From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[praetor]

lol. spell quartz +3, dispelling +1, GMB and some decent armour and all his buffed attacks barely tickle. i cooped there a bunch and just waited until he buffed his sword and then went to town on his ass, didn't even bother healing, blocking or retreating from his AoE (all on NG+ and beyond)

 

[Murk]

Same. First time I fought him I just stacked magic resist and spammed 'welcome' gesture. Even without all magic resist it's not terribly difficult. Just some timing differences but you can dodge him easy enough -- I imagine people are twitch reacting and rolling when the sword goes up instead of when the swing begins.

Dispelling +1 is pretty ridiculous; almost as good as any +3 quartz ring.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Yeah, happened to me on the ruin sentinals fight. I added him to tell him off, he replied that he was just helping me. Obviously I needed to be carried in order to beat it -.-

I honestly can't tell if this is serious or satire. I'd lean towards satire, but it's fucking reddit, so who knows.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Holy shit, the Roaring Halberd deals a tremendous amount of damage. At +3 (non-infused) and 20/20/20/20 STR/DEX/INT/FTH I'm hitting for more damage than my 40/50 STR/FTH character would with his typical weaponsets (Defender GS, Lightning Claymore, Lightning Thorned Greatsword, Lightning Large Club). The only thing my paladin build has that surpasses the Roaring Halberd is his Lightning Heide Greatlance with Old Leo Ring shenanigans.

I heard a bunch of boss weapons were buffed, but I didn't know they were powered up to this degree.

 

[Murk]

It's sweetspot is silly, but yeah it does crazy damage. Try backstabbing/riposting someone with it or Scythe of Want.

curved drag sword can one-shot through backstab even someone with 1k armor + 2.3k hp

 

[StaticSpine]

I made like 10 Fume Boss sunbro runs.
1 was successful.
2-3 times got killed myself.
The rest was hosts killed.

What a cool boss it is

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Not sure if these two have been posted already but damn they look cool. This is how I imagine wizards entertaining themselves.

 

[praetor]

yeah, it's a pity most (all?) high level spells look so bland and uncool.

 

[Jaedar]

I really wish the real game had spells like that, even if they had crippling drawbacks. Shooting single (huge) blue arrows just isn't very wizardly once you get down to it.

 

[Murk]

Well... you do have soul shower, soul barrage, soul geyser, soul bolt (or focused souls), and soul vortex. They're all different than "big magic hadoken" but no one uses them because they're not very useful outside of some random "fun" or crowd control moments... tho in those cases blinding bolt or heavenly thunder is better.

I've actually regressed my spell usage (in that I use weaker spells). I used to basically only use CSS as a combo in swings or to catch runners, but with the slowing nerf I can't combo it anymore so now I use heavy homing soul arrow to chip away and to keep people rolling (stamina waste) and sometimes throw in a heavy great soul arrow (half as much damage as CSS but faster and sometimes easier to hit with).

I managed to get a triple hit combo in the arena with a homing, heavy great, then css all after one another. Poor bastard was a dedicated caster too (shield and catalyst in hand, casting gear).

Donno... magic is... just support in this game. The idea of a "pure caster" is definitely an uphill battle. Pretend you're the witcher or something.

I made like 10 Fume Boss sunbro runs.
1 was successful.
2-3 times got killed myself.
The rest was hosts killed.

What a cool boss it is

Bring the velstadt helm with you. Once the host goes into the fog gate, equip it and go in after him. Revel in host's admiration for your attempt to help him get better at the game.

Unrelated: donno if you guys tried this yet, but ring of steel protection is actually pretty damn useful in PVE. I regularly have my cloranthy's spot filled with the steel protection. It seems to be a % reduction as boss attacks are reduced to a greater degree than mob attacks. Combined with decent armor (1k+) it's actually quite useful, even at ng+7 or beyond.

 

[Grimlorn]

I really wish the real game had spells like that, even if they had crippling drawbacks. Shooting single (huge) blue arrows just isn't very wizardly once you get down to it.

Yeah they had more unique spells in the King's Field series.
A phoenix that shoots fireballs out of its mouth as it flies towards its target and exploding on impact. An ice dragon (more like a serpent) that surrounds and freezes opponents, etc. They definitely have the creativity, but I'm guessing with PVP aspect they keep spells simple so they aren't overpowering or require huge resources. Disappointing though.

Even Skyrim's spells lack any creativity as well. It's pathetic that a FP game from the PSX is beating spells in games 2 console generations later.

Are there any other good Dark Souls 2 videos?

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

which bonfire do you fucking use on Smelter Demon? I died 100 more times on this fucking run with those fucking Alonne cocksuckers than on this fucking faggot

 

[Zep Zepo]

which bonfire do you fucking use on Smelter Demon? I died 100 more times on this fucking run with those fucking Alonne cocksuckers than on this fucking faggot

Go in the furnace room after you turn it off, go up the ladder in there, go across then up another ladder, top of that to the right is a bonfire.

Alternatively

Spoiler

git gud nub

Zep--

 

[Niektory]

Go in the furnace room after you turn it off, go up the ladder in there, go across then up another ladder, top of that to the right is a bonfire.

Isn't it locked until after you defeat the Smelter Demon?

 

[Zep Zepo]

Go in the furnace room after you turn it off, go up the ladder in there, go across then up another ladder, top of that to the right is a bonfire.

Isn't it locked until after you defeat the Smelter Demon?

Oh..could be. Been a while since I played. Then the closest one would still be at the bridge I suppose.

Zep--

 

[praetor]

it is. the door can be opened only from one side. anyway, you can skip smelly demon if you want (the only good thing is the RoB+1 from that room, anyway)

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Okay, after dying enough times eventually all of the enemies disappeared. Normally yolo running isn't a problem but they leap distances with that katana stab, or throw me off the little bridge. Anyway, I forgot I had 26 Human Effigies, summoned help and beat that shitter.

There were some bonfires that were completely useless and then they troll with this kind of shit.

Beat the Old Iron King in my second attempt. Would've been in the first, but he threw me into the lake.

The level of difficulty is truly off in that game.

P.S. Also why the fuck did I climb the Earthen Peak, took the elevator way above, and found a castle submerged... in the sky? Do they even check what they design?

 

[Murk]

welcome to release date gripes

also, smelter being 1000x stronger than iron king is all in the lore: he stole the OIK's power or something

there is another bonfire "closer" to smelter but still a pain to navigate, the one for the belfry -- you're better off just running or killing them off 15 times if you're having difficulty with smelty.

 

[praetor]

also, smelter being 1000x stronger than iron king is all in the lore: he stole the OIK's power or something

i only remember reading that he was what killed the OIK. anyway, wearing Vel's helm as a phantom for Raime does not seem to work (at least not in NG)

 

[Murk]

Oh poop... well maybe host will take the hint and accept the challange.

smelter kills him (according to smelter sword), smelter's soul implies the king may have made the mass of iron by giving it a part of his own soul (or somehow otherwise giving it life).

I'd guess he was making golems and made one that was 2real4OIK. the headless smelter iron golems are basically similar monsters but not quite as powerful.

but then I'm not vaati vidya and I do not have the 100% absolute truth on this shit so take what I say with a grain of salt.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

So what's the general kkkonsensus on this game? I think original Dark Souls was way, way better and more atmospheric.

 

[AngryEddy]

So what's the general kkkonsensus on this game? I think original Dark Souls was way, way better and more atmospheric.

In between average and kind of shit. The only thing going for this game is the minor improvements to the PvP system and even then 70% of the catalog isn't viable. The worst offender outside of the awful latency compensation system and reskinned bosses is probably how they removed the special titanite vendors and force you to grind for them.

 

[aris]

Dark souls 2 better arpg, better gameplay, better trash mobs. Dark souls 1 better and more consistent athmosphere, some argue better level design, and I don't completely disagree.

 

[praetor]

Dark souls 2 better arpg

what? if anything, the SM system made the stats meaningless and thus it's a worse ARPG, since the RPG part now is pretty much non-existent.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Did a quick replay of DkS1 and am now replaying DkS2.

The second makes the original look a wee bit amateurish when it comes to gameplay. Sure, there are still a boatload of issues (balancing in PvP, the constant tension between PvE and PvP, "grindiness", lack of mechanical depth in the series), but DkS2 delivers in terms of vastly improved core mechanics, much better enemy/encounter/boss design, and plenty of little things like superior itemization.

what? if anything, the SM system made the stats meaningless and thus it's a worse ARPG, since the RPG part now is pretty much non-existent.

Stats were always "meaningless" outside of a community-established PvP metagame; the character system is pretty lazy and not well thought out. Been that way since DeS, what with the returns to stats stopping before they are halfway developed and the nonexistence of any sort of hard level cap or mutually exclusive stats/equipment/traits.

Sure, Soul Memory is a huge pain in the ass for organized PvP, and an overall poor design decision, but to claim that it rendered the role-playing aspect of the game meaningless is a bit dramatic.