From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Jack Dandy]

Alright, thanks for the tips. I suppose Conan didn't go 2-hander ALL the time.

Now, where to find a horned helmet...

 

[Eyestabber]

Alright, thanks for the tips. I suppose Conan didn't go 2-hander ALL the time.

Now, where to find a horned helmet...

Varangian Helmet, from the pirate/viking guys in No-Man's Wharf.

Alternative: Gyrm Helm

http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Gyrm+Helm

 

[praetor]

what Eyestabber said + some advice on weapons/stats: since you put up that picture, i'm guessing you want a one-handed axe... get the Bandit axe which you can get pretty early on and thebattle axe you can buy in Majula is 2nd best, and for PvE you can also get the Dragonslayer crescent axe (which requires some points in Faith to use...) for fashion points as it's the best looking one handed axe in the game, imo. the basic mace is also a good choice for sword 'n' board without swords spears are also a good choice, but are unmanly and Conan would not approve (maybe he'd approve of Yorgh's spear or Santier's?), now most halberds also allow for the "hide behind shield and attack" shenanigans, so take those into consideration, but keep in mind all these weapons have a sweetspot so try to hit the enemies with the pointy/sharp end for maximum damage

stats: you want Adaptability high enough for 96 agility as soon as possible (and eventually 100, but that's a lower priority ), don't go over 20 in Endurance at the beginning, there'll be plenty of time left to level that one up, keep your equipment burden under 50% (for stamina regeneration so you don't have to rely on rings) so level Vitality accordingly, don't bother with poise for now (although do look it up once you get more accustomed with the game. having something like 50-75 in general is a good idea), Str to 40 or 50 (depending if you want to use the weapons that require 50 Str), Dex to the minimum to use the weapons that you like (and a bow or crossbow! )

 

[Jack Dandy]

Thanks to you, too. I absolutely loved the Crescent Axe in the first DaS. And I was an axe-n-shield guy there, too, but with some miracles peppered on top.

This time I'll go magic-free, and hold on to the axe until I find a good twohander and gitgud at dodging.
By the way, what does the "Agility" stat (the one that comes from Adaptability) actually do in this game?
From what I remember, it wasn't in the first DaS.

 

[pakoito]

It gives you more iframes on your roll.

 

[Eyestabber]

Agility is a secondary stat that derives from adaptability (strongly) and attunement (weakly). Its purpose is determining how many iframes you have during roll and backstep. It also improves the speed of using consumables. Breakpoints here:

http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Agility

 

[Jack Dandy]

So that's how it is, huh? I think I liked it better in the first DaS, where i-frames focused entirely on your equipment weight.

Hope they take it outta DaS3.

 

[Eyestabber]

OMFG THIS FUCKING DUDE NAMED "BLACK ICE" SUMMONED ME THREE TIMES ALREADY NEAR THE OLD IRON KING AND GOT FUCKING REKT BY THE BOSS 3 TIMES IN A ROW DURING THE FIRST 30 SECONDS. MOTHAFUCKA, STOP WASTING MY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111111

 

[Eyestabber]

So, I finished SOTFS just now.

Spoiler

Aldia is a valiant effort to address the "Nashandra is NOT final boss material" issue. Still, the fight is not that hard with some proper preparation (namely: fire def + flash sweat). The new ending is also pretty "meh".

 

[Night Goat]

bros do u get this song in ur heads when u play lost bastille

 

[Lucky]

Just to weigh in on what weapon to get, I'd say go for the Greatsword. The weapon is called exactly that and looks like Guts his sword - a huge, busted slab of steel. It's the way to go if you want to avoid magic and just beat things to death. The beauty of it is that both its one-handed and two-handed move sets are excellent, so you can smoothly switch between them on the fly - hide behind your shield, pop into two-handed for extra damage, then pop back for the shield - great for bosses. The one-handed move set also consists of a screen-filling swing for the normal and a long-range slam for the heavy, while the two-handed focuses on single-target damage. It deals tons of damage, scales well, upgrades well and is one of the best weapons in the game for poise damage. You also don't have to worry anymore about the durability bug, so wiping out large groups is even easier than before.
Most importantly, it sounds, looks and feels great to use - a supremely brutish weapon. It does take some getting used to, since it's quite slow and more akin to a cannon than a regular sword, but I never needed anything else once I did. Do keep in mind that you'll need high strength to use it, plus its weight means that you'll need to invest there too if you want a good roll.

You can either buy it or find it reasonably early on.

Spoilers on what stats and the earliest location:

Spoiler

28 Strength. 10 Dexterity.
No-Man's Wharf

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Greatsword

Nekkid dual-wield or bust.

 

[Multidirectional]

God damn those fucking expansions man. I cursed so much throughout Sunken King and cursing even more while dying my way through Ivory King. B-team are fucking sadists. Can't stop playing.

 

[pakoito]

I found the Ivory King to be the easiest of the three, but Sunken King is an exercise in masochism.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I still haven't gotten around to doing Ivory King or fighting Allone. DaS2 just feels like such a chore now; I'm either running past enemies or luring them out one by one to cheese to death with backstabs or whatever. Nothing except the boss fights is satisfying at all. I tried picking it up again (I'd gone through sunken and iron kings, but not past mirror knight yet in main game on this char) and only got as far as part way through the stupid shrine of amana before I got bored of nicking morons with arrows from across the map and stopping every 2 seconds to look around another corner and in the water for an enemy I didn't notice. The first game was never this annoying to me, even after several playthroughs. The lesser enemies there felt like fair fights you didn't need to screw around with to win. You could just generally move forward and fight enemies as they came. Occasionally you might have a 1v2 situation or some other annoying circumstance like an archer shooting at you, but it was doable. But this 1v3 shit while 2 enemies fire homing blasts at me while I fight on a narrow bridge with nigh invisible death chasms on either side? Fuck that. I suppose I should just use the stealth magic and skip everything but jesus christ that shouldn't be the most enjoyable way to play.

 

[pakoito]

DaS2 just feels like such a chore now; I'm either running past enemies or luring them out one by one to cheese to death with backstabs or whatever. Nothing except the boss fights is satisfying at all.

Yes, it doesn't get better.

stealth magic

Removed in DaS2.

shrine of amana

That's around 65% of the game. But SoA is specially annoying, even more if it's not SoTFS.

 

[Multidirectional]

Shrine of Amana is definitely one of the most annoying parts of the game, along with Black Gulch. Whoever thought those spitting statues was a good idea was crazy. And they even come back in Cave of Dead in Sunken King to spit petrifying shit at you. Another thing that pissed me off was equipment breaking kamikazes in Dragon Aerie. Besides those parts majority of the main game is pretty fair though.

 

[trym88]

Just git gud noobs. Don't blame the level design being bad because you suck and cannot just run to the boss ezpz. Funny how every hard section of the game is not called hard but "annoying". If you find hard games annoying then go play facebook games. Dunno what all the crying about multiple enemies is about. Just use your brain and a little skill and you can deal with it.

 

[pakoito]

They aren't hard. Hard sections of the game were the steps to the Ancient Dragon in the base game, or the path from McDuff to the Sentinels in the base game too, or the whole Sunken King. There were a lot of high damage enemies that required good movement and timing to even run from. Those were removed in SoTS, and Priestess of Amana got projectile tracking nerfed.

Black Gulch was just annoying.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

You fags clearly did not play Shrine of Amana on release in march 14`. Those bitches were sniping you from so far away that you did not even see them without binoculars. And those homing soul arrows were actually "HOMING' at you. Right now SoA is fucking cakewalk, you can fucking sidestep spells with basic Adaptability and snipe bitches with poison arrows. Last time i played SoA i didnt even take my bow with me just fucking pancaked everything with great club SoA is nothing compared how fucking annoying is 4-1/4-2 in DeS with its bullshit enemies or Catacombs and wheel skeletons for low level characters in DaS1.

 

[pakoito]

Got you covered by 3 minutes. SoA was hard on Vanilla, annoying in SoTS.

 

[Multidirectional]

Wow there's quite a lot to explore in Brume tower, really enjoying this place. Getting my ass summoned a lot here too.

 

[Surf Solar]

I still haven't gotten around to doing Ivory King or fighting Allone. DaS2 just feels like such a chore now; I'm either running past enemies or luring them out one by one to cheese to death with backstabs or whatever. Nothing except the boss fights is satisfying at all. I tried picking it up again (I'd gone through sunken and iron kings, but not past mirror knight yet in main game on this char) and only got as far as part way through the stupid shrine of amana before I got bored of nicking morons with arrows from across the map and stopping every 2 seconds to look around another corner and in the water for an enemy I didn't notice. The first game was never this annoying to me, even after several playthroughs. The lesser enemies there felt like fair fights you didn't need to screw around with to win. You could just generally move forward and fight enemies as they came. Occasionally you might have a 1v2 situation or some other annoying circumstance like an archer shooting at you, but it was doable. But this 1v3 shit while 2 enemies fire homing blasts at me while I fight on a narrow bridge with nigh invisible death chasms on either side? Fuck that. I suppose I should just use the stealth magic and skip everything but jesus christ that shouldn't be the most enjoyable way to play.

So you're cheesing the AI and backstab them instead of actually fighting them and complain about boredom? You're full of shit.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Yeah, clearly I'd be having so much fucking fun trying to fight 3+ enemies at once, backing up and scratching them with a long weapon once every 30 seconds. That isn't tedious shit at all. So much more fun than backstabs.

 

[Surf Solar]

Which enemies are you fighting that you can only scratch them once every 30 seconds? Pulling even more bullshit out of your ass or are you just that bad at the game?