Topic: Dark Souls

[Blue Valkyrie]

Nice, glad things are working out better. Dark and Resonante Weapon are great spell buffs, you'll find them useful in the DLC boss fights, none of them are that resistant to dark elemental attacks.

[Flame]

Anything to do with hexes, buffs included, is pretty OP in DaS2. Balanced by the fact that most of them require souls to work.

[Blue Valkyrie]

Anything to do with hexes, buffs included, is pretty OP in DaS2. Balanced by the fact that most of them require souls to work.

True, although by NG+ the number of souls you get from most enemies pretty much makes the cost a non-issue. Great Magic Barrier is also quite popular for self-buffing defenses, although at least you can't stack it with other non weapon buffs anymore.

Can't remember how many duelists I attacked mid buff animation when they tried to stack every buff under the sun, thats pushing it for me a little.

[Da Dood]

By the way, any melee weapons or shields worth trading souls for (Ornifax/Straid)? I already have all the spells but I don't think I've traded any weapons except the Moonlight Greatsword.

I also kinda wanted a small or medium shield. I have 3 greatshields and they're good, but with my current armor and equipment, it would be nice to carry something lighter. I rarely even equip my shields 'cause they're so heavy.

[Blue Valkyrie]

Notable weapons?

-Flexile Sentry's Soul for the Warped Sword is great for dex builds
-Bewitched Alone Sword from Sir Alone is an interesting weapon
-Butcher's Knife from The Rotten's souls is much improved from the DK1 versions and still has the HP absorb per hit effect.
-Chariot Lance from the Executioner's Chariot Soul is a great lance.
-Drakewing Ultra Greatsword from the Guardian Dragon Soul.
-Curved Dragon Greatsword from the Ancient Dragon Soul. (from the memory in Brightstone)
-Throne Defender and Throne Watcher's greatswords are both good for faith/sorcery melee builds and both have special buffs with their two handed heavy attack. Watcher for magic Defender for faith.
-Dragonslayer Spear is pretty good
-Fume Ultra greatsword works as a makeshift shield with one of it's attacks
-Pursuer's Ultra Great sword is a good weapon.

As for shields
-While it's a light shield the Throne Watcher's shield is amazing, while not 100% physical block it's incredibly well rounded in all other defenses.
-The Drangliek Shield is good but it requires twinkling to upgrade, but other wise one of the most well rounded medium shields in the game.
-The King's Shield is also a good choice, certainly looks nice and it's stats aren't that different.

[Da Dood]

Awesome, thanks again.

Didn't play much since, I only warped to all the merchants and bought a ton of consumables for future use.

Seriously considering a SL1 run... as much as I know I'm going to suffer, haha... but I've done one in the other Souls games, this one can't be that worse, right? Right?

[Blue Valkyrie]

DLCs might give you some issues but the main game it should be possible with all the ways to buff yourself. I mean like other soul games it'll be tough either way.

[Da Dood]

Finally encountered and killed Wilykit and Wilykat in Dark Souls 2. Jesus goodness, how awesome it feels to be done with this.

I guess I wouldn't mind this fight if you didn't have to cross the Frigid Outskirts... the fight is pretty manageable, especially with NPC summons distracting one of them. It only took me 4 or 5 attempts. But the trip, man... ugh. By far the worst area in the whole series there. I'm glad you find the new ring near the boss at least.

Also, I definitely like Aava as a boss. Reading their attacks today was really fun. I should fight the solo tiger again one of these days.

Red Iron Twinblade with Dark Weapon, I love you.

Officially beaten all bosses in the game now. I'm probably ready to move on to NG+3, but there might be some more farming and experimenting to do.

[Blue Valkyrie]

Plus any bosses the First Sin expansion adds too.

[Kieran]

My desire to play it seems to have petered out again.  I stopped about two thirds of the way through the last DLC a month ago, and honestly I can't really seem to work up any motivation to finish it.

[Da Dood]

I just went through Amana in NG+2 as practice for a possible, but currently not likely No Death run in NG+X. It went smoothly with Alonne Greatbow + Destructive Arrows. As long as I keep my distance, I can snipe almost every enemy one at a time, without them noticing me. And the Torch helps with the sudden drops (although I do have them memorized now after many many deaths).

I also truly explored the Iron Passage for the first time ever (my first run through it was literally just a dash to the boss). I do quite like this place. At least compared to the other DLC challenge areas. There is an alternate path, which I always think is cool, and you can fire arrows with good positioning. Still a tough gauntlet, but I'm satisfied with the strategy here.

[Blue Valkyrie]

Plus Smelter 2.0 is kinda fun too since they altered the way some of his attacks work like adding some pause between his combos, that threw me off the first few attempts. Also Blue > Red, not that I'm biased or anything right? 

[Flame]

both of Fume's boss weapons are pretty good.

Fume straightsword has regulr longsword R1's, but the R2's are like a rapier's.

the UGS is probably the strongest (and heaviest) UGS in the game, with a good moveset. the R2 is particularly good, like Valkyrie said. it blocks for a second or two before swinging down.

the 2HR2's are a really good thrust as well. i think it's 2HR2, i might have em mixed up

[Da Dood]

Nice, thanks. UGS looks a bit more interesting... I have to choose well 'cause I only have one soul, but I will be fighting this guy a lot in future runs.

I was farming Giant Lord + Petrified Somethings now. Bless the random soul at GameFAQs who mentioned that the Giant Lord bonfire also ascends all the other Memories in the forest, or I would have never tried this. I walked out of that session with 20 Petrified Somethings and a crapton of Crimson Waters.

Anyway, I wanted stones to get the rare items from the crows. I don't know if they're not so rare or if I got lucky, but I scored all rare weapons and the White Ring without having to farm again. Phew.

[Blue Valkyrie]

That being said the Drake Keeper's Sword is still the go to Longsword if you ever do consider the Fume Straight Sword.

[Da Dood]

Of course there's a really cool armor set in Dark Souls 2 that requires fighting a boss over and over until the NG+ lackeys drop all the pieces. Oh, Souls, the things I do because I love you.

To be fair you can quit the game and reset the boss fight + lackeys if you don't get the drop. Still annoying, though, because well... it's the Flexile Sentry's ninja helpers.

Let's give it a try.

[Blue Valkyrie]

Of course there's a really cool armor set in Dark Souls 2 that requires fighting a boss over and over until the NG+ lackeys drop all the pieces. Oh, Souls, the things I do because I love you.

To be fair you can quit the game and reset the boss fight + lackeys if you don't get the drop. Still annoying, though, because well... it's the Flexile Sentry's ninja helpers.

Let's give it a try.

Honestly the quitting method is the best way to do it, minimal hassle that way, and with item dropping gear on and the coins you should get a few pieces of the shadow gear pretty quick.

[Da Dood]

Yeah, it didn't take long at all, thankfully.

Did a bunch of stuff in Dark Souls 2 yesterday...

- Shadow set: I got it, and as I mentioned, it wasn't as difficult as I thought. With good item discovery, the ninjas drop the armor pieces fairly quickly, and you only have to quit the game to respawn before the fog gate. I even got their weapons. The chest piece looks great, but I'm not a fan of the leggings. Nothing I currently have goes with the top. Bummer. #FashionSouls

- Company of Champions/Vanquisher's Seal: I farmed the Black Phantom invader at Grave of Saints (Rhoy?) for Awestones. That spot is nice because you don't need to fight the boss when you ascend the bonfire. The Vanquisher's Seal is amazing, especially with powerstance, but I wish it boosted all fist weapons and not just the unarmed guy. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this thing anyway.

- Rat King Covenant/Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring: Same bonfire as the above. I noticed that I was getting quite a few Rat Tails when I was farming Awestones, so I decided to rank up here as well. No idea where I would use that ring considering Dark Souls 2 is a massive gauntlet fest, but I'm glad I have it. Also, Great Club+10 OHKOs the rats even in NG+7. Good to know.

Gotta dig through the Wiki for more interesting items to find. I'll try to come up with something to do today.

[Da Dood]

Well, damn. No new content in Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin after all, except for... an NPC? Bleh.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/12/29/dark-souls-2-scholar-of-the-first-sin-director-reveals-new-details

Oh well. Still interested to see the new enemy placement and hopefully *good* balancing (aka please stop nerfing my favorite weapons).

[Blue Valkyrie]

Apparently this NPC will be rather important, but hey free content is free content right?

Also my Build a character called "Flare" (original I known); is about complete.

Demon Great Hammer+5
Pyromancy Flame+10
Lion Warrior Helm+10
Desert Sorceress+10
Havel Gauntlets+5
Executioner Leggings+5

Great Chaos Fireball
Acid Surge
Fire Weapon

((Don't have the character stats in front of me so I'm remembering off the top of my head))

But 50s in Str and Dex, 50 in Vitality, 40 in Endurance, 40 for Equip Load, 40 in Agility for maximum dodge potential. 22 for spell attunement. and I ignored faith and intelligence all together. 

Demon Great Hammer is an awesome weapon and surprisingly quick for it's size, won a few PvP matches with it.

[Flame]

so this is the new NPC with the Scholar update/version

http://imgur.com/a/F4Rtl

also, one of the lore changes

http://i.imgur.com/Bg7yQxN.jpg


and the new title screen

http://imgur.com/t/dark_souls/UJvZf

[Blue Valkyrie]

Aha so that explains why the Last Giant was so angry when it sees you in that cutscene. Nice; I'm going to have to make a new character to see all these changes when this comes out.

Not going to spoil myself on the new NPC though, I want to experience the new story bits on my own.

[Da Dood]

Farmed more Loyce Souls in the Ivory DLC (enough to get the final reward, which... eh) and fought the Ivory King again. I had to ascend the bonfire because I ran out of enemies to farm Loyce Souls, so the boss was alive and I decided to fight him a second time. I really don't like certain things about this fight. His range is unbelievable and he seems to ignore i-frames when it's pretty obvious that you should have dodged clean past the attack. And of course, the fact that you have to do the whole Charred Loyce gauntlet every time you die isn't the greatest.

I beat him again though. Solo this time, no phantoms! \o/ Felt pretty good.

[Kieran]

Enemies ignoring i-frames has been kind of a thing for me.  One reason I do not like Dark Souls 2 very much. ¬_¬

[Flame]

Pump Adaptability.

It may be a less than perfect stat, but it exists. The more Agility you have, the more iframes you have on rolls.

Agility also factors into estus drinking speed.