Board 8 > Dark Souls III: The Ringed City is out. *probably spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Well, what is it?

It's the second of the two DLCs for the final chapter in the Dark Souls trilogy, and probably the last totally new bit of Souls content we're getting until FROM inevitably decides to resurrect it for the next gen.

I've played about an hour of it already earlier, and it's shaping up to be a grand ol' time. Here's hoping my SL85 crystal estoc-wielding mage can get through all of it! I'll be posting the occasional update here, and from what I've heard about this DLC's length, I will probably have more than a couple of thoughts as I progress. Will definitely be running through it again with my SL125 STR-build knight that is also The Lord of Hollows to see how that plays out in the lore.

Anyone else getting in on the final farewell of this industry-influencing series now? Share your thoughts! Just spoiler bar spoilers since it just released. I won't be reading them until after I'm done myself, but I'm sure others will appreciate the opinions!
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I'll be playing after work!
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i've been waiting for both to come out before hopping back into DS3, but I think I'll buy both later today or tomorrow and just start one last full playthrough as a farewell* to the series

*i'll probably continue to play the original dark souls once every year for the next few years
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i played the base game, and it was a nice last hurrah

i imagine the DLC will simply be more of the same- there don't seem to be any amazing plot twists left
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I got it last night and only played a little of it with my Hulk character. Got killed several times in a row and didn't even find the first bonfire... I'm a bit rusty at this game.

My main character is on a new game, so I had to speed run up to Friede, now I just gotta beat her. Although this character is on like NG++++ so we'll see how that goes...

All of my main characters are on some NG+ cycle though.
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I got to the third bonfire. I also got to the first boss. I'm not sure exactly how many there are.

This will be difficult.
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on NG++ with my level 215 character

just got to the 2nd bonfire

those angels keep coming back until you kill the source they're coming from :(
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ninkendo posted...

those angels keep coming back until you kill the source they're coming from :(

hey look who also found out about this the hard way lolol
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I understand though this DLC has +3 versions of all the rings I'm using so that's exciting
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Oh yeah I got a pretty good one! Helps a lot since I'm using my NG only character for this first run so I don't have any of the +2 versions.
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I just beat Friede last night with my new mage character, so I'm excited to try it the new DLC out. I hope there are more cool magic weapons in it, the Moonlight Greatsword is cool but I'd like to try something else.
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oh thank goodness i went back i missed this npc my first time through that area
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https://twitter.com/Arbys/status/846738660494008322/photo/1
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Will be jumping into this once it finished downloading!
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oh hey i found a little secret. neat. let's see if my message gets good ratings since i didn't see a single one in that little nook.
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hitting the big guys in their head vortex with an arrow is neat
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try falling on them

also, i just tried getting summoned for this first boss

i was barely doing any damage without my spells. jesus fucking christ.
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up to the third bonfire

I think I can say this is already so much better than the previous DLC
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The Demon Prince dead

that was a manly boss fight
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i just had my first successful assist with that boss followed immediately by me dying seconds into the next time i got summoned
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Well I've only gotten up to the first bonfire, but I found a Lightsaber, so I don't know this dlc seems pretty cool
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after two hours of struggling with that first boss with my pure mage build, i did it. instead of trying to get to the end with ashen estus, i said fuck it and allotted it all to my life estus. glass cannons have it tough in these kinds of protracted battles, but i did it, and in the most dramatic fashion too, with no estus left, clutching on to a sliver of life, managed the stagger, got the critical but the boss survived that with a sliver of its life as well, and i just stabbed it immediately when it got up.

hands are still shaking.

goddamn i love these games.
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okay now the real dark souls begins

tomorrow

because i need to sleep
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I am stuck on the angel dodging and it's bullshit
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Yep. Complete bullshit.
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I like the angels
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The angels are fine. But the suicide run I apparently have to do to get to the next thing is goddamn impossible and absolute horseshit.
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You mean the part where two angels are firing on you?
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GANON1025 posted...

You mean the part where two angels are firing on you?

Yeah. I finally did it but it was still absurd.
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Well, you can kill one of the angels.
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Far as I can tell, had to get through it to do that.
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Just as I type that, I find the path I could've used.

Ah, well.
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Angels are cool if only for the feeling when you finally find the jerk who's summoning them
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Guys guys

They're firing their lasers
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Got to the first boss and it's a lot of fun but soooooooo long. Gonna go in tomorrow with my best fire resistance gear and hope I can beat them.
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Ashes was a bit of a disappointment for me although I still had a lot of fun with it. Here's hoping this one is closer to the level of Dark Souls I and II's DLCs.
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IMHO so far it's a large improvement over the previous DLC
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Anyway, thoughts so far. Not actually spoilers, but spoiler'd just in case.

- Great start. Enemies are really cool. The humanity spells are terrifying! Angels were pretty great at first as well.
- After the first bonfire, my feelings kinda dropped. The hide and seek stuff just kinda blew honestly. It was super nice finding out how to kill them, but it made the run pretty annoying.
- Design of the level is great though, both aesthetically and from an exploration perspective. I missed a decent amount of stuff apparently, so I'm gonna have to comb through it again.
- The Pyromancer you're supposed to fight after the angels fell off a ledge and survived, and when I went down to finish her off, she had disappeared. Haven't checked if you get something for killing her, so hopefully not...
- My character looks bangin' in pyromancer garb.
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hot damn the section from the Ringed City Inner wall bonfire to the Ringed City Streets bonfire might be the toughest section in the whole game. (At least on NG++, maybe it's more manageable on lower difficulties)
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Got to play for a couple of hours before I had to leave for work, and it continues to be a challenging treat. I'm actually exploring the Ringed City!

The encounter design so far has me recalling Maria's posts in the Dark Souls II ranking topic about how that game does a lot of its combat scenarios. Yes, there are mobs all over this DLC, but so far it's never been just simply static blade-wielding humanoid enemies crawling out of the woodwork with insanely long leashes. Just about every encounter so far has required a patient and/or tactical approach which you can plan for that also doesn't just require circle-strafing or timing dodges well.

I love the combat in these games, but it shines mostly when the opposition's numbers are manageable, from solo duels to maybe 3 or so enemies with a mix of ranged and melee attackers. Having more than 3 enemies getting right up in your face is when shit gets too hectic for the generally measured, animation-priority fighting you can do, and there are too many places in Dark Souls II where it just loves to do that.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it when these games throw a horde at you to ratchet things up every now and then. But I think playing through this DLC just put it into stark contrast that I enjoy figuring out potential battle scenarios and setups like a puzzle more than just wading into groups of enemies and rolling around like a madman. That works better in Bloodborne where mobility and aggression is emphasized and you have the tools to overcome such challenges. It's also easier in Dark Souls III since it does take a good deal of BB's combat DNA with things just generally feeling faster.

Yet there's a different and more fulfilling satisfaction to correctly reading an area, its enemy placement, potential points of entry and attack, and pulling off your strategy compared to just being really good at dodging and identifying attack ranges and speeds. Besides, you have the bosses for that measure of skill anyway, highlighting the excellence of the combat and thus making it more rewarding than killing waves and waves of grunts.

Point is, this DLC has been pretty damn good so far based on all that, and I'm also super intrigued with where the story is going. I'm in the minority who really enjoyed the first DLC (and found it lengthy enough too, doing most of it offline and figuring everything out on my own), so this one feeling better already relative to where I was in Ashes of Ariandel at around the same point has me very optimistic for the rest of this game.
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tazzyboyishere posted...

Haven't checked if you get something for killing her, so hopefully not...

i mean every npc invader in the main game and the dlc drops something so...
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I haven't played either DLC yet. Is there a good strength weapon somewhat early on in either one?
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I don't recall but This one starts you of with a lightsaber at least
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Beat the Demon Prince. Awesome fight! Ran out of estus as he was at a quarter health left, so it got pretty intense!
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kevwaffles posted...

I haven't played either DLC yet. Is there a good strength weapon somewhat early on in either one?

IIRC Ashes of Ariandel has a good strength weapon you can get early. For The Ringed City, you can buy one immediately if you have the souls for it.

progress report:

i killed it again

and for the first time ever, i did not feel bad about summoning for a boss fight

the ashen one needs to stop touching things

oh and there's this message that's bugging the hell out of me that i can't quite understand it. and i'm a sorceror too which makes it all the more shameful
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fought the badass in the far left corner of the swamp

he uses the same weapon as me :O
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also he dropped the whole Iron Dragonslayer set
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well

i did it

i gave the blood of the dark soul to the painter

i have no idea what to do now

and there's still one thing that i know needs killing
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Oh hey, Dragonslayer Armor's armor is in here. I was a little sad you couldn't get it in the base game.
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Spoilering just in case

Made some great progress today. Got through the swamp area. Got a little annoyed when I saw what I was running into, expecting poison, but thankfully it's just water. Dragon bridge killed me a couple times until I managed to pull off a sick roll through its flames. Not sure if there's a way to time it properly, but hey, I'll take it! Anyway, I got to the actual fight with the dragon and an NPC wants me to kill it, but man I suck at fighting this thing. Gonna stop there for the night. Can't imagine I have too much longer.

As far as enemies go, I'm pretty satisfied! The ringed knights are a little easy 1v1 unlike the Lothric knights, but they're still fun. The talking man bugs were terrifying, and the giants are fucking terrifying. No idea how to approach them though. Got a few items in the swamp bugging me :/
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