Dark Souls II

Apparently I'm downloading and installing Version 1.04, and nothing on the Internet is telling me what the changes are.

God, I hope they didn't nerf the Throne Defender Greatsword. I just discovered the ridiculous damage it does...

Edit: Apparently just some minor changes? This is what I get for playing offline for that no-death run.

edited 25th Apr '14 7:25:07 AM by Zephid

I got invaded for the first time today, in Brightstone Cove Tseldora. The guy waited politely while I dealt with some enemies, then while I was bowing he proceeded to cast Dark Fog. I managed to survive the first two casts, but while I was eating Poison Moss after the third he stabbed me with his Resonant Weapon. Not a stellar experience, really.

So, okay, I was looking at the Characters page, and I hadn't put together the pieces on the Duke's Dear Freja being a reincarnation of Seath the Scaleless. But it makes a lot of sense: why else does a spider have a magical breath weapon?

On the other hand, this raises a really weird question about Seath and his use of the Primordial Crystal, and whether he's now some sort of ghost dracolich thing that can possess people. It kind of explains why the Lord of Tseldora went insane over spiders.

wow. im honestly surprised by how well dark souls 2 runs on my pc.

i figured it'd be better than the first game but...jeez, desktop resolution is not 4fps +_+

but uh. still not playing it at that res. i wonder if i could mess with the internal resolution like with the first game?

x however many: Ah, didn't know you could be summoned for bellkeeping from an adjacent area. On a related note, you can be summoned to either Belfry with the ring on. I got summoned to Sol from Luna, for example. In case people didn't know. I shall try bellkeeping from the servant's quarters now though.

Lucatiel did not give Sparrow her gear when I met her in the Black Gulch. I guess when she glitched for Flexile Sentry and didn't actually join the fight it didn't count as a win. Or maybe, it just occurred to me, she simply doesn't give you the gear then anyway, since the wiki says she appears one last time at Aldia's Keep. I summoned her for The Rotten and won, so any way you slice it, I have the three wins.

Edit - Gah, so far, same old shit. First invasion, the host died immediately after I joined. Next two, I was defeated (in one case shortly before another Bellkeeper killed the host). Then I got invaded myself, and saw him off easily. Quite a fun fight, actually. I was at the Servant's Quarters bonfire, and waited beside the door for the invader to come in, and attacked him as soon as he did. He ran off back down the corridor after a little more fighting, so this time I hid below the ledge where the door is. He came back, stood in the doorway, and did an AOE hex, thinking I was hiding beside the door again. It didn't hit me, of course, and he dropped off the ledge right next to me, so I attacked again. He tried to run, but I got him before he could leave the room.

Then, my next bellkeeping invasion started fading to black as soon as I got in. Apparently I 'lost sight of the world master', which at first I took to be some kind of disconnection, but now I suppose it means they passed through a boss fog gate.

I am going to get at least one chunk tonight, damn it.

Edit 2: Hurrah, three wins, three chunks.

edited 25th Apr '14 1:41:28 PM by artfulscruff

I should probably try out some more Pv P. My first two characters were magic- and faith-focused, but my new quality build should be perfect with the Drangleic Sword.

I have to say, Smelter Demon is one of the most satisfying bosses to do jolly co-op for. It's not a guaranteed win like practically every other boss, so it keeps you on your toes. I've been mainly tanking with the Gyrm Greatshield and Redeye Ring so that casters can get damage in. Got summoned by one guy who was naked with dual Caestii, so I took off my shirt to show solidarity.

Nice

If I had to take a favorite boss, I think Smelter would easily be near the top. It's definitely a pretty hot fight.

Didn't we all hate Smelter at first? I agree that's he's tougher in co-op than other bosses, but to me he still seems pretty basic.

Reminds me, I should go back there with Sparrow to fight the Pursuer again and get the Ring of Blades +1. Does he respawn there if he beats you, or do you only have one chance?

I didn't hate the Smelter. I quite enjoyed it the first time around, it felt like a late Wake-Up Call Boss.

I haven't died to Pursuer the second time around, so I don't know about that.

edited 25th Apr '14 3:14:29 PM by QuestionMarc

He respawns.

But he's absolutely impossible without co-op or the patience of a rock.

Well, I managed him okay as Farron, my warrior, my concern was that Sparrow can take a lot less punishment than him. Then again, I don't ever block the Pursuer's attacks anyway, I always dodge. I'll probably be okay.

Oh, that's the other thing I wanted to say, going back a bit. I really don't think a million souls is all that much. I managed to get around 100,000 in half an hour or so of grinding and getting summoned at the entrance to the Iron Keep, so it's not totally outrageous to simply get enough souls that way.

Has anyone ever actually gone through the Shrine of Winter without killing any Old Ones though?

edited 25th Apr '14 3:30:56 PM by artfulscruff

I've gone through only having killed a few on NG+, presumably because I had done a lot of co-op.

But my problem wasn't that the grinding itself would be difficult, it's that I don't know if it's feasible. I'd need 4 million souls without any co-op because I'm not positive if death during co-op counts during a no-death run. It certainly seems to count on the Majula pillar as a death. Also, I'd be exposing myself to invasion, and while my record breaks even, I'd rather not bet an entire run of the game on whether I can beat so-and-so invader, especially since I'm being invaded far more often in NG+.

And I could join the Way of Blue to mitigate the invasion scenarios, but I've only had two invasions where a Blue Sentinel showed up to help. I don't think most of them keep the Guardian Ring on and focus on invading sinners.

edited 25th Apr '14 3:55:17 PM by Zephid

I think if I was going for a no-death run (and I have no plans to do so), I'd probably start a new character for that purpose. Same if I was going to do something like the Covenant of Champions.

I heard the Guardian Ring was wonky.

Honestly, my friend and I just thought no one ever bothered to stay in the Way of Blue, so Blue Sentinels stopped using the ring.

In my first two playthroughs I went through the Shrine of Winter without killing the Duke's Dear Freja, because she's just a stupid boss.

Incredibly long run each time you die, insta-kill laser that can't be blocked or rolled through (I've learnt to deal with that but it's still annoying), unnecessary spiders that just get in the way, and she's only vulnerable in two tiny points that also fire the aforementioned laser.

Regarding the Shrine of Winter: On my first playthrough I got through without having killed The Duke's Dear Freja. I was level 100 at the time.

It seems like bonfires are way more frequent in this game to the last one. That, in conjunction with the warping, make it seem more like a series of loosely connected levels, rather than the last game's massive quest through an amazing world. Gone are the gargantuan climbs from Blighttown back to the Darkroot Garden just because you forgot some repair dust. In fact, DS 2 seems generally a bit easier and... fairer then its predecessor. Anyway, thanks for reading, and it is obviously still an amazing game, but just a bit less challenging

I've rolled through the laser actually. Are you sure your timing was right? And I didn't find the run that bad personally, tho I just didn't bother dealing with the mages that are overlooking the Ornifex bonfire.

Also, I finally found a Mastodon torso armor. Bite as to why they were this rare in my first playthrough, but they were. I ain't gonna lie, I am pretty tanky right now! Tho I've had to use a Soul Vessel to remove some of the intelligence and attunement I've given myself, since I don't need 2 slots for spells and int scaling. Tho I did lose out on magical defense, which is somewhat annoying, but I think a focused build is more worth it. My next goal now is to Sunbro a lot in Drangleic castle and eventually reach 50 of dex and see if mundane stones are worth it with both strength and dex at 50.

It won't be unless you have all your other stats even - Mundane scales with your lowest stat(ex. 1 INT on a bandit made into a DEX Tank). Even then it won't scale off the 50 STR and DEX.

I think I prefer how Marc says mundane should work. Or maybe any stat that could influence a weapon's attack, so you'd need STR, DEX, INT, and FTH at the same level.

Which would be odd.

@Freja: Her laser isn't a problem if you just run to the right each time. She always fires it in the same sweep, and it's pretty telegraphed.

That might make more sense but that's not how it works. There's tons of people who figured out mundane infusions already and too many mundane builds for them to all be that far off base.

I'm not sure what the actual point of a mundane weapon is. I know it scales from your lowest stat, but why would you want something that scales from your lowest stat?

What does a mundane build look like?

Maybe it scales really well with it? Like, better then an S scaling? Ionno, to compensate?

I tried using a Soul Vessel to see what kind of damage a Mundane weapon can dish out.

With every stats at around 28, it was pretty darn strong. Mundane had around 30 damage more than the other weapons I compared (all at +0 and and with raw/mundane/no infusion). This was just a +0 weapon, and it had 304 damage, I don't know how it would look at +10, but maybe the scaling would get insaner.

Another perk of that build is you will have some decent base resistance, which would help you better resist elemental attacks better than my strength build did. I am not sure however if it's better than just more health (that I'd have in a more focused build). It's basically comparable at having a built-in dispelling ring.

This is without mentioning the spells and miracles you will be able to use on top of your super-powered mundane weapon. I'd have to check, but I'm pretty sure that with 50 strength the no-infusion will be equal if not better than mundane tho.

So in summary: Mundane gives you a stronger weapon with mildly good resistance stats on top. That pretty much sums up the strength of mundane builds if I'm not mistaken.

I'll go ahead and stick to my strength build for now.

edited 26th Apr '14 12:16:07 PM by QuestionMarc