Current Events > Just started playing Dark Souls 2.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Basically fucked around and I'm not at a bonfire in the Giant's Forest.

Starting to figure out why I found Dark Souls so much harder than Bloodborne. World traversal/dealing with mobs is much more difficult in this game coming from Bloodborne imo.

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ProfessorKukui posted...

The worst Dark Souls

FTFY

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My first impressions are that I really dig the vibe of Mujala, and the opening cut scene was too long for my tastes. I don't really like the way Estus works in this game, but hopefully it won't be too much of a pain to get Lifegems.

Any stat tips btw? I read somewhere that leveling str/dex is not as important as getting adaptability (terrible name for a stat), vigor and endurance. I'm basically going to ignore the other stats and play melee (probably str focused).

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It's a perfectly fine DS2
Jabodie posted...

Any stat tips btw? I read somewhere that leveling str/dex is not as important as getting adaptability (terrible name for a stat), vigor and endurance. I'm basically going to ignore the other stats and play melee (probably str focused).

Get Adaptability to 15 asap, it directly affects your agility which you want roughly 112 of at the most

Vigor is always nice to have, but if you're competent at dodging in any capacity then 20 is all you'll need

Endurance soft cap is at 40 I believe don't need more than that

Strength soft caps at 40, with little gains up to 50 comparatively so stop at 50 at the most

Vitality is all about your equip load and what kind of armour you want to wear, go naked with the biggest sword you can find? don't need that much. Want big dick armour with a big dick shield? gonna want a bit more.

The Weight limit is pretty lenient in this game with fast or medium rolling capping at 70% weight so you have a lot to work with

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i started a dark souls replay late last year and sailed through demons souls and dark souls merrily, but DS2 completly derailed it. I found a few things I liked about it more than I remembered (Ive only beaten it twice and havent really seriously played it in years) but other stuff about it was so much worse coming off of those two games that i ended up dropping it after getting to the ancient dragon because i didnt want to slog through the dlc

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SSJKirby posted...

It's a perfectly fine DS2

Get Adaptability to 15 asap, it directly affects your agility which you want roughly 112 of at the most

Vigor is always nice to have, but if you're competent at dodging in any capacity then 20 is all you'll need

Endurance soft cap is at 40 I believe don't need more than that

Strength soft caps at 40, with little gains up to 50 comparatively so stop at 50 at the most

Vitality is all about your equip load and what kind of armour you want to wear, go naked with the biggest sword you can find? don't need that much. Want big dick armour with a big dick shield? gonna want a bit more.

The Weight limit is pretty lenient in this game with fast or medium rolling capping at 70% weight so you have a lot to work with

Thanks for the heads up.

ultimate reaver posted...

i started a dark souls replay late last year and sailed through demons souls and dark souls merrily, but DS2 completly derailed it. I found a few things I liked about it more than I remembered (Ive only beaten it twice and havent really seriously played it in years) but other stuff about it was so much worse coming off of those two games that i ended up dropping it after getting to the ancient dragon because i didnt want to slog through the dlc

I know the game's divisive so all I can do is keep an open mind. I'm just hoping runbacks are a little easier in this game than DS1 <_<

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*shrug* I really enjoyed 2
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I liked 2 just fine but thought personally that 3 was better

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I'm sorry to hear that.

I tried that game despite not caring much for the first one, but damn the second one is as bad as people say and worse. Most phoned-in thing I've ever experienced

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It's best to get Adaptability up to 25 or so before you start leveling other things. Watch the Agility substat on the menu; when it gets to 100, you're good
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ProfessorKukui posted...

The best Dark Souls

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Jabodie posted...

My first impressions are that I really dig the vibe of Mujala, and the opening cut scene was too long for my tastes. I don't really like the way Estus works in this game, but hopefully it won't be too much of a pain to get Lifegems.

Any stat tips btw? I read somewhere that leveling str/dex is not as important as getting adaptability (terrible name for a stat), vigor and endurance. I'm basically going to ignore the other stats and play melee (probably str focused).

Life gems can be very very easy to get.

Talk to the merchant at the bonfire in the forest until she talks about leaving. You also need to spend a certain amount of Souls. I think it might be 10k. When you beat a certain boss in that area shell move to Majula and will sell unlimited life gems.

So happy I learned about this my first play through. Though now Im curious what it be like without it.

DS2 is, IIRC, the only game in the series that lets you dual wield 2H weapons with enough of a stat and actually unlocks new moves for doing so (power stance). Might as well go for that because you won't get it in any other souls game.

For the most fun, pump up to 50STR which lets you dual wield and powerstance ultra greatswords for some crazy antics.

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Well the first boss wasn't very difficult. I'm a little disappointed it didn't restore my humanity either lol. I just looked up the health reduction thing. Guess I'll save my humanity for when the hp penalty is too much. But it also seems like they nerfed damage from enemies to compensate a bit.

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its the longest Souls game, and has the best DLC.

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radical rhino posted...

its the longest Souls game, and has the best DLC.

I honestly think it has the most replayability as well. You can take the most amount of alternate routes and the most build variety.

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Having trouble with those triple turtle gang bang

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Kickflip posted...

The worst Dark Souls

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Well apparently this soldier's rest bonfire is a dead end and I've been dueling this Dennis fuck for no reason lol

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So is Estus basically useless mid battle?

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Jabodie posted...

So is Estus basically useless mid battle?

Only if you use it when you aren't safe.

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The vibe I'm getting from this second boss is "stick to life gems or go home fuck boy."

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radical rhino posted...

its the longest Souls game, and has the best DLC.

Considering it also sports some of the cheapest enemies in all of Soulsborne, I'd say that goes perfectly hand in hand with the game's length >_____>

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Jabodie posted...

So is Estus basically useless mid battle?

IIRC one of the stats makes you drink it quicker making it more functional in battle.

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Well that boss was unpleasant. I don't understand how people think Bloodborne is harder than Dark Souls.

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s0nicfan posted...

IIRC one of the stats makes you drink it quicker making it more functional in battle.

Apparently it's adaptability, which is nice because I just shoved like 10 levels in it with my post boss Souls.

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Dont forget to seek seek lest

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Stay far away from Faith

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kuwab0 posted...

Stay far away from Faith

Sad because it was really good at release

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bnui_ransder posted...

Dont forget to seek seek lest

Is this some kind of message meme?

Anyway, I went over to the other area with all the knights. Went to the right and beat an easy boss, then went back to the left to see what's up and got yeeted by all the smaller knights. I'll guess I'll come back when my weapon is a lot better to see what's over there. I'm getting more adjusted to the slow pace of Dark Souls after playing so much Bloodborne. Risk pays off way less often in this game. Also, it seems there is some kind of "vulnerable" state enemies are in when they whiff attacks where my hits do extra damage. Either that or I'm nicking a different hurt/hit box once in a while.

So far, my impressions:

• I don't really like the health loss mechanic. It's not greatly in the way or anything, but it adds to the psychological frustration even though it doesn't affect the actual gameplay that much.
• Having healing item speed attached to a stat is kinda dumb imo. I drink Estus twice as fast and can easily fit in heals where I was basically fucked in the ass every time I tried to Estus before pumping adaptability.
• Overall I'm having a decent time of it. Definitely more frustrating than Bloodborne, but I felt similarly about Dark Souls.
• I cannot overstate how much pumping adaptability (my class started with 5) to 25 has helped my survival thanks to being able to heal between attacks.
• Edit: Also I can't tell if all these illusory wall messages are trolling or if you need to do something more than hit them to reveal them.

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In at least one Souls game you open the illusory walls by pressing a button I think (X for Playstation?)

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radical rhino posted...

In at least one Souls game you open the illusory walls by pressing a button I think (X for Playstation?)

Smh, I looked it up and you're right. Well I missed out on like 3 illusory walls because of that lmao.

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Everyone skips through the emerald heralds dialogue so all she says for the majority of the game is bearer seek seek lest

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Yeah, 2 has a lot of mobs despite the combat not being designed for it. I played it, beat it, and won't ever bother with it again. So mediocre.

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Jabodie posted...

Is this some kind of message meme?

Every time you talk to the Herald to level up, when you skip over what she is saying it will always go:

Seek -
Seek -
Lest -

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bnui_ransder posted...

Sad because it was really good at release

It really was too good, made Sorcery look like a joke offensively. But they hit it way too hard with the nerf bat. It'd be nice to see a mod that actually balanced it.

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Rikiaz posted...

It really was too good, made Sorcery look like a joke offensively. But they hit it way too hard with the nerf bat. It'd be nice to see a mod that actually balanced it.

I'm still bummed on the "change" to the lightning spears. They said lowered amount but added damage... instead they lowered the amount of uses AND damage

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vigorm0rtis posted...

Yeah, 2 has a lot of mobs despite the combat not being designed for it. I played it, beat it, and won't ever bother with it again. So mediocre.

scholar made it even worse. I waited til last year to try the scholar version and while the stuff they added was cool to a degree, any improvements that were made were balanced with the most bizarre rescissions ever in places like Hiedes Tower and Earthen Peak

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bnui_ransder posted...

I'm still bummed on the "change" to the lightning spears. They said lowered amount but added damage... instead they lowered the amount of uses AND damage

Didn't they announce in patch notes after that the lowered damage was an unintentional error and would be fixed in a later patch and then never did it?

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Rikiaz posted...

Didn't they announce in patch notes after that the lowered damage was an unintentional error and would be fixed in a later patch and then never did it?

Yeah, nothing was ever done. I had to re-do my whole build because of that

EDIT: AND I got banned on PC DS2 because of "suspicious items" in my possession. I never got a straight answer

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bnui_ransder posted...

Yeah, nothing was ever done. I had to re-do my whole build because of that BS

So did DSP lol. Maybe I'll see how hard it is to mod stuff like that and make some changes myself, probably edit some of the bad placements of enemies that Scholar added too, because overall I think Scholar is a big improvement, but a few areas are really bad, like the aforementioned Iron Keep.

EDIT: AND I got banned on PC DS2 because of "suspicious items" in my possession. I never got a straight answer

Did you have any of the recolored weapons from the Majula Mansion chest? Some of them were never actually released but cheaters passed them out during invasions. The ones that weren't released could potentially get you softbanned.

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ProfessorKukui posted...

The best Dark Souls

literally this

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I used to think so but damn, the variety in Dark Souls 3 is just so good too.

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bnui_ransder posted...

I used to think so but damn, the variety in Dark Souls 3 is just so good too.

All 3 of them really have some damn good things going for each of them. Too bad we couldn't get one with everything great combined.

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Rikiaz posted...

All 3 of them really have some damn good things going for each of them. Too bad we couldn't get one with everything great combined.

What if... Eldin Ring is just about that with a sprinkle of the best of Bloodborne to boot?!

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Rikiaz posted...

Didn't they announce in patch notes after that the lowered damage was an unintentional error and would be fixed in a later patch and then never did it?

Iron Keep in Scholar is 50% new and good placements of enemies and 90% 10 knights charge you from the same hallway.

they completely lost their mind in the first section of iron keep. It wasnt great in the original but the scholar version is like they passed it off to an intern to experiment with the copy paste button.

the second half is better than the original but thats not hard. They also improved shrine of Amana and the dragon shrine. But beyond that its just stupid enemy placements after lore-less npc invasions after whatever else they can mess up


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bnui_ransder posted...

What if... Eldin Ring is just about that with a sprinkle of the best of Bloodborne to boot?!

If it has a world design like Dark Souls 1, replayability (this includes new stuff in NG+) and magic variety of Dark Souls 2, the general build variety and weapon arts of Dark Souls 3, and something like chalice dungeons from Bloodborne I would fucking die because it would the the best game ever. And hell throw in the experimental aspects like world and character tendancy (but you know, actually understandable) from Demon's.

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ultimate reaver posted...

they completely lost their mind in the first section of iron keep. It wasnt great in the original but the scholar version is like they passed it off to an intern to experiment with the copy paste button.

the second half is better than the original but thats not hard. They also improved shrine of Amana and the dragon shrine. But beyond that its just stupid enemy placements after lore-less npc invasions after whatever else they can mess up

I honestly kinda like the npc invasions. They just make the game feel more alive, like they were trying to simulate online interactions but make them available to players who couldn't or didn't play online.

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Jabodie posted...

I don't understand how people think Bloodborne is harder than Dark Souls.

idk who would ever claim this because that game is perfect compared to DS.

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