Dark Souls

... But do you have all the Achievements?

Which basically requires a third playthrough, due to Soul of Sif making three weapons. Or for someone else to just give one of them to you.

I can't be arsed~

playing a mage in the beginning isn't as fun as it was in Demon's Souls

What's the funnest class to play?

I miss the mana bar.

edited 30th Apr '15 10:33:04 PM by MadSkillz

There's a guy near the entrance to New Londo (take an elevator down from Firelink Shrine) who will sell you an extra 30 casts of Soul Spear, which should be more than enough for now.

Wait I can get more Soul Arrows?

So I can have 60?

What about Heavy Soul Arrow?

There are two sorcery merchants pretty early in the game.

Rickert, down in New Londo Ruins that Firelink is directly linked to. Just take the elevator downstairs. He has Soul Arrow and Heavy Soul Arrow to sell. And offers magic weapon ascension if you have a 5+ weapon and Green Titanite.

And Griggs, who you need to buy a key from the Undead Burgh merchant to rescue, who then moves to Firelink as a merchant. But you won't reach him untill you get to Lower Undead Burgh, which also requires a key. (Yup, you need two different keys to get to him, and neither door is compatible with the Master Key either.) He sells a bunch of sorceries.

Every time you equip a certain spell, you add the number of casts it has to your total pool. So if you equip another Soul Arrow spell, you get 30 more Soul Arrows. Same for every spell you can get multiple times.

You can get three scrolls of Soul Spear in one playthrough if you know when to get them.

Bumping with a couple of noob questions:

I finally beat Fatty and Beanpole and got the bowl and got eaten by the Loch Ness Monster and put the bowl on the tree stump. Which boss should I go for first?
Also, I'm level 43 and still using the Drake Sword, but have been told ages ago to upgrade to something else; problem is, I don't know what else is or can be made as good a weapon; also, Andre can only do Raw and Holy weapons, and my Faith is only 14.

If it wasn't obvious enough already, I'm only on my first playthrough.

Yeah, it is way past time to ditch the Drake Sword. It's super powerful early on because of its high base damage, but if I remember correctly it has no scaling, so it doesn't deal any more damage when you level your stats up.

As for not knowing what can be made 'as good', probably anything at this point. Get a basic longsword or broadsword, upgrade it to +4 or +5 or so, and it'll probably be comparable to the Drake Sword, and will definitely surpass it with further upgrades. You probably don't need to worry about special upgrade paths either. Unless you're going for a specific build, or need to deal with certain situations, the basic upgrades will probably be sufficient.

Back to the issue of which weapon to use, I've already said that any decently upgraded weapon will do better than the Drake Sword, but beyond that it's really up to you. I've said it dozens of times to different people, but there is no real 'best weapon' in Dark Souls. Pick something that you like, that you feel comfortable with and use effectively. You probably have several weapons you've picked up along the way at this point, so go and fight some enemies you can defeat easily to get feel for their movesets.

Personally, I liked the longsword. Easy to use, and has a useful thrusting attack for those tight spaces, or enemies that are vulnerable to thrusting attacks.

wait, you haven't found the large ember yet? it's in the depths and should allow you to ascend your weapons to up to +10 on the regular upgrade path.

with that i suggest going to new londo first since you can find an ember there that will allow you to ascend to +15.

to be honest almost any weapon in this game is viable, it's just a matter of finding something with a moveset you like.

personally i find greatswords to be very reliable; they aren't TOO slow, their moveset is applicable to a wide variety of situations, AND they do a respectable amount of damage.

edited 28th May '15 3:58:29 PM by wehrmacht

The longsword starts at like 100 and the Drake Sword's at 240, but I forgot I could upgrade stuff that high, so I'll give that a go.

Made a poke into the Archives just now, actually, and took down the Tusks and found the exploit with the elevator. :/ You'd really think they'd at least let the crystal dude AI attack even if it's miles away from its beat; the golem sure doesn't care.

I could swear I remember having an opportunity to make a Fire Longsword, but I might just be thinking about the pine resin. :/ Andre doesn't have it as an option now, I don't think.

...Uh, I have a Longsword at +6 and the Drake Sword at +2. The stats say that the longsword does 128 physical +52 (which I think is the thrusting attack? Or is that what my Strength contributes?), while the Drake Sword does 240 physical with nothing listed for thrust (although it does have a thrusting attack). With Drake Sword equipped, the Status screen gives me 240 under R Weapon 1, and with the Longsword (which, again, is at +6), only 180.

My Strength is 20; is that too low? :/ Is that my problem?

The damage for weapons are listed as "base damage + stat bonus"

When a weapon gets upgraded further, the scaling improves, which means your stats add more damage to it.

Scaling goes from E to S.

You probably want to focus on one offensive stat (STR, DEX, INT, FTH) for damage to get the most out of a weapon. Though of course increase another stat to match requirements. (Such as more DEX if it's needed for your weapon of choice)

I suppose you can't go wrong with any weapon.

Oh, but before you start dumping points into stats for a weapon, be sure to check it's properties, such as if it even has scaling (if it doesn't, it'll just have a "-" instead of any letter) or for special attacks or effects, usually in the detailed description.

Making a weapon fire, chaos or lightning will remove all scaling, which is a good and bad thing. It'll have decent damage with minimal stat investment thus allowing you to use your points elsewhere, like HP, but you probably could do more damage with 50 strenght / dexterity and a +15 regular weapon.

Anyhow, pick a weapon that fancies your style and feed it titanite.

Brought the longsword up to +10 (which I think still left it just under the Drake Sword), discovered I could give it lightning damage, and did so. Haha; now, not only does it deal slightly more total damage than the Drake Sword, but half-ish of that is in lightning, which (unless I'm mistaken in my assumption) tends not to be resisted as much as physical damage.
The moveset still feels a little off, though; I'm too used to the Drake Sword. So, I looked it up on the wiki on a hunch, and the Drake Sword's moveset is apparently identical to the broadsword. Well, I got me one of them, and am currently in the process of farming the bejeezus out of the giant guards outside (to borrow a nickname from earlier in the thread) Raichu's and Snorlax's room to get souls to buy Large titanite shards to upgrade the broadsword.
Well, I will be next time I sit down to it; got sidetracked upgrading my longbow to replace the shortbow, and am considering adding lightning to that while I'm at it.

Also, on movesets, I think both the wiki and the game's flavor text might be wrong about broadswords not having a thrusting attack; if you hit forward and RT at the same time, you do a leaping stab. Admittedly it's aimed low, but it seemed to do more damage against the Armored Tusks. As for tight spaces, two-handing always seemed to work well enough with the Drake Sword.

Once I'm done all this upgrading, though, which boss should I tackle first? :/ Is Seath a good place to start?

Got sorta-ninja'd. I don't have the thing you need in order to get up to +15, nor remember where it's supposed to be, and also lightning is both cheaper and currently available. I can always use the Drake Sword as backup if something shows up that resists lightning.

As long as whatever you're doing works without having to grind to lv 386 or whatever.

Oh, just remembered: what the fuck are those white circles that show up on the ground? I used to think they were a glitch. Also, what does the white circle that appears over the Miracle I have equipped (Heal) when I walk over to it mean?

That's "Miracle Resonance"

When connected online, near spots other people have used miracles at can leave these "resonance spots" for others to use.

Resonance increases the power of miracles.

No idea why they did this and why pyromancy and sorcery gets gipped in this regard.

So, swords and miracles, mister Knight Templar?

Strength and Dexterity are important for stat scaling, but even if you screw up your spreadsheet, you will get something mostly decent. Upgrading gear is more important than stats.

Elemental infusion is handy, but if you want to go all the way with it, Strength and Dexterity are now useless, since elemental weapons do not scale with any stats.

edited 29th May '15 2:46:17 AM by mrsunshinesprinkles

All you've done now is postpone the problem. If I remember right, upgrading a weapon along the lightning path removes stat scaling, so once again you have a weapon with high base damage that won't get stronger as you level up.

Oh, the previous guy already said that. That'll teach me not to read.

Maybe this has been asked before too, but what build are you going for? It kinda sounds like you're making a lot of classic new player mistakes, and there's nothing wrong with that I hasten to add, I made plenty of them myself when I started. It just comes from not understanding how the game's systems work, and there is a lot going on that isn't immediately obvious.

If you're going for a standard Strength or Dexterity build, pick a weapon with appropriate stat scaling, and upgrade it along the NORMAL path. That sounds like I have something to say about other builds, but, well, I haven't really tried any other types, so I don't know. Things like elemental weapons and the Raw upgrade path are good, I think, for things like magic builds where you won't be putting many points into STR or DEX, but then again there are Enchanted and Divine weapons for INT and Faith builds.

Pay attention to a weapon's stat scaling though, it is really important, and it seems at the moment like you're disregarding it.

edited 29th May '15 4:26:49 AM by artfulscruff

the longsword is a "quality" weapon meaning you have to put points into both dextery and strength to get the full benefit. try getting both of those to 40 and you'll see a big difference (though you won't now that it's elemental). just pay attention to the scaling of the weapon and you'll know what you need to upgrade.

actually it will end up doing less damage than a pure physical weapon a lot of the time because the damage calc goes through two resistances instead of just one.

also all of the artorias of the abyss/ptd bosses are resistant to both lightning and fire AND have massive hp pools so you'll have an absolutely miserable time there.

the drake sword will still do pitiful damage in the point you are at because enemies have too much hp and the drake sword will never be any stronger unless you use rare dragon scales to upgrade it (and really there is no reason to waste them on it because it sucks). it's pretty much an awful weapon for everything after quelaag.

it's in a chest in new londo. you have to explore a little bit but it's not very difficult to find. i'd just go have a look there after you're done with duke's.

edited 29th May '15 4:41:23 AM by wehrmacht

To directly answer your question; Seath the Scaleless is kind of easy for a Grand Soul boss. The path to him is the real challenge though, what with the Duke Archive's elevator maze and the two Moonlight Butterflies guarding his cave.

Yeah, I totally forgot about that question :P

Personally I would go for Nito in the Tomb of the Giants first, but there's some preparation you should do before going there, really. I recommmend having either the Cast Light spell, or the Sunlight Maggot helmet.

Thinking on it, maybe Bed of Chaos would be good first one too. It's a terrible fight, but not really hard if you cheat a bit (and people won't give you a hard time for cheating on that fight), and your level and equipment is basically irrelevant for that fight. You're either dead or you're not, there's very little inbetween against that boss.

i still think going to new londo first, even if you don't actually clear it, pays off in the end for two reasons

1) you get the very large ember, which means you can have much stronger weapons for all the lordsoul bosses

2) you get to meet kaathe if by some chance you haven't placed the lordvessel. which is extremely unlikely, i think, given that the game gives you no indication that new londo can be cleared without the lordvessel, but whatever.

edited 29th May '15 12:09:26 PM by wehrmacht

I'm making every new player mistake in the book because I'm a new player, and don't much care for putting mountains of work into getting everything right the first time or for memorizing the entire game wiki. :| I'm not even really bothering to think about "build" much.

x4 Isn't Artorias part of the DLC? I don't have the DLC and am not planning on getting it anyway.

Well, I guess I'm gonna miss out on Kaathe then. Nobody was around to tell me to pick the Master Key as the starting item, and nobody was around to tell me not to put the damn bowl on the damn tree stump.
I swear, the game expects you to find everything through trial-and-error or dumb luck, and the players expect you to already know everything.

Guess I'll just give the Archives a go, and maybe New Londo next and try to find that chest.

Re: "Knight Templar": I'm kinda going the Skyrim route here, i.e. just try everything. I have Heal for, well, backup healing, but also Fireball and Combustion and Soul Arrow. The sword n' shield is just the first resort, with cheesy death via poison arrows being the second and the golf bag being, well, just so I can try different approaches with the same character and see what they look like. I can't remember the last time I actually used Soul Arrow or pyromancy (tried Combustion against Smough briefly, then went back to the sword).

Also, I've been trying to avoid leveling up very high out of stark terror of invaders. Come to think of it, though, my chances with a given invader might not give half a shit out of what level we are. :| I'll just die regardless, since they're all spec'd for PvP and, y'know, have half an idea what they're doing.

edited 29th May '15 3:14:34 PM by Knowlessman