From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Murk]

BTW bros, I remember there were some Black Knights around Lordran in DS1 that could or could not drop cool weapons.

Well, I got the "Heide Knight Sword" off what seems to be the counterpart.

Gud or not?

Depends; it's inherently infused and so infusing it further is very helpful early on. I'm not a big fan of its 1h moveset but some like it. The heide knights always drop a weapon (4 weapons in total; 1 sword, 1 spear, 1 lance, and 1 greatlance) and in ng+ and on they can also drop pieces of their armor.

toro unlikely to ever be the case overall; maybe they'll put in some arena that matches by level... maybe but not likely.

 

[bert]

You can parry Pursuer and shoot the ballistas at him while he's stunned.

 

[StaticSpine]

You can parry Pursuer and shoot the ballistas at him while he's stunned.

yeah, that's an awesome option!

when I helped out other dudes to kill Pursuer, in 3/5 battles I was shot by friendly phantom/host by a ballista shot

 

[praetor]

so, since the patch is out, the good folks of 4chan are already at work to get the new items (and access the dlc area). some of them (not really spoilery. i omtted the names/descriptions):

Spoiler

(short)spear/sorcery catalyst that reqs 30Fth.. wtf
washing pole 2.0 (spoilerific description)
"special" starightsword/rapier combo (super spoilerific description)
"regular" starightsword/rapier combo
that flaming sword
abyss greatsword 2.0 (apparently special moveset when wielded left handed)
huge ass club. 75str to 1hand. things are getting ridiculous (not in a good way)
huge ass sword. dwarfs all other UGS. again, ridiculous
huge ass greatbow
invis rolling ring confirmed
magic clutch ring
dex/str rings (i'm guessing +5 like the int/ft ones)
dispelling +1 (120 to all resists)
ring that reduces stamina consumption while blocking
mask of the fucking father (renamed to pharros mask)
minotaur helm
an OHKO dagger. i'm not fucking kidding
new chime
eastern set 2.0 (spoilerific description)
new badass armour
edit: a new pyro is basically chaos firestorm 2.0 with faster cast time but 2 slots
some other weapons/armours/ring i probably forgot/nobody mentioned yet

(minor) spoilers about new bosses:

Spoiler

there's at least 3 of them, judging by souls you can acquire. one is obviously the new manus kid. one is.... finally Raime! (prepare for everybody to wear his armour. it looks pretty badass. i'm guessing he'll be Artorias 2.0). and THE alonne knight (after whom the others are named. i'm guessing he's the bonus boss)

other the silly, ridiculously huge weapons, and the incredibly retarded OHKO dagger (thank you, Team B!). shit looks pretty rad. btw, curved sword parries (including banana) were not nerfed

 

[StaticSpine]

Raime?

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Raime?

check rebels greatshield description

seems like

Spoiler

DRAGON BONE SMASHER

is back

also jesus fucking christ that moveset with

Spoiler

artorias sword

in left hand

 

[praetor]

^it also has a unique L2 when powerstanced (ridiculously OTT)

btw, it seems the buff to spell parrying was aslo quite ridiculous. now every spell parry shield acts basically like the silver talisman from DaS1, but it's faster/better (active frames are looong, and they start as soon as you parry). that + CSS speed nerf = R.I.P. magic users

edit: oh jesus fucking christ, fuck you team b (dlc2 preview area boss spoiler):

Spoiler

smelly demon copypaste. he's even called smelly demon

 

[Kanedias]

At least the OHKO Dagger doesn't work in PvP. Still, such an item existing is meh. I dislike everything that has to do with backstabs.

The new items seem extremely nice, but I also don't like the ridiculous size the weapons are getting. Plus that hammer has a spin to win move that looks like a joke. Honestly I find it funny, but at the same time it's quite out of place.

The rest seemed great, and I am very excited about trying some of the new items in PvP.

Spoiler

As for the Smelter Demon, it seems there will always be one lazy boss for the optional "free" area of the DLC. At least I prefer the Smelter Demon to the ganksquad because it makes lore sense that it's there.

Also forgive me in advance for my lack of creativity but I will make a

Spoiler

Majestic Greatsword + Raime Set

build for PvP.

Spoiler

I always enjoyed that moveset even though it was quite bad. This time it looks much better, even the big flip 2h r2 looks more viable.

 

[Murk]

Some of that shit sounds ridiculous and it seems Team B is really pushing overlevelling with the requirements; fuck yer meta lol

Spoiler

ffs it's literally the abyss greatsword and it is called 'majestic'

is this even a joke anymore

monscim not nerfed; as intendend neat

magic parrying lololololol

phys souls it is

edit:

sacred oath stacks with weapon buffs
CSS was changed to give max 5 castings with 2 slots taken up; before it was 4 castings with 1 slot (boo) and it's a bit slower but still very usable

my poor, poor gg helm =(

 

[Kanedias]

With sacrifices it is still possible as a SL 150, but yes, it seems tailored to SL 200. Too bad I don't feel like going to 200 in my builds except on my hexer. I probably should, since it has become more or less the meta, but whatever. As long as I manage at SL 150 I am going to stay there. My hexer is an exception because of the ridiculous requirements of some of the spells. I just don't like how many extra points you get for melee builds at SL 200. I like how I have to think hard about SL 150 builds thanks to stat allocation and sacrifices. SL 200 builds are pretty easy to make since I can get everything I want.

 

[praetor]

Kanedias

Spoiler

how does smelly make sense if a) the DLC is back in time so we killed him before we met him in the "normal" game or b) it's not back in time, so we killed him in the normal game before we met him in the DLC? and don't give me that "time is convoluted" handwave bullshit

speaking of the meta, there were a couple of threads about it on various places, some claiming 150 is enough, others that 200 is the new 125. but almost nobody argued for that neat little half-way point: 175. now, my argument for it was: a fully realized dex build (the easiest to minmax and probably the most efficient, point-wise. and it seems to still be the case, more or less) in DaS1 was SL101 while hitting all the soft caps and 16str for most dex weapons, while a similar build in DaS2 with 32End, and ~25Att for 100agility (1 frame lower than fast-roll in 1, right?) is 149. so, just going by that example alone, new meta should be roughly 149 * 1,2 (or 1,25), which is 175 (rounded down to the nearest multiple of 5). thoughts, other than "SM exists, SL is pointless"?

edit: and thank gwyn that dagger doesn't work in pvp. does it just do "normal" levels of backustabbu damage comparable to a manikin/shadow/bandit dagger?

 

[Kanedias]

I would enjoy SL 175, I think. A nice halfway point. I will consider it for my builds.

Spoiler

What you say about the Smelter Demon is true, now that I think about it. You are right, while it makes sense that he is present there, it doesn't make sense that you fight him in the normal game. And I am not completely sure the DLC is back in time, either. After all, the Old Iron King is already long gone, and then you enter Alonne's memory, so it would be an Inception level "time is convoluted" moment if we were in the past already. And the area in general doesn't look like the Iron Keep.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Yo, why do we asume that there is only one

Spoiler

Smelter Demon? From OIK soul description:

The Iron King's flesh was charred, and his
soul possessed by the things that lurk below.

Isnt it plural form? Like OIK was corrupted by that fucker we killed in Iron Keep but there are still more demons like him down below?

 

[Murk]

I PVP'd a bit in the last few days without backstab gear and at least half of my fights were the guy being super defensive and just going for backstabs. I'd switch to jesters or turtle if it got to the piont that I was just keeping my ass away from them like some kind of ridiculous prison shower rape scene they'd go for monscim near immediately.

The last one that really just made me go "why the fuck am I even bothering with this game" was when the guy switched to curved greatsword and started to spam run attacks (both hands invisible; I'm sure he earned them) all while using mushrooms.

What are we even doing at this point? I am pretty sure I completed about 5k damage to the guy (he kept healing, mushrooms and estus) and he gives me a "no no no" when I don't want to run n cast great heal anymore.

I think, man... he's right. I really should stop playing this fucking game. the Lowbie i was playing on before was like 50x more fun... albeit it was mostly noobs I was fighting. Still, guess it's time to maybe make a new character. Again.

edit: yo dogs we fought ornstein like in the first hour of the game -- do you really want things to make a ton of sense or do you want a boss that might be fun? smelter's a p cool boss the first few times you fight him maybe this one will be fun too?

edit 2: fought the cheater 'patricia' -- had the alonne set on. It's a cross between artorias and the eastern set. The new 'washing pole' weapon is not as far reaching but it's elf buff damages you. Looks p cool tho.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

also dat new track

 

[Kanedias]

Black Flamestone Dagger is hilariously Fun/OP after the Stone Ring buff. Stone Ring now gives like 30 poise damage and the biggest weakness of the Black Flamestone Dagger was the fact that it only had 5. With 35 poise damage plus the modifiers (like 2hing, etc) the Dagger is now an unstoppable force of destruction. By this I mean that I actually get 700-1000 damage combos out of it. It is ridiculous. It is becoming a guilty pleasure of mine, hahaha.

It was already super strong pre-patch, now it's Top Tier. Seriously, give it a go, especially with a robflynn build. It erodes the Havels in mere seconds. It is funny seeing the katana users trying to swing in vain.

 

[Murk]

Adds 30? As in it can break up to 30 poise worth of armor or the weapon's poise-break stat is raised by 30? Cuz that seems like a metric fuckton -- from my/our testing it seems to add 10 poise break to a weapon where-as before it would add 5. If it does add 30 then that would make the black flame dagger equal to greatswords in terms of 'poise break' which seems... outright silly.

 

[Kanedias]

There have been tests and it's apparently +30 poisebreak added to the natural poisebreak of the weapon. Previously it gave 10. Feels like it, too. I stagger everything with my Black Flamestone Dagger. This is quite excessive. It should have been raised from 10 to 15, not to 30... Now my precious Black Flamestone Dagger may get nerfed, because this is extremely silly.

http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/2ejq21/stone_ring_in_110_tests/

 

[Murk]

Donno, I guess I can test some more before really concluding but that sounds like BS to me. Unless team b went full derp. Previously it added 5 poise break from any testing we did (myself n UndetectedButthurt ). can't be 100% of course but then we also found a consistent pattern of 1:3 ratio that applied to nearly all weapons save for some really weird ones like archdrake hammer and some greatswords (tho those were fixed in later patches).

 

[Kanedias]

With the Stone Ring, I consistently did 2h run attack -> 2h r1 combos against high poise people. Only a few managed to tank the run attack or a single 2h r1 (if I didn't do the run attack before), and they were wearing very heavy armor and the ring of giants on top of it. The new Stone Ring negates poise unless you have a fuck ton of it, and even then, it only takes 2 hits or the 2h r2 (which breaks infinite poise, it always did this though). It is pretty OP with the Black Flamestone Dagger or straight swords.

People throw the term lightly, but I am convinced Stone Ring is New Meta material. I hope they nerf it to 10-15 instead of nerfing the weapons that benefit from it, though... I really love the Black Flamestone Dagger. It is fun to use and it benefits from an aggressive playstyle which is nice. I don't like the backpedal game in PvP.

 

[Murk]

I guess so; did some minor testing with weapons earlier today and it didn't seem so drastic. if it does add 30 then a sunsword 1h r1 should be able to break up to 150 poise on someone.

edit: yeah i call BS on the 30 number.

1h sunsword r1 with ring took 2 hits to break 140 poise

if the ring adds 30 then the sunsword should have 50 poisebreak, 50x3 = 150 and so it should 1 hit break that... it didn't -- the testing with daggers also still sticks with my idea of stone ring adding 10 poise break to weapons and works in the 1:3 ratio (when using 1h r1 attacks)

also, more to the point mailbreaker (15 poise break) with stone ring needs 2 two-handed r1s to poisebreak.... whipsword without stone ring (25 poise break) needs 1 two-handed r1 to poisebreak

long story short; not sure if its 10 or 5 or what but it's not 30 -- it does however basically reduce the # of hits you need to poise-break by about 1 hit

unrelated: unless it was lag -- the monscim seems to have some start up frames before the parry frames -- but again, could just have been lag

 

[Jaedar]

So what you are saying is that the preorder dlc weapon is now OP?

Good job b-team.

 

[AngryEddy]

This DLC is easily one of the most tedious pieces of video game entertainment i've ever played.

"Hey so here is a room to the same boss you fought a year ago, only it's protected by about 20 people who spam tranquil walk of peace, one shotting black phantoms archers with INSANE defense, and when you get there, it's the same smelter demon boss as before, just with magic defense so good it negates magic, and his horns curve upward, oh, and he's blue."

"Wait, you don't like that boss? How about the other one who's surrounded by healing idols who instantly heal all of his health back, did we mention that he can 2 shot you and his defense and health are incredibly high, btw, magic doesn't hurt him either. You can kill at least 2 of the idols if you saved your wedges from before, but why would you if you weren't reading a guide"

Fuck off.

 

[Stonewolf]

Good lord, this new DLC is insanely boring piece of shit so far.

 

[AngryEddy]

Even better, the Assassin NPC that invades you by the Artorias greatsword doesn't get poise broken: AT ALL. I'm hitting this fucking cunt with 99 strength with a +10 smelter hammer and he just laughs it off and one shots me with his lance.

When I see shit like this, and then I look on the DS2 reddit and all I see is "OMG NEW SMELTER SO COOL" it makes me livid.