Dark Souls anyone?

[Bob Arctor]

...or BDSJTTOTD for short.

Always tread with caution, even if you've already played an area before, the topography can be extremely deceptive.

 

[Bob Arctor]

If you want to kill the Hellkite Wyvern, using the Red Tearstone Ring is really the only sensible way to go about it.

 

[Lawrens]

Yea just finished this game not long ago, it was pretty fun, I didn't like the second half of the game nearly as much as the first half though, only played through half of it in new game+ and a second character.

It's probably a lot more fun for people who are into PvP and Coop, but I didn't really touch the online portion (other than getting invaded when I'm in human form)

 

[Bob Arctor]

What keeps me coming back to this game is all the different ways there are to make characters and build weapons. It's really impossible to get everything out of it after only a couple play through's IMO.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Here's my latest build. I've done a faith build before but this one will centre around using the darkmoon blade damage buff as well as ranking up within the blade of the darkmoon covenant, which increases the damage done by this buff. As for the armor set I spent a long time experimenting with different combinations, and as far as I can tell this gives me the best defenses possible with an endurance of 40 while still being able to do a fast roll (and not using the dark woodgrain ring). I've steered away from the dark woodgrain ring in all of my recent builds just because I used exclusively for a long time and basically just got bored of it. It kind of makes life too easy, so keeping it off my equipment roster helps keep the game more interesting.

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Oh another note about the armor set, it's really optimal for a starting character to choose a combination of regular and "unique" armor, unique simply meaning that it needs twinkling titanite to upgrade. Twinkling is a lot easier to acquire compared to all the shards, chunks and slabs of regular titanite you'd have to use to upgrade a complete set of regular armor.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Ok I changed my mind about the armor. Here's the new setup. I lose some defense points, and it's all regular armor so it will take me longer to upgrade all of it. However, I decided that it would be a bigger pain in the ass to obtain the unique armor set I'd planned on using before than to just upgrade the regular stuff. The unique armor involves spending a crapload of souls on sorceries that I would never use, seeing as this is a faith build. Also, with the original setup, I'd used all those pieces before and I wanted to try a new look. I like the simplicity of it, and there's something about that cleric helm that looks so cool to me right now.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Dead angle...that is all.

 

[Bob Arctor]

After a final revision, here is my new favorite build. I decided to cap it at level 125 to be close to the generally accepted cap of 120 for pvp builds while still affording myself a few extra perks. I took endurance to 41 for the sake of being able to equip 2 talismans along with all my other gear and still retain a fast roll. I added 2 points to attunement taking it to 16 for 1 extra attunement slot, which put me at level 124. Then I just decided to make it a multiple of 5 so I added a point to vitality.

I've probably said this every time, but I think this is my favorite build so far. He kind of reminds me of a medieval jedi with the plain, brown robes and the fact that I can make the sword glow . Not to mention the Darkmoon Blade miracle does insane damage, and when combined with the graceful move set of the Balder Side Sword it's a force to be reckoned with.

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-just a quick tip: I used the Grass Crest Shield and though it says 'Normal +15' for the upgrade path I only took this shield to +14 because the stability doesn't increase after that. A shield's defenses are fixed except for the stability, which is how much force it can absorb (or how much of your stamina blocking a hit will take off), so there's no point in upgrading any shield beyond the maximum stability it can offer. Any upgrades beyond this will only increase how much damage the shield will do if you're using it as a weapon in your right hand. I certainly don't recommend using shields as weapons.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Omg omg omg...omg...I mean...omg...I mean...

IT'S HEEEERRRRRREEEEEE!!!!!

The Dark Souls Artorias of the Abyss expansion is heeerrreee!!!!

Joygasm!

 

[Bob Arctor]

Let me just say...wow. Color me impressed. So far this DLC has surpassed my expectations. It's everything I love about this game, but on steroids. The world is more beautiful, the challenges more difficult, the enemies more punishing, even the sound effects seem to pop with added nuance. I haven't played a DLC I've found this captivating and this demanding of survival tactics since the "Dead Money" expansion for Fallout: New Vegas.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Yay I won my first Battle of Stoicism , which for those of you who don't know is the new PvP system you can access after defeating Knight Artorias. I won a 1v1 duel, but there's also 2v2 team matches and 4 player death matches. The team and death matches last 6 min, and the duels are 3 min. This is such an improvement on the invasion system. I swear this game just gets better and better.

 

[Bob Arctor]

So I've made a slight variation of the equipment for this build. I've been thinking about using the Uchigatana instead of the Balder Side Sword for a while now. The Uchi is actually a better sword for a dex build, and has a strong bleed effect. It is, however, a slightly heavier weapon. I was worried I'd have to break my 125 level cap to add the needed endurance to accommodate for the extra weight.

If I'd gone with the original armor set up, I would have had to add 7 points to endurance in order to keep a fast roll. However, I've opted for the Black Sorcerer Cloak and matching gauntlets. With this new set up I lose some physical defense, yet gain a fair amount of elemental defenses, especially against magic. Also, and here's the best part, I can equip the Uchigatana and actually have MORE equipment loading to spare than before. Now I can even equip a bow and still have a fast roll. Actually, the even better part is how this new armor combo looks. If the old set up reminded me of a jedi knight, this new one is more like a sith lord .

 

[Bob Arctor]

The Darkmoon Blade miracle is really the only reason to do a faith build IMO.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Well I managed to get my first 3 win streak in the Battle of Stoicism 1v1 duels section with this build. It's a remade version of the last build I posted. I made a few little tweaks on it, like keeping the strength at 14 and using a purely dex based weapon (the Uchigatana), as well as keeping the attunement to 14 instead of 16 (only 1 less attunement slot). This allowed me to add a few extra points to vitality while also keeping this character at a strict 120 cap. The 120 thing is kind of an arbitrary number but it makes the game more challenging so you actually have to put a lot of thought into the choices of stats and equipment you use rather than just building a character that's basically a god.

However, all the top scorers on ps3 for Battle of Stoicism duels are level 50, so I guess that's the new community standard, or maybe it's just some low level griefing I'm not sure. I'm not a fan of keeping a cap of 50 though because it means there's really only one kind of build you can be effective with, which is putting almost all your points into vitality and using elemental, low stat requiring, non-scaling weapons. But meh, I'll probably end up doing a level 50 cap just to join in more duels eventually. I still really really REALLY like this most recent 120 faith dex build. Aesthetically, and just how it all works together I truly think it's my most perfect build yet.

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NOTE: humanity scaling (up to 10 humanity) is still possible with chaos weapons. All the top scorers (at level 50 duels) have a lot of humanity and seem to be using chaos weapons.

 

[Bob Arctor]

New build I'm working on for sl 50 pvp in Battle of Stoicism.

 

[Bob Arctor]

New build I'm working on for sl 50 pvp in Battle of Stoicism.

A variation.

 

[Bob Arctor]

New build I'm working on for sl 50 pvp in Battle of Stoicism.

A variation.

Changed my mind again. This is officially the final version as she's at level 50 now. I added 2 points to endurance at the cost of vitality so she could wear the thief mask, which not only gives her more physical protection but also just looks really cool on female characters. When worn by a male the mask includes a hood covering the hair, with a female the hood isn't there so it's just like a dark bandanna covering her face. It looks pretty ninja.

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Oh and I've opted for the Tower Kite shield with this build because it has greater stability than the other small shield I usually use: the Grass Crest shield. I still keep the Grass Crest around for stamina regeneration if I'm running somewhere or am planning on two handing my weapon for the whole fight. During PvP I'll be using the Tower Kite shield and I'll just buy Green Blossoms from Chester and use those for stamina regen.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Well I finally got a chance to try out the last build I posted in Battle of Stoicism. I've never used the Greatscythe before, but it is EXTREMELY effective in PvP. It has such a long reach that when combined with dashing and jumping attacks the other players could barely get near me, and if they did it cost them almost 500 hp each time, as well as momentarily stun locking them and giving me a chance to roll out of the way of any counter attacks. The Chaos Shotel has been really useful too if someone is shield hugging and trying to get in close for a back stab. It has good stun lock potential as well.

I didn't stay long in the arena and only had 3 duels (actually I ended up waiting for a fight for nearly a half hour at one point, I'm not sure what that was about). The first fight was a draw, though I would have won if I hadn't accidentally initiated a healing miracle instead of blocking, and the other two fights I won without much contest. Anyway, I'm really happy with how this build turned out and I look forward to a lot of PvP in the near future.

 

[Bob Arctor]

Wow, I seriously got a little misty with joy when I heard this news.

THEY'RE MAKING DARK SOULS II!!!!!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...ine-line-between-challenge-and-accessibility/

[youtube]rPJaJ5ys_G0[/youtube]

[youtube]JpS0HMzqnTQ[/youtube]

 

[Bob Arctor]

[youtube]Rh9auqHz2U0[/youtube]

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Oh and on an unrelated note, as a personal challenge to myself I recently defeated the dual Sanctuary Guardians . I was sl85 using a Balder Side Sword +15, end40, dex40, str20 & vit22. It's a purely melee character mainly for PvE I've been playing.