I have over 100 hours of Dark Souls play with a mouse and keyboard. It's completely doable. Let me know if you pick it up and I'll walk you through it, it's no biggie. Basically you need the m+k mod found in the OP. There's some guesswork involved for what key does what in the menus, but for playing - mouse and keyboard works.
Made it to the swamp bonfire. Kindled, did the invader thing and beat the crap out of the nearly naked NPC phantom who invaded. The swamp is really annoying; I switched to some gloves with better poison resist and may do the same with the leggings.
I knew this was coming! I am honestly glad it worked out for you in the end, but I believe the prevailing opinion is that even with the mod mouse and keyboard controls are a tough row to hoe. I'm sure it's worth a shot, but I think he should at least be prepared to not have as much success enjoying the game with those controls as you've had. So maybe the recommendation should be plan to spend $45ish on the game plus controller but try it with the keyboard and mouse first and maybe be pleasantly surprised?
Well, that would depend on him being used to playing with a controller. I never had, so I spent quite a lot of time learning how to use one. Then that mod arrived and I've never looked back since. But sure, if he's used to playing with a controller he could go for that. I just don't think that there's anything a controller player can do that I can't, so to my mind it's untrue to claim that you must have a controller to play Dark Souls. Just don't use the mouse in the menus. Ever. It's the Insert, Delete, End, etc keys plus Enter for that stuff. Seriously, let the mouse go whenever you open ANY menu and you'll be fine. But the combat is like playing Mount & Blade with a mouse + kb, squared.
Queelag down. I summoned Nearly Naked Whatsherface to help, and that allowed me to Use Greater Heavy Soul Arrow and then Heavy Soul Arrow to mercilessly pound Queelag. I accessed the bonfire down there but returned to the swamp. There's still loot and some other places to explore there.
In my latest playthrough I forgot to rest at Quelaag's bonfire after killing her. Now I realise that I can't warp there with the Lordvessel. DARK SOULS
In other news, There's a lot of these little Dark Souls comics around. I find 'em pretty funny, but feel free to yell at me if you don't want me to keep posting 'em.
I was talking about the curved swords & daggers; that's where the super high damage is at for dex builds. Don't get me wrong; katanas are pretty damn cool... they're relatively quick, have good reach, and decent damage. But they don't need that much endurance, and their playstyle tends towards single strikes, or maybe pairs of strikes if you're lucky. The curved swords & daggers (specifically: falchions, painted guardian sword, and bandit's knife) have a radically different playstyle. Although you have to get kinda lucky to get in 6 strikes in a row on a boss, combos of 3 or 4 strikes are common. They put out more damage than any other weapon type I've experimented with so far, with the possible exception of a fully upgraded Dragon's Tooth. The downside is that you have to get *right* next to the enemy, and not only do you need the stamina for all the weapon swings, you also need stamina for the subsequent shield block or dodge. On top of that, if you occasionally throw a weapon buff on your weapon, the damage from all those strikes goes through the roof. But using curved swords definitely is not "easy mode"... the fact that you have to get so damn close to enemies presents its own challenges.
... oh shit I think I may have done this too. $#^@#$!!! I've been looking for the Smough & Ornstein one where they do like a parody of being perfect gentlemen and then stomp the hapless player into paste. So please do keep looking for'em, maybe you'll find that one. It's perfect. What do you guys think of the Greatsword? I like that it has a thrust attack, but then the Zwei's overhand has crazy reach AND stomps things to boot. Seems like an also-ran.
Still have some treasure down in Blight town but I got sick of it and left. Did get the firekeeper's soul. Upgraded the Eagle shield to +5. Got killed by the two serpentmen at the start of Sen's.
What is the overall consensus of 'just enough' Intelligence for a few utility spells? I have been investing in my Dex build a bit more, and now that he has enough Vit/End to cruise through most of the content I'm trying to figure out if I want to pump Dex past 25 or just keep pumping Int to eventually get CMW. Both? peacedog, use the trap!
The only utility spell worth using really is light, and I think that's 14 int. Everything else scales (and thus needs a lot of int) or is mostly useless.
It depends on what you want: 14 - Gives Hidden Body, Light, and Great Soul Arrow. (The Soul Arrow spells are handy throughout the game for the times where you can't shoot missile weapons over a ledge, but you can cast sorceries due to the higher angle of sorcery spells) 15 - Fall Control, Great Magic Weapon, Strong Magic Shield 16 - Remedy, Great Heavy Soul Arrow So.... shoot for 16 if you want all the utility spells (except CMW), or choose a lower number if you don't care about Remedy & Great Heavy Soul Arrow.
Actually, with the Dusk Crown, Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring, and the Oolacile Ivory Catalyst, the Soul Arrows remain viable right through to the end of your first playthrough.
Hidden body is useful as well, as it is more effective than the ring of fog albeit for a brief period. It also utterly defeats lock-on spells in PvP as opposed to the fog ring merely forcing them to be closer to trigger. Chameleon is a joy, and includes the bonus that they can't see what weapon you are employing, and it has some wonderful tactical options if you end up having to bait the other player. I don't much use the distraction spell and the repair spell is a joke. At 15 int, fall control is intermittently handy although frankly it really ought to be a ring because attuning it makes no strategic sense in most situations.
Strictly speaking, I did. Unfortunately, not in that way. Both snakemen did a jumping swingy thing, and I couldn't block it. It was because I'd been hit by an arrow. Whoops. Uh, I'm at 36 int. So I'll be able to pick up a couple of orby spells and soul spear when I get to logan. Getting spells from him is obviously my immediate priority, and I may burn some inventory souls to do it (I've got a bucket full). Hmmm, should I work to 44 for the Crystal Soul Spear next, or put my efforts elsewhere? I think I'm like soul level 48 now. I can see wanting another attunement slot soon. To be clear I'm at 4 slots.
Yeah but why waste a helm and ring slot for a single spell if you have a build meant for anything else? Counter productive. Keep that ring for your main choice of damage/functionality and use the helm for the poise IMO.
There are situations where it can come in really handy. For example, if you want to kill the titanite demon in Anor Londo while on the upper floor, only sorcery spells can shoot over the ledge. Also, in the Ornstein & Smough fight, after you've killed one of them, it helps to use sorcery spells on the survivor while he's on the other side of a pillar. (You can use regular missile weapons too, but they hit the pillar about half the time.) Also, Great Heavy Soul Arrows can one shot the skeleton dog beast things in the Tomb of Giants, allowing you to kill them without having to deal with their attacks. (You need to also wear the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring to sneak close enough to get a lock on them.) And so on.
You're all missing the salient point re: low-level offensive spells, which is that Dark Bead requires 16 so the answer is 16. The best utility spell is Cast Light, but if you're going to go to 14 you might as well go to 16 because Dark Bead is fantastic even at minimum stats with the Oolacile [Ivory] Catalyst, and whatever else you feel like dipping into at that point is up to you.
You have a long wait before CSS becomes available. You're probably better off raising vit/end/att for now or else upgrading your gear, although Logan's stuff is pretty expensive so you aren't likely to be exactly swimming in souls.
I ended my playthrough at around 36 INT and never got to the Crystal spells - then again, it's really about what *you* want to get out of the game. If you want more pewpewpew, keep pushing that INT. If you're digging the melee, you can't go wrong with more End.
You'll probably want some attunement. I have7 slots at SL127 and wish I had 8. Souls as Sens aren't hard to come by, just co-op the Iron Golem a few times. Surprisingly rich and since it's a choke point I got plenty of action.
To be clear, I do not recommend leaving int at 36--I say take it all the way to 50--but he's way ahead on int already since he hasn't even done Sen's Fortress yet.
Yea, powering INT that fast makes you a bit of a glass cannon. Lacking VIT/INT may make it difficult going forward.
Good god this thread grows fast. I stop reading it for a few days to actually play some Dark Souls, and then there are 10 new pages. About to wrap up my second playthrough as a strength focused pyromancer. This evening, I defeated the Bed of Chaos and got the last of the 4 lord souls, which convinced Quellana that I deserved her last pyromancy, so now I have the achievement for that. Pretty much the only thing left for me is to go to the Great Hollow and Ash Lake, though I don't know if I want to bother with them, since I botched Seigmeyer's story, and cannot get the slab. It might be nice to get some additional regular slabs from the Crystal Lizards, along with the Cloranthy ring, but I am not sure if I actually have any use for them. A +15 isn't that much more damage compared to +14, after all. Maybe it is time to kill everyone. If I wanted to do some PVP or co-op, where would you suggest I go? I think I'm level 75-80.
Got Priscilla's dagger on the first try. Now to finish this game up and get the rest in NG++. Though I'll need to get to Sen's to make Sif's last weapon, so it's not a quick one.
Man. I danced around S&O for a while and I'm pretty sure I got their measure. I took out Smough just to see if I could. Ornstein's faster though, I'll try that next time. He evades my Zwei pretty easily, so far. Super Ornstein pwned me in seconds, though. Hm. I tried getting summoned a few times; first time I got rolled, and the second we were doing pretty well with Super Smough, but I cannot get away from his buttwhomps fast enough, even if I get him staggered with my Zwei hit. Boourns. Left the other guy Smough at about 250-30%; wonder if he won? Still, this is progress, I think.
Cleared Bed of Chaos, but lost 88k souls doing so. I check my list and can't fight Gywn yet. I need that damn channeler trident, so I hoofed it back to the archives and am trying to farm them. I have 410 item discovery and haven't gotten shit so far. Grr.
With reasonable item discovery, I walked away with 2 slabs from the lizards alone. I think the run where you quit and reload to get the 5 lizards in one area (just youtube great hollow lizards) is really lucrative, although obviously it's more of a great haul early in the game. If nothing else, don't leave without the cloranthy ring, which makes heavy armor a lot less punishing to wear (see stamina recover vids). Ash lake is also a good source of dragon scales for maxing out a dragon weapon of choice. Anywhere in the new content is usually good through 110, and you might be in a good place for summons for Manus. I like Manus because then I can farm humanity while waiting to be summoned, although if you haven't searched the royal forest yet you can do that too to kill time while leaving your sign at the bridge. The kiln is usually good for most levels, as there are always lower level darkwraiths invading up and darkmoons invading down. You can always join the forest covenant and then try out all of your obscure weapons in successive invasions.
Best video I've seen in a long time. I especially like it when the first guy, a hacked or BB glitched character based on his gear, gets one-shotted, and I also really love how the legit low level sorcerer about halfway through makes a pretty good run at that balder knight. What's the deal with his feet?
Freed logan, but I'm at the bonfire by the roof of Sen's so no back tracking at this time. Note, I changed the boulder thrower and went back to talk to the Siegmeyer, but he didn't acknowledge that the way forward was clear. I take it I didn't miss something with the boulder roller?
In your shoes, I would just suck it up and backtrack. It's not that bad if you activate the elevator (it's a cage on a chain that runs from the a room you go through on your way to the boss to the first bridge in the level, and the key is at the bottom of the stairs by the merchant). The reason I say to backtrack is that it's only going to be more of a pain if you continue to move forward first, and you'll benefit a lot from having Logan's spells available when you get to Anor Londo. (Aside: did you get the Peculiar Doll from the Asylum yet? If not, might want to do that too.) You have to move the thing so that the boulders are going through the opening that just leads outside. I'm honestly not sure what happen to Siegmeyer after you do that--he might just stay there and not acknowledge it, he might just disappear--but in any case you don't need to talk to him again in Sen's Fortress. Just redirect the boulders and press on, and you'll meet him again in Anor Londo.
I wouldn't backtrack, I'd shortcut down. Shortcutting is easy, and if you freed Logan, what's the big deal?
