SoulsERA |OT| So the world might be mended

[ClearMetal]

Ariandel is absolutely brutal at times. It is supposed to be mid to high level content with a weapon at +6/+7. I did the optional parts with the Milwood knights last night with a +10 weapon and at SL85 and still needed every single estus charge to clear the tower plus vicinity in one go. Fucking wolves... Even that one hill in the beginning, with 4 Followers guarding the item, is a death trap no matter when you do it.

I tend to start Ariandel after the Catacombs, but the first part is just me sprinting past the Followers, wolves and Milwood Knights. The Corvian Settlements gets cleared out in earnest but then it is back to running past Followers/Milwood knights, unlocking the shortcuts in the process and making it back to the chapel. One Milwood knight would have been challenging but tolerable, but half a dozen of them including one miniboss, not to mention the legion of Followers and a few lost wolves? Fuck no.

 

[Noema]

I think the DS3 dlc is super shitty. I actively hate this.

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Ariandel is the worst piece of DLC they've made; no ifs, ands or buts. It's just subpar content that is only salvaged by a great boss and some interesting open field areas which are of remark if anything because it's not something you often see in these games.

RInged City is fine. It's like a farewell letter to everything that made Dark Souls great. It doesn't always work, but it's well made; has a ton of great bosses and the city is fun to explore; it has much more lore and even little mysteries here and there. (And Patches!).

Spoiler: Ringed City Bosses

Gael is one of the best bosses in the series, and that second phase music is just orgasmic. Midir is...an acquired taste, but no one would deny he's a cool boss and it was about time they let us fight a proper dragon.

I wonder if the original plan was to just have one larger DLC like Old Hunters and then decided to split it up so they could justify the existance of a Season Pass. Otherwise I can't understand why there's so much disparity in quality.

Ariandel is absolutely brutal at times. It is supposed to be mid to high level content with a weapon at +6/+7. I did the optional parts with the Milwood knights last night with a +10 weapon and at SL85 and still needed every single estus charge to clear the tower plus vicinity in one go. Fucking wolves... Even that one hill in the beginning, with 4 Followers guarding the item, is a death trap no matter when you do it..

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They dump Large Titanite Shards on you like you didn't have to fight Friede in the end.

At least they didn't skimp on the TItanite Slabs.

 

[Deleted member 21003]

I'm not sure why everything in the ringed city needed to do half my health with a single attack.

 

[Red Liquorice]

I wonder if the original plan was to just have one larger DLC like Old Hunters and then decided to split it up so they could justify the existance of a Season Pass. Otherwise I can't understand why there's so much disparity in quality.

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iirc, that was the plan.

I'm not sure why everything in the ringed city needed to do half my health with a single attack.

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Yeah, I was never a fan of that either. And the density of said enemies, it's a bit much.

 

[Deleted member 11008]

I think I broke the game with the Black knight halberd. That thing is pretty OP imho. Now into Valley of Defile... I mean, Blighttown. By the way I'm not into achievements/trophies, but it's a shame defeat bosses or mini-bosses don't gain some of them. I think so far just Sif give me a achievement, but not because I defeat it, it was thanks to the item I got :/

 

[Red Liquorice]

Some bosses give achievements (by way of what item/quest related thing they're guarding yeah). The Black Knight weapons are all very OP.

 

[Noema]

I think I broke the game with the Black knight halberd. That thing is pretty OP imho. Now into Valley of Defile... I mean, Blighttown. By the way I'm not into achievements/trophies, but it's a shame defeat bosses or mini-bosses don't gain some of them. I think so far just Sif give me a achievement, but not because I defeat it, it was thanks to the item I got :/

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Yeah. It's arguably the best weapon in the game. It's not a guaranteed drop until the end game so it's a fine little perk.

Most of the bosses in the second half of the game do give Trophies / Achievements

 

[yellow wallpaper]

Is dark souls remastered worth the 10$ upgrade on pc?

 

[Morrigan]

Ariandel is the worst piece of DLC they've made; no ifs, ands or buts. It's just subpar content that is only salvaged by a great boss and some interesting open field areas which are of remark if anything because it's not something you often see in these games.

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I really don't agree simply because I had so much fun with the PvP arena. The levels aren't that bad either, though it's not their best (still better than Royal Woods...), but it's redeemed by the incredible boss fight.

I think I broke the game with the Black knight halberd. That thing is pretty OP imho.

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Yeah it is. Completely game-breaking. I get that it's a lucky drop but it's not that rare either. It's fun for a replay though but it'd honestly suck for a new player to get that drop right away and just completely break the game.

 

[Deleted member 11008]

I got the Lordvessel. Lmao Gwynevere remind me a bit to Mem Aleph from SMT Strange Journey.

Spoiler: Mem Aleph

Spoiler: Gwynevere

By the way, I'm wearing now the Havel's set (except the head, for that I'm using Mask of the child) + Ring of favor and protection + Havel's Ring, and I put already 40 points to Endurance, but I haven't raised the Vitality stat past 10 points. I... I don't know, after my experience with Demon's Souls (my first Souls) I feel like HP doesn't matter a lot in Demon's/Dark if you have a good shield and protection. The same can't be said in Bloodborne, but even there I don't raise that much Vitality.

That's why I don't feel that bad using the Black knight halberd, because my character is very strong but also may be very fragile too. But that is the magic from Souls games, you can play whatever you like and it's valid.

 

[MilkBeard]

Watching Lobos play Dark Souls Remastered with Quick Souls and Daughters of Ash mods. Seems like it would be fun to try it out.

 

[MajulaDream]

After platting Sekiro, I'm back to another journey in Dark Souls 2. Comfort food & nostalgia always brings me back <3

 

[Deleted member 11008]

I feel so miserable figthing the Four Kings ;_;

 

[Noema]

I feel so miserable figthing the Four Kings ;_;

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What weapon / build are you using?

 

[RecLib]

Thinking of giving bloodborne another go, haven't played in a long time. Arcane builds can't come online until late in the game right? So even if I want to make an arcane build I'm better off going a strength based origin and bumping up the arcane stat later on in the game.

 

[Cat Party]

I feel so miserable figthing the Four Kings ;_;

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God, the run back to that fight is brutal.

 

[Noema]

God, the run back to that fight is brutal.

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It's not bad if you're coming from the Valley of Drakes! Most people use the Firelink Shrine Bonfire but that takes much longer.

You can go straight from the Darkroot Basin bonfire to the floodgates in the Valley, run past the drakes, use the lift to your left and then drop down from the area with the ghosts and land directly in front of the fog gate.

Takes about 30 seconds.

 

[Guppeth]

Thinking of giving bloodborne another go, haven't played in a long time. Arcane builds can't come online until late in the game right? So even if I want to make an arcane build I'm better off going a strength based origin and bumping up the arcane stat later on in the game.

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That's what I did when I tried Arcane. I was aiming for the Holy Moonlight Sword so I needed some strength anyway.

 

[Deleted member 11008]

What weapon / build are you using?

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Right now for the fight my character is wearing the Havel's set, the Ring of favor and protection and almost the same attributes as above. For weapon I use Black knight halber +2.

 

[Morrigan]

Right now for the fight my character is wearing the Havel's set, the Ring of favor and protection and almost the same attributes as above. For weapon I use Black knight halber +2.

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Oof that VIT... you're gonna get OHKOed probably.

You can probably still win if you upgrade your halberd further (go hunt Crystal Lizards in the Great Hollow for some Twinkling, maybe... or just buy them from the Giant Blacksmith). You can easily get a +5 weapon by then.

 

[ClearMetal]

That VIT indeed. I am honestly impressed you made it that far with so little health.

The Four Kings fight is basically a DPS race, though, so your weapon is probably the real issue. +2 is relatively low at that point.

Also make sure you have the Firelink bonfire fully kindled so you have 20 shots of estus.

 

[Deleted member 11008]

Yeah I think I will upgrade my halberd. I read use Power within is not a bad idea, and basically I can defeat at least two kings with my actual setup, so at the end I just need more power.

By the way my Bloodborne character also has low Vitality, not that lot but right now I can't remember its exact number. I will post it later for the fun :P

 

[Red Liquorice]

Definately want that Halberd at +5 by that time. Power Within is a good idea if you are going either full tank or know how to dodge their attacks, with low VIT it could be a tough strategy.

 

[Deleted member 2317]

Black Knight weapons, Power Within, Havel's ring, Black Iron Armor- one lean, mean, grueling tank machine.

 

[gogosox82]

Yeah I think I will upgrade my halberd. I read use Power within is not a bad idea, and basically I can defeat at least two kings with my actual setup, so at the end I just need more power.

By the way my Bloodborne character also has low Vitality, not that lot but right now I can't remember its exact number. I will post it later for the fun :P

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You don't need to upgrade your vit. Just get BHK to +5 and you'll be fine. 4 kings is a dps race so if you do enough dps you will win and BKH does a shit ton of damage at +5.

 

[Deleted member 11008]

Thanks for the tips, I already defeated those fuckers and now I'm exploring the Tomb of giants. I like how the big skulls enemies and the lack of light force me to play like how I play in my first Demon's Souls run, which I played very slow. Oh well.

 

[Red Liquorice]

There's several light sources in the game you can pick up before TotG and one found in there too. They help, but not much it is supposed to be dark.

 

[Deleted member 11008]

There's several light sources in the game you can pick up before TotG and one found in there too. They help, but not much it is supposed to be dark.

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Yes, but even with the skull lantern I was at dark lol

Btw I thought I was close to finish the game (just fill the Lordvessel right?), but I was reading a guide and it looks like I still have a lot of optional areas I haven't seen yet. It surprise me this game is even longer than Demon's Souls.

 

[Luap]

Sister Friede. Name a more terrifying Souls boss.


Defeated her last night after having a hell of a time, as my peers on Discord can attest. Twice I had her down to a sliver of HP only to get killed by one of her devastating combos. It felt like some poetic justice when, down a sliver of HP myself and no Estus left, I finally killed her with a point-blank black fire orb as she was swinging on me. By far the hardest boss I've faced.

Now, onward to The Ringed City.

 

[Noema]

Sister Friede. Name a more terrifying Souls boss.


Defeated her last night after having a hell of a time, as my peers on Discord can attest. Twice I had her down to a sliver of HP only to get killed by one of her devastating combos. It felt like some poetic justice when, down a sliver of HP myself and no Estus left, I finally killed her with a point-blank black fire orb as she was swinging on me. By far the hardest boss I've faced.

Now, onward to The Ringed City.

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The hardest bosses in Sekiro have nothing on Friede.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Friede wins it for me. The DS3 DLC bosses weren't fun for me [read I suck and am scared of them] so I have the least experience with them of probably any boss in in all 6 games.

 

[III-V]

Pretty great gif with the execution.

 

[AM_LIGHT]

I finished DS remastered for the first time ever on switch last, a truly spectacular game .
Started a second play through on the Pro and the game plays & looks much much better .
So by now I know everything about DS but my question is regarding DS2 SOTFS on PS4 .
I am confused about what build should I start with , I played DS with a mele oriented rarely using pyromancy , never using magic & miracles.
But from some of the gameplay videos I saw for early parts of the games , it looks like the game has a tendency to swarm you with enemies while fuckers snipe you from all directions which would make mele only kinda unfairly difficult .
If I wanna use magic do I have to commit fully or can I make a sort of hybrid character ?

 

[Red Liquorice]

You can make hybrid characters. INT/DEX, FTH/STR, FTH/INT (Pyro, Dark magic build) etc. DS2 is actually very good for that - maybe they even went overboard in making sure every possible combination has every possible choice.
SOTFS does go overboard with enemies, I wish they had implimented a vanilla/remix option so you could play the original game but with the technical improvements on PS4.

 

[moblin]

Mob spam is not fun in any of the games and I never understood its defenders.

But thankfully you can get through some rough spots

Spoiler

including boss fights

with Soul Appease. And at the very worst you can just grind until the enemy spawns are exhausted.

 

[Noema]

I finished DS remastered for the first time ever on switch last, a truly spectacular game .
Started a second play through on the Pro and the game plays & looks much much better .
So by now I know everything about DS but my question is regarding DS2 SOTFS on PS4 .
I am confused about what build should I start with , I played DS with a mele oriented rarely using pyromancy , never using magic & miracles.
But from some of the gameplay videos I saw for early parts of the games , it looks like the game has a tendency to swarm you with enemies while fuckers snipe you from all directions which would make mele only kinda unfairly difficult .
If I wanna use magic do I have to commit fully or can I make a sort of hybrid character ?

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You can always do a melee build with enough dex to be able to use a bow. It makes the game much more tolerable.

 

[Rex_DX]

I finished DS remastered for the first time ever on switch last, a truly spectacular game .
Started a second play through on the Pro and the game plays & looks much much better .
So by now I know everything about DS but my question is regarding DS2 SOTFS on PS4 .
I am confused about what build should I start with , I played DS with a mele oriented rarely using pyromancy , never using magic & miracles.
But from some of the gameplay videos I saw for early parts of the games , it looks like the game has a tendency to swarm you with enemies while fuckers snipe you from all directions which would make mele only kinda unfairly difficult .
If I wanna use magic do I have to commit fully or can I make a sort of hybrid character ?

Click to shrink...

If there's on thing DS2 is known for it's the incredible versatility of builds. Almost everything is viable from the get go. I always do my first playthrough of these games as a classic sword and board character and this is perfectly fine for DS2.

The whole "gank squad" meme is kind of overblown. There are groups of enemies, but you just need to learn better crowd control skills than you had in DS1.

Basically melee characters are totally fine, but as in all Souls games, having the base stats to use a bow is always a good move. Magic is pretty sweet in DS2 as well though so don't be afraid to experiment.

 

[AM_LIGHT]

Thanks for the tips , I think I'll go with a quality build for my first play through with a bow on the side .

 

[III-V]

You can always do a melee build with enough dex to be able to use a bow. It makes the game much more tolerable.

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Agree with this. You can pick off some of the more mob stuff one by one to make it less obnoxious.

 

[Noema]

Iron Keep or Shrine of Amana without ranged attacks...ugh.

 

[III-V]

Haha I know. Pre-patch lol.

 

[Deleted member 15457]

I heard that magic builds are bad in DS3. Is that true?

 

[Rex_DX]

I heard that magic builds are bad in DS3. Is that true?

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They're not bad but the best caster gear and spells are locked behind late game content which makes the majority of the game a bit of a slog (or a challenge if you prefer). They are excellent on NG+ however.

No shame in going melee and then respeccing after gearing up.

 

[Luap]

First boss fight of The Ringed City DLC was a bit of a dud for me.

I think stage 2 (Demon Prince) by itself would have been a good fight, but the stage 1 gank spank ruined it. The fight is basically tailor-made to be a nightmare for spellcasters -- super high HP & resistances + small opportunity windows to fire off spells = the fight drags on in a tedious way. After a small handful of tries I realized I wasn't having fun so I said fuck it and summoned Gael + a sunbro. The fight was better that way (if a little too easy... I probably should have only used 1 summon), but I was still annoyed overall. It kinda reminded me of that shitty ass fight against the two tigers in the DS2 DLC.

Oh well, hopefully the next boss is better.

 

[III-V]

breathe, breathe dammit!

 

[MajulaDream]

So "Elden Ring" will be our new obsession it seems. The From family of action RPG's continues to expand, and that warms my heart :)

Looking forward to experiencing Elden Ring! 2020 please :D

 

[Tuck]

First boss fight of The Ringed City DLC was a bit of a dud for me.

I think stage 2 (Demon Prince) by itself would have been a good fight, but the stage 1 gank spank ruined it. The fight is basically tailor-made to be a nightmare for spellcasters -- super high HP & resistances + small opportunity windows to fire off spells = the fight drags on in a tedious way. After a small handful of tries I realized I wasn't having fun so I said fuck it and summoned Gael + a sunbro. The fight was better that way (if a little too easy... I probably should have only used 1 summon), but I was still annoyed overall. It kinda reminded me of that shitty ass fight against the two tigers in the DS2 DLC.

Oh well, hopefully the next boss is better.

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I loved this fight, though I was melee only. Took so many tries but by the end I was dancing with them all around the room.

 

[Noema]

So "Elden Ring" will be our new obsession it seems. The From family of action RPG's continues to expand, and that warms my heart :)

Looking forward to experiencing Elden Ring! 2020 please :D

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There's no way ER Is not releasing 2020.

Have they ever revealed a game at E3 and not released the next year?

Spring 2020 is the most likely release window, since they probably don't want to be lost in the next-gen hubbub if they release later that year.

All we need now is Sekiro DLC to tide us over till then.

 

[Cat Party]

Vaati already has a 12 minute video on the announcement trailer:

 

[Deleted member 15497]

It has arrived.

This thing is heavy.