There's another tier once you get to +15; the witch can upgrade it the next level that goes from +0 to +5.
Some notes on my push to the end. Last nights play session was pretty eventful. Took on Centipede Demon, which was pretty easy (took two tries, one of which was just to get the ring). Took the shortcut to Lost Izalith, which seemed preferable to whatever was going on down in that giant vat of lava. Had some kind of giant plant-looking vase thing destroy my pyromancy glove (easily fixed, but annoying). Lost 70k souls to Bed of Chaos (my fault, ultimately didn't matter since I was so close to the end). Died about 5 times trying to finish it off, even though I knew exactly what to do. Murdered my way pretty easily through the Tomb of Giants, though those dog skeletons were pretty annoying. Took out Nito in one try. Took all my big fat souls to Frampt and opened up the door. Picked up items on the first run through to the final boss, which probably amused the other guys I summoned. The endgame can move pretty fast if you're done with what you wanted to do before you get to that point. So, what do I think? It's great. It goes from being a totally impenetrable nightmare to me feeling like a fairly unstoppable badass by the end (well, aside from PvP, but that's always the case in every game for me). The second playthrough of the first sections (not NG, just starting over) didn't really teach me much of anything I didn't already know. Dark Souls is all about getting down a rhythm and a strategy for handling its enemies, and not getting cocky even though you know an area by heart. Yes, it's easier the second time through, but that's just because you know what's coming and have a better grasp on the mechanics. I think it's pretty brilliant in the way that it takes a hero's quest and turns it into a complete mystery. Why am I doing any of this? What's the end game? Who knows? You get bits and pieces of mythology told to you through items and sometimes vague references from NPCs. Why? Because that's how it would actually happen for a hero in this situation. There wouldn't be a big booming voice in the sky narrating his every move. He'd have no idea who was an ally or who was just using him to further their own goals. He'd have no idea about the history of the places he's visiting or the foes he's confronting. He'd just have to sort of suss it out on his own as best he could from what people were willing to tell him and how things appeared. So that's what you do. Also, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone I know because they would likely hate me for it.
Yeah, from what I gather there are two variants of the glove: the regular (which the guy at Firelink can upgrade) and the Ascended (which I thought goes up to 15). edit: so I guess my pyromancy flame is maxed out! In that case, I guess the next thing to do is raise Dex... Since that speeds up pyro casting time. What do people usually find is good attunement for a pyro? Right now I'm rolling around with 2x combustion, 1x great combustion, and a fire orb, or I swap out the fire orb and one of the combustions for great chaos fireball when thigns ABSOLUTELY MUST DIE. I could bring attunement up to 20 and be able toss in a great fireball as well.... or swap the balls out for GCB while maintaining my 3 combustions.
It's a little disconcerting when you ascend it, since as far as I could tell there's no description for what you're really doing. You go into the interface and it shows you that you can take your +15 Pyromancy Flame and turn it into a +0 Pyromancy Flame.
Yeah, that was annoying but I managed. For some reason I thought you could take the new flame all the way up to +15, but apparently +5 is the limit. Boo!
For the record: I'm at 77 hours in Dark Souls and counting, and I haven't even beaten the game. I am notoriously ADD about video games, and yet this thing is keeping my attention like nothing since WoW. So, uhh, thanks to those who convinced me to buy it!
Likewise, and I badgered a friend into buying it so we can spam each other with our tales of woe (and victory). And maybe even co-op a little if we get lucky? This is just what I needed with no releases from Bioware, Bethesda and Obsidian on the horizon.
Heh, I badgered Rasputin Jim into buying the game. He had a first rough night, I don't know how it's been for him since then. What are good lightning based weapons for a pyro? I'm thinking of making a pair of Uchis: one lightning, one normal, since I figure on leveling Dex a fair bit in the future. Mostly because, with this character, it's Dex or endless attunement! I guess I can also pad myself out with Vit and maybe roll up another 10 End to use the Eagle Shield and maintain <25%, but enh... also, I told LK about this in a chat: earlier tonight I annihilated Lautrec and his buddies. I'd attempted them once previously and gotten my ass kicked, but then I joined the Chaos Servants covenant and got the Great Chais Fireball. Keep in mind I have a maxed out pyromancy flame. I asked LK for some advice and he mentioned using the environment, and what a pain in the ass that sorcerer is. Anyway, I decided to give Lautrec another shot, and uhh it took two Great Chaos Balls to destroy all three of 'em. I see why that spell takes up two slots; it's like a tactical nuke!
As usual, the answer for 'good weapon' is "whatever you like and have the stats to use." As for fighting lautrec, I just play the benny hill theme in my head and loop around the area using both sets of stairs, and you can usually get a drop attack or two which sometimes hits more than one person.
I played through most if the game with a lightning Gargoyle Halberd. That thing hits hard and has a nice range. Also, if you're a Chaos Servant and you don't mind giving up a lot of humanity (30, to be exact) you can get a pretty serious pyromancy from the Daughter of Chaos. You also get something helpful in the late game, but you have to stick with the Covenant until you get there for that to work for you.
96 hours for the first playthrough. :) Second one was at 70, so I'm improving, although slowly. I guess I like to take my time. Of course, I now have 4 characters going so I won't be putting it down anytime soon. Maybe if I hit those 25hr playthroughs that people mentioned the interest might start to wane but at this rate it'll be a while. :D
The most tedious part of the Bed of Chaos is how long it takes to run back from the bonfire, after being knocked into a hole in seconds.
I accidently stumbled onto the Three Kings today; I stumbled off the upper New Londo walkways into Lower New Londo and went through a fog door without realizing I was headed for the boss. Oops! Despite not being prepared for them, I managed to drop them down to 50% on the first attempt. Woo!
I began anew to make a slightly more efficient Zweihander build and I think I emitted my first ever cackle as I three-shot the Capra demon with a falling blow followed by an overhand swipe and a followup normal swing. This weapon is so damned fun to swing around and I absolutely love beating bosses/minibosses with it because of the tightrope I feel like I'm walking with no shield out. It's tense, it's exciting... it's Dark Souls. Also, I experienced my first invasion by someone who was either very confused or a bit of a dick. I'm no expert but falling onto people from the bell gargoyle doorway seems like an awkward spot to look for a PvP fight. Or maybe he's able to one shot people in lighter armor and he just got unlucky with me? Regardless, I continued up the ladder and through the portal while my summons threw themselves at the guy.
It's the latter. In general, unless you have something handy like a bow and a lot of confidence in switching back and forth, it's a difficult one to get by and I'm glad you made it. All they are doing is fishing for the plunging attack, typically followed by AoE pyro. I've been know to wave at them before alt-f4ing. Of all the spawn points for PvP, that is probably the one that I think most lends itself to disgracefully poor sportsmanship. I would keep the spawn point but offset the ladders and build a railing, because it's pretty bullshit.
Bed of Chaos finally down. Summary: 41 minutes running from bonfire to boss 4? minutes actually fighting the boss For how stupid and gimmicky that boss was, it seriously needed a closer bonfire.
I used the Lost Izalith bonfire and the fog ring, which meant I was usually <2 minutes to get to the boss (I always kill the two tentacle guys to see if they drop red chunks). Also, it is possible to suicide run/homeward bone from each stage of progress, which speeds things up significantly; quitting after achieving something gets you back to the fog gate as well.
I tried both the one in the lava, and then once I had opened the shortcut I started using the one back in the Demon Ruins, as it involved killing fewer of those stone demons, and I could just run down the tunnel, avoid the Titanite Demon, psyche myself up for the fight without having to concentrate. It probably wasn't a super long sprint - 2 minutes maybe? But when you die in seconds due to being swiped into a bottomless pit, it seems like a disproportionately long run, especially having to do it over and over and over. I probably did 3-4 tries on each phase, which is about twenty minutes of just running, not fighting. So I was exaggerating ... but not too much. Wow, really? That will be helpful if I decide to do a second playthrough. Bed of Chaos is the only boss I've seen so far where that strategy seems viable. Does that work with Ornstein and Smough too? ie: can you Alt-F4 after killing one of them and get ported out to the fog gate to heal up before you take on the big version of whoever is left?
Am I missing something, or is my pyromancer person supposed to handle like a dump truck using the controller? Does stat increases make that any better?
Decided to take a break in DLC land before grabbing the last two lord souls (Nito and Bed of Chaos are left). Sanctuary Gaurdian wasn't bad after I went sub-25% to dodge his lightening attacks. Artorias was more difficult. I knew what I had to do and got close many times but it took some perserveriance to put all the tells and dodging into the right spot. Great battle though.
The Bed of Chaos fight had me gnashing my teeth, too. It was just an unnecessary pain to spawn at the bonfire, swap in my orange cinder ring, run back to the fight, then die because the floor fell out beneath me or because I got knocked into the resulting hole by a mele attack. Of course, much worse than that was when I was actually jumping into the bottomless pit on my own agency, trying to get to the ledge in the third stage. I must have done that five or six times.
So, yeah, jeffd got me into this, and I'm giving it a 2nd shot right now. Previously I'd have said this game sucks, and you all suck for liking it, but now I'm getting a handle on it thanks to some info Jeff sent me. I'm grinding souls right now to up my STR for using the zweihander, and can pull off kicks almost everytime. Couple of questions I don't feel like hunting through 40 pages here or over in the main thread for: 1) Is the encumbrance measured in percentage or pounds (or kilos or whatnot)? Basically, when it says "17.9/51" is that 17%/51% (51% being where I become sluggish) or as 17.9 weight points of 51 weight points, so I become sluggish at 25.5 weight points? 2) Is there going to be somewhere I can sell off extra crap? Male doesn't let me sell shit as far as I can tell, and I haven't found Female yet. I know carting this stuff around doesn't affect my encumbrance, but I'd like to know if I should just drop all these spears and cracked shields or hang onto them for selling. Thanks in advance, I'm going back to stabbing things now.
1) It's in absolute units; so if you're at 51 your 25% threshold is 12.75 and your 50% threshold is 25.5. 2) Yes kind of, but not really. Midway through the game you'll encounter an NPC that lets you exchange items for souls, but by and large the exchange rate is pretty meh, and at that point in the game it's pretty trivial to go grind yourself up 15k souls in 5-10 minutes. The male undead merchant sells a bottomless box, which you can use at a bonfire to reduce inventory clutter. Also: you can rearrange your inventory order! The Zwei is one of my favorite weapons; it just hits so very, very hard. The R2 overhand smash attack is tremendously satisfying; hitting guys with it and sending them splatting into the ground never stops being awesome. It's also - as pointed out elsewhere - a high risk, high reward weapon. You're pretty heavily committed to every attack, if you miss you're very much open for retaliation.
Thanks. Naturally right as I'm 2pts away from the zweihander, a battle axe drops, so now I'm all confused. I think I'll up my end for a bit before going with the zwei. EDIT: OH MY GOD THE BATTLE AXE RIPOSTE ANIMATION
The only drawback of the Zwei is that the 24 strength requirement is quite the investment early in the game. If you're willing to make it it ends up being a pretty ferocious weapon, but you end up doing a fair amount of grinding if you're hoping to use it early on.
Fortunately, having random internet guy try to kill me doesn't ruffle my feathers so much as it provides incentive to learn to defend myself. I hope if I keep at it one day I'll be able to confidently swagger into battle with my unwieldy two-handed sword and emerge victorious.
Well, now I have a Black Knight sword instead. Got that sumbitch's parry timing down after a few deaths, hit him with a riposte and... he gets back up? Bastard! Now he's stabbing me again AIIEEEEE... Okay, this time two should do it, 1st riposte... 2nd riposte! WHY IS HE GETTING BACK UP AND STABBING ME AIIEEEEEE... Ooh, what's this lightning thingy for my weapon? Two shocking ripostes and he's outta there at last! Just gotta upgrade my DEX this time to wield his sword...
Nice work; that guy was a black knight and they're a recurring pain in the ass. Personally I suck at parries so I end up lining them up for backstabs which I find is a bit easier. Generally they'll follow you across most of a level so you can kite them to a largish arena and have room to work; for some reason many Black Knights appear in cramped corridors.
If you can get it down consistently it's a tremendously effective tool; the Riposte is the most powerful basic attack in your arsenal, and you're totally immune during the damage. It does take some pretty big balls and a good sense of timing, though.
Just put on heavy armor <50%, a steel ring, and go hang around deep anor londo with the knights or the balder knights under the gargoyle cathedral (if you approach from the front of the cathedral it's easy to deal with them one by one without going stealthy. I actually find both of them easier to learn on than the lower tier undead in the burg and parish.Plus, you get all that sweet balder/silver knight loot. By all means, pay attention to what poise is letting you get away with, but it's trivial to find a good place to practice. If you watch the Expert's guide to parrying in the OP of the original DS thread, you'll be off to a great start. If you try to brute force the muscle memory, you will fail.
Seconded the parry video; it goes into a lot of detail. The other thing I find is that usually I jump the gun on the parry; in general if I try to wait until the enemy's weapon comes forward, I hit it.
