Summoning failed ... (but hopefully not). The summon help thread.

I'm still having mixed results with summoning. I'll chalk it up to my router which is not 100% GFWL compatible, though I've opened and forwarded my ports.

When you look at the xbl control panel within Dark Souls, under settings/network info, does it say your NAT is "open"? That's usually a solid indicator that the problem is not with you. I kept getting moderate with just the open ports, and then switching on UPnP manually on the router got me all the way to open.

I need to re-check that. Before I did port forwarding it did not say open. My router is an Apple, so it does not support UPnP, which is why I feel after this patch the onus is on the equipment.

That may be the great satan at the root of your problems. I hope someday you are able to get yourself a ddwrt compliant el cheapo router and join us. One step at a time, and soon Dark Souls will have you replacing every other aspect of your electronic infrastructure.

Doubtful. The other computer is a MacBook and I use TimeMachine so that won't be going away. Would all be easier if From jettisoned GFWL. I never had any multi-play issues with other games...

Yep, this happened to me. Wonder if it was the same guy? I lucked out though and ducked around him until I could get to the Gargoyles' Fog door, which booted him out. I counted it a win for me.

My luck has been the same tonight. That's disappointing.

Ok...

I'm going to need help with Knight Artorias on the Xbox.

Is there any weapon that isn't going to plink at him for a measly 45 damage? I have to dance with him for like an hour to whittle his health down to a quarter, only to blow it all on a few screw ups. :(

Heavy weapons and spells. What are you using? An hour is beyond extreme, all of my many failed attempts have been on the order of five minutes.

Please to be adding soul level, approximate build (for tactical armchair quarterbacking at least), and availability. Like, I could probably help right now but only two of my xbox characters are at Artorias already (XBL LIZRDKNG).

Having just beat him on SL1, I can understand your frustration. My +10 fire club was doing minimal damage, but was absolutely essential in breaking his poise when he was charging up (the reinforced club needs only 2 2h R1s to stagger Artorias). Beyond that, my primary damage dealer was an ascended flame +5 with great combust, combust. It does a fair bit of damage even though I cut the dusk crown in favor of the child's mask and the bellowing ring in favor of ring of wolf + Havel's (40 poise, not coincidentally, is almost exactly what you need to avoid being stun locked by his flip attacks). But the main reason to use Pyro is that it keeps you close (so you wait until right after he finishes a combo to blast him) and it uses no stamina, which means that judicious shield raising and dodging keep your guard up.

I can't emphasize how important staying close is to my approach. His worst moves (the dash, the flip attack, and the charge up) all happen if you let him get some ground between you. They may happen anyway, but I find them much easier to get out of the way of up close.

I

I've tried, Quelegg's Furysword +4, Magic Uchigatana +5, Raw Gargoyle's Halberd +5, Lightning Iaito +5. I'm running a Dex\Int build at SL50. Even my great combustion at +10 was chipping 60+ life off him, which had me spending more time dodging and not hitting.

I forget exactly, but my great combustion at +5 ascended was somewhere between 245 and 3xx depending on when I caught him and which item loadout I used. In general, you want to avoid elemental weapons as your primary damage dealers on the harder DLC enemies, as they are much more vulnerable to straight Str or Dex; Magic (upgrade) is quite underpowered as a path and you probably need the moonlight sword sooner rather than later.

Anyway, I can have someone in the area in about ten minutes it looks like.

Try it with the Crown of Dusk, the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring, and as many upgrades as you can swing. Maybe Power Within, too. As LK says pyromancy is great against him because you really need a lot of stamina to block and dodge. I like to knock him with a Great Fireball or two during his charge up and Great Combustions whenever possible.

50 might also be a little bit low for him, and so you could always go do other stuff for a little bit first and come back with more firepower.

Sorry, this is taking forever since all of my bonfires are no longer teleportable until I reset them.

Ok, I'm there, I'll put the sign in front of his door. (It's a sunbro sign)

I'll be on in 15.

Actually, is there going to be an issue with servers, since I like live halfway across the globe from you guys?

There shouldn't be, no, other than the usual DS shitfuckery. Ask the numerous inexplicably outraged Russians that pelt me with hate mail.

Well, tonight's attempt was a bust. Sorry LK. I think I have to set up my network around my house more effectively. Currently running my xbox through my PC and it occasionally has weird issues with the NAT and the router.

Instead, I'm going to go beat up on seath to get that sword I'll need.

I'm going to like a few random LK's posts I haven't already to say thank you for helping me beat down Artorias!

Nice. It actually ended up being almost anticlimactic in terms of the summoning hassle. I was bracing for another bunch of bullshit and after two summons from other people (including a three on one where we actually ended up stunlocking Artorias for the whole last third of his life bar) we hid the sign a little further away and it went smoothly. This was a PvP character with tons of souls so it was no big deal to prepare the +10 reinforced club I used to stagger Artorias out of his charge animation and add another attunement slot for the regular combusts.

How to you arrange summoning of intended friends?

1. Have friends on same platform, make sure soul level of intended summoner is within 10+10% of summonee's soul level.
2. Arrange location in level using landmarks, ideally near a bonfire or the like for easy re-syncing.
3. Wait near area, having potential summoner use either a bonfire/entering exiting zone to re-sync to P2p nets or having the summoner lay down his sign, pick it up right away, wait a minute, and try again.

The sign will show up eventually, and if you get summoning failed try laying it in a different location, and summoning there.

This sounds disastrous, but the cool thing is that once you are synced you can go back and forth until one of you quits out. So you can help each other with bosses back and forth, you can move to the next area and do it again, and so on. If you really get ambitious, one of the most enjoyable ways to get through NG+ the first time is to find someone just shy of beating Gwyn at your soul level and have them do NG+ with you. And then vice versa.

Thanks. Some friends are considering it but fear the gank.

Be not afraid. The key is finding summoning areas that are easy to access so it's not real frustrating to get back and forth. Fighting invaders and nerd raging against the loss of a 2 vs 1 makes it an entirely different kind of frustration. It's good if you make a low level character with a shitpile of humanity though (ie pushed through to the DLC content), in order to make it a painless start. If you don't have a shitpile of humanity but do have a low level character you feel would be suited for the noble burden of bearing gifts, shitpiles can be arranged.
Bonus points if you have them summoning in areas that invaders can't easily find or won't routinely search, so they wander around in frustration and leave of their own accord while you fumble with your white signs. Remember, even if they can't see you, they can hear you if you move or see health bars if you damage things.

Are you sure about this? The advice I'd read said that redeploying the sign was bad, and that you were best off just waiting until it worked.

Not that that's ever actually worked for me.

w/r/t summons: is it possible to summon specific people? Or is it just luck of the draw?

Yes, but unofficially. You have to coordinate a place, hopefully a bit out of the way, and then have the summonee lay down their sign while the summoner waits for it to show up. The summoner can expedite by using bonfires to refresh network connections or by putting down and instantly picking up his own sign. Then move it when summons fail and start again. Usually it works within 2-5 minutes, if both players on PC have their ports open.

That's true as a general principle, especially if you are looking for random multiplayer. But once you are in touch with someone and they have failed >1 to summon you, it's been my experience that you're better off moving the sign and starting again.

Ok, now that I'm back home, somebody should co-op Kalameet with me. PC, SL1. This is the only thing standing between me and Gwyn, and I'll be glad to get it done.

Yeah, NG+ is really throwing my wildly unevenly developed original magic character for a loop. Missing out on Logan's catalyst prior to going to NG+ was one of a series of pretty careless mistakes I made along the way. And adding the capability to use the Dragonslayer bow to her was probably one of the most unwise bonus decisions; you'd think I'd have at least gotten a washing pole or something to make it feel worthwhile.

OTOH, blasting the Anor Londo Archers off their perches never gets old.

Yes. Also true for invasions either way (as you'll find out quickly in an afternoon of Darkwraithing there). It's all about soul level.

My sorcerer may be in range. Need all but SG in DLC, Nito, Bed and finally Gwyn. I should be on tonight.

I'm right around there I think. I have Kalameet left, if you're around tonight or tomorrow.