One of my characters is aiming for heavy armor and limited rolling, but I've never actually done a <25 playthrough, so I don't actually know how flat out rolling works as a key strategy. I should probably do that at some point.
Once you go <25 you never go back. Just trying to get used to <50 on my former-DWGR-using strength build was really tough, and she was already on light armor so there was nothing I really wanted to cut. :/
Knight Artorias is kicking my ass. My build is all about slow but incredibly damaging hits and he's basically all "HAHA WRONG BUILD SUCKER"
I had some success with Iron Flesh. You can't use it for the whole fight and the timing is pretty tricky because you just can't have it on right after he buffs himself, but it's useful in certain parts.
I think grinding up a different weapon would help too - I've been using a Lightning Zweihander for forever and it seems like a lot of the expansion monsters are resistant to it.
I think a lot of stuff there is resistant to lightning, yeah. Although I didn't find that out until after I upgraded a Lightning Gargoyle Halberd to +5, which is what I killed Artorias with, so it is possible if not ideal.
Well Fire Zweihander comes to mind but you do only get the one. If you want to stick with an ultra greatsword and have the stats the Greatsword is almost the same thing, or you could also do a Murakumo for the same reqs. Obsidian Greatsword is awesome as I was saying a few pages ago, but it's going to be harder to get than just beating Artorias with what you have will be. Edit: Oh! If you're one-handing the Zweihander you could two-hand the Black Knight Halberd if you have it. That's a power play right there.
In general elemental weapons are not ideal for much of the DLC. It really favors having a stat-based primary attack. The gargoyle halberd is in that bracket of weapons in that just do a lot of damage, period, regardless of how you level it. The zwei does a lot of damage as well but you're going to have to be more rigorous about using sprint and attack. I have done Artorias at both <25 and <50; the latter is generally better for my low level characters without much vit when they are summoned to NG+ attempts. I think the key with slow movement and Artorias is making sure that you take advantage of your sprint + attack; I don't find the R2 of the zwei all that compelling relative to sprint and attack, so the sprint might help.The eagle shield also has a lot to offer here if you've been upgrading it, as it's easy to underrate in the wake of it losing 100% phys defense. Try not to let him open a gap between you and him unless you must heal, because when he starts backing away he's likely to try charging. Charged Artorias, contrary to my initial impression, is surviveable especially in regular game if you have a high stability shield. It's not fun, especially solo, but it's not a dealbreaker. In any case, your focus then is draining his poise as quickly as possible before the charge completes. Since you don't have the new physical magic spells, your best way to ruin that for him is 2h R1 attacks IMO. 2-3 consecutive hits and he'll often stagger, at which point you can get in another hit or two and get hit back or start backpedaling. As always, well timed pyro solves a lot of problems and he gets demolished by magic, and coop means you have someone to help you break his poise.
This is what I'm trying to do with my second character, because ... This happened. I was <25 because of starting sorcerer stuff, and every single time I tried something else on it would push me over the 25% and I couldn't cope with the change. Then I got Havel's Ring and well, staying <25% turned out to be quite easy so I stuck with it until the end. Dingy Set (mostly) ftw.
So I'm thinking of getting back into this. I purchased Dark Souls on the 360 and played it for awhile, and loved it, but drifted away much more quickly than I did from Demon's Souls. Being a Demon's veteran was certainly helpful, but fuck capra demon with his fucking dogs, while bent over one of my dozens of corpses. And then gift wrap that tiny little room and shove it up the ass of whoever designed it. Etc. Sadly he was my halting point. I tried and tried and tried but could not beat him. I might re-purchase this. Is the PC port good/stable/worthwhile? I never really read up on how it was specifically. It would be ideal to play where the most active community is of course, even though I'll spend most of the game solo.
Makes me glad I've never tried it, and never bothered to get the wood grain ring. Medium roll forever! I found this method useful until I learned how to beat him. Spoilers for way to abuse Capra Demon fight: I over-leveled in NG, ending at level 88. It's making co-op impossible (and I just need one more sunlight medal to rank up and get two awesome spells!) but goddamn is it making NG+ easy. I didn't realize the Lower Undead Burg could be completed in 5 minutes. It felt so, so good to ruin the Capra Demon's face with a Sunlight Bladed Balder Side Sword in 4 hits. Havel's armor and the RoFAP let me just tank the hits, even with 15 vitality. BTW Peacedog, it is on sale for $27 on the steam store this weekend.
I think the PC port is great, having only played Demons on console. DSFix makes it pretty, but the major complaint I hear from people is the networking not being as seamless as it is on console and the presence of cheaters. The networking bums me out (Summong Failed) but I haven't really been in too much trouble because of hackers. I took a break for a couple days and came back with a vengeance last night. Got my Low-Faith character up to Sen's and got my Sorcery experiment back on track. If I can figure out what weapon I'm going to use on each they'll be good to go. My higher STR/Faith build is kind of lost for the time being but he's got a good selection of equipment to play with, and I think he'll end up using one of the Ultra Greatswords eventually.
You didn't overlevel by that much--I think 80 is about average--and that's not what's making NG+ easy. You're experiencing it exactly how you're supposed to, and you're going to hit a wall at the same place as everyone else when the game gets hard again. I won't tell you when that is, but you can probably guess. 15 vitality is absurdly low, though. What are you holding out for?
Hmmmm, I think I'll buy it on the PC this weekend, then. I don't remember what level my old character was, I'm going to guess "20something" and that he had invested a little in str/dex but most in end (and probably some in vit). I should fire up the 360 and find out. I need suggestions on what to restart with. I think I remember taking the master key as my gift and being underwhelmed by it by the time I was floundering on Capra.
That's not a spoiler. That's basically the hard way writ large. All you need is the plunging attack off the ledge, which you can set up infinite times by running onto the ledge, facing the stairs with a 100% phys damage, ideally >60 stability shield. Then he lunges at you, falls off, and you plunge attack him 2h. The finesse part is how you work out getting to the ledge from the fog gate and dealing with the dogs, which can be brute forced through better armor and shields, stealthed by wearing light gear to move faster than dog reaction and running/rolling tactically, or many other approaches.
Master Key is goooooood. For char build(str,dex) it depends which weapon you like to use and then make them elemental. Then ad stam and vit for your first run. I advise against scaling weapons as they need more careful planing. Pyro is always useful. Having Int at 16 gives you a truckload of utility spells.
Straight sorcery build or Obsidian Greatsword build, please. The master key is the only starting gift that helps you with the Capra, which it does by making it optional.
Heh, I just watched the video. Whatever works works, but I have a hard time seeing "get knocked down immediately, don't kill the dogs" as "the easiest way."
I haven't played in forever, so I don't remember which weapons I really liked. But, you know, sword this and sword that worked well (as it often does). I probably favored something from the "it swings and thrusts!" category. I couldn't get into spears as much as I did in Demons (oh winged spear, I miss you so). I never seem to do as well with "be a slick mother fucker and learn to back stab your way through most assholes" type builds. I don't think I ever mastered kicking either. Wasn't aware it made him optional. At the time it seemed like that was the way to go next. Other avenues of exploration seemed too dangerous. I remember trying to beat and then cheese Havel and failing. I remember the giant torso dude who could one shot me. The gates where you meet the Onion Knight (Siege Gates? But I'm pretty sure you can't pass them at some point), and then danger beyond the cemetary. Back when I was daying to Capra demon about 5-10 times a day after work, "get knocked down at the start of the fight"was generally a game over, heh (if I had been at it for awhile and it happened, it was usually my "well, Nintendo fatigue has set in, I should probably just stop now" point). I was never able to get the "cheese drop attack" tactic to work. I don't know why but he only inconsistently slipped off for me. And then something else would happen. Something else always happened.
Well i say go for halberd and claymore both found in undead pariah. they have high enough base damage and make good elemental weapons. If the gargoyle halberd drops, well its awesome.
Well, Dark Souls is a very open-ended game, and less than half of the bosses are actually mandatory. But if you're at an enemy you just can't beat, and all you do is die to it over and over again, why not explore someplace else? How much more dangerous could it be?
I did, and I never found anywhere else I could progress, as my post stated. I'm sure I missed things. Shit happens.
Sometimes you can flat out run past enemies. When it comes to effective master key use this is pretty much necessary. Pretty much the entire point of the master key is to open up areas ahead of schedule. Some of those areas are hard or put significant obstacles in your way (Havel) but connect to an easier area later on so you can bypass some of the harder part to get to the easier parts and then go back later.
Strength = 40, and going on about a lightning zwei +5. My soul levl's 90 give or take a couple, and I do get summoned at both the Nito and the 4K gates pretty quickly, so maybe it's not that bad. I just always feel like a loser when I make it through boss fights without dying 80 times in this game like I'm supposed to. I've said before I never really spent time grinding levels, it just kind of happens when you're collecting humanity for the shortcut, or ears for the miracle, or large shards or twinkling titanite to trick out a weapon, or just getting a few more souls to add one more point to try the new spell or shield or cool armor, or or or... Anyway now I can wear almost the full Havel set and 2H electrozwei those poor bosses almost wtih impunity. It's sad when they crumple. This is one of those funny games that can make me feel bad about myself whether I'm winning or losing. Oh, and by the way - just to follow-up from the recommendation you made earlier extar: I did get a demon great machete from the capras in the ruins (you were right - it dropped on the first run I tried with the gold serpent and a couple humanity onboard). Leveled it to +10, and it's pretty cool. The problem I ran into is the 1H strong attack, the one that staggers everyone, takes about twice as long to fire off as the zwei's. So I'll probably just ascend it to a divine demon machete to go in the drawer next to my magic butcher knife.
Well, it was dex/faith, so I wanted to get those to 40 asap. And I needed endurance for attacking/Elite Knight armor, so I needed to get that to 25 asap. And I needed a few attunement slots, so a few points there. And since I had upgraded the Elite Knight set so much, even when I got hit, it usually wasn't so bad. The only time the low vit was rough in NG was vs Gwyn. O&S will be easy on NG+; I'll just summon two people and sit back chugging my 20 +7 estus flasks, and hope they kill Smough first. I assumed I overlevelled because I hung out for a while in the Parish and did not see a single summon, nor did I get invaded. Perhaps it was just a slow night or something. I just skimmed it; I saw a running up the stairs and a plunging attack, and made some assumptions. Glad you and LK corrected my misinformation, thanks. I've already started a new character, going for Vit/End/Str all the way. Already made it to the Gargoyles and I am having a blast.
Awesome. Dude, screw that! You're not getting any benefit out of your uber strength that way. You want to be rocking some awesome strength-scaling madness, not that elemental jank. You've put all that effort into raising your strength, now claim your reward! Does it really? That sucks. As a non-ultra greatsword user I haven't tried it myself so I had no idea it was slow and crappy. Oh well. Set yourself up with a Black Knight Greataxe, that's what I think.
Agreed, at that much strength not taking a strength scaling weapon is doing yourself a significant disservice as you've spent what, 16 levels worth of points that you're not using.
Man, the Four Kings are kicking my arse at soul level 16. I don't know what I'm doing differently on this character from the other lowlevel I took to the Abyss, but I'm just getting destroyed.
What armor are you using? Are you summoning Witch "Dead Weight" Beatrice? What's your main damage output? Are you trying to dodge fight or block through? At what point is the fight breaking down (ie are you able to get through the first before the second shows up)? Alternately, in case it was just venting: that sucks.
I know this fight really, I've done it at SL 11. I just... seem to be zigging where I should be zagging, and it just keeps happening. I'm lightly armoured, using a +4 lightning spear, and fastrolling(or trying to) around their sword swipes. I do just fine with the first two kings, but the third one always - ALWAYS - kills me so very dead. If it's not a mistiming of a dodge on my part, it's the king actually turning mid-humanity suck grab when I think I've dodged it, draining over half my health, then immediately following up with an AoE. It's kinda frustrating. I'm sure I should just let it rest, sleep on it or something, and come back fresh. It's just kind of annoying to suddenly be totally fumbling a fight you've had little trouble with earlier. PS3, sadly. But thanks for the offer!
I'm assuming no one else is playing with a m+k? I've noticed a severe sluggishness, bordering on going completely unresponsive when invading Lautrecs world. I see no reason for this to be happening - I'm not really connecting to an outside computer am I? And just to make Thoro feel better - I'm getting my ass kicked all over the place by Smough & Ornstein at SL 53. I am nowhere near figuring that fight out. So, basically the same as most other boss fights for me. I am so very very bad at playing this game. This Game.
Heh, Abbott & Costello are fun when you have a whopping 14 vitality, your best weapon is a lightning one(they're both resistant) and you're just groaning at the thought of trudging your way back through Anor Londo, Sen's, the Parish, Firelink and finally down a not-yet-cleared Catacombs with all their happyfun respawning skeletons to talk to Vamos and get a fire weapon... and then running all the way back again to have another go. DARK SOULS.
So as with so much in this game, a simple change of tactics was all I needed for Knight Artorias. Changed my equipment to be at fast roll rather than medium roll and killed him on the very next try. This was after I leveled a magic weapon to +10 and discovered it does even LESS damage to him. The Lightning Zwei ends up ruling the roost again.
... I think Euro Truck Sim 2 was just what I needed as an antidote. I'm ready for Dark Souls round 2. :D
I don't know how I've managed this, but I haven't died without being able to retrieve the entire time with my new Faith build. That means I have 300k after just finishing S&O at level 35. I haven't a clue what to do with all of it.
If you've finished S&O, and you don't want to spend that money on leveling for some reason, you can always go to the Giant Blacksmith there and stock up on crafting materials. A lot of people store cash in the form of twinkling titanite, but I prefer Large titanite shards, since I use them more. Every time you create a boss weapon, upgrade a weapon to +15 normal strength, or lightning you'll need 10 large titanite shards. In addition, you can feed those suckers to Frampt in order to get 5 small titanite shards, which you'll need if you upgrade a non-unique weapon to anything. Alternately, consider purchasing the giant armor that the giant blacksmith sells. It's super heavy, but when fully upgraded it provides the best physical protection in the entire game. It also gives pretty decent fire & magic protection.
