PorkyThePaladin
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2013
- Messages
- 5,230
Ok, I think I might have found the best build for Dark Souls 1. Or at least, one that works amazingly well for me.
Up to now, I've been mostly playing on my Dexterity based Dark Wanderer with a focus on parrying. Got the parrying buckler, light gear, etc. Would parry anything humanoid, and dodge against bosses and the like, occasionally switching to a bow. I've gotten pretty deep on that, rang the first bell (in the church), explored most of catacombs, new londo, darkroot garden, etc, beat many bosses (Taurus Demon, Capra Demon, Gargoyles, Armored Pig, Moonlight Butterfly, 3 Black Knights, Havel, 2 headless statues, etc).
But that build felt kinda weak to me because it relied so much on reflexes. I never had great reflexes to begin with, and now that im not a spring chicken anymore, they got even worse. And yet to parry the quicker enemies in Dark Souls, you need really good reflexes. Enemies like Black Knights, Hollow Thieves, and Skeletons switch up super fast attacks with really slow ones, so you can't even anticipate them. If they were always fast, I could just hit parry early, which sometimes works, but if it's a slow or delayed attack, you are shit out of luck. I've tried all the tips online, such as watching the arm/hand instead of the weapon, but with these quicker enemies, it just doesn't work for me. If i wait to react, they hit me before the parry goes off, and if i hit parry early, they get me with slower attacks. Got so bad, I switched up my regular buckler/longsword combo for a divine halberd to clear out the catacombs, just couldn't deal with parrying skellies anymore.
So today, I rolled a different toon, a strength-based Knight. Based on my experience with DS1, as soon as I came to Firelink Shrine, I ran through the cemetery in front of catacombs, and picked up the Zweihander there. So the Zweihander is huge, and hits like a truck (130 damage un-upgraded, which is way higher than other starting level 2-handers). But what people might not realize, is that it also blocks 70% of physical damage when used in Guard. Compare that to only 60% for Bastard Sword and Claymore. It also has higher stability.
So basically my plan was to play a pseudo-parry character. Instead of having to split-second parry with a real parry, I would just throw up Guard whenever the enemy attack is coming, and then attack. You can't really hold it up like a shield for a long time, since its stability is not that great, and heavy 2-handed hits take a lot of stamina, so there's definitely a timing element involved, more so than with shields. But with a 70% physical damage blocking, and heavy armor, you should be able to negate most damage from attacks. At least that was my theory.
So I played for a couple of hours, and it was way better than I expected. I defeated the Black Knight in the basement in Undead Burg the first time I faced him, at level 12 or so. Blocked each of his attacks, and immediately followed up with heavy attack from the Zweihander, which did massive damage and often staggered him too, allowing me time to recoup stamina. 3-4 heavy hits, and he was down. The attacks I blocked did very little damage, although he did catch me a couple of times, since he attacks very often.
Then, I defeated the Taurus Demon, the second time I faced him on this toon. Again, the blocks ate up vast majority of his massive attacks, and my heavy attacks hit him HARD and staggered him.
Finally, defeated the armored boar in the Undead Parrish after a few tries, by staying to his back.
The number of tries it took me to defeat those guys on my parrying build was probably over 200 combined (killed the armored boar with arrows too). So this build is just so much more powerful.
Up to now, I've been mostly playing on my Dexterity based Dark Wanderer with a focus on parrying. Got the parrying buckler, light gear, etc. Would parry anything humanoid, and dodge against bosses and the like, occasionally switching to a bow. I've gotten pretty deep on that, rang the first bell (in the church), explored most of catacombs, new londo, darkroot garden, etc, beat many bosses (Taurus Demon, Capra Demon, Gargoyles, Armored Pig, Moonlight Butterfly, 3 Black Knights, Havel, 2 headless statues, etc).
But that build felt kinda weak to me because it relied so much on reflexes. I never had great reflexes to begin with, and now that im not a spring chicken anymore, they got even worse. And yet to parry the quicker enemies in Dark Souls, you need really good reflexes. Enemies like Black Knights, Hollow Thieves, and Skeletons switch up super fast attacks with really slow ones, so you can't even anticipate them. If they were always fast, I could just hit parry early, which sometimes works, but if it's a slow or delayed attack, you are shit out of luck. I've tried all the tips online, such as watching the arm/hand instead of the weapon, but with these quicker enemies, it just doesn't work for me. If i wait to react, they hit me before the parry goes off, and if i hit parry early, they get me with slower attacks. Got so bad, I switched up my regular buckler/longsword combo for a divine halberd to clear out the catacombs, just couldn't deal with parrying skellies anymore.
So today, I rolled a different toon, a strength-based Knight. Based on my experience with DS1, as soon as I came to Firelink Shrine, I ran through the cemetery in front of catacombs, and picked up the Zweihander there. So the Zweihander is huge, and hits like a truck (130 damage un-upgraded, which is way higher than other starting level 2-handers). But what people might not realize, is that it also blocks 70% of physical damage when used in Guard. Compare that to only 60% for Bastard Sword and Claymore. It also has higher stability.
So basically my plan was to play a pseudo-parry character. Instead of having to split-second parry with a real parry, I would just throw up Guard whenever the enemy attack is coming, and then attack. You can't really hold it up like a shield for a long time, since its stability is not that great, and heavy 2-handed hits take a lot of stamina, so there's definitely a timing element involved, more so than with shields. But with a 70% physical damage blocking, and heavy armor, you should be able to negate most damage from attacks. At least that was my theory.
So I played for a couple of hours, and it was way better than I expected. I defeated the Black Knight in the basement in Undead Burg the first time I faced him, at level 12 or so. Blocked each of his attacks, and immediately followed up with heavy attack from the Zweihander, which did massive damage and often staggered him too, allowing me time to recoup stamina. 3-4 heavy hits, and he was down. The attacks I blocked did very little damage, although he did catch me a couple of times, since he attacks very often.
Then, I defeated the Taurus Demon, the second time I faced him on this toon. Again, the blocks ate up vast majority of his massive attacks, and my heavy attacks hit him HARD and staggered him.
Finally, defeated the armored boar in the Undead Parrish after a few tries, by staying to his back.
The number of tries it took me to defeat those guys on my parrying build was probably over 200 combined (killed the armored boar with arrows too). So this build is just so much more powerful.
