Bjorn

Double post so it's doesn't get missed in an edit. Gross. New glitch discovered that lets you have brief moments of super speed running at little stamina cost (the cost of one roll).

....anymore.

Have you thought about playing more video games?

Meant to reply to this last night, and forgot to. The 500 kills for a rank is ridiculous. At least with the Blue Sents, your rank never goes down. But with the BoB, each duel loss counts against your rank. Gross. Though on the same hand, I wish the Dragons had a deeper rank system or more rewards. It doesn't take me very long to hit Rank 3. I keep dueling because it's fun, but I wish there was a further reward of some sort. In DS1, the more scales you gave, the stronger your fire breath became, which could become quite broken at high rank. So maybe not that, but something.

I was playing around with Hush some last night. Certainly works find when you're coming up directly behind something, but I don't typically have problems getting a backstab in that situation anyways. Trying to come in on something from like a 20-30 degree angle to the rear with Hush on, and still get seen. The Ring of Fog/Hidden Body, until it was patched, was terrible for PvP in DS1. You pretty much had to wear one, and then carry a weapon with wide sweeping attacks, until they patched it so you could get lockon on people with it on. But that left the ring and spell super useful in PvE still. I love that they added the Silver Talismans so that non-wizards can get in on the Chameleon action. I don't use it very often, but it is amusing as hell. When you chase people, do they not realize if you just whack it with a weapon, the illusion breaks? Maybe it was never wizarding that I really loved in the other Souls games, maybe it was the easy access to being a stealthy character with a bunch of utility spells and buffs.

It's interesting how each of us has different areas that have kicked our ass, while others sailed through them. RRA remains me least favorite fight in the game, and unless I absolutely need Acid Surge for a build (doubtful?), I don't know that I'll ever fight him again. I tried redesigning my mage tonight. I just don't think I like sorcery in DS2. Which is weird, as I did sorcerer builds in both DeS and DS1 and enjoyed them. And I like a bit of pyromancy and/or miracles on some of my fighter builds. Combat sorceries just aren't doing anything for me. I may end up with a build that just has a few utility spells on him, and ignore all the combat spells. It also makes me really miss the Stealth abilities from the previous Souls games. I used Hidden Body and Hush for PvE a ton on my wizard in DS1, either avoiding enemies completely to go back through an area, or using it to score backstabs. With the mobs and some placement of enemies (like the top of Sinner's Rise), it almost looks like areas were designed with stealth in mind as a possibility, then cut it.

Apparently I suck at the Chariot fight and should rethink how I approach it! Lesson learned. I'm going to respec my mage, as I was not enjoying him very much. I have a new idea that requires a Str so low that a shield will not be an option. I'll try it with him. He's not very far into the game when i abandoned him.

And I find this to be one of the easiest bosses in the game. The AI is super easy to get to loop. I fought it back to back a couple of nights ago to get my dual spotted whips and never got hit. It's a fight where it is much, much better to go solo and use melee. You might also need to change up weapons. A couple of weapons I tried had problems clanging off the face even when it was open (certain halberd and spear attacks). Other weapons hit clean every time. Other players just screw up the AI and make the fight so much harder than it needs to be. Ranged battle causes the AI to use a more diverse set of attacks. My first time through I couldn't beat it until I went solo and used melee, which I did out of frustration with the players I had been summoning. This was a few days after release, and people kept smacking it when it was invulnerable, even though it was painfully obvious that it wasn't doing anything.

I'm sure there is some lord out there who can do the chariot shieldless. And that guy is insane. Apparently it's possible to jump over the spikes that stick out of the wheels with a well timed jump. I saw one phantom I summoned doing it. That's the only way I can imagine it working. That phantom made the jump twice. But not the third time.

I really loved Act 1 of that game, and then Act 2 just took that love and clubbed it like a baby seal. Couldn't even be bothered to finish that act, let alone the game.

Power stanced maces are godly in PvE. If you have help in a fight, you can stunlock some bosses, particularly with the Stone Ring on. Much harder to use in PvP as they end up being really easy to dodge. The stamina drain can be crippling. Whether or not it's worth it tends to come down to whether or not you can kill or at least stagger enemies in a single hit/combo when power stanced. It's an option that is clearly better for some weapons vs others. Some weapons you can actually get more hits off with just R1 than you can a power stanced L1. A lot of the power stanced movesets are some of the coolest looking ones in the game. Whips, clubs, curved swords and fist weapons are all just super cool. Oh, and the 150 percent rule only applies to Str/Dex, not Fth/Int requirements. It's also not entirely accurate. It's true for weapons that have even numbers for their requirements. But a few weapons have odd numbers. So for a weapon that requires a 17 Str, you only need 25 Str to power stance it, not a 26. It will round down in your favor when figuring the requirement. Can be helpful as you're building a character and want to make every point count. Your new moveset is now tied to your L1 and L2 buttons. Your R1/R2 will attack with your right hand weapon as normal, but your L1/L2 will perform the new dual moveset. For rolling/sprinting attacks, the L1/L2 will still perform the normal weapon attacks of your left hand. For PvP, this can matter as it can give you a big variety of moves to draw on to catch someone by surprise. Sometimes using 2 weapons can be useful even if you aren't power stancing. For some weapon combinations, alternating L1/R1 results in a faster series of attacks than just repeating R1 multiple times. Chaining an L1 into an R2 for a right hand weapon that typically has a very slow R2 can actually result in a much faster attack, like the warmup "charging" animation for a lance. For other combinations, IF you have the stats to power stance them, then new moves may become available even when you aren't power stanced. Only a few have been discovered, but some of them are pretty neat. Like with the Spider Fang in the left hand and another curved (maybe any normal sized sword) in the right. If you R1 the right sword, then immediately L2 the Spider Fang, it performs the Ricard's Rapier super fast multi-hit combo, but without any of the delay that normally accompanies the attack. Interesting little thing you can pull off with rolling/sprinting attacks. With a low enough equip burden (probably related to roll distance), you can actually perform your sprinting attack out of a roll. Roll, then rapidly release and hold down the button again as if you were sprinting. Attack before the roll is finished, and you will perform your sprinting attack rather than your rolling attack. Its use is limited to those weapons which have super valuable sprinting attacks (like Halberds and whips), but damn can it catch someone off guard.

It's the absolute most fun build for me. I highly recommend getting the Vanquisher's Seal. The limitation is that you can only carry 2 other items, one in each hand. In order to access your bare fists, you have to have 2 open slots. Sometimes I run bare hand right and Caestus left hand so I can have a couple of extra tools. You only need 4 Ascetics to get all your Awestones. There are 2 phantoms who respawn 12 times each per cycle starting on NG+. They are I had another thought in addition to my above recommendation. If you just want to have one halberd on you, have you picked up a Syan's Halberd? It drops from the knight guys in Drangleic. It also gets part of the spear moveset, the 1H and 2H light attacks. I fought a guy with one of these last night a couple times, and he gave me a ton of problems, as he was one of the only people I fought who could match my reach. Maybe worth upgrading as a backup to swap in if you see a Santier's.

Hipster Lovecraft. "I stared into the unknowable abyss before it was cool."

I did that the very first time through, but having gone through it with multiple characters now, I realized that lifegems exist for a reason and don't need to be hoarded. I would only break a few pots, usually near enemies or ledges I needed to drop off of. When I get poisoned, pop two lifegems and carry on. It makes the area much faster and less drudgerous. Thanks for the tips on the Monastery Scimitar. I was trying to either do direct damage with my whips, or use a whip to bait a roll, then try to catch them with another weapon as they came out of the roll animation. The timing wasn't working out the best though. I'm almost certainly spoiled right now with my build against certain classes. I was using combinations of Heide Lance, Great Lance, Helix Halberd, Channeler's Trident, Mastadon Halberd and my whips. I stopped using some of these combinations in DragonBro fights, it just didn't feel fair on NG (probably different on NG+). But in the BoB, probably 80 percent of the fights are against other people who can wreck you in a matter of seconds if you aren't careful. So I don't feel bad about using them there. The dual Spear moveset just seems to do a great job against Santier's, they are long enough to poke them and break their combo. I take a hit, but only one or two. And then my recovery to hit again is faster than the Santier's recovery. Once most of their health is gone, they inevitably panic and pull out the Avelyn. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM DID THIS. Which is laughable against an opponent with most of his health intact. I've also used my pair of Spotted Whips on Santier's before. Again, I'm liable to get hit doing it, but once poison is stacked on them and their combo is broken, they either foolishly press the attack until they are out of stamina, or try to run away to heal. Either way results in me being able to kill them. Running dual Lances is my new favorite thing. That shit is hilarious and awesome. Slightly slower and more stamina use than the Spear moveset, but otherwise similar. That 160 counter damage with the Old Leo Ring on is godly. If the L1 poke hits, then immediately do an R2, which does the "charge" move but with no warmup animation. Even if the person rolls backwards, the charge length is long enough to tag them again at the end of the roll. That combo 2-shot quite a few people. But other than whips and spear movesets, I'm not sure what a good counter to Santier's is. You're still using Halberds right? If you see an opponent with Santier's on, you could just quickly change your loadout to include the Helix for that fight. If you try it, I suggest infusing the Helix Raw. It's scaling is total shite, you pick up an extra 15 or so points of damage with it raw versus normal. Not a lot, but no reason not to. It's taken my weight higher than I would have liked, but I'm loving running with the Rebel Greatshield as well. A +10 Dark Rebel blocks 100 Dark, about 90 all other elements with a 73 stability. Watching Hexers panic as you rush them is ridiculously satisfying. I've had to trade down to slightly lighter armor to make it work, but totally worth it. Oh man, speaking of great shields. I actually fought a guy wielding power stanced shields last night (there is one pair in the game that allows this). Met the same guy twice. It's pretty amazing to watch someone work that combination. I beat him both times, but the first time he rolled off a bridge. Second time it came down to which of us got the last hit in. You didn't notice the real boss of that fight?

I spent some time in the BoB dueling in their arena tonight. That's an interesting experience. I was actually surprised at the diversity of builds, from the Internet, I had been led to believe it would be nothing but hex spam, Monastery Scimitars, Avelyns and Santier's Spears. I did see all those things, but only once every 5 or 6 matches. The rest were filled with a diverse and interesting set of builds. And most of them were pretty good. And even the OP stuff wasn't that bad to deal with. Santier's is a whirlwind of death the first few times you run into it, but once you have a feel for it, you can manage that fight. I took a +10 Rebel's Greatshield with me, which nicely counters pretty much all magic in one shield. Once I was on a mage, I could go back to power stancing, and dodge everything short range. The Monastery Scimitar was by far the most frustrating thing, I had never fought someone using one of those. Other than using non-parryable weapons, I'm still not sure what to do about it. It was fun even though I probably got my ass handed to me as many times as I won. Certainly a different vibe than the Dragonbros.

Dual whips are the coolest moveset, no question. The Old Whip is a random item you can get from the crows for stones. Petrified Somethings have about a 1-in-7 chance (there are 7 items Petrified Somethings will get you), Smooth have about a 5-10 percent chance of getting you one of the Petrified items and Small Stones have a very small chance to get you one of the 7 Petrified items. I have farmed the hell out of Smooth Stones with the small summon sign on this character to get dual Channeler's Tridents and dual Old Whips, like turned in several hundred stones to get them. I just picked areas to farm where it's very fast to complete a small summon session so I can crank out a bunch in a row. Heide Tower early is good, the long hallway in the Undead Crypt is another good one. From the start of Iron Keep to the Smelter door isn't bad.

Yep, all of them are. My experience so far: Spotted Whips: Fantastic! Being able to proc poison in a single strike is crazy useful, even in PvE. Old Whips: Made of tissue paper, but hit like a falling piano. Only useful against some bosses and PvP. Bloodied whips: Best all around whip, but a rare drop. Less damage than Old Whip, but durability will actually last for awhile. Whip: Meh Notched Whip: Terrible? I think. I may end up Asceticing that bonfire to get another one and see if two of them full upgraded on a 40 Dex character are actually interesting.

According to that, y'all, youse and yinz all derive from the same Scots-Irish source. I never would have guessed that.

I actually didn't realize it worked that way. I had just assumed that if you had a bloodstain out, and you died, you lost it even with the ring on. That does mean that there isn't the ring downside to it. Doing PvP with a bow is surprisingly entertaining. It's usually not been enough alone to win, but it's a fun way to mix things up. Do you have a Greatbow? It's loads of fun in PvP even when I lose. The key is patience. Once you're holding your shot, you can't move but you automatically pivot with the target you are locked onto (and it's a fast pivot). So you just hold the shot until an opening arises. A mage will start casting or a melee fighter will try to roll into you, and you just release right as their attacking and blast them. The shot knocks them to the ground, which isn't necessarily enough time to fully regen your stamina bar, but you get enough back to prime another shot. It's fun to watch people try and figure out how to handle you, especially once you've already knocked them down once. For my whip character I got a pair of Spotted Whips (Asceticed the boss again to get a second one), and farmed enough bone to upgrade both. A single L2 power stance attack has so far automatically procced poison on everyone I've hit it with. Then I switch to my regular whips and just harass them as their health drains.

Yep, critical damage (shield break, riposte, backstab) seems to be a seperate hidden modifier. Something like a dagger will kill you or cripple you on a backstab. Counter damage is most important for Spears, Lances and Daggers. Though don't discount the value of the Old Leo Ring if you're using a thrusting damage weapon. It only applies to counter hits, so you want to focus on catching enemies in an animation. The high level Lances with the 160 counter rating are deliciously powerful if you catch an enemy with it. Did you, or a phantom if you summoned one, get cursed? Lots of enemies have very rare combos or attacks that seem to be more likely to occur on NG+, in the Company of Champions or if the right condition is met otherwise.

Sorry, was super tired and paranoid about giving away my secret weapon, which is silly. The combination is the Helix Halberd and any other Halberd you want to use. Mastodon is obvious candidate, with Black Knight next. The Helix Halberd is a unique weapon, it has moves in the halberd and spear sets, plus a couple of unique moves. But power stanced with the Helix in your right hand and the other in your left, you get the fucking Spear moveset. Which is nuts. Vice versa (helix left, halberd right), you get the regular halberd moveset. There are several problems with the spear movest and halberds. One is that the Helix gets a unique attack where the head splits open and a spike shoots out. If you hit at just the right range, this does ridiculous damage, like easily double damage. But it only happens with the R2 normally. It's got a slow wind up animation and can be dodged. Power stanced, the special attack goes off with L1, so there's not windup. You get the Helix's uber attack with no penalty. Halberds big downside are that you need to hit with the blade, if you're too close, you hit with the halt and do half damage. Not if you're using it as a spear. The blade always hits first. Halberds also get much higher poise damage, the Helix has 35 and the Mastodon has 40, compared to the 20 of spears. So you're going to stagger a lot more enemies out of their attacks than with spears. And the other combinations that can do major damage (double Ultra weapons) aren't as fast as the spear moveset. So you'll both take a hit, both stagger, but the spears will get the next attack in before the Ultras will. Dodging power stanced spears is hard. It takes only the tiniest mistake and you've been jabbed. Spears depend on counter damage to get great damage, but halberds just dish out a ton of damage no matter what. So the problem is that you get the raw power of halberds with the speed and hard to dodge moveset of spears. This is the same problem as Santier's Spear. It's a halberd that is better than every single Twinblade in the game, rendering an entire weapon class worthless other than personal preference. The Helix halberd does the same thing to spears. If you're interested in power stancing the most powerful spears, your choice is clearly a pair of halberds. Which is fucked. Then with this combo you also get access to 3 movesets. You've got the regular halberd, Helix halberd and spear. So you can switch between the three to keep your opponent on their toes. Throw on a whip or two for people who are fishing for parries and you've got a killer combination. I used the Soul Protection ring during my first playthrough some, and have by and large avoided it ever since, although I do where it once in awhile while dueling when I'm practicing with new weapons so I can save my effigies at the cost of souls. It is balanced in a way. 3K per break can add up to a lot of you're dying a fair amount. And that fourth ring slot can be a necessity for some builds. But I've mostly come around to your way of thinking, that it breaks one of the core elements of a Souls game without having a high enough cost or tradeoff on it. Was it a summoned Blue, or was it an avenging blue spirit come to invade the world of the guilty (the host)?

It's a twink, someone who maintains and intentional low level and runs through the game to get the best gear and upgrade, then invades low level people and destroys them. DS2 has tried to fix this by implementing Soul Memory, which is your total accumulated souls, whether spent, lost or held. And that's all that's used for matchmaking, not level at all. It stopped twinks, but it brought its own problems as well.

I found a nuclear combination of melee weapons tonight. Like when I started with them, most fights ended in less than 10 seconds, and usually 2 hits, maybe 3. On one hand, it's really neat to come with a combination of weapons that I've never seen anyone else run before, and have them do so well. I ought to be excited about it, but it's also kind of gross to know that I might have found the next Santier's Spear uber-weapon. Actually, I destroyed two Spear wielders with it, not even a competition. The only weakness I can think of is that you can be parried. I won 17 of 18 matches, and then just started using my whips, but kept my nukes in my back pocket. If anyone else pulled out a nuke (Avelyn, high power hexes, Santier's, Dark Fog, etc), then I'd switch to my nuke, and usually still win.

All that really depends. I don't consume souls as a general principal now. I want to keep my Soul Memory as low as possible to stay in certain PvP tiers for as long as possible (all matching is based on total Soul Memory, not your Level). However, if you aren't doing a lot of PvP or don't care, then munch away. You can get all the boss souls again in NG+, or you can respawn ANY boss with a Bonfire Ascetic to fight them again and get the soul again. Boss weapons are all over the board in terms of whether they are useful or not. Some seem like trash, others are top tier weapons. Many of them require specific builds to use, because they may have an ultra high stat requirement, or requirements in 4 different stats. It's hard to know if you'll like one or not until you've bought and used it. On my first playthrough I bought every single one just to try out once. One thing to know when looking at them is that they almost universally have trash stats at base level. But they level up significantly more than regular weapons weapons, so they do become a lot more powerful. I really can't suggest which souls to keep, it depends so much on what you want to play. The only one I think is useful for most builds is the Dragonrider Bow. You can get it crazy early, and it packs a bigger punch than any bow that you are going to see for a long time, even if you never upgrade it. It hits like a truck with the right stats and upgraded, though it requires a Str/Int build to pull that off. NG+ is mostly just harder, enemies have more health and do more damage. But there are other changes! Some treasure is different, many bosses drop new items and there are new enemies, sometimes in very surprising locations. The new enemies are the thing most likely to get you killed. I've Bonfire Asceticed a couple of bonfires and got killed right around the first corner because I wasn't expecting anything to be there. Good rule of thumb, if you are in an area and there are a lot of bloodstains but no enemies, then one of two things is happening. Either it is a high level fight club area, or it's an area where new enemies spawn on NG+.

Man, I was just scanning the thread to see if anyone else thought that. Check out Serious Cooper for a comparison: