The deprived club is a PvE monster. But man, it feels woeful for PvP. I have not had a lot of luck with player invasions in the dark souls games. In Elden Ring I did well over a hundred PvP fights. I won nearly all of them. I think that inflated my confidence. I have won only a single of the invasions I've experienced through DS1-3. I've only had a few, but my performance has been embarrassing enough that I feel sufficiently dragged.
DS3's weapon collisions online feel really bad. Enemy players connect to me from way further away than I expect. It's throwing me off.
—
Damn. I have been blowing through this game til hitting Sulyvahn. This guy. It's like I went from 0 to 60 in one fog wall.
Used some soul items I'd been hoarding to from level 60 to 65. Hope this helps.
After about 20 attempts I decided to ember up and summon. First try with an NPC summon 🤦♂️
I can't think of another fight in the DS games that has as big a gap between the difficulty of a solo fight Vs co op.
—
I did an invasion as an Aldrich Faithful and finally won. The guy I invaded must have been doing some kind of challenge run, because he did not have a melee armament and used spells exclusively. He didn't seem to want to engage me. I harassed him for a bit, not sticking close enough to beat him, until finally he ran out of estus at the edge of a cliff. I walked slowly up to him, dropped a "hello" carving, and he jumped off the edge. It was an interesting little interaction.
—
I've won 3 invasions in a row now. I feel bad every single time ☹️
I much prefer co op activities. I don't like being the cause of people losing progress. But I want the covenant rewards.
I messed around with some pyromancies and I kind of regret building a sorcerer now. My best pyromancies do 3-5x my best sorceries, even with a level 1 pyromancy flame and a level 7 sorcerer staff. They also launch faster. I'm going to try to stick with my current build. I still feel like I missed out.
I can see myself playing through DS3 another time. At least once. I really like it. It lacks the tension of the first Dark Souls, but it feels great to play. Not quite Elden Ring level. But still very fun.
—
I got my 10 points in Aldrich Faithful and turned off the covenant. All I wanted was the spell.
I kind of loved that covenant by the end. Interacting with other players is really special. I was glad to see a lot of it. I played nearly 20 online sessions from the Aldrich covenant alone. That was the bulk of my online time. I also did a few mound maker invasions, which is a great idea I wish was expanded on in Elden Ring. Maybe DLC? And I was invaded myself a few times. I was very happy to see how active this game still is online (although I never got a bite on any of my boss door summon signs, making sun heirs progress impossible).
I beat soul of cinder at 40 hours in, around level 90. Added a couple of levels after beating him, but these are roughly the endgame stats.
I still need to finish the Sister Friede boss fight in Ariandel, along with the ringed city DLC and archdragon peak.
I had this on disc and I immediately bought it digital after finishing. This is a game I can see myself wanting to pop into while playing other things. I can see myself doing it enough that I'd save myself a lot of hassle with that $21 sale price. I don't think I've done that for any game before.
In terms of design, I think Dark Souls 1 is the tightest. It feels, more than any other game, hand-crafted. A world in miniature. Sprints between bonfires are expertly honed.
But DS3 is the most fun. I think a few of the bosses are a little too aggressive, like just letting up .25 to .5 seconds longer between attacks would make them more enjoyable. But this is a rarity, and it's mitigated entirely by NPC summons. Sulyvahn and Soul of Cinder were both tough for me, both clocking in at 10+ attempts, many of those wasted before getting them down more than 1/4 health. But both were trivialized by summons. I walked in with my computer buddy and we walked out with barely a scrape on us.
Prince Lothric and the middle stage of sister friede are the two most frustrating for me I think. The teleport mechanics of both make surprise hits really frustrating. Sister friede sometimes appears inside the big guy and pops out for attacks I have no time to react to. I like this fights visually, but I feel cheated by them over and over.
The actual levels though, the corridor crawling. I love it. It's so fun. I had way more options at my disposal in this one than either of the prior two games. Because of my low attunement, it wasn't quite elden ring (praise the sun that they've dropped that stat). But I could go in with a lot of confidence with various sorceries, pyromancies, and melee weapons. I felt extremely limited by DS2 and it was refreshing to have things open again.
Once I finish up the last of DS3, I'll be onto Sekiro. I imagine I'll pick DS3 back up periodically to run through NG+.
—
Nameless King is my new wall. As much as I like DS3, there are a few bosses that I really dislike. This is one of them. This guy sucks ass. The first phase does the thing I hate in these games where the target is so big you can't see what the hell is going on. The second half never lets up. It punishes you for healing. Punishes you for casting magic. Punishes you for being punished. There are so few opportunities to get hits in, and every time I do it's a trade. I don't have any usable weapon fast enough to even get an R1 in before he's swinging again. After like five tries I thought, OK, this guy is so aggressive because From wants me to use summons. You need an NPC in that fight to distract him during the second phase. But there are none! I don't know when the heck I even get to attack. I think this is the most stumped I've ever been on patterns in any of these bosses before.
OK, the difficulty of this fight differs wildly depending on the set of moves this guy decides to do. Sometimes it's one big swipe, sometimes two small ones, other times this huge fuckin chain of death blows that seems to go on forever. It's really hard to predict what's going to come out. I think it's trying to capture that Fume Knight energy. But I loved Fume Knight. This one when it decides to go for broke, it's just too much. The combo chain becomes way too long to be enjoyable.
—
Yeah man I hate this boss. Hate it. I have spent well over an hour with him now and I feel no better now than I was when I started. The first phase is easy as heck until it decides to chain multiple air fire breaths at which point I may as well put down my controller. And the second phase becomes impossible when it enters infinite hit combo mode.
Uma captura por everluck
www.xbox.com
It gets to the point where I can't recognize the end of a chain anymore because they go on so long. It's way too much. I think this is a bottom three boss for me.
A capture by everluck
www.xbox.com
I don't even know who I am anymore.
—
Finally did it. YouTube to the rescue. Finding out you can turn the camera away during his lightning strike was a game changer. Finished my second try with that knowledge.
I think I spent about the same amount of time with the nameless king as I did with fume knight. Much prefer the fume knight. I still think nameless king is too much. I don't like the lack of visibility during the first half. And I resent the second half for being after that first half. I think I'd have a much higher opinion if they were separate fights.
I think nameless king is meant to recall fume knight. Nothing else in DS3 is really like that. I think visually it's a stunner. It's more artistically impressive. But fume knight was all about the simplicity. A big arena with plenty of space for the both of you, with nothing to obscure the view. The nameless king has this wind, these statues that sometimes get in the way. Plus that janky first part. I appreciate the idea behind it but it felt unfair too often.
—
Working my way down to the ringed city now. I finished sister friede to clean up the remainder of ariandel, and all that's left level wise is the ringed city DLC. After this, I'll run through a spells and equipment checklist and make sure I grab everything before starting NG+.
I like the friede boss fight outside stage 2. The big guy obscures the camera and makes it difficult to track friede herself. I know that's the point, but it takes way too long to space the two character safely because they both track you at the same time. Friede sneaks up on you. Phases 1 and 3 were fine, good even. I came to enjoy the first phase quite a bit after a number of retries. But phase 2 never became enjoyable.
My latest boss was the twin demons / demon prince. I *really* liked this one. The bosses were big, but their moves were mercifully telegraphed. It felt a lot more fair than many of the recent bosses that have given me trouble. When I took damage, it was clearly on me, and not due to a random teleport or a weapon popping in suddenly from off screen or through another character. I was glad to get a break for once.
—
Finished Midir and Gael. Enjoyed both. I prefer Gael, and I consider him a top 3 souls boss. Really enjoyed that one. During one attempt, a ring knight spawned in the arena. It never happened again so I assume it was a bug. If it's international, I'm not sure how to trigger it, and I think that would make the fight worse. It only works 1 on 1. But man, what a great fight.
I beat him with my starting club. So fitting 🥲
If I have one problem with the design, it's the same one I have with Fume Knight. It goes on so long. The guy has too much health. Cut it by like 25% and it'd be perfect.
—
I did a couple of spears of the church rounds as the boss. Lost both times. It's obnoxious how few duel charms can be held in battle. Hosts hang back and run through 10 full health bars but the boss can't heal. I think this is a wonderful concept but my int build makes it really difficult to manage multiple players at once. I hope Elden ring gets some interesting multiplayer improvements as part of the eventual DLC.
I kind of want to start NG+, but I'm nervous about moving away from the active level range for invasions and covenants. Between levels 70-85 I was getting pulled in constantly, back to back matches, now at level 120 I'm lucky to get a single session every five or six hours. Invasions are a ton of fun and I want to hold onto them as long as possible. I could always hop back into ER, but I did triple digit multiplayer sessions there already. Without the hook of a covenant, it gets repetitive. I really like the online content for DS3, and I'm happy to see it's still active. I want to get as much out of it as I can, before it's gone.
—
I'm seeing quite a few matches in NG+ now that I'm around level 135. From what I can gather, these are mostly players on NG who are leveling up to play the endgame and DLC bosses. Yesterday I fought nearly a dozen unique watchdogs of farron as I moved through that area. I was very surprised. I didn't expect to ever see someone in that covenant, let alone someone at level 100+.
every time I play I also get pulled to one or two spears of the church invasions. I'm trying to get those covenant rewards. For some reason, spears is especially flaky. Half the invasions end in a connection error. The ones I play are mostly enjoyable, but it's the one covenant that irks me when there is latency. When my halberd crashes down into someone, there is a big blood spurt, but they don't stop or take damage. Ugh. I think it's because as the spear, I can't heal. The advantage you have as the boss is that attrition, those adds and your golden balls. But when you can't land hits or predict when you'll be hit, it's all out the window.
I've won most of my matchups which I'm happy about. Usually I'll reach out and ask if the other players need a hand with the ringed city. There was one player I got matched to three times and I beat them each time. I felt so bad I took off the spears covenant for a while. I hope they got past it 😬
—
I'm getting loads of invasions around level 150. I thought they'd drop off in NG+ levels. But no. During a one hour session yesterday I saw nearly a dozen different players, either invading their worlds or being invaded myself. It's hopping.
I am trying to clean up the mound makers covenant. I like this one conceptually more than in practice. I think it would be greatly improved if purple phantoms could aggro foes, and enter boss arenas. I've dabbled in aiding as a purple phantom, dropping items for other players and fighting off red phantoms. But typically the host and their allies assume you're there to antagonize, and they attack right away. I'd love to see Elden Ring revisit the wild card phantom idea, and expand on it. It deserves a second chance.
I'm nearing the end of my NG+ cycle now. Was a breeze. Even easier than I expected. But still a lot of fun. It's the online content that makes it most engaging.
I notice that most players, the vast majority, neglect the charm that disables estus. It's what saves me over and over as an invader. Hosts don't dodge it, and they try to use estus after they've been hit. At level 100+ I expect them to be familiar with this. But almost no one is. I'm surprised at how often I can rely on them not to know what's happened when I land one.
It's got to the point where I win the majority of my invasions. Not quite as many as in ER, which felt broken. I was doing chains of dozens without a loss. But like eight to ten in a row before I lose. And I don't think I'm especially
good. I'm not doing SL1 runs through these games. But I am familiar with the mechanics in a way that it seems many players are not. Very few people seem to know how to counter approaches. You see the same weapons over and over, the same strategies used. Elden Ring was similar. Everyone is following the same boring YouTube guides to PvP that don't actually get them anywhere. Very few players know how to improvise.
Not everyone is like this! I matched to a first time dark souls player a few days ago who beat me three times in a row using an assortment of dex weapons. They were close matches but I still lost them all. That was a smart player. I mixed my approach each time, and they countered appropriately. When I upped my aggression, they took out a shield and parried. It was good to see some actual effort put in.
