From Software Dark Souls 3

[CthuluIsSpy]

BTW, at what level can i go to the painted world of whatever? I got there right after the Cathedral, and i got my ass stomped pretty brutally, so i noped out in a hurry.

Around whenever you reach Lothric castle. So basically when you have access to Chunks. I started doing Painted world at around level 65, and cleared most of it. Only the bosses left and maybe that new Rapier if I want to bother looking for it.
Painted world is pretty bullshit though in the beginning.
Dogs / Wolves were always a bit cancerous in Dark Souls, but in Dark Souls 3 they are even more cancerous because of the lack of proper stagger resist and AoA introduces stronger dogs. You could just run past them and make your way to the Corvian village though, which is a little more bearable.

I don't know why they put it at the Cathedral when its supposed to be end-game content, that's poor design, imo.
You get Ringed City just before the final boss, so at least there you know what you're in for.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

(also it is the most popular for PVP).

That's good because after upgrading my weapon to +6 i got one summon in three hours. With that said, so far i have 13 of those concord things so it's not really bad. It feels like i'm progressing naturally, winning a concord every now and then which is how i always imagined those covenants should progress, making obtaining a rank feel meaningful.

Too bad killing the Abyss watchers locks you out of the Wolf covenant. I got 11 of those grass things after two hours of farming, but i hate doing that, also because it screws up my rule of trying to level slowly and only use the souls i win naturally at the game. I ended up blowing all the souls on the stores because i don't want to end like in DS2 where i finished the game at SL200. I heard farming for concords is even worse and i'm glad i've been able to obtain so many with PvP alone.

You can still get summoned if you kill the Abyss Watchers. Its just that the summoning system is borked as its an early area so if your soul level is too high you'll rarely get summoned and when you do its against a high level gank squad.
I got a lot more luck as an Aldrich Faithful because there's a lot of activity there from the PvP circuit and that's more of a mid-late game area, so you aren't going to get punished too hard for leveling up.

But yeah, fuck the sword grass farm. I don't know why From decided to make it a 0.5% drop rate or whatever. Its not as if the rewards are any good.
You get a Old Wolf Curved Sword at rank 1, which is ok. Heavy and has a high dex requirement but it has the effects of both pontiff rings which is nice.
Rank 2 you get the Wolf Ring...which is rendered redundant by Ringed City and NG+, and the Wolf Greatshield, which is actually pretty good, but I don't think its worth the farm.

Covenants are still kind of crap, imo.
I don't like how they lock gear, and I don't like how after you get the gear there's no point in doing the covenant anymore.
When you do get the gear its kind of shit.

Mound Makers Rank 2 - Warmth, a Pyromancy that requires 25 faith that heals your enemies as well. Shit in Dark Souls 2, shit here.

Sunlight Rank 2 - Great Lightning Spear, an offensive lightning miracle. Its ok I guess, but in the time that it will take you to get 30 medals you can probably get the much stronger sunlight spear

Aldrich Faith Rank 2 - A staff that allows you to use sorceries with faith, but doesn't remove the int requirement. What's even the point? If you are going for a dark build just use the Izalith staff, which gives a damage increase to dark and is much easier to get.

Covered watchdogs

Rosaria Rank 2 - A staff that scales with luck. But why though?

Blades of the Darkmoon Rank 2 - Its a miracle that buffs your weapon with magic damage. Its ok I guess. Not as bad as the other rewards but not really good either.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

So I beat Friede.
Holy shit I hate that boss fight. Its complete bullshit.
So you have the first phase of the fight, where Friede goes invisible and you have no fucking idea where she is because unlike Priscilla in the first game, she doesn't leave foot prints. You either have to dodge at the last second when she comes for you (with a huge delay on her attack, I swear she fucking waits for you to dodge before swinging) or throw a bunch of daggers and hope they hit.
You have the second phase, that completely restores the boss's health, you have to fight both Ariandel and her and she heals.
Then you have the third phase, except now its even faster and harder.
If you die you have to do all. fucking. three. phases. again.

Its as if Miyazaki got fed up with all of the try hard masochists complaining that Souls isn't hard enough, so he said "you know what, fuck you, have some bullshit."

I had to summon a couple of phantoms to deal with her.
Its as if the boss was designed to dunk on great weapon users, because you get like 2 hits in before she just jumps out.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

So I beat Friede.
Holy shit I hate that boss fight. Its complete bullshit.
So you have the first phase of the fight, where Friede goes invisible and you have no fucking idea where she is because unlike Priscilla in the first game, she doesn't leave foot prints. You either have to dodge at the last second when she comes for you (with a huge delay on her attack, I swear she fucking waits for you to dodge before swinging) or throw a bunch of daggers and hope they hit.
You have the second phase, that completely restores the boss's health, you have to fight both Ariandel and her and she heals.
Then you have the third phase, except now its even faster and harder.
If you die you have to do all. fucking. three. phases. again.

Its as if Miyazaki got fed up with all of the try hard masochists complaining that Souls isn't hard enough, so he said "you know what, fuck you, have some bullshit."

I had to summon a couple of phantoms to deal with her.
Its as if the boss was designed to dunk on great weapon users, because you get like 2 hits in before she just jumps out.

I like to help new players with that boss, fought it countless times. Probably I was one of these phantoms.
Third phase is very cool, sad that it's (iirc) the only such example in DS (how many phases does Gael have? can't recall)

 

[NJClaw]

So you have the first phase of the fight, where Friede goes invisible and you have no fucking idea where she is because unlike Priscilla in the first game, she doesn't leave foot prints. You either have to dodge at the last second when she comes for you (with a huge delay on her attack, I swear she fucking waits for you to dodge before swinging) or throw a bunch of daggers and hope they hit.

You can still reliably see where she jumps while invisible, thanks to the "snow" effect and the breakable environment around the arena. She charges her attack for a while, so you can reach her and deal a ton of damage. Paired with a couple of backstabs, she goes down almost instantly.

You have the second phase, that completely restores the boss's health, you have to fight both Ariandel and her and she heals.

The second phase is a joke: the big guy is completely retarded and can't possibly hit you if you stick close to him. If you focus him and ignore Friede, the fight should last a minute at worst. Apart from that, it's incredibly cool.

In the third phase she is so fast that it almost makes no sense in the context of DS3. She is like a Lady Maria on steroids. However, it's incredibly scenic and tense, and that makes it one of my favorite bossfights in the entire game.

Third phase is very cool, sad that it's (iirc) the only such example in DS (how many phases does Gael have? can't recall)

Gael has 3 phases, but the last two are far more similar than what you get with Friede. Other bosses with three phases are:

Spoiler

Demon Prince, Champion's Gravetender, Nameless King, and Old Demon King.

Bloodborne has a lot of bosses with 3 phases, and, funnily enough, the first boss with 3 phases in the series is... the Bed of Chaos.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Demon Prince, Champion's Gravetender, Nameless King, and Old Demon King.

Right! They are just not having that...pause between acts as Friede do, as think, so I don't remember that even if I do remember how to defeat them.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

So you have the first phase of the fight, where Friede goes invisible and you have no fucking idea where she is because unlike Priscilla in the first game, she doesn't leave foot prints. You either have to dodge at the last second when she comes for you (with a huge delay on her attack, I swear she fucking waits for you to dodge before swinging) or throw a bunch of daggers and hope they hit.

You can still reliably see where she jumps while invisible, thanks to the "snow" effect and the breakable environment around the arena. She charges her attack for a while, so you can reach her and deal a ton of damage. Paired with a couple of backstabs, she goes down almost instantly.

You have the second phase, that completely restores the boss's health, you have to fight both Ariandel and her and she heals.

The second phase is a joke: the big guy is completely retarded and can't possibly hit you if you stick close to him. If you focus him and ignore Friede, the fight should last a minute at worst. Apart from that, it's incredibly cool.

In the third phase she is so fast that it almost makes no sense in the context of DS3. She is like a Lady Maria on steroids. However, it's incredibly scenic and tense, and that makes it one of my favorite bossfights in the entire game.

Yeah, I did work out the trick behind the invisibility, its just that if it hit me it practically one shot me, and that was some bullshit.
I didn't know she could be back stabbed until the phantoms helped me, but its still risky, as if you miss it you're fucked. Can you at least stagger her when she's charging, or does she get stupid amounts of hyper armor?

Second phase wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for the heals, the AoE ice spam and the amount of crazy shit going on the screen. I literally couldn't see what was happening, and once again I apparently didn't have enough vigor or something because my health bar was nothing. I guess Miyazaki really hates spell casters, because it would seem that if you don't dump 40 points into vigor and ignore everything else then you will die instantly.

Well yeah, that's the problem, isn't it? She's not a Dark Souls boss, she's a Bloodborne boss. I don't care how popular Bloodborne was, get that shit out of my dark souls game. Its the same problem I have with Oceirus, and he's not even that hard.

Its funny you mentioned Bed of Chaos, because the boss fight reminded me of that. Except without the checkpoints, and that's some crap.

 

[Silverfish]

Its as if the boss was designed to dunk on great weapon users, because you get like 2 hits in before she just jumps out.

That's just DS3 in general. The whole game is a dex build's paradise.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Wow, i got four connections in less than an hour in the valley but all four the invader used mobs to protect himself wtf is this.

 

[NJClaw]

Yeah, I did work out the trick behind the invisibility, its just that if it hit me it practically one shot me, and that was some bullshit.
I didn't know she could be back stabbed until the phantoms helped me, but its still risky, as if you miss it you're fucked. Can you at least stagger her when she's charging, or does she get stupid amounts of hyper armor?

What do you mean by "charging"? While she charges her unblockable grab, you can backstab her to interrupt the animation (and when se gets up, you can throw in a couple of R1). It's hard to miss, since she stands still for a while. I think you can also interrupt her with an attack while she is running towards you, but in that case rolling seems a better strategy to me.

Second phase wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for the heals, the AoE ice spam and the amount of crazy shit going on the screen. I literally couldn't see what was happening, and once again I apparently didn't have enough vigor or something because my health bar was nothing. I guess Miyazaki really hates spell casters, because it would seem that if you don't dump 40 points into vigor and ignore everything else then you will die instantly.

You should be able to outdamage her heals by attacking Ariandel, or you can just backstab her while she is casting the spell to interrupt it. The AoE ice attack has two very noticeable audio cues, both when Friede starts casting it and when the AoE appears: you should be able to avoid it even without keeping her on the screen.

I wouldn't say that you need 40 vigor, but reaching 30 certainly is a good idea. With less, you risk dying to an unfortunate series of events. Vigor probably is the most important stat in the game: in my no-death run, I reached vigor 30 before I even started thinking about putting points into other stats.

Well yeah, that's the problem, isn't it? She's not a Dark Souls boss, she's a Bloodborne boss. I don't care how popular Bloodborne was, get that shit out of my dark souls game. Its the same problem I have with Oceirus, and he's not even that hard.

Yeah, she probably is almost too fast (sometimes it's impossible to safely hit her for a very long time). However, that's what makes this bossfight incredibly tense, and that's why I like it so much.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Wow, i got four connections in less than an hour in the valley but all four the invader used mobs to protect himself wtf is this.

kids these days...
use arena mentioned above, some people there even have some etiquette

 

[Lyric Suite]

I talked to the Anri waifu and the fat dude can i kill Pontiff now? This shit about killing bosses fucking up quest lines is annoying do i have a go?

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I talked to the Anri waifu and the fat dude can i kill Pontiff now? This shit about killing bosses fucking up quest lines is annoying do i have a go?

Did you find the fake statue in the Church that I mentioned before?

This could fuck up or advance Anri's questline.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Shiiiet no i forgot about it. Going back naow lmao.

I'm just itching to kill Pontiff because i want to know if the little thief guy is going to come back in one piece. I believe i did what was needed to save him, but you never know. I like that guy, somewhat interesting NPC while the others are derivative as fuck.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Shiiiet no i forgot about it. Going back naow lmao.

iirc you need to kill the impostor to save Anri further on
Not sure if it will work when you talked to her and gone away without touching the statue

I'm just itching to kill Pontiff because i want to know if the little thief guy is going to come back in one piece. I believe i did what was needed to save him, but you never know.

I didn't manage to save him, cool little rat guy.
If he is dead, his remains will be in the sewers among centipedes I think.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I talked to the Anri waifu and the fat dude can i kill Pontiff now? This shit about killing bosses fucking up quest lines is annoying do i have a go?

Did you kill the fat dude at the bottom of smouldering lake?
Did you talk to Anri at the church of Yorshka?

https://darksouls3.wiki.fextralife.com/Anri+of+Astora

Yeah, the NPC quest lines are a little convoluted. A little better than Dark Souls 2 though, where you have to summon some phantoms to continue their quest lines.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Shiiiet no i forgot about it. Going back naow lmao.

I'm just itching to kill Pontiff because i want to know if the little thief guy is going to come back in one piece. I believe i did what was needed to save him, but you never know. I like that guy, somewhat interesting NPC while the others are derivative as fuck.

Ok, before you do that, did you talk to the Onion knight in the kitchen after the sewer area with all of those gross bug things?
Greirat's questline has a fail state after the first outing
First time he's fine.
Second time he's dead unless you talk to some NPCs and don't go into the dungeon too early.
Third time he's always dead and you have to get his ashes.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Yeah i talked to the fat guy in the kitchen. I believe if i kill Pontiff now he ought to be back sound and safe.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Third time he's always dead and you have to get his ashes.

Awww.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, so far i wouldn't say the level design is shit. I heard people bitch about how it actually sucked and that the only good thing about DS3 are boss fights, which is WAY out of proportions IMHO. I'd say so far the biggest problem with the levels is that it doesn't feel like you are fighting the area itself, like you did in DS1. I mean sure you get new monsters with their new challenges but there's no specific environmental hazard in itself, except for the old boring sludge. I'd say for all its jank that's one thing DS2 did better. The levels of the latter are closer to DS1 than those of DS3 seem to be so far.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

the biggest problem with the levels is that it doesn't feel like you are fighting the area itself, like you did in DS1

yeah, we totally need a spin-off fully set in Blighttown.

 

[NJClaw]

BTW, so far i wouldn't say the level design is shit. I heard people bitch about how it actually sucked and that the only good thing about DS3 are boss fights, which is WAY out of proportions IMHO. I'd say so far the biggest problem with the levels is that it doesn't feel like you are fighting the area itself, like you did in DS1. I mean sure you get new monsters with their new challenges but there's no specific environmental hazard in itself, except for the old boring sludge. I'd say for all its jank that's one thing DS2 did better. The levels of the latter are closer to DS1 than those of DS3 seem to be so far.

DS3 has its shortcomings, but all the autists screeching and screaming that it's completely shit exaggerate its flaws and ignore its strengths (knowingly or not). The same is true for all the DS2 haters on the internet. Each game does something incredibly well and falls short of the ideal in other fields: keeping this in mind, it's perfectly possible to enjoy all of them without problems.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Fuuuuu, Pontiff is kicking my ass.

Using Astora Greatsword and i barely get the room to hit him lmao. Got him close a couple of times i think i'll take a break and try later. Fucking roll souls.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Fuuuuu, Pontiff is kicking my ass.

Using Astora Greatsword and i barely get the room to it him lmao. Got him close a couple of times i think i'll take a break and try later. Fucking roll souls.

You can summon Anri or Londor Pale Shadow to help, their signs are just before the boss.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Summoning is for pussies.