Dark Souls anyone?

[Greb]

I've never had any trouble with curses, I only got cursed once and that was when I was trying to get to the Eternal Dragon to perform the soul dupe glitch, when it was first discovered. Since I was fresh faced at the game and generally didn't know what I was doing, and the fact it took me about three hours to get from the Firelink to the Great Hollow WITH a master key, I wasn't successful and just gave up.

****, memories of my first run are painful. Didn't know how to backstab, constantly held up my shield in combat, didn't know about Havels Ring (I actually got painfully crushed by Havel so many times I just decided not to bother trying to kill him) or the Cloranthy ring..it just sucks. I found the Estoc and used that pretty much through a large portion of the game until I found the great scythe in the catacombs. I didn't even use sorcery or pyromancy..I really don't know how I managed to survive. Bombing all my points into vitality and strength, not understanding how scaling worked...ugh. Playing as the Thief Class right off the bat (luckily giving me the Master Key before I knew how useful it was) and picking the Twin Humanities gift because I thought it would somehow make my character more human, not actually be an item I could use. The sucky days of suckness. I think my armour ended up being Chainmail, and then Elite Knight and finally Black Iron. I rarely used the B button for anything but sprinting and sprint jumping, and besides, I was likely doing the heavy evade roll anyway so it didn't matter. I may of worn the mask of the mother, a red tearstone ring and that ring of steel protection for most of the game, also.

Massive sadness...but I do wish I could watch it again. Would make me laugh seeing how much I sucked. Sen's Fortress, for example. I know I had to keep telling myself that my controller had done nothing to me when I was moving through there, simply because of the sheer amount of deaths I recieved, and all the deaths recieved from being knocked off the roof by the iron golem...didn't find the secret bonfire either, so..yeah.

My mind is alight with the hatred borne from playing a "punishing but fair" game without any skill. Yay!

 

[Bob Arctor]

Lol it's quite a learning process. I think it's the kind of game that you really have to love to get good at. I mainly just got hooked by the atmosphere, which is what I look for in games more than anything else. I was determined to learn every trick in the book. Your experience sounds a lot like mine. I was clueless about scaling too. I think for my first build I took the endurance to like 80 or something so I could wear full Tarkus gear and still fast roll. Now I won't even think about starting a character unless I have it completely planned out ahead of time, right down to what armor I'm going to use. I'm certainly no elite player, but I'm happy with the fact that I win about 60-70% of my PvP fights.

 

[Greb]

Hm, I'm kinda the same. The atmosphere in Dark Souls is quite good and I generally like the fact that it doesn't hold your hand..it's gotten a little easier with the patches from when I first played it, it seems (30,000 souls from Nito instead of 3000, improved drop rates) but even then if you don't know what you are doing or where to go it's quite a big adventure.

The game does get a noticeable drop in quality towards the end though, particularly with Lost Izalith and the Archives..the areas a small with less short cuts and multiple paths from before..but I guess you could say that the Firelink, Burg, Darkroot and such where the core of the matter, and places like Izalith and the Archives are surface, with nowhere else to go, but still. The crystal cave could of been so much better, instead it's just a romp across three invisible bridges...but it was still a cool area. Yeah though, I do enjoy how the game connects together, especially at the beginning, how you can go through the waterway, up and round down into the Parish, unlock those lifts that lead right back to the Firelink, then do some of the Depths and unlock the Lower Undead Burg, to unlock that gate leading to the Upper Burg..it's all really cool.

I don't really pay attention to stats even now but I do follow a kind of code where, since I'm not too fussed about PvP and only really bother with letting people Summon me as a way to gain souls while having fun, for once, I simply bomb endurance so I can dodge and attack more, while of course wearing a decent armour set at the same time..typically I go for noob combo of full Havel's with Havels Ring, Bloodshield/Grass Crest, and the mask of the child. Can't get any more substandard than that, but I've liked Havels armour since I found it. Same with Black Iron..Black Iron would win out if the helmet from that set connected to the chestplate and hid the neck, though. Sometimes I like using Steel with a Darkmask though, mix things up a bit lol, if I'm aiming for ninja flips.

Other than that, I raise my Vitality to about 20, also Attunement, and ensure I get 18 Faith for Homeward. Then it's just a case of me picking out a weapon I'll like, like my current run that would be the Falchion - something about using a +15 Falchion and Sunlight blade with Power Within that I can't quite place. Typically it says OH YOUR HEALTH IS GONE INVADER? WHAT NEXT? and lets me berserk bosses with high stamina and fast regen. I was going to work on the Darkmoon Blade first but then I realised if I'm going to collect all miracles, it'll be more efficient to join the Darkmoon last, because of how long it took to farm those **** ears of reprisal. Still, I was taking out the Phalanx with Chaos Firestorm each trip so I got a fair amount of souls from it.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Yeah Lost Izalith is definitely one area I try to just get through as quickly as possible. I agree, I think one of the coolest things about this game is the number of different paths you can take from the beginning, especially with the Master Key. Have you played the Artorias of the the Abyss expansion?

I used to use Black Iron a lot, but lately I try to achieve a unique appearance to each one of my builds. They're all a balance of practicality and trying to find a unique aesthetic. My last few builds have been female because I like the way some of the armor looks on them better. I'm pretty much the opposite of you when it comes to picking armor though. I'm anti-Havel gear and masks lol. Mainly I just don't like the way they look, but I also enjoy the challenge of making a build that maximizes the equipment potential that 40 endurance points affords you, as well as relying more on dodging than tanking. The Sunlight Blade and Darkmoon Blade miracles are really cool to use, and yes, super deadly when combined with Power Within. I prefer faith over int builds mainly for those two miracles.

 

[Greb]

I have considered getting the expansion, but no I haven't played it yet. The shotgun spell, I Dark Bead I think...seems like it would be overpowered if you combined it with high poise and vitality, while keeping your soul level down. Maybe high attunement, vitality and intelligence, with moderate endurance. Could probably use Havel's Greatshield for the crystalisation effect if you can actually do that without 50 Strength, and just walk over to your PvP target, let them try to whack you and hit them with the spell at full close range blast while they're attacking so they can't block. Maybe.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the other armour sets, but I tend to favour less flashy odd stuff so a fair amount of stuff I generally ignore. Ultimate favourite set is probably the Elite Knight set, but Havels is grey (a favourite colour of mine) and shaped well..and his leggings, man. I love big boots in general, and those things could rival the **** boots the Gears wear in Gears of War. Admittedly, the masks are horrible..not a single one of them look good, but I desire stamina regen quite a bit in Havels because otherwise it becomes so hard to use probably it's almost unusable, anyone in light armour/fast weapon can just knock you into the next world and leave you semi-open to an assault for five or so seconds.

If anything, I'd probably wear the thorned armour chestplate with a dark mask, while hollowed so I don't actually have any eyes sticking through...probably Havels leggings, admittedly, and maybe the Gold-hemmed gloves. Sometimes I rock Balder chestplate, Hollow thief hood, Holy trousers and Steel gauntlet combo though. Havels does get old, and so does the **** CLINK CLINK CLINK CLINK CLINK thing...to the point where I just wanna play with no chestplate or a cloth based one simply to shut it up, lol.

I like the way in Dark Souls Faith isn't superior to Intelligence, and that they aren't ultimately too radically different from each other, really. It's generally easy to pick on Faith instead of Intelligence because admittedly the only things Intelligence doesn't get are the healing, homeward spell and the area of effect miracles like Wrath of the Gods etc. At least they gave Faith a ranged attack. Magic weapon/Great magic weapon/Crystal magic weapon is useful too, I suppose. Both are viable choices anyway, which is what I like about it.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Dark magic is powerful, but fairly easy to dodge, once you get the hang of it. I think sorcery in general is a lot more effective for PvE builds. Take the ranged attacks for example. They're all quite easy to dodge, and the casting animation is fairly exploitable for backstabs for any experienced player. The game generated enemies, however, usually won't even make an attempt to dodge, and certainly won't circle you for a backstab. Now consider the most popular ranged miracle, Wrath of the Gods. It's a lot more difficult to dodge given its area of effect. Also its quick casting and knock-back effect actually make it a legitimate counter-backstab strategy.

You also get a lot more uses per weapon enchantment with sorcery. If you plan on using weapon enchantments often then sorcery makes more sense. With sorcery you can have up to 15 uses each time you visit a bonfire, vs the one use you get per bonfire visit for Darkmoon Blade and Sunlight Blade, and you have to take your character to ng+ to get both of these. That's a hell of a lot of work for two spells with one use each when you consider everything you have to fight just getting through a level. In a PvP context, however, having more than one use of any weapon enchantment is pointless. Most of the time you'll be lucky if the opponent allows you time to cast one enchantment in any given fight. It would be extremely rare to begin a fight with someone who would let you stop in the middle to enchant your weapon a second time. In such scenarios a one use spell is practical.

Faith just makes more sense for PvP. If you want to use magic to steamroll game generated enemies and bosses then Intelligence makes more sense. So, like most strategies in this game, one is superior to the other relative to how you intend on playing, IMO.

I'd say I prefer the less flashy armor as well. Where our tastes differ is that I prefer the skinnier, less bulky looking armor. I've been making all female characters lately and I love the way the Thief Mask looks on them. That's the one item they've all had in common so far. I also really like using the Hollow Soldier Armor. It has really good poise for something more lightweight. Its silvery finish is eye catching, which is offset nicely by the battle-worn appearance. Also the bare midriff and slightly busty chest piece just say feminine warrior to me.

 

[Greb]

Really? I think they wasted the potential for the Thief Mask on female characters, what with removing the mask and all, basically turning it into a hood. Makes me have to reach for the ninja set, if I wanted to look more thiefly.

I'm kinda sad there's not really an armour set that could follow the style of Ricard, since Elite Knight armour is generally too bulky and more for a tank than what I perceive him to be as a swashbuckler type person. His rapier is quite fun to use if a little weak, but it's dangerous in the right hands..shame about it pronouncing its attack so much that anyone with a lick of sense can dodge it with ease..and if you're overconfident, the lengthy stab...STAB STAB STAB STAB follow-up will get you backstabbed, too.

Recently had a nice time ganking in Anor Londo, since I was bored. I got tired of hiding, and wanted to punish the people going for invasions..though I did feel sorry for the one spirit of vengeance who invaded..could tell he wasn't set up for a PvP build, when he cast Soul Mass only four orbs appeared...they were probably trying to get ears of reprisals, not just plain dick-invading, so it was a bit sad, really. Sent a message apologising, got nothing back, but...oh well I guess.

I hope Dark Souls 2 has a more comfortable co-op and invasion system, though. I don't see the point, ultimately, in disabling PvP after an area boss has been killed..it's understandable to disable co-op but PvP being disabled can really put a downer on the game..especially when you consider having to cross into NG+ while maintaining a respectable soul level in order to engage in co-op..at least you can still offer to co-op if you've killed your boss at a reduced chance to be picked, and invaders invade infinitely upwards so even if you make your guy level 250 you'll still come across occasional analwarts to pound into the ground..especially aggravating are the twinks at low levels with powerful gear..I almost had my 99 in everything (soul duped, naturally) overpowered uberundead girl get steamrolled by someone using chameleon, some kind of giant axe/hammer thing, and then pyromancies..dunno what happened, suddenly a barrel became a person and walloped me to the ground, then I got combusted or something, left me at like 20% health. At that point they got one hit by me, as I was having fun pretending to be Havel etc with the massive dragons tooth.

Meh, anyway..just be nice to not have to progress into NG+ if that's an option in Dark Souls 2, and still be able to be invaded, invite people to join you (for PvP fights, mostly) once a boss is dead, also.

And here's hoping there's no bottomless box, duplication or soul duping glitches.

 

[Bob Arctor]

I'm not sure what you mean concerning the Thief Mask on female characters. The opposite of what you said is true. They removed the hood, making it just the mask, unless it's different on xbox. Here's an example of what I see on ps3:

I like minimalist armor sets that show the features of the character wearing them, hence my preference for skinnier looking armor and the mask on females. It just seems more like "human vs. monsters" as opposed to the bulkier armor that makes it seem more like "monster vs. monsters."

I really dislike ganking in general. In certain situations I think it's justified, like if the host is just trying to make it through the level and has summoned phantoms for help, or in places like the forest and Dark Anor Londo where it's possible for the invaders to gank the host. In these cases summoning phantoms for PvP help is more like leveling the playing field than ganking. When hosts just summon phantoms and wait for invaders in boss areas though, that's the lowest form of PvP aside from hacking. If I get summoned and the host is only out to gank I'll leave immediately. I really don't see the appeal of initiating fights you're almost guaranteed to win, and I don't understand the logic of wanting to "punish" invaders, unless you can tell they're cheating/hacking somehow. They're just players using a legitimate means of PvP built into the mechanics of the game. How exactly is regular invading "dick-invading"? Nine times out of ten, the gankers are the real dicks, not the invaders.

When you're talking about experienced players, the invader is always at a disadvantage going into someone else's world. They're potentially facing a 3v1 fight with higher level characters who could even be waiting on the invasion spot to gank them w/out even giving them a chance to fight back. The whole concept of deliberately setting out to gank, to me, seems to stem from grudges hosts have after being beaten by invaders and thus wanting some kind of childish payback where victory is all but certain. Either that or just lazy farming or wanting to be a straight up troll. Experienced players know the deal: if you don't want to get invaded then play offline or as a hollow. Looking at all invaders as dicks and not just other players trying to have fun, to me, just seems like a limited understanding of what Dark Souls is all about.

As for disabling PvP after bosses, I never really thought about it one way or another. I like the fact that the dynamics of the world change depending on what you do. That being said, there's plenty of optional bosses you can leave alive if you don't want to go to NG+ and still want invasions. You can skip the Taurus Demon, Capra Demon, Gaping Dragon, Priscilla, Moonlight Butterfly, the entire Demon Ruins if you get the shortcut to Lost Izalith, and everything after the Sanctuary Guardian in the DLC. Also you can just choose not to fight Gwyn and PvP in the Kiln, or PvP in Dark Anor Londo. Aside from that there's all the different ways you can invade, or initiate honor duels with a Red Summon Sign or though Path of the Dragon Covenant...if you're not scared of gankers that is . Oh and there's also Battle of Stoicism if you have the DLC. So yeah, plenty of options w/out needing NG+.

 

[edgecrusher]

i finally tried this game. i just dont have the patience, lol. ive become more about the story than anything else so when i have to replay parts a bunch of times in a row i get irritated, get sucked out of the story, and then dont want to play anymore. im sure i would like it otherwise.

 

[Bob Arctor]

i finally tried this game. i just dont have the patience, lol. ive become more about the story than anything else so when i have to replay parts a bunch of times in a row i get irritated, get sucked out of the story, and then dont want to play anymore. im sure i would like it otherwise.

I can understand that. For new players especially the game can be a real grind. There is an intricate story/mythology behind it all, but you really have to dig and persevere through the punishment to uncover it. Even when you know everything there is to know it's still deliberately ambiguous. For example, different NPC's will give conflicting dialogue concerning the history or nature of the world. The director has often said that he prefers an indirect approach storytelling and game design, and that he wants his audience to fill in the gaps for themselves, depending on how they interpret the information.

I've definitely had moments where I was sick of the repetition. My sheer love of the atmosphere and combat mechanics compelled me to persevere. I think I was hooked on this game the moment I watched the trailer. It was just meant to be .

I did a playthrough of its predecessor, Demon's Souls. I had enjoyable moments, but finishing the game was more out of a sense of obligation to experience the roots of something I love. Overall it felt like kind of a chore. That's not to say I wouldn't have more fun as I became more experienced, like with Dark Souls, but I just don't have the patience to sink as much time and effort into it. I guess the love just isn't there for me concerning that game, so I can understand where you're coming from.

 

[Greb]

Yeah I was being stupid. Without the hood I find the mask to look plain though, makes the head look tiny, and in terms of a ninja mask, it doesn't seem to sit well on a female compared to a male...I probably got confused since this occurred a long time ago, when I made a female thief to replaced my screwed male thief and got disappointed in her changed thief hood, which admittedly I feel ruins the whole look..especially if you went with a non rogue-like hairstyle. Yeah though, I got the hood and the mask mixed up.

It probably also stems from an irritation I gained when in school, during a section of the overall art class objective thing we did, we were handed lots of outlines of human males and females, and were told to design costumes for characters in a story we could pick the genre of...a lot of people in the class drew the clothes within the boundaries of the actual outline, making it look like their clothes and armour was their actual skin. Same thing applies to the mask, it looks like they've just darkened her lower face, as opposed to making it look worn and such. Naturally form fitting clothing makes sense to keep the profile low, but still, they could of added a fold her or a wrinkle there, or even the shape of her mouth. The same is said of the male thief hood, but the presence of a hood makes it somewhat ignorable. Perhaps turning the mask into a whole over the chest scarf as well would help it...but it'd probably cause problems with clipping in other armour sets, despite being literally drawn onto her skin and such.

I view invaders as dicks in general, since they're not part of any specific covenant besides Darkwraith, and as we both know, obtaining Humanity is an easy task, especially with the additonal content. Invaders in my opinion are generally always out to make someones life miserable - noble invaders would be slapping their summon sign down at the kiln, etc. Don't really want to get into a debate over this, so please don't take my views as complaining and drawing conflict from yours, I'm just expressing a differing opinion in hopefully a "gentle" manner. The Forest Covenant is irritating but I let it slide because it's just one location in the game and the forest is a nice large place, with the potential for interesting fights...but when you get two forest buddies, and an invader, and they decide to gang up on you, it gets tedious.

I don't actively gank, since I mostly stay hollow unless I'm planning on...yeah I guess being a dick covers it, lol. Hiding using the ring of fog, or trying conventional tactics like Undead Rapport trickstering, and so on. Semi-considering making my 99 in all character hit NG+7 and then find a non respawning, hard hitting enemy (I was thinking the armoured hog in Undead Parish, if it works) and just turning it friendly upon being invaded, and such. I've heard at that point, enemies basically one shot you and take seriously reduced damage, to the point where every mini-boss level normal enemy turns into a fully fledged boss. So it could be fun. It's just nice to grab a couple of friends and wipe out invaders from time to time, though. It's also about the only thing worth doing when you are human (and don't really want to throw yourself off a cliff) after you've killed all the bosses in the game, too. I'd never turn down a direct challenge if I got mail after putting an invader down - had someone rocking Paladin try to claim he was a pro and I was a noob for using Havel, I challenged him, and he killed me with Karmic Justice. I don't know if that could be considered professional, or noobish, but I'm leaning on the noobish side, however unconventional the tactic is. Karmic Vengeance nuking is the anti-ganker tool, though, especially with less than 100% physical protection shields.

See, the thing about Dark Souls is there's an insane amount of ways to go about doing the game. I don't actively look at the PLAYER as being a dick when they invade, but I do look at the whole thing with contempt, especially the red ones, because as stated, they're doing it purely for no purpose..except to have fun, I guess. Can be said they're setting out to have fun at someone elses expense. I guess, by ganking, so am I. So balance is restored. Or something. Regardless, you can never really know what to expect with players..I've met overly aggressive ones, I've met friendly, "happy" ones, and even ones who have been more into hilarity and comedy than anything - an invader using a whip with Pharis' hat, in Sen's Fortress. Yeah, he got "ganked" too because I was summoned to some other guys world and naturally we treated him as a hostile etc, but, I took the time to notice he was being comedic.

I can level with those invaders, I guess...there's a use for Darkwraith if you're gunna pull stuff like that, but when you can just tell they're a honed PvP profile..it just annoys me. Each to their own though.

I dislike the common response to someone disliking the PvP aspect (which I don't, I just found my own ways of dealing with it) as telling them to play offline - something I do when I wish to be left alone, such as mass bonfire kindling. However I enjoy the messages, seeing the bloodstains, and the little blue ghosts of other players, since it adds a little more to the game itself, and Dark Souls offline just feels empty...similar to playing a MMO on your own or something. Ever played Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker? I completed everything in that game offline solo, and honestly enjoyed it all, and when I finally branched out to get Xbox Live, and tried it, I found that once I had, I couldn't go back to solo missions...it just wasn't to be. Same thing with Dark Souls, anyway.

This post is dragging on :x sorry about that.

I just think it's an odd system to disable PvP after a boss dies, but it seems like a form of safety feature put in to coddle and protect people who were moving around...kind of like making safe zones. I know bosses being dead effect other things beyond PvP, like the amount of souls you can get + overkill chance of bonus souls, plus if the enemies can drop or provide free humanity when killed, and so on. For a new player, all the options you mentioned take time to achieve, such as the Red Sign Soapstone being in the Painted World, and the Dried Finger being..somewhere, etc. I'm always skeptical over DLC adding stuff players want...which I guess sounds odd and a little stupid to read...just...meh. Like how the Sims 3 has all that DLC that should be in the main game. That battle arena thing wouldn't of fit in with the story and Lordran gameworld lore as such, but, it still should of been considered before. That's another topic though and isn't really worth discussing now. Yeah Gankers generally ruin the Dragon covenant, and anyone trying to be honorable with the Red Sign Soapstone, but that's a completely different breed of ganker entirely...I'd never SUMMON a guy simply to slaughter him with three people as soon as he came in..I just find enjoyment in standing on Anor Londo bridge and watching red spirits turn up and either crystal out, or die and send hate, I guess. I've always apologised to the blues, but..that's an unfortunate "act of war" or something. I dunno.

Edge, Dark Souls generally has no story to follow, really. It has historical events and "the world as it is now" but generally, most of the lore and story behind it is player guesswork. Though now the developer has made note of what ideas are "possibly canon" and what aren't. If you do gain the patience to go back to Dark Souls, you might end up getting a little depressed on how hard the game can be, but then how easy it suddenly gets once you've passed the learning curve. Even more once you've levelled your character up to the point of making the first playthrough seem pointless. In some ways, it is. Do your THANG in the first game, and then the game will begin to shape you into a specific character build in the second game. Potentially. It always seems to throw-back ACQUIRE INTELLIGENCE ACQUIRE TIN CRYSTALLISATION CATALYST ACQUIRE CRYSTAL SOUL MASS/CRYSTAL SOUL SPEAR and win. Though later, you'll actually have to dodge attacks, lol.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Well, I agree to disagree on the thief mask. I just don't like it with the hood. I thought it was kind of funny the other day when I was watching an ENB video and he mentioned how he prefers the thief mask with the hood as well .

I have a theory that our differing viewpoints on invaders might be partially due to the different communities that play this game on xbox as opposed to ps3. From watching different youtube channels, I just get the impression that the online atmosphere for this game is a lot harsher and more disrespectful on xbox. I might be wrong, and I don't have a list of specific videos I could link to portray this, but it's the impression I get. I think the biggest factor would be the amount of hate mail that gets tossed around. Plus there seems to be a lot more possibilities in the way of hacking on xbox.

It's true, I've dealt with a number of ******* invaders, especially before the last patch when the BB glitch and soul duping were possible. Lately though 90% of the invaders I get just want legit duels. They bow, they wait to make sure I'm ready to start, and they're not using lame, cookie cutter housewife builds. Dueling is the only reason I join Darkwraiths, it's not to try and make someone's gaming experience miserable, or to farm humanity which, as you said, is a simple task without needing to invade. I've invaded as a Darkmoon and Forest Hunter as well, which I do for the same reasons. It's always just for a chance to duel.

Anyway, I guess I agree with you in a way about ganking sort of balancing things out. I think one of the great things about playing this game online is the uncertainty. You never quite know who's going to have the upper hand. That uncertainty is what keeps it interesting for me. Like you said, there's a million different ways to play, and I shouldn't get bent out of shape over someone choosing to play in a way that was built into the mechanics of the game. I simply choose not to gank, and I dislike that kind of PvP, but to each their own.

I agree that playing the game offline does feel a bit lonely, a bit emptier. There's always measures you can take to avoid invasions and still play online though. Of course, you have to leave yourself open to invasions if you want to summon phantoms, but I like this because it adds to the whole risk/reward factor that's such an integral part of the experience.

I think you might be mistaken on the amount of souls gained from enemies and humanity gains in relation to bosses. As far as I know you gain a soft humanity from killing a certain amount of enemies while the boss is still alive. There's an unseen gauge in terms of how many enemies you've killed, and once that gauge fills up you get a soft humanity, after which the gauge resets. This happens up to a maximum of 10 humanity. The amount of souls gained is dependent on what playthrough you're in, as well as a potential for a 20% bonus from overkill (inflicting greater damage than 120% of the enemy's HP in one attack), or using the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring.

As far as the PvP options I mentioned being difficult to access for new players, I personally wouldn't recommend that any new players attempt PvP anyway. I think anyone should have at least a full playthrough of solid PvE under their belt before attempting to step into the ring, so to speak. If any bosses, NPC's or areas are still giving someone trouble, I don't think they're ready to fight other players yet. I mean just knowing the layout of an area and attack patterns of enemies is a huge advantage to any fight.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Oh and btw I checked and Undead Rapport won't work with the Armored Tusks. Here's a list of enemies it does work with. One option would be to get your world Gravelord cursed and use the spell on the resulting Black Phantom enemies. Red Rosie made a video where she does some of that...

[youtube]klAV9F4QWEA[/youtube]

 

[Greb]

That looked painful. And yeah..though I can't vouch for the skills or damage that guy who tried fighting it had, he seemed to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING not even triple digit damage, and then WHAM DEAD. That's a good idea, but I'll have to find something else to curse on, don't want to be copying her lol - might end up being invaded by her or something, as unlikely as that would be.

Getting it gravelorded would be a far stretch, so I don't think I'll go that far - I have watched a video where some guy got infested, kept getting one shot by garden guardians...though I don't know what NG+ he was on, if any. It looked nasty. I think if I could pull it off, getting a buffed crystal hollow guy in Sen's Fortress would be an excellent defense...or just buffing him myself with the trident, despite the fact that would blatantly give me away. Still, it's nice to know the idea wasn't a waste of time.

Yes, the 360 is a very, very shitty community. It'll never change, and is why the 360 has the image of the "drunken college retard prick" as the owner of said console, whereas the PC is tended to be aimed at quiet geeks or adults, and the PS3 generally has the exact same crowd as the 360 (in terms of age) only it's more mature, for some unknown reason. Perhaps the price, or perhaps because Sony is popular with the Japanese and somehow that effects the rest of the world. I don't know - but I know the 360 is plagued by idiots the most. So yeah, could be that, really. I get way too much hatemail and trashtalk messages sent for me to have any care left for those red invaders now, lol. Unless the prove they're cool by doing something different like I said before, or sending a mail that isn't aggressive, then..well. Stands to reason I'll view them as trying to have fun at my expense, lol.

Yeah, I know about the soft humanity, and it's cap at 10. I also know it's related to how many souls you've gained, or perhaps just kills, since I always seem to get the humanity at the same times across all accounts. Sometimes, like when I was farming the phalanx with chaos fire storm, it seems to fill up insanely quick, so I attributed it to the increased amounts of souls/kills I was making in relation to the time it took to get humanity. I'm pretty sure souls get changed if a boss is alive or dead though, because I'm sure I was getting 120 souls from one mob (can't remember which) while trying to farm for something, but normally you'd get 100. I know I wasn't overkilling on every kill, though, since my guy wasn't even killing the enemies in one blow. I don't know, really. Wasn't using anything like the avarice..maybe it was a feature in the unpatched game but removed later? I'm fairly confident though, since I remember discussing it with my girlfriend, on how confusing the game was, and then having my other Dark Souls friend say something about bonuses when the boss is alive to dead, to help you along. I don't know, though, lol.

No new player would be ready to hop into Dark Souls, just like it'd be pointless for me try and get the most out of Black Ops II now, since too many people already know so much and have their own designs, which are a fairly annoying disadvantage..eventually a person could develop knowledge but still, any new player has so much stacked against them, it's not even worth it, before even considering their own game progress, like you said.



lol...is there anything left for us to talk about, now? That isn't really focused on the player-trap stuff like the story, lore or the **** pendant?

 

[Bob Arctor]

That's too bad about the xbox community. I guess it makes for better trolling though.

I'll try to test out the bonus souls thing before and after I've killed an area boss. It might be different from console to console, but now I'm curious.

I guess there's not not much left to talk about, though I'm such a nerd for this game I could probably always find something. I did find an interesting tidbit the other day about the Washing Pole. I read a video comment of someone asking what that sword was, saying it looked like Sephiroth's. Not being a FF player I looked up that name, and saw that the sword that character uses is called a nodachi. I looked up nodachi and was curious about the mention of a famous Japanese warrior, Sasaki Kojirō, who was said to have been skilled with that weapon. On reading further I noticed that he used one called "Monohoshizao", or ""The Laundry-Drying Pole." I thought that was pretty interesting.

I also thought this was entertaining.
[youtube]8I6fmvp37TU[/youtube]

 

[Bob Arctor]

[youtube]biW7B15h17g[/youtube]

 

[Bob Arctor]

[youtube]z_JFDPCtXFY[/youtube]

 

[Bob Arctor]

I'm seriously considering pre-ordering this.

[youtube]SaxriOyQxGg[/youtube]

 

[Jocsaint]

I've tried playing Dark Souls on PC because everyone was saying how difficult it is. I didn't get far with it, you can't change graphic settings and my computer can't handle anything full blast. Never got to playing it more than a few minutes. I think I died like 3 times on the first part, where you have to fight this giant thing that falls from the ceiling. Mix the difficulty with the lag, and I have a nice rage quit sandwich.

 

[Bob Arctor]

I've tried playing Dark Souls on PC because everyone was saying how difficult it is. I didn't get far with it, you can't change graphic settings and my computer can't handle anything full blast. Never got to playing it more than a few minutes. I think I died like 3 times on the first part, where you have to fight this giant thing that falls from the ceiling. Mix the difficulty with the lag, and I have a nice rage quit sandwich.

Well that sucks about the lag, though you're not really supposed to fight that demon right as it drops down from the ceiling. As you enter that room there's a door on your left on the far end of the room that you can run to before the demon even has a chance to attack you. From there you pick up your starting class weapon and shield (the broken sword is basically useless) and then come to a fog gate positioned above the demon. You can then do a two-handed plunging attack which, depending what starting weapon you have, will take off about 1/3 to 1/2 of the demon's health. After that it's mostly a matter of staying behind the thing and making quick jabs at it while keeping enough stamina dodge its attacks. I can understand why graphics issues would make you not want to play though.