From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[DragoFireheart]

stuff

Looks like From was trying to push Hexes.

Speaking of which, how are Hexes, Miracles, and Pyromancy?

Also, looks like From was listening to certain fanboys: The Dranglegic Sword is fucking awesome. It's just like DK1 Claymore.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Miracles and Hexes seem to be pretty good from what I've heard and what I've seen during co-op. Pyromancy, I'm not so sure. I just did a boss fight with two sunbros, which involved two boss enemies. Me and the Pyromancer together got one of the boss enemies down to 50% health by the time the one guy with the huge ass sword had killed the boss monster alone. Ehh. At least you don't have to invest in Int for Pyromancy so you should have something else to compliment it.

 

[Kanedias]

In PvP, pyromancy and sorcery seem to have the lead, with miracles being the worst. I don't know how WoG is because I haven't seen it yet (it's quite hard to get) and I didn't see much Heavenly Thunder in PvP, but all lightning spears are still incredibly easy to roll through.

Sorcery has a lot of nasty spells, like Homing Crystal Soulmass, which is much harder to dodge now, another spell that casts a cone of soul spears, and one that shoots a slow moving orb of magic that does damage in a huge area around it.

Pyromancy, in turn, has Flame Swathe, which generates a huge explosion wherever you are standing, and is quite overpowered. It's not too hard to dodge if the opponent casts it when you're idle, but if you're in some animation, you get destroyed. It does more than 1000 damage. It's also not a projectile of any sort, the explosion appears wherever you are, as long as the enemy is locked on to you it has perfect accuracy. Other two nice pyromancy spells I've seen are Firestorm and Warmth. Firestorm got a buff, it's faster now, and the animation isn't as obvious as the old animation. You hold a fireball in your hand, then push it into the ground and fire erupts around you. This causes people to confuse it for a fireball, and they get hit for massive damage. Warmth is really nice, it creates a healing orb that heals both you and enemies, but it's very interesting to use in fights, because it changes the rules completely - suddenly, you find yourself and the enemy fighting in close range trying to drive each other away from the orb, and the constant healing to both of you makes things interesting.

On the subject of PvP - if you plan to invade as a red, there's a really nice way to solve the issue of healing - the Southern Ritual Band +1. It adds 2 attunement slots, which I believe is more than worth a ring slot, because it means you can cast powerful pyromancy without any attunement. This lets you use Warmth to heal yourself, and gives you another slot for any spell of your choosing.

I have not seen enough hexes to judge them.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I haven't tested the cone spell you speak of in PvP since it was absolute rubbish in PvE (very inaccurate unless you are standing right next to the enemy, pitiful damage), but Soul Vortex (the soul ball that shoots shit around in all directions; identical to the Sorc's Frozen Orb spell from Diablo 2) is pretty good in PvE and I guess most enemies in PvP will shit their pants when they see that spell for the first time. It does great damage if it hits, but you have to do it from a medium-close range and that can be hard since it has a slower cast speed. I agree that Sorcery is pretty good at PvP now, though. You can imagine my surprise when I noticed that my spells like Soul Spear were actually hitting the enemy.

Unfortunately I haven't encountered much PvP during my 30 hours in the game. I've been invaded like 5 times by the Rat covenant, but that's it.

 

[Invictus]

I wonder how well the game is selling? Even non Souls players seem to have gotten it (but even of the torrent sites it is not that big)

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Two things: the Brotherhood of Blood arena doesn't actually consume Tokens of Spite. The NPC dialogue seems to imply that they do consume them, but I have tested it and the arena is 100% free. I miss having an infinite eye orb, however.

Turns out you're correct. That's really cool. Might go Bloodbro again and rumble with people so I can invade and build up some sin so Bluebros have people to hunt. Though getting all these Titanite Chunks Bellbroing is pretty fun...

Also, I don't think the ridiculous lack of poise has anything to do with the stone ring. I think Poise in PvP does not work, or that it just reduces the stagger time. I don't wear the ring and all my attacks stagger other players.

I'm honestly not certain how poise really works in any online scenario, PvE or PvP. While engaging in jolly cooperation, I've had certain enemies not be poise-broken by the same attacks that would do so in my world. Since NG and NG+X are segregated from one another and the Covenant of Champions disables co-op, I'm not sure how to explain this. Latency issues?

And in PvP, I can poise-lock people with almost no trouble, yet hardly ever get poise-locked myself...even in light (translucent in fact) armor. I always seem to be able to roll out after 1-2 hits, like a toggle-escape in DkS1 without ever having to do any fancy inputs. Whether this is due to decent investments in both ADP/ATT (aiming for a DEX/INT build with likely a heavy focus on Pyromancy) or everyone I face being bad at stamina management...I can't tell.

Pyromancy, in turn, has Flame Swathe, which generates a huge explosion wherever you are standing, and is quite overpowered. It's not too hard to dodge if the opponent casts it when you're idle, but if you're in some animation, you get destroyed. It does more than 1000 damage. It's also not a projectile of any sort, the explosion appears wherever you are, as long as the enemy is locked on to you it has perfect accuracy.

I've been enjoying Flamer Swathe, but it's really easy to dodge and the only animations that really permit an easy hit are Estus Flask chugging or extremely long cast/weapon animations. Other than that, it typically whiffs on any opponent who knows what they're doing. I think that's good design, though. Highly damaging attacks should be a little easier to counter or a bit more unwieldy. Black Flame, Dark Bead, Wrath of the Gods, and Lagsuers were all miserable because of how they combined high damage, ease of use, and the (relative) difficulty of countermeasures. Really warped the PvP meta around them. I don't see Swathe doing the same.

Swathe is fantastic in PvE though. That, and Flame Whip, made the Bastille bosses a breeze.



Like a lot of the changes/additions to Pyromancy as well.

As Kanedias mentioned, Firestorm is a lot less obvious, and is no longer a death sentence in PvP, though I doubt it will ever be a part of top-tier builds. It also actually lists the total casts, not some weird number of pillars that can be summoned in total.

Mist spells (Poison, Toxic, Acid), like Flame Swathe, drop on top of the position of what you're locked on to, making them a lot better. It doesn't hurt that Poison/Toxic/Durability effects are much better as well. I can see some of these being legitmately decent, especially the Acid one.

Combustion and Great Combustion do a lot less damage and cast a lot slower. Unless attunement starts giving increasing rewards to cast speed, I doubt either will be the swift punishers that DexPyros in DkS1 wielded.

Fireball/Orb spells seem the same. Generally alright, though I haven't really experimented much with them. I'm not even certain if canceling even exists still. Mindgames built around that and unlocked casting were fun in DkS1.

Fire Whip actually works now, dishing out a bunch of hits. Really good for poise-locking certain foes/bosses.

Haven't found Warmth yet, nor some of the really high-tier Pyromancies, but I like what I see so far.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Just got to Dragon Aerie. Somewhere around Shrine of Amana I started losing all interest in this. The location variety is just a complete clusterfuck.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Ok, I'm seeing some exceptionally retarded drama on GameFAGs. People bitching about Adaptability (and Agility in essence) being a useless stat.

Not sure why this is happening. If people enjoy getting buttraped in middle of a roll or taking 2 hours to drink an estus then hey, more power to them.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I know why it's happening. Agility is to help your play style be more precise and exact, but still requires a good sense of timing. Pumping only health lets you get slapped around more and not die after failing rolls. Guess which stat bad players who refuse to learn to play better will flock to.

 

[Surf Solar]

I'm evenly distributing my stats between strength, endurance and adaptbility. 2 points in vigor too until I realized most of the time for the first playthrough I am undead anyway so its useless...
What armor do you guys wear? I dont know why, but armor is a lot more useless this time around. Dodging->Armor safed my butt more times than just tanking shots

 

[Hobo Elf]

I'm using the Lion Mage robes. I look like a retard wearing 60's disco clothing, but at least it improves my cast speed.

 

[DragoFireheart]

I know why it's happening. Agility is to help your play style be more precise and exact, but still requires a good sense of timing. Pumping only health lets you get slapped around more and not die after failing rolls. Guess which stat bad players who refuse to learn to play better will flock to.

Strength while using Cloud's buster sword?

Once my agility got close to 100, my rolls were seemed to have the iframes of fast rolls back in DK1. Going to restart as a Sorcerer and do more magic. Going to level attunement and adaptability and get shit tons of agility. Dodging has always been the best form of defense (along with some blocking).

I'm evenly distributing my stats between strength, endurance and adaptbility. 2 points in vigor too until I realized most of the time for the first playthrough I am undead anyway so its useless...
What armor do you guys wear? I dont know why, but armor is a lot more useless this time around. Dodging->Armor safed my butt more times than just tanking shots

Wear what you want as long as your equip capacity is <= 70%. Your roll distance may be shorter but as far as I know, you lose no iframes.

 

[Invictus]

Of all the gameplay upgrades you get for your char BY FAR the most noticable to me is adaptability; strength let's you hit harder and attunment gives you more casting slots but agility makes your character move better; I bet most speedrunnners will get the stats necesary for using this or that weapon and then focus on adaptability. Besides the obvious speedup to all your actions the mere fact that it gives you more frames to your dodge is invaluable.
I got ready for DS2 by replaying DS with a 2 handed faith build and beating the DLC bosses like that proved to be more fun than lungging around a greatshield and picking away at their health

 

[DragoFireheart]

Of all the gameplay upgrades you get for your char BY FAR the most noticable to me is adaptability; strength let's you hit harder and attunment gives you more casting slots but agility makes your character move better; I bet most speedrunnners will get the stats necesary for using this or that weapon and then focus on adaptability. Besides the obvious speedup to all your actions the mere fact that it gives you more frames to your dodge is invaluable.
I got ready for DS2 by replaying DS with a 2 handed faith build and beating the DLC bosses like that proved to be more fun than lungging around a greatshield and picking away at their health

Wouldn't this mean that spell casters get the best stats since attunement also levels agility?

 

[Hobo Elf]

I'd still invest in Adaptability as a caster. You get some Agility from Attunement, but not much. It's a nice bonus if you have Adaptability, though. Gives you a little bit better rolls that you really want as a squishy caster. Also I'm sure hybrid melee / magic people will appreciate the little bit of boost in Agility they may get from Attunement.

 

[Invictus]

I feel they gave the attunment agility bonus so spellcasters could focus mostly on the skills they use and still get dodging benefits. I have not tried a spellcaster build but I am guessing adding some adaptability to your build might have higher agility befenits that just by rising attunement

 

[DragoFireheart]

It's not like I would be Soul Starved anyways. What the hell is the soft cap again? Level 120 before you beat NG? Anyways this was mostly GameFags drama. I didn't see anything on other forums like reddit.

Covenant spoilers:

Spoiler

Oh, and Rat Covenant is best Covenant. Setting up your lair to lure people into while having free helpers is exceptionally fun. Also I don't think the rats run out: I noticed some of them turned into white shades afterwhile.

http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/20goc7/psa_brodents_have_a_special_use_for_bonfire/

Burning a Bonfire Ascetic permanently buffs all nearby monsters into NG+ mode. Burn a couple in the Grave of the Saints and Doors of Pharros, guys. Your victims won't stand a snowball's chance in a microwave.

You must make sure to boost the correct bonfire though.

MASSIVE humanity spoilers:

Spoiler

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Da...ity-Strategies-Revealed-By-Players-62829.html

Reddit users have found another method to restore your humanity an unlimited amount of times. However, you have to be undead and you can't have any Effigies in your inventory.

"Outside of several mobs dropping humanity and Melentia's near constant restocking of humanity via progression, there is one last sure fire way to regain humanity," explains one Redditor. "In the Shrine of Amana, above the last bonfire, there is a Shrine with a praying Milfinito. After you have 'rescued' the two stray maidens (one outside the Demon of Song room, another behind the Embedded Door in Drangleic Castle) you can pray at this Shrine at any time to regain humanity. This is free of cost and can be done a limitless amount of times."

 

[Hobo Elf]

Well I just beat the Shrine of Amana and I'm exactly SL123 now. I haven't done any intentional grinding, but 99% of the time I have the Covetuous Silver Serpent ring on. Revving them stats up shouldn't be a problem unless you keep dying over and over again with your life savings.

 

[deuxhero]

Borrowing the game from someone who finished it in exchange for him borrowing some of my PS3 games...

I don't hate the game (I like it, though perhaps not as much as DeS and DS1), but it has some pretty damn stupid design choices, most of which really hurt the build I used.

Do not like how far in enchantment and spell trainers are. In DS1, you had a blacksmith (if you looked/knew about him), and a miracle seller (very obviously located) as soon as you beat the tutorial, with a sorcerery and pyromancer merchant, plus a second blacksmith who you can't miss, pretty quickly. This meant you could meld your character into whatever you wanted pretty quickly, and weapons were so widely spread that you could find SOMETHING of your prefered type pretty quick in (outside of katana, great axe or greatbow). In DS2, the ONLY blacksmith capable of changing weapon type has a double unlock (Him and the ember you need for him to do anything are at the end of separate branches. This is also needed to get the max block shield with the lowest requirements too) and to do it you need to beat roughly 1/3-1/2 the game first (HUGE gimp to a magic user dependent upon int scaling weapons).

Spells feel pretty weak (I'm told its that the starting staff has complete shit for scaling, but better staffs are mostly random drop items or really far in), need multiple castings of heavier spells to take down even common enemies at nearly 50 int.

Area near bonfires are less "safe", which encourages abusing the 15 spawn limit so you aren't instantly attacked in an open area with no way to lure enemies out one at a time each time you rest. The character creation's lighting is REALLY bad (as are its load times, though that won't apply on the PC hopefully), and will result in really pale characters if you don't know to adjust for it plus random makes faces with really strong features (chin/nose the size of the rest of the face) so you are forced to manually make a face from a template (which are NOT sex specific, making it even harder for females even after changing the hormones) to get anywhere.

Lots of traps that will only work once the entire game, but are repeated the entire game despite this. There are some vases filled with poison/armor eating stuff, and once you get hit by it once, you'll NEVER make the mistake again because their shape is really distinct, but they often block your path, so you need to equip a bow and spend time breaking them from a distance (there are a handful of times you can lure enemies into these, but it's not common enough to make up for how often they block your path). Similarlly, the game uses the "apparently non-hostile/dead hollow attacks you once you go past him, SURPRISE!" trick too often and it gets stale quick. This is made more annoying by how you can no longer lock onto these guys (couldn't you in DS1?). On the opposite end, there are environmental interactions that only work once the entire game, but are largely needed to progress, so you will have no way of knowing they are possible (moving an exploding barrel to a wall that isn't obviously damaged to break it, a suspiciously plain but not obviously breakable wall that can only be broken by one spell that isn't used to break walls anywhere else, torch a wodden structure to disable a trap that makes a boss pretty much impossible).

This is pretty much ALL the problems I've had, and they aren't really that big. I'll prob buy the PC version during the summer sale, but not at launch (though that was something I intended to do anyways).

 

[Kanedias]

I have been testing different stuff to try to figure out more things about PvP (covenant spoilers ahead, be warned):

1) You can apparently leave and join covenants without sinning (no need to talk to the Cat). I forgot to see if it reduced my rank in the covenant that I left, I will check in a while. Anyways I was able to leave Brotherhood of Blood for Dragon Remnants and then rejoin the Brotherhood without any problems.

2) Dragon Eye is like a better version of the Red Sign Soapstone, because it lets you heal with estus when you're summoned. They apparently need to have a dragon scale in their inventory in order to see it, but most people that PvP have one anyways. It cannot be used outside of the Dragon Remnants covenant, sadly.

3) The Red Sign Soapstone, however, can be used by anyone, despite the fact it's sold by the Brotherhood of Blood covenant leader, which means there's no reason not to join the Brotherhood at least once in order to buy the thing.

4) Dragon Torso stone is no longer covenant specific! This means that if you have enough dragon scales, you can join Dragon Remnants temporarily in order to obtain it, and then leave. Dragon form works like it did in Dark Souls, 0 poise, but this time it actually equips some armor for you, so that your defense is not 0. Still not sure if dragon roar has been changed or not, but I noticed that it seemed to be worse at breaking guards.

5) Poise matters in PvP! When playing in dragon form, I got stunlocked a lot. By that I mean that I wasn't able to roll away as soon as when I had my normal gear. So yes, poise isn't as important because of the stupid decision (or bug?) of making every attack stagger, but playing with 0 is not recommended at all.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Do not like how far in enchantment and spell trainers are. In DS1, you had a blacksmith (if you looked/knew about him), and a miracle seller (very obviously located) as soon as you beat the tutorial, with a sorcerery and pyromancer merchant, plus a second blacksmith who you can't miss, pretty quickly.

you have spells(Felkin)/miracles(Licia) trainer/merchant after you kill dragonrider second spell trainer is just before flexile sentry so like 3rd boss in game?( last giant->(maybe Pursuer)->dragonride->flexile sentry). you also get pyro flame after that battle. boss weapons are after around the same ingame time ( giant blacksmith in anor londo/ straid in lost bastille).

Dull ember for blacksmith is later in game but at least this time one blacksmith make all enchatments and iron keep is hardly 1/2 of game (Heide->Huntsman's Copse-> Harvest Valley-> Earthen Peak-> Iron Keep) And honestly you dont need it that much earlier. i am around sls60 and as a mage with shitty str/dex i hardly need more than 2-3hits on trash mobs with my flame longsword +6.

Spells feel pretty weak (I'm told its that the starting staff has complete shit for scaling, but better staffs are mostly random drop items or really far in), need multiple castings of heavier spells to take down even common enemies at nearly 50 int.

nope. 2 weakest soul arrows at 24int with starting staff+4 are enough for trash mob in starting locations. later heavy/great soul arrows are just as usefull. you can snipe enemies from far away with two shots.

Area near bonfires are less "safe", which encourages abusing the 15 spawn limit so you aren't instantly attacked in an open area with no way to lure enemies out one at a time each time you rest.

which one? the one in sinners rise next to 3 crossbowmens is retarded did not find any other "unsafe" bonfires so far.

The character creation's lighting is REALLY bad (as are its load times, though that won't apply on the PC hopefully), and will result in really pale characters plus random makes faces with really strong features (chin/nose the size of the rest of the face "strong") so you are forced to manually make a face from a template (which are NOT sex specific, making it even harder for females) to get anywhere

loading times on ps3 are fuuuuuuuuucking longggggggggggg but i made characters as handsome as i am(10/10) so dont know what you taking about

There are some vases filled with poison/armor eating stuff, and once you get hit by it once, you'll NEVER make the mistake again because their shape is really distinct, but they often block your path, so you need to equip a bow and spend time breaking them from a distance (there are a handful of times you can lure enemies into these, but it's not common enough to make up for how often they block your path).

what are spears? and those vases have their use in pvp

(moving an exploding barrel to a wall that isn't obviously damaged to break it, a suspiciously plain but not obviously breakable wall that can only be broken by one spell that isn't used to break walls anywhere else, torch a wodden structure to disable a trap that makes a boss pretty much impossible).

you played ds1 and you dont attack every suspicious wall? also ds1 had shit like great hollow behind two illusory walls or a wall that needed fucking lantern to disapear.


I like Majula more than Firelink/Nexus

Spoiler

(however teleporting to level up every 15 minutes is retarded design)

 

[praetor]

5) Poise matters in PvP! When playing in dragon form, I got stunlocked a lot. By that I mean that I wasn't able to roll away as soon as when I had my normal gear. So yes, poise isn't as important because of the stupid decision (or bug?) of making every attack stagger, but playing with 0 is not recommended at all.

if it is indeed a decision and not a bug, i'm betting it's because of that director that loves DeS but has no idea why stuff in DeS worked and the same stuff in DaS wouldn't work (like that, and the EH etc...)

[graphicswhore]btw it's really, really silly seeing only torches and bonfires cast dynamic shadows.. especially when you light torches at braziers and the shadows magically appear[/graphicswhore]

a wall that needed fucking lantern to disapear.

there was even a developer message hinting at the light (btw, Felkin sells hexes, the first mage vendor is the one before Flexile.. the name escapes me)

 

[Invictus]

Been doing jolly coop all afternoon (long weekend here) and I really love how the coop helps you develop good tactics for the tougher bosses, plus getting some free souls and items never hurts.
I would have to agree that the paths for developing your magic using chars and getting even hexes or pyro is way longer than on the first game, but not unbearably so. I think that the game is much more replay focused and once you know these things you can get right to them. If I started a faith build I would go for the trainer straight away, with proper dodging and knowing the attack patters of the enemies there you can make it realtively easy.
I would have loved to make a pyro build from the start and seems I will go deprived on my first char on the PC version and go staright for it

 

[deuxhero]

snip

Attacking every suspicious wall doesn't help 1: you activate them now, not attack them 2: Only very speciffic methods break those walls I mentioned, normal attacks don't.

Felkin teaches Hexs (and won't talk to you unless you have faith...) the "second spell trainer" you mention would be the first (ignoring the merchant who sells a total of one spell). Also fuck that pyromancy flame location, no indiciation the device would instantly send me to the next area (no reason at all you can't get back on the ship after using it unlike the birds to Anor Londo/LB) before I explored the room, in fact, fuck the No Man's Wharf in general.

Is Lost Bastille half? No. But Lost Bastille+Iron Keep (I said it was a double unlock) is pretty damn far in.

Two of the weakest spell with double the starting intelligence to kill the weakest enemies doesn't sound weak to you?

 

[Tribal Sarah]

I had almost no problems playing as a sorcerer, apart from a few trash mobs. Tried playing as a Knight. Got killed over and over by bullshit mobs. Tried Cleric. same. The input lag that I read people complaining about definitely seems more noticeable on melee classes. Worse than that, I fuckin hate this effigy bullshit. It wouldn't matter so much if they were cheaper and unlimited, but summoning people who run about like headless retards and die within two minutes, gets old fast. Especially when you're forced to do co-op to raise more cash to get an effigy, and then pray that whoever you get doesn't fall off a cliff or run headfirst into a mob again. I summoned someone last night to help me do a boss fight and he actually ran away. I couldn't believe it. I've never seen that before. Running away from a fight. In a video game. There are no men anymore.