Dark Souls II - Prepare to Die, Again

[robdood]

Nice! I'm loving my faith build a lot more than I thought I would, the miracles are super handy, and devastating with that Dragon chime

Another thing I really like with the miracles is that you can actually cancel them by rolling or back stepping during the first part of the animation.. Sweet for mind games!

I'm finally getting into pvp!

[CrispinG]

Lightning is a faith spell Crispin, Sparkly blue is generally sorcery, black is hex and fire is pyro. makes a difference if you imbue a shield as to what it protects against.

Not seen many pyros come to think of it, just grabbed this from cdkeys on PC so I suppose that's what I'll go for for a first build having done Cleric, Dex and Mage on console.

nah i know, there's just no honour in it lol. it feels cheap when i lose to sorcery/miracles because it's just whether i timed the roll right or not, and if i don't my entire health pool is gone because the other guy stood on the spot and pushed one button, 90% of the time from the other end of the duelling arena.

[LiMuBai]

How come enemies seem to have a period of invincibility when they're knocked down? Surely that should be when they're most vulnerable. My great club +10 two handed R2 attack says hi... Oh no it doesn't as you were in the middle of getting yourself up and it passed right through you somehow?!

[mechamonkey]

nah i know, there's just no honour in it lol. it feels cheap when i lose to sorcery/miracles because it's just whether i timed the roll right or not, and if i don't my entire health pool is gone because the other guy stood on the spot and pushed one button, 90% of the time from the other end of the duelling arena.

poison arrows are ridiculously good vs casters puny wet kitchen towel armour and no health usually.

[robdood]

How come enemies seem to have a period of invincibility when they're knocked down? Surely that should be when they're most vulnerable. My great club +10 two handed R2 attack says hi... Oh no it doesn't as you were in the middle of getting yourself up and it passed right through you somehow?!

It's only a very short window of invincibility, I regularly beat things to death as they get up after a backstab or riposte..

[Girth Certificate]

yeah that annoys me aswell, but I guess it would make it too easy, you can get your digs in once you get a feel for when the invincibilty wears off

[kensei]

What's the point of a knockdown then? Stunlock is already a thing. While you can usually time another hit, it just makes STR weapons more shit.

[NecroMorrius]

My left handed tower shield bash (when it aims directly at the ground) seems to hit them when they're lying down, but my right handed weapons never connect until they start getting back up again. Maybe some weapons cut through that immunity.

[NecroMorrius]

30 hours later and there's still nothing that remotely touches my fire sword from 45 mins into the game, or the armor I got from the second area. Why is all the loot garbage? I've spunked so many shards into supposedly good weapons and they're still just shit.

[robdood]

Sigh. I got half way through a post and then my phone ate it. Bollocks.

Anyway, the loot isn't all garbage. The fire longsword is good but it isn't the best weapon in the game by a long stretch. But there isnt really a 'best weapon'in Dark souls. It's personal preference and play style that governs your weapon choices.

Everything is useful. Almost, hehe.

[Blu3Flame]

In the middle of a tense boss battle, a mere second away from my own death and...

Your message has been rated! and my health gets buffed enough to finish the fight.

[Nate Dogg III]

As lovely as that is it'd be great if the notification didn't completely obscure the boss health bar. :/

[Superunknown]

How come enemies seem to have a period of invincibility when they're knocked down? Surely that should be when they're most vulnerable. My great club +10 two handed R2 attack says hi... Oh no it doesn't as you were in the middle of getting yourself up and it passed right through you somehow?!

I'm pretty sure there's a timing mechanic involved for that isn't there? I seem to recall something about it in one of the early videos by Vaati.

[macosx]

Everything is useful. Almost, hehe.

The Dood drinking game, every time you type 'hehe'. you're turning into a DS NPC.

[hughes]

Do all Ancient Dragons attacks one hit you? What's the best strategy to avoid the breath? Whether I loiter at his feet or tail he jumps up, does a 180 breathes down, forward and slightly behind and I cannot run behind him in time.

[Mentazm]

I just found out that the only seller of arrows in the game is some blacksmith dude sitting on a chest that I killed early on because he wouldn't talk to me. I guess I wasn't supposed to do that?

[Dark Soldier]

30 hours later and there's still nothing that remotely touches my fire sword from 45 mins into the game, or the armor I got from the second area. Why is all the loot garbage? I've spunked so many shards into supposedly good weapons and they're still just shit.

The basic club you can buy within the first couple of hours shits all over the fire sword when you start upgrading.

[NecroMorrius]

The club does 210 at +10, the fire longsword does about 248 at whatever I'm on now, +5 I think?

I've tried every weapon I've picked up, and upgraded a bunch of them. Bought a spear using a boss soul and upgraded that a few times too, still not as good.

Soldiering on

[danbot]

It depends on so many different things.

Do you like it?

How useful is it?

Does it work in corridors?

What's the reach like?

How many hits can you loose with one bar?

What attack types does it have and when?

What's the power stance like?

What are your stats?

What does it scale with?

What enemies are you fighting?

Are they resistant to much of it's damage output?

Notice I didn't write one number. Your fire long sword may well be hitting for ostensibly 38 more than that club but when you get down to how the game actually works, that is very far from the be all and end all.

[Hexx]

Duke's Dear Favour (and the route to it)

I don't want to play anymore

[Dark Soldier]

If you get to 40 STR, your club hits like a demon.Its my go to weapon at the start of any build/playthrough. It wrecks all types, and doesn't use much stamina, plus that near constant poise breakage on certain enemies.

[NecroMorrius]

I'm a dex build.

I'm not having fun at all at the moment, the shine has come right off and it's just a cheap generic dungeon crawler with boring loot and generic environments.

Hitboxes are so fucked in this it's untrue. Most thrust weapons are useless because you'll unexpectedly start stabbing thin air 45 degrees away from where the immobile enemy you're locked onto is stood until you refocus on them, which never happened in the first two. And I've died probably a hundred times with full stamina and my finger on the block button, with the game acting as if I wasn't blocking at all. And I'm not staggered or mid animation. It's fucking weird.

[mechamonkey]

Duke's Dear Favour (and the route to it)

I don't want to play anymore

Better get used to running through (its pretty easy to do it without stopping to kill anything) as you'll be returning for a few reasons especially with your build.

[Mentazm]

I'm a dex build.

I'm not having fun at all at the moment, the shine has come right off and it's just a cheap generic dungeon crawler with boring loot and generic environments.

Hitboxes are so fucked in this it's untrue. Most thrust weapons are useless because you'll unexpectedly start stabbing thin air 45 degrees away from where the immobile enemy you're locked onto is stood until you refocus on them, which never happened in the first two. And I've died probably a hundred times with full stamina and my finger on the block button, with the game acting as if I wasn't blocking at all. And I'm not staggered or mid animation. It's fucking weird.

It's not weird, it's better imo. If you use a slow unwieldy weapon and mistime your attack, it actually misses instead of some shitty spin on the spot on lock on anim. Only fast swords should be able to hit someone if you mistime things and they move.

[NecroMorrius]

I just stood in front of an enemy holding block and nothing else, and my 100% damage block shield absorbed zero damage and I died in three hits with zero stamina loss?

[Mr Cochese]

That's not a question!

Anyway, don't shield. Roll and dual wield like a boss.

[NecroMorrius]

Tried that, die constantly. Can never understand how you're supposed to roll around things in these games with the lock-on the way it is. Besides, 99% of the time you're just getting instakilled by "hilarious" enemy positioning or magic flying sprites that appear out of nowhere and hit you for 85% hp with zero warning.

Did you know that if you stand in the alcove during the executioners chariot boss battle, and then go into first person with your bow (which it encourages you to do by forcing you to take shelter opposite a ranged enemy), you fall down dead when he goes past? Apparently the amazing 1.1 level magnification is enough to get you killed despite your body not moving and being in a perfectly safe position lol. The game must extend your physical position or size in the world outward somehow. Ah well, that was a waste of an hour.

Edit - just had a similar bug to the one described by PC Gamer:

Another reason for our frustration is a glitch we encountered in our very first attempt at playing the game. At the time we thought nothing of this glitch, or even considered it such. But eventually we discovered that we could only equip the starting weapon in our left hand and that, whenever we would try to do the same with the right, nothing would register and we would fight with our bare hands. The weapon would be equipped but, as far as the game was concerned, there was nothing there. So when we finally found a shield several hours later, we discovered that we could equip the shield in our left, but couldn’t equip a weapon in our right.

Half way through my second attempt at that Majoras Mask boss my shield unequipped itself and all I could do was punch. Of course I immediately died, assuming I'd hit the left Dpad somehow. Back at the bonfire I still didn't have my shield equipped, so I went into the inventory and saw it was set for slot I, with II and III empty. But when I scrolled through them in game, all the slots were empty. Removing it and requipping it (in any slot) didn't work either. It was only when I unequipped the weapon in my right hand that the shield showed up, then I could reequip my right hand weapon. Wtf

I put 30 hours in prior to this without any real problems apart from initial disappointment. I don't know why it's so fucked up tonight.

[robdood]

I just found out that the only seller of arrows in the game is some blacksmith dude sitting on a chest that I killed early on because he wouldn't talk to me. I guess I wasn't supposed to do that?

Oh man. I guess not. I suppose you weren't keen on modifying weapons fully too?

If you go back to the smith's location, you should be able to talk with him still if you look around for something..

Also, in future

the poor sod's asking for flame... Surely you can fulfil his request? Look around for his anvil, there's an object of interest nearby..

[robdood]

I just stood in front of an enemy holding block and nothing else, and my 100% damage block shield absorbed zero damage and I died in three hits with zero stamina loss?

OK this sounds weird! Sounds like you've been unlucky with bugs (that thing you c&p sounds mad!) but just to be sure..

What area you in? Which enemy did this to you? Watch the spoilers though

...

In other news, I caught some video evidence of the strange durability bug that people are seeing. Now I'm using an Archdrake mace I thought I'd keep an eye on durability; after killing one Alonne captain at Iron Keep, I lost 20-25% durability! And it all went on the last hit, ie the killing blow cost a fat chunk of durability. Something is defo off there. I also purposefully messed up my spacing to see if indirect hits made a difference, which it didn't.

Will edit something and then try shouting about it on Twitter and see what happens.

[robdood]

Hitboxes are so fucked in this it's untrue. Most thrust weapons are useless because you'll unexpectedly start stabbing thin air 45 degrees away from where the immobile enemy you're locked onto is stood until you refocus on them, which never happened in the first two.

Don't agree with this at all. It's just *different* to the last game. Once you adjust it doesn't happen very often.

(unless again you got the really bugged editon of the game..)

It's also possible to slightly alter the directions of your attacks while they're mid-swing. Even while locked on! It's more pronounced with the great swords/hammers/axes but it feels like it affects all weapons to a degree.

There are some problems with the lock on though, like when you fight on stairs or if you're very close in a cramped area.