Dark Souls

Puttering around the DLC. Got through Royal Wood once to pick up all the stuff and try to see the New World overlaid on it, unlocked the shortcut, got to Artorias and got him to 50% on the first try. Guess he's not much against sheer physical (Large Club +15). Decided I didn't really want to do multiple attempts on this character and finally managed to summon some help. We made short work of him, although I still don't know what it is he does when he does one of the two charging things. I know one is when you're supposed to beat on him, and the other is not, but I don't know which one's which. :P Regardless, he went down easy and I passed his soul on to Ciaran.

Right outside - which I must say is a GREAT spot for PvP, because a) the bonfire is right there and b) it's unlikely you're staging a boss attempt - I got invaded and decided to stick around (spurred by the various PvP conversations going on around here :P). S/he was wielding a Great Scythe and I still had my heavy/Large Club on, so it turned out to be an overall fun - and ridiculous - fight, what with both of our moves so easily telegraphed. I think he ate two or three hits and died, got me once or twice too but my Leeroy armor saved me. Good times; pity it's the exception, but I *will* be sticking around for the next one to give it a benefit of doubt.

Then I had to wait for my heart rate to drop to something survivable and I found some sort of invader sign that I can use (that's a first) and dragon remnants (dragon dust? something like that). I tried to get the dragon but summoning failed - at least it fails for both invaders and helpers :P

Then made it through Oolacile and unlocked THAT shortcut and the starting Abyss bonfire, so I'll hopefully be wrapping up today. It's been ~60 hours and I still haven't warmed up to heavy weapons, so I'll be happy to just be done (the Kiln is open, just waiting). I might drop by the Painted World because at this point it should be relatively amusing to beat down those harpies that gave me so much trouble the first time, but mostly I'm looking forward to my next actual character (int/dex, light armor + katanas and other fast weapons probably). I'm so close to the end, it'd be silly not to wrap it up.

I did the Catacombs on my alt and man is it totally different with a divine weapon. And in a way it's a lot less fun; it's just a generic march forward and slaughter skeletons. On my first run I did it without divine, and it was a fairly tense and enjoyable affair.

Nah, you pretty much run past the same three guys and drop off the same two ledges no matter what weapon you have.

No way, those necromancers are going down every time. EVERY TIME.

Heh I haven't learned the shortcuts yet, so for me it was a matter of evading skeletal horde while hoping I can get to the next Necromancer vs. generic steady slog through skeletal hordes.

I got fairly lost in the Catacombs on my SL1 guy too, even after watching a video on how to run it (I had a divine weapon but was mostly running around like a maniac and not killing much). I managed to jump on a platform that still had the spikes up. I thought pulling the lever had lowered them, but I guess it did something else.

Last night I did some running through the Londo Ruins, which...yeah, I hate that place. I didn't die, but the way it's designed seems like a section of Doom Monster Closets, followed by the classic Oh It's Dark So That Means It's Challenging level design. Bleh.

Both the Black Knight Sword and Black Knight Halberd dropped immediately in the Kiln of the First Flame on my STR character. They never dropped prior. STR character.

DARK SOULS.

What a horrible evening last night was. I died and died and died like I never played the game before.

First was Havel as I wanted his ring. It felt like I was plinking him (whether I used reinforced club +5 or gargoyle halberd +5), other than the backstabs I was able to land, but even though I got him down to 25% he would find a way to get me. This went on for way too long and induced a rage quit or two.

Then I went to the Asylum to get the crest shield and rusty ring and died a bunch to the knight guarding the doll.

Down to Blighttown and turned human to fight Mildred. Saw a sign and touched it on a lark and it worked! We dispatched Mildred and Quelaag in short order. This was the only thing that went well for me.

Then I wanted to farm green shards for fire weapons and my divine halberd to make that trek to the catacombs. Die once to a damn leech.Throw my sign down by the bonfire and get summoned twice only to DIE both times (to me being a stupid ass, but still)! Gargh!

Want to go up to get power within and the laito. DIE! And I still forget how to get behind that stupid wall hugger. Oh, yea, one time I got stuck on the architecture and had to bone out, which sucks because I wait to kill those damn mosquitoes since they like to get up in my grill climbing the scaffold. Anyway, rage quit for the evening leaving a bloodstain by the wall hugger. Will use a map to figure this shit out cause I've done this game for far too long to be so ignorant of this part of the level.

The wall hugger can still kill you if you come from behind him and melee close up (I believe the path is available if you follow the ladder up to where you kill the toxin sniper), fwiw. I always use arrows.

For Havel I really think the best path for new characters (of no use to you now, but still) is summoning before Taurus and letting the other guy do the bulk of the damage. I've beat him with the puny backstabs and parries, and it's nice, but I'd rather just have my ring.

Something I've seen with my last couple runs is that if you never go through (or over) that fog gate in the Undead Burg you can avoid bringing the hellkite dragon into the game. I was being lazy yesterday and wanted to run to the firelink and went over the gate and ole fire breath made its appearance. Prior I had free run of the bridge by the parish. I figure the next time I want to go there I can warp in, if I have to.

Well, after my very successful soloing of Manus (2 tries) and an almost no-death run of Painted World (ran out of Blooms, was poisoned and got distracted by the undead dragon from watching my health bar; I probably could've made it, still had 7 flasks left and was moving fast), I had to give up at 5 attempts at Gwyn when attempts 4 and 5 got me killed by the (previously simple) black knights. Hopefully I wrap up this character tonight - then on to the next one! :D

Technically, the trigger for this is the Hellkite Dragon's first appearance on that bridge in Undead Burg. If you don't cross the bridge and see him there, he'll never show up in his main spot either.

I had avoided that, but he didn't make an appearance until I went over the fog gate. I forget how I got up there or what I was doing, but I was coming from the 'first' bonfire and didn't hear the fucker until I dropped down on that firebomb chucker (did not see the damn thing).

Wait, are you saying you crossed the bridge but didn't go through the fog door and he wasn't there, or that you went through the fog door but not over the bridge and he was there? Either way that's interesting. If you can make him appear on the big bridge without seeing him on the small bridge first, I wonder if the small bridge encounter will still trigger. Probably not, I guess.

I had crossed both bridges, big and small, but did not hear him make his appearance till I went over the fog gate. I am not interested in creating a new character to firm this up. I was avoiding the little bridge in the burg as I liked the big one empty. But as I went along I expected him to show up, but didn't, until I fell on top of that firebomb chucker right outside the fog door.

Ugh, that sucks. There goes any idea of playing a faith guy. Pure physical rocked Manus' world big time (40 STR). :D*

*apologies for the gratuitous emoticon, I'm still puffed up on that victory. This reduces the number of bosses I haven't soloed to uh ... 2? O&S, Artorias. Kalameet if you count him. Uh, I guess I haven't technically soloed Queelag yet, hah.

Manus is really hard if you're playing a build that doesn't happen to deal huge damage to him. I was shocked the third time I fought him or whatever it was when a boss that I had found to be a pushover in the past was suddenly very difficult.

Oh, I know. He'll probably destroy my next character if he gets in close, whereas on this one it was the only way to keep him melee'ing (which I could take) and in range of the club.

Also, raising Vit to ... 24? I think? really gives you a bit more leeway to take those hits when you miscalculate and run into his flailing attack and out of stamina. Well, when combined with Havel's, of course. ;)

Finished. Gwyn took like, 15 tries. I just could NOT figure him out with a heavy weapon. Everytime I'd commit to an attack, he'd commit to three and destroy me.

I finished him off with the parry tactic but by god I earned it. Every parry was *very* hard won out of the lunges, grabs and kicks that he kept sending in my direction. Hornet Ring helped a ton.

Gotta say, seeing my full Black Knight Armor + Large Club self in the cell (in NG) is pretty funny. It's like "well, I could bust out of here on sheer strength alone, but I *guess* could wait for this key to drop ...".

On to my nimble sorcerer build. :D

That was mostly my experience with Gwyn, too. Allegedly he can be staggered and walloped. I have not done any parrying so I've never tried that route. Mostly I tried to mitigate his flame attack as much as possible and whittle him down with the BKH. If you avoid the grab attack you can have enough time to gobble an estus, but I usually tried to get a pillar between us (though that's not foolproof). Anyway, I suppose I'm saying, fuck Gwyn.

Staggering is a function of using a high poise damage weapon. The BKH is a great damage dealer, but it has unimpressive effects on poise relative to a greatsword or (ideally) a club. The parry/riposte approach is certainly viable, but for me trickier than dodge/block with something like the dragon crest, or, ideally the black knight shield or better and then 2h r1 x2 with a high poise damage weapon.
For instance:

The way I beat Gwyn almost every time is with some kind of heavy weapon. What you do is cast Iron Skin as soon as you enter, block the first hit, switch to two-handed and alternate R1 and heal. It's very important that you hit the heal after every single attack even if you don't think you need it, because he'll probably hit you while you're healing anyway and if he does it might be with that combo that will kill you if you aren't at full health. Works like a charm.

I am enjoying the reinforced club. I cleared the catacombs and turned it into fire +5 and it owns pretty well. I only wish I got the mask of the child when I killed Pinwheel. Mask of the mother, feh.

I cleaned up blighttown and got all my loot. Did not realize the Iaito was 20 DEX. Opps. Got Pharis' bow, so maybe i'll upgrade that (DEX, that is).

Should have gone to the hollow for the cloranthy ring, but I forget. Not sure what to make my lightning weapon. I'm kinda enjoying the bleed effect that the club does in addition to its poise breaking.

Can he still grab while you're in Iron Flesh? Because if so that'd burn a lot of IF time...

I was able to stagger him on the 2nd 2handed hit; potentially doable to hit hit then heal on the stagger since he'd undoubtedly get a hit in too. Risky because of grabs again and a strong possibility of him just hitting hard enough to kill you.

I think he can also stagger if he connects first, adding more risk factor.

I'm not sure if he's ever done it to me. I think he has, actually, but it's not that big a deal. The fight is really short if you're using a hard-hitting physical weapon.

I've staggered him plenty but the problem is that the timing only has to break against you once to cost you the fight. I fought Gwyn for the first time in a long time on my strength character last week and I lost the first few attempts because I was getting greedy and going for staggers and whatnot. That leads to a lot of forty-second long fights where you get him to a quarter or a third of his health and then die. Once I remembered that you just have to heal after every attack, he went down easy.

Greed was definitely responsible for at least 5 of those attempts.

What are people's favorite fast/low stamina weapons?

Balder Side Sword, Estoc, Velka's Rapier. A lot of people also like the Bandit's Knife, Tracers, and Painting Guardian Sword, and maybe the Falchion has some proponents too. Most straight swords are fine but there's only one BSS.

I might try Painting Guardian Sword. I only ever got 1 BSS to drop in all my games.

Lame. Try again now, maybe they increased the drop rate along with the other stuff.

PGS deals a shitload of damage and is just absurdly powerful with CMW or whatever other buff, but the range is not an easy thing to get used to.

I love my +5 Fire Baldur Side Sword. Can't wait to find the large fire ember.

So I decided to take my Zwei to +14 last night. I had debated if I wanted to make it into a lightening weapon, and instead I'm going to level up the greatsword for that purpose I think, so I can go physical or elemental as needed.

iaito, bandit's knife, tracers, painting guardian, ghost blade for low level builds. The scimitar and falchion were largely made obsolete by the gold tracer, and they weren't that hot before. Unfortunately, I can't recommend either dex rapier unless you are going with magic/faith weapons all the way (like lingering ring and everything), because the base damage is so tied to long combos.

You mean the jagged one, or is the regular one having a renaissance too?

Well buffs, right? Also lower dex builds. I think the Falchion is strictly better than the Scimitar anyway. It isn't bad though. IIRC it's one of the fastest weapons; not as fast as the PGS for sure but on the plus side it has a reasonable range.

Yes, the jagged one. To be honest, I didn't even register until now that there was a difference between them except that I have tons of jagged blades and none of the other. I'll check again just in case, but I can't imagine farming banshees, that would be nuts. But yes, for a weapon that requires only 7 str the jagged does a lot of physical damage and has a really uncomfortable R2.

I like my curved fast blades with bleed, and all they had going for them was the moveset. Otherwise, losing kick just isn't worth it. I'm freshly traumatized from starting with a scimitar character recently, although I guess I haven't touched a falchion in ages.

Yeah. I only tried it on a higher-level character and it obviously kind of sucked in that context, but it does seem pretty compelling at lower levels based on the way you talk about it, especially the part where the low low low weight mean you can equip it as a backup and pull it out for a surprise stabbin' in PvP.

Well you'd probably hate it. I mean I don't really love it myself or anything, but it does have some things going for it. It is in sort of a weird niche though, because it expects you to be advanced enough to use a curved sword at all but not so advanced that you use the PGS or Gold Tracer like the pros do.

MEGA DARK SOULS

Speaking of PVP, I'm considering the idea of doing some reverse low level griefing. I'm thinking maybe level 15ish, reinforced club +14, or fire club +5, (for poise breaking, staggering) wolf ring, havel's ring and elite armor, maybe with some stone, dunno which shield, Balder if it can drop, and just hang around the parish and burg waiting to get invaded, then wallop them!

I'm thinking that killing Capra to get the LE will still enable 'burg invasions with Taurus demon alive. If I'm able to get this equipment it might just make me consider a SL1 jaunt.

Man, that must have been a downer. Apparently this is not uncommon... there is a solution which involves deleting your gamertag and re-downloading it from Xbox Live, then starting a new character. Shouldn't take very long to do it.