From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Cowboy Moment]

Because of all these things, second game generally replays better, while the first game provides a more memorable first playthrough and leaves one with a stronger impression in general.

I don't really know about that. The original dark souls has all sorts of cool sequence breaks and stuff you can do, right off the bat. Dark souls 2 is more controlled, areas don't generally open up until you are more or less guaranteed to have gained enough souls to be able to handle them. Can't particularly say I feel it improved the gameplay a lot either. Oh well.

I suppose that's a distinction between replaying a game in order to do some kind of challenge run (which is where the ability to heavily sequence break actually matters), like a speedrun or SL1; and replaying it just to try a different build or playstyle. DaS1 is better for the former, for obvious reasons. DaS2 is better for the latter, because it's much harder to trivialize the challenge using foreknowledge, and mechanics are much less susceptible to extreme abuse. So you can just play the game naturally, building the character you like, and not worry about having to intentionally gimp yourself in order to experience a bit of challenge.

It's like what Mikayel said a few pages back. Start up DaS1 for the first time in a year, parry the Black Knight in Undead Burg to death with a Plank Shield while naked at SL1, take no damage. Try same thing with a Heide Knight in DaS2, get rekt.

Personally, I've both finished DaS1 at SL1 (not that difficult once you know the game well), and speedran it in under 3 hours (much more challenging), and I'm very reluctant to try any of these in DaS2, seems much more intimidating.

 

[Murk]

I'm going to borrow the 4chan style of telling a story for this.

M'herald: A Tale of Woe

> be in majula admiring fashion souls (hexer hood n lion mage set; original build do not steal)
> stand near emerald herald chanalotte to see if good couple (are)
> get invaded by dark spirit VERY GOOD!!
> take a few moments to realize can't be invaded in majula and phantom is a cheater/hacker
> guy runs up, has sunbro golden aura
> throws speech orb on ground (5 at once) and you hear "V-V-V-V-V-EEEERRRRRYYYY GGGOOOOOD-D-D-D-D-D"
> he casts firewhip from 500 feet away -- kills you in one whiff
> enemy phantom runs up to emerald herald and uses a modified version of the desert sorceress kiss-grab attack to kiss her
> your "YOU DIED" animation fades you out with the last sight being how the herald is dead with the phantom draining her souls
> notification on steam overlay
> invited to group "git VERY GUD!! casul"

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

>2014
>playing Dark Souls on PC

ishygddt

 

[Murk]

console scum etc

(haven't owned one since ps1; fug.dat)

 

[Correct_Carlo]

The DS2 gargoyles are all bark and no bite. It looks really impressive and intimidating that there are so many of them, but all you really have to do to beat them is continually circle them and play conservatively, only striking when one is vulnerable and you won't get ganked by all of them at once. I beat them on my second try, I think.

The giant poison Rat sucks, though, because of the 4 poison rats at the start with their fucked up hitboxes, making it a random crap shoot as to whether or not you will be able to kill them before they poison you. Probably the worst designed boss fight in the game.

I just came back to the game after a break. Few patches have landed since and everything is probably more well grounded now. Can anyone suggest some good builds for pvp or pve? I guess for pve it's just whatever but what about PVP? I sometimes get invaded by people who i can handle with my Havel set and drangelic sword but sometimes I see a weird combo that totally reks me. Any suggestions what are the coolest and most useful builds now? I mean, heavy armor + heavy shield + some kind of a sword isn't bad, but I think I could find something much better. Maybe something that demands more skill from the player, but I'm all up for that. Here's my character sheet:

The black knight sword is my favorite sword for PVE. It's very deadly with STR + FTH builds as I think it scales with both, if I rememeber correctly.

 

[Murk]

Ancient dragon says high.

Use aoe (firestorm, heavenly thunder, scraps of life) when the small ones aggro you. WOG can work too but because its range is so short you'll likely have to cast it 2-3 times which may result in you getting lunged on by sif.rat.

 

[Grimlorn]

You guys know about alluring skulls right? They exist for a reason.

Yeah you're right. Never used them in all 3 games so never thought to use it. Would have made that a lot easier I bet.

 

[Jaedar]

Because of all these things, second game generally replays better, while the first game provides a more memorable first playthrough and leaves one with a stronger impression in general.

I don't really know about that. The original dark souls has all sorts of cool sequence breaks and stuff you can do, right off the bat. Dark souls 2 is more controlled, areas don't generally open up until you are more or less guaranteed to have gained enough souls to be able to handle them. Can't particularly say I feel it improved the gameplay a lot either. Oh well.

I suppose that's a distinction between replaying a game in order to do some kind of challenge run (which is where the ability to heavily sequence break actually matters), like a speedrun or SL1; and replaying it just to try a different build or playstyle. DaS1 is better for the former, for obvious reasons.

Personally, I've both finished DaS1 at SL1 (not that difficult once you know the game well), and speedran it in under 3 hours (much more challenging), and I'm very reluctant to try any of these in DaS2, seems much more intimidating.

Why would you restart in Ds2 to try a new build? There's respecc items in the game you know.

 

[StaticSpine]

 

[Visperas]

Also, NPCs. In DS2 there's no great NPC. Why? DS had Solaire, Onion Bro, Logan... That's one of the things I miss the most in the second game.

 

[Grimlorn]

Also, NPCs. In DS2 there's no great NPC. Why? DS had Solaire, Onion Bro, Logan... That's one of the things I miss the most in the second game.

Yeah they keep on making NPCs the same from game to game. A lot of the Dark Souls NPCs had similar types in Demon's Souls as well.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Also, NPCs. In DS2 there's no great NPC. Why? DS had Solaire, Onion Bro, Logan... That's one of the things I miss the most in the second game.

Laurentius, Quelana> Sunretard, Onionfaggit

Navlaan, Tichy Gren, Straid, Wellager, Grandhal, Shalquoir have God tier voice acting and are great and memorable NPC .

 

[Murk]

Man the best characters are obviously Gavlan and the enemy ironclads. I don't care that they don't talk or interact other than them slamming and/or jamming you. That's all they fucking need. That's all anyone fucking needs.

Slam and jam. The rest is rubbish.

 

[toro]

Man the best characters are obviously Gavlan and the enemy ironclads. I don't care that they don't talk or interact other than them slamming and/or jamming you. That's all they fucking need. That's all anyone fucking needs.

Slam and jam. The rest is rubbish.

Romances?

 

[praetor]

Also, NPCs. In DS2 there's no great NPC. Why? DS had Solaire, Onion Bro, Logan... That's one of the things I miss the most in the second game.

Laurentius, Quelana> Sunretard, Onionfaggit

Navlaan, Tichy Gren, Straid, Wellager, Grandhal, Shalquoir have God tier voice acting and are great and memorable NPC .

huh? Titchy is just "blood this blood that. do you like blood? i like blood. i drink blood. i eat blood. i breathe blood. bloodthirsty bloody blood". so yeah, i guess he's memorable because he uses "blood" as punctuation. same for Grandahl "dark? dark! darkly darkest dark". that Lego Batman Darkness song has less references to "dark" than his dialogue. and Shalquoir is "infodump: The NPC". pretty much all NPCs in all of souls have great VA. i love Navlaan to bits and he's my favourite NPC in Souls ever. great idea and execution (as far as dialogue and VA goes)

 

[StaticSpine]

I like Lucatiel and her quest.

And also Pate/Creighton stuff is p.cool.

Gavlan is a bro too. He buys any kind of shit and has a cool mug.

 

[DragoFireheart]

So which of you Codexers play the PvP portion as of late?

I find it has been getting much better since calibration 1.10, what with the removal of buff stacking. Now if From can just balance some of the weapons (and no, I am not talking about katanas).

Also, do any of you watch TearsofGrace PvP videos?

 

[Visperas]

Lucatiel is probably the best NPC. She also interacts with the player more than any other. Pate and Chreighton are not bad themselves and the duel is fun. The voice acting is very good but most of the NPCs are very static. They are not bad per se but definetely weaker than DS.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Also, do any of you watch TearsofGrace PvP videos?

yes, he was funny with his first couple videos. now he is just fucking annoying

i cant stand his blubbering anymore

 

[Kanedias]

So which of you Codexers play the PvP portion as of late?

I find it has been getting much better since calibration 1.10, what with the removal of buff stacking. Now if From can just balance some of the weapons (and no, I am not talking about katanas).

Also, do any of you watch TearsofGrace PvP videos?

I do PvP daily, have 6-7 rank 3s in the BoB arena. I agree it got better. I am trying to make a Fume UGS build but I am already pretty bored of the non-DLC PvE, so it's going really slow.

The builds I am playing the most lately are a rather tryhard Fume Sword + Sanctum Crossbow robSOflynn and a fun bleed build. For the bleed build I am using two Ashen Warrior Swords, the left one infused with bleed, the right one uninfused with bleeding serum. It deals decent damage and the bleed does in fact trigger often, especially if they get hit by the powerstance L2. Still inferior to actually going for two more damaging straight swords, but I enjoy it a lot.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Kanedias, I assume at least 1/3 of your matches has you up against someone with a Straight Sword? How many people off-hand them?

Be straight with me!

 

[Kanedias]

I tend to see way more katanas than straight swords actually, but they are my favorite weapon class. Straight sword vs straight sword duels are awesome.

But yes, there are a lot of Chaos Blades.

 

[DragoFireheart]

I tend to see way more katanas than straight swords actually, but they are my favorite weapon class. Straight sword vs straight sword duels are awesome.

But yes, there are a lot of Chaos Blades.

Funny, I see a lot more straight swords than Chaos Blades despite me using one myself. Katanas are common as well, but that goes without saying. Much easier to fight than straight swords too.

 

[Murk]

I see sunsword a lot or katanas as well. I am really loving the ashen sword -- has the same moveset as the foot soldier sword, and 25 poise break, but better durability (tho less damage by 15 AR if foot soldier is mundane). Still, the 2h moveset is great and you can chain r1 into r2 pokes so well. I got a guy with a 5 hit combo in arena and just annihilated him in a matter of seconds.

I'm liking it more than sunsword right now, but it is at a cost of 75 AR that sunsword has on ashen sword.

Honestly if bleed wasn't such shit in this game that sword would quickly become my favorite.

The trade-off is too silly. Bleed infused and you do so little damage per hit you'd be better off not bleeding someone but getting the extra 50-100 damage per swing. Don't infuse and you'll never bleed someone out. Booo.

Before the major balance patches I dicked around using a bleed infused royal greatsword and based on the sound effect I bled plenty of people out... tho I never noticed it actually save or end a fight. That always happened from conventional attacks/combos.

 

[Kanedias]

All katana users whiff their run attack when you strafe, and they tend to do the 2 hit combo every time even if they miss their first R1. So yes, very easy.

It's really annoying when you face a good Chaos Blade cheeser and he knows to just play patiently and trade every time you want to get a hit in, though. Their damage on counters is disgusting.

By the way, I want From to nerf backpedal speed a bit (like when you are locked on and walking backwards). Backpedalling offers way too many positioning advantages over most weapon classes, and it also prevents you from being guard broken. Doesn't help that every time I PvP, more than half the opponents walk backwards and refuse to make moves by themselves, and of the aggressive ones, a big chunk are just katana spammers. It's so rare to see an aggressive player that is decent at it.