Tell Me How To Get Started

I'm blaming my recent typos on the fact that I've been posting from my tablet all this past week while on vacation.

You forgot the built in noise/stealth penalty for heavier chest pieces as well! I was trying to not throw out too much information as this is the help me get started thread but the main reason I ignored those aspects is that sorcery mitigates both of those things. By not using it to attack you use up a lot less stamina and it doesn't matter as much if it regains slower and having range makes moving slower not as big of a deal. High poise is sometimes really nice for some of the faster creatures as well as you can just let them hit you in order to get your spell off and just shrug off the damage. Plus you can get away from the +equipment load rings a lot easier if you're willing to go up to 100% which is nice because as you mentioned the Bellowing Dragoncrest ring is really really nice so you're not as flexible as other builds in ring slots.

Mostly I was just trying to get across to everyone to not feel constrained to any particular play style and to go with what works for them, while accepting that they may need to be flexible depending on what the current task at hand calls for.

My general philosophy is that anything that can't be killed in one or two hits should be backstabbed if at all possible. I'd say the same about reposte, but I can't parry for beans.

While grinding out souls I'll try different armor weights as well then, especially since I have the Eilte Knight set now. Just to get a feel for it.
Where is the best low level area to grind by the way? I've been using the Parish since the enemies there also drop titanite which helps me upgrade my gear.

Oh, and if my questions go too far into spoiler territory or are too specific for the newbie thread, I'll happily use a different thread, just let me know which one.

Made it to the Gargoyles in the Parish and been destroyed by them a few times (even summoned Solaire - failed - planned to try again, died to invader, out of Humanity). Upgraded my shield to +4, got going with the drake sword (very nice). Went down to Darkroot (?) and went through some fog and killed a big knight before a second one and his tree chums sucked my brains. I think maybe I should avoid that area. Not sure where to go or what to do now. Maybe it is time to kill those skeletons at fire link. Mmm.

Remember you can use the white soupstone to offer yourself as an summon for boss battles.
Its a god way to learn them without any danger of loosing souls.
The Gargoyles if defeated give you 5000 xp and a humanity.

If you are human you can summon other players too but are open for invasions.

Typically people are putting summon signs down at the side entry of the church.

Thanks, but I am out of humanity - and since I seem to be bad with them, I am not sure I would be much help to anyone.

Dont worry about that, 2 player make this fight really easy.

Simply try to attack flanks and tail.

Don't. Seriously, just play. The knowledge you gain is worth far more than souls. You'll get enough souls though the game there isn't really a reason to prolong it like that. That said the best way to 'grind' out souls is to earn them is via co-op, but you said that framerate limitations were taking you offline so that doesn't really help you.

No, it really is the best way to learn, and you will be a help. Hell, just hold your shield up (how good is your shield anyway? I'd say it's more important than armor at this point) and take aggro so your summoner can deal the damage. It' costs nothing for you to try. If you die you'll be back at your bonfire but all souls intact.

FTFY

I'm offline most of the time so I can't co-op unfortunately. I'm just grinding for the Sorcerer ring so I can take on the next boss or two easier, I don't mind doing it.

Is there any way to buy more then 1 copy of a spell? I went back to guy at the shrine to buy a second copy of Great Soul Arrow, but it was gone from the list.

Early on you can grind out souls from the dragon on the bridge above the fire in the Upper Undead Burg. Every time the dragon strafes is good for 555 souls, and you can walk about 20 seconds and reset them.

I'd forgotten about that, thanks.

So in my current game: I don't think I've upgraded any of my stats at all in quite some time; all my souls have gone to upgrading weapons / armor / shield / buying items / lost to death. I'm wondering if I should continue upgrading my END and maybe even start in on my VIT. Thoughts?

I almost never grind in Dark Souls. For big ticket items, I just wait until after I've killed a boss. Most of the early game bosses give you 10k, which is halfway to the Bellowcrest Ring or the Crest of Artorias. Then I use all the soul items (e.g. Soul of a Lost Undead, Soul of a Proud Knight, etc.) that I've picked up & have been saving. I rarely use the soul items when I pick them up; instead I save them for big ticket purchases. Alternately, I'll sometimes use one if I'm *just* short of buying something.

If I'm still not quite to 20k after all my soul items are used up, then I go grind a little. But it doesn't much matter where; I rarely need more than 1 or 2k, and you can get that amount pretty much anywhere.

Your gear is prolly good enough for those knights & trees; it doesn't require great gear to fight them. But if you don't feel like doing that section yet, you have a couple choices:

1) On your way from Andre to the stone knights, after you kill the first tree, you can take a right & go down a long mountain path to reach Darkroot Basin. It's an optional area, but it has a couple cool fights & some nice loot.

2) Assuming you picked up the Basement Key (it's sitting right behind the portcullis next to the mechanical boar), you can go to Lower Undead Burg. The door is located right near where you first talked to Solaire. (i.e. at the beginning of the bridge where the drake is.)

3) Assuming you have the Master Key, you can go to Blighttown by going to Firelink Shrine, going down to New Anor Londo, and then taking a right. There's a door there that leads to the Valley of the Drakes. Walk across the planks, enter the cave to your right, and you're in Blighttown.

4) You can go back to the Undead Asylum. Getting there is... kinda involved. You can look up "Return to Undead Asylum" on any DS wiki and it'll show you how to get there. This area is completely optional, but has some really handy items.

What are your current stats and what kind of weapons/spells do you want to use?

Off the top of my head I don't know. I'm happy with the gear I'm using; I'm just asking a more general question: should I periodically throw points into END/Vit just for survivability?

In Dark Souls, you're not required to level at any particular rate. Hell, it's entirely possible to finish the game without leveling at all. So the rule of thumb when considering whether or not to level is: "Do I need X stat?" Usually, after meeting the prereqs for whatever weapons & shields they want to use, players tend to focus on one of the "interesting" stats: strength, dexterity, int, or faith. Each of these controls damage output for a particular build. Also, Strength, Int, and Faith allow you to wield certain weapons or cast certain spells, so folks often prioritize unlocking whatever weapon or spell they're shooting for.

At the same time they're working on their "interesting" stat, they'll also be upgrading their end & vit. Basically, you upgrade those two stats when you feel you need to. If you're sick of getting one-shot by enemies, upgrade your vit so you have a larger health pool. If you're tired of running around in your skivvies, upgrade end so you can carry more weight. (and thus wear more armor) Also, if you keep running out of stamina at inconvenient times, upgrade end.

The eventual goal for end is 40: upgrading it past 40 doesn't give you any more stamina. (end past 40 will continue to increase your carry capacity, but most players don't bother.) There isn't an end goal for vit: more is always better.

Personally, I tend to raise vit to 15 or 16, and then I just leave it until waaaay later. Sometimes I don't upgrade it past 15 until my second playthrough. Then again, I don't mind running around with a pathetic amount of health; I tend to hide behind my shield & not get hit much. Other folks pump vit much more.

Thing is, points in end & vit are never truly wasted; it's always nice to have more stamina or life. So don't agonize about it too much; if you think they'd come in handy, raise them. If you're not feeling the pinch, don't bother.

Well those are usually the catchalls for when you don't know where else to put souls, but it is still pretty build-specific as far as what your immediate leveling goals should be. If you're going the elemental weapons + pyromancy route, then yeah, go for it. Otherwise I'd probably focus more on end than vit unless you're finding yourself getting killed because you have too few hit points.

I find myself getting killed because I have too few caution!

I'm pretty sure it does affect it, actually. Listen carefully to what he's testing in that video: he's testing <25% encumbrance vs. <50% encumbrance. In other words, light burden vs. medium burden. When he declares that your encumbrance doesn't matter, he's talking about those two weight loads. However, if you're >50%, your regen seriously sucks.

Finally able to put some more time in post holidays, and managed to take down the Gargoyles last night, after many failures. Though I did end up with their helm, which looks pretty stylish on me I must say. Managed to get up enough strength to wield the Zweihander, and have been practicing with that in the Parish. Oh my this thing does pack a punch! Backstabbing with it's great! It's also good to be learning a different weapon than the Drake Sword, which has been my staple. Gotten it up to +3 and working on finding more titanite to upgrade it to +5 along with some of my armor.

Been exploring as well in Darkroot Garden, Lower Undead Burg and other places and getting to know the lay of the land. Damn it's fun.

This is all true, but I don't know that it's practical advice for a new player. The execution part of Dark Souls combat isn't usually the hard part, but it can be, and vit is a guard against that. Even as an experienced player, I'm not ashamed to say that I don't forgo vit entirely; there are parts of the game that require literally perfect execution at starting vit, and I'm not always up to them. Granted, I do raise it much much slower than I once did, but that's only possible because I've had a lot of practice.

The thing is though, the game doesn’t hold you to that standard. You get plenty of estus so you're never really constrained in that way, and the presence of numerous things that one shot you at starting vit is a pretty clear indication that the game wasn't designed with staying at starting vit in mind. Those encounters can be really tough if you artificially limit yourself to just not getting hit ever, which is fine for an SL1 run or some similar challenge, but I'd never suggest that someone new to the game take steps to make it even harder than it already is for an unexperienced player.

Also: more vit can make it easier to hang at under 25 percent weight, which is awesome.

When you say 'the guy at the shrine' I assume you mean Griggs. IIRC the New Londo smith sells some soul arrows. There are two other NPCs that sell spells, but only one that sells offensive ones, and you don't find him till later.

Speaking of grinding, I think that bridge stuff is chump change. There actually is an early level grinding spot, and it's right after the door that the Crest of Artorias unlocks. Of course you'll need those 20k to begin with, but you can make that up with ~4 runs or so. Be forewarned, though, the enemies are tough, but if you pull, block and take your time you can do it.

I dunno, I read his post in that he hasn't beat the gargoyles yet. I'd say to stick with that before going on to anything else suggested.

So I'm fighting the Black Knight in the Asylum. I've decided since he's a hop skip and a jump from a bonfire to use the opportunity to practice my parry/riposte; mainly because I do all of like 65 damage to him normally. Well, I get a single successful parry in on my fourth attempt and sure enough he goes down and I think hey that's it... then wtf he gets up and kills me! Turns out he falls over after a riposte, but isn't dead. Oops!

Several attempts later; I get my initial successfully parry/riposte (and confirm when he falls over it detargets him; that's kind of annoying!) I then get two successful parries, and on neither does it do a riposte; just a normal attack. Argh!

If you haven't already, take a look at the expert guide to parrying in the OP of the original DS thread. It will explain to you the details of the timing windows for parries and what constitutes a "partial" parry, and also how essential both proximity and, curiously, terrain are for getting the riposte to be effective.

I've already looked at it. It's an awesome video and I get how parry works; but it's still tough to pull off reliably; especially against enemies I'm not used to.

The unable to riposte thing really was strange. I probably had a total of four or five parries that I wasn't able to follow up with a riposte, all coming after an initial parry-riposte combo. It almost seemed as if they made him only able to be riposted once; because otherwise the encounter would be trivialized (at least to someone who's good at parry timing). Incidentally, enemies that go down to a riposte and get back up are fucking annoying; there's no indication that they're still alive until they start moving again. They're detargeted, you can't re-target them until they're up, their health bar disappears, everything.

So my starting class was Pyromancer and I've spent a bunch of souls upgrading my flame. Yet I hardly use pyromancy. Can someone explain to me how to use it more effectively?

The main problem I have is that it seems all of Pyromancy's offensive spells - at least the ones I have access to at the moment - are rather short ranged. Combustion requires you to basically be face to face with your target; fireball and flame orb have a bit longer range but they arc so it's not that much longer (yes they can be made to fire further if you don't use lock-on targeting; good luck hitting something). The lack of range means casting almost always leaves me open to painful retaliation on my enemy's part. And what's worse, except against enemies with a large degree of physical resistance (e.g., Black Knights), the damage is somewhat less than just hitting things into my axe.

So tell me: where am I going wrong? I'm sure the problem is me, I just haven't figured out where Pyromancy's strengths lie. Can someone explain it to me?

I actually went back into the sewers and am farming rats and slimes. The slimes go down easily if I use fireball, and they drop titanite. The rats drop humanity which is always handy. I'm almost at my 20000 now.
I'm still going through the large arsenal of weapons I've collected, and I think I like the Long Sword better then the Claymore or Estoc. It's similar to the drake sword in speed and move set, I really like it.

Sorry yes, The guy at the Shrine is Griggs. I bought the Great Soul Arrow of him, but he doesn't have any more. I might buy another normal Soul Arrow off him instead for in my third slot. it means I don't have to conserve my spells as much. I'll buy the second set of Greater ones once I find the next NPC that sells them. the New Londo smith only had the normal Soul Arrow and Heavy Soul arrow, which I bought at the start. But the Heavy Soul Arrow is a bit slow for my taste, and only has 12 charges.

Yeah.... I had a similar experience with pyromancy when I started playing. When using pyromancy, don't think of it as a ranged attack. Instead, think of them as very long range melee attacks. So while you might start a fight with a sorcery spell or a shot from your bow, that usually doesn't work with pyromancy. Instead, engage in melee... but don't actually close. (i.e. stay at mid-range) Let the enemy commit to an attack of some sort. As soon as you see him committed to a sword thrust, or chop, or whatever, that's your cue to take a step back & cast. Basically, you use the time that he takes to finish his attack to cast your spell. Ideally you stay at the edge of his range, just close enough to bait him to attack.

There's one exception to this: you can treat your fire orbs as ranged attacks when fighting the ghosts in New Anor Londo. The timing works out perfectly for those guys. Plus they take extra damage from fire, so it's a win-win for pyromancy.

Combustion is used differently. For that one, think of it as a true melee weapon. Whenever you might swing your longsword, you cast combustion instead. So why use combustion at all, when you already have a melee weapon? Against some enemies, it easily staggers them, which makes fighting them a piece of cake. In addition, some enemies (especially some boss-type enemies) are highly susceptible to fire. Finally, combustion is often easier to aim than a melee weapon. It creates a small aoe in front of you, so as long as the enemy is kinda somewhere in front of you, he's gonna get hit.

BTW... in order to really use pyromancy, you need to be wearing the Crown of Dusk and the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring. Without those, pyromancy's damage is sub-par in most situations, and not worth bothering with. With those, on the other hand, it rocks. (Obviously, you also need to be upgrading your flame too.)

Think of fireball-type spells as being like grenades in an FPS. They're not for long range, they're for packing a punch at medium-close range. Upgrade the flame, wear the Crown of Dusk and Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring once you get them, and pretty soon you'll be dealing hellacious damage with it. Also, don't overlook Combustion, which is a very fast and high-damage melee attack that costs no stamina. It's very good... it's actually possible to use that full time instead of a melee weapon, if you want to.

Also, remember that you don't have to use it at all if you don't want to. Starting as a pyromancer doesn't mean you have to actually use fireballs. If you're frustrated by the range, sorcery might be of more interest to you.

Huh? Estus flasks heal you the same regardless of your vit.

I think he's saying that if you haven't upgraded the flask and you boost your vit, you're using more than one to fully recharge your health.