Following a bit of discussion in the Gear thread on the DS subforum, I made a bit of plan for tonight and so far, so good. Joined up with the Forest folk to get all the katanas. Two attempts at Sif, with the subtitle of Wherein I Realize How OP Sorcery Really is. Clear out the forest (prior to joining) and get Pharis' bow which is just <3, and grab the Enchanted Ember which shall be <3 a bit later. Head to Blight Town via Firelink and I realize the cleric dipshits (sorry, the one that goes Mnm mmm gets on my nerves, knowing what I know about hollowing) are there so ... I hatch a quick plan. The plan succeeds. Both the cleric escorts and Petrus are gone, Reah remains. I suspect she'll go on anyways, but it makes ME feel better about myself. :D I go on to blight Town and nab some Green shards, and I'm in the middle of heading back when I get summoned. Guess I forgot I did that, but what the hey - we're doing good but he gets caught in the explosion and dies while I'm waaaaaaaaay back (that would be the bit about sorcery being OP) blasting. Ah well. Now I have to stop by Rickart and Andre to get some upgrades, then on to either Sen's or Catacombs. Man. I swear, sometimes I spin my wheels and sometimes it just GOES LIKE VOOM. Ah hell. You know you're lame when you get summoned to Queelag and ... the summoner is in NG. :( (I'm in game zero).
Cleared out Sen's, cleared out Ash Lake, cleared out Catacombs, upgraded a bunch of weapons in anticipation of Anor Londo. Will probably head to Catacombs to join the Gravelord Covenant (why not) until I Darkwraith, and then over the wall time. Reah is still in Firelink by herself. I wonder if I saved (i.e. broke) her by assassinating all of her "helpers". I need to get the 27k souls I need for sin absolution and see if I can go talk to her. Hmm, what's a good spot for straight soul farming ... Darkroot, probably?
I like the 11 dark wraith run. It is pretty quick and you get tons of upgrade materials and a decent amount of souls. 10kish every however it takes to run. 3 runs you should have it. Maybe 2 if you have silver ring and or chest head.
Hrm, if you're not in Anor Londo yet then I duno. Probably Darkroot, beyond the Astoria door. I've been soulfarming Anor Londo lately; put your sign down by the last fire (because the bosses are worth 25k when you coop them) and then go kill 4x Silver Knights and the two big guys.
This is not a bad idea, as I could actually clear out New Londo before I go over the wall. It's still flooded for me; sounds like a good setup. I like this too, especially since it'll give me practice on the Law Firm; I'll keep it in mind for the next upgrades run.
Looks like you can't use the Darkwraith run prior to Anor Londo. Ingward won't hand over the key until you have the Lordvessel, and this character isn't a murderer. :P
Well, maybe you can't because of scruples, but for clarity's sake you can do this if you just kill Ingward. It wasn't a good enough reason for me to do that either, but once I found out that you could just shoot him dead and get the key and skip the super-annoying parts of that level I made peace with it.
Once again, "you can't" is misused relative to the Dark Souls population at large. If you can't kill Ingward, you probably won't be much of a darkwraith, either.
Yes, correct, but the maker of the poll has chosen to include all RPGs made in Japan. I didn't make the rules and I don't agree with them, but if Dark Souls is eligible for an award Dark Souls should win that award.
I dunno. More often than not, if you kill NPCs you mess yourself up. Isn't it somewhere upthread where we're berating people for expecting to have access to stuff if they kill someone important? Certainly with my knowledge I could do it but every one of my characters has some basic rules, just like you guys have your SL1 runs. This one's is not to kill "harmless" NPCs. Yes though, you're right. I should've said "I can't".
Yeah, that is true. It's more about informed decision-making, though. You should find out beforehand what you're going to lose access to if you kill an NPC, weigh the pros and cons, and not complain about it afterward if you do decide to kill them. In Ingward's case I think what you give up (access to a few curse-related items) is worth a lot less than what you get (Very Large Ember, great farming spot for chunks, early access to Kaathe and by extension the darkwraith covenant and Dark Hand, skipping one of the most irritating parts of the game), but ymmv as always. For what it's worth from a lore perspective, Ingward (along with the other two sealers) is responsible for the deaths of every single person who used to live in New Londo. Maybe it had to be done and maybe it didn't, but the case can be made that he's the very least harmless of all the NPCs in the game, including the mustache-twirling ones.
Point. Well, 3 attempts at Law Firm tonight, no nearer an understanding of what to do. OTOH, very tired tonight, probably not helping. ... maybe I'll grab Solaire and if victorious call it a "qualified" solo. :P
I don't really consider it an RPG either. Anyway, I disagree, because there are *actual* JRPGs that deserve to win.
If you're trying to play through with no summons, that fight increases in difficulty more than any other probably. The difficulty shifts from the second part of the fight to the first. You have to really focus in on one of them but also be constantly aware of your surroundings so you can avoid attacks by the other and not let yourself get surrounded. Besides that, you want to just kill your first target as fast as you can, even if it means pouring all of your magic into them. After that it's not that bad. Bows and crossbows are your friends for the second part of the fight.
Basically what extarbags said. I think - though I've never tested this - that the theory is that you need to make use of the terrain to separate them. Smough moves surprisingly quickly, but Ornstein is still faster. I'd suggest targeting Ornstein and making sure you're always aware of where you are in relation to Smough. Whenever he gets nearby break off from Ornstein and run away.
The only way I was able to reliably avoid Smough's charging attack (the tracking one where he slams the hammer down and then steamrolls you) was to stay near a broken pillar and put it between us when he started to do it. Works fairly well for Ornstein, too, though many of his attacks will go over and past the pillar to hit you.
Yep, to solo them I just focused on Ornstein and used the pillars to keep Smough away. With a +10 Zweihander taking down Ornstein first isn't too bad, since it stuns him and gives you a chance to get away and reposition yourself. I found the second phase of that fight harder because I would run out of patience, try to attack twice and get one-shotted.
Yeah once you have it down to just Smough it's mostly a matter of executing well. Don't get greedy, just patiently chip away at him.
What worked for me was to lock on to Ornstein while attacking Smough. It sounds goofy, but the worst thing that can happen in that fight is losing sight of one of them. Smough is slow enough and a big enough target that it's easy to hit him without locking on; Ornstein's mobility is a huge danger. My goal was to keep Smough in between us at all times, which worked surprisingly well! I've also never fought MegaSmough because of this strategy. I should try that at some point.
Agreed. I don't think either Mega form is particularly worse than the other (I've seen MegaOrnstein a few times as a summons). Both get crazy reach and a big nasty AOE.
Yeah, it's actually Smough that keeps getting me. His lock-on hammer sweep has a huuuuuuge range, and he can do a sideways leap that's huge too. And of course if he hits, the get-up animation from it takes FOREVER and then Ornstein stabs me of course. I'll have to try this. In the plus side, Anor Londo bonfire is freaking hopping. There's pretty much a 100% chance that if I reverse hollowing I will not be able to do anything else until I deal with an invader. Sadly the networking is just as borked for summoning people to help as always. :/ But yeah, can't hardly see the floor for the summon signs all over, so if I get tired of beating my head against this, the exit should be relatively easy to accomplish. Did beat them down as a summon, but there were 3 of us. Not really much of a contest, even if the summoner did get hammer-flung once or twice.
Anor Londo is a great farming location, as I've mentioned. Plop a sign down at that fire, go kill some Silver Knights and the two big dude. Rinse repeat. Helping out with the Law Firm is worth 25k souls, and if you get someone who needs to be run through the back half of the level (as I did recently) it's easily another 25k for maybe 10 minutes of effort.
I used this to great effect. I never had a good strategy except to keep away from both, and that just plain doesn't work. This did, very well. I also got way up close and personal with Smough to get some nice bleed effect off with my Enchanted Washing Pole (30 int so far, as usual my spread isn't as focused as I'd like - but then hey, washing pole :P). After a while of being almost in his face (well, manboobs at my height, I guess) I got a little more comfortable with it and finally started to read some of the attacks better. Then it was just a matter of staying focused and whittling him down. Mega Ornstein was pretty easy after that. He hits hard sure, but it seems like he's far more content to stay at range, and close more slowly (no more of those zippy fast moves or spear lunges). Since that's the case he's just Soul Arrow fodder. Eagle shield seems tailor-made for this fight, too. The stability meant blocking is hugely viable, and the lightning resist helps on both stages. Off to the Kings, New Londo drained and cleared of loot. Oh yeah, I got a Very Large Ember to deliver now, don't I? Ok, that first.
So I started a new character and I figured since it's no longer my first playthrough, I might as well move discussion from the noob thread to the main thread. Anyways, it's pretty amazing how easy the first part of the game is when you know what you are doing. I went from start to ringing the Parish Bell in one session, without dying once -- or at least not dying unintentionally. Now admittedly, I decided to get the Drake Sword this time so I was doing large damage to those Bell Gargoyles, but still. I think I killed the Taurus Demon in three hits, because I knew to use a Gold Resin infused Battle Axe with a plunging attack. I think now that I've rang the first bell I'm going to switch off from the Drake Sword and switch to the strength weapon that I plan to ascend first. Any favourites? People here like the Halberd and the Zwei right? Also, thanks to Lizard_King for the tips on getting the Dragon Crest Shield early and boosting it to +3 quick via the two early Crystal Lizards. I'm sure that shield was also what helped me beat the Bell Gargoyles so easily.
I kinda love the great axe now, but it has some huge down sides and isn't for everyone. And it's tough to use against quicker enemies and bosses. And it seems terrible in PvP. But hilarious single hit damage.
I'm actually really liking the normal Battleaxe..boosted to +10 with 32 STR I'm doing very good damage (not Great axe damage, but I also recover quicker when I whiff). If I parry-riposte the hollows by the Church across from Andre, first hit is about 97 and the finisher does 616; regular 1h R1 hits against them range around 250-350. I also just made a Divine Battleaxe +5 and it kills the graveyard skeletons in two hits.
I got a Black Knight Shield drop off the knight in the Asylum! I used the titanite I got from Snuggly to upgrade it instead of my Crest shields. This puppy is going all the way to the end with me. I just wish I didn't have to wait until Anor Londo to upgrade it more.
Hmmm? There's nothing in Anor Londo that's required to upgrade the Black Knight Shield; it uses Twinkling Titanite, so +5 is as high as it goes. And that +5 is available to you right from the get-go. All you need is more twinkling titanite. Sure, you can buy more from the giant blacksmith in Anor Londo, but it's so exorbitantly expensive that I vastly prefer either farming it from the clam things in Seath's cave or doing the exit/reload trick to kill crystal lizards. BTW... if you're so inclined, there are something like 8 crystal lizards in the Great Hollow, which is available to you well before Anor Londo. They're damn near impossible to find on your own, especially since they don't all spawn at all locations in any given session. But with the magic of youtube videos on the subject and the exit/reload trick, all 8 juicy crystal lizards can be yours for the low low price of about 15 minutes.
Yeah, I meant the blacksmith. Those clam things aren't until long after I reach the blacksmith no? I only need 6 more pieces. Now that is a good idea. Hell, doing that, I could upgrade it before killing Quelaag!
Well, they're two zones after the blacksmith, if you choose to do those zones first. I'm not sure if that qualifies as "long after" for you. But at 8k apiece, you'd be saving 48k souls if you hold off on upgrading your shield until then. Alternately, you can farm the clams in Ash Lake. They're not as conveniently located as the clams in Seath's cave though; I wouldn't want to farm them, that's for sure. And if you choose to farm them, that means you've lit the bonfire down there.... which means you would have to climb up the Great Hollow to get out. Definitely *not* recommended. There's one other option that I can think of: there are two crystal lizards in the Catacombs, which you can, of course, do at any time. The problem is that they're not in one of the areas accessible by shortcuts; you'd pretty much have to properly do all the catacombs to get the lizards. Personally, I really dig the Catacombs and usually do it all on every playthrough. But there's no real reason to; I rarely use any of the loot I find there, and it's not a real good source of souls, either. On the other hand, I get to crunch skeletons with my divine weapon which is usually made from a large, powerful weapon. It's a super fun change of pace for any non-strength characters. Word of warning about the crystal lizards in there: their spawn rate is much wonkier than the other crystal lizards in the game. Even though all the lizards shown in the youtube walkthroughs exist, only 3 or 4 will spawn for any given playthrough. (Throughout all my playthroughs I've collected all of them, but on any given playthrough I only get 3 or 4.) Even the exit/reload trick doesn't always make them spawn. If you're determined to get all 7 or 8 of them, you're in for a frustrating time.... and nobody seems to know what governs their spawn rate in there.
The Hollow crystal lizards are a solved problem. 5 of the spawn points are pretty much fixed, and you can get them to come back with one or two reloads at the most. 6-10 are in the long hallway area, and I find just standing in the balcony where 2 of them can spawn and reloading with the occasional jog up the hallway and back as the best way of getting them to come back efficiently. It rarely takes more than ten minutes in total. I recommend wearing the gold covetous ring, the fog ring, and <25% armor for easiest maneuvering on some of the trickier logs. It's 20 twinkling titanite, guaranteed, I typically get from 1-3 titanite slabs (ok, I only got three once, but it still counts). If you don't have the gold covetous ring, then at least 3 soft humanity is a good idea as that provides a good cost-benefit on boosting the chance of rare drops.
Prior to vacation I blitzed to Gwyn because I wanted to smash his face, but now that I'm back I switched to a backed up save and am taking my leisure to wrap things up on my vit/end/poise/elemental guy. I ended up having to re-do Nito and farming for the Child's mask. I farmed some chunks in the Kiln (regular and red), then I soloed (with Sif, shut up) Manus (no signs around), and summoned a couple for Kalameet. I wasn't going for the obsidian greatsword, but I should have, and was lucky someone chopped the tail for me. Holy crap that's a good sword for this guy. I should have done that hours earlier. I upgraded that to +4 and was 2 scales short of +5 so I traded snuggy and killed the undead dragon in the valley to do that. Then I figured for shits and giggles to kill the gaping dragon to see how easy that was as SL 84 in NG with full havels and a +5 lightning weapon (pretty easy). Then I figured to kill Priscilla and that was easy. I was lucky to murder Gwyndolin on my first shot (I tend to suck at dodging the magic attacks) and turned Anor Londo dark. At this point I decided to go full monster and kill all the NPCs. Eliminated each smith, Oswald, Ciarin, Domnhall, Griggs, Petrus, Laurentius at which point it was late and I quit. There are more NPCs than I really remember if you enumerate them, so I might quit after Chester and Gough. I got Vamos' helm, but no one is really dropping anything interesting to be this big of a sinner. I was invaded 3 times during this spree and went 1-2. I should have been 2-1 as I got one guy down to a sliver (yay stun locking reinforced club) before my stamina ran out and I got stupid confident. This guy had the dragon's tooth and walloped me twice. The other time was in the Kiln while farming and I was stupid and fell off the edge (by where you summon Solaire). The one I beat, funny enough, happened in Anor Londo after I murdered Gwyndolin and broke the illusion. Didn't know that could happen (they were red, not blue).
Started a DEX build, so tell me about them. I guess katanas, scythes, tracers, bows and crossbows are the order of the day? Never paid much attention to DEX stuff. This is probably my last pure stat build. I am considering investing in some magic, utility spells and up to great magic weapon (so 16 INT). Worth it?
