Dark Souls II

[Vivi]

My biggest issue is the soul memory based matchmaking. I think its good and bad at the same time. Good because you wont get ganked by lowbie twinks, but bad if you want to keep a few char for coop only in certain lvl ranges, because sooner or later you will outlevel it anyways.

This issue could have been bypassed with some kind of lvl lock you could turn on, like it was in WoW PvP (it had some option like this if i can recall, might be mistaken tho, its been awhile now).

[bob11]

My biggest issue is the soul memory based matchmaking. I think its good and bad at the same time. Good because you wont get ganked by lowbie twinks, but bad if you want to keep a few char for coop only in certain lvl ranges, because sooner or later you will outlevel it anyways.

This issue could have been bypassed with some kind of lvl lock you could turn on, like it was in WoW PvP (it had some option like this if i can recall, might be mistaken tho, its been awhile now).

 

So I take it the grinding I did to buy the boss armors basically backfires?  Finally found an unlimited supply of souls using the bell outside Velstadt (how nice the mages keep respawning ad nauseum), so I thought 'what the hell, time to get these with a bit of grinding'.  That and I'm reluctant to start NG+.  There are more chances of me doing one more DS1 run than getting through another DS2 run without getting sick of it and dropping it midways.  The Dark covenant was nice though, straight PvE covenant.  I wish DS1 had one.

[Vivi]

Those Leydia Pyromancers can drop a nice 1h sword called Blue Flame. Infused on the magic path will boost its base magic damage with a nice ammount, and you can cast Sorceries using the heavy attack, really nice if you want a spellsword like build. Spells like the Soul Greatsword especially looks cool with it

 

Didnt finish Pilgrims of the Dark on any of my toons yet, but yes thats a pretty good covenant ideawise. I found hexes piss weak on Ng, I think they were designed for Ng+ and above, but who knows. I wonder when will they nerf lightning tho, faith builds pump out sick damage with Lightning Spears, my Paladin like toon is nearly outdamaging my mage with Great Lightning Spear using some lowbie Chime and you have 8 casts. Not to mention enemies/bosses standing in water...

[bob11]

Those Leydia Pyromancers can drop a nice 1h sword called Blue Flame. Infused on the magic path will boost its base magic damage with a nice ammount, and you can cast Sorceries using the heavy attack, really nice if you want a spellsword like build. Spells like the Soul Greatsword especially looks cool with it

 

Didnt finish Pilgrims of the Dark on any of my toons yet, but yes thats a pretty good covenant ideawise. I found hexes piss weak on Ng, I think they were designed for Ng+ and above, but who knows. I wonder when will they nerf lightning tho, faith builds pump out sick damage with Lightning Spears, my Paladin like toon is nearly outdamaging my mage with Great Lightning Spear using some lowbie Chime and you have 8 casts. Not to mention enemies/bosses standing in water...

 

I was farming them for the robes but I got many sword drops

 

I'm mostly playing melee with the occassional Pyromancies, like DS1, cause old habits etc etc.  I've been hearing that casters (hexes in particular) are kinda OP after a certain point.  I think they nerfer Soul Geyser a bit though.

[Vivi]

Slightly offtopic. If this is really what I think it is and if Miyazaki is working on it then now I have 1 reason to buy a PS4...

 

 

 

 

[bob11]

Slightly offtopic. If this is really what I think it is and if Miyazaki is working on it then now I have 1 reason to buy a PS4...

 

 

 

 

 

Only thing that would make me want to buy a console is a new Persona game.  I'll watch the lore vids of these when they come out and see if they made the story better than DkS2, when and if this new Souls game comes out.

 

Currently in my NG+ playthrough, those extra phantom NPCs are a pain sometimes.

[woodenstick]

Anyone beat ancient dragon yet? Tried for like 4 hours, no dice. Died so many times the enemies stopped spawning. And I thought kalameet was bad, this thing is impossible >.> and summons just make it worse since they seem to get one shotted and leave you with an extra buffed, pissed off dragon...

[bob11]

Anyone beat ancient dragon yet? Tried for like 4 hours, no dice. Died so many times the enemies stopped spawning. And I thought kalameet was bad, this thing is impossible >.> and summons just make it worse since they seem to get one shotted and leave you with an extra buffed, pissed off dragon...

 

I generally don't fret too much on bosses and if I die more than 5 times with no obvious strategy or progress, I look it up online.  If the boss is optional, chances are it's a bitch, so I look it up online.  Wear light armor, go for the space between his inner and middle fingers in the back legs.  Then it's a matter of anticipating the 3 moves he does.   First time, he'll try to stomp, just run a bit ahead and you'll generally be safe, although that hitbox is retarded sometimes.  If he drags his back leg forward, he's gonna stand and breathe back, exit from below his body, keep far enough from his legs as he's doing a breath attack  towards his back legs.  Once he stops his breath weapon, he'll drop his front legs again, be sure you aren't close yet, until you see dust rising from his front legs, then you're safe to move back and keep hitting.  The worst case scenario is that he'll get agitated, and do a rain of fire, which is mostly KO if you take it to the face.  You'll spot the agitated leg movement once you get used to it, so when he jumps up, sprint towards the tail in a somewhat circular motion, because he keeps fixing his own to target you.  

 

In NG, it was a pain cause I wasn't used to it.  In NG+ I think I died 2 times due to that stupid stomp hitbox but all it takes is patience, just rinse and repeat once you learn the pattern.  I think there are others ways, I just found that easier to my play style.  Also, do not summon NPCs, they're useless, die fast and the dragon gets a bazillion hitpoints for the 2 NPCs you can summon there.

 

Kalameet was a MAJOR pain if you wanted to cut his tail, once you learned his attack patterns and had decent equipment.  Killing him though wasn't insanely hard and he wasn't as cheap as to one-shot you most of the time, unless you got cursed in light armor with little curse resistance.

[Silvist]

Heyo everyone,

 

Despite the difference in comparing ds1 to ds2, i still really like some of the changes in ds2.  Regardless if you guys are interested in a wip nude mod for the game; check it out here:

 

http://www.gamevixenzone.net/hot-stuff-21/dark-souls-2-simple-semi-nude-patch-1612/

 

The author still needs help to find how to make it 100% nude.  

 

In terms of sexy armors, I'm loving the desert sorceress armor:

 

 

 

 

Granted some people prefer all the armors to be unisex, but this at least breaks some of the monotony ^^

 

[Vivi]

Anyone beat ancient dragon yet? Tried for like 4 hours, no dice. Died so many times the enemies stopped spawning. And I thought kalameet was bad, this thing is impossible >.> and summons just make it worse since they seem to get one shotted and leave you with an extra buffed, pissed off dragon...

 

I left the dragon alone, at least for now. 4 Giant Souls is enough to kill Vendrick.

 

Yeah the Desert Sorc set looks nice but even an armor made of paper would offer more protection I like the hood tho, using it on most of my toons, the rest of the hoods all look crap. The Black Witch set is decent, but you need twinking to upgrade it.

 

(Yeah its a PS3 screenshot, sue me )

[Silvist]

@Woodenstick - Yeah I beat the ancient dragon.  Vendrick gave me a hard enough time, due to my terrible strafing skills.  This video is basically the way I was able to defeat him:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=new_JjVEFUQ

 

Basically you want to only melee him when he's using his fire breath.  If you are using spells I guess you could just go into the same range as melee and spam spells.  The moment he stops using his breath, you want to move back in front of his head (basically staring at him).  Then like 99% of the time he will fly into the air and breath fire down upon the area.  All you have to do soon as you see him leap is move back a bit, and it wont hit you.

 

You could at this point do a ranged attack, but I found that timing threw me off.  After he's done you want to sprint in to one of his legs, cause he will typically do his breath attack again.  Once and a while he will leap into the air and breath fire multiple times if you ran to far to dodge his first one.

 

I found it easier to his leg to my right first, then left the rest of the entire fight.  Its slow, but you never get hit this way at all.  You can also tell he stops breathing fire from the glow from his breath weapon.

 

When I had 5 giant souls Vendrick died in a matter of seconds lol.

 

@Badsector - I really love the hood on the desert sorc set cause of the sexy veil it has.  When you are hollow i swear it makes your face a shadow lol.  The Black witch set is really bad ass too.  

 

My character Freya:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[woodenstick]

Yeah I ended up pussying out and just skipping him I'll kill him with my sorc build, actually I'm somewhat disappointed with how easy most of the bosses in DS2 are compared to the first, the only ones that gave me a lot of grief were throne watcher/defender.

 

Although now that I think about it DS1 hardest bosses were all in the dlc (kalameet, manus), died at least 40 times trying to cut kalameet's tail, only to find out it doesn't scale, managed to kill him the same round though since I knew his moveset by heart then

[Silvist]

@Woodenstick - Well just fyi the character I used to fight him was a sorc lol.  I gave up shooting spells at him, cause it was nearly impossible to not die in the process.  I had to straight melee him, in order to win.

 

It really depends on your build for boss difficulty; as it was the same in ds1.  Like the looking glass boss was a joke on my sorc, but on my heavy armored knight it was one of the hardest fights for me.  This was mainly due to targeting his exposed back.

 

Same with the spider boss.  Spells have really easy targeting, but melee can be really messy.  Honestly the biggest gripe I have with the game is the targeting lol.  Even with the camera re-correction disabled.  I've lost track of how many deaths results in my inability to see what is going on.

 

I actually found the watcher/defender to be a joke when I fought them.  So again, depends on your build.  People say that alot of the bosses have telegraphed attacks, but that's kinda how an AI works rofl.  Even in ds1 bosses had telegraph attacks, and without knowing them you would die.  Good example was even the first boss the minotaur lol.  He was very easy to dodge if you knew his attack pattern.

 

Some bosses are really good at pausing midway through a combo, and I found that to be a really awesome mechanic.  Almost like they were reacting to how you fought.  Most of the differences in bosses in ds1 to ds2 was the size difference.

 

You fought tons of HUGE monsters that were nearly impossible to block without heavy investments.  When I say huge like, they filled up the entire screen rofl.  DS2 has probably to many smaller sized almost "miniboss" like enemies.  Just simply compare a boss to like Hydra, or even Sif the wolf.

 

I think the most legit complaint i've heard, and agree with is the horrible hit boxes that enemies have.  Hopefully they'll release more content in like a DLC to add more challenges, and variations to the game.

[woodenstick]

My first build was the complete opposite of sorc, strength build that hides behind a +10 gyrm greatshield lol
I could tank anything with that shield, almost able to tank ancient dragon's flame attack, maybe i should try it with havel's

 

The hit boxes are really messed up, I remember using a club in pvp some guy rolled like 2 feet from where i hit and i still got the kill
and backstabs are still broken like in DS1, I've gotten backstabbed from the side or if I roll away from someone and I somehow get dragged back to them and backstabbed XD

[BAB PEEG]

I liked Dark Souls 2 ok but man they fucked quite a few things up. Soul memory is garbage, enemies stop re spawning, shitty peer 2 peer connections, poise just doesn't work and others I'll remember later.

 

**edit**

 

and the atrocious hit boxes.

[Vivi]

Soul Memory is indeed bullshit, they introduced it to avoid twink ganking, one of my lowbie toons got summoned by the Blue Sentinel ring to assist a guy. The invader had Affinity (with 5 orbs that means he had 60+ int) and the Dragonslayer Longbow (Old King's Soul on Ng+). I basically got oneshotted by Affinity and I was blocking (Twin Dragon Greatshield, yeah it blocks only 40% Dark, but still)... All this around 300k Soul Memory (I have it recorded).

Even if the Blue Sentinel summon isnt affected by Soul Memory (which I doubt), the Host looked really lowly geared so he surely was around my level.

 

So fuck it, twinks are still an issue, I have no idea how did he manage that stat/gear around that Soul Memory

[bob11]

 

 

So fuck it, twinks are still an issue, I have no idea how did he manage that stat/gear around that Soul Memory

 

Eh... Cheat?

[BAB PEEG]

I'm sure cheatengine is up for it by now.

[youngfool]

The game is sick, 20 hours in, around 100 death

btw is there a way to mod the in game armours? I am some basic knowledge to converted armours from 1 body type to another for skyrim, wonder if is possible and as easy.

[Vivi]

 

 

 

So fuck it, twinks are still an issue, I have no idea how did he manage that stat/gear around that Soul Memory

 

Eh... Cheat?

 

 

On PSN? I doubt that Anyways, thats one of the main reasons why I stick to PS3, even Xbox live had hackers in DS1 with the -1 health cheat, and I enjoy coop way too much to play offline, and with Area Restrictions turned off I can get summoned pretty fast in most areas.

 

Obviously he can mule the items from other characters to a lowbie pvp toon, but still doesnt explain the stat requirements for the stuff he was using. He could have farmed tons of Simpleton/Skeptic Spices on an other toon and lower Affinity's requirements, but not sure how does that affect the number of orbs (but that would greatly lower its damage as well, and as I said he nearly oneshotted me through shield).

 

[Adam Jensen]

Currently stuck at the Giant Spider boss. Killed me two times, didn't managed to do much and the fact that I am a massive arachnophobic doesn't help. 

[Vivi]

Those bosses are pretty much optional, you can pass through the Shrine of Winter if you have 1mil Soul Memory, no need for the 4 Giant Souls, and you can go back to kill Freja later (or never). I usually skip Brightstone Cove Tseldora alltogether on all my toons, from all the zones in the game thats what pissing me off the most >.<

[Silvist]

@CM Punk- How are you stuck?  I cleared that boss twice with two completely different builds.  Did you use the summon npc for the fight?  First thing I did both times was take out the adds asap.  Long as you watch for the bosses head, you can dodge his breath attack.  If you are a melee, its annoying...but you gotta go to one of the heads on either side of the body.  Otherwise the stupid legs block your attacks from hitting the face.  That was the only way I could figure out how to damage him with melee.

 

@youngfool - Mesh editing?? I wish lol.  I'm not even sure people have been able to extract the meshes yet from the game data.  If anyone figures it out it'll be on Xentax forums.  If so I'd be working hard to redo the body style lol.  Plus I have no idea how you'd inject the edited meshes back into the game.  It doesn't work like skyrim, where you just drop it in a folder and it overrides in game.  That's of course without a tool like gedosato; which currently can only inject textures.

 

If the author finds a way to do meshes, then its possible.  But that's only if he is willing to take the time to support it.  All I've basically done modding wise was do a bit of texture editing.  Sadly some of the meshes have alpha maps turned off, so I can only do so much

 

@Woodenstick - Haha, my first play through was with a sorc.  Then I went full on heavy armor, big ass sword face tanking.  I never liked how havels armor looked, and instead used a mix of Smelter demon with other various armors for better stats (like the glass hands).  But despite how hard I tried to replace it...my big ass greatsword was irreplaceable.  I swear the sword is like Clouds sword mixed with Guts from Berserk lol.  Sword is so dam huge, I can take on like 15 mobs at once with it lol.  

 

My biggest gripe seems to be how some mobs have infinite stamina.  Drives me crazy when they charge across a map and still end up doing a full combo without stopping...its like wtf???  But then again that adds to the difficulty I guess lol.

 

@Badsector - The lamest part about Tseldora is the stupid mages who spam homing spirit arrows.  Everytime I go there to the vender, it follows me through the door.  Its so annoying....I've considered killing them over and over to prevent them from respawning rofl.

[Vivi]

@Badsector - The lamest part about Tseldora is the stupid mages who spam homing spirit arrows.  Everytime I go there to the vender, it follows me through the door.  Its so annoying....I've considered killing them over and over to prevent them from respawning rofl.

 

That, and I just hate the layout as it is

 

Dont use the npc summon from Freja, its useless and just makes the boss stronger. Get some Holy Water flask for crowd controlling the adds, bait the laser, run to her second head on the other side, hit once or twice. Rinse and repeat. Cant remember if the adds are affected by Alluring Skulls or Yearn, should affect anythig dead or hollow, not sure if those spiders are any of that.

[sora3]

Well, I've completed the game once already and thinking of rolling another character though. Probably a pure mage.

 

@silvist, are you on the PC? 

 

@CM Punk, don't summon the AI NPC in that area. He isn't that great though. I'd recommend you try finding some decent summons that should be plentiful round the area. Also, make sure you clear out enough spiders or they will swamp and overwhelm you if you don't. So focus on that then focus on the boss. After that, it's a matter of learning the moves. When it rears up, run to the sides. If you notice the legs starting to twitch, then roll away when it does its stomp. Best way to win is to use a bow and just snipe whenever.

 

@youngfool, no. Also, since it's a predominantly online game, I doubt you can get away with that. However you can edit the textures. Though, that might also trigger a flag with the online protection though.

 

@BadSector, but you do miss out on a lot if you do it that way though. Also, you really do need your weapons and skills to be top notch or close to it.