting something but looks like that's it... the question is:
DO I REALLY HAVE TO GO TO THE GALLOWS OH GAHD OH GAHD OH GAHD

Check out the path from Majula to Heide's again.

So now that I've been through that set of areas, is Gallows my only option?

 

[Cyberarmy]

Lol, it is nice sad to see that everyone is suffering from same shit.

Well, after this playthrough I'm going to play as the most active invader (not decided if red or blue) and going to wipe such heathens from the face of earth. And I'm going to wait at Bell Tower to get summoned and buttfuck bellsuckers.

 

[Stonewolf]

Dudes, why the fuck would you farm sunmedals at diffucult bosses, or at least the ones at which dumbfucks die constantly. Go to the covetous and you will be done in an hour.