From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Zep Zepo]

/\ "Good Morning, Son!"

Zep--

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Everyone and their grandmother complained about tracking issues. Tho on normal enemies they were fine, the problem was on the giant knights who already had 180 degree swings.

I sometimes wonder what people who complain about this really want, in terms of enemies? A whole game of Anor Londo Silver Knights? The tracking looks a bit silly but it actually forces you to time your roll instead of casually walking around the enemy for a backstab.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Everyone and their grandmother complained about tracking issues. Tho on normal enemies they were fine, the problem was on the giant knights who already had 180 degree swings.

I sometimes wonder what people who complain about this really want, in terms of enemies? A whole game of Anor Londo Silver Knights? The tracking looks a bit silly but it actually forces you to time your roll instead of casually walking around the enemy for a backstab.

Why not just make certain enemies immune to backstabbing? Ironclads already have a ton of armor on their back and it make enough sense to not be able to backstab a giant over twice your size.

 

[subotaiy]

The whole tracking business is just a cheap way to increase difficulty. They went over the top with those 2-handed giants in the dragon region. By trying to make the game harder, they just made the combat feel worse than the first part.

 

[StaticSpine]

not a single word about gank squad?

I, uh, must have missed it. Dont judge me.

Anyway I will be replaying it with different character soon.

try it, I can't say if the battle is really tense or just fucking cheap, but you'll definitely remember it

 

[Murk]

Everyone and their grandmother complained about tracking issues. Tho on normal enemies they were fine, the problem was on the giant knights who already had 180 degree swings.

I sometimes wonder what people who complain about this really want, in terms of enemies? A whole game of Anor Londo Silver Knights? The tracking looks a bit silly but it actually forces you to time your roll instead of casually walking around the enemy for a backstab.

No clue; but I'm not voicing my own opinion on this. Just mirroring the 'popular opinion'.

I think I'm one of very few people who enjoys some of the cheap tricks the game uses, if only for an obstacle to overcome. I like ganksquad (hav0l <3).


EDIT: pvp in lowsm/low level New Game is ridiculously easy/fun. Naked stab man says fuck you all bitches.

 

[StaticSpine]

Yo bros!

Yesterday I've completed Pate/Creighton side quest. I've got engraved gauntlets. Are they gud?

And I wanted to know when do I find out the background of both characters? (I've read they are both not worth saving, but still I haven't found any clues).

Oh and I wanted to know if anyone used Butcher Knife?

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Yo bros!

Yesterday I've completed Pate/Creighton side quest. I've got engraved gauntlets. Are they gud?

And I wanted to know when do I find out the background of both characters? (I've read they are both not worth saving, but still I haven't found any clues).

Oh and I wanted to know if anyone used Butcher Knife?

after last patch its good. also powerstanced its even better

 

[Fockatar]

I used the engraved gauntlets on one character (eng gauntlets, full Heide's but with the faraam helmet for armour. Light defender great sword/the white shield with the dragons on). They looked ok and I think they proc'd now and then. Was never sure. Bear in mind I don't play hardcore and only fight when people invade me and I've not touched the game in months.

I wanted the butcher knife to be amazing. I disliked it but:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj_7HwK4hsw

May be out of date now, considering the patch plus DLC, but you get some idea of attacking, pacing etc.

 

[Cool name]

So... Let me see if I got this right.

First, they removed Pyromancer as a starting class. The only starting class which had an interesting lore, and background, and character? That one.

Second, they again went and hid the flame somewhere you don't get to go for quite a while. Because, you know, that's what you do to the only magic with an interesting lore in your whole setting, hide it away.

Third, you find your flame in a bleeping box. What the bleep happened to all that stuff about how you obtained a flame by receiving a spark of a pyromancer's own flame, and how they all were pretty much an unbroken lineage coming down from Salaman, and thus Quelana, and thus maybe the Witch of Izalith and the First Flame as well?

From's dead to me. >.<

 

[praetor]

a) there is no "background" for any character in Dark souls, 1 or 2. the best you can come up is "pyro came from the great swamp (like the others)"
b) who the fuck cares about this imaginary background in Souls games?
c) there are still pyromancies in game, and as such there are still pyromancers (and they fucking suck compared to Laurentius) and lore tied to them/it (definitely worse than 1, i'll give you that), the starting class added absolutely nothing lore-wise
d) the flame is anything but hidden far away. in 1 it was only (maybe/on average) found slightly sooner (doubtful), although with some knowledge can be got really soon (starting class not withstanding)
e) indeed, the placement of the flame is (lore-wise) abso-fucking-lutely supremely idiotic and shows the totally "gamey" (and sometimes randomly "for teh lulz") mentality of Team B directors. another example are the darkwraith armour pieces

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Pyromancy Flame placement, another aspect of game design in which the A Team rules supreme!

 

[Murk]

It's weird, my view of the game's short comings have changed radically. I no longer care what a 'first play' experience is like at all, but am very upset at how retarded 'end game' play (pvp) is.

EDIT:

The community is full of haaacckkeerssss (14 new rings)

also, black witch + crown waifu... everyone's a fucking figgus

 

[Kanedias]

The whole tracking business is just a cheap way to increase difficulty. They went over the top with those 2-handed giants in the dragon region. By trying to make the game harder, they just made the combat feel worse than the first part.

I don't think the tracking is unfair, it improves the game. I am not talking about the Mace Drakekeepers whose animations are quite broken, I am talking about other enemies like hollow soldiers, you can walk around them and they spin to face you. This is perfect. I don't know why people think it is unfair or cheap, Dark Souls 1 normal enemies sucked partially because of how bad they were at dealing with you circling them. Hold your shield up, circle, instant backstab. Going back to that (with for example the Sanctum Soldiers) is just taking steps backwards. They could animate it better (making the enemies move their feet in a more realistic fashion while turning to face you) but this is something minor in my opinion.

The challenge is fair if the enemies track you, you are just forced to roll dodge the attack correctly or block it, but apparently this is too much to ask of the current community.

There is this crowd of people that appeared with Dark Souls 2 that want the game to be what they call "fair" and hate tracking and want every encounter to be an 1v1 fight, while thinking this is how it was in the other games. I don't know where they came from or if they truly played the previous Souls games, especially Demon's Souls. DeS black phantom NPCs one shot you with even their fast melee attacks and had inflated HP bars, yet no one complained about them for not behaving like players (to mirror one of the common complaints about the NPC invaders in the DLC). DeS had a lot of encounters against several enemies at once, too, in fact before the fog gate leading to Penetrator there is an entire army of soldiers including three Red Eye Knights. There was no issue with this, apparently, because Miyazaki did it. Dark Souls 1 also had its fair share of these things but they were more noticeable in Demon's Souls. The Souls series were never completely fair, but it doesn't mean the challenge is bullshit. For example Bed of Chaos is bullshit difficulty, but I think the black phantom in the swamp in DeS is a fun fight, even if she can run and roll on the swamp while the player cannot.

Yo bros!

Yesterday I've completed Pate/Creighton side quest. I've got engraved gauntlets. Are they gud?

And I wanted to know when do I find out the background of both characters? (I've read they are both not worth saving, but still I haven't found any clues).

Oh and I wanted to know if anyone used Butcher Knife?

Engraved Gauntlets are good, but it depends. They weight quite a bit so it can be more worth it to use something with better defense unless you have a faster weapon and you want those crits.

Butcher's Knife is an excellent weapon for a STR build. Good damage/length/poisebreak, you just have to be careful to avoid getting parried because its moveset isn't really unpredictable.

 

[praetor]

dude, most people complain about enemies like the mace drakekeepers and salamanders, and then you bring up hollow soldiers (you know how bullshit are these dudes? when they're in their shield bash animation they're still technically in a guard stance so it's like hitting them when they're blocking. fuck you if you think that's cool. their poke hitbox also extends fucking behind them. again, fuck you if you think that's cool). there's tracking and then there's bullshit. a lot of the times (particularly with the game's abysmal handling of hitboxes) it's the latter just to make the game "hard" (i swear, this was designed by someone in marketing who thought the main appeal of Souls was the difficulty)

DeS BPs one-shot you? did you play with 5 vitality in phantom form with no cling ring? come on, dude. and there has always been plenty of complaints about them (particularly the 2 cunts in 5-2. you may like the fight, it doesn't change the fact that it's bullshit. there are also more fights in DaS2 that are absolutely idiotic and bullshit, with their only "redeeming" quality, compared to the infamous BoC, is that they're optional... that doesn't change the bullshit nature of them. edit: speaking of bullshit NPCs, i recently fought that Baldyr dude in the DLC at BF intensity 6 or 8. he had over 6k health [BSed him 3 times with my overlevelled scrub char with a dark sacred chime hammer + dark weapon + SO for 2k each time, then he endured 2 more R1s for ~500 each], and he could easily 3-shot me with regular attacks [900 armour, 50vig + TDR], without even mentioning their borderline infinte poise [could not stun him with a 2HR1], stamina and insta-cancelling animations. you can say what you want about the bullshit of DeS BPs, but they don't come even close). i think DaS2 is infinitely superior to DeS, and i think the game should've been called DeS2 since it has far more in common with that game than what made DaS1 special, but i won't make up shit. it was made by akshun fags for akshun fags, and everything else was a second thought. and it seems like Bloodborne is heading further in that direction, being a weird mix of Souls and DMC/NG-style games

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

i recently fought that Baldyr dude in the DLC at BF intensity 6 or 8. he had over 6k health

no shit faggot what did you expect?

Did you fight BP Selen or Scirvir at NG+8 in Des? I doubt that.

 

[Murk]

Man, the dragonbros spazz out something weird in dragon shrine. One cancelled like 3 different actions and looked like he was breakdancing, then went into a smooth hit straight into my spleen. Other times, I hit a guy and he rolls after being hit - cancelling his 'stagger' animation (they have no poise) into a roll then cancelling that into an attack.

I treat all of it as a 'challenge' but to call some of this stuff 'fair' is a bit too obtuse. I'm _fine_ with it, but that's not the same as thinking it is 'fair'. Regardless if you think that AI is weak and so NPCs need extra gimmicks to make up for it.

Did you fight BP Selen or Scirvir at NG+8 in Des? I doubt that.

I never played Demon's Souls so I didn't. Is your point that it's basically more inflation and more BS? So what? If they fucked up once with retarded enemies then they should stop making the same bad decisions.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Man, the dragonbros spazz out something weird in dragon shrine. One cancelled like 3 different actions and looked like he was breakdancing, then went into a smooth hit straight into my spleen. Other times, I hit a guy and he rolls after being hit - cancelling his 'stagger' animation (they have no poise) into a roll then cancelling that into an attack.

I treat all of it as a 'challenge' but to call some of this stuff 'fair' is a bit too obtuse. I'm _fine_ with it, but that's not the same as thinking it is 'fair'. Regardless if you think that AI is weak and so NPCs need extra gimmicks to make up for it.

Did you fight BP Selen or Scirvir at NG+8 in Des? I doubt that.

I never played Demon's Souls so I didn't. Is your point that it's basically more inflation and more BS? So what? If they fucked up once with retarded enemies then they should stop making the same bad decisions.

the point was him bitching about 6k health points of enemy at bf8.

Everything in Souls games at bf+8 has massive health.

Game are fairly balanced for ng and ng+ or maybe even ng+2, but after that what do you expect?

 

[Murk]

Oh, yeah, I agree with that. At higher intensities everything is retarded so I don't even try to worry about balance or any of that shit. Some things are pretty busted fundamentally but whatever -- there is no such thing as a perfect game. I still think From should have learned that just adding 2x as much health is dumb but that complaint is as obvioius and common as it can get.

This game at least gives you the option to stay in your current cycle instead of going to the next.

 

[praetor]

newest calibration changelog is up:

Spoiler

Adjustments that will be made with Calibrations 1.10 (all following changes)

• Balanced fatal blows done on other players in online multiplayer

Spell parry time and area of effect has been raised:

• Cleric's Parma
• Cleric's Small Shield
• Cursed Bone Shield
• Spirit Tree Shield
• Golden Wing Shield
• Shield of the Insolent
• Grand Spirit Tree Shield

Spell parry time has been raised:

• King's Mirror

Lowered damage caused by the following weapons:

• Defender's Shield
• Havel's Greatshield
• Gyrm Greatshield
• Dragonrider Greatshield

Lowered defense of

• Gyrm Helm
• Gyrm Warrior Helm
• Gyrm Warrior Greathelm
• Smelter Demon Helm
• Velstadt's Helm
• Black Witch Robe

Raised effect of:

• Stone Ring

Changed so the effect does not apply to spells:

• Red Tearstone Ring

Raised defense against enemies in offline play only (multiplayer not affected)

• Ring of Steel Protection

Lowered effect of:

• Clear Bluestone Ring +2

Raised casting time and lowered strength of:

• Soul Spear

Raised casting time, lowered strength, raised required magic slots, and raised usage count for:

• Crystal Soul Spear

Lowered effectiveness of:

• Strong Magic Shield

Lowered damage of:

• Soul Geyser
• Soul Shower
• Lightning Spear
• Great Lightning Spear
• Sunlight Spear
• Emit Force
• Blinding Bolt
• Heavenly Thunder
• Fire Whip
• Affinity
• Scraps of Life
• Resonant Soul
• Great Resonant Soul

Spells “Sacred Oath” and “Bountiful Sunlight”

• Casting this on one’s self will now diffuse all support effects
• Having it cast by someone else will not diffuse other support effects
• Casting spells on yourself to create other support effects after having these used will diffuse the effect of the above spells (players cannot use the effects of these spells in conjunction with other effects from spells they cast on themselves)

Spells “Numbness” and “Resonant Flesh”

• Casting this on one’s self will now diffuse all support effects
• Casting spells on yourself to create other support effects after having these used will diffuse the effect of the above spells (players cannot use the effects of these spells in conjunction with other effects from spells they cast on themselves)

From balancing at it's best... they finally fix something that was broken since release (buff stacking), but then nerf stuff without rhyme or reason (stuff that was already nerfed to near-uselessness). let's hope it's a translation error and "lowered damage" means "adjusted damage"

 

[StaticSpine]

Lowered defense of

• Smelter Demon Helm

NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo, that's my favorite helm

 

[Jaedar]

So... they just nerfed literally all the spells? I can totally see nerfing hexing and faith spells, but soul magic was pretty shit, dunno why they'd make it even worse.

 

[praetor]

how can you "see nerfing faith spells" when they were already nerfed in the last patch to the point of near-uselessness, with that significant damage reduction and reduction in casts by a huge margin? it's stupid

similar for hexes. Orb already outclasses RS because it takes less slots, stats (and casts?), doesn't consume souls for ~50 less damage, while GRS was already nerfed then buffed then nerfed again by reducing casts?

nerfing of (crystal) soul spear makes sense cause (ever since the GRS nerf) they were by far the best projectile magic in the game, with great tracking, damage, and even shield-piercing and only 1 att slot and pretty fast cast time, while Geyser since that first nerf back in march/april was already useless even in PvE (outclassed by spears etc), and now it gets nerfed again for some obscure reason even though it may have finally become partially useful again due to the spears nerfs

and the CBR +2 nerf.. wtf? was that really necessary? i don't remember ever seeing a single complaint about that ring...

 

[Cyberarmy]

I really don't want'em to do more "calibrations"....

 

[Mortmal]

Lowered damage of:

• Soul Geyser
• Soul Shower
• Lightning Spear
• Great Lightning Spear
• Sunlight Spear
• Emit Force
• Blinding Bolt
• Heavenly Thunder
• Fire Whip
• Affinity
• Scraps of Life
• Resonant Soul
• Great Resonant Soul

Shit..I use a lot of this stuff.