Nick Plays FROM; Currently - Bloodborne

[SuperBiasedMan]

I found him not too hard because I was probably overlevelled a bit, a quick dex build and I had a good healing trick.

 

Spoilers in case Nick doesn't want it I guess, though I don't know if it works for other builds.

 

 

I'd literally sprint away behind geommetry so he got stuck attacking it while I estused. I usually got one drink down without taking a hit.

[Problem Machine]

 

2 hours ago, Nick Breckon said:

Also, I really don't think it should ever be that hard to heal in a boss fight. Maybe if it's a short one, or has some other trick to it. But not the final boss.

I think making an enemy so aggressive that healing is difficult is a cool change of pace, but odd to introduce on the last boss fight. I suppose black knights and balders have the same tendency to punish estus by rushing you down, but they're easier to get away from, and in Balder's case don't do nearly enough damage to actually dissuade the chug. I think it's fine that they made that choice for the boss fight, but it's a bit fucked that they then gave such a wonky arena to do it in. If the pillars behaved more predictably, like the ones in the O+S fight, it wouldn't be such a big deal. Also, oddly, the unevenness of the floor means that a lot of his attacks just straight-up MISS, which is nice sometimes but also makes it even harder to come up with a consistent plan. I think there needed to be a tighter communication loop between art, design, and QA for that fight.

20 minutes ago, SuperBiasedMan said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I'd literally sprint away behind geommetry so he got stuck attacking it while I estused. I usually got one drink down without taking a hit.

 

That's basically what he's been doing, just having a hard time getting it consistent since the pillars are so uneven and some of Gwyn's animations are so wonky -- and he has to get it VERY consistent, since the calamity ring leaves a very small margin of error.

[eot]

In a more normal play through his attacks don't really neutralize your healing though, because you typically heal a lot more health than he deals damage. So it's more of a thing of making your heals less efficient.

[Nick Breckon]

4 minutes ago, eot said:

In a more normal play through his attacks don't really neutralize your healing though, because you typically heal a lot more health than he deals damage. So it's more of a thing of making your heals less efficient.

 

Yeah. I have to remind myself that if I'd beaten this guy in three tries (I still think I might have gotten him in one) I would not be complaining about it at all. Still. Their design intention was clearly to create a lengthy final boss fight, so some of this stuff remains disappointing. 

 

But. I will triumph today, regardless. 

[SL128]

At this point, there are 1 or 2 Firekeeper souls you can get to improve your flask (which I strongly recommend you do).  I also still recommend going to the Undead Asylum to trade for another FaP.

[Nick Breckon]

Just now, SL128 said:

At this point, there are 1 or 2 Firekeeper souls you can get to improve your flask (which I strongly recommend you do).  I also still recommend going to the Undead Asylum to trade for another FaP.

 

Yeah, okay, I will start the stream by doing this stuff. 

[SuperBiasedMan]

One of the fire keeper souls is a bit awkward to get depending on if you got a key in the Duke's Archives. The other is easy to get, you can warp right to it and just need to kill an NPC. (Chat might just call you a monster for NPC killing)

[Problem Machine]

58 minutes ago, SuperBiasedMan said:

One of the fire keeper souls is a bit awkward to get depending on if you got a key in the Duke's Archives. The other is easy to get, you can warp right to it and just need to kill an NPC. (Chat might just call you a monster for NPC killing)

(we will)

[Dewar]

Wow, so much progress so quick. I'm way behind in streams.

[TychoCelchuuu]

https://clips.twitch.tv/idlethumbs/ThoughtfulBarracudaBORT

[SuperBiasedMan]

This clip thing is great.

https://clips.twitch.tv/idlethumbs/GorgeousHeronOSsloth

[Kyir]

https://clips.twitch.tv/idlethumbs/ZanyTermitePanicVis

 

Spoilers inside

[SL128]

Now that you're somewhat interested in it, Nick, here's a video from Dan Floyd of Extra Credits on the lore of DS1.  I think it's really worth watching for greater contextualization of everything you've experienced over the past two weeks (information starts at 2:39 for those interested enough).

 

 

There is also one terrible habit you have that will destroy you in Dark Souls 2. You have the tendency to never want to leave an area/boss once you've started it, even if you're not ready or could spend 5 minutes getting better equipment.  Dark Souls 2's structure, essentially, is a hub with four main paths sprouting out, each of which has a few branches to other paths.  It is expected that once you beat a zone, you relocate and make progress in another path before returning.  In Dark Souls 1, it's fine if you move from the Duke's Archives to the Crystal Caves immediately, but those decisions can run you into a wall in Dark Souls 2.

 

Feeona also ran into more crazy nonsense.

[TychoCelchuuu]

1 hour ago, SL128 said:

Feeona also ran into more crazy nonsense.

Jesus, Feeona, are you gonna get a job as a QA tester after this or what? It's your natural calling, clearly.

[Problem Machine]

Ah crudbucket just realized I didn't have notifications on for Feeona's streams which explains why I haven't been getting any notifications. Oops.

[Feeona]

ARGH, I AM SO MAD THAT I DIDN'T STREAM LATER SO I COULD SEE NICK WIN.  

 

Congratulations Nick!  I just saw the replay and even though I knew the outcome I was so so happy for you! The elation in chat was AMAZING.  I may only have 56 bits left but at that moment I would've thrown them all at you.

 

And yes, it is my new ability to glitch the shit out of Dark Souls.  I am proud.

[eot]

Good job, skeleton

4 hours ago, SL128 said:

There is also one terrible habit you have that will destroy you in Dark Souls 2. You have the tendency to never want to leave an area/boss once you've started it, even if you're not ready or could spend 5 minutes getting better equipment.  Dark Souls 2's structure, essentially, is a hub with four main paths sprouting out, each of which has a few branches to other paths.  It is expected that once you beat a zone, you relocate and make progress in another path before returning.  In Dark Souls 1, it's fine if you move from the Duke's Archives to the Crystal Caves immediately, but those decisions can run you into a wall in Dark Souls 2.

Not sure I agree entirely. I think there's only one or two of those places where you might want to come back later.

 

Lost Bastille if you do it right after Pursuer, or Iron Keep if you get there early too.

Even then they're very doable. Besides, doesn't SotFS gate your progress more with the things (you know what I mean)? I also read that you get the Dull ember super early. It's good to keep the fact that you always have multiple ways to go in the back of your head, I just don't think that every time you make progress you should immediately think to go somewhere else.

[Cbirdsong]

Yeah, I definitely didn't have that experience in Scholar, except for Lost Bastille via Pursuer. I did everything else on a single trip down each spoke. Iron Keep was rough, but wasn't impossible.

 

 

 

Edited December 9, 2016 by Cbirdsong
I can't figure out how to do real spoiler tags

[eot]

When did Nick see vagrants? I watched most of his play through but not all :/

 

Also Nick, any chance of starting earlier today?

 

Btw, I'm gonna disagree about Gwyn being a bad boss. The columns should work more consistently, I'll give Nick that, but I don't think there's any issue with his animations or moveset. Nick's right that Gwyn's attack patterns are unpredictable, however if you pay attention to the animations you'll always see what attack he's doing. You do have to consciously study the boss (which I think Nick said he doesn't like to do). Bad bosses are ones like Centipede Demon where the camera makes it so you can't see what's going on, or Bed of Chaos where things will just randomly kill you. In the end I think Nick showed that the Gwyn fight simply comes down to having good enough execution. Personally those are the bosses I enjoy. It would have been the exact same if he'd tried fighting Manus with the ring on.

[Problem Machine]

eot, I am a huge Dark Souls boss apologist but Gwyn has Issues. The biggest issue is that some of his attacks have absurd tracking, most notably the 2nd hit thrust and 3rd hit overhead sweep. Thrusts are, in the design of Dark Souls, consistently code for 'powerful, long ranged attack, vulnerable to lateral dodging', so giving an enemy a thrust that can track 135 degrees right up until the moment of impact is horseshit. The overhead sweep is also an attack usually coded to be vulnerable to lateral dodging, yet we saw Nick multiple times do a roll that took him directly BEHIND Gwyn only to have him turn 180 in the middle of the attack animation and land the attack. Plus I think it's super questionable to have the floor of the room in the final boss battle be subtly sloped just enough that he misses 30% of his attacks!

 

It's a beautifully conceived boss and not without its good points, but it's hard to pretend there's not some bullshit in that fight

[SL128]

1 hour ago, eot said:

When did Nick see vagrants? I watched most of his play through but not all :/

They were both runs to Gwyn in the second to last stream (parts 11 and 12, but I think only 12).  I think the second happened over an hour before he stopped.

9 hours ago, eot said:

Good job, skeleton

Not sure I agree entirely. I think there's only one or two of those places where you might want to come back later.

  Reveal hidden contents

Lost Bastille if you do it right after Pursuer, or Iron Keep if you get there early too.

Even then they're very doable. Besides, doesn't SotFS gate your progress more with the things (you know what I mean)? I also read that you get the Dull ember super early. It's good to keep the fact that you always have multiple ways to go in the back of your head, I just don't think that every time you make progress you should immediately think to go somewhere else.

It is an exaggeration as far as pure difficulty goes, but the game has a ridiculous and unenjoyable curve if you don't swap paths for a while.

[eot]

20 minutes ago, Problem Machine said:

eot, I am a huge Dark Souls boss apologist but Gwyn has Issues. The biggest issue is that some of his attacks have absurd tracking, most notably the 2nd hit thrust and 3rd hit overhead sweep. Thrusts are, in the design of Dark Souls, consistently code for 'powerful, long ranged attack, vulnerable to lateral dodging', so giving an enemy a thrust that can track 135 degrees right up until the moment of impact is horseshit. The overhead sweep is also an attack usually coded to be vulnerable to lateral dodging, yet we saw Nick multiple times do a roll that took him directly BEHIND Gwyn only to have him turn 180 in the middle of the attack animation and land the attack. Plus I think it's super questionable to have the floor of the room in the final boss battle be subtly sloped just enough that he misses 30% of his attacks!

 

It's a beautifully conceived boss and not without its good points, but it's hard to pretend there's not some bullshit in that fight

I didn't see the overhead track that insanely (I'll take your word for it) but I did see the thrust track. Yeah I'm not a fan of tracking either, that's actually my biggest problem with DS2. I've had enemies, not even bosses, do leaping attacks that track 180, and in general everyone behaves like they're on a turntable. Anyway, I guess I'm just reacting to the fact that Nick complains about missing/getting hit quite often even though it was a fair shot

[Problem Machine]

My experience with attacks in DS2 is that they have a windup phase and then an attack phase. They track VERY well during the windup phase and basically not at all during the attack phase. Leaping attacks are kind of interesting in DS2, because they're one of the attacks that you can manually input the direction of, so it's possible they're notably weird. And yeah, not all of the attacks Nick complains about are BS, but I think more of his complaints were valid during that fight than usual.

[Nappi]

Nick's Dark Soul streams were a weird emotional rollercoaster. I felt really bad watching him be destroyed by the two bosses. Consequently, I was really happy for him when he finally beat them the next day. Most of the time, I felt incredulous about Nick being a real person.

 

Nick, you are good content.

[Sora]

Wizard build for DS2?