From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Shadenuat]

unrelated: any Katana users? Do they all have some weird pseudo-phantom range thing going on?

 

[Raghar]

yeah, it definitely feels like DaS1 had the best hitboxes. the only other example that comes to mind is the gaping dragon charging attack

Why? He chewed me at the beginning and I fell through at the end. That's really funny experience, you should try, if you can survive it. I the fuck healed afterward.

It's also one of few attacks that allows easy tail attacking.

 

[praetor]

i... have no idea what you're talking about. i remarked that his charging attack has a bit wonky hitbox (you can get hit even if the legs don't touch you... at least happened to me while co-oping a bunch of times. quite embarrassing deaths)

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

I finally win Derrk Surrs you guise.

Spoiler

 

[Murk]

I like how every number is nice and rounded off except HP.

There's some OCD fuck somewhere gonna be going nuts over whether to take that last level of vigor or not.

I wish the mannikin top had better stats; it's probably my favorite looking chest piece.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

DOOD Y U CARE STATS U MINMAXING SCRUB ITS ALL ABOUT FASHION SOULS U TRYHARD

 

[Murk]

The community on this game is so backwards... So, the game plays and uses the same terminology as an MMO (and is balanced like a first generation MMO, for that matter).

Buuttt, the 'community' seems to purposely favor gimping yourself for the sake of... umm... being a gimp, I guess. "OMG BUILD IDENTITY" yeah shut up, everyone has like 7 characters for each build and build hybrid; you're going to swap out to use a faith/str guy why not just swap weapons. "YOU'RE A TRY HARD" and every fuck posting the 1 out of 30 victories on youtube isn't? "PLAYER SKILL BRO" sorry but using a weapon that has 3x its visual range isn't skill, neither is mashing r2 on a defender's sword. Or better yet, GSR GSR GSR (now it's CSS, I guess).

It's like a WoW player advocating arbitrarily staying 10 levels below max.

I get how it worked when SL match making was a thing, but that's not the case now so yeah.

Having said that... I still have three SL 150s... and they pretty much never get played.

 

[Kanedias]

That's because if you go way beyond 150 you're an overleveller scrub. The fact that the game is so poorly balanced and the matchmaking is awful is not an excuse, or rather, it's the cause. 150 gives a lot more points than you actually need, I can understand 200 even, but if you go to 250 and beyond it's simply trying to get any possible advantage to make up for lack of skill.

Killing overlevellers with a 150 build is so satisfying.

It's like a WoW player advocating arbitrarily staying 10 levels below max.

MMOs are balanced mainly around max level. High levels in this game are broken because damage basically does not scale up while defense does, by a great amount. If overlevelling was fine and didn't mean anything, we'd eventually end up with a bunch of Numb Havels dealing 50 damage to each other and arena matches timing out because they can't kill themselves fast enough.

In fact, I'd argue that the game was balanced around 125-150. See the nerf to spices, for example.

 

[praetor]

yeah.. it's like they're trying to balance the game for the meta of 100-200SL, but they don't understand that the root of all unbalancing evil is the SM matchmaking and most of the stuff they nerfed would've been fine in tryhard vs tryhard or SL150 vs SL150 matchups. ugh, i want to punch in the face so, soooo fucking hard whoever designed and implemented SM the way it is now

 

[Kanedias]

Cut content gesture

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

BTW I got my sin down to 0 but I'm still a wretch... Seems like it's permanent. Letting your health go all the way down to 5% is fun. In b4 ultimate autism challenge.

 

[Murk]

That's because if you go way beyond 150 you're an overleveller scrub. The fact that the game is so poorly balanced and the matchmaking is awful is not an excuse, or rather, it's the cause. 150 gives a lot more points than you actually need, I can understand 200 even, but if you go to 250 and beyond it's simply trying to get any possible advantage to make up for lack of skill.

Killing overlevellers with a 150 build is so satisfying.

It's like a WoW player advocating arbitrarily staying 10 levels below max.

MMOs are balanced mainly around max level. High levels in this game are broken because damage basically does not scale up while defense does, by a great amount. If overlevelling was fine and didn't mean anything, we'd eventually end up with a bunch of Numb Havels dealing 50 damage to each other and arena matches timing out because they can't kill themselves fast enough.

In fact, I'd argue that the game was balanced around 125-150. See the nerf to spices, for example.

Those are all great points to make, and I am willing to accept them (and even hinted at them before in my post above) but in the current state it is mostly a moot point. SM negates SL and even in game stats (the website tracking character levels) betrays the idea of the meta being the standard.

A level 800 isn't outright better than a 150 at any one thing, but it can do everything. I don't run around spamming magic + helix + full armor; I pick a schtick and work with it for that time. Sometimes its bows only, sometimes its magic only, sometimes its caestus, and sometimes its daggers and whip -- I get the option all on one char. The neat thing is I don't have to farm 30 medals or scales or whatever else on 7 different characters. If that makes me a scrub, then whatever, I'm actually having fun this way instead of getting 3-shotted when I was level 150 with some assbutt spamming decapitate after.

tl;dr I tried 150 and it wasn't fun. Bring back SL match making and my 3 duders will come back into play.

It seems that (cut) gesture is too douchey even for From.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

SM is shit. Until they fix it, I'm not gonna feel bad about being over-leveled.

 

[Murk]

I'm currently larping as a royal swordsman with bleed effect. The sword has absolute SHIT range, but is otherwise surprisingly effective. Also, it is lol

edit: worse yet, it has that stupid drangleic sword 2hand moveset... god i fucking hate that moveset, ruined the black knight greatsword

2nd edit: surprisingly effective, bleed's stamina killer is crazy good against heavy weapon users, gives 'em only 2 attacks

3rd edit: assuming the flamberge is just as good at dealing damage with 50/50 stats, I'm REALLY tempted to switch to it for the extra range but that'd just be cheaaaating

4th edit: this larp was a great success; 6 victories and 0 losses with no magic and only heavy xbow + 9 and the royal gsword (bleeding) +10, +9 armor all around with no poise ring or steel protection

got to actually use green blossoms for once

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

A level 800 isn't outright better than a 150 at any one thing, but it can do everything.

Neither versatility nor offense are the primary advantages of going above and beyond SL150. An SL150 build likely has close to peak damage potential with their specialization. My SL150 STR/FTH hits like a truck against people around that level. And while the ability to have a wide variety of loadouts is nice, it's not really what pushes over-leveled characters so far ahead of those who stick to the meta.

The ability to gouge VIT/VIG/END/ADP/ATT is pretty nasty, though. Over-leveled characters basically become Akuma/Rugal/Geese in PvP because they have more health, more stamina, fast cast speeds, more i-frames, and increased movement speed (derived from having greater equipment burden).

What really breaks them is the way in which natural defenses continually scale with stats. A SL150 build might have ~150 in one or two elemental defenses. Hexers that go all out on magic stats might have that for all four elements. But over-levelers have ~190-200 in everything, which becomes even more absurd when modified by Great Magic Barrier, Sacred Oath, or Numbness. I can play a nearly perfect game against a Havelix for 5 minutees of sustained combat and not down 'em. And if they deign to chugalug...welp, can't do shit because gouged ADP makes flasking speeds quite swift.

Not that I really begrudge anyone for over-leveling because of Soul Memory. But it does grant an enormous advantage over SL150 bros, to say nothing of poor SL120 d00dz.

Really sad, seeing as DkS2 PvP has tremendously superior mechanical fundamentals to DkS1, yet the matchmaking basically places a "shelf life" on most characters before you enter the SM bracket full of tryhard Havels and all of those go out the window.

 

[made]

IDK I played for a couple hours yesterday but the game just doesn't touch my tralala in the same way the first one did.

I have to revise that statement. It starts kinda slow but once you get into it it's just as fun and engaging as the previous game. Tho the WOW factor is gone ofc, overall it seems improved in many ways. Fewer frustrating jump&run sequences, better writing/translation, still nicely interconnected world with several paths to progress along when you get stuck on one.

I went with a fast dex/dual wield char this time around to try out a wider variety of weapons. Currently alternating between flame sword, heide sword and heide spear. Feels harder but also more involved than one-shotting everything with the club. Thinking of pumping magic next to incorporate some buffs into the build.

 

[praetor]

 

[DragoFireheart]

That video isn't as relevant anymore. It's likely referring to GRS.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Cheesing is becoming harder as more calibrations are coming out. All we've got are helix halberds and infinite stunlock combos.

Edit: Just got summoned twice by looking glass knight (first time ever). It's pretty cool... Not sure if I would try it again.

 

[Murk]

Really sad, seeing as DkS2 PvP has tremendously superior mechanical fundamentals to DkS1, yet the matchmaking basically places a "shelf life" on most characters before you enter the SM bracket full of tryhard Havels and all of those go out the window.

The game tells you as much; "one cannot remain in memory for long"

IMPLICATIONS SIR, IMPLICATIONS

or, you can back up saves... which is absurd, IMO, but is slowly turning into the standard

In my current larping phase, the biggest advantage I have over anyone is heinous stamina (that a 6 weight sword doesn't take much of per swing). The other thing, of course, is that either 150s are not in 15mil+ SM or there are none actually playing, because the lowest amount of souls I am getting on kill is 80k+ (defending against invader). Highest is easily over 400k+ and I shudder to think what level those bastards are.

EDIT: oh right, natural armor is actually a big deal... donno how it fits in, but I agree that natural armor can easily skew the difference in battle

UndetectedButthurt I was spamming my soap stone down there for a while to get summoned and had it happen like 3 times -- it's really stupid that the camera loads in after you are summoned and can be hit cuz a common strategy now is to just WOG you as soon as you get through. Start spamming roll mang.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

I was spamming my soap stone down there for a while to get summoned and had it happen like 3 times -- it's really stupid that the camera loads in after you are summoned and can be hit cuz a common strategy now is to just WOG you as soon as you get through. Start spamming roll mang.

I've WoGged a few mirror fgts myself.



I learned today that you can powerstance any katana/straight/curved sword with a lance and have the pokey-pokey moveset.

 

[AngryEddy]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3...n-t-leave-much-of-an-impression/1100-6420402/

"Normally, if I encounter an abrupt ending in a prerelease demo, I shrug it off. If the game isn't finished yet, why would I care if it's impossible to reach the end? But Dark Souls demands a different thought process. This is a series known for being evasive about even basic information, so it made sense that I would have to perform some feat of daring to unbar my path. However, I don't know if that's the case."

"Sadly, there wasn't much to the demo that was worth talking about. Unlike Artorias of the Abyss (Dark Souls' lone DLC), which thrust you into a hectic boss fight from the beginning, then pushed you through a forest teeming with monsters to another intense battle, Sunken King is little more than a typical stretch of Souls action."

"I'm crossing my fingers that something fascinating will emerge if I get deeper into the adventure, but in my short time with the game, I left feeling slightly deflated."

***BUYER BEWARE***

 

[Murk]

Fought some scrub named Roxesa or something in the blue arena twice today; kept spamming elizabeth mushrooms before the fight. Still killed him twice. Wtf?

PVP is slowly turning bothersome and confusing. I think I'm starting to get all the damn chugachugachug hate. And why people hate blues.

 

[Kanedias]

+3 rings, and a ring that makes you stronger the lower your equipment load is.

I am very happy these things exist, because I'm sure From will do a great job at balancing them. I can't wait.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

+3 rings, and a ring that makes you stronger the lower your equipment load is.

I am very happy these things exist, because I'm sure From will do a great job at balancing them. I can't wait.

so new ninja ringa ohh the tears of havelfaggs cant wait