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

[Sno]

Finished off

Twin Dragonriders and Looking Glass Knight. I feel like I kind of cheesed the dragonriders by using Red Tearstone + resins, it let me kill the archer in four hits and once it's 1vs1 the fight is usually over. Can't get hit, but still. LKG was surprisingly easy too, just strafe left instead of right! I'm dreading some of the final bosses though, Veldstat, Darklurker, Throne Watcher and I've also put off doing RRA.

 

RRA honestly isn't that hard, the key is just immediately murdering the other rats in the arena, and you can usually pull that off if you have a weapon with a few good broad attacks. Once RRA itself actually comes out... So his two-step slash with his front legs has a massive hitbox, but it extends outwards away from his body. Dodge towards him through the first hit and get a couple hits on his legs while he's doing the second swing. (You might find the lock-on fighting you a bit here, so it might be good to kill the lock-on.) That attack is probably 70% of what he does, so once you got that down, the fight is pretty simple. (You can also exploit that attack to give you a safe place to heal.) The biggest threat in that fight is the head bash he does as a dash attack, the timing to dodge it i find extremely tricky since it's a very quick attack.

LGK itself is a super simple fight. It's a fun fight, but a simple one. It's the pvp that makes it brutal.

 

Hardest boss for me, Ancient Dragon aside, is the Demon of Song. That is the only boss i haven't been able to beat as pure melee.

 

Halberds have some unparriable attacks. Well, I know at least one of them does, but I think it applies to the whole weapon class.

Do you know which attacks? I'm assuming it's probably the "spin to win" attacks.

Also, while googling this, i just learned that jump attacks are apparently completely unparriable regardless of the weapon.

[coaxmetal]

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 beat chariot without a shield on PC, but that was when I was finishing up things after completing the game, around SL 165 or something, I went back and fought chariot. At that point I could kill skeletons with a single dark orb, so it wasn't really an issue. I still holed up to avoid it as it went around, but I kept the skeletons as bay by repeatedly killing them.

[Bjorn]

Hardest boss for me, Ancient Dragon aside, is the Demon of Song. That is the only boss i haven't been able to beat as pure melee.

 

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. 

 

Dash in and smack the face as soon as you come through the fog door. When the mouth closes, stay directly in front of it. Most of the time, it won't move anywhere, it will just open back up and do one of it's arm attacks, the flail or the grab. As soon as it starts to open up, just run backwards out of arm reach. Wait for the attack to finish, and dash back in to get a few more smacks in. Once in awhile it will do it's big rise up and belly flop move. But as long as you keep the biggest part of the arena to your back, that attack is so slow you can just walk backwards way from it. Once the flop is done, dash in and attack again.

 

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.

[eot]

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 did it shieldless on the SL1 playthrough I'm doing. It's not about skill really, it's just figuring out how to manipulate the skeletons. Once you get the right path down you can do it consistently. You can of course block with your weapon in emergencies. I also did that fight a second time (with ascetic) to get the Cloranthy Ring +2, that was a very different story. After two hours of not getting to the second Necromancer once I caved in and used the secret strategy for that fight: Alluring Skulls. Skellies love chasing those things, just toss one and let the chariot run them over then repeat. The horse is the tricky part at that point.

 

 

Hardest boss for me, Ancient Dragon aside, is the Demon of Song. That is the only boss i haven't been able to beat as pure melee.

Do you know which attacks? I'm assuming it's probably the "spin to win" attacks.

Also, while googling this, i just learned that jump attacks are apparently completely unparriable regardless of the weapon.

Demon of Song? Huh. I think that's one of the easiest bosses (honestly)! The arena is so large, you can just bait an attack and run backwards, then run in and hit him during the recovery. Just fought him again an hour ago. As for parries, I believe it's the 2HR1. I heard about it in

.

[Bjorn]

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. 

[Sno]

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.

 

Demon of Song? Huh. I think that's one of the easiest bosses (honestly)! The arena is so large, you can just bait an attack and run backwards, then run in and hit him during the recovery. Just fought him again an hour ago.

I knew it would be like this. I just haven't been able to reliably dodge or flee from its arm attacks, everything else it does is harmless.

 

As for parries, I believe it's the 2HR1. I heard about it in

.

That halbred has a radically different moveset than my Mastadon Halbred, but the guy in the video makes the claim that all two-handed halbred attacks are unparriable.

[Dewar]

I think I was rushing for the Necromancers too fast and getting overwhelmed because of that. Regardless, a shield made it real easy.

[eot]

The run up to Velstadt has to be the most annoying in the game. They deliberately made the AI aggro in groups and the last two guys impossible to pull. I don't like that kind of designer intent in these games, make it hard if you want but let the AI be the AI, don't leash a guy to a door just so I can't run past. I'm generally in favour of having a bit of space between the bonfire and the boss, but that whole section feels like the game is wasting my time.

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. 

You can buy infinite Alluring Skulls from Shalquoir after you open SoW. Try them! Apparently they also work in the Freja fight.

 

I think I was rushing for the Necromancers too fast and getting overwhelmed because of that. Regardless, a shield made it real easy.

Yeah that's a trap you can fall into. I usually whack the first two, hide and let them be revived, then whack them again. That gives enough room to take out the necro.

 

I knew it would be like this. I just haven't been able to reliably dodge or flee from its arm attacks, everything else it does is harmless.

Everyone has their personal devil bosses I spent two hours fighting Mytha, without the poison. I think Demon of Song is one of the cooler bosses in the game though, hard or not.

[SilentBtAmazing]

That run from Iron Keep to Smelter was where I realized (finally) that DS2 didn't have to feel so finite with its souls and items. That was a major turning point for me; realizing that the co-op stuff was a really fun and integral part of the game. Once I feel really familiar with the layout of the game I will try and run in that early covenant that makes everything harder and lonely, but I've got crazy with the white soapstone in the meantime, and it's make the game a lot more fun.

I fear that I've overlevelled now though as a result. I'm done drangleic castle. And headed... wherever is next, but I've hit SL150 now, and not finding most of the standard enemies take more than 2-3 R1 hits to dispatch. NG+ will likely remedy that.

I read this thread feeling like aliens are talking until this post.

I tried to avoid walkthroughs until I got stuck somewhere and wound up doing tons of co op. As I was mostly going in blind, I totally skipped everything past that foggy forest area on accident, and wound up co opping a ton. I had a blast until the dead end after the Old King, by which time I was SL 110 or so.

Reluctantly I had to consult guides and realized I had missed Bright Cove etc plus the Gutter etc. backtracking has been a real bummer honestly and those areas were really easy and annoying.

So here's a vote that going in without an area map / recommended route can be a bummer. I am all the way up to one last boss and then I can tackle the Castle, so I am also hopeful that NG+ can make me feel back on track even though I am already SM 1.5 or so.

[Sno]

The approach to Velstadt is actually incredibly simple if you do two things: 1 - Make sure you lower that bridge so you don't have to go through the graveyard again, because fuck that stretch. (If you want to grab the items in the last room, i don't see much alternative to just doing a couple suicide runs and trying to destroy the statues that spawn the ghosts.) 2 - In the long hallway before Velstadt, kill the zombie under the stairs before it can ring the bell and summon more of those ghosts. (God dammit, i hate those ghosts.)

All you're left with at that point is the... seven or so syan knights to fight through? Which i generally find to be pretty harmless. Easy to dodge, easy to backstab. Them pulling in groups of two doesn't really do much to offset how harmless they are, i think. Bait them into attacking at the same time, attack while they're stuck in recovery.

Velstadt himself, he's not that hard. Another favorite fight of mine, but a pretty straight forward one.

 

Edit: Ugh, the insane requirements to rank up in the two main PVP covenants just breaks my spirit whenever i think about trying to participate in those.

[Dewar]

Hmm, the RRA.... he kills me in about 5 seconds. I don't even know what to do.

 

Edit: I beat him. Despite what was said before, he was doing the dashing headbutt maybe 50%-75% of the time. Dodging that seemed to basically be a crap shoot, since many times I would dodge and go right through him, others it would look like he missed and I'd still get hit. Once I figured out how to kill the small rats fast enough, it was basically a flip of the coin on whether I could dodge his headbutt enough times to do some real damage. Eventually he got stuck doing the paw swipe attack repeatedly for no obvious reason (I was at about the same range as before, hadn't hit him recently, or anything) and I burnt him down. 

[Bjorn]

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.

[Sno]

Hush is still in the game, at the very least.

There's also the stuff with the environmental camouflage, which isn't really relevant since it's for pvp, but i just want to mention how amazing it is to see a large pot sprinting after a terrified wizard. (That particular ability prevents lock-ons.)

[eot]

Just perfect

[Winnipeg Fats]

I beat the game last night. SL 15 SM~2.5M.

Trying to decide between going back for the RRA and the big dragon (both of which I passed on), going NG+, or just rerolling and starting anew.

Or like, playing one of the many games I've been neglecting the last 2 months.

[Brannigan]

Hush is still in the game, at the very least.

There's also the stuff with the environmental camouflage, which isn't really relevant since it's for pvp, but i just want to mention how amazing it is to see a large pot sprinting after a terrified wizard. (That particular ability prevents lock-ons.)

I totally chased someone around belfry luna as a pile of barrels

[Bjorn]

Hush is still in the game, at the very least.

There's also the stuff with the environmental camouflage, which isn't really relevant since it's for pvp, but i just want to mention how amazing it is to see a large pot sprinting after a terrified wizard. (That particular ability prevents lock-ons.)

 

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.

[Sno]

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. 

 

A lot of stuff got nerfed because of how it affected the pvp, like tranquil walk. It was an awesome ability for PVE, but it similarly kind of broke PVP, and now it's not even in DS2.

[Bjorn]

Edit: Ugh, the insane requirements to rank up in the two main PVP covenants just breaks my spirit whenever i think about trying to participate in those.

 

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. 

[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).

[Sno]

Exploits are gross, and From is pretty spotty about which bugs they end up fixing in their games, so that's concerning news.

Anyways, I can confirm with relative certainty that the two-handed R1 on the halbred moveset is unparryable, doesn't seem like anything else is though.

Been lots of fun trolling people who just run up in my face and wait to parry with the monastery scimitar, especially when they don't clue in and keep trying to parry.

[Dewar]

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.

Maybe it's casting speed that's bugging you? Much like dodging and estus flask usage, the default spell casting speed is so slow as to be down right dangerous. A few different stats up that casting speed, and I've been seeing my holy lightning bolts get a lot more useful as my personal casting speed has gotten above 100.

[Bjorn]

Maybe it's casting speed that's bugging you? Much like dodging and estus flask usage, the default spell casting speed is so slow as to be down right dangerous. A few different stats up that casting speed, and I've been seeing my holy lightning bolts get a lot more useful as my personal casting speed has gotten above 100.

 

I've experienced some of the better casting speeds with my Faith build, and have got my mage up above 100.  It's more just that I don't find casting sorceries that compelling for how I enjoy playing.  And it's just sorceries/hexes, I think pyro and lightning are both a ton of fun. 

 

Any build I make needs to at least be competitive for PvP as well.  Doesn't need to be top tier, some of my builds ended up a little goofy and more for having fun with people.  But I at least want to last a bit.  The problem with my mage is that I've respecced him twice now, wasted a ton of souls and ore on upgrading a bunch of different staves/chimes/weapons and bought every single spell available.  I've probably blown 200K souls easily on trying different things.  At an SM of between 600K and 700K, I've fallen behind the curve and am just getting demolished by people who have much more efficient and dedicated builds.   It's the first time that I've really felt like SM has ended up seriously hurting one of my characters for matchmaking.  I know that will work itself out after awhile and I'll catch up, but I think I'll just mess around with one of my other builds instead of pursuing that character anymore. 

 

Next up, respec my gender changed Lord Dude character from my no death/no bonfire run to a 75 Str to power stance giant clubs.  There are also still a couple of rare weapon drops I've never seen on NG that I want to try, particularly the Manikin Saber and the Drakekeeper's Warpick.  I didn't even know the Manikin Saber existed.  I've killed hundreds of Manikins now and never seen one drop.  I was just browsing the wiki last night looking for weapon options for my mage and noticed it. 

[Dewar]

I saw a shadow last night playing with power stanced giant clubs. You didn't happen to be running around in Doors of Pharros at all last night?

Edit: By the way, the Rat King Covenant summons are the most annoying thing ever.

[Bjorn]

I haven't done it yet, need to Ascetic the memories on that character to get the second one.  But I fought a guy doing it in the BoB arena a couple of nights ago and he brutalized me.  Normally I don't have much of a problem dodging great weapons, but I think I was in such awe of his setup that I just botched my rolls.