From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[meanwhileInPoland]

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

after 2 hours of playing i had 62 soul arrows and 15 great soul arrows its enough to clear any starting location and you can recover some of used spells thanks to some herb so you dont go empty against boss.

in fact, fuck the No Man's Wharf in general.

agreed. i heard monsters there dont like light so i bought "cast light" spell. afterall i am mage. guess how did it work

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.

really? i must have a shit ton of luck cause all my summons behave like a pro/bros. so far its me dying more often than my summons

 

[Kanedias]

That "imput lag" that people mention is the fact that you can't block with shields instantly anymore, plus the fact that when you start out you have low ADP. I always recommend levelling it to 20, makes melee much better.

And yeah, those monsters are only fearful of fire.

 

[Surf Solar]

meanwhileInPoland - your spells wont help with the light there, a pharros stone however would

 

[Tribal Sarah]

Use torches in the Wharf, no spells. It's super easy because those big things just stand there while you whack them.

 

[Kanedias]

I just found my dream weapon: The Drakekeeper's Sword. It's a very rare drop from a certain lategame enemy, I farmed them to oblivion and they didn't drop any. I made the area NG+ to keep farming, and I discovered several things:

1) the random drops happened much more often, to the point where more than half of the drakeepers were dropping pieces of their set.

2) the normal enemies had an expanded moveset. I saw an AoE attack I had never seen before.

The weapon itself is like a large black broadsword, and I loved the broadsword so much in DaS 1. It was godly in PvP.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Dragon Shrine - the game should've ended around Undead Crypt or something. This shit can't get more generic or pointless.

 

[Kanedias]

Some stuff from the Japanese FAQ, translated by some reddit user here.

The most important part is "The conditions for being matched up are determined not only by parameters that are visible but also various parameters on the game servers themselves. In order to provide suitable match-ups between players we will make necessary adjustments to the servers if needed, and thus will refrain from providing specific details."

This sounds like changes to the Soul Memory system are likely.

Also, the lock on issues I had with large weapons are due to the following:

"when using a large/heavy weapon you can freely change the direction of the attack even if you are locked-on. If you let the left stick remain in its neutral position, the attack will target the locked-on target."

 

[sser]

I'm lazy and don't trust reviewers whatsoever. How does this game really compare to the first one as far as gameplay mechanics and what not go? I read they had a lead designer so I'm scared the game got the Ninja Gaiden 3 treatment.

 

[deuxhero]

My initial impression are "pretty good, but not AS good", which is pretty acceptable when the original was so good.

 

[Invictus]

Why is is nobody like No Man's? I really enjoyed the whole viking pirate zombies and the ambushes were fun.
I did mostly co-op today for Grave Lords and Chariot and yeah 90% of the players were good; I would ocassionaly get the retatded type which was wearing the starting game rags and tried to kite the boss but so far it has been great.
Any yeah the imput lag issue is due to adaptability, if those who are whinning about it had bothered to rise it at least to 15 they would see a huge difference in the action delay. Right now I am at 24 and it feels almost like the response in DS although with probably a few less frames

 

[80Maxwell08]

I'm lazy and don't trust reviewers whatsoever. How does this game really compare to the first one as far as gameplay mechanics and what not go? I read they had a lead designer so I'm scared the game got the Ninja Gaiden 3 treatment.

It's actually pretty good but I would wait and see how the PC port turns out before jumping in currently. On PS3 there's some framerate issues and I've heard there's screentearing on 360 but I can't confirm anything for 360 myself. If the PC version actually works well at 60 FPS it will probably be the definitive version right away.
EDIT: Of course that doesn't answer your question at all. Well for one mobs are harder than in DS on average. I always felt like enemies were a threat until I came back later with stronger equipment and so far bosses are fun. I've had some issues connecting to people for summons but I'm unsure if that's because there's so many people on or not. Also I feel like there's too many stats pertaining to how your character works. There's a stat for Stamina, a stat for your equip load and another stat for how fast you character performs an action. It's kinda annoying still but apparently there's a lot of souls to get so you will probably be a high level anyway (according to Hobo Elf). All in all I think it's pretty good and I've had a blast for my 10-12 hours so far.

 

[Kanedias]

I have been giving my new Drakekeeper's Sword a go in PvP and this thing is hilariously good, especially with how staggering works now: the sword doesn't stunlock people with decent poise, but the versatility, range and speed of your attacks makes you able to put a ton of pressure on the opponent, not letting them swing. The one handed running attack is lightning fast, and is excellent for catching people at the end of rolls or for punishing them when their stamina is low and they try to backpedal away in order to get it back. The moveset is the same as the Broadsword, but this weapon is so much better.

I'm actually extremely happy and enjoying PvP much more now that I got it, as the Broadsword was my weapon of choice on my main PvP character in Dark Souls.

Also, I forgot if I posted it here or not, but if someone is interested in PvP, the bridge at the start of the Iron Keep is the main PvP hotspot (pun not intended).

On another note, something I forgot to add: If anyone wants to advance in the Brotherhood of Blood, wear the ring they give you whenever you invade. I didn't, and I was wondering why I wouldn't rank up, and it turns out you need to keep it on in order for the kills to count towards ranking up.

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

I'm lazy and don't trust reviewers whatsoever. How does this game really compare to the first one as far as gameplay mechanics and what not go? I read they had a lead designer so I'm scared the game got the Ninja Gaiden 3 treatment.

As far as beating up bad guys, this shit is good or even better than DaS/DeS. When it comes to lore/atmosphere/writing, it seems to be a complete clusterfuck and nothing like DaS for the most part. Bonfire warping is the only gameplay mechanic that has left me butthurt.

 

[deuxhero]

Why is is nobody like No Man's? I really enjoyed the whole viking pirate zombies and the ambushes were fun.

It's long and highly linear with no shortcuts or intermission.

The vikings have this uncanny ability to damage you at the exact same time as you hit them. Lots of enemies are hard to lock on to thanks to their position. The poison pots in the house at the end are likely to be the first time you find them and will kill you with no real way of avoiding it and force you to do the entire area again.

 

[Kanedias]

It's actually pretty good but I would wait and see how the PC port turns out before jumping in currently. On PS3 there's some framerate issues and I've heard there's screentearing on 360 but I can't confirm anything for 360 myself.

I never had any framerate issue with the game, playing on PS3. Bah, actually, early on there was some slowdown when I went through a couple of fog doors in Things Betwixt but I never had that happen again.

In fact, this game seems much more stable than DaS 1, which had areas such as Blighttown and New Londo Ruins with tons of FPS issues.

 

[Surf Solar]

The Fire Longsword you get early one trivializes many of the encounters.. I'd say that's the equivalent of the Drake Sword this time

 

[praetor]

The Fire Longsword you get early one trivializes many of the encounters.. I'd say that's the equivalent of the Drake Sword this time

that's really not true. it's total AR is barely higher than a broadsword on starting knight stats (11/10 iirc), so it does overall comparable (sometimes more, sometimes less) damage because it's split damage. same thing for the heide sword (for hard proof, go have a look at ENB's walkthrough... i think it's part 4 or 5?). although it's probably the best early weapon for casters?

 

[Surf Solar]

Yeah it's ofcourse not as powerful as the Drake Sword, but since I've been using it at the start it really grew on me.. Now that I have the needed stats and equipment load, I'd actually like to use some bigger sword. I loved the Claymore in DS1, where does one find it in DS2? The Drangleic Sword is similar, but it has some weird stat scaling..

 

[DragoFireheart]

I dunno, I think I'm starting to like this game more than DK1 despite some pointed out flaws.

Bonfire warping is a really stupid thing to get butthurt about. I suppose if you hated DeS1 but Loved DK1 pre-Anor Londo it would make sense, but honestly it feels like the lead designer tried to combine DK1 and DeS1 together. The way poise is handled along with the difficulty of parries/backstabs is reminiscent of DeS1.

BTW, I started over as a Sorcerer and enemies are a fucking joke, zzzzzz...

Anyways, you know how some weapons have two stats to use properly (Drangleic Sword for example)? Well, I think From was doing the same thing with Hexes needing two stats.

If Sorcery is to Dex (for example) and Faith is to Strength, then Hex is to Quality weapons. Quality magic I guess.

 

[80Maxwell08]

It's actually pretty good but I would wait and see how the PC port turns out before jumping in currently. On PS3 there's some framerate issues and I've heard there's screentearing on 360 but I can't confirm anything for 360 myself.

I never had any framerate issue with the game, playing on PS3. Bah, actually, early on there was some slowdown when I went through a couple of fog doors in Things Betwixt but I never had that happen again.

In fact, this game seems much more stable than DaS 1, which had areas such as Blighttown and New Londo Ruins with tons of FPS issues.

Honestly I've felt the framerate drop just about everywhere. Not by too much mind you but I've still felt it.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Has anyone tried Lances yet? Curious to know in what way are they mechanically different from Spears.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Has anyone tried Lances yet? Curious to know in what way are they mechanically different from Spears.

I have seen exactly 2 spears and 0 lances. Can't help you there.

 

[Hobo Elf]

There's the Lance you can make out of the Chariot's soul. Can't really try it out though since I haven't the stats to wield it properly.

 

[Tribal Sarah]

I've seen quite a lot of framerate drop on the 360. Not something I'm bothered about but it is noticeable when it suddenly changes. It's probably worse than it was on DS1

 

[DragoFireheart]

I fucking HATE the lag when I warp back to Majula and wait 5-10 seconds to open my god damn inventory.

You can tell From is pushing the limitations of the PS3.

Oh, and despawning enemies makes the game easier. I can purposely farm out problematic enemies to make running back to the boss easier. I have yet to find myself short of souls either.