Wait, I don't understand... my eyes must be playing tricks on me because that looks like a full-size Smough, which isn't possible, is it?
So explain this to me. I weas still human after my triumph over the Gargoyles. I picked up heavy soul arrow with part of the proceeds (+1 attunement to get to 4 slots and +1 int as well), and then headed to the lower burg. There was a summoning sign there and a dude with some awesome looking gear entered my game. We sprinted to Capra, where I promptly passed the fog gate and then died in typical fashion (could not get past initial salvo). After I died he finally entered the gate. Was he just slow on the draw or did I need to live longer for him to enter?
One of the newer hacks in the PC version, it's been described like this: A couple other pics: http://imgur.com/a/93GWk
Could be a combination of both. I've been summoned to the Capra demon fight, only to have the summoner get oneshot the moment he entered the bossfight room before I could even get a chance to follow him. When you co-op, when the host enters the boss fog, you have to click away a message saying you can now engage the boss, which takes a second or so, and then there's a several-second animation of you passing through the fog before you can actually join in. So it's entirely possible for a host to get killed before his phantoms even get the chance to join.
Yeah, I've moved away from it. But the massive damage was usually enough to nuke shit so quickly I didn't even need worry about spell counts.
In the link, it suggests that this has so far been isolated to one person ("Dgrayedd" on XBL) rather than a rampant problem. Apparently pre-release players who connected online would be rewarded with the invasion of a level 714 darkwraith version of full-size Smough, and I'm sure the others are coming out of gravelord code or what have you. I saw this when it first came up but I forget to mention it. I wouldn't start considering it a threat unless it comes up a whole lot more, but it's certainly a step up in terms of the level of codehacking. If you see this guy enter your game, though, probably a good idea to alt f4.
If you are going to use the phrase 'trash mobs' then Dark Souls is not for you. There are no trash mobs in the game. Every single enemy will punish you if you take them for granted. Oh, and your class doesn't matter at all. Ever. The only benefit of class is starting equipment, and maybe you can pick something that gives you a boost on stats if you know how you want to play.
I'm not sure where you're going with this, and for all I know we're arguing the same thing. Does the game require trying new things? Yes. Does it require learning, i.e. memorizing, opponent move sets/predilections so you know how to deal with them? Yes. Does the aforementioned memorization help in dealing with new enemies because it's all based on vaguely sensible, vaguely physical moves and responses*? Sure. Will you come up against a bog-standard enemy (non boss even) that fucks you up with a new moveset anyway? Absolutely. Because DARK SOULS. * bigger weapons, bigger foes = stagger; faster, smaller enemies = better chance of parry or backstab, etc.
I'm saying it's not memorization in the traditional sense of difficult, pattern-based videogames that determines whether the game becomes easier or remains frustratingly difficult, because once you get the hang of the game you become much more likely to react intelligently to new things. You'll still die, but especially if you mess around in PvP there's a huge gulf between what kills people who understand the game and people who've merely been playing it a lot and are treading water through attrition.
The starting equipment does matter for new players, though, as you can take much more of a beating in knight armor (for instance) than in other outfits as well having the poise to recover from your mistakes while at the same time you lose the ability to duck away from harm as you are more heavily burdened. It does matter in that relative to low levels the pyro and magic user are something of a glass cannon in that you really have to learn how to harness their (closely constrained) disproportionate offense if you're going to make the most of it. Those things will shape your perception of those crucial first few hours, in my opinion, and I would be wary of being too dismissive of them.
Well, I *did* give a nod to equipment. But the reality is that in the first few hours, as you put it, you can take any single one of them and turn it into any other.
ALSO I'd like to take a moment to mention that I personally never saw a very big difference between the classes in terms of the first few hours of survivability. The things that killed me were generally the situations that would kill you regardless; getting mobbed, getting nuked, getting smashed.
You can skip the first Seath "fight", and if you use the master key to go from firelink-new londo-drakes-basin-havel's door-Taurus you never trigger the hellkite by crossing that bridge he lands on to scare you. The latter is probably better for NG+ where he's a pain in the ass to kill and Havel is a joke. All that and more from here.
I didn't realize that the dragon worked that way until my most recent playthrough, where I just happened to wind my way around backwards to the bridge and then headed through Undead Burg to Firelink Shrine. I jumped when the dragon landed on that small bridge from the other direction. So awesome, the way this game can still surprise me. Dark Souls.
Well, you've been watching ENB's dark days. The differences are pretty clear cut if you try to think of it as someone new to the two games or coming at this from a more traditional understanding of difficulty. The difference between being 2 shotted by a single asylum dregling or being able to swing through his hit with minimal damage is substantial in terms of how people less initially invested in the game are going to think about it. Remember, even experienced players once disagreed with the conventional wisdom about how advisable the master key was for new players when there was simply no reason why anybody with a normal level of self-control would choose otherwise. That guy above who probably quit after wandering into the forest area too early in pursuit of premature min-maxing? That's not atypical, in my opinion. I definitely quit the hell out of Demon's Souls after an hour and really only got back into it because someone on Qt3 walked me through that first stumbling block ("choose royal, and engage selectively"). Those first few hours *are* the entire Souls experience for way too many people, and while it's not an obligation to convince them otherwise I think it's good to keep it in mind for perspective.
You can just tag that hollow with an arrow, he will run after you. All the hollows on the same level as the boar will do the same. You can definitely get to the point of not getting 1-shot by basic enemies, but it will be a long time, and then those guys won't hit you anyway. Keep at it, maybe even spoil it and watch some Let's Plays. I learned a lot about what I was doing wrong that way. It took me 6 or so hours to get to the point of beating the first Taurus Demon. Now it takes about 10 minutes. Stay with it, the game is worth it.
I recently (finally) purchased the DLC, and the aforementioned strength character is going to be my first run through it. But I'm clearing New Anor Londo, and I'm finding that my endurance (which I'm finally getting around to levelling) is kinda inadequate. Turns out that 22 endurance *still* isn't enough to comfortably swing Dragon's Tooth all day. Who woulda thunk?
This is one area where I think Dark Souls actually *does* fall short. There's a ton of equipment & weapon variety based around damage types, but there's no way to tell what damage type the enemies are actually doing. Sometimes it's obvious, such as with Ornstein. But a lot of the time, I only know because somebody figured it out & put it up on the wiki. And the only way they (or anybody else) could figure it out would be to laboriously go into the fight multiple times with gear that gives them radically different resists to various things, and then let the attacks hit them. That's... kind of a pain in the ass. I don't mean that in a "Dark Souls" way. I mean a regular plain-old pain in the ass.
If you say so. I think the issue is really more that the sub-distinctions of physical damage, the layering with other types of damage, and the impact of your resistances on each has been over-described in the character sheet to a level that the in-game feedback doesn't require, so you end up with a higher expectation of how much you should know beyond what's plainly happening in front of you. I guess it would help if you said which were really breaking your balls prior to being clarified by others rather than simply frustrating the run of the mill gamer ocd we all exhibit sometimes. In my experience most of what I needed from the online community were tactical gimmicks (ie I never would have figured out the Ceaseless fast kill) that were reliant on luck or panic to discover or broader strategic notions about character development and efficient item acquisition; the details of damage types are interesting but not fundamental to me beyond what the game shoves in my face. I could be wrong, though, depending on what your examples are. Whether something was luck or method is hard to reverse-engineer sometimes, but not that often.
At first I kind of agreed with this, but now I'm having a hard time thinking of any times that I couldn't tell what kind of damage something was dealing to me. What are some of the ones you found confusing?
I've never looked up damage types on a wiki for bosses. I pretty much just identified it by sight, which is pretty easy. I would be surprised if I was wrong about any of it. The game is *really* good at being clear when it comes to communicating what's happening. You know if it's lightning, you know if it's fire, you know if it's magic. If he's bashing you with a big weapon it's physical. Are there any bosses that do primarily magic damage with what appear to be physical attacks? That's the only place I'd think where I might have misidentified, but it's kind of moot anyway since I'm not sure I've ever felt the need to max out my armor's magic resist. Usually just go with a shield and that's that. Also, re: Ceaseless Discharge, I actually found that cheese method on my own, by accident. I was convinced the game bugged out on me. I was just trying to get away from his goddamned fire breath, and when I was at the gate I resigned myself to another death and started whaling on his arm. Three hits and he died. It was weird.
I found and killed an almost-completely armored giant boar and am now using his head for a helm. Hilariously, his bunghole lacked armor so that's where I shoved my sword. Twice. Then I found a halberd and became a killing machine, although those big black knights with the mega huge swords are still ending me quickly. I think I need to figure this parry thing out.
Backstabs are a lot easier to time than parries, so that might be a place to start with the knights. Both have some really good video tutorials in the first post of the thread.
I watched the parry video in the first thread and didn't find it very helpful -- -it points out what I've already figured out: you need to press the button sooner than you think you should have to, based on the way the animation looks. Except my parry problem is that, about 70% of the time, I parry WAAAY too early. Perhaps it's because I'm playing a soldier (warrior? whatever the first class is at character creation) and am thus not fast enough, but I've been having trouble getting around the backside of even slower enemies for backstabs.
Can you even parry those UGS attacks? LK probably knows; for my part I can't parry anything even now so I long ago gave up even trying. Anyway, those guys aren't necessary to kill so don't sweat it. You'll have plenty of time to circle back for them later once they become easy prey. Although if you do want to challenge yourself a little and manage to take them down, you might get lucky and score their weapon, any of which can be a pretty good boost early on.
Well, for me the two key things for backstabs are having the shield down when strafing (for faster movement) and . Most times, when people say they can't get the backside it's because they are keeping their shield up, which slows your movement and increases the chance that you'll go straight from shield up to hit (which makes for a regular r1 hit) rather than transitioning from shield up to shield down to hitting, which triggers a backstab. Once you get the hang of that, I recommend experimenting without locking on so you get a real feel for how easy it is and how far from directly behind you can be and still do it, as well as the notorious "roll and lock on turnaround" backstab that makes you look like a boss. I can't speak to the video in the first thread, but the expert guide video in this thread's first post is the first one that really got me paying attention not just to the start of attacks but what the animations were actually doing. Every attack has a windup and a strike, and figuring out when one becomes the other is the key to being a consistent parryer. Well, that, and proximity along with level ground. From then it's a small matter to figure out you have enough time to switch weapons, go 2h, or otherwise modulate your response before closing for the kill. EDIT: The rule of thumb from the vid is that you can parry any enemy you can backstab, although there are many enemies immune to backstabs that you can still parry for defense without getting the special attack. Knights are relatively easy to parry, but the r2 attacks especially have tricky issues with proximity and "windup-strike" so it takes a bit more. But yeah, and parrying jump attacks is hilarious.
Four Kings: The fact that they deal magic and physical in every strike is something I probably wouldn't have been able to figure out on my own. (I would have guessed all magic... wait no... that didn't work... all physical... wait that didn't work either... lightning? etc.) Queelag: The fact that her explosion thing is magic is completely counter-intuitive, and there isn't any visual indication of such. I probably would have died over & over to it, wondering why my Flash Sweat kept bugging & not working. Demon Firesage: Due to his appearance and his frickin' name, I would have thought all his non-physical attacks were fire. Pinwheel: I *did* think that all his attacks were magical, since that's what they looked like. I couldn't figure out why my Crest Shield wasn't doing jack, until I looked him up on the wiki and found out the HORRIBLE TRUTH. I think that's it, actually.
There's a perfect place to learn parrying in... hmm. Might be considered a spoiler location: I think you can parry literally all non-aoe attacks. I saw a video where a guy was demonstrating parrying arrows & crystal spears. It was... bizarre. What you *can't* do to all attacks is a follow-up riposte. Some attacks & enemies are just unripostable. By the way, Ryan, the thing about backstabbing that didn't click for me for the longest time is that the ideal spot to stand isn't actually directly behind the enemy; you want to be behind his sword arm. So... kinda diagonal behind him.
I survive her with high fire resist shields with sometimes pretty unimpressive magic resist (especially the Dragon Crest), every time. The AE, like the ones for other bosses, is very responsive to having decent stability. Queelag is really a question of whether you are doing enough damage moreso than anything else, and it better not be pyro. Firesage can be survived with either resistance prioritized, but at that point you should be a pro at not getting hit by him. Either way, high stability wins the day. The 4k is both magic and physical because you are getting blasted with magic and hit with swords. I decided which was harder to avoid altogether for me (magic) and prioritized that in my defense, but I've also done well historically with high stability/phys resistance gear. I don't know how that could have been any clearer. Pinwheel. That poor guy. The necromancers were your warning, and he looks pretty fiery to me. If there's a trick there it's that he's also very vulnerable to the fire he casts, but that's more of a bonus since he's vulnerable to pretty much everything. Overall, I would say that it would be nice for number crunchers if you could setup the UI to color code the damage you take. Again, I think the character sheet simply sets your expectations high, and it's not a problem that impairs playability so much as frustrating OCD. These all seem like things you'd run into in a low SL run or bypass run where the marginal differences might actually matter, if indeed they do as much as you say.
This one I thought was pretty intuitive. Sword = physical, glowy = magic. Didn't know that until I read it in this post. Interesting, although I've lost count of how many times I've killed Quelaag and I've never had any particular trouble with her despite not knowing this. I can see how this would be tricky. I think the way you're supposed to know is from fighting the Stray Demon first, which has the same magic attack with nothing else to confuse you, but since that fight is optional it's totally possible that you wouldn't have learned that. Does the Asylum Demon use that move too? I think he might but even if he does that's more than I'd expect someone to remember from that far back. Since when does Pinwheel have time to attack?
Yeah sorry I was using parry as shorthand for parry and riposte. Can you riposte the UGS black knights, then? I guess you probably can.
Having high fire resistance does absolutely nothing; all of his damage is either magical or physical. Of course, if you do the fight correctly, you hardly get hit by anything. But the fight is kinda tricky. Yes, most players probably killed the Stray Demon, so they've already learned this fight. However, everything the Firesage does is *just* a little bit more. The range of his magic wave extends a little bit behind him. The area of effect of his axe drop is a little bit bigger. And his butt fall thing hurts a lot more and can catch you even if you're kinda near him. Plus all the roots & brambles makes maneuvering more difficult. Given all that, I would guess most players take a fair amount of damage while (re) learning that fight. Some players (like me) appreciate knowing which damage type to gear for in case disaster strikes. Actually, their sword strikes are *also* magical. They deal dual damage just like human players do when wielding magic-enchanted weapons. From what I understand of the mechanics, somehow the tips of their swords do most of the magical damage, while the hilt/base of the sword does mostly physical. So the damage type from the sword strikes will vary depending on how close you are to them. Anyways, this isn't a show stopping problem for me. But I do like to get a handle on game mechanics, and when something just isn't working, it bugs me. You used the term "OCD", and I guess you could characterize it that way. But I don't really think of it like that. It's not a completionist thing. Rather, I get satisfaction from truly mastering a good system like this. If my fire resist shield just isn't resisting fire somewhere, that tells me I don't really understand what's going on. This would have been an excellent solution except the screen might get too cluttered in cases of dual damage types... which happen pretty often whenever human players are involved. (Most of our buffed weapons do physical & some other damage type.)
Heh. Since the latest patch, he clones himself instantly, so either him or a clone often get to fire at me once, especially if I do the Catacombs first thing. So imagine my surprise when that one shot killed my low vit character, despite all the trouble I went to to get & upgrade the Crest Shield. 'twas my only Pinwheel death. I'll always remember you, super-fragile-all-strength character.
I did die on Pinwheel once or twice (I think once) when I took him on first thing. It's an experience!
Again, your starting class is irrelevant, it just determines your starting gear and stat distribution. The moment you hit Firelink you could take your Soldier and make him a Sorcerer just buy spending a few souls. When it comes to parrying I think the only thing that matters is what item you're using to do your parry. Some have a longer parry window than others. I believe the Buckler, Target Shield and Parrying Dagger have a long window and everything else has a shorter one. Also, parrying requires lots of practice and you have to become familiar with enemies' attacks. It can be an incredibly powerful tool but isn't at all necessary, you can complete the entire game without ever doing a single parry. As LK said, backstabbing is easier and can serve much the same purpose.
