From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Silva]

10 hours in the game, and Im liking Scholar so far.

The placement of enemies is slightly smarter, relying less in cheap mobs and more on tougher/interesting enemies. Also, there are more statues blocking paths, giving the sensation of more optional/side paths in the levels. I also noticed some descriptions changed and are now more clear. The graphics didnt change that much, lighting feels better and more alive, but coming from a Stalker playthrough nothing seen here will surprise me.

One question: I never played the DLCs on PC. Where do the new content show up ?

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

10 hours in the game, and Im liking Scholar so far.

The placement of enemies is slightly smarter, relying in less but tougher enemies, which help to alleviate the sensation I had in default game where difficulty is more a function of lots of mobs than to interesting enemies. Also, there are more statues blocking paths, giving the sensation of more optional/side paths in the levels. I also noticed some descriptions changed and are now more clear.

One question: I never played the DLCs on PC. Where do the new content show up ?

In sotfs version all three keys to the new locations need to be found

Spoiler

first key in pit in majula/second near those fucking fire salamnders/third in drangleic castle. Doors to new locations are behind rotten/old iron king/shrine of winter

 

[Great Deceiver]

I'm trying to play this again to get to the DLC (I finished the original DS2 but never got around to the DLC), multiplayer doesn't interest me in the slightest.

Finding it hard to slog through the beginning of the game again, any fun build suggestions? I hate magic in the Souls games with a passion. My original DS2 character was STR based and I mostly slogged through with greatswords and huge shields. Thinking about doing a 2h DEX build this time around with no shield use. Doable? Fun?

 

[Grimlorn]

I'm trying to play this again to get to the DLC (I finished the original DS2 but never got around to the DLC), multiplayer doesn't interest me in the slightest.

Finding it hard to slog through the beginning of the game again, any fun build suggestions? I hate magic in the Souls games with a passion. My original DS2 character was STR based and I mostly slogged through with greatswords and huge shields. Thinking about doing a 2h DEX build this time around with no shield use. Doable? Fun?

I would just look for a video that shows the different movement sets for each weapon and try to find a weapon you life from there, then build around it.

 

[Murk]

Yes, yes it is. Try a curved sword; Katanas and Rapiers tend to do a ton of damage cuz of their very high counter ratings.

Try a spear, a halberd, a curved sword, or daggers (dual wield 'em). You may find yourself having fun despite the otherwise suboptimal damage done.

Conversely, become the turtle. Fat roll + heavy armor + great hammers only.

 

[Silva]

Im trying a rogue/assassin build myself. Bandit Knife and Richard Rapier for the win. I found that raising my ADP was the first priority. Then when I felt my rolls were safe, I raised Dex, Endurance and Vigor, more or less on this order. Having a good fun.

 

[Makabb]

I'm trying to play this again to get to the DLC (I finished the original DS2 but never got around to the DLC), multiplayer doesn't interest me in the slightest.

Finding it hard to slog through the beginning of the game again, any fun build suggestions? I hate magic in the Souls games with a passion. My original DS2 character was STR based and I mostly slogged through with greatswords and huge shields. Thinking about doing a 2h DEX build this time around with no shield use. Doable? Fun?

You have to use magic, otherwise you are gimping yourself.

Yes, yes it is. Try a curved sword; Katanas and Rapiers tend to do a ton of damage cuz of their very high counter ratings.

My favourite is estoc because it has hueage range with normal r1 and has the rapier animation and double handed r2 attack blasts through every defense and shield.

 

[Gozma]

I always cave in and use the moar damage weapons that aren't quite in the 2-seconds-of-windup ultra/greathammer class like the mastodon halberd or snakeman greatsword. The numbas are bigga u see

 

[nomask7]

Murderzone Tseldora are now much, much harder.

I went there in the original straight via the path starting from Forest of Giants and going through Lost Bastille etc without even knowing about Heide's Tower or the stuff in the Majula well. And my goodness was it nightmarish.

There may be people who want to beat that area ASAP, so why make it harder? Oh why. If there's an area other than some of the late ones that doesn't need to be harder it's Lower Brightstone Cove. *shivers*

 

[Stonewolf]

edit: okay played a bit more in shaded dong, they uh...what the fuck? it's certainly a lot easier now but at the same time far more aggravating (howz that even possible)...iono what to make of this change

Whats changed?

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

Spoders won't attack you if you carry around a lit torch. This works while fighting Freja as well.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Probably still easier than Bloodborne.

 

[Makabb]

Probably still easier than Bloodborne.

yes, which is gud.

 

[Perkel]

Why the fuck people still are trying to suggest that durability is a bug ?

IT is something 5 year old can see after few soconds.
Fucking 4 of 6 different versions of game work like that.
They released at least 10 different patches and calibrations that handled way smaller stuff.
They made ton of work on ton of things in SoTFS release and didn't remove it.
They made DS2 PC main platform for game developement and they scaled things back for consoles.
You have 3 different slots for both left and right hand and 4 different ring slots
Game uses special mechanic to destroy your gear.
You have special ring to negate durability "problem" with +1 +2 version
You have blacksmith unlocked from get go where you can fix your broken weapons
Everytime you use bonfire weapons heals itself and bonfires are literally every 3 minutes in game.


On original release this could be argued but with SotFS release it is pretty clear that durability works as intended but for some reason it didn't work well for last gen versions probably for same reason why some people think 60fps is "broken".

Also PvP argument is completely worthless. Imo R2 attacks thanks to lower durability now in PvP are made rare instead of people spaming it.

I just dodged the pursuer sword and thought i'm gonna get hit but the sword missed by millimeters and it was a dodge and was surprised because of what i heard about hitboxes, seems ok to me.


Interesting change in scholar, pursuer actualy 'pursues' you now, he spawns at different locations as you play.

You are confusing hitboxes with iframes. Iframes give you invincibility for split second when you roll or backstep. Essentially if you manage to press roll in right time you can roll away from almost any attack.

Hitboxes are when iframe doesn't work and game compares character/enemy model and his attack to your character/enemy when those hitboxes collide you have a hit.

And people should GTFO if they think DS2 hitboxes are fine.

Getting hit by counter when you clearly staggered enemy is common like hell. Grab attacks on othe hand have some really nasty hitboxes.

DS 1 or DeS didn't have perfect hitboxes but they were not straight up broken like in DS2. I got hit to many times from counter in DS2 when i clearly staggered enemy before he landed hit to believe shit like "DS2 hitboxes are fine !"

 

[Perkel]

They released at least 10 different patches and calibrations that handled way smaller stuff.
They made ton of work on ton of things in SoTFS release and didn't remove it.

Precisely because of this. Too much work for too little. To fix this issue they have to change the way their engine works. They dont do it because nobody cares and frankly at least this way you have to pay attention to durability. A good example of this is with fast weapons, they break after 3 kills or something like that.

You see this is bollocks. For anyone even remotely interested in programming decoupling framerate and durability is joke to do because it just needs to be tied to just hit instead of hit + framerate mod.

They probably fallow mantra: If something does work don't fix it.

Do you seriously believe this?
That's why Dark Souls 2 was released one month after consoles.
That's why we have the enhanced version a year after release.
Right?

Lead platform has 0 to do with time of release. Month more to release PC game is usually to counter pirates on PC. They release first game for consoles so that most of people won't wait for PC version and then release PC version for people who waited.

As of lead platform this was mentioned in one of interviews. Release of "next gen" version that have durability "problem" only proves that.
And PC wouldn't even need to be lead. They could create game with set target. For example 60FPS and scale back to fit different hardware.


Biggest hint for durability not being a bug is just gameplay. You hardly ever repair stuff even with lower durability. Game perfectly fits into lower durability of weapons. It gives you 3 slots for each hand so that you can mix and match different weapons with different damage types, even if you have fragile weapon it gives you ring that will stop greatly durability regression and you can always use powder to fix you gear or bonfire. Then there is blacksmith that literally is available 5 minutes into game that will fix you everything for really cheap price.

Biggest difference is R2 spam on some weapons. With new Durability it is a choice if you are using R2 for some weapons or not. You can no longer spam iron king hammer AOE and if you pvp you have like 5 uses without ring.

 

[Quatlo]

If they ever wanted to "fix" the durability "bug" on 60 fps (which most versions now run at 60 fps, am I correct?) they would just give all items 2x the durability.
There is literally 0 coding needed, an intern could do that in 1 evening.
Either they don't care (and apparently they do because they relased a couple of patches) or its working as intended.

 

[Multidirectional]

So why the hell durability at 30 FPS is different from 60 FPS? Part of intended design too? Not to mention that when I limited it to 30 FPS some moves (like the forward jumping attack) became easier to execute. Also not a bug?

 

[nomask7]

Does anyone have this on PS4? Is it full hd? And does the framerate ever drop below 30?

 

[Talby]

It runs at 1080p 60fps on PS4. In 30 hours of gameplay I've only seen it drop below 60-ish once.

 

[Silva]

Funny, did they rebalanced daggers and knives ? I remember playing a dex-based knives wielding when the game came out it was absurdly difficult, but now its pretty efficient.

 

[Murk]

They've re"balanced' things multiple knives; suffice to say lots of weapons that before were useless are now not only viable but even effective.

 

[Silva]

Cool.

This time I can even notice the effect of my bleeding knife of bleed - after I hit an enemy 3 or 4 times, his lifebar takes an instant big hit seemingly as if the bleed took effect, then it continues from that new (lower) point on. Thats something Ive never noticed before.

 

[Jaedar]

I remember using a poison twinblade before. Completely useless, never poisoned anything.

 

[Dreaad]

The only twinblade that I ever felt was worth it, was the red steel one. Has a nice set of moves compared to the other lighter versions, but not as slow as the stone spear. Also perfect for a non-magic build. Great damage on that thing, in combination with poise break. Probably not as good as Crystal enchanted raw spear, but more consistent.

 

[Quatlo]

Were knights in Iron Keep always so social aggro as they are now?
I'm corner pulling them so much that it feels like private wow server.