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

[eot]

I used the OKS the entire game, but it seems like 95% of people use the Drangleic one. They're both a bit too good for their weight I think.

[SilentBtAmazing]

Thanks for the tip for me it translated to "roll towards his shield" and worked great -- now the next boss ...

[coaxmetal]

Going to give the game's hardest/least-fun optional boss a shot this evening. Wish me luck.

[Sno]

I used the OKS the entire game, but it seems like 95% of people use the Drangleic one. They're both a bit too good for their weight I think.

There's definitely no medium shields that are as good as the silver knight shield was though.

[Bjorn]

Going to give the game's hardest/least-fun optional boss a shot this evening. Wish me luck.

 

He never came back...must have gone well...

 

 

There's definitely no medium shields that are as good as the silver knight shield was though.

 

I like that there isn't a clear winner for best medium shield, that many of them fill a quality niche, and you can switch as needed.  The Drangleic shield is a red herring to me.  Most builds shouldn't still be using it once they unlock McDuff as a merchant. At that point you should either just go with the Royal Kite Shield or be using specialty shields.  Seeing a Drangleic Shield in PvP lately has been an early indicator of victory for me. 

 

I decided to mess around with the Old Whip and Channeler's Trident tonight for something different.  I've eventually got both of them on every character I've played, but never gave them a chance.  The whip is unusable.  Either it's the buggiest of all durability bugs, or they never intended it to be used.  It only has 40 durability, and it can lose 6 of that if you hit a wall with an R2 attack.  Most enemies took 2-4 durability, though a few took as much as 8.   Other whips do not degrade like this. 

 

The Trident is fine as long as you're just using R1, it's a fancy looking spear.  But if you try to use it's groovy 1HR2 attack, kiss it goodbye.  That attack causes the head to spin around hitting the enemy multiple times.  It melts durability.  I had it whack off as much as 10 durability in a single shot.  So that sucks, the attack that makes it neat and makes it stand out from the other spear weapons is basically unusable. 

[Trip Hazard]

Made some really good progress this morning, having been able to sit down and just play for about 4 straight hours. I was at a bit of a loose end, having thoroughly explored (so I thought) the lost bastille, Heide's tower, and the Huntsman's Copse. After killing the undead charioteer, I felt like I'd probably opened a big new area, but an imperious dwarf told me to go away, so I did. I explored the belfry a bit more, even managing to solo those bastard gargoyles, and found a key for a door in the bastille. Using it gave me access to a neat item, but nowhere new to go.

 

I then dropped, ever so carefully, into the ominous looking pit back in Majula. I was immediately summoned into someone's world, and gave them what for, receiving a lockstone for my troubles. So now I had three of those, but there were fucking loads of faces all over the place, and I quickly ran out. I slew a bunch of rats in the boss arena, but I must've missed something on the way because the health bar didn't shrink and they just kept coming. "You Died".

 

Eventually, I went back to the Huntsman's Copse, and found a massive bridge which somehow I'd missed first time around. I crossed that and carefully followed some narrow paths, making good use of my greatshield to knock enemies into the abyss. I came at last to a huge fog wall, with loads of signs outside saying "Try Phantom", so naturally I ignored them and went through by myself. My craftsman's hammer cracked many a hollow skull, as brains (and rolling!) triumphed over sheer weight of numbers. And now I stand in the shadow of Harvest Valley, my sights set on the summit. A few slightly naff bosses aside, this game seems to be going from strength to strength.

[coaxmetal]

He never came back...must have gone well...

 

Nope! I did find out that gower's ring can protect me, if I position myself exactly right though.

[Dosed]

I started playing this game the other day and at first I hated it. I really got no sense of enjoyment from it. It was just relentless. I picked up the Ring of Binding and it just made it so much less daunting. I'm up to the Ruin Sentinel guys now, and they are just caning me. I manage to kill the first one no problem, but fighting two enemies at once proves enough of a problem never mind two bosses. After about 2 hours of attempting to kill them I got them close to doing it, but one of them would always just jump attack me and kick my teeth down my throat. I tried looking up some YouTube play throughs to get some rough tactics but none of them amounted to anything more than "SUMMON PEOPLE AND SHOOT HTEM IWTH MAGIC!" Anybody got any pointers for these bastards?

I'm playing some sort of tanky build thing, but my house mate (who has finished the game) has recommended I get some magic so I can do some ranged damage.

[Trip Hazard]

What I did was kill the first one, then linger on the platform with my shield up. The other two will be making their way over and they'll both jump up, but one will always come first. Use that time to do a bit of damage, then go down into the arena proper. I sidestepped a lot, didn't roll very much at all and kept my shield up. Take your time and don't overdo it when you attack - always ensure you have enough stamina to block. There is also a ring sold in Mujula which will negate the fall damage from dropping down, which could help.

 

Edit: And good luck! They are tough.

[eot]

The Trident is fine as long as you're just using R1, it's a fancy looking spear.  But if you try to use it's groovy 1HR2 attack, kiss it goodbye.  That attack causes the head to spin around hitting the enemy multiple times.  It melts durability.  I had it whack off as much as 10 durability in a single shot.  So that sucks, the attack that makes it neat and makes it stand out from the other spear weapons is basically unusable. 

But on the bracing knuckle ring and use the R2 to poison people. Each hit counts towards the poison buildup.

[Bjorn]

Something I've never tried, but wondered if it would work.  So there are a BUNCH of hidden doors in that room (just use the action button to open them).  One of the doors has a ladder that takes you upstairs, to another hidden door, and back out to the main boss room.  I wonder if those open and are not fogged over when you're in the fight?  If so, you could use the ladder to get upstairs, heal, buff, whatever.  And then just kite them around.  You'd want to have bought the Silvercat in Majula for this though, since you do take damage when dropping into the arena floor. 
 
I may have to try that on my next run. 
 
 

But on the bracing knuckle ring and use the R2 to poison people. Each hit counts towards the poison buildup.

 

I hadn't tried the Bracing Knuckle Ring with it. Assumed it would help, but I kind of hate giving up a ring slot to just make a weapon last longer.  I might just farm an asston of stones somewhere and try to get a second one if I decide I want to dedicate a good amount of time to using it. 

[coaxmetal]

I started playing this game the other day and at first I hated it. I really got no sense of enjoyment from it. It was just relentless. I picked up the Ring of Binding and it just made it so much less daunting. I'm up to the Ruin Sentinel guys now, and they are just caning me. I manage to kill the first one no problem, but fighting two enemies at once proves enough of a problem never mind two bosses. After about 2 hours of attempting to kill them I got them close to doing it, but one of them would always just jump attack me and kick my teeth down my throat. I tried looking up some YouTube play throughs to get some rough tactics but none of them amounted to anything more than "SUMMON PEOPLE AND SHOOT HTEM IWTH MAGIC!" Anybody got any pointers for these bastards?

I'm playing some sort of tanky build thing, but my house mate (who has finished the game) has recommended I get some magic so I can do some ranged damage.

 

Ruin sentinels are one of the hardest early bosses, largely because there are 3 of them. Honestly, what I would do is not fight them right now, and go explore a different area. If you haven't beaten dragonrider yet, I would do that, and either go to the copse or the valley.

[Griddlelol]

I'm curious. How viable is a DEX build in DS2? I really liked my build in 1, but I've heard that str or int are the only good ways to go. Is that just Internet people exaggerating, or do DEX builds have no damage output anymore compare to str or mages?

On the same note, how important is magic? I refuse to use it. Suffer not the witch to live etc. etc. I prefer to stick with the lowly knight battling to overcome daemons theme. Rather than just another day in the life of a powerful magician.

[Bjorn]

I'm curious. How viable is a DEX build in DS2? I really liked my build in 1, but I've heard that str or int are the only good ways to go. Is that just Internet people exaggerating, or do DEX builds have no damage output anymore compare to str or mages?

On the same note, how important is magic? I refuse to use it. Suffer not the witch to live etc. etc. I prefer to stick with the lowly knight battling to overcome daemons theme. Rather than just another day in the life of a powerful magician.

 

All forms of magic in PvE can be godly, but mages and hexers start off very weak and remain weak until midgame.  Lightning slingers are powerful from the getgo.  In PvP, magic is easily countered if you've put some thought into your build and equipment (see the discussion recently on infusing shields).  If you aren't ready to counter magic, it is more than capable of one-shotting many players.  Weapon enchantments are a bit harder to counter, but it's still doable. 

 

As for Dex, I honestly haven't put a lot of time into Dex weapons, and those that I have I've infused and chosen to level up the stat that raises the elemental infusion.  Dex weapons get much, much lower scaling than Str weapons.  A lot of people see that and declare Dex weapons useless.   I don't think that's necessarily the case, but I do think Dex weapons have to be approached differently than just pumping up raw damage like Str weapons. 

 

 

 

But on the bracing knuckle ring and use the R2 to poison people. Each hit counts towards the poison buildup.

 

I think I'm going to try and make a Whip and Trident build, which will eventually use a pair of powerstanced Spotted Whips for instant poison (hopefully?) and then the Trident for keeping them on their toes and at a distance as the poison does it's work.  It'll be a kind of gladiator theme. If you can hit with the L2 in powerstanced whips, it should proc around 1000 poison in a single hit. In my head it sounds glorious, but will probably be a disaster based on the few whip users I've faced in PvP.   The few spotted whips I've seen have only ever managed to poison me once, and I crushed that player just seconds later. 

[eot]

Those whips seem quite neat, be sure to infuse them with poison. You can use the rat covenant ring too, it has a hidden poison bonus.

[Griddlelol]

I might give a str build a go. I'm sure you can still poke bosses, and I might try it out in DS1 before hand. I'd like to make my attempt in 2 more pvp focused as that was something I missed. Ranged stuff just sounds incredibly OP to me, but I'm sure it comes at at sacrifice.

[coaxmetal]

I'm curious. How viable is a DEX build in DS2? I really liked my build in 1, but I've heard that str or int are the only good ways to go. Is that just Internet people exaggerating, or do DEX builds have no damage output anymore compare to str or mages?

On the same note, how important is magic? I refuse to use it. Suffer not the witch to live etc. etc. I prefer to stick with the lowly knight battling to overcome daemons theme. Rather than just another day in the life of a powerful magician.

 

Viable, but far more viable with combined with magic. I started my PS3 playthrough as a pure dex build. I got pretty far power stancing falchions, then using an uchi and then manslayer, but ultimately I switched to a DEX/INT build and went with a magic uchi, and it was better, even for pure melee, than just dex (and benefitted more from the buff).

 

I think if you go all into dex you need to lean on poison pretty hard, and that can be tricky. If you want to be pure melee I would suggest a str build (or both) instead. Maybe caestus.

[Bjorn]

Maybe caestus.

 

I full endorse Caestus builds (and an eventual upgrade to Vanquisher's Seal).  That ended up being how I finished my PS3 run, and I've got one on the PC now.  The most fun builds for me, no question.  The hitboxes on punching can be a little weird with a few enemies, so keep something with a little more reach as a backup if you seem to be whiffing on a particular enemy. 

[Sno]

I started playing this game the other day and at first I hated it. I really got no sense of enjoyment from it. It was just relentless. I picked up the Ring of Binding and it just made it so much less daunting. I'm up to the Ruin Sentinel guys now, and they are just caning me. I manage to kill the first one no problem, but fighting two enemies at once proves enough of a problem never mind two bosses. After about 2 hours of attempting to kill them I got them close to doing it, but one of them would always just jump attack me and kick my teeth down my throat. I tried looking up some YouTube play throughs to get some rough tactics but none of them amounted to anything more than "SUMMON PEOPLE AND SHOOT HTEM IWTH MAGIC!" Anybody got any pointers for these bastards?

I'm playing some sort of tanky build thing, but my house mate (who has finished the game) has recommended I get some magic so I can do some ranged damage.

 

First thing: I recommend leaving them for much later. They're a huge roadblock, but if you just follow the Forest/Heide paths, you run into them really early on. Don't beat your head against it, because at that point in the Lost Bastille, you should be able to open up other paths out of Majula. The Ruin Sentinels are one of the toughest boss fights in the game and you shouldn't feel bad about leaving it alone and coming back later.

Anyways, I've done them melee in two playthroughs, it's definitely not impossible. There's no real trick to it though, i think the fight is kind of the O&S of DS2, though the size of the arena and their slow speed obviously makes ranged options easy to abuse.

If you want to do them melee, you just have to figure out their attack patterns, there's no slow recovery attack you can bait them into and no obvious gaps in their hitboxes to exploit. The overhead slams are easily dodged and punished, but one particular version will probably frequently surprise you because it follows up with a horizontal swing that will catch you when you're trying to punish. (If you haven't upgraded adaptability at all, this would probably be a good fight to do it for.)

 

On the upper platform you fall to when you start the fight, stay up there until you can kill that sentinel. You do not want to fight all three at the same time, and staying up there gives you a bit of leeway if the other two show up since they're not likely to all leap up there right away, though they eventually will. You need to kill that one before the other two start giving you trouble. If you can't do that much, you should probably just come back later. (Again, Ruin Sentinels are the penultimate boss for the Lost Bastille path, they are meant to be difficult.)

Once it's down to two, it's actually a lot like the O&S fight, but with a much more generous amount of room to maneuver in and no fast dashing tacks to avoid. (So way easier, actually.) Strafe around the room in a backwards circle, take care not to be surrounded as the AI will continually try to circle around you, and just attack whenever you have an opening. Don't get greedy, the fight doesn't put as much pressure on you as O&S did. Perhaps try to bait them into both attacking at the same time, so you can have the second locked down in a recovery animation while trying to dodge and punish the first.

If you're not used to target switching with the right stick, get used to it with this fight, you need to stay oriented to whichever sentinel is the nearer threat.

I think the Ruin Sentinels might be one of my favorite fights in the game, actually.

 

Also, failing all of that: If you have a lockstone, you can skip them. You have to be on the side of the Bastille reached from the Heide path though.

 

 

I'm curious. How viable is a DEX build in DS2? I really liked my build in 1, but I've heard that str or int are the only good ways to go. Is that just Internet people exaggerating, or do DEX builds have no damage output anymore compare to str or mages?

On the same note, how important is magic? I refuse to use it. Suffer not the witch to live etc. etc. I prefer to stick with the lowly knight battling to overcome daemons theme. Rather than just another day in the life of a powerful magician.

Aside from squishy wizards, the other majority of what i see in PVP are dex builds. It may be true that dex doesn't scale as strong as it did in DS1, but those builds still cause a hell of a lot of damage.

A pure physical build is completely doable, but forgoing magic will basically be imposing on yourself an extra level of difficulty. It will also become doubly important to carry weapons that can deal with a variety of situations. In general: A fast one with either thrusts or vertical swings for speedy enemies and narrow spaces, something else with broad and powerful swings for crowds and bosses, and then a crossbow/bow to round it out. Weapons tend to be much more situational in DS2.

[eot]

I defeated!

I got him down to 5-10% health so many times, not sure if the poison resin helped but it may have tipped the scales. I found out that the fight is quite buggy, I got stuck moving in a direction after being pushed by Smelter Demon more times than I can count. In his third 'stage' his jump attack also has an absurdly large hitbox, I should've frapsed it. I've been one full Smelter Demon away from him (length wise) and still gotten pancaked by that crap. Couldn't beat him last night so I took a break and did Ruin Sentinels instead. I didn't want to fight them 2vs1, so I used the Red Tearstone Ring and it was barely enough to let me kill the second one just as the third one jumps up (with some resin I imagine it's easier). A bit cheesy? Not sure, you can make it easier by just tossing Holy Water Urns but I didn't want to do that.

[Trip Hazard]

That's crazy! Well done! I'm stuck on him currently, at like SL98. The hitbox does seem a little off to me, but that's not the reason I'm failing

[Griddlelol]

A pure physical build is completely doable, but forgoing magic will basically be imposing on yourself an extra level of difficulty. It will also become doubly important to carry weapons that can deal with a variety of situations. In general: A fast one with either thrusts or vertical swings for speedy enemies and narrow spaces, something else with broad and powerful swings for crowds and bosses, and then a crossbow/bow to round it out. Weapons tend to be much more situational in DS2.

Would using multiple weapons be viable for PvP and PvE? Or would it be better to dip my toe into magic?

[Bjorn]

So somebody final figured out exactly how Agility and rolling works!  Yah!

 

Short version is that 90 and below is like DS1's slow roll, while 100-105 are like DS1's fast roll and 115 is like DS1's ninja flip.  115 takes a massive stat investment to reach.

 

The two biggest breakpoints are probably 100 and 105.   You get 12 iFrames at 100 and 13 at 105.  So there's no need to crank it up to the softcap of 110, unless you're depending super heavily on throwing knives and need the faster animation.

 

The frame duration of a roll and the iframes in the roll are the same regardless of how far you roll.  So it takes the same amount of time to execute a roll at 0 encumbrance as it does 70 percent (25 frames).  You just go farther at 0.

 

 

 

Would using multiple weapons be viable for PvP and PvE? Or would it be better to dip my toe into magic?

 

For PvE, multiple weapons are likely still required even if you are using magic, unless you go whole hog and have a half dozen attunement slots.  Even with my goofy themed builds that depend on a single weapon, I have to keep backups that break my theme.  Those backups usually include a Mace, a Great Club and whatever halberd my stats support.  So many enemies are weak to strike damage that the mace is always useful.  The great club is perfect for crystal lizards and enemies that you need to knockdown to control them.  Halberd is there for crowd control through spinning.  I may only need each of those a couple of times during an entire run, but when I do, they are life savers.  This isn't counting durability loss and the need for backups due to that. 

 

For PvP, I usually don't enter into a fight without at least two, and preferably three weapons on me.  I'd rather have three weapons than a shield, if I have to pick by weight.  Main melee weapon, backup melee weapon that compensates for weaknesses of main weapon and a bow.  I'm currently rocking a Channeler's Trident as my main, with a Bloodied Whip as my backup.  Trident is more powerful, but only has forward pokey attacks, while the whip has crazy hitbox and multiple AoE attacks, including a 360 degree one.

[Dosed]

Man, reading this thread makes me feel like an idiot when you guys are talking about animation frames. I barely know what half the stats do. I'm mainly going melee so my build looks like this VGR 11, STR 30, END 31, VIT 14, DEX 20, FTH 20. All the the other stats are at the base ones for a Knight class. I don't know if that's any good or not. Is there some way I could be more efficient for a melee build? I've gone for some magic based stuff just because I've heard it's handy to get some ranged damage in boss fights. 

 

I defeated the Ruin Sentinels eventually. I just got some more stamina and whittled them down. I spent about 2 hours consistently failing, turned the game off, came back the next day and downed them first try. Reminds me of raiding on WoW, but in a good way. I went to the Huntsman's Copse, but I can only find the Chariot boss and he's insanely difficult. I've defeated the Lost Sinner and I don't think there's anything else to do in the Sinner's Rise so I'm at a bit of an impasse at the moment. I am enjoying it though even if it is rage inducing some times. 

 

Also, I used my Smelly Twig of Yesterday on a vendor without realising it was a one use item, so I didn't use it on the lady in front of that pully thing in Majula. Whoops. I hope I find another one soon. 

[eot]

You have almost no points in Vigor, which gives you health. I'd focus on that. Having some Adaptability is nice too, even if you aren't rolling much. It lets you use items quicker (Estus, lifegems etc.) which is very helpful, particularly in bossfights. You should note that there are some soft caps for stats, Endurance starts giving diminishing returns after 20 (as does Vigor). It can still be worth putting in more points than that, but it's usually a good place to leave them until your other stats catch up.