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

[osmosisch]

That's a real evil place to invade. You should see if you have a seed of a tree of giants turn the tables. Go back to the 3rd bonfire in FoFG and the giant/tree there might give you one, 10% chance for each time you get invaded.

To give some perspective on how juicy a target I apparently am: I've got a dozen of the bloody things. You'd think I would start to remember to use them at some point, but I mostly get invaded in places where the npcs aren't all that scary.

[Bjorn]

Wow, what the hell. Is your SM super low or something? I'm getting invaded the moment the timer is up every time. My SM is stupid high though, getting close to 10M.

 

Maybe I'm low?  I don't really know.  I get plenty of action in the Bell Tower and haven't had many problems finding co-op partners.  I entered NG+ at around 4 million, and I'm approaching 6 million now.  I'm finding the PvE stuff to be trivially easy, I want some invasions to have a challenge!

 

 

I did a massive wordfart about all the bosses in case someone is curious.

 

That was actually pretty interesting read, thanks!   As far as thrown items go, I think you could probably do a run that was nothing but throwing knives, them things are useful.  I've done the NG+ difficulty Gargoyles several times with relatively low level melee only characters to get the Gold Ring +2, usually because my build required some obnoxiously rare drop and I wanted to save time.  Throwing knives were essential for me, usually to finish off a Gargoyle from a distance once I had a third one spawn. 

[osmosisch]

I think there must be quite the difference between the US and EU regions. It's the only explanation I can think of for the radically different multiplayer experience I'm having from most of the US-based posts I'm reading.

Also it's kind of sad realising how much more time I'd have to put into these games to get on the level many in this thread. Ah well, it's still fun times. Just different fun.

[Bjorn]

There is a server update today, I'm actually hoping it fixes some things with matching.  I have had the most fucked matching in terms of region for the last 4 or 5 days.  I get a NA player about one in every 4 or 5 matches, the rest are Russian, Chinese, Taiwanese, South American and even some Europeans.  I've got my region set to restricted, but that doesn't seem to matter at all.  The lag has just been terrible in a lot of these matches, players either pinballing around, or stopping for 5-10 seconds, then speedrunning for a few seconds, then stopping again. 

 

The only build I've taken to NG+ is my most powerful build, unquestionably.  It's the one that uses a halberd and the Helix Halberd in power stance, and I switch to a Grand Lance to save durability.  I keep trying to move on to different weapons for variety, but it's kind of addictive to just slaughter things with ease. 

 

I did farm some of the rarer fist weapon drops last night, got the Manikin Claws and Malformed Claws, both of which seem pretty meh so far.  I don't see any benefit over just using Caestuses if I'm going to punch things and not farm Awestones for a Vanquisher's Seal.  The claws really seem like they ought to have a much longer hit box than a Caestus, but have lower damage.  But the animation is such that you don't really punch straight out with claws, you curve your hand, so the functional range is the same.  It seems like a missed opportunity to have a different fist based move set. 

[SilentBtAmazing]

Just wanted to mention that I LOVE these end-game areas. I don't think it's too spoilery to specify that I really dig the zone after the big door in the woods that you open with the King's Ring.

 

Also I am having fun with my modified build, I am rolling with a chime in my left hand throwing lightnings and a Greatsword in my right. I can't hang in PvP at all but I am basically wrecking in PvE, now.

[Sno]

Maybe I'm low?  I don't really know.  I get plenty of action in the Bell Tower and haven't had many problems finding co-op partners.  I entered NG+ at around 4 million, and I'm approaching 6 million now.  I'm finding the PvE stuff to be trivially easy, I want some invasions to have a challenge!

 

You have a lot of options for increasing your invasion priority, if you want that. There's the red string ring the BoB sells, or you can go accumulate sin by invading other players so you start bringing in Blue Sentinel invasions. Tokens of spite also temporarily increase invasion priority, the dried fingers reset the invasion timer, the CoC also increases priority.

Also, you are probably on the lower-end of NG+ soul memory ranges. From what i had been reading, which reflected my own experience, it seemed like most of the NG+ pvp was happening around 10 million. Increased soul rewards for defeating enemies and bosses in NG+ will get you there pretty quickly though, so don't worry about trying to inflate that artificially.

[Trip Hazard]

Haven't played DS2 in about a week, as I had an incredible urge to play Ultima Underworld again, having dabbled in it in the past but never finished it. This time I did it! There are a fair few items that are unique and essential, and which it is possible to lose or just ignore (can't carry everything; weight limit is a big factor), so that wasn't great, but I had a guide on hand so I wouldn't make any critical missteps. And, I loved it. 

 

Anyway, back to DS2 having finished that, and I'm at the Shrine of Amana and just...fuck the Shrine of Amana. I'm this close to quitting because it is a total slog and the enemy placement is just evil. I just cannot make any headway past the second bonfire. I need some good advice for this awful place before I smash my PC/myself to pieces in frustration.

[Bjorn]

Haven't played DS2 in about a week, as I had an incredible urge to play Ultima Underworld again, having dabbled in it in the past but never finished it. This time I did it! There are a fair few items that are unique and essential, and which it is possible to lose or just ignore (can't carry everything; weight limit is a big factor), so that wasn't great, but I had a guide on hand so I wouldn't make any critical missteps. And, I loved it. 

 

Anyway, back to DS2 having finished that, and I'm at the Shrine of Amana and just...fuck the Shrine of Amana. I'm this close to quitting because it is a total slog and the enemy placement is just evil. I just cannot make any headway past the second bonfire. I need some good advice for this awful place before I smash my PC/myself to pieces in frustration.

 

I don't mean to rub salt in this wound, but you're actually getting the easy version of the Shrine of Amana.  The Shrine was patched to nerf the mages, the magic missiles were more damaging and had near perfect tracking in an earlier version. 

 

From the second to the third bonfire, just take it slow and carry a bow (I rhymed!).  You can always snipe them one at a time.  If you don't have a bow, you can either dodge or just strafe left and the missiles will miss you.  You can also infuse your best magic defending shield with more magic, which will easily let you tank the shots.  

 

When there is singing in the background, the little water dudes actually sparkle, so they are super easy to see.  And if you move slowly, you can constantly click auto-target to locate them. 

 

The guys with the maces are total dicks.  Do not engage more than one at a time if you can avoid it. 

 

Once you're at the house in the middle, you can actually sneak around the left and take out the farthest left caster with a bow, making the next section a lot easier.  Inside the house, you can summon Felicia the Fucking Strong.  She'll be happy to face tank a bunch of enemies for you, which will make the Mace guys a lot more manageable.  If you do bring her in and she lives, dismiss her BEFORE you fight the boss.  She's an absolute disaster if you take her in there.  She's also hilarious and worth summoning once just to see her and her lance go charging into enemies.  Pop your head out the back door of the house, lure the one mace guy in, murder him, and then go out and murder the one priestess left.  Now you've got a couple of casters, two mace guys and a healer left.  Take them out one at a time, let Felicia tank them, whatever tickles your fancy.  Charging the two mace guys is a terrible idea unless you have something like a halberd that can hit them and the healer at the same time. 

 

From the third bonfire to the boss, I'll let you discover that area on your own.  But remember PATIENCE IS YOUR FRIEND.  Don't rush through here. 

[Sno]

Rule #1 for Shrine of Amana is to make bloody sure you have a lot of arrows or bolts for your bow or crossbow, don't even bother trying to screw around with those mages, cheese that shit. Often times, running up for melee or even magic range will just end up aggroing a ton of other hollows that lie hidden in the water. (Alternatively, trying to clear out the hollows before the mages is just as dumb.)

Once you have the mages in a specific stretch down, just move slowly and listen for movement, the hollows make a lot of noise when they aggro on you.

The mages are the hardest part though, the rest is fairly easy, except for that one bit where it's possible to aggro like four of those mace-wielding guys simultaneously. That bit is dangerous, try to pull them individually from as far away as you can. (At a certain distance, they just stop having hurtboxes and you can't even hit them with arrows or bolts, even though you can clearly see them spawned into the map.)

Shrine of Amana is probably the only part of the game where i felt like i had to fall back into a Dark Souls 1-style rhythm of carefully sniping at enemies to take them on one at a time. I found it to be probably the hardest area of the game, but not really in a "holy shit, this is awesome" way, i ended up just finding it kind of tedious. Unfortunate, because it's conceptually an awesome area, and one of the most visually arresting areas in the game.

Also, the Shrine of Amana gimmick: When there is singing, fireflies will flit around the hollows. As long as those fireflies are there, the hollows won't aggro on you unless you're virtually bumping right up into them. Couple things make this a little trickier though, because if you want to do a clear run of Shrine of Amana, you'll probably need a torch to see the paths under the water. The issue is that the torch will scare away the fireflies on top of making the hollows aggro on your from further away.

[SilentBtAmazing]

Anyway, back to DS2 having finished that, and I'm at the Shrine of Amana and just...fuck the Shrine of Amana. I'm this close to quitting because it is a total slog and the enemy placement is just evil. I just cannot make any headway past the second bonfire. I need some good advice for this awful place before I smash my PC/myself to pieces in frustration.

Also I would like to offer to co op with you if you'd like. We would have to figure out if it's possible, I am at the obscenely high SM 2.72m but if you're in the same band I am game for buying the name engraved ring and tryin to meet up. My name on Steam is the same as here.

Either way I would say don't give up! The next areas are really cool and I think you should see them and do this. Praise the Sun!

Edit: I sent you a friend request on Steam and bought the ring. I will look into what SM tier I am part of but will caution I am trying to move towards end game so may only be around in NG for a week or so.

Edit2: this shiz is complicated

http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Summon+Range+Calculator

[Golden Calf]

I randomly talked to the map guy today on my third playthrough. He had some things to say about a murderer he thought he saw. What have I done.

[Bjorn]

My Axe wielding character should be approaching the 2 million tier, I'd be down for some co-op and will likely be on here in a minute if anyone is playing tonight.  Though I'm heading into end game and my SM is likely to jump up pretty quick.  I still have some loose ends to clean up on this character and might stick around NG for awhile with him though. 

[Trip Hazard]

I didn't see your message Silent, but I have added you as a friend anyway because the more the merrier, right? Sadly, I don't think we'll be able to co-op as my SM is approx 1.7 million, and I presume (tho I didn't look at the SM calculator) that a million soul difference would mean we're not in the same band.

 

Anyway, I did the Shrine today! The advice you guys gave was helpful indeed. I went and bought tons of arrows and bolts, upgraded my short bow a bit, put on my most magic resistant gear and just sniped whilst tanking the magic missiles. It felt dumb and it wasn't fun at all, but it worked.

 

Previously I had been trying to close melee range on the casters and beat them up quickly before the lurking hollows could pounce on me. Usually I'd kill the mage that I'm aiming for but not without taking a hit, and by then another mage would have been aggro'd, so I'm then having to sprint over there and even more hollows are popping up and aaarrgggh.

 

Felicia also came in handy. She's really dumb and her pathfinding is truly appalling but she was doing a great job of drawing fire, letting me unleash my arrows unmolested.

 

After that third bonfire, I mainly sprinted out from behind the pillar with the torch to kill a caster, then retreated behind it to safely deal with the hollows that would be following, then repeat that on the next mage. Only took me two tries. Again, a boring tactic which felt cheap, but it's a cheap area so I feel entirely justified. 

 

Thanks for the help guys  

[osmosisch]

I think if you both use the name-engraved ring you should be able to coop easily. the SM system isn't that restrictive at higher values.

 

I'd also be happy to play with anyone interested! I don't have that many characters yet though.

[Bjorn]

I respecced Bjorn da Dwarf, my axe wielder last night, because what I thought he needed was to be a bit more obnoxious.  I really wanted to duplicate one of my DS1 builds using the Dragon King Great Axe, but there just aren't any axes that are as glorious as that weapon.  And then I remembered the the King's Ultra Greatsword.  But it's not really a sword, it's a Lady Club.  So I justified its use by simply declaring it's not a sword.  If you haven't seen it, it's like the Dragon Greatsword in DS1, but in the shape of Queen Nashandra:

 

 

It takes a 75 Str to power stance it!  But it's gloriously ridiculous to enter battle with a two-headed great axe in one hand and the Lady Club in the other.  It means I've got a whopping 40 pounds of weapons.  So I've had to dump most of my good armor while still jacking up my carry weight.  My health is crap, my adaptability is lower than I would like, but I'm surprisingly happy with him.  I've tried to stick to the SL150 meta for a lot of my characters (which I don't know if there is any real reason to), but this one is going to have to go up to at least 200 probably to be consistently viable.  A 14 in health on a heavy weapons class just doesn't work that great!  Way too much stuff in PvP can one or two shot him. 

[SilentBtAmazing]

If anyone want to jolly co op in NG this weekend just let me know. I hope to be close to the end game but finish up a bunch of stuff at that time. Rings will probably be required.

[Bjorn]

Patch notes were released on the Japanese site this evening, translation is up on Reddit.  Mostly nerfs to the most obnoxious stuff.  Sadly my great axe and lady club combo is going down.  Apparently that was not an intended interaction.  Ah well, it was fun for the couple of days I used it.  Just went and got in some duels and invasions with that build before I have to go back to just great axes with it. 

[Dewar]

What about that combo is getting nerfed? I can't get to Redit at work.

[Bjorn]

When you power stance a greataxe and an ultra-greatsword, you get the longsword moveset, a fairly quick horizontal swipe (much faster than any of the base moves for either weapon).  They're changing the powerstanced moveset to something else, probably something a lot slower. 

[SilentBtAmazing]

Bros I am super struggling with the

memories parts. I just keep dying in large part to the damn fireball meteors.

Any tips or encouragement?

[eot]

Try dashing through.

[SilentBtAmazing]

haha. well said. I will give that a shot.

[Latrine]

The fireballs always strike at the same spot with the same time interval. Wait for one volley to go by, run up hugging the right wall to trigger the you know what, wait for another volley and then proceed. 

 

You can also see them coming if you look up to the left.

[Trip Hazard]

I just took down the boss of the Memory of whoever myself. I'll throw my summon sign down on the way to the final boss, see if we can't co-op it to death.

[SilentBtAmazing]

Nice! I will see if The timing works out (I am at GMT +6 so I am not sure).

Yeah I unknowingly started with the boss one, which I personally found harder than the others that I have tried, I think I have one left to do.