Seriously? You accused me of "cowering in a nerd rage fetal position" for calling a one-hit death invasion "bullshit". You then went on to basically call me an idiot and tell me in the most patronizing manner possible that "perhaps this game is not for you". You also tossed in a dollop of "Who do you think you are that you're ENTITLED to anything?" I was a little passive-aggressive towards you after that. I didn't insult your family's honor. Calm down.
Another great tip is that when other people respond to your queries, questions and ruminations, say, on a forum somewhere, you can actually acknowledge those answers you found helpful in some kind of positive way. Or you can keep posting about yourself since you're only playing Dark Souls in order to get to the end asap and reeeeeally can't be bothered to find out how shit works since you're not going to play it again, ever, probably.
I guess I didn't explicitly say it, just sort of assumed it was implied by me having taken the advice and used it for summoning Soltaire and a coop player. In any case, thanks for answering that question. Took a lot of the frustration out of that encounter. Now I just need to find a summon for help getting through New Londo. Such a nice start to a post, with a dick flourish at the end. I don't see anything wrong with people who sink 300 hours into a game like this (or any game). If they have the time and the inclination and are enjoying themselves, awesome! I'm just not that guy. I'm working my way through the game and finding out how shit works and enjoying it. I can understand how you'd think I was just trying to bum rush the end since I used the phrase "power through", but I meant more that I was just going to deal with the consequences instead of restarting from scratch. I might rely a little more extensively on a guide from here on, but that's mostly just to figure out what my next move should be instead of wandering around aimlessly.
Next move is to acquire the 4 lord souls in whatever order you so desire. But. fuck spoilers man, when you get to Bed of Chaos read the wiki, watch some youtubes, and get that shit right before you do it, cause even then it sucks. I hate that boss.
So now that I'm in Blighttown, I'm noticing a major increase in enemy toughness. Is the intention at this point that I make more use of riposte / backstab in order to drop them?
Jibble, the point made was that starting over doesn't mean you'll need to spend the same amount of time with the game. In the long run you might end up spending less total time getting to the end by restarting than trying to push through with your first character. No joke, you can probably get back to where you are in the game in just three or four hours on a second character. The entire game from start to last boss can be done in about an hour as a speed run video has shown. The time it takes isn't due to the amount of content it's the learning required. Once you know what you're doing the time it takes to get through the game is cut drastically and you become considerably more efficient in nearly all aspects of it. If your only goal is to kill the last boss and see the ending you're missing out on a big part of the game, particularly as it's very difficult to experience everything the game has to offer on a single playthrough. These games are about the journey not just getting to the end so you can move it from your "unplayed" to "played" pile.
Also I guarantee that if Jibble just blitzes the end, he'll be disappointed with the game, as it's not exactly a game with a rewarding ending (unless you've played it a ton and examined every little aspect).
True, though I'd recommend just looking up some lore information if you want to make sense of the ending and the impact of your choice(s), unless you really find that sort of detective work rewarding. There's just so much going on that are such tiny details (like where you find particular items) that trying to track it all in a single play through is nigh impossible. Enemies scale up somewhat significantly in Blighttown, this is particularly noticeable if you've been using the Drake Sword as that weapon is a little over powered for how early you can get it giving you a bit of a false impression of the difficulty. The Drake Sword really starts to show it's age at this point and upgrading something else becomes pretty important. You can get through Blighttown with it and get to the next weapon that's somewhat over powered for when it's available but it's a bit rough. This is sort of your cue to start considering bailing on the Drake Sword and start looking at other weapons.
I feel like I'm just pissing in the wind at this point, and I'm sure many of you do as well. I'll keep further complaints to myself, ask questions if I feel the need to, and otherwise leave it as a means of helping get new people initiated into the game.
Not necessarily. Hundreds upon hundreds of hours into the game, I still can't parry for shit. What it does mean is that you're through with the extended tutorial and you're going to get new challenges in almost every area from now on, so it's time to start stepping up your game vis a vis learning your opponents' moves and working out viable strategies for each of them, as well as staying on top of upgrades and other build-related choices.
It's also a good point to start finding out new and interesting ways to kill things from a distance. I'm like extarbags, I can't parry for shit either.
Ability to parry is directly related to how familiar you are with the enemy's moveset. You won't ever get 'good at parry' in some general sense, but you will get good at parrying particular enemies.
Not sure there really is a wrong ending, you never really find out the consequences of either, and neither is really good or bad.
I haven't used the Drake Sword in several hours; currently I've got a +7 gargoyle halberd. :) I'd like to take it further but I haven't seen any large titanite chunks in a while. :(
Oh, well that should be fine for quite a little while then. There is definitely an increase in enemy strength in Blighttown, expect that increase to continue.
You want large titanite shards. The leeches on the left side of brown as you come in are a great source with as little as 1-3 humanity to boost your item drop. Once you kindle the lower bonfire you can just stay poisoned and keep killing them by using estus as needed. This farming run is a big part of why for optimal situations I advocate a combo of the fog and rusted rings; alternately a +5 light crossbow absolutely demolishes leeches and mosquitoes from range.
Seconding that. Dropping mosquitos with a bow became second nature after my first few times through there. Just keep in mind that poisoning isn't so bad, so long as you keep an eye on your health. The Rusted Iron Ring, though, is a little off the beaten path. Not tough to get to so much as it's hidden behind a couple of "secrets". That one was worth looking up, in my opinion, but I'll leave that call to you.
Bows serve an extremely important secondary function in Blighttown: using the zoomed-in crosshairs, you can examine your surroundings in detail. Especially surroundings up ahead where you haven't been yet. (Binoculars can also give you this functionality, of course.) Blighttown is the first zone (although not the last, by any means) where it's super helpful to just stop and look around a lot. Like... a lot. When I play through new areas (or even do certain familiar areas that are tricky, like Blighttown) I spend about half my time just looking. It's kinda weird, because Dark Souls feels & plays like an action fighting game in a lot of ways. But treating it like a Splinter Cell stealth game in some respects can be really helpful. Not that you can actually stealth, exactly, (although you kinda can when you get the Fog Ring and/or the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring) but studying your surroundings in minute detail can be surprisingly helpful. Necessary, even. Actually, blighttown isn't a terribly good time to use parry/riposte, even if you're good at them. Here's a breakdown of the enemies you face there: Infested barbarians: Giant guys with clubs. Parry/riposte is OK on these guys, but if you fuck up you're in for a world of hurt. It's much better (and easier) to just dodge their attacks. That doesn't mean "roll", usually. It means positioning yourself (usually with your shield up) so that you're not in the spot that their club hits. Because they're so slow, backstabs are great for these guys. But remember to keep that shield up while circling them in case you mess up the timing. And also remember to lower your shield at least 1 second (2 is preferable) before doing a backstab. =) Ghouls: These are the guys swarming the upper area. Parry/riposte is a terrible idea for these guys, as is over-relying on your shield, since they have a jump/grab attack that goes right past any of your defenses and does a ton of damage. (and often causes you to fall off the walkways when you get up!) For these guys the trick is all about being aware of your distance from them, and whenever you're in strike range of them (i.e. in range for their grapple attack) you should be swinging your weapon to interrupt whatever they're trying to do. They have terrible poise. Crag-infested spiders: Walking flamethrowers. Just swing your weapon whenever you're in range of them and you should be fine. If you're not swinging, then they may flame you, and your shield won't help much with that. Blowdart guys: These guys are assholes. They blend in with the background, and they shoot toxic darts that can kill you toute suite if you're not blocking with the spider shield. There's no trick for these guys, other than "block their darts with your shield" and "kill them asap". Once you get close to them, they're super easy to kill with melee weapons. Easier said than done. Killing them with missile weapons is often viable, especially since they stagger if you shoot them in the head. Of course, the downside to that is that you're open to their darts if you don't stagger them. Edit - As jibble reminded me, these guys don't respawn when killed. So when you see one, go all out to kill him. It'll be worth it. (The satisfaction alone would make it worth it.) Mosquitos: Small, annoying, can easily kill you if you don't deal with them. While you're up in the wooden part of the zone, mosquitos are best dealt with by a missile weapon (if you spot them far enough away) or with a quick melee weapon if they're already in your face. They're surprisingly hard to fight with melee, so use missile weapons whenever possible. Also, it helps a ton if you use a weapon that has an overhead chop, since that will hit them when they're buzzing around just underneath a floor. Your gargoyle halberd should serve you well here. Actually, to be honest, your gargoyle halberd will serve you well pretty much everywhere. It's an awesome weapon. It has a great moveset, and it has excellent damage per swing, plus it swings relatively quickly. It's generally considered one of the best weapons in the game. Plus it gives you resistances, which is even better! Edit - Fixed a ton of typos. Looks like my inner spastic teen came out to play.
I killed the butterfly-moth thing in the forest today! It took a few tries, but I managed it in the end. On the upside I'm a pro now at fighting stone statues from having to kill them every time to get to the tower. I'm still on my quest for a nice weapon, Estoc is still a bit hit and miss for me. I did a suicide run over the bridge to get the Claymore, and I'm liking that a lot. I've upgraded it to +2 which feels more powerful then Estoc at +6 (really wish I'd left it at +5) I went back to the Depths, found the Spider Shield and killed the Giant Rat from up there with my magic, easy as pie. Tomorrow I'll tackle the Gaping Dragon.
I don't want to be a jerk, but there's only one you really need to come across if you skirt around the left edge, and you can probably run past that one. :-) What are your stats and how do you find yourself playing? That would help what weapon to use.
Upgrading your Estoc to +6 lets you now upgrade it to +10 at leisure if you change your mind, so don't fret the upgrade. :) Claymore is a great weapon overall and yes, the base attack is much higher. The downside is the time it takes to swing it, of course - but if you're liking it now then upgrading it to +6 asap will definitely not serve you ill. I finished my first game ever with an Enchanted Gargoyle Halberd (despite the magic weapon haters, it did just fine for me :P) and a Lightning Claymore.
To add to this. In general there are a lot of opportunities to run past things or to avoid things once you know a level and know where you're going. There are various places in the game where you might get stuck on a boss or a roof or some other thing and the ability to run back to the part you are stuck at as quickly as possible will save you a lot of frustration. So if you ever find yourself in that situation, look around or trying dodging/running past or whatever, you'll be amazed at how much you can avoid. Of course, it's usually a good idea to spend your souls first if you can!
Hehe, I did find I only had to battle the one, but I fought all of them (except the two together) anyway to get the hang of fighting them. They scared the life out of my first of all, so battling them over and over made them less scary. My stats are a bit all over the place: 15 vit 14 attunement 20 Endurance 16 Strength 15 Dexterity 18 Intelligence I have a Long Bow +3 that I use for sniping. During boss battles I mainly use magic, the different variations of Soul Arrows. On weaker enemies I use melee. I usually start by blocking with my Balder Shield +4, let them get the first hit in and then quickly hit them once they are open. I try to get behind them, but that isn't always easy. I play rather carefully and can circle around an enemy for quite a while until I see an opening, I suppose I play rather defensive. I really like the range and speed of the Drake Sword. The Estoc has a nice speed as well, but it does less damage and that can be risky since it takes longer to kill. I tried slower weapons like spears, the Gargoyle axe and the Halberd, but they are too slow and leave me open for too long. Armor-wise I'm wearing the Wanderer set +3 at the moment, which has me below 50%. I haven't been able to comfortably drop below 25% yet, but then again I quite like having a bit of extra armor over extra mobility. My FPS isn't the best and I do get slow downs sometimes, so I can't completely rely on dodging anyway. I found the Elite Knight set, but that's too heavy and slow. I'm not sure where to go with my stats yet. I'll want more Intelligence since I use magic for killing the various bosses and mini-bosses, and I'd like some more Vitality and Endurance as well. I mainly put points in Strength and Dexterity to meet weapon and shield requirements.
You can still go high int if you like, as an alternate there is a wand in reach(don't want to spoil it) that would boost you magic power quite a bit.
In that case I'd recommend boosting INT and going full fledged sorcery. Magc scales to your INT (via the catalyst) so that as you increase that you'll do more damage with your soul spears. Further along you'll open up more spells, too. I think that you are quite right to limit your STR and DEX to 1H weapons. Have you bought the crest of Artorias from Andre yet? There is something of value in there for a mage, but it might well be too tough just yet. Worst comes to worse you can open it, find out it's a bit tough and come back later. However, if you can handle it (or at least get to one part) there is an item in there to give to the smith in New Londo that would help a sorcery with their weapons. Hold onto that Butterfly soul, there's a pretty decent sorcery weapon you can make out of it, but that's not until later.
I haven't got the souls together yet for the crest, I'm working on it though (Killing the Gaping Dragon should help with that). I know there's some nice casting gear in Blight Town, and that's where I plan heading for next. I have the Thief armor and the Spider shield already to help protect me from poison, so I'm slowly getting there. I just have to work out how to get back to the Asylum first for that ring.
Just to clarify, if you are going to go full fledged sorcery the main stats you'll want to level up are INT, VIT, END and ATT. Those last 3, however, are as necessary. VIT can scale to whatever you feel comfortable with, though I feel like too much can be a waste. END I would boost to stay at <25%. Your most damage will be from spells and you'll want to be mobile more often than being able to take a hit. A sturdy shield will serve you better than any armor, IMO. Attunement will give you more spells to slot, but it take a few levels to see that. That's why I tended to level it up after a major boss where you can sort of lump a couple/few levels in there Speaking of attunment, one thing that you may or may not have notices is that the UI will add two same spells together. For example, if you have two souls arrows that have 30 casts each and slot both of them, you will have 1 soul arrow in the UI with 60 casts. I think most impressions are that 6 spells slotted is unwieldy, and it is if they're all unique, but as a sorcery you get access to multiple copies of spells and it pays to buy/use them.
Ah, I didn't know that you could have 2 copies of the same spell slotted! That's handy. I was planning on getting my Intelligence to 20, then get an extra spell slot, then alternate between Intelligence and Endurance for a while. Unfortunately with all the upgrading, spell buying and dying I never seem to have enough souls to do everything I want. Killing a few bosses should help with that though!
Your way of thinking is really on the right track here. If you follow through with that (and maybe a few more points in attunement for an additional slot or two) you won't be disappointed as sorcery is quite viable throughout the game. Also, as far as armor, there is no reason to limit yourself to below 50% or 25% if you don't find a reason to. What's more important is being willing to adjust for a situation if your current armor situation isn't working. If you really find yourself relying a lot on your shield and positioning without actually dodging a lot I'd even suggest trying to take your armor up to 100%. It will give you more protection and the main disadvantage is the slower roll which if you're not using anyways isn't really a disadvantage any more. As you mentioned though, go with what you are comfortable with, we are all playing this game differently. There are always exceptions though. Which is really the key to everything, be willing to try out a new setup or technique if you really do feel like your current one isn't working.
If you decide to go the full sorceror route, that +6 estoc will come in handy. You can combine the boss soul you got from the butterfly with any +10 spear or thrusting sword (the estoc is classified as a thrusting sword) to create the moonlight butterfly spear, which is absolutely fantastic for int-based characters. What's more, the place where you can combine them is pretty far from Andre, and only Andre can do the upgrade from +5 to +6. So you saved yourself a lot of running back and forth by upgrading the estoc now. BTW, if you like the idea & feel of the estoc, you might want to give the rapier a shot. (It's purchaseable from the male undead merchant for not much money.) Its damage per swing is about the same as the estoc, but it's quite a bit lighter & faster. In addition, the rapier has a hidden bonus to ripostes & backstabs, so it ends being the best weapon in the game for that stuff. But rapiers & estocs are for dex-based builds, which doesn't sound like the endpoint for your current character. *shrug* Maybe on your next character, if you're so inclined. Actually, I would strongly recommend against doing this, except in certain situations for short periods. (I do it for the Capra Demon fight sometimes, for example.) You suffer two additional penalties for taking your armor above 50%: 1) You don't just roll more slowly; all your movement is slower. Never underestimate the value of being able to walk around at a decent clip. For the Ornstein & Smough fight, for example, I consider >25% encumbrance a must simply so I can walk backwards faster while kiting them. I almost never roll in that fight.... I just walk a lot. But the few times I've done the fight with more encumbrance, the fight was much harder. 2) When your encumbrance is above 50%, your stamina regenerates much slower.* That means that it's much harder to swing your weapon, but it also means you can't keep your shield up as much. Sometimes wearing super heavy armor results in you taking much more damage because you run out of stamina & can't block. *Many heavy armors also have a built-in stamina regeneration penalty, so you get a double whammy of slow stamina regen. Oddly enough, the built-in regen penalty is offset by the fact that items that boost your stamina regen (e.g. the Grass Crest Shield or the Cloranthy Ring) are more effective in heavy armor. The net effect if you're using a regen-boosting item with heavy armor is that your stamina regen is about the same if you used that item with light or medium armor. The penalty for high encumbrance, though, isn't offset by anything.
Oh... one other thing, Mirriam. If you decide to go the sorcery route, there are two items that will help your damage more than anything. The first you can buy off of Griggs: The Bellowing Dragoncrest ring. (+20% to sorcery & pyromancy damage) The price tag is pretty steep (20,000 souls) but it's well worth it. Prioritize that huge purchase above anything else... it's more important than int upgrades, better spells, or anything else, really. The other item you have to find. I'll put the location in spoiler tags, in case you're taking the "surprise me!" approach to this game:
One final thing: as I've reread my posts, I've been catching a ton of embarrassing and, frankly, stupid errors. "it's" instead of "its", "they're" instead of "their", plus plain old typos. I... apologize for all that. The part of my brain responsible for proper spelling & punctuation is apparently on holiday today.
Thanks for all the help and advice. I'll go the sorcery route for now then, it sounds like fun and I like playing casters anyway. I'll add that ring to my list of "things to grind for".
Just FYI, if you do stick with sorcery and go for medium (i.e. 32) or high (i.e. 50) into, but the weapons you use now are very unlikely to be the ones you use later, so don't sweat the search for an ideal weapon too much.
Really disagree with this, actually. There's a thrusting sword for every taste: Rapier - crits Estoc - elemental Ricard's - dex Velka's - int The Estoc isn't really any more dex-focused than the Long Sword or whatever.
