From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Damned Registrations]

Why I love this sword even though it's slow and has shit durability and range:

 

[Silva]

Yeah, as said earlier, I found the balancing between weapon types pretty bad. The Dex based ones are pretty f*cked up.

 

[Kanedias]

The Warped Sword is pretty awesome. I love it.

 

[praetor]

The Warped Sword is pretty awesome. I love it.

is it any good when you don't powerstance it? any notable advantage over the falchion?

 

[aris]

The more I play ds2, the more in realise that the gutter is actually one of my favorite levels in the game. It's very complex for a dark souls game, and probably one of the least linear levels in all the souls games. I am pretty thorough in my exploration, but every time I go though it, I discover an alternative path or a secret I hadn't found before. Many have criticised this level for its aesthetic, but for me it's a beautiful level of wood and darkness. I also really like this for actually making good use of the torch, with lightable torches that serves the dual purpose of mapping the level, telling you where you have already been, giving a little Hansel and Grethe feel to exploring the labyrinth, as well as lighting up slightly the level, which gives it almost an ethereal beauty once every torch has been lit. Like most of the areas in ds2, it tells a story without words, I can imagine that the gutter used to be a slum district, possibly for outcasts that were cast into the well to die before the curse came. Seeing that the Dark one came from the deep, it's also possible that the curse in drangleic originated exactly from there.

The only thing that sucks about the gutter, is that it's punctuated by the black gulsch, which is probably my least favorite level from a lore and aesthetic point of view.

 

[aris]

Shrine of Amana is a great level. Really beautiful and atmospheric, and actually has some original gameplay mechanics and encounter design, never before seen in a Souls game. Also, if you're careful, there's only really one cheap segment, where you can't ambush mages from behind cover of some sort - the one just before the third bonfire, with the two archdrake knights. Its only real problem is that it's too linear, although it's more like a semi-open area rather than just a corridor.

Replaying NG now, and finding that I actually like a lot of the levels individually, taken on their own, they're certainly up to DaS1 standards. Their problems lie in how they're so disconnected from each other, and how some feel kinda artificial - much like Sen's Fortress, in fact. Of course, Sen's Fortress was an area specifically created to challenge adventurers heading to Anor Londo, so it made sense there. It doesn't really make sense in Iron Keep, Earthen Peak or Drangleic Castle.

In ng+, the encounter right before the third bonfire is insane. When fighting more than one arch Drake knight at once, I've found that the only way to fight them is to run away screaming like a psycho dodge rolling as they run after you and hit at you, and then pick them off one at the time as you get out of (their very large) aggro range. In ng+, the arch priestesses got nothing on the knights, I could fight 3 or 4 of them all day, since their attacks are pretty easy to dodge, especially with the audio clue. But the knights, they fight with hammers that hit like ultra great swords, both in terms of damage and poise damage (actually more than ultra great swords) but with a very high attack speed and with a fericousness that will burn through anyone's stamina trying to block the attacks in a matter of seconds.

Even when summing the npc right before this encounter, I had great problems, since he just serves as a very very temporary meat shield.

While I agree about iron keep, I completely disagree about drangleic castle. What on earth is artificial about that level? For me, it's completely believable as a castle where the in king and queen lived in every possible way.

 

[Kanedias]

The Warped Sword is pretty awesome. I love it.

is it any good when you don't powerstance it? any notable advantage over the falchion?

It has a counter strength of 130, which is unique for curved swords, and it has 25 poisebreak as opposed to 20. But the main thing is the counter damage, while Falchion only does 10% more damage on counters, this does 30%.

 

[DragoFireheart]

The Warped Sword is pretty awesome. I love it.

is it any good when you don't powerstance it? any notable advantage over the falchion?

It has a counter strength of 130, which is unique for curved swords, and it has 25 poisebreak as opposed to 20. But the main thing is the counter damage, while Falchion only does 10% more damage on counters, this does 30%.

It also has some nifty powerstances unique to it. When I get the chance I'll tell you both about it.

 

[Invictus]

Never thought I would agree with Gaudaost but I also like very much the gutter, as a matter of fact my favorite areas would be forest of giants, amana, gutter, huntsman & nomans

 

[Kanedias]

I used to dislike the Gutter but I explored it fully yesterday, lighting all the torches, and found out there were several things I had missed. By the time I got to the zipline, it was all lighted up and it looked great, and I realized I love it.

I love how the torch mechanic enhances the area, and how nonlinear it is. There are so many ways to get to the exit.

The Warped Sword is pretty awesome. I love it.

is it any good when you don't powerstance it? any notable advantage over the falchion?

It has a counter strength of 130, which is unique for curved swords, and it has 25 poisebreak as opposed to 20. But the main thing is the counter damage, while Falchion only does 10% more damage on counters, this does 30%.

It also has some nifty powerstances unique to it. When I get the chance I'll tell you both about it.

Please do so, I never tried Warped Sword powerstances, but I do know that if you powerstance it with other curved swords it gets a special L2 or something like that.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

black gulch would be great if they used the old lighting system. you either destroy those statues glowing with green light and use torche or leave them as the only light source in that cave and have to dodge the poison darts

 

[aris]

I also forgot the first reason that came into my mind for why I really like the gutter. The ambient sounds. The deep rock rumbling is just perfect for the level, it sounds like the heartbeat of a gigantic heart, and the other sparse, minimalistics sounds you hear throughout the level, adds to the athmosphere tenfolds.

 

[Murk]

shame curved swords in this game are all atrocious.

also, awestones p hard to get, eh? i'm not farming them outright but the game gave me like 5 or 6 in ng+ with like 10 hours of playtime

Curved swords are the best to parry with; hence all the pepple with monastary scimitars

also, if you want to farm awe stones, then burn a bonfire ascetic at the bonfire in the grave of saints -- the first one, not the one before the rat vanguard and roy the explorer will keep invading you. Just kill him and repeat. I believe you get invaded everytime after you kill him once, so he just keeps coming at you.

 

[aris]

Holy shit, I just realised that I have played through the game 4 times and missing a stupidly big part of forest of fallen giants each time. Namely the area of the third bonfire. I think I noticed it the first time I played through the game, but since it was locked, I forgot about it, and on subsequent playthrough I just ran right past the door.

 

[Murk]

Huh... you didn't go there for the Giant's soul? You can jump to it from the 2nd bonfire by leaping on the broken wall, but its a pain in the butt.

Apparently there are 20 fireseeds in each play through. Neat. It is now my goal to turn my sl 1 dude into a wretch.

IMO they need some sillier spells for trolling -- things like force and chameleon.


Long winded views on my sl 1 run through of the game, spoilered to not take up space.

Spoiler

This challenge should be called "no iFrames" challenge. So, you have few weapons you can use. I counted two that can be one handed: the dagger and the broken straight sword. Four that can be two handed: mace, hand axe, club, and broad sword. Oh, and of course the ladle. You can also two-hand a crossbow.

Since the "fail to meet requirements" system is different, you can still basically use all the other weapons and you swing relatively normally -- you just won't do shit for damage. So, I carried a short bow around to poison people as well; which often turned out to be a pain in the endgame and I was better off just sniping them to death with a raw +10 xbow. I found the raw bow was better than an elemental bow, but still used fire bolts most of the time. Apparently some weapons reduce their stat requirements when two handing (so not only do you double your STR, but you also need a lower STR requirement; which is what I assume the light xbow does as it requires 13 str and Deprived can sport up to 12 by two handing.)

So, general strat was to stay light and to use the mace to bash shit. Worked well for damn near the entire game until the end when my stamina was not enough and most things could one shot me. Also, the hitbox/i-frame issues started to get really silly, especially with some enemies like Looking Glass Knight's tracking chop + additional homing lightning blast.

General play through was no shield, tried to never go over 39 weight (only did when I needed multiple weapons on quick slot) and tried to keep weight at 29 or lower regardless. Gear was more utility than defense; mostly used soul boosting or item drop stuff and switched to cast speed or # of cast gear when necessary.

Bosses not necessarily in chronological order, but kind of:

Last giant: easy mode as usual, stay between legs and walk away when he stomps.

Pursuer: dodge into the hit or to the side; didn't risk parrying as I can't time that for shit. Usually I'd wait for him to do his charging slash and get 1-2 hits, or let him exhaust his combo for 1-2 hits.

Pursuer again in Iron Keep: Way more hp this time; tried a few silly strats like poisoning him (worked, lol) but ended up doing more of the same. I think I used lightning resin to speed things up. The trickiest thing was me dodging from his curse-grab too soon; but the blue sword is a clear tell. Turned more into a battle of attrition but it worked.

Dragonrider: Same shit as always.

Ornstein: I'd stay close to bait his attacks, dodge towards and to the left of him (my left, his right) and melee 1-2 if safe. With an upgraded mace (+5) he goes down easy enough.

Flexile Sentry: Bait his club wielding side and punish after his attacks. Sword side is too unwieldly and has better range, club is safer.

Ruin Sentinels: Easy fight. Dodge guy on platform and blast him apart - 4-5 hits killed him. As the other one walks up and squats for a jump I hit him with 2 flame swathes and then 3 more hits to finish him. I let the last guy jump up and did the usual dodge behind and bash to death.

Gargoyles: Pain in the ass. Used magic mostly for crowd control. I'd bait them to attack at once, then flame swathe. Used 3 amber herbs to replenish castings as I didn't want to fuck around with melee. My iFrames are not enough and my stamina is not enough to keep rolling around -- especially if they gang up and start swinging at different times.

Lost Sinner: This is about where I started to meet some difficulty. Her range is ridiculous and she is too aggressive for me to have relied on my slow magic. I had to melee her and it was honestly hard. Lit the oil so I could lock on and see shit, but her range is just too much. Eventually I had to play a lot of keep away and dodge her running thrust attack then hit her then. Luckily she has really low HP (or armor) and so is easy to kill. This was a very samurai-movie like fight where it was a kind of one-hit kill type of thing (not really, but thematically similar). Reminded me of the fights in Bushido Blade.

Skeleton Lords: Easy. They have shit HP and the mace fucks them and he skeletons up. Killed the one on the left first and he summoned armored skellies, took them out. Then killed the one on the right and he summons regular skellies, took them out. Then killed the last guy and played keep away only attacking bonewheels when they finished their charge. I used some pyromancy first then meleed the last two. Bonewheels are nowhere near as dangerous (or plentiful). Kinda sad. I was so proud when I learned how to deal with them without problems in painted world.

Executioner's Chariot: Fuck me I hate the path up to this guy. Killing him was easy after the mages and skeletons were cleared out. One of the few times I used a shield (the little blue wooden one) when hiding in the alcoves with skellies attacking me. After that I didn't drop the grate, but stood in the alcove around the corner and fire-swathed and fire-balled him by timing my attacks. He does a thing where he's stuck in the hole and if you hit him, he drops to his death (get his HP below his name).

Baneful Queen Mytha: Her attacks are annoying because of reach and shitty iFrames, but usual business. I stayed in front of her, dodge her hits, and meleed her when she was open. I didn't risk pyromancy, despite it fucking her up, because my cast time was too long and her charge/thrust is too fast (even with the blue clearstone +1; didn't get +2 cuz I am stupid and didn't realize skelly lords drop it in NG+).

Smelter Demon: LOLOLOLOL this fight didn't change at all. I couldn't RTSR like I wanted, but oh well. Took a few tries but eventually got him. Usual shit -- keep moving side to side, dodge the hit and go melee him. I think I used aromatic ooze on him.

Iron King: Easy mode -- bait his melee hits and rail on his arm. Dodge the fire blast by running into corner or when he does the single line attack, just roll to the side. So, I got him down to like a sliver of HP but he wasn't dead -- killing blow was a throwing knife. Fucking OG kill right dur bra; I aint no legend in gin alley but they tell stories.

Rat Vanguard: I don't think this fight ever changes; ran around killing rats then fireball'd the lead rat for fear of toxic.

Rotten: Only real trick is making sure you don't get burned. Then I went nuts. I kept getting hit by his explosion attack because I couldn't doge away in time. I went retardo starts and lowered my hp and used rtsr by activating it in the fire -- then used charcoal resin and just melee'd him. I can dodge his hits like a pro now but fuck that explosion attack.

Nasjka: Bait her tail swing attack by staying next to her, melee away. Biggest issue is her spear stab which has surprising range (or I have horrible timing). Her magic is 'simple' to dodge but results in some hiccups. The multi shot crystal barrage -- run and roll at her. The 5 homing soul mass orbs that shoot 2 and 3, run around in circular directions. Killed her twice with ascetic for the ring to attune 3 spells; was definitely helpful.

Rat Authority: Used fire tempest to one-shot the rats early on. There are lines in the ground that I used as markers -- big ones that go almost perpendicular to where you start. Not sure if intentional. Once crossing the 2nd closest to the cluster of 3 rats, I'd cast fire tempest while still moving. The one lunge hit would miss and it would kill the rats. Then just stay between his legs and keep rolling into him. Used pyromancy to avoid wonky aiming/size issues. Ended up with fire tempest being the killing blow for maximum badassery. Died 3 times because toxic (lul) while trying to melee the little rats -- then came up with the line/tempest method.

Congregation/Magus: More of the same. Fireball/Fireswathe and backstabs when possible.

Duke's Dear Freja: The little spiders were a pain in the dick. At +9 with fire-bolts my light xbow could one-shot them, so the first 3 minutes was me running around like an idiot and trying to pick them off. Then the rest was easy. Whenever she'd go nuts and do the spitting/stomping stuff, I'd peg her with a few fireballs then switch heads and bait the thrust attack and punish. The real threat was the little spiders.

Dual Dragonrider: A bit annoying because of the archer -- apparently the halberd one can break the column and drop the archer down -- but the archer keeps using a bow. I did that and killed him, then just regularly killed the halberd one.

Looking Glass Knight: Fuck me this was annoying. Had to really learn his pattern. I kept circle strafing to the left and tried to bait his lightning charge attacks (any of the 3) and would give him 2-3 hits when safe. He has a clear tell when he does a slow turn to the side that you can easily get another hit in. I used aromatic ooze on him and rtsr to boost damage. I could take exactly one hit from him, so whenever his ridiculous overhead smash would clip me I'd have like 5% hp left and would use it to get a few extra hits then heal up. Whenever he'd summon someone, I'd cast flame-whip which hits like 15 times and then melee him 2-3 times and it'd break the summon and give me another few seconds to get 2 more hits and regain some stamina. After I discovered this he never summoned anyone on me again.

Demon of Song: Way too easy. Stay close, when his arms come out just move away. Gold resin for bonus damage. Only dangerous thing is if he charges at you as it has a big hitbox.

Veldstadt: Oh fuck me, this was a pain. I just don't know his damn move set at all. Relied on a lot of Pyromancy and running around like an idiot, trying to avoid him. Ended up meleeing him a bit but fuck me was it a pain. Almost as annoying as that stupid fucking hallway leading up to him. The two assholes near the fog-gate never move and they tend to aggro in groups. Such a pain in he ass to just get to him only to then get one-shotted. Bleh.

Guardian Dragon: This boss is so fucking stupid. The biggest issue is dealing with the fucking camera. His fire blast also makes no sense as visually I should be getting hit and am not, so here's no clear tell what the flame's actual hitbox is. Still, just stay between his legs and do the same thing with last giant. When flies up, run away. When he does a single line blast of fire, run towards him. Most annoying thing is when you move past the pivotal point and your camera turns around on you, fucking up your movement direction.

Guardian Dragon Mooks: Poison dagger. I would run up, poison their toes, then just run around laughing as he slowly died. Did that a few times. They are easier (possibly due to lower HP/weaker stats) but mainly because they tend to not fly away if you're between their legs. The lizards are the worst. They should just make a boss that is basically 100 crystal lizards that randomly change red at fixed intervals.

Vendrick: Same fight regardless, stay in his ass and run behind him when he jumps back. SL 1 doesn't matter since he fucks you up either way.

Giant Lord: Run to the platform near him; dodge his hits and blast him with fire. I'm guessing the melee route is to stay between his legs but I hate this stupid section so much that I Just relied on a safer/easier path.

Throne Duo: A bit dangerous because I can get killed so easily; but their HP is so low that they die fast too. Fireswath and fireball to the rescue.

Nashandra: A fucking joke. She takes so long to do anything that you have so much time to hit her, and easy as piss to dodge.

Have not yet killed Ancient Dragon or Dark Lurker. Not gonna fuck with dragon as that's just ridiculous and, IMO, doesn't prove anything. Darklurker I will, but holy fuck is it a pain to do the damn dark chasms. Shadow Ricard is a pain in the ass. I can't break his poise and he hits so fast that he kills me quickly. They also have a ton of HP so I can't rely on "killing them quickly" like with other more threatening enemies. Not gonna go to NG+ until I do kill dark lurker tho, but at this point I'm not sure what to do about those guys. Might have to try parrying, but I SUCK at parrying in this game. Made a swordsman to practice but fuck me, I'll have to pull some shit. I can pyromancy one guy to death but it uses up all of my castings. So, I donno. I think I'm gonna end up farming spice and just great-lightninging my way through. Need 14 more spices.

I think that's all the bosses. Will put in any others if I recall some I forgot.

Thoughts about difficulty. The tactics you use become obviously repetitive throughout the game. The biggest switch up I had to do was with the more gimmicky fights like Chariot, the very aggressive Lost Sinner, or with the overwhelming zerg rush in Freja. Velstadt I just had no clue wtf his pattern was, and the run up to him was too annoying to risk trying to learn by dying/dodging. Looking Glass Knight had a similar annoying hallway but his you can run through; not for Velstadt.

I think this game is _easier_ but more annoying in some ways. Why do I say that? I had a harder time in DS 1 where you get the awesome Baldur Side shield and better rolls at fast roll speed. There were no bosses like Manus that go through multiple phases and really fuck you up if you drop your guard for a second. Plenty of bosses one-shot you here, but they feel cheap because of weird tracking and the lack of agility. I felt as though I would time my rolls perfectly but because of an invisible stat, I could not tell when/what I did wrong. In many cases I felt deaths were unjustified, but that may just be the butt hurt talking.

The other thing is that the strategy is primarily the same for too many bosses. Jump into the swing; melee in recovery. That was somewhat true for DS 1 as well but for some reason it just didn't FEEL so samey. Like Manus -- you would wait for his combo and hit his arm. You'd just stay behind asylum demon 1/2/3. You'd bait O or S and then hit him in recovery. But the fights just weren't as... typical. Maybe it's because of the enemies? The sequel has so many giant humanoid with big weapon enemies that play very similar to the bosses (Old Knights in Tower of Flame for example are all basically mini-bosses) and so you get used to and sick of the pattern very early on. Contrast that with Black Knights or Baldur Knights who play like actual enemies and not mini bosses. The Berennike knights were like the current ones, but there were only so many of those.

I got bored of the game a bit ago and then got a second wind, and I'm glad that happened because I enjoyed the game more my second and third time through, but it also made the repetition of things all the more pronounced.

Boss fights I enjoyed and still enjoy: Freja, Najka, Chariot (gimmick done right, IMO), Rotten, and Sinner. They were memorable, fun, and I felt good when I learned and beat them. Looking Glass Knight is close and would be included if not for his retarded double tracking hit (overhead smash that goes completely to the side + lightning that then homes in on you -- even if it goes in a completely different direct than his swing).

 

[aris]

Hmm, Are you sure there is a giant's soul there? According to this, there isn't in the area of the third bonfire. I did learn that I can double my damage against him by defeating the ancient dragon, but that has been way harder than defeating him with just 4 souls, so I think I'll skip that. Especially in NG+, where I am now.

 

[80Maxwell08]

The fourth bonfire is the one after the king's gate. The third is the one after climbing down the ladder from the second bonfire, not crossing the bridge there or going through the door to the boss, then turning right in the next room with the fog gate.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

There's no Giant's Soul by the third bonfire. There's a giant, but no memory. That area looks like it should lead somewhere else, actually, there's a cave blocked with rocks that feels like a very natural path to a different area. Wonder what was supposed to be there originally.

While I agree about iron keep, I completely disagree about drangleic castle. What on earth is artificial about that level? For me, it's completely believable as a castle where the in king and queen lived in every possible way.

Let's use the obvious point of comparison - Anor Londo. Progression through Anor Londo is mostly linear, but by progressing you keep unlocking different parts of the castle, and once you're done, you can traverse most of the structure in a fairly natural way. In Drangleic Castle, the part that you can actually access is very arbitrary - basically a bunch of stairs and battlements with the occasional empty room. The Castle itself is very large, yet you never get this impression exploring the inside of it. It also has a whole bunch of rooms which are either empty, or only have statues and stuff you can activate by killing them. Rooms in Anor Londo looked like they served a function - a whole bunch of them have actual furniture, there's a chapel with a Titanite Demon, a trophy room with dragon heads, a main hall with a gallery overlooking it - there's some effort to establish it as a place people might have inhabited at some point in time. Drangleic Castle has much less of this. Like some other DaS2 levels, it feels like less of a place in and out of itself, and more like an obstacle course for the player.

For the record, I think it's a good obstacle course, and that the moment-to-moment gameplay in it is better than Anor Londo. But it is, at the same time, less immersive.

 

[aris]

There's no Giant's Soul by the third bonfire. There's a giant, but no memory. That area looks like it should lead somewhere else, actually, there's a cave blocked with rocks that feels like a very natural path to a different area. Wonder what was supposed to be there originally.

While I agree about iron keep, I completely disagree about drangleic castle. What on earth is artificial about that level? For me, it's completely believable as a castle where the in king and queen lived in every possible way.

Let's use the obvious point of comparison - Anor Londo. Progression through Anor Londo is mostly linear, but by progressing you keep unlocking different parts of the castle, and once you're done, you can traverse most of the structure in a fairly natural way. In Drangleic Castle, the part that you can actually access is very arbitrary - basically a bunch of stairs and battlements with the occasional empty room. The Castle itself is very large, yet you never get this impression exploring the inside of it. It also has a whole bunch of rooms which are either empty, or only have statues and stuff you can activate by killing them. Rooms in Anor Londo looked like they served a function - a whole bunch of them have actual furniture, there's a chapel with a Titanite Demon, a trophy room with dragon heads, a main hall with a gallery overlooking it - there's some effort to establish it as a place people might have inhabited at some point in time. Drangleic Castle has much less of this. Like some other DaS2 levels, it feels like less of a place in and out of itself, and more like an obstacle course for the player.

For the record, I think it's a good obstacle course, and that the moment-to-moment gameplay in it is better than Anor Londo. But it is, at the same time, less immersive.

Huh, I don't agree on this at all. The exterior itself and it's approach is excellent, giving the imposing feeling such a castle should have. Entering it, you see a logical symmetrical archtechture with a staircase leading up to the chancelor, and a further staircase leading up to what must have been the throne room for recieving visitors. Further behind, are probably official gates that lead to the more central part of the castle. The route you follow to the central area of the castle, is through the basement, where it makes sense to put statues. I'm guessing this would either be the guardians lodgings, or possibly an escape route for the king and queen in case of attacks. The area leading up to this is clearly built with defense of the central area in mind, which also makes sense. I'm guessing the big room you find in the end with the archer knights on each side and the elephant guardian and two shield guardians, is close to the most central part of the castle, and the part leading up to this is also built heavily with defense in mind. What I saw was a mix of defensive architechture and lodgings for the soldiers, which is what you would expect to find in a castle. Drangleic castle have plenty of interesting things as well, for example the portrait of the queen that interestingly curses you as you approach it. The room at the top of the castle, which probably served to keep high profile prisoners. And not unlike anor londo, drangleic castle too has a chapel, with a shrine I would guess dedicated to the ancient dragons, where you fight the two guardian bosses.

I would agree that Anor londo is a better level than drangleic castle, from an immersion point of view, but drangleic castle has plenty of merits on its own.

 

[Murk]

Hmm, Are you sure there is a giant's soul there? According to this, there isn't in the area of the third bonfire. I did learn that I can double my damage against him by defeating the ancient dragon, but that has been way harder than defeating him with just 4 souls, so I think I'll skip that. Especially in NG+, where I am now.

My mistake; I thought you meant through the King's gate. That's where there's some turtles, the leather set, and the giant that gives the seeds.

 

[Murk]

i meant curved greatswords. muh bad

yeah but wont burning ascetics in grave of saints fuck up my pvp thingies when I start ratbroing?

According to wikidot it will not reset the contraptions (but will reset the boss).

Just make sure to burn it at the first bonfire, not the one near the boss. Vageta311 did that to farm Awestones and get the vanquisher seal like, 3 hours into the game. Only had to kill a few bosses to get 4 ascetics.

 

[Murk]

Ohh, not sure tbh. I think Ascetics are separate of the NG+ category. Cuz I want to say that in NG I got summoned to a fight that was ascetic'd (judging from how much damage mooks did) but I may just be on crack.

Perhaps praetor knows?

 

[praetor]

after NG+ everything goes, afaik (i.e. NG+ can play with NG++ and beyond), only NG and NG+ are separate. i'd also say ascetics are separate than NG+ cycles, but can't confirm

 

[aris]

there are spells that, while available for covenants, are available on in NG++. For example, the chancelor will only sell wrath of the gods in NG++, and you can't use aschetic to get it earlier either, you have to play through the game with the character twice.

 

[praetor]

finally vageta did some testing on agility so we finally have some hard data and concrete numbers:

So I decided to finally stop being lazy and do some actual hard number data on the correlation between agility and iFrame counts. I will probably put this into a video at some point, but for now here is a bit of data. FYI I did this on PC but knocked my FPS down to 30 so that the frame count would cover all platforms. I also double checked at 60 fps to verify there weren't any strange rounding errors, and it was identical.

AGI - iFrames
85 - 8
90 - 9
95 - 10
100 - 12
105 - 13
110 - 13
115 - 15
120 - 16

For reference, here are the numbers I got from Dks 1 awhile back.

Slow Roll - 9
Medium Roll - 11
Fast Roll - 13
DWGR - 15

So in a nutshell, 120 agi is superior to DWGR in regards to iFrames, though the flip still had faster recovery for unadulterated spammage. 105 agi is equivalent to the fast roll and unless you're willing to go to 115 for the extra 2 iFrames, it's not worth it. I didn't test at 1 increment steps, but I'm quite sure somewhere between 110 and 115 would give you 14 iFrames, but again it's a steep cost for little gain. 85 agi is actually 1 iFrame less than fat roll, while 100 agi is 1 iFrame more than medium roll.

As you can see, the scaling is not linear. I went back and verified the 100 agi number more than once, and it is correct. Either the scaling is purposely flattened in that area to provide a good break point, or it's some sort of bug.

How did I test this? The same way I did in Dks 1, using a long duration AOE attack so that I could easily see at what point in the roll I became vulnerable. In Dks 1 I used the 4 Kings AOE because the hit box was longer than even the DWGR, ;IE impossible to roll through. In Dks 2 I used Licia's WoG which again is longer than even the highest iFrame count possible. Even on an absolute perfectly timed roll, meaning the first frame of my roll coincided with the first frame of her WoG becoming active, it still hit me at the end. They may have nerfed player WoG's, but Licia's is running at full tilt. What's strange is the light from the WoG ended long before my iFrames ran out, but there was this massive lingering phantom hit box afterwards. You could probably roll away from it if you were naked and not directly in front of her, otherwise you're toast.

Take from this what you will, I thought I'd finally get around to ending any speculation and just giving some hard data numbers. I'd like to get around to making an actual video explaining it all and showing how I validated these numbers, but it's going to take some time to do it right.

original thread

edit, more info from the thread (on weight/roll):

Just checked the weight issue. At the same agility the roll recovery from 0% burden is identical to 70% burden, the only difference is how far you roll in that time period. Also, the entire roll seems to be around 25 frames, at least if you spam roll you can start the next one after the 25th frame. Not doing anything out of a roll may end up being longer as you aren't actually cancelling the animation to start something new, it's difficult to test because without doing an action you aren't given a visual cue if your character is actually able to perform an action.

So in short; agility only affects iFrames, weight affects roll distance, and nothing affects the duration of the roll animation itself. 16 iFrames out of 25 is actually very, very strong and only a couple frames off of the DWGR 15/22(at max burden limit). DWGR had 15/19 while naked, but that wasn't realistic.

120 agi gives you invincibility for 64% of the roll animation.
DWGR at 50% burden was 68% of the roll animation.

The difference is the amount of investment to hit that number, whereas in DkS it was a simple ring slot.