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I'm looking to get back into Dark Souls as I put it aside for a while and just kind of forgot about it and sorely regret it now. I don't remember the level of my first and only character, but I'd just beat Ceaseless Discharge and put a lot of points into strength, a bunch into endurance and maybe just a few into health. I was equipped with all of the stone gear-- stone great sword, stone shield and armor. I played really defensively, with a lot of poise and killed more people than those who killed me in PvP (maybe a 60/40 split). But, then again, this was back when the game was released so I imagine the PvP has changed a ton since then. Can anyone suggest an interesting character to play that will be different than my first play through? I already plan on a third character that will be deprived and use hand-to-hand weapons as a gimmick, but I'd like to explore my options and I'm not too sure what's worth trying. I'm interested in an agile type fighter, or maybe something with magic. I've never been too big on magic in these games, but I feel it gimps me a little as a result so it'd be nice to learn. So what would be an effective and (most importantly) fun play style to give a try?
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Mar 9, 2012 04:06
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Started a gimmick Dr. Manhattan character intending to run around in co-op punching things to death and sure enough, the one item I wanted and have yet to get on my heavy tank character is the very first item to drop in my new game. So, I had to level my stats to use the Black Knight Sword even though I'd planned this deprived to use fist weapons as I just can't go without using the drat thing when I'd wanted it so bad on my other character (and ended up using the stone great sword in its place). Speaking of which, how is one most effective with fist weapons? I've got caestus up to +5 and some dude I summoned early on dropped a dark hand (thanks a ton) so my damage output isn't bad it's like I just realized I'm not really that good at all at playing a nimble character. When I'm a big slow guy I can seem to position myself well enough to avoid hits and obviously shrug off the ones I can't avoid, but with a nimble character I find myself constantly rolling into attacks that follow me and have been killed quite a few times by scrub enemies as I mistimed an attack and was chained to death. It's making me want to run back to my tank that I haven't played in a while. God, I love this game and I have no idea why I took a break from it for so long.
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Mar 27, 2012 03:50
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Ah, okay, so I remembered maybe why I decided to stop playing my first character. I'm sitting at the bonfire after Quelaag's, having defeated Ceaseless and wanting to head back through blighttown to firelink. I've finally found the famous waterwheel and began my trek upward only to find a bunch of dead ends and I'm running out of purple moss trying to find my way, falling to my death, etc. Something about blighttown just makes me lose all coordination as I feel like I can only see five feet in front of me, and the lag doesn't help traversing little pathways any easier. Could anyone point me in the correct direction once I've ascended the waterwheel? I've found a series of ladders and taken them all the way to the top, but each pathway after each ladder seems to amount in a dead end. At least there aren't any dart blowers that I'm aware of still firing at me... I think the big issue is how quickly I made my way through blighttown the first time through, as every other area of the game I made my way through many, many times and got to know the area very well before defeating the boss. I recall just blowing through blighttown and quelaag on my first try with a summoned phantom, so I really have no mental map of the area at all.
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Mar 27, 2012 05:46
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Sorry for having to re-ask, but my plea for help fell at the bottom of a page and wasn't addressed. Could somebody give me directions from the waterwheel in blight town back to firelink/anywhere that isn't the gently caress here? I'm lead to believe the waterwheel is a shortcut, but I keep getting lost in the area and don't want to attempt it again until I've got a route planned as I've only got enough moss for five more trips. I just keep hitting dead ends after climbing up stairs. I don't know my way through this area as I sped through it only once, instead of gradually learning every nook and cranny as with other areas of the game. Now, frankly, I just want to get the hell out and am dreading having to return to this low-light hellhole on my other characters. Something about the atmosphere of blight town is very effective, as it makes me feel lost and confused as to me everywhere looks the same and it's so cramped and cluttered, with narrow passageways that I feel like I can't get a good look at my surroundings. And if one more goddamn mosquito bites me in the rear end when I'm trying to look around and get my bearings, I swear to god I'm finding wherever the hell they come from and burning it. I'm absolutely certain I've probably just missed the not-so-secret way out five times by now, as this game has a way of hiding things in plain sight that seem far too obvious later when you have foreknowledge. In the meantime I just said gently caress it and fought my way deeper into the ruins past Ceaseless. Found a bonfire under some weird thing protruding from a wall and I quit last night eying an ominous looking, bright-yellow fog door a ways in the distance. If it wasn't such a trip from after Quelaags back through blight town, up the waterwheel, just to fall to my death or find another dart blower I must've missed, then I wouldn't be so frustrated. Blight town just makes me claustrophobic and I panic and do stupid poo poo.
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Mar 27, 2012 22:54
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Bright Souls posted:Various words of wisdom... I'm grateful for the directions, I did actually already find the crimson robes and the treasure chest on a previous attempt, must've been oh so close as I'd already figured. Not sure how I missed it, but I'll give it another go tonight. I'm sure I'll be able to find the way now, but if I can't I'll take you up on the offer for directions, Read. I'm SL 55, on PS3. My ID is "ManxomeFoe_" without the quotations. Also, anyone who would like some Souls buddies feel free to add me as well. I use the account just for Dark Souls, so I haven't added anyone yet. I've got a SL 55 heavy dude who I intend to take to at least 103, as well as a SL 31 planned sunbro I'll probably sit around the 60-80 range, and a low level dex/pyro guy I've yet to decide what to do with. So if anyone is ever in the mood for some jolly co-operation, needs an item, or wants to throw down just give me a shout. As for my single player experience, I'm eagerly anticipating finally heading to the big locked door and giving my fat onion buddy a wave after such a long break. This game gets me giddy with excitement whenever I prepare to hit a new area. I never know what to be terrified of yet, or what I'll find and that's the best part of Dark Souls-- being in the dark about things.
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Mar 27, 2012 23:55
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Vastakaiun posted:Thinking about it, the fact that there's always multiple places to make progress in eliminates most of the frustration that I'd have with this game. I agree and it's the difference between me falling in love with Dark Souls and having sort of an awkward crush on Demons Souls. The atmosphere and idea of Demons Souls drew me in, but frankly I was never very good at it and couldn't manage worlds 3 and 5. I probably spent more time in the hub pussying around where I was going next and agonizing over what I was risking than actually playing, and this realization caused me to shelf it. I'm not very good at "hardcore" games, but I've always found Dark Souls to be very approachable even from the very beginning. I play games pretty slow and methodical, and that works for Dark Souls, and though it probably took me longer than many to "finish" areas (that is, work up the courage to move on) I never found myself stuck like in Demons, and even when I didn't know where to go I was having fun exploring and learning new areas. Dark Souls has actually somehow retaught me how to approach failure in games. At first every death sucks because it causes the anxiety of soul retrieval, and if you fail you feel as if you lost out on so much more than just re-starting from a checkpoint. At some point, it's no longer discouraging because you realize that souls really aren't a precious commodity. I guess it taught me to just relax and have fun and not agonize over numbers. Every death is in some way my fault, so it's all a learning experience.
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Mar 28, 2012 01:54
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I just got invaded on my newest character in the Burg and I'm still giggling. He's only a level 7, a cleric named Friar Butt, and whoever it was that invaded me slapped me around like I was an infant right in front of Solaire. I think it's the first time I've experienced laggy backstabs, as well. His movement wasn't off, and neither was mine, but there were some weird circumstances where he'd get backstabs with the dark hand from odd angles. Once he managed to somehow chain three in a row, as I was apparently unable to roll, block, or do anything to get away. The invader was clearly very good at fishing for backstabs, as though I was slow and leaving myself wide open (didn't expect the fight to last long once I saw his gear) he seemed to wrap around me, backstab me from the front, or warp into me as I rolled away. As I was getting my rear end handed to him, and he very clearly was just loving with me, I was wondering what the carnage looked like on his television. Would I just be bumbling around like an idiot looking like I was giving him free backstabs? If so, it must've been pretty comical. How does the dark hand work, anyway? It wasn't doing any damage, really, and I didn't have any spare humanity so I don't think he was just loving with me to drain me. Oh, I almost forgot-- he also threw a few turds at me. I sent him a thank you message on PSN afterward, as it had me laughing pretty good. EDIT: Just got to the part right before the armored boar, and is there any reason why the gate leading to the bonfire underneath the dragon would be open? If I remember correctly, in previous playthroughs I had to unlock it from the inside with a lever before I could just waltz on in. I haven't been to this area yet, and it's a brand new character so I'm not sure what's up, here. GrickleGrass fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Mar 28, 2012 |
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Mar 28, 2012 18:52
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Pretty sure he was just loving with me. For the record, this is the first time I've ever been backstabbed and I've been in much "laggier" fights especially in the forest. He just seemed to be pretty drat good at it. I referred to it as a lagstab because I don't know really what to call it, he was just all over me in circling movements and every single attack he hit was a backstab. Thanks for the tip, though, EC. I didn't PVP too much on other characters, so I'm not that experienced but on my first character I'd estimate I won probably 60-65% of the fights I had in the forest. Mind you, this was in the first week of the games release so I imagine I'd get slaughtered at any level now. Very few people back then even seemed to use any magic, and most often I encountered katana users who tried to roll around me and I'd smash them with my stone greatsword. Most people then went down in a 2-3 hit combo from the sword, but mind you these were mostly invaders so they didn't have the advantage of the estus. It seems things have changed quite a bit since then. Time to adapt and try to hold my own without the use of much magic as I've never been too fond of it to be honest.
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Mar 28, 2012 19:16
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Is there any good reason to upgrade the reinforced club? I used it early on, but by the time I got to the blacksmith I found the claymore and started upgrading that. I'm only curious because of the bleed effect, and the weapon kind of suits the character I'm playing right now. Is the bleed effect even worth it? I'm not sure if I've even triggered it on an enemy yet-- kill most of them too fast. How many hits from a reinforced club will typically trigger bleed? I'm only asking if it's worth it to invest in just to gently caress around with, I'm well aware it isn't going to replace the claymore in terms of overall usefulness. Another question I have is (since I finally beat the bastard)-- is the Demon's Great Hammer worth using? The strength investment is massive, even to use two handed (I think 31 two handed, 46 single). I do plan on pumping faith and strength but I'm not sure if it's worth investing into now so that I may use it in the future. I know it's only souls and all, but it doesn't hurt to ask and any advice would be much appreciated. GrickleGrass fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Mar 28, 2012 |
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Mar 28, 2012 20:46
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Welp, so I totally just tried to kill Lautrec once he got back to Firelink as I hadn't attempted that yet in previous run throughs. So I smack him with my claymore a couple of times and his cunning counter strategy involves immediately rolling backward off of the cliff and into the abyss off the edge of firelink. So I guess I'm screwed out of the ring of favor and protection, huh? Figures that Dark Souls would ruin me trying to take advantage of knowing things this time around and getting the ring early. The funniest bit is if I look over the edge I can see the faintest glowing as if the ring is on his corpse some thousands of feet down. I almost contemplated taking a running leap, but I didn't succumb to desperation. So does someone want to make me feel better and tell me that I don't really need the RoFaP for a STR/FTH build? Man, just when you thought this game couldn't surprise you (especially in firelink!) anymore it goes and does that... E: VVVVV Thank you very much, just popped over to the blacksmith and back and there it was. I wouldn't have thought to check myself. GrickleGrass fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Mar 28, 2012 |
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Mar 28, 2012 21:48
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Hey, quick question. Just wanted to know if a Divine Zweihander is worth upgrading versus the normal +15 path on a STR/FTH character? Mind you, I can get it to +5 Divine without an issue, whereas even getting to +7 on the normal pathway would be difficult for a while until I get more large shards.
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Mar 31, 2012 01:02
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Well, after bumming around in the Parish all evening trying to get the Balder side sword to drop on this character I just realized I've lost track of time and have been at it for nearly five hours... It's funny, on all of my weakling little fairy characters I find the biggest toys there are, and on all of my big tough manly men characters I'm overloaded with side swords, etc. It is almost as if the game knows and it's adding to the difficulty. First I thought it was only a coincidence when on a gimmick character I immediately found that black knight sword I'd searched endlessly for to no avail on a previous character. Now I'm convinced the game is out to get me. Well, I've almost hit 100,000 souls before seeing a single Balder side sword. Figures the only character I want one on is the only one who can't have it. I've got many, many pieces of every other part of the balder set, too, just to rub it in further. Ah, well, hope somebody enjoyed all the gargoyle killing I was doing to mix things up every so many runs. Almost there, I can taste it. E: VVV I have it on three other characters, I'm just really unlucky with this one. I've got item find maxed out (without the ring) as far as I can tell (210). And there's nothing really special about the weapon, I just like the reach and speed of it and decided to make a nimble bow/side sword character after playing around with the weapon on another character of mine. GrickleGrass fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Apr 11, 2012 |
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Apr 11, 2012 06:25
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If anyone in the SL45 range on PS3 wants to hook me up with a balder side sword I'd be eternally grateful. I could send the whole rest of the balder set your way, or a black knight shield or something-- I'm not really sure if anything I have is valuable, to be honest. I've given up farming and murdered the merchant for his uchigatana. The uchi wants to be the same thing, but it's just not straight enough drat it, and I've already got a character who uses curved swords. If anyone could help me out, let me know and I'll post my PSN ID. If you could think of something for me to give you in return then I'd feel less guilty, too.
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Apr 11, 2012 11:22
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THE AWESOME GHOST posted:You can do the bottomless box glitch to give it to a new character. To be honest I don't want to bother, even if it is easy, as it's cheating and that kind of leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I understand to some it might not mean much of a difference asking for a trade versus just handing the thing down myself, but the idea of abusing a glitch bothers me for some reason. I also don't want to gently caress around with creating and deleting characters, or whatever you need to do. I figure if I ended up doing it, it'd just encourage me to be lazy with future characters and that sucks the fun out of it for me. Even if part of that fun is becoming very frustrated at drop rates.
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Apr 11, 2012 12:06
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I was playing with one of those incredibly useful character planners and used it to see about where I'd be at once I'd achieved some stats I had planned out for the character. Currently I'm at SL73 with 50STR, 18DEX, 35END, 15VIT and everything else is base value for a warrior. I plan to get END to 40, VIT I guess to 40, but my question is after that what do I do? That would put me at SL103, I believe. Should I just stop there? Throw a few more points into VIT past 40? More STR for scaling? Strength is pretty high as is, but I devoted this character to being a defensive and offensive beast with a glass jaw when he does get hit. Right now it's not at all optimized for PVP and against anyone with elemental damage I do pretty poorly. I've just found havels gear so I'm decked out in that with his greatshield. What weapons do you think I should have my eye on? A black knight sword never dropped for this character, so I've been using the stone greatsword which I feel is pretty underrated as to its usefulness. It's +4 right now and sits at 207 +147 physical and 140 magic damage and I've done very well with it, but I feel its starting to lose its effectiveness and I should plan on getting another weapon to "complete" this character. Any weapon suggestions or what to do with those extra stats past SL103 if I intend to go to 120 or so? The only thing is I've committed to using no miracles, sorcery or pyromancy on this character-- so leave that out of the equation. Although I could maybe boost attunement to get one slot for a gravelord sword dance as I'm in the gravelord covenant, but I haven't played around with it yet for lack of an attunement slot so I'm not sure if it's any good. Thanks in advance, I know that got a little wordy.
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Apr 13, 2012 08:37
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Sheep-Goats posted:Ew don't raise dex. Well, the glass jaw thing was just for lower levels as I'd devoted almost all of my early level ups to STR to wield things and END to wear them. At SL 103, I will have STR 50, END 40, VIT 40 and DEX 18. I'm just not sure if 17 extra VIT would be worth it, but I don't know where else to put them or if maybe I should just stop there at 103. I haven't found a BKGA on any of my characters, so I can't really say anything about it. I do know I probably won't be going with the Demon's Great Hammer, as I use that on another character. I guess I should check out the man serpent great sword-- are these weapons good because of the STR scaling? The thing I like about the Stone Greatsword aside from its magic damage is the speed of it for a greatsword. In a two hit combo it's at least two to three full seconds faster than most other huge swords like the Zwei, etc. Maybe I just haven't stumbled upon something that hits as hard as I like while still being quick enough for my liking. The issue is this is my highest level character, so all weapons I've played around with have been ones I have access to at lower levels on other characters. I'm very familiar with the Zwei, Claymore, Demon's Great Hammer and a whole bunch of DEX weapons-- I guess I just want a weapon to fall in love with to complete this character. I should also mention the secondary weapon on this character is a Gravelord Sword +5 which I didn't like all too much to start but fully upgraded it's pretty boss. Well, thanks for the suggestions, it sounds like I should start testing out some weapons. I worked my way from Demon's Ruins to right before Ornstein and Smough last night so I've got the shortcut to the blacksmith unlocked.
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Apr 13, 2012 17:32
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So, I just got the man-serpent greatsword up to +10 and my stone greatsword +5 still outdamages it. I imagine by the time the man-serpent sword is +15 it will edge it out, but I won't get too much use out of it until I get the very large ember. I'm curious, though, am I mistaken that the stone greatsword is underrated? I just can't recall too many people talking about it here except for the ability to whip it out to cast TWoP and I never see anyone else using it online. The physical damage output isn't that high on it, but it does 150 magic damage on top of that and has C C and E scaling, which until you get B scaling strength weapons up to about +8 or 9, it outclasses them even with my 50 STR because of the (I assume) magic damage. It took me a long time to understand the way damage works in this game, though, so I could still be mistaken. I feel this way mostly because since from very early on when I equipped all of the stone gear I've been looking for something to replace it and, well, nothing has really enticed me. I'll probably start using the man serpent greatsword in tandem with the gravelord sword once I get it to +15, but until I get the very large ember is there really nothing I'm going to find that outdamages it? E: Just for reference, with 50STR: Man-Serpent Greatsword +10 is 220 dmg +186 scaling. The Stone Greatsword is 222 dmg + 156 scaling with 150 magic dmg +1 (haha) scaling. VVV Scaling is the "bonus" damage you get on weapons relative to your statistical investment. Weapon scaling is represented by a letter grade from S to E, S being the best. The higher the scaling, the more "extra" damage your weapon will do for each point of the particular stat that the weapon scales with. For example, the man-serpent greatsword has B scaling with STR at +10. It does 220 physical damage normally, but as I have 50 strength, it does an extra 186 damage on top of that 220. If my strength were lower, the bonus damage would be lower as well-- but the base damage always remains what it is (220 in this case). Hope that isn't too confusing. GrickleGrass fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Apr 13, 2012 |
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Apr 13, 2012 19:13
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Leyburn posted:I lost 35k souls in the Demons Ruins because I got greedy and thought I'd go and take care of Ceaseless after killing Quelaag before heading back to the surface, and because I'm lazy I didn't spend my souls on levels cause I wanted to Bone my way out of there. If you finish ceaseless and work your way into the Demon Ruins, you'll make 35k back in no time as long as you don't have too much trouble fighting a bunch of taurus and capra demons. If you go deep enough onto the lower level of the ruins, one of those big worm things will pop out of the wall so take him down with some firebombs or arrows, or two dung pies and then access the bonfire he was guarding. From here you can easily farm 10k souls in one simple run that involves killing three taurus demons, a bunch of those fat flame breathing statues, and one capra demon. You could even make the trip a bit longer by going back upward and fighting all of the capras there. You'll have 35k in no time in that area, as long as you can reliably take down the enemies. The souls per enemy there are pretty high, I guess because you aren't technically supposed to be advancing there yet until you've backtracked through Sens and Anor Londo.
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Apr 13, 2012 19:45
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Sheep-Goats posted:Ah, okay. See, I don't want to invest in END past 40 because I'm content with the fatroll on this character and despite 76 poise being the "most efficient," I'm a bit of a gomer in that I'd rather wear a full set of armor that looks nice rather than min-max. I also certainly won't be using the flip ring on this character as to me it doesn't make sense for the character. On one of my quick, ninja/assassin types, sure, but not this big hulking brute. Also, I've never pulled off a successful backstab in PVP and don't really shoot for them as whenever I do I tend to get backstabbed in the face by someone better at finagling with the mechanics than I am. This guy is by no means "efficient" or "optimized," he just sits behind a huge shield and tries to stagger swifter opponents or trade blows with other tanks. So I guess I should have been clearer. I'm not really looking for advice to optimize the character, rather I'm just looking for a weapon that will be fun as well as suitable to the character (a heavy damaging, strength scaling weapon) along with advice on what to do with stats past 103 from somebody who has more of an idea of what they're doing than me. I have learned that putting points in STR past 50 isn't exactly useful, so I won't be doing that. I only wanted END at 40 to max out stamina, so at this point from what I've learned I'll either dump the extra points into VIT or just stick at SL 103 and take advantage of only being invaded by players who likely have yet to finish their build. In nearly all of my PVP I am the host, as I gravelord and of course get invaded by darkwraiths. A quick question-- is there a SL limit to the people I can affect with the gravelording? Is it the same as the prerequisites for invasion or can I affect anyone of any level? E: Btw, after dying solo to Ornstein and Smough, I phantomed for three players and took them down each time fairly handily with the gravelord sword. Afterward, I beat them on my second try with the help of Solaire. Couple of chumps at SL ~75 if you ask me, even with 15 VIT. 
GrickleGrass fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Apr 14, 2012 |
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Apr 14, 2012 01:41
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Sheep-Goats posted:Oh, well in that case may I reccomend vit to sl115 and stopping there plus a Man Serpent Great Sword +15 or a Large Club +15. Thanks a lot for the advice, I'll stop at 115. I've been toying with a man-serpent greatsword that I upgraded to +10 and I'm fond of the moveset. My gravelord sword +5 is a little harder hitting right now, but I imagine I'll start using it as my primary weapon once I get the very large ember. I'll fool around with a large club to see what that's like, too. Is it the same as the giant club? I don't have the game on right now, so I could be misremembering but I believe I have some sort of huge club sitting in my bottomless box. Haven't tried it out yet, I'll give it a whirl. And I think this character will be the one to wear Havel's set. I guess it's not all that unique, but it suits the character and I likely won't be wearing it on any other characters for variety's sake. I'm wearing it now with the greatshield and it's pretty badass. I went from being a stone soldier to a rock warrior.
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Apr 14, 2012 07:10
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I've seen more people try to take Ornstein down first, but I have had one situation where I handled Ornstein while the host and another phantom made it clear they wanted to kill Smough first, so I just held Ornstein's attention and made no effort to finish him. I don't know if it's Havel's that makes dealing with the lightning trivial, as the only character I've progressed far enough in the game to have fought them wears the set. And his gravelord sword +5 takes each of them down pretty handily. Slugging it out with them isn't too bad, but I could see if I was forced to try and avoid all of their attacks that they would be quite difficult. On my run I killed Ornstein first.
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Apr 14, 2012 19:14
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actionjackson posted:I'm out of humanity for the time being Put your sign down and assist on O&S a few times to get some humanity. You'll gain experience fighting them, souls, and the humanity you need to summon help later. E: Just noticed it's a SL1 run. I guess there aren't too many people around your level.
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Apr 15, 2012 00:48
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Just started fooling around with a fist weapons gimmick run. I started as the warrior, mostly for the armor as I took the name Heracles. After beating the gargoyles I went from SL4 to SL11 splitting points in VIT and END. I have (I believe) 13 STR and DEX, as well as 15 VIT and END. Right now I'm using two caestus +5. Would I be best off upping strength and continuing down the normal upgrade path or going divine and focusing on my faith? Or would the damage be better going either lightning or fire, and then I could invest the points into VIT and END? I'm leaning towards either STR or FTH for funs sake, but if the divine caestus isn't worth working towards I'd feel pretty bummed about the faith investment.
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Apr 17, 2012 05:22
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Just realized that I can't help other players kill NPCs like Lautrec even if they initiate combat. But, boy did it ever trip me out at first on my low level fist weapons gimmick character as I thought somehow another players ghost was attacking the player and I couldn't interfere. I just watched him die while doing the shrug emote.
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Apr 18, 2012 04:05
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Schlegel Mach posted:I've never gotten the chance to do this, but since you brought it up, does anyone know if it's possible for the phantom to just stand in a doorway between Laurtec and the host and have the host attack through them? Or do NPCs like that act the same as PC ghosts? Yes, you can physically block them, you just can't damage them.
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Apr 18, 2012 04:33
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Just had a great time co-oping in the parish on my gimmick character. A darkwraith invaded one of the players I was phantoming for and he was shirtless and equipped with an offhand claw, some sort of spear (I think the partizan) that had an overhead swing downward, and the boar helm. My gimmick character uses dual +5 caestus', so the two of us squared off in the square area between the church and andrei like it was some sort of boxing ring. The host didn't even interfere, must've been content to watch the bloodsport. The claw had an absolutely incredible reach, it was either that or latency issues, as it kept hitting me when I thought I had plenty of distance. So he kept pressing and chipping away at my health, while I'd roll into him, pop off two or three punches, and roll away. It was pretty close down to the end, where he got the upper hand on me when I whiffed and hit me with a good combo. I was near death and desperate, he with more health than me and the longer reach I likely wouldn't last another exchange. I rolled away and managed to use the gold pine resin I had equipped in preparation for the gargoyles. He attacks with the spear and I roll past him, turning around and hitting him with a right and then a jab. It staggered him, so I hit him with another right hand and he was down for the count. The host did one of the celebratory emotes, and I felt drat good as I hadn't exactly had the best track record against enemy phantoms in the burg on this gimmick character. By the way, which one of you guys is "ha_ha_butts"? He invaded another host of mine.
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Apr 18, 2012 05:23
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Alteisen posted:Well that was a dumb invader, he attacked me instead of going for the host and let himself get destroyed by the host and another phantom. Do people fear the pig helmet that much? Most piggies I've seen are the low level burg/parish invaders with the more creative builds, so when I see a pig head I'm usually expecting them to have something other than a lightning weapon. I enjoy seeing people put imagination into how their character looks and maybe choosing a set that isn't the best but suits the character. It's always a nice feeling being invaded by something creative, and I tend to remember those encounters whereas the low level lightning weapon people are pretty forgettable as it's generally over fast. I've definitely gotten over that terror that used to occur any time the invasion warning would pop up. It still freaks me out if I'm in a vulnerable position, but I'm familiar enough with most areas of the game now to where dying isn't much more than a mild inconvenience so I feel like I "judge" invaders more now than I used to back when I was just terrified to have been invaded by anyone. If I go up in a great combustion or down to a lightning weapon I just kind of groan and move on, immediately forgetting the encounter. But there are invasions, both quick and drawn out that stick in my mind because of the creativity or variety. A full dragon in the burg handing out items before trying to punch us all to death, an unarmed duel with a claw user, a time a while back when a hunter type invaded and seemed content to let me progress through the level while just trying to occasionally gently caress with me by shooting arrows from a distance. There was even one time that I could have thought of as "cheap," and I still don't know what miracle or sorcery or whatever it was, but I was invaded in Anor Londo in the cathedral area and the person met me in a room. I closed distance on them with my shield up and they backed off, appeared to switch weapons and then a huge boom of light exploded from their body and hit me from quite a ways away. It killed me in one hit through my shield, but mind you I had around 15-16 VIT at the time. The sheer "wtf" of that moment made it stick in my mind even though it was over so quickly, and I'm definitely more cautious of lanky-types now to look out for more than just pyromancy spam.
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Apr 18, 2012 23:33
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GreatGreen posted:So I just started playing the game and and I'm only a few hours into it. I passed the Undead Burg and its boss, defeated the armored boar, then killed that mini-boss knight in the cathedral, and the other mini-boss spellcaster at the top of the stairs, right before the twin gargoyle bosses. Summon some people to help you, or alternatively use the gold pine resin you might have found in the undead burg before the taurus demon fight behind a door locked unless you have the residence or master key. As soon as the fight starts, use the gold pine resin on your weapon and the gargoyles should go down easy. If it's still tough, then try building up humanity by assisting other players and then using the souls/grinding on the balder knights to get titanite shards to upgrade your weapon to +5.
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Apr 19, 2012 18:01
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FrancisYorkPatty posted:Pretty much this. I got Dark Souls on release and PVP wasn't really much of a thing at that point. There were invaders but they were people with builds that fought you, less people with specific builds aimed at killing you as quickly as possible I agree, as I got the game around release, played one character to level 75-80 and took a good break from the game until I decided to come back. Now I've got eight characters but still haven't beaten the game with the first one. On my first character, even spending quite a bit of time fooling around in the forest, I probably won around 60% of my PVP matches and I think that's a pretty conservative estimate. And this was with a fatroll, no magic, and I found most of my opponents were much more lightly equipped than me and had difficulty trying to roll to my back. A good three to four hit combo with a stone greatsword +4 would bring down most invaders. Nowadays I say I'd be lucky if I win 30-40% of my encounters, and that includes low level Burg 3v1. But PVP to me is a lot more fun now as I see a lot more variety. You just can't let yourself get frustrated when some guy with a cookie cutter build destroys you. It cuts down your invasion timer, so now you've got time to collect your body and make a run to the boss likely without being invaded. Sure, it doesn't feel so fun when you get invaded and the guy immediately starts circle strafing and you know that if you're getting hit in this fight at all it's going to be a backstab, and then *poof* you somehow get stabbed in the face and watch your character turn around mid-animation so that you're now being stabbed in the back. But I'd say less than ten percent of my fights have been against people like this. I've fought far more people who appear to be trying to min-max poise while boosting VIT/END and relying on lightning weapons-- usually ones that can poke from behind a raised shield. These people can be tough because of the amount of health and they seem content to whittle you down with a war of attrition. I've yet to focus on VIT on a character, and my first character still doesn't have 20 VIT, but boy is it a funny feeling getting poked a few times by a little stabby lightning rapier or something and it taking the same health off of you as your following four hit combo that smacks them all over the place. It's a legitimate playstyle, and I have at least one character who I plan to do the same-- focus on VIT/END and rely on lit/fire weapons, but I can't help but feel it's a little boring. Stack the only two "must-have" stats and pick up the slacking damage with elemental weapons. But I don't have too much experience with high level PVP, just low and mid level. E: VVV You just have to keep at it, man. It took me a long time to not feel absolutely terrified anytime the invasion warning popped at the the prospect of losing my precious souls and progress. But now getting killed is only a minor inconvenience at worst. Recovering my body is usually easy enough, and if I really want to play it safe, I'll recover my body hollowed and then trek back to the bonfire with the recovered humanity/souls to make another attempt. However, I find this pretty much wastes the buffer time you get between invasions, so the best route seems to be to kill a solid humanity, go human, look for summons and make your way to your body and the boss as quickly and safely as possible. GrickleGrass fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Apr 21, 2012 |
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Apr 21, 2012 19:38
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Speedball posted:So which is better for putting in your spell-hand. Alternate-right for switching from your weapon, or alternate-left for switching from your shield? I always put my pyromancy flame in the right hand slot so I can keep my shield up while casting. I always put my bows and talismans in the left offhand, while my pyro gloves and catalysts go in the right offhand. I also feel compelled to use the crossbow in the right hand, as then I can two-hand it and it just doesn't feel as cool otherwise.
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Apr 24, 2012 07:20
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Does anyone know at what STR does the dragon bone fist surpass the caestus +10 in terms of damage? The only build calculators I've found only seem to compare the caestus +15 with the dragon bone fist +5, at which point the bone fist just surpasses the caestus at 20 STR. I'm curious because of a fist weapons gimmick run, as I don't think I'll have easy access to dragon scales so I'll have to put up with the +0 bone fists for a while. I understand because of the scaling they'll outdamage the caestus eventually, it's just I'd like to stay around SL 30-60 for as long as possible, and I'm already at 33 with ~20 VIT/END/STR. And thanks to an awesome gift-giving invader I have an extra core of the iron golem so I'll be able to make two dragon bone fists without using that BB glitch. Do I still need to wait until after Sens to make the dragon bone fist, or can Andre upgrade it from a +10 caestus if I have the soul early? E: VVV Thanks for the quick reply. Man, it's going to be a bitch running past those two black archers in Anor Londo with this character. GrickleGrass fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Apr 25, 2012 |
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Apr 25, 2012 01:42
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Thelonious Monk posted:Dude, what? If you have the Lordvessel just warp to the chamber of the princess. If you don't, just run up the thing. I don't think through all my playthroughs that I've been hit running up towards the right archer until I got right next to it, and by then my shield would be right in his face. I just meant on the first pass before you've taken on O&S and haven't even gotten into that area yet. It took me three or four tries on a heavily armored, poise-laden beast of a dude so I figure it might give me a little bit of frustrating trouble on a practically naked guy with boxing gloves. I mean, I could equip a shield just for that part, but it'd be kind of cheating. Sorry for the confusion. Just realized I only have two character slots left and in my head at least one of those is filled by an iron tarkus two-handed sword gimmick. I think I've covered most of my bases-- I've got three characters with no magic: a STR-based heavy-armor tank with greatshields and greatswords, a DEX-based medium-armored dragoon with spears, quick swords and bows, and a DEX-based lightly-armored thief with daggers and bows who uses the flip ring. Then I've got three characters devoted to each magic art: a STR/FTH cleric who uses a crossbow, the zwei, and a divine claymore while chucking lightning bolts and healing on occasion, an INT/ATT pure-caster with entirely offensive magic spells but not much health or endurance to speak of, and a VIT/END pyromancer who will use lightning/fire weapons. And then I have my fist weapons gimmick character, and another Dr. Manhattan gimmick I made a long time ago but will be deleting to replace with the Iron Tarkus gimmick. That'll give me a good two-handed weapon user that I'm lacking. Now the question is-- what to do with the last two slots? The only bases I can think of that I haven't covered are a spellsword type and, well, maybe that's it. I'm still very impressed with the amount of variety from character to character. Even switching up weapon types is an immensely different experience. I'd like to mention I still haven't beaten the game once. Most of my characters are around SL25-45, with my highest at SL80 and he is just about to set out to get the four lord souls.
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Apr 25, 2012 04:41
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He makes a good point that the backstab opportunity window seems a fraction of the size if you're locked on and I'm not sure why. For the longest time I didn't even attempt to land backstabs, even on mobs, as every time I'd successfully positioned myself around my enemy (while locked on, of course) and hit attack I'd take a normal swing. I have landed successful backstabs while locked on, but as soon as I started learning to disengage auto-lock and pivot/swivel around the enemy, I was getting backstabs on all of the easy enemies effortlessly. I'm still not great at the mechanics of it, not good enough to do too well at backstabbing other players, but I learned enough to beat an invader for some other player in the parish with four or five bandit knife backstabs as any standard attack wasn't making a dent in the guy. Luckily he wasn't the best player and handled his big lightning weapon (forget which) clumsily, so he left himself wide open many times. I don't know exactly what it is about being locked on to the enemy that makes it more difficult to land a backstab, but I've definitely noticed that not locked it feels like the whole 180 degrees of their back is a viable backstab, whereas locked-on I feel like I need to be juuust right in the middle. And this is without taking into account how much easier it is to position yourself for a backstab when you aren't locked on. When I disengage lock-on against most other players I find I'm much more easily able to predict their attack patterns and move intelligently. It's a good trade-off considering it is much easier for an arcing attack to swing around and smack you in the bottom.
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Apr 25, 2012 07:52
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EC posted:I ended up making two Dragon Bone's as well, but I've been pretty dissappointed with the damage output at 28 STR. I've yet to add a buffing magic onto it, though, so maybe when I finally get DMB it'll be better. How are you liking it? Haven't tried the dragon bone fists yet, still have to finish up Queelag on that character and then run through Sen's. I only asked as I was checking out the upgrade path for the fists, realized they needed dragon scales, and then realized they started +0 at (I think) 95dmg. Whereas I've got two caestus at +10 right now hitting for 132dmg. I know the scaling on the bone fists is much better, I was just curious how much strength it would take for the usefulness of the bone fists to surpass the caestus. I just didn't want to get stuck in a situation where I've downgraded by upgrading-- if that were the case, then I could hold out a little while longer to improve my STR before the upgrade instead of rushing out to get the fists as soon as possible. I don't think I'll be using any magic, so that's out. I still haven't even seen the move set, so I'm just imagining the bone fists being slower, stronger, Hulk-hand-like boxing gloves. I did read somewhere that the strong attack is a big uppercut, which sounds way too cool to pass up on. It's just a gimmick character, anyway, so all it's good for is fun and laughs. I've just been having much more fun than I anticipated rolling around punching people to death. Fights are really tense, especially against groups, and I'd probably feel a little let down if these dragon bone fists I was looking forward to weren't everything I'd hoped. Just looks like I might need to level him a little higher than I'd planned to accommodate for extra strength, which means I might miss out on some sunbroing. What is the optimum level for assisting, anyway? I've read anywhere from SL30-80, so I figured I would aim for around SL60.
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Apr 25, 2012 14:49
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The missus partook in the making of a character tonight with me coincidentally as she'd been watching me play a lot of Souls lately and is at least partially interested in the aesthetics and design of the world. I had two character slots left after making a Black Iron Tarkus gimmick and didn't know what to do with them, so she suggested I make a female character as I didn't have one. Made a waify elf-like wanderer and now the only class I haven't tried out is bandit. Not sure what I'll do with the character yet, but the scimitar is a pretty cool weapon I think I'll stick with for a little while. I like the strong attack. It's amazing how quickly you progress through the early parts of the game after the eighth or ninth time, though. In fewer than two hours on the Tarkus character I'd beat the Burg/Parish and Capra and I wasn't even trying to run through as quick as I could, and put the controller down for quite a few breaks for the occasional smoke or whatever.
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Apr 27, 2012 03:27
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TheMostFrench posted:Right now I'm just doing boss runs for souls so I can buy sorceries/pyromancies/miracles before moving on to Sens, is there anything I can grab out of Darkroot Basin or from behind the sealed door? I know the divine ember is there, but my character doesn't really have a strong build focus right now, the highest stats are actually faith and attunement, and everything else is below 16. Go kill the Moonlight Butterfly and get the divine ember. If your highest stat is faith, some divine weapons might be fun to fool around with in the mean time.
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Apr 30, 2012 01:08
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I just play to have fun and I derive most of my enjoyment from this game out of building different characters and watching them evolve into a variety of badass warriors. I give them lame little traits and motivations and allow my imagination to more fluidly sculpt a character that is not only fun, but "makes sense" to me. Through this method I have nine very different characters, none of whom I'd consider maxed out efficiency wise-- but they're all very fun, very different, and I can jump from character to character to spice things up if I'm feeling a little stale on one. So I guess I don't worry about the whole pre-planning for SL120 bit, but I definitely have an idea in mind as to how each character will develop and what will distinguish one character from another who maybe even has a similar statistical investment. I've got your standard STR/END juggernaut, a pure-caster, a parrying DEX thief, etc. but most of my characters just seem to evolve into whatever feels "right" for them rather than whatever will maximize their efficiency. So they wear whatever armor suits them aesthetically, wield whatever weapons I have decided they will be proficient with, and only pick up spells that "fit" the overall design of the character. For example, I've got a cleric/paladin type who uses miracles, a VIT/END pyromancer who I plan to use fire weapons with, and the only character I have who uses sorcery is that pure caster. Sure, having a pyro spell or two would be better than no magic at all for many of my characters, but if it doesn't feel "right," I just can't bring myself to make it a part of the character. So overall I haven't experimented too much with magic. My pyromancer is still a low level so I haven't gotten the more powerful pyromancies, my sorcerer just lobs arrows at mobs and can't hold his own against another player, and my cleric will probably only ever use healing miracles along with the sunbro spears. The only thing I think that I will experiment with in the future is that sunlight/darkmoon blade stuff, as one of my low-level characters (the wanderer) could reasonably evolve into a DEX-heavy spellsword and that would allow that character to fill a niche I haven't hit yet. The only issue is none of my characters are optimized for PVP, as they are all built to fill a particular niche that makes them unique and distinct from one another. So, I find every so often I get invaded by someone with a build that that particular character is just not structured to deal with effectively. Regardless, I wouldn't do it any other way as the enjoyment I get out of building a "character" is what makes Souls worth it to me.
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May 2, 2012 19:47
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Is it worthwhile to have poise higher than 76 even for the purposes of PvM? Are there attacks by mobs/bosses that hit harder than the 76 break-point? I ask because I have a couple of characters who have more than 76 poise, and though I don't really care that they fatroll (it makes more sense aesthetically to me, anyway), I'm curious if there's even a PvM benefit to having that much poise. Obviously it puts me at a slight disadvantage in PvP when I go up against someone who has 76 poise and is flipping around me-- but I guess I'm more concerned about stylish armor on my big pimpin' juggernauts than I am about maximizing the efficiency of all of my characters.
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May 5, 2012 18:23
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Yeah, the juggernaut-types of mine all use greatshields. My first character I pumped STR and END exclusively for quite a long time for the purposes of using equipment and having enough equip weight for big armors. I was the "stone soldier" for a while, wearing all the stone stuff with the stone greatsword and greatshield. Now that character is rocking Havel's with a man-serpent greatsword and gravelord sword. He was an interesting character because I've only started to really put points into VIT now at SL80, as his STR is now 50 and END 40. Right now his VIT is 18 I believe, but it's all I really have left to invest into so it'll catch up. Until this point it's been fun to play, though. It's like my endurance is really my health bar, as fighting comes down more to a matter of managing my stamina and ensuring I never get to a point where my guard can be broken as though I hit like a tank and can shrug off strong attacks, I'm vulnerable once hit in that I don't have much health. So the quick stabby lightning guys plink away at me pretty quickly if I can't crush them first. They're getting much easier to deal with as time goes on, though. Still not much I can do against people that effectively identify I'm a slow fatass target with no ranged attacks to counter their magic.
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May 5, 2012 18:49
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The only area that's bugged me so far is Blighttown, and now that I've been through it on four or five characters the only thing that really bugs me about it is the framerate. The draw distance was annoying for a while until I mapped out the area in my head but I still don't have an exact idea of Blighttown because on a lot of my characters I tend to want to burn through there as quickly as possible and never come back. I still haven't been to Bed of Chaos or New Londo or the Catacombs. But I've done everything before the golden fog door in Demons Ruins and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's kind of a boring area aesthetically, but I liked fighting the taurus and capra demons and realizing how much my character had progressed. Ceaseless Discharge was kind of a cool boss, too, just for a change of pace. The progression from Undead Burg down into the Depths, Blighttown and then Queelaag's lair and the Demon Ruins is really very cool. The atmosphere gets darker and more oppressive and it really feels like you're fighting your way into hell. I'm a little anxious about the next few areas of the game, as from what I've heard the best is kind of over with Anor Londo, but I've really liked what I've seen so far.
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May 6, 2012 00:38
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