I am ashamed to admit that I have neither. Haven't gotten around to much forest PvP and haven't yet encountered the hawk ring. I've been able to avoid those guys as well by giving them two quick slashes and then backing away quickly. I'm wearing the gold-hemmed set, which has good poison resist. Really it isn't impossibly difficult so much as it's a bit frustrating. I've been rolling through the last few zones, then I hit Painted World and started getting knocked around a bit. First trip in I got up to the undead dragon, but not without using most of my estus and working my way through a bunch of tense fights trying to avoid toxic and also avoid getting my head chewed off by harpies. And then the undead dragon one-hit me (I didn't realize he was going to come charging up the bridge). So it was a relatively long slog to get back to him, and then a long fight to take him down, and then by the time I got out into the courtyard area I was out of estus and confronted with a wall of spear-wielding weirdos. Happily, I found the door back to the bonfire at that point, but upon returning to that area I got invaded by Jeremiah and was not anticipating the giant lava field attack, which also one-hit me. Then I turned in for the evening because it was pretty late and I didn't want to clear out the spear assholes again. Rest assured, when I go back, fools will be cut.
Oh. Well, the hawk ring is behind the Giant Blacksmith, you just need to roll behind him. I thought you'd already gotten the fog ring but I guess that was someone else. Good move getting the door open. One more door to go, and then the level really opens up. You are going to love the place where you open that door. Might be worth your while to look at a list of valuable loot before you leave the area, since it's kind of a pain to come back later and re-clear it. Jeremiah is well worth killing, as he pays over 30k souls and leaves a nice set of clothes at the end of the level. This is another case where the light crossbow is hilariously effective.
Wait, what? Is this forreals? Why would that work? Also man, the harpies sure have a lot of hitpoints. There are very few things that don't fall over to my +14 Large Club at 40 str, but these birds take THREE hits! That's a lot of time for a head-chewing-off to happen. Still, leaving this place for last certainly made it a ton easier (also remembering the tell for the head chewing :D).
It's weird, after beating O&S my interest in this game plummeted. I guess I'm supposed to go talk to Frampt for a clue on what to do next, but I also know talking to him at this point seals me into a chain of events I'm not interested in following. That and I started playing La-Mulana, which is extremely similar to Dark Souls in its design philosophy and yet way more amenable to bite-sized gameplay.
What chain of events do you think talking to Frampt is going to lock you into? Someone predicted this post on their blog six months ago.
Fun thing I learned about the Large Club: At +14 and 40str is vastly more effective than Dragon's Tooth +5. Strength scaling like a motherfucker yo.
I thought talking to him with the Lordvessel made Kaathe disappear? I could have sworn I read it locks something out for the rest of the playthrough.
Sometimes Dark Souls can be incredibly frustrating. After dealing with Jeremiah and his bullfrogs, I went down the well, only to encounter the FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU bonewheel guys. I died down there numerous times. I nearly rage quit every time. But I pressed through them, and went through and crushed Priscilla, but somehow failed to snag the tail weapon even though I was chopping away throughout. But whatever, fine. Back to Anor Londo. And then I plowed through Anor Londo, mostly lost, until arriving at the Solaire bonfire. I figured the Law Firm were probably up those spiral stairs, so I decided I would ignore that and focus on exploring all the side rooms. Many of these explorations ended in death, whether because I entered a room with three silver knights one of whom was hiding to the side of the door and got me good when I came in, or because I tried to race through and gave up cheap hits to same silver knights. This, too, was rage inducing. And then I arrived at the giant chapel where the Law Firm actually are, and my black eye orb started rumbling, and I knew what that meant, and was concerned that I had to take care of Lautrec before the Law Firm, so I did. Or rather, I tried to, but goddammit his buddies are fast and casting and I kept going down. Each time I went back for him, I had to clear those stupid fucking giant things, which heal constantly and take forever. By the time I finally offed stupid Lautrec I was feeling pretty annoyed. But do you know how many fucks I give right now? None. No fucks. Because Solaire and I just one-shotted the Law Firm. I AM THE LAW.
Well it does, but that's not a chain of events, it's one event. All it means is that you can't join the Darkwraiths. And if you do want to join the Darkwraiths, the next thing you do is fight Sif and the Four Kings and then join the Darkwraiths. No problem.
Well yes, but when people talk about "siding with" one or the other serpent, they're pretty much only talking about which one you talk to right now. It affects nothing else in the game beyond your ability to be a darkwraith (Kaathe) or turn in items for souls (Frampt), and it doesn't affect the story or the ending in any way.
I tried going back to Frampt after I had the lordvessel and he was asleep. No "Press X to talk" prompt or anything.
No way never! It sometimes takes multiple hits. Hit him once, see if he wakes up, hit him again if not, and so forth.
So I'm currently sitting on a big pile of souls and I could use some advice on how to apportion them going forward. I don't have the precise listing up at the moment, but I'm currently around SL62 with DEX and END both in the low 30s, VIT in the low 20s, STR at 16, and everything else pretty much where it started (I'm a pyromancer). Obviously, I've been building primarily DEX based, as my weapons of choice (Uchigatana and Gargoyle Tail Axe) scale best with that stat. How high should I pump that and other stats? I feel like I could use more END, as I frequently find myself at the low end of stamina during fights even with the Cloranthy Ring. Not sure how far up people usually take VIT, and I don't see any point in leveling STR at this point unless I find something I want to use that's a few points beyond where I am (e.g. the Dragonslayer Greatbow that I just grabbed, although I doubt I'll want to use that one in particular).
Took out Gwyndolin in two hits. Heh. Also finally decided it was time to take on Lautrec. I got him down to nearly nothing, then one of his goons killed me as I was launching a fireball at him. Died. But so did he. I warped back to Londo and th e three items from him popped up. Sweet. Also helped someone else take on the 4K. Died just before he finished the last one off, but the kill animation for the last one still played. Got my souls and humanity even though I died. Lucky session today.
Dex, End, Str, and Vit pay off through 40. I think you should get your dex to 40 and your end to 40, and then see how much more Vit you want because that's a winning proposition no matter what.
Oh, never that I can remember. Just that usually when you attack things in this game they aggro on you. Anyways, whacked him once and he took me to someplace where I put some macguffin on some thing. So thanks! Headed down to New Londo Ruins and took a detour to kill some undead giants right inside Blighttown. And oh look, a Large Club! Thinking that I'll upgrade this sucker and see how it goes with my 40 str. Went a little further into the ruins, then realized I didn't have a transient curse on me and I had already used the one hidden in the vase to get the firekeeper soul earlier. That's going to make things difficult, yes? Guess I'll go buy some from that merchant near the entrance to the Depths.
So I just got to Anor Londo now, and I have 50k souls burning a hole in my pocket from Sen's. I kind of want to upgrade some of my stuff, and I've heard that there is a Blacksmith in the area. Would it be wise to push on to him, at the risk of losing all the souls to dangerous enemies / corpse runs? Or should I just head back to Andrei, and then all the way through Sen's again to get back to Anor Londo and continue? I guess what I'm asking is how far is the Anor Londo blacksmith into the level?
Decently far. Plus. Silver knight archers. I didn't find him until towards the end not long before the Law Firm. Oh yes. I took them down tonight! Had helpers but it went well and then stuck around and helped a few others do the same!
Basically at the end. If you've never done the area before, you're probably not going to make it to him with those souls intact.
I see people tend towards killing Ornstein first. I find killing Smough first is actually easier for me; Super Ornstein is pretty easily staggered, his faster movement is not a big deal if you hug his legs, and his Smough-powered buttstomp doesn't actually hit as hard as Smough's. Plus you get the Leo ring and that sweet, sweet armour...
The easiest way to kill that dragon is with a bow from the steps back the left, he doesn't even move.
Man, all I want to do is engage in some jolly co-operation, but nobody is summoning me! I started (another) new character, hoping to make her into a STR build. Currently I'm running around in Dat Skirt (made a SL6 run into Blighttown to get it, woo) and a +5 reinforced club. Beating things with my stick is fun! Probably at some point I'll grind on the guys down in Blighttown in the hopes of grabbing the Large Club.
Not specific to your case, but while O&S seems to be a common fight to talk about with regards to summons I seem to be getting a lot faster response on 4K attempts. They move a bit faster, too, which is nice.
Where is it customary to put down a summon sign for 4 Kings? I've just cleared out lower New Londo Ruins but haven't tried them yet.
What a productive weekend! Finished up Anor Londo, first doing a few quick runs as a summoned player to get a feel for the Law Firm, and then doing the battle with two of my own guys along for the ride. I like that it's unwritten that you take out Smaugh first and then go after Ornstien. We did it on the first try! Lordvessel in hand and feeling more confident in my abilities a ton of other bosses fell to my attacks with ease as well! Ash Lake Hydra? Check. Stray Demon? Stayed behind him and he was finished. Pinwheel? Only took 3 R2 swings of the Zweihander to kill. Sif? Stayed under his legs and shield held high and he went down quickly. Ceaseless Discharge? Yea. Died. We'll take him out later. So now it's a matter of getting the lord souls eh? I think the 4 Kings should be next on my list.
When you head into the Ruins, there are those two narrow bridges with the circular turret thing in the middle. That turret is where I lay down my sign, and seems to be the most common place for others. Make sure you have a Transient Curse ready to go. So far everyone I've gone with has done the shortcut. Run across the bridge, take out the two ghosts, go to the right of the staircase and drop down. This will put you in that pool that's close to the fog door. Drop a couple of Darkwraiths and a few more ghosts and you're there. The only thing I'm not sure of is what to do with people who summon the witch. She seems to get hung up on attacking the ghost just inside the fog door (you have to look up to see it, and it doesn't attack you). I don't know if she gets hung up there permanently or not, so I usually just get my bow out and take out the ghost so she'll run down the stairs.
My answer to people summoning Beatrice is to send them an XBL message explaining she is a net negative because she will increase their HP and is extremely unlikely to bring equivalent amounts of damage output, even if she makes it down to the abyss. Their black crystal works just fine to selectively dismiss her. If they persist, fine, but I'm not using humanity to heal myself if things go south. 2 people can do a 3 person Four King fight while Beatrice fiddles around if everything else is optimal, but it's needlessly extending the fight. I use transient curse regardless because most people who think they can make it through the chapel unharmed are wrong, in my experience. I don't need any spell effect on my character for any 4k setup, so it doesn't matter if it wears off before we go in. I put my sign up at the bridge while I kill ghosts for transient curses and that one stingy banshee for her damned sword, then I roll down the shortcut and place a sign in front of the last chapel after killing the darkwraith by the pool you land in. Then I methodically clear darkwraiths until I am out of them, linger for another five minutes or so in windowed mode, and bone out to start again. You do have the covenant of artorias ring, right? Just want to be sure, because otherwise you will be a very unhelpful summon when you die upon landing in the abyss. I wouldn't say this if it hadn't happened to me.
Summoning people raises boss hit points? What about regular monsters? Are four kings easier totally solo or with just Beatrice?
It's specific to 4 kings, as it's their core mechanic along with "additional kings as time progresses". 4 kings are easier for almost any reasonable build solo than with Beatrice.
