Dark Souls 2 (Dark Souls successor (Demon's Souls successor))

[Gormongous]

I've also read that arena fights and invasions are counted separately, two different tallies building towards the possibility of covenant progression.

That is absolutely ridiculous, i'll never get that great chaos fireball.

 

It really feels like someone accidentally added an extra 0 to the requirements for the third tier of the covenant.

[Dewar]

I still have not been summoned a single time by the Blue Sentinels, and I have the ring on most of the time I guess there just aren't enough invasions to go around? I've only had 4 so far myself.

[Sno]

It's a curious thing, right? I don't think anything's broken, the multiplayer definitely works, the PVP areas definitely work with no problems, i don't really ever see failed connections or anything like that. (Summon signs don't work sometimes, but i'm pretty it's just the players on the other end cancelling the sign or being summoned by somebody else. If i hit one as soon as it appears, it pretty much always goes through.)

So why don't invasions happen? Did pulling out the humanities system affect balance in such a way that people don't feel like they need to conduct invasions anymore? What do you even get for invading people in DS2?

I've literally not been invaded a single time outside of the PVP areas, and i have probably a good fifty hours in the game.

Opening up region restrictions in the options might help out, i guess.

[bkbroiler]

My guess is that everyone is doing the Bell covenant stuff instead of invading, because it is faster, easier, and the rewards are better. 

[Dewar]

Ah, that's a good point. I've pretty much gotten invaded within 10 seconds every time I step in the door. I ended up putting down a summoning sign right inside the door so I could jump in and help others that are getting rocked by those guys.

 

Edit: Time to look up boss soul weapons. So far, nothing awe-inspiring.

[Bjorn]

You'll see a lot more invasions once you move to NG+.  There are a limited number of Cracked Red/Blue Eye Orbs in NG (maybe two to three dozen each with lucky drops).  The only way to reliably get them in NG is to duel in the respective arenas for the Red/Blue Covenants.  Unfortunately, the dueling arenas seem to either have a huge, or nonexistent, Soul Memory range.  So if you are at SM 200K and want to get some invading in early, you're going to run out of orbs quickly.  And then you're probably not going to be able to get more, as you'll be going up against SM 1 Million+ characters in the arena with much better stats, spells and equipment, guaranteeing that you'll lose a majority of the time.

 

I think they fucked up with invasions.  I don't necessarily want to see constant invasions, but I certainly want to see more than I am.  I just created a new character last night and intend on actually doing some early area invasions with whatever Cracked Red Eye Orbs I can find, since there are lots of people that actually want to be invaded occasionally.  Of course I'm not going to play fair, then I wouldn't be a red invader  .  I've only beat 3 bosses, and already have a Black Knight Halberd +2, will have it at +3 next time I play.  My SM right now is 126K, should be just over 150K by the time I reach the BoB and get the Twinkling Titanite to upgrade the Halberd to +3.  I'll only have about 10 Cracked Red Orbs, but it will be enough for a bit of fun.  Once I'm higher level, I'll switch over to the Sentinels and try invading sinners, as it will be much more appropriate to the theme of my character.

 

His name is Donatello:

 

[Sno]

Edit: Time to look up boss soul weapons. So far, nothing awe-inspiring.

That was the case in Dark Souls too, really.

It looks like some of the best shields are boss soul items, and there's some amazing spells to be had, but most of the weapons are pretty so so.

 

[eot]

I had one invasion when I went back to FoFG to kill the first Heide Knight, whom I ignored when I first went through there. Invasions have never been my favourite part of Dark Souls even though I tend to like non-consensual PVP. That said, I too kind of miss the red phantom invasions. The way PvP is set up in DkS2 isn't very interesting. They set up gank zones and the best way to deal with it is just to run in, die and do your business while the invasion is on cooldown. The darkwraiths in the first game added to the tension instead of adding tedium, and the hunt was more interesting than walking into a small boxing ring that is the Belfry Luna.

[Dewar]

That was the case in Dark Souls too, really.

It looks like some of the best shields are boss soul items, and there's some amazing spells to be had, but most of the weapons are pretty so so.

 

 

Hmm, looking through the wiki I guess you're right. The only ones I really wanted were the DLC ones.

[Bjorn]

Boss soul weapons in many cases are best of class weapons, or at least comparable to the best.  The problem is that they seem to be designed for very late game and NG+.  You're unlikely to have enough material to fully upgrade one until reaching a point where there are only 2 required bosses left.  And if you screw around upgrading a couple to +1 or +2, you'll have to burn Bonfire Ascetics to upgrade one all the way.

 

I honestly think the balance of upgrading Twinkling and Boss weapons is way off.  I can take some of the best regular weapons up to +10 as early as the Lost Bastille.  Most players have to wait until endgame to have a chance at fully upgrading either Twink/Boss ones (unless you are using Bonfire Ascetics), even though you can get many of them quite early.  It's just a really weird balance to me that you can have the weapon, but not the materials to upgrade them.  You can get a fair amount of Twinkling early, but you really have to know what the hell you are doing to pull it off, and use a Bonfire Ascetic.

[Sno]

That's kind of the point though, isn't it? The twinkling titanite items are supposed to be some of the best items in the game, and therefore require a little more work to upgrade.

 

The drangleic sword, in particular, has pretty wild potential for balanced builds.

[Bjorn]

I'm not saying you should be able to hit max level on the Twink/Boss weapons by the Lost Bastille, but it's weird to me that for many players, the option to fully upgrade one won't even be available until well after the two-thirds point of the game.  Twinkling isn't as bad as boss weapons.  But contrast this with DS1, where you could upgrade a Boss weapon to +4 as early as Sen's Fortress. 

[eot]

When you say before Lost Bastille, do you mean going there through the regular progression? Otherwise it's a bit meaningless, I mean you could technically do it as the fourth path couldn't you?

[Bjorn]

When you say before Lost Bastille, do you mean going there through the regular progression? Otherwise it's a bit meaningless, I mean you could technically do it as the fourth path couldn't you?

 

Yeah, as a standard progression.  Given that both of the areas that you can initially go each have a separate path that leads to the Bastille, I would assume that a majority of players would go through it as their 2nd or 4th area (either straight from the Forest, or through No Man's Wharf).  So just use that as shorthand for as soon as the 4th named area.

[eot]

Interesting, I must've missed some chunks then. Or maybe you mean farming them in the Belfry

[Bjorn]

Interesting, I must've missed some chunks then. Or maybe you mean farming them in the Belfry

 

 

Even people who are terrible at PvP can win in the Belfry at least 6 times, and you can get a slab there and a slab in the Bastille FoFG. 

 

In general, I just find the material upgrade progression to feel quite a bit different than DS1, accelerated in some ways and severely delayed in others, with neither being terribly satisfying to me.  Maybe saying it was way off was too strong, but it is different in a way that I wish it wasn't. 

[eot]

You can get a slab much earlier than that!

There's one in FoFG below the room with the ballistas, might be behind the pharros door.

You're right though, that is quite early to max out a weapon. I had a slower progression, because I never joined that covenant plus I upgraded two weapons so I was short on chunks for a long time. Even after I got them I kept my weapons at +8 until the last great soul. It felt like I was doing enough damage as it was.

 

If you go out of your way you can over-upgrade in Dark Souls too. On my second character I got a +15 weapon before fighting the Gargoyles, you only have to kill Capra to get the large ember and you can kill Ingward for the New Londo key to get the very large one.

[Bjorn]

Crap, I didn't mean Bastille, you named the one I meant. 

 

That fast tracking upgrading in DS1 is kind of what I mean though.  You had to really know what you were doing to pull that off, people weren't likely to stumble on it, whereas it's almost part of the natural path early on in DS1.  And there is no fast track for Boss Soul weapons, not even a hidden, expert path.  It just doesn't exist.  You can get 6 Twinkling Titanite pretty early, but then those dry up for awhile without Bonfire Ascetic use. 

 

Ugh, didn't really mean to go down this particular line of thought.  At any rate, I encourage people to take another look at the boss weapons once they are late game, there might be some surprises in there you don't notice at first glance.  To be fair, if you go back in this thread, I said that boss weapons were TERRIBLE the first time I commented on them.  It took awhile of playing before I realized what they were capable of.

 

 

 

I'm also a hair disappointed that no one commented on my Donatello

[Sno]

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

 

I set Navlaan free.

All those developer signs on the ground warning me to not throw the switch, how could i comply?

Apparently, for the rest of the game, i can now expect to enjoy like a dozen different invasions from the guy, and i miss out on a bunch of items from him. I would have really liked having the dispelling ring.

That is the first time i feel like the game has screwed me over in a fashion similar to what the first game would have happily done. I'm kind of glad From still had it in them, but god dammit i'm frustrated.

[Reyturner]

^

I also freed him by accident and just immediately killed him. I never saw him again.

[bkbroiler]

Did the game get patched or something? I stopped this morning right in front of a boss door, then loaded up the game tonight and fought the boss. In the middle of the fight I realized two of my spells came unattuned somehow.

 

Now I'm looking at the travel screen and there are a bunch of ??? bonfires listen on it. So strange. 

[Bjorn]

Did the game get patched or something? I stopped this morning right in front of a boss door, then loaded up the game tonight and fought the boss. In the middle of the fight I realized two of my spells came unattuned somehow.

 

Now I'm looking at the travel screen and there are a bunch of ??? bonfires listen on it. So strange. 

 

What boss (spoiler if need be)?  Past a certain point, the travel screen actually shows you all the bonfires you are missing with the ??? on them.   As for the attunement slots, are you sure you didn't have a piece of gear on giving them, and accidentally swapped it out?   There are both hats and rings that give slots.

 

I tried to be an invader tonight, and I just don't have it in me.  I like it when I run into someone comparable who gives me a good fight, but then I feel terrible when I hit someone who is clearly not ready to face PC invaders and demolish them.  The Bellbros don't bother me at all though, that's fun!  Even though a lot of fights are weighted in favor of the defenders, it's fun that you can switch sides at will, bouncing back and forth between helping people get through and crushing their hopes and dreams.  And lots of people tonight had white phantoms with them, so there wasn't a ton of just 2v1 ganking.  I saw at least a few other people doing the same, as I would recognize a name, and then realize that they were an enemy and not an ally that time. 

[osmosisch]

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

 

I set Navlaan free.

All those developer signs on the ground warning me to not throw the switch, how could i comply?

Apparently, for the rest of the game, i can now expect to enjoy like a dozen different invasions from the guy, and i miss out on a bunch of items from him. I would have really liked having the dispelling ring.

That is the first time i feel like the game has screwed me over in a fashion similar to what the first game would have happily done. I'm kind of glad From still had it in them, but god dammit i'm frustrated.

Fuck, I just did the same thing. Oh well, next time round I guess.

[Trip Hazard]

Having a very hard time in the Forest of Fallen Giants this morning. I'm still trying to play as if this is DaS, expecting to roll quicker and have more i-frames, so I'm getting cut down a lot by weedy enemies. My health is now capped at 50%, and I haven't made any progress for an hour or more. 

 

I know I can get it back by using (not burning!) a Human Effigy, but I've heard there aren't many of these in the game. What's the true story there? Am I likely to run out if I just use them when I feel I really need them, and is there a finite amount? Any help appreciated

[eot]

I'm easily amused

Watching people misspell 'covenant' as 'convent' is hilarious

"I joined the blood convent!"