From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Hyperion]

Using a torch to prevent pitfalls also alerts the anklebiters to your presence and will often leave you up against 2, sometimes even 3 of the little fuckers if you go that route. Using a shield will actually make it easier since less of those at once.

Havel's Shield has 80 or 85% magic reduction and completely trivializes the level. Also, the area is a shadow of its difficulty from the original release. It was so rage inducing they actually nerfed it to the ground.

 

[mogwaimon]

I just finished my first run of the game last night and still need to vent some more. Iron Passage and Frigid Outskirts are two of the worst boss runs in Soulsborne games ever, complete and utter cancer. Iron Passage takes the cake for the most BS while Frigid Outskirts ranges from utterly dull to infuriating depending on how lucky you are with multiple horse spawns ganking you out of nowhere. But the thing that infuriated me the most was the boss fight of the Outskirts, because it took a boss that I wasn't that great at to begin with, put two of the fucks in there, and added a BS rage/healing mechanic on the off-chance you manage to take out one of the tigers.
I am not a skillful player, but I used to be able to say that I'd beaten Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro all without summoning any NPCs/players for my first kills of the bosses...well, that boss fight broke me in ways that even Sword Saint couldn't and I ended up saying fuck it and summoning two of the NPCs to help out after exhausting myself for like three hours switching from my regular Havel/mace+greatsword style to naked 2H rapier style and finding no solace or succor. And then of course we take the tigers down in one shot even though they both attack immediately if you have summons. I'd heard that particular area was co-op recommended, but I ignored those warnings because I'd gotten through everything thus far without summons; even the likes of the Orphan of Kos or Fume Knight only took a few tries. Sekiro was a constant uphill battle but I stuck to it and busted my way through. But this just wasn't fun at all.

tl;dr tigers are ass and i'm a scrub that couldn't git gud. But the rest of Dark Souls 2 was pretty enjoyable even if it was super easy (for a Souls game) up until the DLCs, which ranged from just the right level of challenge (Fume, Alonne, the entire Sunken DLC) to utterly infuriating

 

[Wunderbar]

No wonder From haven't made any coop-oriented areas since DaS2 - even knowing about their co-op nature, most of players still played them solo and then complained that it wasn't fun.

 

[Hyperion]

Both areas are intended to be coop.

 

[cvv]

No wonder From haven't made any coop-oriented areas since DaS2 - even knowing about their co-op nature, most of players still played them solo and then complained that it wasn't fun.

To be fair the co-op nature of those 4 areas is everything but obvious. Sure there are the summoning statue rooms and NPC signs in Iron Passage, Cave of the Dead, Frigid Outskirts and Memory of the Old Iron King but that's not exactly something that most players will immediately interpret as "this is intended as co-op".

I sure as shit didn't and you know what, I actually enjoyed making my way through Iron Passage and the Memory. On NG it's p. fun and the bosses are some of the best in the game. I didn't mind the Cave itself but the boss was cancer for me - I kept smashing my head against the trio until I was told ITT it's meant as a co-op fight. Frigid Outskirts is cancer in its entirety.

 

[mogwaimon]

I mean, most of the time you hear people putting down those who summon for boss battles and so for that reason and my own sense of pride 99% of the time I fly solo, the only reason I knew it was a co-op area was because I heard it here. If I'd been going in totally blind, well...TBH I had absolutely no trouble with Cave of the Dead or the Gank Trio, one-shotted the whole area but Iron Passage was a pain in the ass because Smelter Demon was my worst boss in vanilla as it was and the area itself was either, pull two levers and dodge the fireballs flying through only get ganked by a mob while you try to run through on a time limit or go the other way and get ganked by ashen warriors and those weight-spell slinging astrologists unless you played super carefully. And I already put my opinions down regarding the tigers.

Memory of the Old Iron King was annoying at first but it was a non-issue after I found you can lure half the knights into the pit in the second area and just run to the gate from there, they won't follow you far enough for it to matter.

 

[Alphard]

Finally completed shit of amana and crypt of the dead. As always final boss of a very frustrating area is a cakewalk. Demon of song or whatever seems like should have been tutorial boss . Anyway what's up with that dark spirit using sorceries and hexes invading you before boss? It was harder than any pvp player i found so far . After 5 tries in wich he 1shotted me with some instant cast bullshit spell he fell and died. Crypt of dead was another annoying place. IDK why thought limiting your movement is a fun way to make things difficult. Because it was not even difficult , just annoying. At least the boss was decent with a bit predictable but good twyst at the end. I'm in keep of aldia and i'm waiting to find a place to farm petrified dragon bones to upgrade my dragonrider double blade (drangleic sword carried me so far but i love the moveset of the twinblade).
By the way it is me or sorceries in this game are severly underpowered? i'm thinking of rerolling to redistribute all wasted int points. Soul vortex is shit, soul barrage is shit, soul rain is shit a lot of other spells situational. Only soul arrow is of some usefulness to clear some dangerous enemy from range, but rest is me. ANd i think in pvp is even worse (unless there is some sorcery idk that is op). Pyromancies and hexes seem a lot better .
Also some good int scaling weapon? ANd what is best staff for mage?

 

[cvv]

Anyway what's up with that dark spirit using sorceries and hexes invading you before boss?

Peculiar Kindalur? Meh, he hits hard but as with any magic based NPC or even player he can be easily staggered and/or backstabbed.

By the way it is me or sorceries in this game are severly underpowered?

Also some good int scaling weapon? ANd what is best staff for mage?

Yes sorcery is garbage in DS2. The only usable offensive spells are Soul Spear and Crystal Soul Spear and you only get 4 casts of SS and you have to ascetic the Freja fight to get CSS. So you mostly use MGS which means you might as well go for a normal melee build and replace spells with a bow.

Best INT weapons are Blue Flame and MGS. Alternatively you can put the Enchanted infusion on most other weapons. Best sorcery staff is Staff of Wisdom.

 

[Alphard]

So i think i'm near the end of the game. I already visited all dreams (3 giants, dragon and vendrick , these are all right?) and now i entered Eleum Joyce dlc. It seems either i'm underleveled (SL 120) or the area is frustrating with super long run from between bonfires and strong enemies. What you suggest guys, to do another dlc first and come back later? Is there another main story boss i can complete without finishing the game?

 

[Hyperion]

If memory serves, completing DS2 doesn't automatically send you into NG+ like the others, you can wander around and choose when to go on. And yes, the DLC's are significantly harder than the base game, with each one ramping up in difficulty a bit in the order they were released: Sunken King, then Old Iron, and Ivory. Personally I found Iron the toughest, but your mileage may vary.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Ivory isn't that hard, but fuck those ice rats. Terrible enemy design.

 

[RoSoDude]

Definitely play the DLCs in order of release. I made the mistake of doing Ivory King first, which was a bit on the miserable side with all of the magic-resistant enemies that I had to parry to death because my weapons couldn't stagger them and they took forever to kill. The Sunken King was still pretty well tuned for my character, but by the time I reached the Iron King I was fully kitted out with DLC items and maxed out magic infusions, so I beat the infamously difficult Fume Knight in only two tries (I don't get what's supposed to be so tricky about his moveset, but I was using a low-commitment rapier), which is hilariously one fewer attempt than I needed for the Old Iron King himself. Sir Alonne was much much harder.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Yeah, Fume knight isn't that hard, its just that you need to have your timing down and you can't lift your guard due to how aggressive he is. He's programmed to immediately attack you if you drink estus which takes a lot of players by surprise, so you have to wait for him to be in the middle of one of his lengthy combos so you can back off, heal and have enough time to avoid one of his engages.
It is completely possible to beat him just by circle strafing. Your footwork has to be impeccable though because he hits hard.

 

[Wunderbar]

Ivory isn't that hard, but fuck those ice rats. Terrible enemy design.

spiky rats are the new bonewheel skellies.

 

[RoSoDude]

Ivory isn't that hard, but fuck those ice rats. Terrible enemy design.

spiky rats are the new bonewheel skellies.

Except much worse because they DAMAGE YOU ON CONTACT WTF FROM WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO HIT THESE GUYS WITH?! MY CURVED SWORD HAS GARBAGE REACH, MY RAPIER CAN'T TRACK VERTICALLY, AND THEY RESIST SOUL SPEAR! AGHHHHHHH

 

[toro]

Ivory isn't that hard, but fuck those ice rats. Terrible enemy design.

spiky rats are the new bonewheel skellies.

Except much worse because they DAMAGE YOU ON CONTACT WTF FROM WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO HIT THESE GUYS WITH?! MY CURVED SWORD HAS GARBAGE REACH, MY RAPIER CAN'T TRACK VERTICALLY, AND THEY RESIST SOUL SPEAR! AGHHHHHHH

Your dick man. Always hit them with your dick.

 

[Silverfish]

Be sure to make your dick mundane first, though.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

In Dark Souls 3 you should give your +10 Dick the Heavy infusion.

 

[Alphard]

I did it, first dlc down . didnt summon anyone but oh boy if the first fight was infuriating. never seen so much rng in a from game. and the run to her was super annoying and long, even if i figured the shortcuts. beated the queen of bullshit tough and final fight was harder ( but not unfair ) and awesome. i raged the first 6 or seven attempts but then after figuring the pattern of the boss was only a matter of time. it took 20ish attempts tough more than kalameet and i think this was the superior fight with all predictable and avoidable attacks once understood ( except for the fire charge, that seemed rng) . btw the whole area of shulva and dragon temple became one of my favorite in souls games. i would give this dlc 8-/10

 

[NJClaw]

Maybe someone here is autistic enough to care about this stuff:

 

[Bester]

You know Gyrms in DS2 lore? Basically dwarves. According to lore, they were exiled from the surface, because they were considered an inferior race.
I wonder if it's Miyazaki's commentary on how westerners are racists, because as soon as they thought up dwarves, they immediately decided to place them underground in almost all settings, away from human nations.

 

[Hyperion]

Or he utilized a fairly well known fantasy trope of Dwarves being Jews, who commonly face some sort of Diaspora.

 

[Kruno]

Dark Souls 2 is really shit. I never once got a dragon shout in this game.

 

[Silverfish]

You can't get dragons shouts until you beat the Ancient Dragon in new game plus, with the champions covenant equipped and at SL1.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Skyrim is trash, get your casual shit out of a Dark Souls thread.