Yes I did, which is what actually made me say that it shouldn't take that long. Pretty blown away by the guy's technique; it's not as if there's even a ton of sequence breaking - what 2, 3 times? - it's just that every single thing is planned and accomplished 100% perfectly.
I've gotten pretty fast at Duke's. Not any five minutes but maybe 15-20. The trick is running past basically everything. Also, as heroic as roBurky was we failed to connect. So if you did make it through....
I did manage to heroically die while assisting two other summoners, though! I'm not sure anyone would actually want me as a phantom buddy for Seath, as it turns out.
So the sif summon sign is in the boss room? I didn't even notice it, no doubt due to difficulties staying alive while Manus was wailing on me. I'm having trouble hurting him; I forgot to unequip the maggot for the fight, and also I'm now thinking I'll go back to a lighter equip load and maybe go with bellowing dragon quest. I have not tried dark sorceries on him; I was just using regular/crystal (crystal seemed extra ineffective, but maybe I'm mistaken). But yay for humanity farming. I'm at like 24 regular and 6 or 7 twin, when I was down to 6/2 at one point.
I'm poised for Four Kings, maybe tonight. I've tried twice just now to see if I could figure out their attacks, but I don't get them quite yet. The wiki claims "easily dodgable" but I scoff in their general directions - those swords are twice as tall as I am and they get swung in what seem like pretty large arcs. I tried Havel's kit but without his ring (RoFaP on one finger, Abyss on other of course) I'm just too slow and suffer from stamina deficiency. I think I have to lighten the load and maybe finally remove RoFaP in favor of Cloranthy so I can keep swinging. I'm using the Crest shield to block those magic blasts but I'm still not getting the timing down and keep getting knocked on my butt and most of my health gone. My last attempt was a Power Within one ... and I forgot that you can't use it while another "buff" is running. And of course Transient Curse was, invisibly, so I stood there like a moron with the flamehand, staring at it like I couldn't figure out what do with it. Pretty funny, but really confused me as to what was going on. Then I got run through with a 4K sword. Dark Souls.
That's weird... you actually can stack PW with other buffs (it works great with CMW, in fact). Maybe Transient Curse is special.
Man. Anor Londo is just a completely different experience with my second character. I thought the black and silver knights were meant to be impossible opponents - I assumed everyone tricked their way around them by some method or another, like I did with aural decoy. But this time I just smushed* them into the ground with a Zweihander. I feel like a god. *not smished
No, he's right, you can't stack it with other buffs, you couldn't stack it with Green Blossom either for that matter. CMW and the shield buff probably don't count as they apply to the item and not the person.
Once you clean out New Londo ruins and you're just doing a 4K run, I'd avoid using the transient curses. You can run past the two ghosts, drop down and take care of the dark wraiths before running past the ghosts in the church thing near the fog gate. Then pick the status effect of your choice (green blossom, hidden body, power within, etc). What is your build by the way? If you have sufficient faith the miracle great magic barrier works wonders.
Had Manos down to 5% and died. There was a PC summon sign, and it naturally took 5 minutes to get him summoned in but I did. and I finally located Sif's sign when the battle started. It was at 5% that Manos unleashed the spell where the orbs appear in a large ring and shoot inward. I fumble that every time; can I dodge it? Should I de-lock and try to block? It leaves me alive but with little health. Since he hadn't paid the least bit of attention to me in the previous minute, as soon as I got up I quaffed, and he naturally decided to come attack me then. :(
I don't think you can dodge or block it, but do you have the Silver Pendant? If you use that and time it right I believe it will protect you.
He has two attacks that are orb based, and if I recall correctly both the rain and the horizontal blasts are safe if you are right next to him. It's a great chance to land some hits, just make sure you have some stamina for the end of the attack sequence as he's probably coming in swinging.
I decided MEH and went to Demon Ruins instead. Surprise 1: Ceaseless Discharge was a bitch and a half to kill this time. The first time I've been through here I barely even noticed him as a boss. Tentacle slam, tentacle miss, double-whack with my Claymore, repeat, dead. This time? All Fire Breath in the face, all the time. Dead dead dead. Finally summoned help and we cheesed him into a spot where he'd clip his tentacle through the wall and we'd hit until he died. He's a rotten bastard cheater anyway - his Fire blast/breath attack clips through pretty much everything. Once again, the bosses are my least favorite part of the game. Sigh. Surprise 2: the taurus demonses down here are onetime only. I killed them all, died trying to get the lava ring (whatever the name is) and ... they're not back. I am ALMOST certain they respawned last time! Am I wrong, or was this patched out?
Those ones have never respawned. The ones on the other side of the level do, though. Also the thing in the lava isn't the ring, it's the Chaos Ember.
When you get the lava ring it's easier to get that loot, naturally. I'm sure there are way to get the ember without the ring, but I don't have the patience for that.
It's actually really easy: you just run and jump at it, you land right on top if it and then start mashing A and you'll pick it up before you die. I've gotten it that way every time I've gotten it at all and it's never been a problem.
That's what I did because I was almost certain it was the ring. :D Ah well. Now I know. Again. DARK SOULS!!! Picked up the Large Flame Ember and went back to Vamos to max out my Fire Zwei. I do like this thing, better than the Large Club. It has a larger "knock things on their ass" value, which I guess is a hidden stat. Even though the LC does more raw physical damage right now, the Zwei is just vastly more satisfying to use. Even the giant skellies in the Tomb are knocked on their ass. <3 Guess I'll be heading to Nito now, since I'm here. What are some other* good STR class A/S weapons? Are there even any S STR weapons? *since the LC is being meh to me.
It's not *that* hidden. I would worry less about the strength scaling than the moveset and the weight; in terms of damage, most of these weapons are within range of one another. My strength characters have a tough time getting away from the Black Knight Halberd, since it's a bargain at 34 strength and kills the shit out of everything, and it seems to be easy to get it to drop off that knight in the basin by the stamina shield. I strongly dislike Greatswords outside of that "bargain" range of the Gravelord/Obsidian swords, but ymmv.
Well let me see. First I have to know that it's poise that deals with making things falling on their ass (where there's plenty of magic effects that do the same, so it's hardly just being hit). Then you have to know the poise-breaking effect of your weapon - which apparently is only listed on this wiki? It's not an in-game value that I can see. How did they get those numbers? Finally, you'd have to know the amount of poise each and every one of your enemies has in order to know whether your weapon will break it or not. So yeah, I'd call that pretty hidden. :) 2 attempts at Nito tonight. I had forgotten how annoying Tomb of the Giants is; I think maybe I blocked it from memory the first time around because dayum - it's annoying as all hell. I picked up what I could see, but there's no way I'm going to try and go for the few glowies that are out of immediate and vaguely obvious reach; this place sucks. At least I got the crystal lizard in Nito's hallway :P First attempt at Nito was awesome - after I dropped I had about 15% health left. I start chugging without even thinking, because the bosses typically give you a moment. Guess what? The scream is SIMULTANEOUS with my chug. Red sword stab just as I finish chugging (the health doesn't kick in until the chug has ended), instakill. So that was almost a controller flinger. Second time around, I wait a heartbeat before chugging and of course he doesn't do the scream hardly at all. I get him to 50% and by this time (I've done 2 4K attempts, Demon Ruins to get all the embers, Discharge, a trip to Vamos and finally this) I'm pretty tired so this was just pure sloppiness. The Fire Zwei is hitting him very nicely so I figure 2-3 more tries (to allow for freaky instakills or aggroing the giant skellies which I've done before :D) and he's a goner. Now, rest.
Demon's Greataxe is the only S one I think, but I wouldn't really call it good. IMO the best weapon with good strength scaling is the Black Knight Greataxe even though it's only B, and the other best weapon for a high strength build is the Black Knight Halberd even though it's only D. BK weapons just have such high base damage that the scaling doesn't have to go as far.
From painstaking testing. Poise damage is completely hidden. Also, breaking poise doesn't cause things to fall down, it just staggers them. Knockdowns are mysterious indeed, and I believe that it just is a hidden property of certain weapons.
I really do hate the Capra Demon, or at least the room it is in. It's up there with Bed of Chaos with my least favorite boss.
I didn't have a problem with the Capra Demon because I cheesed him by running past him and onto the arch off the top of the stairs where he can't hit you. Like many fights in the game, it can kick your ass mercilessly until suddenly it doesn't.
I don't know if I ever knew that tactic. I will try it. I mostly have resigned myself to the fact that Capra Demon in the lower Undead Burg is going to be one of those things that give me problems, at least on NG where I don't want to skip the depths. Dark Souls. I suspect that by the time this character is on NG+ I'd be able to smite it in two blows.
I'm pretty terrible at blocking and counterattacking, or even dancing around guys like the Asylum Demon, so any boss fight where I win easily is pretty amazing. Except for the Gaping Dragon. That guy is a joke and should be embarrassed.
He is for sure, but you should really try fighting him early on some time if you haven't already. Not that he's super hard or anything, but it's something to experience. He's actually harder than the Taurus Demon I'd say, if you fight him at the low levels he's apparently intended for.
With my faith character I did fight him pre-Anor Londo. I forget how far along I was, though. Don't recall if I backtracked from Sen's or did it pre-Sen's too.
Like this, but I just stayed up there and firebombed him to death. If you stand in the right spot, he keeps running up the stairs and jumping down. If you're decent at the falling stab attack, like the guy in the video uses, it will go a lot faster.
In the PC version, he can walk right on to that perch and whale on you, so it's not as safe as you'd like to think. It has happened to me on two characters, so I've stopped using that tactic.
It works fine if you have a decent shield. He'll get on the ledge and then fall off, usually after one 1h whack at you. If he does his 2h shieldbreaker he generally goes right off into space and misses completely. I generally go in with a dragon crest shield at +3, which is what the amount of twinkling titanite available from the first two lizards gets me. Mainly, going on the ledge gives you an easy way to kill the dogs after running past them as well as the plunging attacks for people holding off on serious weapon upgrades because they don't feel like backtracking. I wouldn't give it up without a pyro or magic character to fill up the damage gap.
Having trouble duplicating the Duke's Archives shortcut; my 2 attempts have had me overshoot the elevator and fall all the way down. After thinking about it more on the way to work from a doctor's appointment, I realized it's because my fighter is probably a unit or two over 25% encumbrance.
Well, not sure what to tell you, but I've had him stand there and do his big 2H swing, hit me, and not fall off. I've also had him do multiple attacks without falling off. Maybe it's luck, but it's still not 100% safe to be up there.
Nothing is 100% safe, I just don't know where else in the level is safer as a means of getting around him the first time, clearing out the dogs. I suppose a more dynamic running in circles could work, but it just never seemed necessary to me once I accepted that getting that shield to +3 was a shortcut past all the first early bosses.
Yep, I've even seen the video where someone tries to demonstrate this and gets hit repeatedly with the overhand swing that hits him as the Capra falls down. So pretty dangerous still. That's what I always do, the dynamic running in circles. He pauses at the top of the stairs to drop down *whack*, drops down *whack*, follows *run away*, swings on the stairs *dodge, whack*, repeat the circle. I've gotten pretty darn good at it, to the point where he's just a short stop on the way down. So far this run hasn't changed things much, except that Discharge suddenly turned impossible. Dark Souls.
