Topic: Dark Souls

[Kieran]

I think I'll see if the DLC package gets a discount during the next Steam sale.  Sounds like it's worth picking up, but I just don't want to pay full price for it.  I didn't pay full price for the game either, so it's a matter of principle at this point.

However, I am almost done with Demon's Souls, and I need some new areas to explore afterward.   The itch must be scratched, even if Dark Souls 2 is my least favorite game in the series.

[Blue Valkyrie]

The reward for gathering all four crowns was fine, it's an awesome advantage without breaking the game and it fits the story. People shouldn't over hype things, it was never going to be rematch with Manus or a new ending.

The Frozen City kinda reminds me of the Bolataria, and it easily the largest of the DLC areas. I really like how many new areas open up after thawing the ice, and there was a nice new twist on the Manus Fragment story. Not sure what DLC is my favorite though.

Also Bone Fist power stanced with another fist weapon = Hadokens! =D

[Da Dood]

People shouldn't over hype things

The Vendrick memory conversations were clearly building up with each new DLC, From promised "surprises" for clearing the whole quest, and the memory area is a lot bigger than what you have access to. It's understandable that people would expect something better at the end.

Don't get me wrong, the DLC is a great pack (sans lame rehashed bosses), and the journey matters most, but there were enough reasons to be excited at the possibilities there.

[Blue Valkyrie]

True but the build up does go somewhere if you think about it.

[spoiler]by merging the power of all four crowns you finally gain away to break the curse while maintaining your immortality. In other words the Cursed Undead finally broke the cycle, and Vendrick's dialogue hints this power will soon spread and effect the rest of the undead. Combine this with the base ending and it gives me some nice ammo for my character's own ending. I'm satisfied honestly.[/spoiler]

[Da Dood]

I don't really care about the story, though. It's cool that the reward was satisfying to you, but saying I was overhyping the surprise isn't fair. I didn't play the DLC solely for the reward at the end, it's just one little thing that was disappointing to me.

Anti-curse is not something that can help me at this point. I have 10+ Rings of Life Protection, and those also protect my souls... (Plus that crown is butt ugly!)

I definitely want to find that Bone Fist, though!

[Blue Valkyrie]

That Buff works with all the crowns, not just Vendrick's and unlike the rings they don't break AND offer stat enhancements. The hidden lore of the Souls series is a huge part of why I love it, the end of the 3 DLCs gave some hope to a happy ending for my character beyond being kindling.

In the end all three DLCs were quality adventures and improved on the vanilla game by leaps and bounds so I'm satisfied, the ability to become immune to cures and hallowing is just an added bonus.

[Kieran]

Did you mean "curse" and "hollowing"?

[Da Dood]

Yeah, those are basically the same thing in that context. When you get cursed in Dark Souls 2, you become hollow and your max health bar decreases a bit (like when you die in hollow form).

The stat buff isn't necessary at the point in the game where you get it. Early on, when you actually need to worry about being hollow, the game provides convenient solutions like Ring of Binding and Human Effigies. In my case, if a ring breaks, I pay 3000 souls to fix it (which is nothing at this point) and I keep my 10 million souls + human form. I understand why people would want the extra ring slot, although that depends a lot on the build (my character is a STR melee, there's not much else to add in terms of pure strength).

I can imagine the HP regen crown + buff being useful in SL1 runs, where your curse resist is super low and any help is welcome. But that means doing the entire DLC plus the areas necessary to access the DLC realms. You are pretty much done with the game if you can make it there.

Also very important: the buff doesn't even carry over to NG+. You have to keep getting the 3 DLC crowns over and over in every cycle.

[Kieran]

Oh, I know that.  I was referring to Valkyrie mangling the words.  Being immune to "cures" in Dark Souls would be kind of terrible.

[Da Dood]

Oh, sorry. I'm dumb.

[Blue Valkyrie]

Yeah meant Curse sorry, the upgraded crowns makes you immune to the curse status effect as well as hollowing when you die. Nashandra's curse orbs and the fog areas in Brume Tower will no longer affect you like if you wore the Hollowed Mask item found in Brume tower. (Curse Jars obviously no longer affect you as well.)

I agree though not being able to carry over the effect to a NG+ run is kinda lame but I rarely go past NG+ anyway since I just tend to PVP with that character.

My only real complaint of the DLCs now is that damned Fridged Outskirts area, now THAT is artificial difficulty at it's worst. What was FROM thinking there, you don't even get anything for killing the two bosses there outside copies of Aava's Soul. At least the other challenge areas cave you neat armor parts. (The Flower Skirt and the Giant Dad-esq mask)

[Da Dood]

I tried Frigid Outskirts a couple times, made it to the Pharros healing spring. Then I died a second time and said [tornado fang] it, I'm not in the mood for this crap, haha. Since then, people have made videos showing how to get around there, and also a map. I'll give it a try some other time (being in NG+2 doesn't help...).

[Blue Valkyrie]

I'll only go there for one reason, to get the Ring of the Living from right before the boss room. It lets you look human without the phantom effect while in Co-Op and Invasions. That is very important for Fashion Souls!

[Flame]

I beat all 3 DLC's in NG+

That was quite an adventure since everything chunks you.

Ivory king fight was definitely fantastic, and having the 4 Loyce Knights to help out (mainly as aggro for the Charred Loyce Knights)

As far as the whole plot surrounding Ivory king goes, I loved it. It was nice to see Chaos again. it made for some variety. Sort of expands the chaos plot in DS1.

[Kieran]

I'm still sort of fumbling my way through the Brume Tower after picking up the DLC.  Haven't made it to any of the other DLC zones yet.

So far I'm finding the whole thing kind of bullshit.  It feels like the whole tower, instead of the devs trying to make it interesting or challenging in any meaningful way, just decided "let's throw five hundred enemies at the player at once.  That's hard, right?"

[Blue Valkyrie]

The numbers seem bad at first but if you look around carefully it's possible to thin their numbers using the hazards to your advantage at a bit of creative item use. I actually enjoyed dealing with the two mob rooms.

The first major mob can be tackled in two ways. One, climb down and run to the Ash Idol and use the Smelter Wedge to destroy it and remove it's buff then deal with the two or three Ashen Soldiers. (Don't run too far and you shouldn't agro the other one. The second way is to jump from from those ladders to the balcony above the room and fall behind that one near the far wall the slowly draw the others to you with arrows one at a time.

The Second major mob room is easy to deal with if you have some fire arrows, Alluring Skulls and some patience. Chase the barrel enemies so they fall down the trap door then wait for them to approach the Giant and use arrows to blow it up. You don't even need to go down there just back off and fire an arrow from the ladder hole. Alluring skulls can be used with some good aim to get all the enemies together. The bomb throwing knight on that unreachable ledge can be taken care of by going to the locked door and using a bomb to blow up the barrels on the other side or a weapon that clips through the door. Once the giant is out of the way you can deal with the minor threats at your leisure and take out the next Ashen Idol.

The large out door area I found it was best to snipe the first Fume Sorceress then trigger the enemies on the path and run back to where you first entered dealing with them on your own terms. The key to the lower ash field is to deal with the first three enemies then agro the one's hiding in the wall one at a time.

For the rest of the tower just use the sliding bull traps to damage them and use arrows to draw agro. The area you need to drop down for is best beaten by just careful avoiding the damaged floor areas and dealing with the enemies one at a time rather than all at once.

Hope that helps you out. ((I play way to much Souls =D ))

[Kieran]

I already managed to claw my way to the boss room.  I'm just sick of fighting the [tornado fang]ing Iron Warriors, not to mention the possessed armors that will not die in the room above, despite being nowhere near a goddamn ashen idol.  Not helped by the fact you can't leave the final bonfire to approach the boss room without aggroing at least two of the bastards.

This isn't fun.  It feels like a slog.

[Blue Valkyrie]

If you hug the wall closest to Fume Knight's room you can avoid agroing them at all. For the floor above I just ran past them to the elevator and once the four ashen idols below were gone I went back up to grab the Magic Clutch Ring.  For the Iron Warriors it's honestly best to stay right in front of them, they can't get you with their flame attacks and it's pretty easy to dodge their swings from there if you roll toward them.

[Kieran]

Well, I killed the Iron Warriors in the Fume Knight area until they stopped spawning, so that's no longer a problem.

Now I just can't [tornado fang]ing survive against the Fume Knight himself.

[Blue Valkyrie]

The key to Fume Knight is to adapt to his delayed swings, don't try to block his attacks ever they will almost always guard break you. Will depend on on player but if you prefer his second phase to his first wearing Vestalt's armor will send him into a fury and start the second phase right away.

You may want to watch a youtube video and see how some players deal with him, if not all I can say is don't dodge to soon and you'll roll through most of his attacks. Maybe summon help although that puts his strength, defense and health through the roof.

Fume Knight is my favorite boss in the whole soul series, even above Manus Father of the Abyss, he's a blast to fight and evenin co-op is a serious challenge.

[Flame]

it's really just the Velstadt helm that he recognizes.

it's the little things, really, that make DS2 worthwhile.

like the fact that the game presents you with the Artorias greatsword, the majestic greatsword, at the bottom of that curse deathtrap tower. which specifies that all it's previous users were left handed.

Then you fight Fume Knight and realize upon the shift to phase 2 of the fight, that Raime is actually left handed, and neither of his 2 weapons are his original gear, and he had a Greatshield he left behind, lost in the salamander pit in the Forest, and a ring that reduces stamina loss when blocking, and you realize he was a left handed sword and board [chameleon sting]er. And that majestic greatsword had to come from somewhere. I mean, it's not on a corpse, but in an iron chest.

[Kieran]

I actually spent some time, after a friend of mine helped me beat the Fume Knight, getting my stats in order to use the Majestic Greatsword.  Fighting left-handed is... weird.  (Plus, you know, that sword is so big it's very difficult to use in tight quarters.)

[Phi]

(Plus, you know, that sword is so big it's very difficult to use in tight quarters.)

Perfect wording here. I approve.

[Blue Valkyrie]

If you have the stats two handing the majestic great sword in the left hand and another great sword in the other also has some neat moves.

But yeah I like all the little nods, Ivory King has the same throw backs to a certain Witch from the first game.

[Flame]

If you have the stats two handing the majestic great sword in the left hand and another great sword in the other also has some neat moves.

But yeah I like all the little nods, Ivory King has the same throw backs to a certain Witch from the first game.

to be fair, The Lost Sinner was already a throwback to that.