From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Mozg]

What's the right way to do that statue room? The couple of times I've done it I used the same basic exploit where I lured all the invincible knights onto the ground floor of the spikes room, then ran around them and climbed the ladder so I could leisurely go break the statues. Seems kinda cheap to be the way they thought people would do it.

 

[cvv]

Absolutely every single person who calls magic "overpowered" from SotFS onward is trying to humblebrag about their melee skills, even though quality melee is objectively by far the easiest way to play through the game.

There are no exceptions. You are all braggarts

Is there really anyone here claiming magic is OP in SotFS and DS3? I said magic is owerpowered in DS1, which it is, and DS2 which it was in vanilla. I didn't know about the nerft, I haven't play a mage in SotFS.

And I would never say magic is OP in DS3. I actually started with a sorcerer in my first playthrough and it was my single most dismal experience in Souls games ever. Not only magic is hillariously weak (tho I heard they buffed it since) but also the variability is abysmal. You're basically pew pewing a weak-ass Great Heavy Soul Arrow all the way to the Profaned Capital where you get Soul Spear which is much slower and only slightly more damaging. You get the crystal spells only at the very end of the game. Magic is stronger on NG+ ofc but the tedium never goes away and besides, who in their right mind would play NG+ in DS3.

 

[MicoSelva]

I have beaten Ruin Sentinels and the level just looped me back to where I already have been. WTF? Are they an optional boss?

But hey, 39.6K souls, I am not complaining. :D

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I have beaten Ruin Sentinels and the level just looped me back to where I already have been. WTF? Are they an optional boss?

But hey, 39.6K souls, I am not complaining. :D

There's a hidden door in there that leads to the next area.
Why they would put a mandatory hidden door? Idk, Ds2 designers being DS2 designers.

 

[Blaine]

you have 3 bonfires in shulva and another 3 in dragon sanctum. how shitty you have to be to rely on feather/homeward bone every 50 meters?

I've used the feather twice, once when the only other choice was to fall off a ledge and die—unpreventable if you choose to explore that lower area—and the second time after encountering the roomful of phantoms a long way into Dragon Sanctum, past the first two gank rooms. It's possible to get trapped in the second stretch of platforms leading to Dragon Sanctum also, and that may have happened to me, but I don't quite recall.

standard sanctum soldiers are not a problem. you can kill them in 2 hits with dark infused crypt blacksword+ dark weapon. with my STr/FTH character i was oneshotting them with backstabs and lost sinner greatsword.

Yes, I was effortlessly backstabbing them as well with Bandit Axe +10, as I've already stated. Being forced to run through the clown car of Sanctum Soldiers again because From decided not to provide a way up from some of the ledges (which tend to be dead-ends containing no treasure, unlike, say, Dragon Aerie's inescapable ledges) is tedious and gay.

its true you cant poise break sanctum knights but they chain their attacks all the time leaving them vulnerable to backstabs. also if thats not your first souls game and you fight them intheir ghost form than you are fucking retarded. itsobvious that something is wrong when you do almost no damage to mobs in those games. either explore more or you are missing some item that makes the encounter trivial. they also cant climb the ladders.

Clearly you haven't played the game in some time, because in the area of Dragon Sanctum I mentioned, avoiding the knights is impossible and trying to find their remote tombs after they're unavoidable aggroed requires running blindly into an unfamiliar area full of enemies and traps. This is retarded and reckless, as anyone who's ever played a Souls game ought to know. Forcing players into a succession of blind gank rooms that can't be properly analyzed ahead of time is poor design.

Yes, the knights' gimmick is obvious; as I've stated, I figured it out the moment I walked into the Sanctum. Yes, I know they can't climb ladders; this should be obvious since I also stated that if you clear out the tick room, you can trap them in there and not have to fight them at all, ghostly or no. You seem to have missed at least half of my comments and are simply repeating selected portions back to me while patting yourself on the back like a self-congratulatory smug retard.

sunken city is probably the only location that comes close to exploring blightown pre-lordsvessel in DS1. and i am not talking about framerate here environmental hazards, angry cunts behind every corner and red phantoms just waiting to fuck you shit up

Nowhere in Blighttown are you forced to blindly run through gank rooms. Looking before you leap and using caution will see you through the entire area safely.

In terms of sheer exploration, Sunken King is pretty damned good, yes. Never said it wasn't, but if you repeat any of its areas for any reason then it becomes fucking tedious. I'm sure you speedran the entire NG plus DLCs naked in two hours without using a bonfire though, so congratulations are in order.

 

[Blaine]

Is there really anyone here claiming magic is OP in SotFS and DS3? I said magic is owerpowered in DS1, which it is, and DS2 which it was in vanilla. I didn't know about the nerft, I haven't play a mage in SotFS.

You must have someone I'm responding to on ignore.

Yes, the "Wow you suck at this game, whereas I'm fantastic at it and did everything right the first time" is very strong in this thread. It's inevitable in any Souls discussion whenever anyone criticizes the game design for any reason.

 

[cvv]

I have beaten Ruin Sentinels and the level just looped me back to where I already have been. WTF? Are they an optional boss?

I think you have to go through Ruin Sentinels to get to Lost Sinner which you have to kill. Plus - check every single wall in the Ruin Sentinel arena and every single wall behind every hidden room you find.

 

[Blaine]

I think you have to go through Ruin Sentinels to get to Lost Sinner which you have to kill. Plus - check every single wall in the Ruin Sentinel arena and every single wall behind every hidden room you find.

You don't, but you do need to defeat them in order to light up the boss arena.

Speaking of which, have I complained about the Godawful lock-on range even in broad daylight yet?

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I think you have to go through Ruin Sentinels to get to Lost Sinner which you have to kill. Plus - check every single wall in the Ruin Sentinel arena and every single wall behind every hidden room you find.

You don't, but you do need to defeat them in order to light up the boss arena.

Speaking of which, have I complained about the Godawful lock-on range even in broad daylight yet?

Its not great, but its better than DS1's at least. DS1 has a nasty habit of breaking lock-on when you are trying to kite, but in DS2 you stay locked on at least.

 

[Leechmonger]

Having played through DS2 + DLC twice now, I don't think I will do so a third time. I've played through DeS twice and DS1 at least three times, and I can certainly see myself playing them again. I haven't replayed DS3 yet (or played the DLC at all) so I don't know how replayable it will be yet. The spammy combat with random mobs will no doubt hurt it, but maybe the bosses will make it worth it.

I'll buy a PS4 for Bloodborne someday, when it runs at 60fps and is fairly cheap.

 

[Blaine]

The only fully viable build in DS2 is agile melee/quality, so there's not much reason to replay the game.

Armor and poise are nearly useless past a certain point, and you won't even be able to wear heavy armor properly until you've already passed that point. Bows become more of a hazard than a benefit once the enemies turn into bullet sponges, which happens when you hit the DLCs in NG. Sorcery, hexes, and miracles are good for nuking down low-intensity bosses while NPCs/phantoms tank, and for special-usage scenarios such as farming the Giant Lord. By that point, you can obtain unlimited Soul Vessels from Memories, so you're free to quickly respec into a focused caster build whenever you need to farm souls.

I've had a lot of fun of with the game, but From's inability to derive challenge from any mechanic other than dodging melee strikes has become readily apparent.

 

[cvv]

The only fully viable build in DS2 is agile melee/quality

No it definitelly isn't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUFvpXyqM7M&list=PL7RtZMiaOk8hNDSLGmkq50RRT_YjEuNjh (some of the builds here were nerfed but they're still viable)

Also I went through the entire game with a shield turtle strategy and it was so easy it wasn't even funny - and that's not bragging. I steamrolled everything and one/two shot most bosses. Shields start being useless for bosses only in the DLCs.

 

[Blaine]

When I say "fully viable," I mean viable for the DLCs and NG+ PvE. An argument can be made that the Moonlight Greatsword makes up for the shortcomings of sorceries, although in my book that's fairly ironic since you're relying on a melee weapon to "fix" sorcery builds. Also, it was nerfed pretty hard, from what I understand.

I changed my build right when I hit the DLCs because From added blanket elemental resistances of 70%+ to virtually all of the enemies, and it shows. Sorcery gameplay became tedious and miserable, not to mention unsustainable unless you chomp spell use restoratives that are only renewable if you farm them (in SotFS).

High-stability greatshields are probably still viable for most of the DLCs, but I'd be interested to know how you were one- and two-shotting bosses in any NG cycle.

 

[cvv]

High-stability greatshields are probably still viable for most of the DLCs, but I'd be interested to know how you were one- and two-shotting bosses in any NG cycle.

Some extreme greatshield builds might be viable in the DLCs but even then you're much better off with just lightness and agility. I know the Blue Smelter is super easy with a magic infused Havel's Shield but all the other bosses will probably whoop your turtle ass.

As for the vanilla bosses, the only ones that gave me some trouble were the multiples - Ruin Sentinels (I needed like 20 attempts on them), the two Dragonrides, Watcher&Defender. I have one or two shotted everything else. In fights like the Lost Sinner, Flexile Sentry, Dragonrider, Old Dragonslayer, Mirror Knight or Red Smelter all you need is a good shield. In fights like the Skeleton Lords, Chariot, Old Iron King, Prowling Magus, Rat Vanguard or Covetous Demon shields are useless but the bosses are still either very easy, gimmicky or slow. And then there are fights like Royal Rat, Freya, Rotten or Ancient Dragon where shields are useless and the bosses are not trivial but they're extremelly pattern-vulnerable, meaning the moment you figure out their pattern they're toast.

P.S: - in case of a humblebragging charge, I'm an extremelly average DS player, said so multiple times on Codex, DS3 bosses generally gave me a terrible time. Some of them (Sulyvahn, Princes, Nameless, Friede, Midir, Gael) I couldn't beat AT ALL. Yeah.

 

[Blaine]

Ohhhhhhh, you're saying it took you one or two TRIES. I thought you meant one or two HITS.

It only took me a few tries to finish off Ruin Sentinels, but I left and came back much later in the game. However, I beat them extremely easily, so it was less a case of having more Stamina, HP, and armor, and more a case of experience with the game. I used a +5 magic mace, +8 raw light crossbow, and +5 royal kite shield, so nothing too crazy. I beat the Dragonriders the first time by running up to the sniper spamming spells at him; he stepped off the ledge, and then was finished off very quickly, after which the fight was fairly straightforward.

Aside from Ruin Sentinels, The Pursuer fucked my shit up a few times until I realized he can almost never hit you if you just circle him via his left side, The Rotten gave me a bit of trouble until I learned the damned roll timing, Royal Rat Authority fucked my shit up so fast that I had no idea what was going on, and the Executioner's Chariot took me several tries just trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. I one- or two-shotted everything else though, yeah.

 

[cvv]

Ohhhhhhh, you're saying it took you one or two TRIES. I thought you meant one or two HITS.

Yeah that's the coined lingo in DS games, I think.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Royal rat authority is terribly designed.
Hey guys, let's take the sif fight, except make sif a rat, bigger and faster moving so that you can't see what the fuck is going on, and put toxic inflicting ads in the arena as well! The kids will love it!
I mean, its not hard, I only died to it because I was taken off guard by the toxic rats, but it pretty uncomfortable to fight through. Its completely optional, at least.

One problem I have with DS2 is that they went with the mentality of hur durr bigger is better.
Which is why you have some stupid shit like the Zweihander being like twice the size it was in DS1, dual wielding greatswords which looks fucking idiotic no matter how you look at it, and everything being twice your size for some reason.
I understand that the new rationale is that souls make you big, but if that's the case how come I'm not huge yet? How many big guys do I have to murder to get a growth spurt?
I mean, I killed Vendrick, who's absurdly huge, Fume Knight, Velstadt, Old Iron King, a couple of Drakes, the Demon of Song, Giant Lord, Ivory King and Nashandra, who are all pretty big.
By the game's logic, I should be Mega Huge Frame now.

Video somewhat related

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

zweihander is the same size u retard. did u mistake it with Greatsword?

bosses are bigger than player for gameplay purpose. it would be fucking difficult to read their moveset if they were roughly the same size as player.


dualwielding two smelters dildos might look retarded but was fun as fuck.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

dualwielding two smelters dildos might look retarded but was fun as fuck.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

zweihander is the same size u retard. did u mistake it with Greatsword?

bosses are bigger than player for gameplay purpose. it would be fucking difficult to read their moveset if they were roughly the same size as player.


dualwielding two smelters dildos might look retarded but was fun as fuck.

Are you sure? Because it looks much smaller here, and I certainly don't remember the handle and that blunt bit being that long and thick

 

[cvv]

Claiming bosses in DS2 are bigger than DS1 or DeS is completely false. I mean Tower Knight, Dragon God, Storm King anyone? Especially Storm King might be the biggest boss in all Souls games. And DS1 is just chock full of gigantic bosses.

If anything the opposite is true - in vanilla DS2 most bosses are basically humanoid knights.

And yeah, I like dual wielding in DS2 but dual wielding gigantic weapons is so retarded I can't even. Tried to dual-wield two Sacred Chimes but the idiocy of it all vastly overshadowed all fun. I definitely WOULD accept DS2 went too big on the weapons, to the point it's way too fucking animu, especially shit like Sacred Chime, Crypt Blacksword etc. IIRC the only real offence in DS1 was Greatsword, everything else had more or less standard proportions. One of the reasons why DS1 was so great.

 

[Blaine]

There's a weird Souls tradition of upsizing heavily-armored and seemingly human enemies to half-again larger than normal human size. Black and silver knights are the most recognizable from DS1, although I'm sure there were more.

DS2 has a few: Old Knights, Drakekeepers, Alonne Knights, Imperious Knights, and probably a couple of others. There were several less heavily-armored ones, too: Steelworkers, Torturers, and Undead Huntsmen. That's not including bosses like Ruin Sentinels and Fume Knight.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Claiming bosses in DS2 are bigger than DS1 or DeS is completely false. I mean Tower Knight, Dragon God, Storm King anyone? Especially Storm King might be the biggest boss in all Souls games. And DS1 is just chock full of gigantic bosses.

If anything the opposite is true - in vanilla DS2 most bosses are basically humanoid knights.

And yeah, I like dual wielding in DS2 but dual wielding gigantic weapons is so retarded I can't even. Tried to dual-wield two Sacred Chimes but the idiocy of it all vastly overshadowed all fun. I definitely WOULD accept DS2 went too big on the weapons, to the point it's way too fucking animu, especially shit like Sacred Chime, Crypt Blacksword etc. IIRC the only real offence in DS1 was Greatsword, everything else had more or less standard proportions. One of the reasons why DS1 was so great.

idk about that, Royal Rat looked bigger than Sif to me, and Fume Knight and Veldstadt looked bigger than Artorias.
That said, nothing in DS2 seems to be as big as Ceaseless Discharge, now that I think of it.
Yeah, Storm King is huge. I saw some footage of him and he's easily the biggest boss in the souls series.

The Greatsword is just a berserk reference. And Ds2 they went overboard with it.

 

[Blaine]

Holy... FUCK.

This entire video is worth watching, but the final runthrough starts at 7:20.

I could never in my life tolerate the practice needed for a no-damage playthrough of DS2, but what's funny to me is that the boss that damages him, so close to the end of the game, is the only boss I can legitimately say I've never been hit by, despite fighting it multiple times.

 

[sullynathan]

that boss is so shit. I remember farming the hell out of him for souls