Dark Souls

Oh. Well, even in Dark Souls 1's case dexterity boost from 30 to 45 cast speed isn't easy to notice at first. Trust me, you'll feel it the longer the game goes on due to higher attunement and Clear Bluestone Rings.

Edited by VeryMelon on Jan 11th 2019 at 5:18:21 AM

I know I said otherwise yesterday, but thinking about it some more it really is the case that magic builds are just stronger than melee builds across all Souls games not called Bloodborne, and even there Arcane builds can still melt bosses with a certain ease. The only matter is how long it takes them to get there. The DLC makes magic builds weaker than melee builds due to every enemy and boss having really high magic resistances, so it balanced out in that direction.

Edited by VeryMelon on Jan 12th 2019 at 1:00:29 PM

Dark souls 3 would like to have a word with you. I think it's called "nerf".

From what I've seen, magic builds have been consistently worse than melee from day one in this game.

Edited by Yumil on Jan 12th 2019 at 7:28:18 PM

From what I understand Magic builds have been gradually getting nerfed since Demon's Souls where they were supremely overpowered.

Not just magic, ranged physical things like bow were grossly OP in demon souls. Dark souls 1 took the hammer to range but left magic moslty untouched aside from changing from the mana gauge to spell usage.

Dark souls 2 walked back on that a bit in that while they nerfed black magic from the artorias DLC by making it it's own thing, both that and just vanilla sorcery/vanilla miracles were still very powerful, and the overall design of the game makes magic a very valuable asset because it lets you kite ennemies out of position.

Bloodborne took out the bows entirely (safe for the bow in the DLC) and most of the classic magic system and replaced it by items. There's not a lot of them, but they're all unique rather than being different levels of power of the same magic projectile, and they give arcane a cool kit to run. they've got mobility with the hunter bone, a good melee option with augur of ebrietas, a good middle range with arcana eye/executionner glove and a big fuck everything button with a call beyond It's gimmicky, but it works.

Dark souls 3 plainly stopped giving a shit. Running any kind of magic at all means you need to cut down on how many estus you have, the overall damage output is miserable (you basically have to use all of your ring slots to boost a specific type of magic, no hybrid builds there) and the game taking one too many cues from bloodborne means staying idle and casting magic from far away is much less desirable than in previous games.

I think pyromancers fared a bit better though. if anything, they have the coolness factor.

Edited by Yumil on Jan 12th 2019 at 7:54:51 PM

Finally got a new staff and it's the Staff of Wisdom from Brightstone Cove and I have just enough INT to use it.

I still think Magic is pretty powerful in 3, it just means a heavier commitment than the previous games, as you hinted as Yumil. This reddit post sums it up best

That's literally the best Staff in the game. It was originally locked off until endgame, but Scholar of the First Sin moved it to an earlier location because of how hard it was to upgrade from sorcery staves originally.

Edited by VeryMelon on Jan 12th 2019 at 2:59:58 PM

Can I beat Freja using a Bonfire ascetic? I want the MLGS but I'm worried I'll be screwing myself forever with Brightstone Cove being too hard in successive playthroughs.

Edited by RodimusMinor on Jan 12th 2019 at 3:18:51 PM

Yes, in fact that's one of the best things about Bonfire Ascetics. Just make sure you burn the right Bonfire, which is the hidden Bonfire in the same room with those spiders.

Is it doable at level 120? That's where I am right now.

It's easy as fuck. Just bring a torch to disable the mooks and repeatedly poke her in her openings. I alawys do that whenever i play 2.

More than capable at that level.

I'll give it a shot then. All my Petrified Dragon Bones are going to waste. Also is it just me or are Titanite Chunks way harder to find in this game than Slabs? I've got seven total Slabs, using three to max out my Raw Mace, Magic Estoc and Fire Longsword, while I basically scoured every nook and cranny for Chunks to upgrade my weapons to higher levels so I could even use those Slabs.

So now that I'm a ways into my Sorcerer playthrough I think Dark Souls 2 is my favourite implementation of this class. It was too overpowered in Demon's Souls to be truly fun (but that game broke wide open no matter how you played), while in Dark Souls the Endurance stat increasing stamina and equip load meant that even mages could facetank everything by the end of the game. Dark Souls 2 meanwhile makes you allocate your stats enough that you can't really be broken as a Sorcerer, since you need to power your INT stat to see real gains, your attack stats to wield weapons in a pinch, health and endurance to improve your chances, and Attunement for more spell slots and faster casting (and Adaptability but that sucks). It feels like I'm building up a specific character archetype instead of my Dark Souls 1 Sorcerer who was just good at everything. Plus there's a bunch of fun new abilities like Soul Vortex and Homing Soul Arrow that add more variety instead of just pew pew lasers.

Edited by RodimusMinor on Jan 12th 2019 at 5:39:27 AM

Like I said, every Souls game generally follows Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards. It's just a matter of how long it takes depending on the game. Just so you know, the best and biggest damaging spells for each caster class (Sorcery, Pyromancy, Miracles, Hexes) were nerfed years ago because of how ridiculous their boss melting potential became. Even now, casters can deal pretty high damage to bosses as long as you stay away from the useless spells like Soul Geyser and Climax.

What I was trying to say is that in Dark Souls 1, the Sorcerer build has enough leeway to still be a powerful tank who can eat hits and keep smiling. My Sorcerer right now, for example, is wearing the Lion's Mage set and Black Hood to optimize cast speed which leaves me with cripplingly weak defenses that and the only way to rectify this is to sacrifice my cast speed. As of now there's no way for my Sorcerer to be as overpowered as my Dark Souls 1 Sorcerer, who wore a full Black Knight set and felled every boss (except Manus) with a handful of Soul Spears.

Isn't Artorias resistant to magic as well or do you just do that much damage?

If he is he sure didn't show it. The only boss who didn't melt in the face of Sorcery was Manus, and even then the Eagle Shield blocks almost all his attacks.

Soul Greatsword is amazing and also I'm going to die a whole lot to NG+ Freja.

oh god ive made a terrible mistake there are red phantom spiders

AAAAH I DID IT

Now I need to not lose 100k souls as I go to Ornifex, who decide to live in a spider infested hellhole.

Edited by RodimusMinor on Jan 12th 2019 at 10:15:58 AM

I know what you meant Rodimus. Nothing in your reply contradicted what I said.

Only Manus seems to possess this touted magic resistance, as the other DLC bosses from Dark Souls 1 will die to a handful of Sorcery, Miracles, or Pyromancy attacks if the caster is properly leveled and geared. That being said, he can still die at more or less the same rate as the others from those same casters.

It's really Dark Souls 2 that has everything, not just bosses, have high magic resists.

Edited by VeryMelon on Jan 12th 2019 at 10:41:31 AM

About being a tanky mage : give it time. By the time I get to the dlcs, I'm generally a hexer (so on top of everything you've listed i have the exact same investment in faith) who's midrolling in havel armor.

Scholar of the first sin gives so much souls and has some of the easiest grinding spots of the series (giant lord) that it's really believable to reach that point.

I should retry a magic knight build one day in DS 1 to see if I can still make it work without duping boss souls.

Can't remember if the red phantom spiders are scared off by the torch. I think they do. Thank god scholar for that.

Edited by Yumil on Jan 13th 2019 at 2:00:47 PM

I never really liked Sorcerer Builds much. The only magic I really went with in these games was Pyromancy. It was great in the first game since I didn't need any particular stats. It was still pretty powerful in the second game too. I loved Chaos Storm — it was my go-to "Big Boss Killer".

If I was going to try a more magical build in DS 3 as opposed to my Quality Build, I'd probably respec for Pyromancy.

Alright I've cleared out the main game, time for the DLC!

spends 20 minutes getting beaten to death by zombies with big clubs

I don't like this game anymore.

Which of the DLC areas is that again?

Shulva. I think it's the recommended area to start with.

Every enemy can eat a dozen Great Heavy Soul Arrows so I have to get up close and personal with my Moonlight Greatsword. Also I'm playing as a fashionable witch cosplayer so maybe I should use more protective gear.

The DLC areas are bearable, at least if you're going with what I did and packing weapons like the Greatsword and the Great Club.

I have a very simple philosophy to the Souls games.

If I win it's because I'm skilled and handsome and daring.

If I lose it's because the game is being bullshit unfair and it deserves to be tossed into the trash.