Board 8 > Yo im playing Dark Souls II for the first time [ATTN Fromsoft people]

(+) Yeah! (+)

kevwaffles posted...

I mean Shrine of Amana is definitely not what it used to be if you played at release.

Edit: I don't know how Scholar compares to patched OG here. Usually Scholar is worse, but here it might be the same.

I don't know the differences between scholar and patched OG. But I do know OG 1.00 release shrine of Amana was worse than anything else, maybe in the entire series.

Their range was insane in addition to its' homing ability.

Aldias keep - a horse buggy is shaking with something inside it - messages around it:

thrusting ahead attack by the way woman hurrah for thrust

Lmao how do these mother fuckers come up with this shit

fort, night

Aldias keep done, cool laboratory where they do horrific experiments on the poor monsters

Got the guardian dragon first try, and i might have to save and quit at the dragon aerie for now. Gonna be out of town for a couple days

heres my stats:

Lv 132

VGR 22
END 23
VIT 28
ATN 16
STR 40
DEX 8
ADP 16
INT 26
FTH 6

Raw Butchers Knife +5
Sorcerers Staff +7
Blossom Kite Shield +5
Gyrm Warrior Helm +10
Drangleic Mail +4
Dark Gauntlets +4
Drangleic Legging +4
Chloranthy Ring +1 (basically need it for this damn weapon)
Clear Bluestone Ring (fire magic quickly)
Ring of Steel Protection +1
Royal Soldiers Ring +1 (keeps weight down so i can hold all this shit)

Great Heavy Soul Arrow
Great Soul Arrow
Heavy Soul Arrow

Bosses beated
The Last Giant
The Pursuer
Ruin Sentinels
Dragonrider
The Lost Sinner
Skeleton Lords
Covetous Demon
Mytha, The Baneful Queen
Flexile Sentry
Royal Rat Vanguard
The Rotten
Old Dragonslayer
Belfry Gargoyles
Executioners Chariot
Scorpioness Najka
Royal Rat Authority
Prowling Magus
The Dukes Dear Freja
Smelter Demon
Old Iron King
Dragonriders
Looking Glass Knight
Demon of Song
Velstadt, The Royal Aegis
Guardian Dragon

TomNook7 posted...

I was not expecting the king to be like this

Fuck yeah

1.0 Shrine was brutal but i was at maximum masochist mode at that point in my life so i had fun with it. It was like a puzzle.

Oddly enough this popped up in my feed lol. Shows the differences in Amana.

https://youtu.be/p1bN5wQzYa8?si=vSW2Ck7aW_kfneGf&t=726

Back from my trip. Lets get it

Anddd immediately the zombies in dragon aerie explode and break my ring which helps my equipment load, and then im fat rolling, and then more zombies break every piece of armor i have equipped

welcome back to dark souls

Also now im at the dragon shrine, and the dragon knights will sometimes randomly be friendly, but also randomly will decide to attack me? Wtf is that about

Ring durability is so weird.

We can explain the Dragon Knights if you like, but you'll probably figure it out.

Lol yeah i figured it out. They only show respect if you fight their leaders

Also the ancient dragon killed me with its flying fire attack a couple times because i forgot depleting your stamina makes it so you cant run for a couple seconds

TomNook7 posted...

Lol yeah i figured it out. They only show respect if you fight their leaders

Also the ancient dragon killed me with its flying fire attack a couple times because i forgot depleting your stamina makes it so you cant run for a couple seconds

Kind of. It's more "if you try to leave the area" will they turn on you.

Yeah, the dragon knights are weird.

One of the only times where gesturing matters in FromSoft.

Lol i tried to run past everything a couple times but like TWENTY DUDES all clusterfucked me as i tried to enter the boss room lmao

So eventually i fought their big bad main leader who dual wielded two swords, and he legit had me on the ropes as like twelve dudes just watched in silence. Actually a legit cool moment. And he stayed permadead too, so all the knights no longer came at me no matter what

Bump, idk where to go in the main game, so ive just been tackling dragon city dlc now that im strong enough to solo it

In the main game, have you made it to a really big dragon that isn't hostile to you after the dragon aerie?

Yeah i killed him lol

It wasnt hard so much as a trial of extreme patience

That was not mandatory, btw. I mean it's fine you did it, just want you to feel sufficiently monstrous. Like me!

Also ngl I have no idea how you're supposed to figure out the remaining steps.

There are old withered husks of things around the world that you've encountered, or may need to go a little out of your way for. The item from that dragon you killed will trigger a thing for each.

Most of them are in the forest of fallen giants, I think

Yeah Elena is a bit tough, so i looked up a guide for the main game, and i went to all three memories

Im not sure what item i was supposed to get there tho? Giant souls? I sure hope not because ive been using them LOL

I was about to kill Throne Defender & Throne Watcher on the first try (my magical great sword fucking ROCKS them), but after killing Defender, i ran off to heal, and when i turned around, Watcher revived him to full health

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!

Lol

Probably gonna have to summon for this fight. This is like Ornstein and Smough all over again

Getting low on Effigies tho after all that time playing with my friend

Hmmm

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/aa8ef5cc.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e41ef67f.jpg

Whew just beat them by the skin of my teeth thanks to mr. homie dwarf with moonlight sword-

>another boss appears immediately after

Oh

Elana is hard ;-;

maybe ill deal with the gold knight before her NOPE SHE SUMMONS SKELETONS WHILE IM STILL DEALING WITH HIM

They really designed the dlc with co-op in mind. I did it solo but it was maddening.

PeaceFrog posted...

They really designed the dlc with co-op in mind. I did it solo but it was maddening.

thats about where im at lol.

still stuck at elana, but also found cerah, graverobber, and varg and its not much easier lmao. After absolutely sweeping through the main game, this DLC has completely stopped me in my tracks

PeaceFrog posted...

They really designed the dlc with co-op in mind. I did it solo but it was maddening.

I did as well, but man the "co-op" areas were something else. The runs to the bosses were horrendous. Especially in the one area....

I could probably just say screw it and go fight Nashandra and kill her easily, but could i really call myself a real gamer if ive never finished the dark souls ii dlc?

No joke i got off the couch, got a chair from the dining room, sat it directly in front of the tv, and was like aight fuck this

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/082e1c06.jpg

Optimized my route to the boss, equipped every healing consumable i had, summoned two npcs, and managed to get everyone there to take on the three gankers. My original strat was to focus on the archer first, but my bros were getting killed too quick, so i worked with them kiting the enemies between us and backstabbing when possible

My weapon started to break mid fight (i guess from destroying so many petrification statues on the way to the boss) so there i was again running around and fumbling through my inventory to get a repair powde

But man eventually we got them with zero flasks to go

Hell yeah

Gamer lean OP

Just got Elana too! Found out there was a secret bonfire behind an illusory wall, and a hidden second npc summon too. They were there this whole time

I got no shame using summons on these guys because now i can finally continue the game

Holy shit this next boss is amazing tho. Sinh the slumbering dragon. Its so organically cinematic while also being an actual fight. Now this is dark souls

TomNook7 posted...

thats about where im at lol.

still stuck at elana, but also found cerah, graverobber, and varg and its not much easier lmao. After absolutely sweeping through the main game, this DLC has completely stopped me in my tracks

if that 3 is the 3 I'm thinking of, that's the "extra hard" part of the DLC and you absolutely don't have to do that to finish the dlc stuff. Each of the 3 areas has one.

TomNook7 posted...

Now this is dark souls

Hell yeah

And yeah when i said "solo" i still used the npc summons. Just not real people

Finally got him tonight! Took all my estus flasks and THREE weapons breaking, but i barely did it

And mannn, maybe its just dark souls iis lack of boss variety, but i really think sinh might be my favorite Fromsouls dragon fight. The way he just stays mobile both in the air and on the ground the entire battle, knocking over pillars, knocking down stalactites, charging in from the sky, etc. I perfectly rolled past so many fireballs, fire beams, tail swipes, etc in the last second, it just FELT GOOD

Very dynamic and satisfying fight. My favorite DSII boss so far, and probably at least top 3 dragons along with Placidusax and Nameless King

Taking on DLC #2 now continuing from the iron keep

Personally I'd put Midir, Kalameet, and Sinh well above the others. Maybe Sinh above Kalameet.

Nameless King is an all time great but the dragon phase itself is merely fine. Good enough even to not make me hate fighting him repeatedly, but he can really just waste your time even by dragon standards. Plastic Sacks is like clearly better than all the other ER dragons but is much better spectacle than substance.

Ya know, i never played the DS3 DLC and now i need to add that to the list

I like brume tower so far tho. I like blowing up the barrel dudes to kill big swarms of enemies, and i like the fat dudes who self destruct. They tricked me and got me stuck in a corner and completely FUCKED me lmao. Its nice when the gameplay gets mixed up like that

But also smelter demon again? Really? Dont worry guyz its the alolan form so its blue now

And the path leading up to it is a straight clusterfuck lol

TomNook7 posted...

alolan form

Back in my day we called these Palette Swaps

Alolan Form is funnier though

Decided im gonna give Alolan Smelter a break whew

Guess ill travel down to the very bottom
now

Oh hey heres some actual players! I summoned three whole actual players! What are the chances

Fought the Fume Knight with some jolly good 4 player co-operation. He didnt go down easy either; that red magical sword was crazy

>acquired crown of the old iron king

lmao whoops looks like i mightve missed something

But thats it for tonight

Bosses beated
The Last Giant
The Pursuer
Ruin Sentinels
Dragonrider
The Lost Sinner
Skeleton Lords
Covetous Demon
Mytha, The Baneful Queen
Flexile Sentry
Royal Rat Vanguard
The Rotten
Old Dragonslayer
Belfry Gargoyles
Executioners Chariot
Scorpioness Najka
Royal Rat Authority
Prowling Magus
The Dukes Dear Freja
Smelter Demon
Old Iron King
Dragonriders
Looking Glass Knight
Demon of Song
Velstadt, The Royal Aegis
Guardian Dragon
Ancient Dragon
Giant Lord
Throne Watcher & Defender
Graverobber, Varg, Cerah
Elana, Squalid Queen
Sinh, The Slumbering Dragon
Fume Knight

TomNook7 posted...

Ya know, i never played the DS3 DLC and now i need to add that to the list

All the DLCs have good bosses, but it's really weird how every game manages a far superior dragon boss than their base games. If that trend continues in Elden Ring I'll be really happy about that.

Man Sir Alonne was HARD. Heres how it went down:

First i tried summoning two dudes to help, but i wasnt doing hardly any damage, because summoning makes the boss stronger, and also he was killing me so fast

Then i tried solo, and i learned his pattern. He has a ton of end lag after his long katana thrusts, and he always thrusts left. So dodge right, and punish

But hes also super fast, so i dont have much time to hit with my big ol knife. Tried two regular hits at first, but then i was like, wait, lets do 1 heavy hit. But then wait, screw that, im not using my shield in this fight anyway, so lets two-hand him.

Actually lets just unequip the shield, and im not using magic in this fight, so lets unequip the wand, and now i dont need my load ring, so lets reorganize my rings

Actually fuck it lets just respec completely. If i decide i need magic again, ill go back. Dropped int to 3, raised str to 60, got my agility to 105, googled his weakness which is lightning, equipped my gold pine resin

and after like ten tries i fuckin beat him

WHEWWWWW that was hard. But also really fun and rewarding. It was like constantly being in a high risk, high reward dance of giant katana vs giant meat cleaver lmao. The only thing that sucked was his attack where he grabs you with his katana, because even if you roll out of the way, it can just randomly lock on and suck you into it anyway

But yeah. Might be tied for my #1 fav boss in the game with Sinh

Been working my way through Eleum Loyce over the weekend. Its honestly excellent. Great level design, enemy design, and Aava was a really cool boss. These DLCs get better and better as they go. It really seems like Miyazaki was busy making Bloodborne, so he tasked the B team with DS2, and they improved little by little as time went on. I had a bunch of complaints about the main game, but the DLC is redeeming this game a lot

Made it to Burnt Ivory King, and actually managed to summon a guy named Piccolo69, but we got stomped by endless respawning enemies, and afterwards he sent me a friend request and a message saying dude get the loyce knights and i was like lol aight i didnt even know, but im goin now. Come to find out now the entire area has opened up even more, and exploring it a second time is like a brand new experience. Its just great

Yeah that fight without the knights sounds miserable!

I love how they rewarded the exploration of that area - not relying on consumables or weapons that you won't use, but actually making it relevant narratively, thematically, and functionally for the boss fight? Wish they did it more!

Did you fight invisible Aava?

PeaceFrog posted...

I love how they rewarded the exploration of that area - not relying on consumables or weapons that you won't use, but actually making it relevant narratively, thematically, and functionally for the boss fight? Wish they did it more!

exactly!

kevwaffles posted...

Did you fight invisible Aava?

no, lol wut?