Souls-likes

[Heinz]

Gravelord Sword is actually viable all the way through the end of the game, at least on NG. I still very clearly remember the first time I finished the game, I used the 100% noob-friendly strategy of Drake Sword for about the first half of the game, then Gravelord for the entire rest of the game. DPS was lagging a bit by the end but it still got me through everything.

What do you think of the Claymore? I've got it at +5 so far. I've been using that more than anything now that I'm getting a little better at the mechanics.

 

[SML]

My first build was such a mess. The demon greataxe dropped for me when I fought the Taurus demon on the bridge, so I started dumping everything in strength so I could use it. I had no endurance and wanted to "stay viable for pvp" so I stopped leveling at around 80, I think. My armor was a lunatic hodgepodge of wanderer manchettes, black cleric robe, elite knight (later catarina) legs, black iron helm... and I still needed Havel's ring to keep from fat rolling. I *somehow* beat Artorias, but Kalameet stopped me cold and I tried to reorient my build around the Artorias greatsword (cursed for free ghost killin') before, after way longer than I will admit here, I put enough points in endurance to wear a suit of chain and carry the axe and a shield and still move at a decent speed.

The next time I went through the game as a naked sorcerer and at, I don't know, lvl 65-70, killed him with cyrstal soul spears on the first try, plus a completely unintentional tail cut.

 

[Lagduf]

If I'm no mistaken all those years ago I beat the game with a lightning zweihander. I favored great shields until I learned how to parry.

I got all the achievements for the original on a single character so I probably had a very high level character as I just started dumping points in to whatever to max stats.

I only did the DLC one time and I think I was in NG+ 1 or 2. Artorias I remember having a lot of trouble on. Don't remember Kalameet being too hard though I know he is.

You guys seen the wacky videos of people beating Kalameet without having Gough shoot him down first? Souls speed runners are crazy.

 

[jro]

What do you think of the Claymore? I've got it at +5 so far. I've been using that more than anything now that I'm getting a little better at the mechanics.

Good weapon. If you get comfortable staying on offense most of the time (read: two-handing), you might think about the Zweihander as well. Longer range but a little less versatile moveset, though the R2 Havel smash is really useful.

My personal favorite weapon in DS1 is the Man Serpent Greatsword. The snake guys have, I dunno, a 1.5% chance to drop it, but you end up fighting so many of them that it's not hard to get. Killer for a strength build. Faster than anything else with similar AR, only drawback is that it's curved, but that also keeps it from bouncing off of walls like proper greatswords do.

My first build was such a mess. The demon greataxe dropped for me when I fought the Taurus demon on the bridge, so I started dumping everything in strength so I could use it. I had no endurance and wanted to "stay viable for pvp" so I stopped leveling at around 80, I think. My armor was a lunatic hodgepodge of wanderer manchettes, black cleric robe, elite knight (later catarina) legs, black iron helm... and I still needed Havel's ring to keep from fat rolling. I *somehow* beat Artorias, but Kalameet stopped me cold and I tried to reorient my build around the Artorias greatsword (cursed for free ghost killin') before, after way longer than I will admit here, I put enough points in endurance to wear a suit of chain and carry the axe and and a shield still move at a decent speed.

The next time I went through the game as a naked sorcerer and at, I don't know, lvl 65-70, killed him with cyrstal soul spears on the first try, plus a completely unintentional tail cut.

Lol I think that happens to everyone the first time through a souls-like. DS1 is a little more forgiving with Havel's ring's OP, but I remember that same feeling of WTF did I do, but also being far enough in that I didn't want to restart.

Then after that first time through and you get how to do a build/gear, you can go full Fashion Souls and still smash everything.

If I'm no mistaken all those years ago I beat the game with a lightning zweihander. I favored great shields until I learned how to parry.

I got all the achievements for the original on a single character so I probably had a very high level character as I just started dumping points in to whatever to max stats.

I only did the DLC, however, one time and I think I was in NG+ 1 or 2. Artorias I remember having a lot of trouble on. Don't remember Kalameet being too hard though I know he is.

You guys seen the wacky videos of people beating Kalameet without having Gough shoot him down first? Souls speed runners are crazy.

The first time I tried the DLC, Artorias beat me so bad, so many times, that I decided just to start a new NG run instead. He didn't feel cheap, just overwhelming, and I didn't understand his charge mechanic. Next time I played through the DLC I knew how the buff worked and just stayed on top of him as much as possible and took maybe one or two deaths. Manus seemed pretty easy IIRC, probably mainly due to how effective Sif is in pulling his aggro away. I somehow managed to miss Gough and thus didn't fight Kalameet, he and the bosses in Ringed City are the only ones in the series I haven't beaten ( ), I really do need to beat all of them sometime.

I had no idea that was doable on Kalameet, will have to check out some videos. I'm no speedrunner, but the stuff they come up with is pretty amazing sometimes.

 

[SML]

Finally killing Kalameet the first time may be the most triumphant feeling I've had in any video game, ever. That's the dragon I'm still chasing. That said, the fight with Slave Knight Gael is the best in the series.

 

[Lagduf]

Most of the speed runs are just crazy exploits lol.

 

[Lagduf]

Should we talk Elden Ring in this thread or make a new one?

 

[Tung Fu ru]

Should we talk Elden Ring in this thread or make a new one?

Separate thread

 

[jro]

I think I'd rather play Rigid Outskirts again over fucking Boryeal Dungeons. Goddamn that's a terribly designed area, very irritating.

 

[jro]

Okay I've reconsidered my previous whinybitchness, will finish I Dungeon and stop whining for a bit at least. Gotta beat Gael this time, no excuses.

 

[jro]

I beat Oceiros, Dancer, and Champion Gundyr yesterday in my current Strength/Greataxe DS3 playthrough, definitely gotten a bit smoother now. 3 has a few issues where the game is built for Bloodborne speed but still has so many Dark Souls mechanics that it creates some clashes, but practicing enough to get through those is rewarding in itself, i.e. Dancer fight- seems overwhelming at first with a slow weapon, but practice enough and it's literally a little like a dance where she goes through whatever bonkers over-choreographed attack pattern, you stay diligent and in the exact right place to not get murdered, then hit her once or so, then repeat, it's very rewarding.

Also right at the bonfire for Sister Friede, talk about a BB boss in a DS game. Again, it's enjoyable to learn the patterns and get better, but having all three phases to deal with makes it feel more daunting than most DS boss fights.

@lachlan , @sylvie , you both still hanging in there?

 

[Heinz]

Ive been distracted since last I posted lol I'll get back to it eventually.

 

[Lagduf]

See y’all in the Elden ring thread soon!

 

[Gentlegamer]

Also right at the bonfire for Sister Friede, talk about a BB boss in a DS game. Again, it's enjoyable to learn the patterns and get better, but having all three phases to deal with makes it feel more daunting than most DS boss fights.

Just remember Elfriede staggers up real nice, and MUH FLAIL man is very weak to bleed.

 

[SML]

Let's goooooooo

 

[SML]

Just remember Elfriede staggers up real nice, and MUH FLAIL man is very weak to bleed.

This fight was the one time I found crow talons (with carthus rogue) super useful.

 

[SML]

come on come on come on...

 

[jro]

YEEESH finished off Ancient Wyvern and Nameless King tonight but still have all of the DLC bosses, Dragonslayer Armor, Princes (still actually my favorite boss fight in the entire series until further notice it's that good), and Ringed City bosses left to fight. Oh and real Cinder I suppose. Gonna be awful tempting to just f'in tear into Elden Ring tomorrow but it would be so much cleaner to finish up every last piece of DS3 first.

Not a bad problem to have I guess, too much great Souls to play. Kinda crazy, I don't know the last time I was this hyped for a game as ER. Like, maybe I should take some PTO and tell my parents I'm in the hospital don't call me level.

edit: ATTABOY @lachlan you keep it at you beautiful boy you. And yes, I'd call you beautiful even if you don't finish it.

 

[jro]

Ringed City is still terrible. I would love to FINALLY beat Gael, but Christ are the ghost archers cheap. Was a bit stoked to beat the Demon Prince for the first time last night then bashed my head on the dumb summoner for about an hour today, killed him once and got the drop but died from a stray arrow so no progress.

Gonna put DS3 down for a while. Might come back to RS at some point, but as of now I still think it's a really bad way to end the proper series.

 

[Lagduf]

Time for Elden Ring. It’s bonkers good.

 

[sylvie]

Captain bimbo bitch reporting back



We're still alive , my friend showed me that i could kill the undead merchant for a katana. Finally stopped getting poisoned by rats and wised up and made it past the dragon bridge, ran my ass to a few bonfires and finally got to Andre . Powered up to Uchigatana +5 . I think my friend said i should add points to dex for katana ?

anyway, did a quick tour of Darkroot Garden . The lightning demon thing below Andre is something i want to kill but cant tell if my weapon is damaging it lol

 

[greedostick]

Captain bimbo bitch reporting back

View attachment 56633

We're still alive , my friend showed me that i could kill the undead merchant for a katana. Finally stopped getting poisoned by rats and wised up and made it past the dragon bridge, ran my ass to a few bonfires and finally got to Andre . Powered up to Uchigatana +5 . I think my friend said i should add points to dex for katana ?

anyway, did a quick tour of Darkroot Garden . The lightning demon thing below Andre is something i want to kill but cant tell if my weapon is damaging it lol

Uchigatana definitely scales off Dex. I can't remember if it also scales on strength. If an item scales near equal with both strength and dex its called a "quality" weapon. You can see what it scales with by bringing up the menu and looking at the item stats. It will say something like "Dex C", or " STR D", depending how it scales with said stat.

Sometimes you might have to hit either x or y to see the stats. Cause you can switch in menu to item specs or description. You definitely want to do this to read item descriptions and piece lore together.

Another way to view the stats is at the blacksmith. Just highlight the katana in Andre menu and you can see what the scaling is, and of leveing it up will improve scaling (super important)

Now if you perform certain upgrades, (back to super important), you can lose all your dex scaling. For example, you want to add Lightning (faith) or Magic (int) damage, then Dex goes away and your item would now scale off faith or Int instead of dex. Which would be ideal if you want a pure faith build with no points at all in dex, except the exact amount to wield the weapon. So take extra care when upgrading if you are pumping points in dex, cause you could pick a wrong upgrade and all those dex points you plotted would be worthless now unless you abandon your uchigatana or reset it (not ideal).

I highly recommend a Faith build first play through, with Wrath of the Gods, and Power within. Killer build. If you can manage to get the Darkmoon Blade faith spell, and upgrade the covenant to make it more powerful, then you will be in easy mode.

A Chaos Blade build can also be a ton of fun, and something you should do, after beating the game at least once.

But ultimately it all comes down to play style. You sure as hell don't want to turtle everything in equip load. Pick a damage type, and go all-in on it, and vitality. Good rule of thumb is 2 points in a damage type, and 1 in vitality, until each hits 40 (soft scaling cap).

Remember if you "ascend" a weapon with some types of magic scaling, you lose all ability to buff it. So you need to decide if you want a decent weapon that scales on an element, that you can never buff. Or if you want a +15 weapon that scales on Heavy (Strength) and/or (Sharp) Dex, that is super powerful, and buffable.

A good build would be like 40-50 vitality, 30 faith, and strength and or dex to 40. This way you can buff, and cast power within, and get over 1k a swing with some weapons (Zweihander in firelink by skeletons).

Or say screw strength and dex, and pump like 50 in Faith or Int (pure mage). Then get crown of dusk, and the rings that make either sorcery or faith more powerful. Easy mode for PVE.

3rd is the "Giant Dad" build. Which is a turtle build that uses the great club. This build is for weenies that can't even beat Super Mario Bros. 3.

Also a final note. You upgrade weapons to like +5 or +10, then they disaapear from the upgrade menu. You now have to look in the ascend menu and choose a path. After 1 ascention, the item will go back to the regular upgrade menu. Andre will only get you so far. There are 3 other blacksmiths besides Andre. One of them is hidden really well and can be unlocked from the beginning of the game. The other 2 are near impossible to miss.

 

[sylvie]

Thx for the write-up. Might comment on more specific points later

I beat the Bell Gargoyles 1st try but I summoned that dude to help me. Easy fight with him

So you mean like I need to get an Ember first right? I was thinking of doing Fire ?? Not sure where to get that. My friend did some crazy thing but wasnt paying attention, she got a Lightning ember and turned the katana into a cool lightning katana.

Wanted to grab the Zweihander just because. Been running around in Firelink trying to find the graveyard like a retard, cant fucking find it? Also what do these Sunlight Medals do? Also I wasted a thing thats supposed to improve my flask, by just using the item instead of taking it to that mute bitch in the cage

Also yeah Im doing a Dex build I guess. Putting all my shit into Dex and Vit basically.

 

[greedostick]

Thx for the write-up. Might comment on more specific points later

I beat the Bell Gargoyles 1st try but I summoned that dude to help me. Easy fight with him

So you mean like I need to get an Ember first right? I was thinking of doing Fire ?? Not sure where to get that. My friend did some crazy thing but wasnt paying attention, she got a Lightning ember and turned the katana into a cool lightning katana.

Wanted to grab the Zweihander just because. Been running around in Firelink trying to find the graveyard like a retard, cant fucking find it? Also what do these Sunlight Medals do? Also I wasted a thing thats supposed to improve my flask, by just using the item instead of taking it to that mute bitch in the cage

Also yeah Im doing a Dex build I guess. Putting all my shit into Dex and Vit basically.

Yeah they are embers, but you don't wanna do that if you are going straight dex. You want only titanite. Now you could +15 that katana with only titanite, and pump at least 30 in faith, and use buff spells like sunlight blade until you get darkmoon blade. Also think about a sword called Falchion. Its tits for faith dex builds.

Fire will also remove your dex scaling, and will upgrade further to Chaos. Which scales off of how many humanity you have popped (number in corner of screen).

Learn from any mistakes, and 3/4 of the way through the game you will start thinking about new builds, and how you can do it better next time. That's part of the fun.of the game. So take what I say with a grain of salt and have fun.

Sunlight medals are covenant items, you trade em.

Don't worry about the flask upgrade. Kinda sucks but you will survive.

Graveyard is 50 steps from firelink bonfire. Go in door where pool is, look left. Go in small door.

Buy pine resin for fire buffing for now. Save lightning resin for fore bases bosses.

 

[ggallegos1]

About to fight Ornstein and Smoug today for the first time, went with a strength build using the Black Knight Sword mostly for it's speed and power. I'll probably be on this boss for the next week seeing how others reacted to them