Dark Souls II

oh man, i wish i'd known that before. i burn out my estus uses so fast cuz i need to use them twice at a time to get back to full health after a bad hit

... Er, wait, you've gone through the whole game with base level estus?

Dang, I'll give you props for persistence.

Personally I found that the summons for Iron Passage were reasonable enough as long as you got rid of them before facing the boss (sadly, the ones in the Cave of the Dead aren't as good and they're goddamn vital for the gank squad boss).

edited 9th Mar '16 7:40:23 PM by TheCuriousFan

whelp. having beaten the fume knight and collected the iron kings crown (...if his corpse is here, how did it end up in an entirely different land in the iron keep to turn into ichorous earth?)

i moved onto the ivory king dlc. was going pretty well, just killed that cute little tiger pet. i also like that unlike the other dlc theres an actual plot. thats nice.

and then i ran into the rampart hedgehogs. cute, but annoying. i just died to one cuz the lock-on failed and my weapon clipped through it, at least twice. its the annoying thing about the katanas. they have so much trouble with smaller enemies.

-sigh-

i need a break

edited 10th Mar '16 3:35:10 AM by Tarsen

Did you not find Alonne's suit of armor? :'p

i did but i was too worn out to go into the memory a second time after i got blindsided by a knight inthe 2nd room while i was fighting another one

i'll go back to that later.

edited 10th Mar '16 7:50:31 AM by Tarsen

I remember Alonne, I heard you could bow to him and he'd bow back, I tried it and he comboed me to death while I was bowing like a dishonourable prick. After that I repaid him by going full ganksquad on his ass (sadly, Mercenary Captain Morgan seems to have been a player summon since I've never been able to find their summon sign a second time and they're not on the wiki).

so apparantly skeleton wheels DID make it into dark souls 2. as cute little hedgehogs.

man, fuck you FROM. they werent good enemies in the first game they're even worse here BECAUSE I CANT FUCKING HIT THEM and merely trying will make me take damage from their spikes

fuck. you.

edited 10th Mar '16 11:44:39 AM by Tarsen

I just shot them with arrows I think.

Those jerks killed me sooo many times.

Also, the skelly wheels are in the game anyways because the skeleton lords summon a few.

finally done with that godforsaken area, so i can go back to the cathedral, having gotten all 4 loyce knights.

the ivory king is pretty cool

its just a shame about having to fight a dozen charred loyce knights before he appears. i cant do that alone, or with just 4 loyce knights. they're not competent enough

it can be done but it's kind of ass

like, the idea of fighting this legion and then having the ivory king make this grand dramatic entrance is neat but actually fighting off that many is butts

aaaaand i beat him

since he wasnt so beefy, the final loyce knight managed to survive till just a second before i killed him. the charred loyce knights were the realy difficulty, since its incredibly easy to dodge every one of the kings attacks, but im much happier i went solo instead of co-op here.

crown description: "but these were events of long ago, and today no one even remembers the kings name"

...really Alsanna? you forgot?

most important person in your life and you forgot???

aaaaand finished the game. turned my back on the throne. im immortal, who needs to sit on a throne and burn for eternity?

edited 10th Mar '16 2:02:32 PM by Tarsen

x12 It's the corpse of Nadalia IIRC.

As a total noob who just started playing, any tips I should know?

edited 21st Jun '16 5:26:01 AM by onyhow

Don't fuck with the piglets.

Forest of Giants should be your first stop. After recieving your Estus from the Herald of course.

Actually, explore every corner of Majula before heading out. But beware the pigs.

Estus is far more limited than the first game, but there are now other healing items too.

Weapons are a lot frailer than they used to be, but now they auto-repair at a Bonfire. But if they break, it requires a trip to the blacksmith. If you like cool but low durability weapons, carry a back-up arm with you. Actually, just carry one anyway.

You now have three weapon slots for each hand. But don't worry, if you only use two, you'll cycle between your two weapons, and not a bare handed third option.

Early on crafting materials are limited, even in the shops. They become unlimited later though.

Most weapons behave exactly the same on left and right hand, with a very few exceptions. Unlike the first game where having a left hand weapon was a dumb idea 99% of the time.

Dual wielding is now a thing, but requires 1.5 times the required stats for the higher number of your two weapons. To activate, hold down the "two hand your weapon" button for about a second. Right hand attacks will still be normal, but left hand attacks strike with both weapons simultaniously!

Playing online? Speak to the crestfallen warrior and join the covenant. It's not fullproof, but sometimes you do get backup if an invader rolls around, as long it's a real player and not an NPC.

Speaking of Jolly Co-operation, phriendly fantoms are now on a timer and it dwindles down further with each enemy they kill. To have extended co-op time, finish off enemies with your own attacks.

Hollow? Out of Effigies? Get a white soapstone from a suspicious NPC and engage in jolly co-operation! Upon a succesful voyage of camaradie and high fives, you shall have your humanity (and Estus and spell charges and equipment durability) restored on the spot! No Bonfire necesarry!

Unlike Grim spirits The First, your character level doesn't affect matchmaking, it's your "soul memory" which you can view in your full character status sheet. So you can level up all you want without wondering if you're too high level to get a co-op phantom. Though excessive soul farming will bump you into a higher "tier" on the matchmaking list, but they are pretty broad.

You can not change your starting class or stats. However you can reassign your spent points with a specific item! But you can't reset your level, just re-adjust your level up gains. So you can try different builds on just one character now, instead of starting a new one.

Anything else?

Thanks. Wish the first game actually have good KB/M...didn't play that because of it.

BTW, generally how much should I level adaptability?

People say to level agility up to 99, but I never do that.

re: Adaptibility

The main benefit is an Agility increase, which affects safety of rolls and speed of item use.

Attunement also gives a slight agility boost, so consider that if you're going to play with fire, lightning or suspicously icy looking "soul" sorceries.

Not every point of agility does any good, at least roll wise. There are specific numbers at which your roll improves by a "tier" but I forgot them. A wiki should have them though.

It also gives status resistances but armor is going to be your main gain for that.

Also a small boost to poison attacks, but dexterity is the main source of that.

Agility is boosted 2 ways, with Attunement or Adaptability. If you're a caster, stick with Attunement to boost Agility because it also boosts your casting speed in a separate stat. Adaptability is for non-casters.

I'm getting back into the game after buying Scholar of the First Sin on sale. I hadn't play ANY souls game for nearly 2 years, so I was rusty and it showed. I picked Bandit to start out with. I'm playing a quality build for the first time in Dark Souls 2, my other builds on the PS 3 version were hexers or sorcerers. Right now I'm equipped with the Grand Lance, Dragleic Shield, and Alva Set all at SL 57.

I really like the damage on the Grand Lance, and without it being moved to such an early area I'd never bother with it. I've also tried out the new summons, and found myself satisfied with them. Sellsword Luet is a fine tank against the Last Giant with his loadout, and Bradley of the Old Guard just impresses in No Man's Wharf.

The one major disadvantage of a bandit is it's terrible int is actually too low to talk to straid. he requires a minimum of 3 to do boss soul trades for some reason.

Also that starting ADP is absolutely terrible. And early game shields are absolute garbage.

edited 21st Jun '16 11:47:16 AM by stevebat

That dragon outside the Cathedral of Blue is a real pain if you don't bring a bow. Thanks to the build I'm using, bows are gonna be a neat idea for once.

My current SL is 61:

VGR: 12, END: 12, VIT: 20, ATN: 2, STR: 22, DEX: 22, ADP: 15, INT: 1, FTH: 8.

Bosses I'e bested: The Last Giant, The Pursuer, Dragonrider, Old Dragonslayer, Flexile Sentry.