Sully907

Dark Souls(Demon's Souls successor)

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I've always loathed the movesets of the Falchion and Rapier. Just didn't sit well with me, while Uchigatana carried me all the way from undead burg to the end of the game. It just felt great to use. 

My second run was using Zwiehander which I loved too, but it was an entirely different play style. Strength weapons are the best.

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Get yourself a great scythe, put all your points into dex and two-hand that puppy. The 2h R2 is, in the parlance of Unreal Tournament, WICKED SICK

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I've never done an int/dex build but I think the way to do it is to keep the weapon normal and then apply some of the really powerful magic weapon buffs.

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I mostly want to kill the bridge dragon to see what's on the other side.

 

Alright, I'll abandon my dream of building a weapon that scales well with both int and dex. This'll probably mean I'll stop putting points into int soon, as there is apparently a ceiling on its effectiveness based on the catalyst.

 

I'm not having a lot of problems with health or stamina, actually, and haven't put a lot of points into either (health's at around 700, stamina at 100). Generally I'm dying because I'm not working out a good approach, not because I'm running out of stamina or I've let through one too many hits - my stamina management is reasonable against NPCs, though if I get invaded I'm probably screwed.

 

Boss discussion:

The last time I got seriously stuck was against the Capra Demon, mostly because you really don't get a lot of time to get out of its way and it's extremely dicey until you kill the dogs. The Gaping Dragon and Quelaag both took me only a couple of tries. I really don't like the look of the Hydra.

 

At this point I'm reluctant to sink too much into more health - getting enough souls for a level up seems so expensive that when it happens I'm looking to dull some of the pain. It seems like a better use of my souls to reinforce armour, invest in carrying capacity so I can keep my "heavy" armour and free up a ring slot (which does improve stamina), or buy spell slots, or maybe more damage (I'm doing enough damage to stagger enemies with two hits, which feels like it's in a good place, but damage is good). I'm sure there'll be a point where I look at my health and think 'that could be higher' but health doesn't seem like a huge asset for boss fights compared to damage. Getting hit is usually bad enough that it seems much less expensive to try and make the fight shorter than make it possible to survive more hits before using a flask. (Although more health for aforementioned nasty-looking boss would probably be a goer.)

 

Having explored a little further, Sen's Fortress seems like the right call, although I've found what looks like the better entrance to the Valley of Drakes and it's achievable. Still, the amount of stuff I've found in Sen's Fortress speaks volumes.

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You don't need to kill him (the Hellkite Drake) to do that.

Go up the stairs to the brige, cross to the other side, wait a while and see what happens.

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I found that my deaths were inevitably from running out of stamina, so if you're not struggling with that, then there's no need to fill up there. Health was a nice bonus, but I agree, generally if you get hit, you're going to die anyway. I just liked to have enough that I could take 2 hits without dying. Gave me some wiggle room to make a couple of mistakes.

 

Sen's Fortress is the worst part of Dark Souls for me. There's one section that I just could not fucking do.

 

The last set of swinging axes killed me so many times.

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I love Sen's Fortress so much.  You die in some bullshit ways, for sure, but man is it such a good area. 

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You should definitely head for Sen's Fortress. If you get really frustrated with it or the area that follows it, you could poke around the Catacombs, but the item you get in the area past Sen's will make play much more pleasant.

A spoilered Sen's tip:

Listen for a hidden bonfire.

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I love Sen's Fortress so much.  You die in some bullshit ways, for sure, but man is it such a good area. 

It is amazing. When I think about Dark Souls two places pop into my head. Sen's Fortress and Anor Londo are just glorious places.

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Conversely, I think my two favourite areas might be the Undead Burg and Blighttown. I prefer darker, more confined areas. Anor Londo has a lot of amazing stuff going on, but I tend to relax going through it, instead of being on a knife-edge. Sen's Fortress strikes a good balance between the two

 

Edit: It occurs to me that Dark Souls has more than enough dark, confined spaces and that Anor Londo serves to break this up and "broadens" the world some. It's appreciated when it comes, for sure.

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I meant to mention this earlier, I think my distaste for New Londo is entirely rooted in my first playthrough, where it was just a nightmare for me to get through.  My character wasn't built as well as it could have been, I didn't have as many of the temp curse items as I needed.  It was just a disaster.  On replays, I still find it to be incredibly stressful because I remember what it was like the first time.

 

I am in the minority of really liking Blighttown, stutter and all. 

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Really the only place I didn't like was the lava area with the huge monsters around.

Everywhere else is great, and they all have their individual charms, but Sens and Anor Londo stand out for me. I just loved the grandure of Anor Londo, the mechanisms and obviously the greatest boss in Dark Souls.

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Everywhere else is great, and they all have their individual charms, but Sens and Anor Londo stand out for me. I just loved the grandure of Anor Londo, the mechanisms and obviously the greatest boss in Dark Souls.

 

I agree about Anor Londo. The closest that I get to smug gamer superiority is listening to Justin McElroy's "Anor Londo: A Musical Tribute," because I had an amazing time there and meanwhile he's complaining about how hard it is to beat using that goddamn Drake Sword.

 

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I actually just hate Sen's Fortress altogether. It's boring to look at and it's annoying to play through.

 

I realize I'm the minority, but ugh it's just the worst area in the game. Well, except the poison swamp. And maybe blighttown, although that's easy once you know what you're doing. Although so is Sen's Fortress. So uh whatever.

 

I would love Blighttown if it wasn't so annoyingly dark. I can't stand dark areas. New Londo is sort of too dark but it's also slimy so you get lots of light reflection so it's not as dark as it at first appears to be. Not that Blighttown is actually that dark, either, but it's dark enough.

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Honestly so far my least favourite area was the Depths. Lots of one-way drops and nasty surprises. I'd imagine Blighttown would have been pretty bad without my extra toxin resistance but it had striking visual design and that matters a lot.

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Yeah that's my problem with Blighttown. It'd look fantastic if I could actually see it. ):

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Y'all are all wrong. The worst area is clearly the Great Hollow.

 

Been getting the urge to replay this lately. Need an interesting build to spice things up, though.

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Yeah that's my problem with Blighttown. It'd look fantastic if I could actually see it. ):

 

I liked seeing the glimpses of it and assembling what it must look like in my own head.

 

I'm doing that for the world map, as well, and it's amazing how much a world that, to be honest, looks pretty bland, benefits from being built in a way where you can see how all the various areas interconnect.

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I've been trying a permadeath run (Zweihander plus Sunbro armour) and my biggest obstacle isn't so much bosses as it is my tendency to play like a berserker against normal enemies. I keep dying in stupid easy places because I'm not used to having to be careful against random hollows (normally I'd rather play fast and loose and make the occasional easy corpse-run). I've sunk a few hours into it, died a bunch of times, and I think I'll give it a few more hours to try to unlearn my bad habits. Is there anyone else that's tried permadeath that can offer some advice?

PS: If I get that far, I have no idea how I'm going to deal with those two archers in Anor Londo (you know the two). I might have to pick up the Hidden Body ring, does that have enough range to be useful?

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I've been trying a permadeath run (Zweihander plus Sunbro armour) and my biggest obstacle isn't so much bosses as it is my tendency to play like a berserker against normal enemies. I keep dying in stupid easy places because I'm not used to having to be careful against random hollows (normally I'd rather play fast and loose and make the occasional easy corpse-run). I've sunk a few hours into it, died a bunch of times, and I think I'll give it a few more hours to try to unlearn my bad habits. Is there anyone else that's tried permadeath that can offer some advice?

PS: If I get that far, I have no idea how I'm going to deal with those two archers in Anor Londo (you know the two). I might have to pick up the Hidden Body ring, does that have enough range to be useful?

The ring of fog won't help at all for just running up to them, but it would probably make it a lot easier to pull off the poison arrow strategy.

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Since no one else has said it, it's not worth it to try and take out the Bridge Wyvern. You have to cheese it unless you wear a bunch of special equipment, it's not a fun or challenging fight, and you only get 10,000 souls from it, which is chump change by the time that you're high enough level to try and kill it. If you're a maniac, like me, then wait until you're near the end of the game and fill him full of 150-damage arrows, but until then, give it a pass, for real.

 

 

The best are maybe Magic Falchion, Velka's Rapier, and Painted Guardian Sword. The rapier is the best on paper, but Dark Souls is almost always more about the moveset, anyway. None of them are stupendous, certainly not compared to getting forty dexterity behind an S-ranked weapon, but a lot of your damage is coming from spells if you're boosting intelligence, too, so it's not a wash by any means.

 

I did well with a Magic Rapier. It might not have been the best option available, but I really liked the move set and I was able to surprise a couple of invaders with my melee damage when after they thought I was all magic spells.

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I've been trying a permadeath run (Zweihander plus Sunbro armour) and my biggest obstacle isn't so much bosses as it is my tendency to play like a berserker against normal enemies. I keep dying in stupid easy places because I'm not used to having to be careful against random hollows (normally I'd rather play fast and loose and make the occasional easy corpse-run). I've sunk a few hours into it, died a bunch of times, and I think I'll give it a few more hours to try to unlearn my bad habits. Is there anyone else that's tried permadeath that can offer some advice?

PS: If I get that far, I have no idea how I'm going to deal with those two archers in Anor Londo (you know the two). I might have to pick up the Hidden Body ring, does that have enough range to be useful?

That sounds like a fun challenge. Like Lork said, poison arrows are probably your best bet for the archers. I'd be wary of using Solaire's armor with the Zwei though, does it have enough poise? I've tried to do O&S with a fastrolling Zwei character and it's pretty tough because it's so easy to get your attacks interrupted.

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I'd be wary of using Solaire's armor with the Zwei though, does it have enough poise? I've tried to do O&S with a fastrolling Zwei character and it's pretty tough because it's so easy to get your attacks interrupted.

 

Having beaten them with a lightly-armoured slow-weapon character before, I didn't find poise to be an issue. Not because I had enough to tank their attacks, but because I wasn't getting hit mid-attack. I'd run around in circles until their pathing worked out such that Orenstein was in my face with Smough far behind, hit Orenstein once, repeat. Once you're down to electro-Smough, if you keep a pillar behind him and you, he's completely harmless and you can just wait for the pattern that leaves him exposed for several seconds during which you run in, score a few hits, then retreat back to the safety of the intervening pillar.

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I have 179 hours on Dark Souls, and I just figured this out. Equipment in slots you're not currently wielding counts towards equipment load. If you're currently two-handing your slot 1 sword, then your encumberance counts your slot 1 sword, slot 2 sword, slot 1 shield and slot 2 shield.

 

Am I the only one this slow? Was the system obvious to everyone else?

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I have 179 hours on Dark Souls, and I just figured this out. Equipment in slots you're not currently wielding counts towards equipment load. If you're currently two-handing your slot 1 sword, then your encumberance counts your slot 1 sword, slot 2 sword, slot 1 shield and slot 2 shield.

 

Am I the only one this slow? Was the system obvious to everyone else?

 

for me it was, though I pretty consistently tried to be fastrolling, so I was paying attention to it a lot.

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