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Which game do you find holds the most replayability?

  • Demon's Souls

    Votes: 36 11.6%
  • Dark Souls

    Votes: 105 33.8%
  • Dark Souls II

    Votes: 44 14.1%
  • Dark Souls III

    Votes: 93 29.9%
  • Bloodborne

    Votes: 95 30.5%
  • Sekiro

    Votes: 17 5.5%

  • Total voters
    311

ktll4c91

Member
Oct 28, 2017
13
I've started my second BB playthrough (I was asking about build advice the other day), and I think I may have messed up already lol.

I wanted to go strength/arcane, so I've been pumping levels into strength for the time being, as there aren't any arcane things available yet, and I'm at 23 strength currently. I have the Stake Driver now, and was planning on putting a fire gem on it, and running it with arcane, but I've just checked, and apparently with the fire gem, it only scales with arcane, unlike a standard arcane weapon like the Wheel, which uses both.

Does strength not matter on a fire gem Stake Driver?

I think my stats at SL120 will end up as:
Vitality: 30
Endurance: 25
Strength: 23
Skill: 9
Bloodtinge: 5
Arcane: 78

Would that be alright, or should I reset, and keep strength at 18 (enough to equip the stake driver), and get arcane to 83? Or should I increase strength to 25, skill to 12, drop arcane to 73, and equip the Holy Moonlight Sword or Wheel as well? Or would 25 strength be too low?

I would suggest go with 20 str and 12 skl so that you can use both HMS and the wheel. Also drop some endurance and arcane for more vit.
 

Davey Cakes

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,688
Massachusetts
After playing the majority of the game with greatswords (like the Bastard Sword) or ultra greatswords (like the Zweihander) I actually fell into using the Red Iron Twinblade and haven't really looked back. I may have not built my character exactly for it but I just appreciate the feel and rhythm of the weapon. It's a nice, welcome change, and I've been successful tackling most of the DLC with it.

I may have stuck with the Zweihander (my weapon of choice in DS1) if they didn't give it that awful stab as its power move. Kind of killed the weapon for me. :(

Also, on the topic of equipment, I cannot for the life of me find a better helmet than the Gyrm Helm. Since I haven't been against using Wikis, I wouldn't mind a recommendation for a better helmet so long as I know I'm not wasting the souls and titanite on the upgrade. It's just that, from what I can tell, not many other helmets seem like their base stats are high enough to overtake what I currently have.

That kind of goes for equipment in general in DS2, for me. After a point I settled into a few different pieces and figured additional experimentation wasn't worth it. Kind of made stamina a non-issue. This is a bit different from DS1 where I'd be more flexible and change what was wearing and wielding based on context.
 
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Jimnymebob

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,633
I would suggest go with 20 str and 12 skl so that you can use both HMS and the wheel. Also drop some endurance and arcane for more vit.

I might drop some endurance, but I played through the first time with 30 vitality, and that was fine for me. I'm only making a PvE build.

I'm just used to having high endurance because I usually play Dex/Skill builds.

I definitely want to use the Stake Driver as my primary weapon though. Does it's transformed charged R2 scale off arcane regardless of gems, due to the fiery explosion?
 

ktll4c91

Member
Oct 28, 2017
13
I might drop some endurance, but I played through the first time with 30 vitality, and that was fine for me. I'm only making a PvE build.

I'm just used to having high endurance because I usually play Dex/Skill builds.

I definitely want to use the Stake Driver as my primary weapon though. Does it's transformed charged R2 scale off arcane regardless of gems, due to the fiery explosion?

Wiki says charged R2 only dose blunt dmg so I suppose it has no arcane scaling without an elemental gem. Even then it doesn't scale well off arcane so I'm not sure why you would want to use it with a str/arc build.
 

Jimnymebob

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,633
Wiki says charged R2 only dose blunt dmg so I suppose it has no arcane scaling without an elemental gem. Even then it doesn't scale well off arcane so I'm not sure why you would want to use it with a str/arc build.

I was going to use it with a fire gem, but I only just realised that fire gems completely remove any scaling and replaces it solely with arcane scaling.
 

Laiza

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,171
I've reached Smouldering Lake in my latest DS3 playthrough.

All of this has made me wonder - how do people who complained about DS2 having "artificial difficulty" (massive sarcasm quotes there) cope with DS3 turning up the dial even further in that regard?

Getting ambushed by four Ghru at once in a tight space (also an example of the sort of ambush that people love to bitch about), fighting multiple assassin skeletons who apparently are far more agile than the player character can ever hope to be, pretty much everything about the Cathedral of the Deep, and so on and so forth. I can only wonder if people who hated on DS2 for this sort of thing also hated DS3, or if there is a double-standard at play here.

Oddly enough, in my SotFS replay thus far I have only once thought to myself "this is bullshit" the way a number of these encounters in DS3 have (specifically the heide knight fights in the Tower of Heide after you down the dragonrider). Some of that may have to do with the fact that I'm wielding a bastard sword in my DS2 playthrough, which is great for cutting down swathes of enemies, but I think a lot of it also has to do with the fact that enemies are just faster relative to the player character in 3. Trying to retreat from said group of Ghru put this in stark relief for me - it was basically impossible, especially with the one unarmed Ghru always sprinting and grabbing me whenever I tried to create distance. Yes, yes, I know, 'git gud' and all that jazz, but I seriously want to know what the overlap is here between people who complain about DS2 and people who complain about DS3. There's no way anyone who hated DS2 for this could possibly forgive DS3 for it, right? People aren't just giving it a pass because Miyazaki or anything, right?
 
OP
OP
III-V

III-V

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,827
I've reached Smouldering Lake in my latest DS3 playthrough.

All of this has made me wonder - how do people who complained about DS2 having "artificial difficulty" (massive sarcasm quotes there) cope with DS3 turning up the dial even further in that regard?

Getting ambushed by four Ghru at once in a tight space (also an example of the sort of ambush that people love to bitch about), fighting multiple assassin skeletons who apparently are far more agile than the player character can ever hope to be, pretty much everything about the Cathedral of the Deep, and so on and so forth. I can only wonder if people who hated on DS2 for this sort of thing also hated DS3, or if there is a double-standard at play here.

Oddly enough, in my SotFS replay thus far I have only once thought to myself "this is bullshit" the way a number of these encounters in DS3 have (specifically the heide knight fights in the Tower of Heide after you down the dragonrider). Some of that may have to do with the fact that I'm wielding a bastard sword in my DS2 playthrough, which is great for cutting down swathes of enemies, but I think a lot of it also has to do with the fact that enemies are just faster relative to the player character in 3. Trying to retreat from said group of Ghru put this in stark relief for me - it was basically impossible, especially with the one unarmed Ghru always sprinting and grabbing me whenever I tried to create distance. Yes, yes, I know, 'git gud' and all that jazz, but I seriously want to know what the overlap is here between people who complain about DS2 and people who complain about DS3. There's no way anyone who hated DS2 for this could possibly forgive DS3 for it, right? People aren't just giving it a pass because Miyazaki or anything, right?
I think you have the right idea.... preach!
 

gosublime

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,431
What is the opinion most of you have on the Dark Souls series lore?

In DS1 & DS2 I felt like they had an actual plot and while some of the points conflicted, it was mostly justified for the change in gameplay. Does DS3 feel like they never actually had a real plot worked out?

Things like Humans having a civilization before being branded by the fire, totally breaks the stuff we were told in DS1 and 2. It also doesn't explain hollowing and why it goes away.

I think that DS3 sometimes feels like Miyazaki is trolling the players/fans a little bit. For example, when you get the Grave Key and read about Velka, you think it's going to be something awesome; but no, it's just a statue. Other things mentioned above like the speed of enemies compared to the player character. It's nothing major, but does feel a bit like he's laughing at us.
 

Red Liquorice

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,071
UK
There's no way anyone who hated DS2 for this could possibly forgive DS3 for it, right? People aren't just giving it a pass because Miyazaki or anything, right?
DS3 does have some of those same problems as DS2, but it's also easier to deal with high numbers of enemies because the engine isn't complete shit and it doesn't feel like you're playing in molasses.
 

Ferrs

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
18,829
DS3 does have some of those same problems as DS2, but it's also easier to deal with high numbers of enemies because the engine isn't complete shit and it doesn't feel like you're playing in molasses.

Well DS2 runs at 60 fps , that's a big difference. Also, being slower means you can time your dodges easier (atleast for me, you're less prone to panic roll).
On the other case DS3 has barely any stamina consumption to rolling compared to 2...

.... so yeah, each game has it's thing, I honestly don't feel much of a diference dealing with hordes of enemies in both games, and both games do use them a lot.
 

ktll4c91

Member
Oct 28, 2017
13
Just started DS3 as my second soulsborne game after bloodborne. Thinking of going with a quality build but definitely wanna play with the spell system. Can someone tell me which one of three schools of spell is the most effective with minimal stats investment?
 

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church
Member
Oct 24, 2017
34,354
FYI I took the liberty to add the Discord channel in the OP. It's not always active but feel free to join whenever.
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Ferrs

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
18,829
Just started DS3 as my second soulsborne game after bloodborne. Thinking of going with a quality build but definitely wanna play with the spell system. Can someone tell me which one of three schools of spell is the most effective with minimal stats investment?

Pyromancy IMO is the easiest and best school.

FYI I took the liberty to add the Discord channel in the OP. It's not always active but feel free to join whenever.
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Joined! (should have do it earlier tbh)
 

phlpp

Member
Oct 29, 2017
83
I think that DS3 sometimes feels like Miyazaki is trolling the players/fans a little bit. For example, when you get the Grave Key and read about Velka, you think it's going to be something awesome; but no, it's just a statue. Other things mentioned above like the speed of enemies compared to the player character. It's nothing major, but does feel a bit like he's laughing at us.

DS3's first playthrough in retrospective felt like 30 hours of fan service. And I loved it.
 

Ferrs

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
18,829
on the Pro DS3 runs between 45-50. Not ideal but feels better than on base PS4.

Not as smooth as DS2 at 60 fps of course.
 

gogosox82

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,385
I've reached Smouldering Lake in my latest DS3 playthrough.

All of this has made me wonder - how do people who complained about DS2 having "artificial difficulty" (massive sarcasm quotes there) cope with DS3 turning up the dial even further in that regard?

Getting ambushed by four Ghru at once in a tight space (also an example of the sort of ambush that people love to bitch about), fighting multiple assassin skeletons who apparently are far more agile than the player character can ever hope to be, pretty much everything about the Cathedral of the Deep, and so on and so forth. I can only wonder if people who hated on DS2 for this sort of thing also hated DS3, or if there is a double-standard at play here.

Oddly enough, in my SotFS replay thus far I have only once thought to myself "this is bullshit" the way a number of these encounters in DS3 have (specifically the heide knight fights in the Tower of Heide after you down the dragonrider). Some of that may have to do with the fact that I'm wielding a bastard sword in my DS2 playthrough, which is great for cutting down swathes of enemies, but I think a lot of it also has to do with the fact that enemies are just faster relative to the player character in 3. Trying to retreat from said group of Ghru put this in stark relief for me - it was basically impossible, especially with the one unarmed Ghru always sprinting and grabbing me whenever I tried to create distance. Yes, yes, I know, 'git gud' and all that jazz, but I seriously want to know what the overlap is here between people who complain about DS2 and people who complain about DS3. There's no way anyone who hated DS2 for this could possibly forgive DS3 for it, right? People aren't just giving it a pass because Miyazaki or anything, right?

Who said DS2 was the only game that had artificial difficultly? Basically every game since AOTA has had some bs in it in regards to enemy placement and enemies in general. In AOTA when you get to the Royal Wood, all the enemies there pull in packs so if you try to take on one at a time, they all run at you. The worst are those Guardians who seem resistant to everything but are really resistant to magic attacks and are really tanky as well. Its a pain to fight in that area so most people just run by everything. Because you can run by them, most people don't notice that the enemies in AOTA are bs and unfair. But basically, ever since then they have put enemies like that in the games to challenge the player because if they didn't players would complain about the content being too easy even though the game was never about that and doesn't really have a combat system that supports being a rpg version of DMC or whatever people want ( It also hilarious that people claim they want the game to be harder but then endlessly complain when they put a hard boss in the game like Midir who isn't really even that hard to begin with). So yes DS3 has bs enemy placements and encounters but so does DS1, BB, and DS2. You can complain about DS3 enemies all you want and I'd probably agree with you but if you either being hypocritical or biased towards the games you prefer if your acting like basically every game since AOTA didn't have as well.
 

Sblargh

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,926
Ds2 get better after your agl stat is higher. That stat is the root of a lot of issues in that game.
The beggining of Ds2 is really fucking frustrating. Then you survive and it's all right. Because you have to level up to the point where it feels like dark souls.

Dark souls 3 feels like that from the beggining.
 

Boddy

User Requested Ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,160
Agility is one of the worst things about DS2.
It's very unintuitive and figuring out excatly how it works is basically impossible.
Like, how do you know when you are getting more I-frames without looking it up?

All the other stats are very easy to understand and you see what raising them does right away, which is vital in a series that doesn't like to explain itself very well.
 

shimon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,581
I love DS2 but I'm not gonna argue Agility was a good idea. It definitely wasn't.
 
OP
OP
III-V

III-V

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,827
I am not sure how much agility added to the gameplay. From what I recall it had a sweet spot thankfully without too much of an investment. I think maybe the starting value was just a bit too slow, and the sluggish start left a bad taste for many.
 

Ferrs

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
18,829
ok. whats a decent build for amy arm.

boutta hop on here.

IIRC 50 STR and whateverr ARC you want (25 would be a good spot if you don't want to go up to 50).

I am not sure how much agility added to the gameplay. From what I recall it had a sweet spot thankfully without too much of an investment. I think maybe the starting value was just a bit too slow, and the sluggish start left a bad taste for many.

105 Agility is considered the sweetspot, it gives the same i-frames that fast rolls on DS1.
 

Strafer

The Flagpole is Wider
Member
Oct 25, 2017
29,372
Sweden
Well, I managed to kill Kalameet after about six tries, but did not get the sword unfortunately, he would't give me the tail. :(
 

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church
Member
Oct 24, 2017
34,354
Cutting Kalameet's tail is probably the only thing I haven't done in a Souls game...
 

shimon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,581
I cut the tail once and it was boring AF...Constantly waiting til he does his flying sweep and then pray that you position yourself so he does his tail pound. Pain in the ass :/
 

Laiza

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,171
I cut the tail once as well. Once was enough.

I've reached the Profaned Capital and Anor Londo in my latest playthrough of DS3, and gosh, I remember them being tiny, but this is ridiculous! After the standard set in DS2's DLC these zones were a massive disappointment. Just a tiny series of rooms (or in Anor Londo's case, a single room) with no interesting routes or even gameplay (unless you count having to dodge a bunch of fireballs "interesting"). At least Aldrich is a decent and unique boss, though his high magic resist is making me feel like playing a sorceress is a mistake.

This playthrough just keeps making me want to jump back into SotFS. I can't help it. It's like every step forward I take, I'm reminded of why I like that game better. I really do feel like DS3 would've benefited greatly from not being developed concurrently with DS2. Take those lessons and learn from them, instead of making a game that feels like it sidesteps a lot of the good things about the previous games. Sigh. Oh, well. It's a shame they're moving on from the franchise leaving this as its legacy, but I suppose it's still a good enough game on its own. It's just not what I wanted from a sequel.
 

horkrux

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,730
Getting ambushed by four Ghru at once in a tight space (also an example of the sort of ambush that people love to bitch about), fighting multiple assassin skeletons who apparently are far more agile than the player character can ever hope to be, pretty much everything about the Cathedral of the Deep, and so on and so forth. I can only wonder if people who hated on DS2 for this sort of thing also hated DS3, or if there is a double-standard at play here.

It's not a double-standard. Fact of the matter is you're way more agile in DS3 so this never felt like that much of a problem to me. DS3 simply has the most annoying enemy types in general imo. That's a far bigger problem than encounter design.
 

xenocide

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,307
Vermont
The only thing that has pissed me off in DS3 was that the game kept freezing while fighting Dancer--a fight where movement and timing were pretty damn important. I still got the boss down, but a few attempts I was thrown off by the game locking up for several seconds.

I got through Dancer, Oceiros, and all of Lothric Castle last night. Dancer is a pain, but I do love the fight. Oceiros was okay, but once you figure out how to manage him it seems kinda boring. If you stay close to him during phase 2 you basically restrict him to 2-3 attacks that are REALLY easy to manage.
 

Red Liquorice

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,071
UK
If you've ever seen one of LobosJr's videos he has a pretty fool proof method of cutting Kalameet's tail. You have to wait for specific attacks to take advantage of them, but it's simple enough, just takes patience or baiting him in to the right attack/animation.
 

Davey Cakes

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,688
Massachusetts
Last night I was fuming (pun intended) because I couldn't beat Fume Knight in DS2. Had him on the ropes several times but kept messing up. I had been drinking, but I wasn't far gone.

Took a break, then returned when I was...drunker. Like, sick drunk. Destroyed that mofo right away. I think being almost disoriented on alcohol increased my gumption in the game. lol

Still couldn't take down Lud and Zallen though, but again, got close. I think I was just fatigued at that point. Hopefully going to finish the job tonight. I think I'll be completely done with DS2 after that, minus a few little things I may have missed. Finding all the bonfires and beating the three DLC packs should do it. I honestly can't wait to move on since I have a backlog to play, but I can't let the game (including the DLC via SotFS) go incomplete. I must hit a satisfactory level of completion, dang it!

Quite a ride, I will say. I've put way more hours into SotFS than DS1 even if DS1 is still my preferred experience overall. While DS2 is a bit of a mess, it's a long game and actually gets better as it goes on so in a sense it kind of grabs hold and doesn't let go.
 

Echo

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
6,482
Mt. Whatever
gosublime told me to come on down to SoulsERA so here I am. For now I'mma just watch the thread since I probably don't have much to add.

I haven't yet gotten around to Bloodborne as I was foolishly hoping a Pro patch would come. When I do get around to it I know I'm gonna shoot for the platinum like always! Are there any recommended builds for a noob? My only Souls experience is with DS1 on PC and I sword-and-boarded my way through it playing ultra defensively lol.

Artistically though I love the aesthetic of BB. And I know people complain a lot about it, but the chromatic aberration is so sexy to me haha.

... Is the post what landed me here. Like I told gosu, I dunno when I'll start BB (I'm currently in backlog hell lol) but when I do, I hope you guys can help me through the transition from defensive player to whatever BB is gonna require.
 

Davey Cakes

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,688
Massachusetts
So I'm sitting here, playing DS2, thinking I'm on the home stretch.

Then l lose to Lud and Zallen. AGAIN. Then I try for the Knight of Alonne and fail. Miserably.

Fuck, this game will not let me go.
 

xenocide

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,307
Vermont
I restarted DS2. Rolled a Warrior because I felt I needed the shield and durability while getting used to the game. Made it way farther already. I see some of the allure to the game world over DS3, but I think mechanically DS3 feels a lot nicer. Maybe my opinion will change over time but so far that's ho a I feel.

Oh. Also, Lifegems are awesome and I don't know why they don't have them in 3.
 

Malfred

Member
Oct 26, 2017
532
I restarted DS2. Rolled a Warrior because I felt I needed the shield and durability while getting used to the game. Made it way farther already. I see some of the allure to the game world over DS3, but I think mechanically DS3 feels a lot nicer. Maybe my opinion will change over time but so far that's ho a I feel.

Oh. Also, Lifegems are awesome and I don't know why they don't have them in 3.

They were a rather contested addition.
The biggest issue with them is that they aren't a limited resource (at least, the small ones aren't), meaning that running out of Estus isn't as threatening an occurence as it otherwise should be.

Ultimately they take away some of the tension of being low on health and in-between bonfires, which Miyazaki intended with the Estus as the sole healing item.