The Dark Souls Thread

[Comrade Slinky]

I get the fear plus that big assholes hammer keeps poking me through them. Cobbling together some elemental weapons now, here's hoping!

[Wang Mandu]

Quelaag's Fury Sword slays those two.

[Comrade Slinky]

I was thinking of getting that and then maybe a katana to lightning +5, either the Uchi or the Iaito.

[Ghost Dad]

Noooooo....fire

[Comrade Slinky]

Figured Furysword would cover that. I think I need to wait until demon ruins to get the ember for maxing a regular fire weapon?

[Wang Mandu]

Dont forget to have you humanity counter up to 10 for extra damage with the Furysword. I think you are right about the ember....behind those fucking bugs.

[spacehamster]

Pyromancy for Ornstein, then lightning spear for Smough works for me.

[a world of no]

better yet, crank your weapons up their normal path and use resins for elemental damage. the only other path i would upgrade other than normal is chaos. lightning, fire, divine/occult don't do as much damage normally, with a couple of rare exceptions i think. don't waste the souls and materials.

and don't get so much behind the pillar but have it between you and those twinks. keep moving.

[Spooky Apparition]

and don't get so much behind the pillar but have it between you and those twinks. keep moving.

yes... my biggest PvE accomplishment in the game is beating O&S at level 12 or something with no armor, and the key for me was to just keep them in front of me at all times and keep backing up in a circle around the room. just try it, and you'll see how easy it can make O&S once you get the rhythm of their attacks figured out. and I say that as someone who sucks at a lot of the bosses in the game.

[FVBTVS]

level 12??

thats gangster

[Spooky Apparition]

yeah, I guess I am pretty fucking awesome

no, actually I got lucky and found people to summon for basically all of sen's and anor londo, which helped a ton. my goal was to get to the DLC at a super low level, but after I beat O&S solo things got a little too hard.

even if you don't think you're that good at the game, it's fun to just see how far you can get at a low level, especially if you get lucky with a drop like the black knight halberd or something.

[Wang Mandu]

And that's why I never understood why people wanted an easier or multiple difficulty modes. The game is a fucking cakewalk 99% of the time if you summon other players.

I'm totally enjoying the nerd outrage at DSII allegedly getting casualized for a mainstream audience. I kind of hope there are microtransactions and QTEs just because I want to see nerds self-immolate over a video game.

[FVBTVS]

even if you don't think you're that good at the game, it's fun to just see how far you can get at a low level, especially if you get lucky with a drop like the black knight halberd or something.

yeah i got the halberd on a new game and was going to rock low low level for a while but the temptation was still too high and now im at 37.. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[The Bill]

After the grisliness of that Black Knight and Ford Taurus Minotaur, those Gargoyles were fucking pussies!!!

And what was that thing in the basement? Some cripple statue monster? Arrows from afar meant not a lick of damage to me. Starting to feel might proud of myself. Nothings been too hard lately.

[FVBTVS]

i dont know. i'm not wholly against the creation of options for players. if the entire bonafide dark souls experiences is baked in and you have to go in and opt out of its most crucial elements and the game mocks you every step of the way i'd be into that. especially with differentiators that would mark your character in pvp?

it isn't the same thing but it appears they went in and gutted a lot of the features for the new thief and added the potential for a seriously 'hardcore' and 'old school' experience. whether or not the game plays better as a result of removing a lot of those mechanics/features it remains to be seen but if it's even close to the original series on a next gen console it will be fucking orgasmic.

[spacehamster]

i dont know. i'm not wholly against the creation of options for players. if the entire bonafide dark souls experiences is baked in and you have to go in and opt out of its most crucial elements and the game mocks you every step of the way i'd be into that. especially with differentiators that would mark your character in pvp?

That doesn't really solve the PVP issue, and PVP is exactly the reason why adding difficulty levels would seriously alter the game. I realize there are still ways to fast-track you to a supercharged character with awesome gear, and even that won't really make you successful in PVP if you suck, but I still think it's a problem. The whole point is that everyone's always online, playing in "parallel dimensions“, and everyone's dealing with the same challenges. You add difficulty scaling, you lose that.

And besides, like WM and Pisscubes already said, co-op turns most of the bossfights into a joke. Two guys can just gang up on most bosses from two sides and hack him to pieces in under a minute. I've had people die on me at O&S and got someone killed at Gwyn once because I was being stupid, but you really have to be a complete retard or actively try to get the other guy killed.

Not to mention SO many of the bossfights have NPC phantoms you can summon. The cheatcodes are already there.

[FVBTVS]

true. and you couldn't reallly segregate the population of scubs/nonscrubs because that never works either.

but it always kinda felt to me like i was fighting completely fast tracked assholes anyway in pvp like within the first month.

[FVBTVS]

yeah you could summon someone who rapes a critical game area and signature boss fight for you and never experience the true hell and despair of the dark souls experience..

you can always do that

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

[The Bill]

In all sincerity, you could raise 20,000 souls on the bridge exploit, open the Ol' Farmin' Hole, get to level 30 or whatever (so you can summon more powerful characters) after some grinding and then with enough humanities, you could summon your way through this game. You can summon MULTIPLE other people who just want souls and let them into your game and basically follow in their wake. In a way, the game is broken that way-- but it's an option for sure. You could basically have other people play 85% of the game for you if you're into that. So, I guess I agree that there's no reason for difficulty levels because you could just ride coat-tails through this thing if you really wanted to.

I might be the only one that feels this way, but I'm so glad that the 360 Dark Souls weekend is over and I'm back to off-line. All that stupid shit written on the floors and seeing ghosts and fuck faces sitting at bonfires killed my immersion. As Yahtzee said, this game feels like Castlevania: SOTN, and I want it that way. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair can fuck right off.

[The Bill]

In all sincerity, you could raise 20,000 souls on the bridge exploit, open the Ol' Farmin' Hole, get to level 30 or whatever (so you can summon more powerful characters) after some grinding and then with enough humanities, you could summon your way through this game. You can summon MULTIPLE other people who just want souls and let them into your game and basically follow in their wake. In a way, the game is broken that way-- but it's an option for sure. You could basically have other people play 85% of the game for you if you're into that. So, I guess I agree that there's no reason for difficulty levels because you could just ride coat-tails through this thing if you really wanted to.

I might be the only one that feels this way, but I'm so glad that the 360 Dark Souls weekend is over and I'm back to off-line. All that stupid shit written on the floors and seeing ghosts and fuck faces sitting at bonfires killed my immersion. As Yahtzee said, this game feels like Castlevania: SOTN, and I want it that way. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair can fuck right off.

So when I play I'm either in the living room or if the woman wants to watch the Olympics or something,I move the ps3 into the bedroom (where there is no internet router to plug into). I like the online experience better. I LIKE the messaging system-- especially because they don't let it be too specific. It would suck if people could type, "Third chest is a mimic, hit it with fire then slash". It's much more fun that it's "enemy ahead" or "Liar". I think that's cool. And invaders, as maddening as they can be, can be fun too (though I have to admit I got SUPER fucking pissed when I spent some humanities and became human and a dude immediately showed up and fucking backstabbed me FUCK YOU!!!). Anyway, as long as you're not summoning constantly, online makes the game a better experience in my opinion.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Certainly, people like World of No love it. It's not my thing. Again, I don't want to be warned if danger is ahead, I don't suddenly walk slower through a door. I remember last Friday people just writing "I did it" and "praise the sun" everywhere. Great. Fantastic then.

[a world of no]

DS2, by most accounts, appears to make PvP an integral part of the game, so it's something you might as well get used to if you plan to move on to that one. Covenants are explained, and balanced. Invasions are regular, though timed, and you get invaded even when hollow. I guess you could play offline, but as I've already explained previously, you miss out on a lot of the game. This is coming from a guy that did two playthroughs of DS offline before jumping headfirst into pvp online land, and that's all I do now. All 5 of my builds now, save my original, were made specifically with pvp in mind, and it keeps me coming back, sinking my life into the fucking game.

[spacehamster]

Playing 'Souls without online is retarded. This conversation is over.

Anyway, I had a shitty week, so today I came home with a sixpack and a pack of pringles and binged on DkS. Best idea ever. Finally finished the Siegmeyer storyline, and got the Old Witch's Ring to do the conversation with Quelaag's sister. Of course these two things are slit wrist-inducingly depressing, but... uh, yeah.

Also, for some reason the Sanctuary Guardian is totally kicking my ass. I think I got him in about 4 attempts in NG+, but now I'm getting fucking creamed. Oh well. I'll finish up everything except Sif/Four Kings this weekend, and then it's back to Oolacile. I'll figger dis out.

[Spooky Apparition]

Playing 'Souls without online is retarded. This conversation is over.

yes

Anyway, I had a shitty week, so today I came home with a sixpack and a pack of pringles and binged on DkS. Best idea ever.

YES

Finally finished the Siegmeyer storyline, and got the Old Witch's Ring to do the conversation with Quelaag's sister. Of course these two things are slit wrist-inducingly depressing, but... uh, yeah.

YES
worth it (Siegmeyer) for that sweet, sweet slab though.

[FVBTVS]

i ass pounded my first ng+ iron golem last night. apparently id somehow missed crestfallen merchant my first time or dont remember? got that onion knight shit and dem rangs he sell. im fucking playing this shit till 2 comes out i just know it..

[The Bill]

This big rat is all over my dick, man. I did drink a lot of beer now.