From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Orma]

So I tried the Cave of the Dead.
That place is a fuck. Its an optional challenge area though, so I'm too annoyed with, but that big room with the petrification statues is a nightmare.

Fighting Elana now.
Fuck minion fights, seriously. And of course she has that one hit kill explosion that of course casts when I run out of stamina trying to get velstadt off my ass.
Seriously, why the fuck can she summon velstadt? What is the lore significance behind this? It doesn't make sense.

[deep lore] Velstadt is supposedly from a kingdom far away, and this probably means he is from the sunken kingdom.

Spoiler

Also try wearing his helm for the fume knight fight

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Ok, are the summons random? Because I can't tell what causes her to summon skeletons, and what causes her to summon velstadt.
I'm getting really pissed off at this fight. Its so cheap; you have a caster with a heavy damage melee attack, who teleports with no warning when or where she's going to appear, and on top of that she summons dudes, one of which is a hard to kill fucker who chases you around the arena. You have no cover, and one of her abilities is an AoE mine that has knock down and can 1 hit kill.
Not the mention that the trip down there is a pain, because you have to parkour your way through the pyramid, and one wrong step is death. Fucking bullshit.
Is there some sort of cheese mechanic? I worked out you can distract the skeletons with alluring skulls (which they drop. One of the few good design elements of the boss), but how the fuck do I get rid of Velstadt?

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

well velstadt soul is dark/corrupted so maybe he was not such a saint and devoted guardian of Vendrick. the only other dark souls in ds2 belong to daughters of manus, raime and throne duo.

also if tou think caves of dead are cancerous than wait for other two optional areas

Yeah, I heard of the Iron Passage and saw some footage of it.
Nope, fuck that. I don't even need the smelter demon sword for my build. I already have an unused normal one anyway.

 

[aweigh]

sorry i haven't uploaded those videos i said i would but just wanted to blog-post that...








...this game is fucking nice


i always knew it wasn't bad, but i didn't expect it to be legit (since so many ppl like it, and as you all know anything that is so widely liked must automatically be bad).

i don't care much for the story or anything, not that it's bad mind you, i literally just don't care for any story right now, what i am enjoying is the great combat and making "builds". this is a worthy successor to king's field after all!

Concerning Demon's Souls: yes, I know this one is considered the :monocled: one, but I'm on PC and am a poor, so unless it gets a Steam/GOG port I won't be playing it any time soon.

Oh, and I just remembered that there's a PS3 emu which I could try but I already have tried it and my AMD cpu lacks the SSE/AVX instructions the ps3 emulator needs to function.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

DS2 is really not as bad as people make it out to be. The core mechanics are solid and there are some nice ideas, its just there are some very...questionable design decisions that detract from the game, and a lot of the difficulty feels forced. Its as if the devs just put some of the more frustrating parts in for the sole purpose to fuck with you. Basically "rock falls, everyone dies" (quite literally in some cases too)

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Concerning Demon's Souls: yes, I know this one is considered the :monocled: one, but I'm on PC and am a poor, so unless it gets a Steam/GOG port I won't be playing it any time soon.

Oh, and I just remembered that there's a PS3 emu which I could try but I already have tried it and my AMD cpu lacks the SSE/AVX instructions the ps3 emulator needs to function.

I don't think PS3 emulators have reached the point where Demon's Souls emulation is feasible.

And could one of the moderators kindly move aweigh's posts about Dark Souls that he's made in this thread and in the Dark Souls III thread into the actual Dark Souls (I) thread, along with responses to aweigh. JarlFrank Whisky Thanks

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Not to mention that Bloodborne is on PS4, not PS3.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I did it. I beat Elana. As expected, it came down to luck.
The Sihn fight was much better, even though its a Kalameet clone. Not as much random bullshit.

 

[~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸-AIN'T]

I thought Elana was the easiest boss in all three DLCs (maybe Ivory King is easier, provided you have all the knights). She doesn't have that much health, her melee attacks are easy to dodge, and her aoe attack is quite telegraphed. She is only difficult if she summons Velstadt, but even then I found him easy to dodge around to hit her instead.

The skellies die very easily so they aren't much of a problem. Also, I've heard there's a small chance she summons the Majula pigs

And the trip down there is hard? Did you not find the bonfire in the secret room? From there it's a short series of easy drops with no enemies.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I thought Elana was the easiest boss in all three DLCs (maybe Ivory King is easier, provided you have all the knights). She doesn't have that much health, her melee attacks are easy to dodge, and her aoe attack is quite telegraphed. She is only difficult if she summons Velstadt, but even then I found him easy to dodge around to hit her instead.

The skellies die very easily so they aren't much of a problem. Also, I've heard there's a small chance she summons the Majula pigs

And the trip down there is hard? Did you not find the bonfire in the secret room? From there it's a short series of easy drops with no enemies.

You know, I only found out about the hidden bonfire after killing her -_-
That would have been helpful.
For some reason I could never avoid Velstadt effectively. I can run around the arena, dodge and he'll always be a mace away from my ass.
The skellies are fine. I don't mind them. Its just that she has a random chance of summoning a boss that makes the fight frustrating.
If there were some sort of condition or trigger then I would be somewhat content, as at least I know when the pain is coming. But there's no condition, there's a just chance at the beginning of the fight she'll summon velstadt to fuck me over.
The fact that she needs RNG summoning nonsense to make her challenging makes her a failure of a boss.

I had less trouble with Sinh than Elana. And he's a toxic kalameet clone who breaks your weapons faster than average.

 

[sullynathan]

Elena is shit. Sinh is a great boss

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Oh he is. I enjoyed his fight a lot.
I was like "you majestic motherfucker, you are awesome" as he did a strafing run and napalmed my ass with toxic fire :D
When I say he's a Kalameet clone I mean it as a compliment, really. Because Kalameet is a good boss.

 

[Arnust]

Elena is on of if not the best summoner/duo fight in the series though. A whole contrast with its own game's fights like the Throne Defender and watcher. Both enemies have a rythym which feels quite rewarding to get, IMO. And finding a way to speed run down the Sanctum is nice, i have a way that takes around a minute or less.

 

[sullynathan]

Beat Elena first try and I don't even think she summoned Velstadt against me. Just another shit poo poo monster boss.

 

[Arnust]

Boo hoo, it didn't have eight phases and shit dragons spitting crossbows. Out of the outstanding rough 1/4 of the bosses of each game, I don't understand all this boss fetish. It's a well told build up to her, doesn't have to do explicitly with anything from DS1 (wow, huh?) and is a good piece of design. Tell me, how much did you care about summons in bosses? Nito and Wolnir (even Skeleton Lords at an extent) have ignorable summons that'll just annoy you during a simple fight that is hit, dodge swing and aoe, repeat. In some they make the boss a DPS test becouse more and harder mobs will chime in. Coop also makes them absolutely trivial, and Alluring Skulls always work (can't recall in 3. Probably doesn't becouse fuck you). Elana will multiply it's summoning a according to phantoms (and NG+?) and so you very well could be fighting THREE Veldstadts. Her attacks will hardly hit someone who has a hold on dodging magic, especially with the priestesses in the level having simpler versions of her attacks. In short, summoning is what makes this fight. Now moves like Flame Swathe and the double Flame Swathe can hit you. Her dark magic isn't even the most dangerous instance of such. On the other summons, the Skeletons are semi confirmed to improve her damage and fire rate and they don't go blindly at you but still deal heaps of damage and status effects so they are not to be ignored. The piggies are just there for some if the series' comedic relief and some funny anecdotes. Or even a way to overcome it easily if you want to get to the main dish. The piggies ain't shit though.

 

[MicoSelva]

Bros, I am new to this game. I noticed that my maximum health is going down after each death, and I figured out that burnign ahuman effigy restores it.

This is definitely a stupid question, but is the max. health penalty capped at some level (like 50%, maybe), or will it go down and down and down until I only have 1 HP after respawning at the bonfire?

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Bros, I am new to this game. I noticed that my maximum health is going down after each death, and I figured out that burnign ahuman effigy restores it.

This is definitely a stupid question, but is the max. health penalty capped at some level (like 50%, maybe), or will it go down and down and down until I only have 1 HP after respawning at the bonfire?

It caps at 50%, but you can make it cap to 70% if you have the ring of binding.
In the original the ring is at Heide's tower of flame. No idea where it is in Scholar.
Lol, the game isn't cruel enough to decrease your max health to 1HP.

 

[Mozg]

By "burning" an effigy to restore your max health you mean using the effigy. You actually can burn a human effigy at a bonfire and it blocks online play for thirty minutes, i.e. you can't get invaded, can't summon, but it doesn't help max health.

I think it's indeed capped at 50% of max. There's a ring that you can wear that raises the cap up to 75% and that decreases how much you lose per death (it's in Heide's Tower in SotFS, can't remember where in vanilla).

Edit - At the very beginning of the game before you do character creation your dude is at max hollowing.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

By "burning" an effigy to restore your max health you mean using the effigy. You actually can burn a human effigy at a bonfire and it blocks online play for thirty minutes, i.e. you can't get invaded, can't summon, but it doesn't help max health.

I think it's indeed capped at 50% of max. There's a ring that you can wear that raises the cap up to 75% and that decreases how much you lose per death (it's in Heide's Tower in SotFS, can't remember where in vanilla).

Oh, I guess they didn't change overall location. In vanilla its in front of Ornstein's fog gate.

 

[Arnust]

Bros, I am new to this game. I noticed that my maximum health is going down after each death, and I figured out that burnign ahuman effigy restores it.

This is definitely a stupid question, but is the max. health penalty capped at some level (like 50%, maybe), or will it go down and down and down until I only have 1 HP after respawning at the bonfire?

Unless you raise your "Sin" stat to very high levels, by killing many NPCs and players, which you probably won't come across, it indeed caps at 50%. You roughly lose a 5% each death. With the Ring of Binding, at Heide's Tower of Flame, it'll appease the effects by a 50% so it'll cap at 75% and you lose quite a measly amount of HP. You always have a forth free ring slot unless you have a super specific build, so it won't be a big loss until you get "in the zone".

Funnily enough, you actually can go down to a 5% hp cap. Only need is to kill, uuh, a hundred players without forgiveness?

Also, burning a HE only neuters online activity in an area. You just have to consume one in your inventory for the restoring effect.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Huh, really? I was not aware Sin did that. That's an interesting mechanic.

 

[Arnust]

Sin can also make you a target for the Blue Sentinels, and being defeated by them can also lower it. So mean sinners are in the run. I end up getting to the first stage of Sin for more PvP at the end of an NPC's use for me

I'm not sure but I hear that it also disrupts coop.

In the other hand you can lower it by getting killed by the Blues and asking forgiveness from Pardoner Cromwell, once for free, the rest for a price scaling to Soul Level, so VERY expensive. The latter also affects neutral NPCs, which can be used to not ruin an NG cycle if you had something else in mind. Resurrecting is another deal.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Holy shit fume knight is hard. The fact that his combos are never consistent makes him a pain to deal with. "Time to do my 2 hit combo with the flaming sword of death...PSYCH there's a third, super fast strike that hits behind me, back to the bonfire you go!" Not to mention some of his hit boxes are...weird. Sometimes the sword goes over me and I take no damage, other times I barely touch the blade and its an instant kill.
I like him better than Elana, but damn he's nuts. He really teaches you how to dodge. Shields are worthless because he drains so much stamina. Not that I have the strength to use a greatshield anyway.

 

[cvv]

ALL bosses in the DLCs were meant to punish the turtles coz going turtle in vanilla basically broke the game. And they succeded. Except Blue Smelter, he's a chump with anti-magic shield. Just take +10 rapier, lightning it up, pop a brightbug and bye bye Fume.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Well, yeah, I don't mind that. I hate turtling, and I didn't like how powerful shields were in DS1.
I do mind how the game fucks you over by suddenly throwing a curveball that's a 1hko. Every one of his second phase attack kills me at max hollowing, and I'd rather not spend too many effigies on him.
Chipping away at him though. Managed to get him to 25% health, but then I fucked up and healed when he was doing one of his 2 hit + stab combos.

I don't have the resources to get another +10 weapon. I'm having a bit of success with a +5 crafting hammer though. No armor, just blossom shield on back. My usual drakeblood set (+6) seemed to be messing with my I frames. Not that it matters; he deals so much damage that armor feels useless.

My usual arsenal of greatsword class weapons didn't seem to be cutting it. They didn't seem to be dealing enough damage for the amount of stamina they used. It probably is totally possible to use a thorned greatsword, drakeblood or a Dranglaic sword or something, but the hammer seems to deal more damage than them, even with the 40 dex I have to drang and drake.
Brightbugs are too rare for me to use. I only have two, and I don't want to waste one. I should have bought them when they were cheap