From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[PorkyThePaladin]

Well, I am glad we reached consensus on magic at least...

 

[mogwaimon]

I'm not entirely ashamed to say that you're doing it wrong if you're playing a pure spellcaster your first time through a Souls game. Melee is clearly the focus while magic has veered from overpowered to mediocre from DeS to DS3.

 

[No Great Name]

No Great Name Velka's Rapier is more for magic types, since it scales with Int and Faith, if I recall correctly. Ricard's Rapier is for Dexterity builds. It has A level scaling at +14 and +15. Plus, in terms of looks, Ricard's Rapier >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Velka's.

Also, what's wrong with you fighting Priscilla? She is so nice.

Yeah, I also realized that I don't have the items needed to upgrade Velka's anyways. I'm going to end up keeping Ricard's for most smaller enemies and I'm going to replace my Scimitar with the Painted Guardian's Sword I found for the damage since it has better Dex scaling.

As for Priscilla, I just wanted to see what kind of fight it was. I felt bad for killing her afterwards though.

As to the little parrying debate, I really suck at parrying and so far I've rarely parried anything. I tend to be a careful player by nature anyways so my general game plan is to move around a lot while holding a shield just in case and see how I can avoid an enemy's attacks. The only boss that has given me a bit of trouble so far in my playthrough is the Stray Demon and that was just because I needed a little bit of luck to be able to successfully get behind him in the first 10 seconds of the fight. Most of the other bosses so far I've been able to overcome them within the first 3 attempts.

 

[Silva]

I dunno, maybe if I play as a sorcerer... Parry is the only interesting melee option in DS games, because rolling against humanoids is kinda retarded, and hiding behind a shield is pointless.

Bloodborne don't have dull shields nor OP magic sniping.

You know you want it.

Play Bloodborne.

And let's partake in the frenzy of blood.

 

[Silva]

(those knights are sullynathan , aweigh and ...who is the local DS2 fanboy again? hehe )

 

[Arnust]

Bloodborne doesn't have a lot of things. Which ultimately turns into a problem.

 

[Somberlain]

Bloodborne has canes, katanas and trench coats

 

[Grimlorn]

Porky why are you so retarded?

 

[Beggar]

DaS2 is the most mechanically sound game from the franchise

What the fuck is wrong with you

 

[Multidirectional]

DaS2 is the most mechanically sound game from the franchise

What the fuck is wrong with you

Tell us which Souls game has better mechanics.

 

[No Great Name]

I feel pretty good after today's session. After having finished the Painted World last time, I explored the rest of Anor Londo and it wasn't bad at all. I finally learned how to parry from the enemies here and I barely died at all overall. My weapons were about to break so I'm glad I found the giant blacksmith when I did. The double boss at the end of it was a really cool concept how they both worked together to cover each other's weaknesses. I ended up defeating them both on my third attempt after trying out a couple weapons to see which one did the most damage. My general strategy was to target Ornstein first, try to get him separated from Smaugh and get 2 hits in then reset. It wasn't the quickest of fights, but it got the job done.

After getting the ability to warp to other bonfires and learning that I need the souls of the 4 Lords, I decided to go look for Nito first since I haven't been to the Catacombs yet. The Catacombs area itself was pretty straight forward, especially since I made myself a divine weapon a while back. Pinwheel himself died in 5 hits, much too quick for me to even figure out what his attack patterns were. The area after that though, oh jeez. Tomb of the Giants. This was the first time in the entire game where I legitimately felt stuck. I had a lantern I got as a drop in the Catacombs, but it doesn't help in an actual fight. Thank god enemies here have a very short aggro range, otherwise it would be much more infuriating. Don't even get me started on those freaking dog skeleton enemies. I ended up just running past everything and booking it to where the boss room is. I ended up defeating Nito on my second attempt so at least that part wasn't bad.

So far, I have to say that Tomb of the Giants is the toughest area I've been through so far. Next time I plan to take on the Demon Ruins and return to that giant tree I found in Blighttown a while back to finish exploring now that I'm stronger and more competent.

 

[Multidirectional]

It's better to do Demon Ruin's and Lost Izalith first where

Spoiler

you can find Sunlight Maggot to help you with Tomb of Giants.

You would also be getting the shittiest areas in game out of the way.

 

[toro]

DaS2 is the most mechanically sound game from the franchise

What the fuck is wrong with you

Das2 has slower combat and higher use of stamina for rolls - you have to commit when you are attacking or rolling, it has multi-directional rolling and backstabbing was improved compared to DaS1 - you could no longer instant BS with the lock-on tricks, there are backstab immunity items and healing items besides the Estus - no instant healing, it has powerstancing and dual-wielding, a working poise and magic/hexes are not garbage, it has the widest array of weapons with different movesets and each weapon is viable in both PvE and PvP, it has the brilliant Bonfire Ascetic mechanic and the coop covenants were nice. This just for a start.

 

[Beggar]

DaS2 is the most mechanically sound game from the franchise

What the fuck is wrong with you

Das2 has slower combat and higher use of stamina for rolls - you have to commit when you are attacking or rolling, it has multi-directional rolling and backstabbing was improved compares to DaS1 - you could no longer instant BS with the lock-on tricks, there are back-tab immunity items and healing items besides the Estus - no instant healing, it has powerstancing and dual-wielding, a working poise and magic/hexes are not garbage, it has the widest array of weapons with different movesets and each of that weapon is viable in both PvE and PvP, it has the brilliant Bonfire Ascetic mechanic and the coop covenants were nice. This just for a start.

I don't care about online play, wide range of useless weapons and movesets. I do care about combat mechanics, enemies and interaction with the world. And that is beyond terrible considering it's not a 2004 game

 

[Wunderbar]

Das2 has slower combat and higher use of stamina for rolls - you have to commit when you are attacking or rolling, it has multi-directional rolling, there are back-tab immunity items and healing items besides the Estus - no instant healing, it has powerstancing and dual-wielding, a working poise and magic/hexes are not garbage, it has the widest array of weapons with different movesets

I don't care about online play, I do care about combat mechanics

 

[Beggar]

If you can't separate quality and quantity then just shut up.

Non existent enemy stamina, unresponsiveness, enemies thrown at you in hordes too make it artificially difficult.

How is this even a discussion? You better throw other game names you like, I bet you, DS2 lovers, play shit

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

if you are fighting more than 2-3 enemies at once in DS2 than you are fucking retarded an can blame only yourself
there is not a single area in DS2 where you are forced to fight multiple aka "hordes of enemies" at once to progress. unless you count royal rat vanguard boss fight or prowling maguss
you dont have to kite either. there is always way to deal with enemies on your terms be it alluring skulls, barrel carriers,bombs, aoe spells or choke points etc.

 

[Grimlorn]

. there is always way to deal with enemies on your terms be it alluring skulls, barrel carriers,bombs, aoe spells or choke points etc.

Come on, a guy that dies multiple times to Pinwheel isn't going to be able to do any of this.

 

[Strange Fellow]

there is not a single area in DS2 where you are forced to fight multiple aka "hordes of enemies" at once to progress. unless you count royal rat vanguard boss fight or prowling maguss

The crowd of flamberge-wielding knights right before the Ruin Sentinels boss fight. I never ever managed to pull them one at a time.

 

[Silva]

you are fighting more than 2-3 enemies at once in DS2 than you are fucking retarded an can blame only yourself

Except the very game throws mobs at you at various times since the beginning. Including mob bosses.

And what's the point of great variety and mechanics if the character moves like a PS1 Era sprite and the maps come from a Sega Genesis Phantasy Star title?

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

there is not a single area in DS2 where you are forced to fight multiple aka "hordes of enemies" at once to progress. unless you count royal rat vanguard boss fight or prowling maguss

The crowd of flamberge-wielding knights right before the Ruin Sentinels boss fight. I never ever managed to pull them one at a time.

one at a time is not possible but you dont have to take them all at once.


its 2->1->1->3->2->1->2. There are also exploding barrels there for a reason.

you are fighting more than 2-3 enemies at once in DS2 than you are fucking retarded an can blame only yourself

Except the very game throws mobs at you at various times since the beginning. Including mob bosses.

And what's the point of great variety and mechanics if the character moves like a PS1 Era sprite and the maps come from a Sega Genesis Phantasy Star title?

exactly where?

 

[Silva]

Right at the beginning, Forest of Giants has almost a dozen dudes besides the giant at the river stream that leads to the first bonfire. Later inside the castle you have rooms with a bunch of dudes too. About bosses, Ruin Sentinels, Rat Authority, that big dog, etc. It's such a constant in he game it surprises me someone arguing the contrary.

And aggroing them from the distance or picking them with alluring skull really? That's your answer? Do you think the game throw mobs at you just to be picked apart? "LETS THROW MOBS AT THE PLAYER SO HE/SHE IS FORCED TO AGGRO FROM DISTANCE TEE HEE HEE". Bro, give up.

 

[Beggar]

It is useless to argue with those idiots. I love DS series. I beat DS1 by doing everything and collecting everything without dying in 8 hours. To beat DS2 it takes no more than 15 deaths. But coming from DS1 after a few weeks of multiple runs and then starting to play DS2 it's just terrible. It takes a few days to get used to a copy paste layers and horrible mechanics

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Right at the beginning, Forest of Giants has almost a dozen dudes besides the giant at the river stream that leads to the first bonfire. Later inside the castle you have rooms with a bunch of dudes too. About bosses, Ruin Sentinels, Rat Authority, that big dog, etc. It's such a constant in he game it surprises me someone arguing the contrary.

And aggroing them from the distance or picking them with alluring skull really? That's your answer? Do you think the game throw mobs at you just to be picked apart? "LETS THROW MOBS AT THE PLAYER SO HE/SHE IS FORCED TO AGGRO FROM DISTANCE TEE HEE HEE". Bro, give up.

You can totally run past the dudes in the Forest of Fallen Giants though. That's not to say there aren't enemies you have to fight through unless you want to get assraped though; you have to kill nearly everything at shrine of amana as water doesn't slow down enemies but it slows you AND there are enemies with tracking homing projectiles. Its absurdly difficult to avoid the Alonne knights as they run so fast and they have incredible aggro range. You have to kill the big guys as dragon shrine, as you will get mobs by everything in the area. And that's just from the top of my head.

So you can snipe them from a distance or use alluring skulls. So what? Those are expendable resources you have to buy. Which means they can run out. Which means you have to buy more. Which means more grinding and another trip back to resupply.

I like Dark Souls 2 and I think it had potential, but there's so much annoying, tedious shit that it it detracts from the experience.

 

[Beggar]

Right at the beginning, Forest of Giants has almost a dozen dudes besides the giant at the river stream that leads to the first bonfire. Later inside the castle you have rooms with a bunch of dudes too. About bosses, Ruin Sentinels, Rat Authority, that big dog, etc. It's such a constant in he game it surprises me someone arguing the contrary.

And aggroing them from the distance or picking them with alluring skull really? That's your answer? Do you think the game throw mobs at you just to be picked apart? "LETS THROW MOBS AT THE PLAYER SO HE/SHE IS FORCED TO AGGRO FROM DISTANCE TEE HEE HEE". Bro, give up.

You can totally run past the dudes in the Forest of Fallen Giants though. That's not to say there aren't enemies you have to fight through unless you want to get assraped though; you have to kill nearly everything at shrine of amana as water doesn't slow down enemies but it slows you AND there are enemies with tracking homing projectiles. Its absurdly difficult to avoid the Alonne knights as they run so fast and they have incredible aggro range. You have to kill the big guys as dragon shrine, as you will get mobs by everything in the area. And that's just from the top of my head.

I like Dark Souls 2 and I think it had potential, but there's so much annoying, tedious shit that it it detracts from the experience.

Yes. Also, horrible tracking system when enemy attacks that makes no sense at all. Absurdity taken to another level.
Low weapon durability leads to necessity to use bonfires as often as you can. That takes so much from this game.
6 rings of life and protection that you can REPAIR + unlimited life gems for a small price.