Ah, so your attribute bonus isn't considered in the damage listed for the weapon? That's interesting. So my Estoc likes dexterity right? I might have to stick some points in that next then... so many attributes I like to upgrade, and so little souls. (I just ran into a Capra Demon, gone were my souls again!)
Estoc has pretty poor scaling with either, but you're generally better off making it fire or lightning (about doubles the base damage and removes scaling entirely). However don't just look at the damage number to compare it to the Drake Sword, look at the move set. It's much faster and the R2 and ability to attack with your shield up add a ton of utility. I'd say that taking speed into account it will out damage the Drake Sword at around +5, which is trivial to obtain if you've found the smith. Edit: oh yeah, here's how you read damage numbers: you'll see in your inventory something like "100 + 72." The 100 is the base damage and the 72 is what is getting added by your stats.
Yeah, move set is really the most important thing to think of. Damage numbers are less important than the ability to do damage in a fashion you find comfortable. A zweihander will hit harder than an estoc, but several days can pass between starting your swing and connecting with the target; you may or may not be okay with that. For a first playthrough, the important things to keep in mind IMO are that the Drake Sword is an entirely valid weapon that can carry you all the way to the lightning spear in Sen's Fortress, but that you may have more fun exploring some of the other choices available to you. Don't sweat the numbers too much, just look for something that you enjoy using.
I believe fireball range is what it is. You'll either need a bow, more spells, or some melee. I took him down this playthrough with nothing but a +5 zweihander, so I can confirm that melee is a viable tactic...if not the easiest against the bastard. Note that he's slow and you can just ignore him and run through his room without engaging until you're ready. I thought R2 on the Drake Sword was that shockwave thing that destroys its durability? Anyway, you can safely ignore 2H attacks for the entire game if you want, but learning how to pull them off does up your badassery potential by quite a lot. Switching between 1H and 2H is so fast that you can drop your shield, unload a 2H attack for more damage, and have the shield back up before your opponent can respond. Very handy on some bosses.
Stupid addictive game. I think one reason I'm loving it so far is that it's digestible in fairly small chunks. I can play for thirty or sixty minutes and may accomplish something. And there's always one more thing to do!
Tell me about it. I woke up early this morning, and rather then turning around for another hour of sleep I got up and ground out souls for the storage box and repair kit. I haven't even looked at any of the games I bought in the sales after getting Dark Souls!
I think I like that fact about this game as well. It's very easy to take in limited chunks (which seems to be most of my gaming time right now), but you can always accomplish something, failure never sets you back much (only the souls you had on you at the time) and rewards going off the beaten path or taking the scenic route if you want. Lizard_King - extarbags - Charles and Astromarine - Curse you gentlemen for talking about this game so much and dooming others to be tempted to follow in your footsteps of addiction!
I upgraded my Heater Shield to +4. One more and I can get 60 stability, which will be nice. The stone golem knight dudes in Darkroot are a pain in the ass. I can handle them... unless I'm foolish enough to get caught in their debuff. Which I often am. I always feel like I can get just one more hit in before dodging away. Being too aggressive is always what gets me killed in this game!
If there is one secret, one single thing, that makes Dark Souls combat what it is, it's probably closely connected to this fact.
Totally. So I upgraded my Heater Shield to +5 and I've got my Endurance up to about 26 now. The game is now noticably different; I can block attacks from big monsters without feeling like I'm taking much damage, and I no longer feel really constrained by stamina. Sweet!
I also got a thing that I gather can turn one of my weapons into a divine weapon... Any particular candidate I should choose for this? Or is one as good as another and just pick what I enjoy using?
Unless you are playing a faith-based character, there is probably no point in making a weapon divine. There is one other situation where divine weapons are useful, but you won't be there for a while.
Glancing at wikis, it looks like Divine is by far the weakest of the possible enchants. Am I wrong about that/
Don't focus too much on the raw stats. In fact, I would argue that Magic and Enchanted are the most sub-optimal paths, since for magic characters you are almost always better off going with Normal and casting spells on the weapons or (better yet) using boss weapons, and there is no secondary utility. Divine is a path that is really, really useful for the Catacombs, as it keeps skeletons from respawning and allows you to clear out necromancers permanently (thus ending the respawns for good), and again for the Nito boss fight as it keeps the skeletons down there as well. Even for faith characters, I recommend using a divine weapon like the gargoyle halberd for it as it is a weapon with high base damage that is easy to use and will still dish out the pain, as opposed to relying on a weapon that scales better with faith.I have not tested a divine light crossbow but based on how incredibly good this weapon is generally for damage output it might be a good fallback divine weapon if indeed it still puts down skeletons for good. But even moreso I recommend not doing a straight faith character because neither divine nor occult is a compelling enough option and the boss weapons are kind of blah, and I believe you're better off "multi-classing" with strength or dex in order to get faith miracles. My faith character is still struggling forward with the gargoyle halberd but apart from PvP it's not that much fun.
It's the type of aggression that matters. Like, if you don't really know what kind of poise damage your attacks do to your target and are just swinging away, running out of stamina, and getting crushed, then yeah, that sucks. But for instance with the boss fight I just did my problem was sometimes being insufficiently aggressive and not trusting my 2h r1 hits to do their work and stagger him out of an attack animation; once I got my priorities in order and stayed on top of him without over-extending my stamina, it was a pretty routine fight. Too timid is often just as bad, especially with enemies that won't let you back off. I think you'll find as you get to know your weapons and tactics better that you have a number of speeds you can go at that will still deliver. For me, the biggest shift is how I fight at <25% versus <50%, for instance, and the level of aggression for each of those varies with my opponents. So I guess my advice would be "don't worry about categorical rules beyond not getting too comfortable with a single solution to a problem".
Yeah definitely. First Capra Demon attempt: hilarious failure. Butchered within five seconds. That fight is a little bullshit to start off with. Typically Dark Souls has given me a little warning that a boss is coming and gives me a second to get my bearings, in here within a second I was mobbed and a few seconds later dead.
This is what literally every single person says going into that fight. In fact, Capra is arguably the first big obstacle for new players, and you can probably drop a significant number that never got past that point. He's one of the reasons why I always make a beeline for the dragon crest shield early regardless of character and sink all of the twinkling titanite I can wring out of the two lizards (the basin one and the Taurus tower one) into it to make sure I have stability >60 by that point. You still can't do much except dodge his two handed hits, but at least the rest you can soak. Once.But regardless it is a powerful argument for a medium shield at the least. In any case, though, the main thing is really getting past him and on those stairs, or anywhere away from him long enough to get the dogs out of the picture. But you really need to get your bearings quickly, and sometimes it's worth it to go downstairs first and open the path back to the firelink for an easier jog back.
Is making a run for the dragon crest shield viable for a new character? i'm like level twentysomething at the moment.
It's viable at any level for a character that has the master key. There are three items around the undead dragon. The soul on the far right (as you face it) and the sword on the left can both be picked up without rousing it, if you walk very slowly towards them. The shield (the middle item) is more fiddly, as you are likely to die when he wakes up, but you'll still keep it. What I do is get a running start from the area before the dragon so that my blood stain will be easily accessible, grab it, and die. Sometimes I successfully time the roll and survive, but more often it's better just to write off the death and move on.
I suffer from the same problem. I'm actually fine when I'm in a new area or fighting a new enemy, but I get cocky going through a zone I already know or fighting those common undead who turtle behind their shield and then I die. Of course I die to ambushes in a new zone as well. And unexpected bosses. And cliffs. I'll have to tackle the Capra Demon as well today. I also found a boss shooting lightning bolts at me after Andre the blacksmith. I have no idea how to get past him either. It will be a fun day in Dark Souls. It's a shame Lizard_King didn't post that list earlier before I re-rolled, but I think I'm going to keep track of my deaths from today on!
You may have already found this out by now, but it's pretty easy to just run past this enemy. I wouldn't really worry about killing it right now.
I find armoring-up pretty useful in the capra fight. There's not much room to dodge anyway. If you have the elite knight set, try wearing that if you can stay <50%. The extra damage reduction and poise help a lot with the dogs at the start.
LK: how is that Drake Crest Shield not a sidegrade from my Heater Shield? Currently my heater is +5. The protection is a wash; with the Dragon Crest having better fire and magic but worse lightning. (100/20/85/45 for the Dragon Crest, 100/30/70/50 for the Heater). It does get better stability if you upgrade it (at Regular +3 the Drake Crest is 61, vs. 60 for the Heater). The rub is that the Drake Crest requires Twinkling Titanite, which I've thus far never seen. And it weighs more. This isn't a challenge, so much as me trying to understand. I can see how it's superior to the not-upgraded heater, but at this point it seems like I should stick with my heater... That said, I can totally see how that stuff would have been nice to have if I had just rolled a new character!
The Drake Crest is nice to have against enemies that use fire with that high resistance. I picked up the Tower Kite Shield and upgraded that to +5 since it started out with the most Stability of the shields I have access too. No idea if it is the best shield though, besides the 100 reduction against physical and the stability rating I'm not really sure what to look for. Is there any use in upgrading my Wanderer armor? I haven't found anything better that isn't a lot heavier, and I like the look of it. I have the Thief set and the Sorcerer set, but neither offers as much protection.
What armor are you wearing now? This is how I view armor: wear as much as you can while still fitting into the desired encumberance bracket. There are 3 brackets: sub-25% (highly mobile), sub-50% (moderately mobile), and over 50% (basically a tank). So if you are at 25% encumberance, and go to 26% encumberance, you will have lot less mobility for probably not much gain. If you're going to hit 26% anyway, may as well go all the way to 50%.
I'm nearing 50%, so I can't really replace any bits any further. I did find Baldur's greaves and gloves so I am wearing those, but I'm reluctant to let go of my Wander coat, hehe.
I'm avoiding the Capra Demon like the wuss I am. Actually I haven't tackled the bell gargoyles either, I'm very happy pootling around the Parish farming titanite to upgrade my armor and weapons. I had the same problem leaving the Undead Burg, it's so familiar and comfortable now and I know what to expect. New zones are scary! I'll try and move on tonight though.
You can wear both the Pyromancer and Wanderer sets through the whole game, especially if you upgrade them. It's important to remember that if you're wearing cloth armors, you are not supposed to get hit a lot by physical attacks. Rather, they are useful for their resistances (where the Pyro set especially shines). If you are more interested in a heavily armored with huge weapons future, just make sure you're under 50% encumbrance. You should probably also find and kill a knight named Havel asap.
20 secons! A new record! I did manage to confirm that the guy's attacks don't do much in the way of stamina damage to me when blocked... Now I just have to get the timing down and try to get a shot in at the first dog.
I've been staying below 25% because I like how agile it allows me to be. That being said, as I learn to trust the shield more and dodge less against bosses; I may try going over that.
