On December 06 2014 00:56 JoeCool wrote: Did anyone here play the DLCs? They are incredibly difficult as a sorcerer! I use a sorcery-only-build, Slvl ~150 with 65 points in INT and 55 in ATT. So far I did not manage to kill at least one boss, Elana the Squalid Queen summoned Velstadt 12 times in a row. After my 15th attempt without any chance I summond another player + Ellie but she wiped the floor with our faces, then I gave up on her. The next thing I did was fighting through the Brume Tower to the iron passage where I faced the Blue Smelter Demon, I gave up on him after my first try since my strongest spell deals about 97 dmg to him. Right now I'm considering starting a new character that uses melee weapons. Sorcery just feels way too weak.
You can just reroll your character by going to speak to the firekeeper in the very first hut (the old women in red) Sorcery should work tho (not on blue smelter), soul spear and crystal soul spear do great damage even in NG+9 to those bosses.
On December 11 2014 18:55 rebuffering wrote: ^^ Yeah i finally got through the archer part, after about 1hour of chipping away at it. Im now @ Ornstein and Smough fight, only tried a few times, but i see myself dying a shit tonne before getting through it. Feels like my +9 Uchi just isn't strong enough, but its mainly just a retarded fight, since its near impossible to separate the two. I really dont know how im going to beat them, just brute force my way through and hopefully after a few hours ill get it done. Classic dark souls lol.
On December 11 2014 18:55 rebuffering wrote: ^^ Yeah i finally got through the archer part, after about 1hour of chipping away at it. Im now @ Ornstein and Smough fight, only tried a few times, but i see myself dying a shit tonne before getting through it. Feels like my +9 Uchi just isn't strong enough, but its mainly just a retarded fight, since its near impossible to separate the two. I really dont know how im going to beat them, just brute force my way through and hopefully after a few hours ill get it done. Classic dark souls lol.
If you want to kill Ornstein first (many people think it's easier, I think it doesn't matter) you can always try to roll into Smough after one of his attacks because that will force him into a defensive stance if you time it properly, which seperates them for a little while.
On December 11 2014 18:55 rebuffering wrote: ^^ Yeah i finally got through the archer part, after about 1hour of chipping away at it. Im now @ Ornstein and Smough fight, only tried a few times, but i see myself dying a shit tonne before getting through it. Feels like my +9 Uchi just isn't strong enough, but its mainly just a retarded fight, since its near impossible to separate the two. I really dont know how im going to beat them, just brute force my way through and hopefully after a few hours ill get it done. Classic dark souls lol.
You don't really need to seperate them for prolonged periods of time. What you do need is to learn their moves, and know when to run away until there is an opening. The columns are very helpful against Smoughs Charge, and can help you get Ornstein alone for a few seconds, which is all you need to get a few hits in. After a while you will get a feeling for how much time you have until the other guy does something to you even if you don't have both in your FoV.
In my experience focussing Ornstein first is usually easier.
^^ Thanks for the tips gents, ill try to beat them tonight. Unfortunately Path of Exile leagues start tomorrow so will probably drop the game for at least a few weeks while i get my grind on. Thanks again all.
On December 11 2014 19:07 MrCon wrote: Sorcery should work tho (not on blue smelter), soul spear and crystal soul spear do great damage even in NG+9 to those bosses.
Going full sorcery on blue smelter felt like doing a challenge run - though Lud & Zallen were much worse for me in my first run just because getting to them was such a pain. (Those horses man...) The last time I was so nervous was when fighting against Manus.
On December 06 2014 00:56 JoeCool wrote: Did anyone here play the DLCs? They are incredibly difficult as a sorcerer! I use a sorcery-only-build, Slvl ~150 with 65 points in INT and 55 in ATT. So far I did not manage to kill at least one boss, Elana the Squalid Queen summoned Velstadt 12 times in a row. After my 15th attempt without any chance I summond another player + Ellie but she wiped the floor with our faces, then I gave up on her. The next thing I did was fighting through the Brume Tower to the iron passage where I faced the Blue Smelter Demon, I gave up on him after my first try since my strongest spell deals about 97 dmg to him. Right now I'm considering starting a new character that uses melee weapons. Sorcery just feels way too weak.
You can just reroll your character by going to speak to the firekeeper in the very first hut (the old women in red) Sorcery should work tho (not on blue smelter), soul spear and crystal soul spear do great damage even in NG+9 to those bosses.
As mentioned before I created a new character, which turned out to be a great idea! Now I'm using a STR based build with the Red Iron Twin-Blades/Drangleic Shield and parts of the Faraam/Drakeblood Sets. Yesterday I beat the first DLC. Elana was way easier in my opinion as a melee character, Sinh was also a pretty good fight and the Gank Squad almost made me smash my controller against the wall. Now the Blue Smelter Demon is next, only tried him once so far because the path that leads to him is a huge pain in the ass...
Before I forget, in my second playthrough I explored a stone door in the well in Majula there is also another stone door in The Gutter but I've no idea how to open it. Any suggestions?
It contains two giants who will give you a giant soul to make killing Vendrick a bit easier, though he is still killable with only the 4 other souls.
Edit: Or wait, could you reach those giants without opening the door, and the dark covenant guy is behind that door? He was hanging around there someplace too.
Hey guys, I've reached a bit of an impasse in Dark Souls and wanted to ask some advice.
I'm currently wrapping up my first run-through and am wondering about purchasing the expacs. With the looming release of SotFS, would you suggest I wait until that version is released? DX11 would be nice, but the multiplayer options are the real appeal. If those don't make it onto the dx9 version, that would be a shame.... Thoughts?
Honestly just wait for the version with bundled DLC, I haven't read anywhere that they're removing features and would be very surprised if they did. The DLC is pretty fun so just wait for that. I did read somewhere that if you had the Original DS2 and DLC you got it upgraded for free anyway, but I remember them being not 100% confirmed.
However my information on this isn't actually fully up to date so you might wan't to check it out a bit more yourself.
Yea, my Googlefu and redditfu a week ago or so didn't turn up anything but walls of hate spam. Was hoping something had changed but we'll see. Thanks though
Hello everyone, I picked up this game for the PC as the new DX11 version came out, and so far have been having a fun time. In DS1 I played a quality build with 40STR/40DEX and 40 END and loved it to bits and pieces. But for DS2 I wanted to change it up a little so I googled for a sorcerer build and started to shape an archmage - 50ATT 50INT 40FTH (currently 26 - a work in progress) for being a versatile caster. I use hexes (2 dark orbs, soul resonance, that AoE rob thing) sorceries (mostly great heavy soul arrow - 3 slots of it) and for lack of a better thing to put - 2x lightning spear. Now my dark spells and sorceries deal respectable damage in my first playthrough - roughly 230 on bosses 500-600 normal enemies. My pyromancies and miracles suck dick on the other hand. I know my FTH is a bit low compared to INT, but lightning spear hits barely for 50 on bosses and 250 on enemies. Pyros I don't have any of the good ones yet, but I won't hold my breath.
Some bosses are extremely easy to cheese if I have a tank (NPC phantom or a sunbro) with me, or extremely hard because with my base line of VIG END and VIT (something like 6 6 6) I get #shrekt in 2 hits. I do have 16STR for the drangleic shield which saved my ass multiple times, 100% phys. reduction FTW, but the game feels very uneven, sometime completely lacking difficulty (Old Iron King) and other times being hell on earth (3 sentinels, pursuers which I have to face alone, gargoyles) I know I should be in theory dodging not blocking, but even my roll speed isn't amazing at 50/60 % of max equip load.
After hitting SL 124 and reading your previous comments on the last few pages, should I respec with the soul vessel? It seems the difficulty will just be increasing for us pure casters. Also: what level do people PvP at? 120? 150? 210? Preferably I'd like a build that can complete NG+ (maybe ++) and still be fun/valid for PvP. I was thinking about a melee/sorcery (or hex) hybrid with crystal weapon, blue flame, maybe 1-3 offensive spells) or just going back to a good ol quality build.
On April 15 2015 11:51 Latham wrote: Hello everyone, I picked up this game for the PC as the new DX11 version came out, and so far have been having a fun time. In DS1 I played a quality build with 40STR/40DEX and 40 END and loved it to bits and pieces. But for DS2 I wanted to change it up a little so I googled for a sorcerer build and started to shape an archmage - 50ATT 50INT 40FTH (currently 26 - a work in progress) for being a versatile caster. I use hexes (2 dark orbs, soul resonance, that AoE rob thing) sorceries (mostly great heavy soul arrow - 3 slots of it) and for lack of a better thing to put - 2x lightning spear. Now my dark spells and sorceries deal respectable damage in my first playthrough - roughly 230 on bosses 500-600 normal enemies. My pyromancies and miracles suck dick on the other hand. I know my FTH is a bit low compared to INT, but lightning spear hits barely for 50 on bosses and 250 on enemies. Pyros I don't have any of the good ones yet, but I won't hold my breath.
Some bosses are extremely easy to cheese if I have a tank (NPC phantom or a sunbro) with me, or extremely hard because with my base line of VIG END and VIT (something like 6 6 6) I get #shrekt in 2 hits. I do have 16STR for the drangleic shield which saved my ass multiple times, 100% phys. reduction FTW, but the game feels very uneven, sometime completely lacking difficulty (Old Iron King) and other times being hell on earth (3 sentinels, pursuers which I have to face alone, gargoyles) I know I should be in theory dodging not blocking, but even my roll speed isn't amazing at 50/60 % of max equip load.
After hitting SL 124 and reading your previous comments on the last few pages, should I respec with the soul vessel? It seems the difficulty will just be increasing for us pure casters. Also: what level do people PvP at? 120? 150? 210? Preferably I'd like a build that can complete NG+ (maybe ++) and still be fun/valid for PvP. I was thinking about a melee/sorcery (or hex) hybrid with crystal weapon, blue flame, maybe 1-3 offensive spells) or just going back to a good ol quality build.
- 50 ATT is probably overkill, go for enough to get the slots you want (25-30 maybe) and spend a few more points on VIT/END/ADP so your survivability improves - The poor damage on lightning spear may have been a nerf that happened at one point? But yeah I've never been amazed by the spell. In general I like FTH just for healing specific stuff in DkS2, especially if you're doing any co-op. The damaging FTH spells are not stellar in my experience, possibly PvP balance related... Others should correct me if I'm wrong! - Pyromancies are underwhelming until you buff up your glove quite a bit with Fire Seeds - Hexes and sorceries will take you much farther. They're all around pretty great, maybe not as ridiculous as the first Dark Souls but still strong. I favor hexes a lot. Make sure to upgrade your staffs/catalysts/etc! Does a lot more for spell strength in this one than just gaining more INT/FTH. - Roll speed is usually fine as long as you're below 70% but the big thing is the new adaptability stat. Once you get that up around 20-25 (more specifically your agility, which increases with adaptability, and attunement a little) your rolls should feel as effective as the last game. Helps me a lot. - SL150ish tends to be a favored/hotspot for pvp but I haven't kept in tune that much with the more serious scene so that might have changed.
An update on my (mis)adventures: Hit SL150, respec'd with a soul vessel for a more balanced build: 31 VGR, 20 END, 20 VIT, 30 ATT, 50 INT, 4 (base) FTH, 18 STR/DEX and 12 ADP. I decided to drop hexes and miracles because I figured I wanted a spellsword build that would excel at something, rather that do 2 things half-assed (sorceries/hexes+miracles). Got my Moonlight Greatsword, 120 stamina, 1600+ hp, decent armour that isn't paper thin and the quality of my life in Lordran has improved significantly . Sorceries still prove to be a fun part of gameplay, but my Heavy Great Soul Arrow casts went from 48 down to 33. Still enough I guess. But now I can melee the bosses and dodge around, and when Benhart or Lucatiel draw aggro I can unload my spells into the boss, which still deal just as much damage as before, thanks to keeping 50 INT.
I upgraded pyro glove to +10, but pyros just don't seem worth it. I get only 3 casts of great fireball for 1 attunement slot and they hit barely better than my HGSA, which in comparasion I get 11 casts of, per slot. I know some faith (up to 30) would allow fire damage to scale further, but nevertheless I expected more bang for my buck. That and I have 3 scrolls worth of HGSA, while only 1 great fireball. Where the fuck are the pyrobro trainers at anyway?
Curretly I'm in Shirne of Amanna? Amarra? Annanas? and my build is proving to be very effective and versatile. My MLGS is up to +4 and I have the staff of wisdom (currently unupgraded, because I might respec again) In the Undead Crypt I will fish for a Blue Flame and get that upgraded raw, so I won't rely just on magic damage, especially in PvP that I plan to do later on.
I might be willing to go down lower on ATT and INT for more VGR and ADP but at this point I'm not even sure exactly how much ADP would help me. I might even respec to have 30INT/30FTH for miracles and hexes, will have to think on that one. I really liked those Dark Orbs and Soul Resonance... faith might be nice for Greater Barrier or w/e it is you use in PvP.
I also had a question: What exactly is the difference between infusing magic and infusing enchantment? And which path should I go down for my MLGS?
On April 15 2015 11:51 Latham wrote: Hello everyone, I picked up this game for the PC as the new DX11 version came out, and so far have been having a fun time. In DS1 I played a quality build with 40STR/40DEX and 40 END and loved it to bits and pieces. But for DS2 I wanted to change it up a little so I googled for a sorcerer build and started to shape an archmage - 50ATT 50INT 40FTH (currently 26 - a work in progress) for being a versatile caster. I use hexes (2 dark orbs, soul resonance, that AoE rob thing) sorceries (mostly great heavy soul arrow - 3 slots of it) and for lack of a better thing to put - 2x lightning spear. Now my dark spells and sorceries deal respectable damage in my first playthrough - roughly 230 on bosses 500-600 normal enemies. My pyromancies and miracles suck dick on the other hand. I know my FTH is a bit low compared to INT, but lightning spear hits barely for 50 on bosses and 250 on enemies. Pyros I don't have any of the good ones yet, but I won't hold my breath.
Some bosses are extremely easy to cheese if I have a tank (NPC phantom or a sunbro) with me, or extremely hard because with my base line of VIG END and VIT (something like 6 6 6) I get #shrekt in 2 hits. I do have 16STR for the drangleic shield which saved my ass multiple times, 100% phys. reduction FTW, but the game feels very uneven, sometime completely lacking difficulty (Old Iron King) and other times being hell on earth (3 sentinels, pursuers which I have to face alone, gargoyles) I know I should be in theory dodging not blocking, but even my roll speed isn't amazing at 50/60 % of max equip load.
After hitting SL 124 and reading your previous comments on the last few pages, should I respec with the soul vessel? It seems the difficulty will just be increasing for us pure casters. Also: what level do people PvP at? 120? 150? 210? Preferably I'd like a build that can complete NG+ (maybe ++) and still be fun/valid for PvP. I was thinking about a melee/sorcery (or hex) hybrid with crystal weapon, blue flame, maybe 1-3 offensive spells) or just going back to a good ol quality build.
Lightning spears have been nerfed to uselesness sadly, the good damage is in the sorcerer arsenal : soul spear, srystal soul spear, and even the basic orbs are good enough, even in my NG+8.
Also you can use the...black witch staff ? or something, a very good (but not the best) staff that you can upgrade with basic titanites. It drops from black sorceress that you'll meet in the area just after the one you're in. S scaling for everything iirc, with a 220 base, if my memory serves it'll do 220+220 for all 3 magic schools at +10, wich is just below the staff you're using, but can be used to cast heal or hexes (and sorceries obviously). It's also lightweight and cast fast.
Also are you sure your GS is the MLGS ? It's NG+ exclusive I think, and there's a replica, not as good (the one Bernhart uses). Well perhaps you used a bonfire ascetic ? (the fake is the bluemoon GS)
Yes, I did use a bonfire ascetic, and did kill our beloved dragon duke's dear freja twice. Hellish experience really. At the time I was still a pure caster (before respecing and before MLGS) and had to fight through 6 NPC Invaders to get that Pale Drake Soul. Forlorn, double avelynn butthole twice, mining pick guy twice and an unannounced invader dual wielding some kind of short swords.