From Software Dark Souls 3

[cvv]

or you could just follow

Spoiler

siegward

questline and let him use his own stormruler to beat yhorms ass. you even get special cutscene. no need to check web for that

Sheeet you can summon him for the Yhorm fight? I think I got all his quests right up until now, even found him

Spoiler

in the fucking well outside the chapel, even tho that was A COMPLETE FUCKING ACCIDENT FUCK YOU MIYAZAKI SO MUCH1!!!1

but I don't think I was ever in ember before the Yhorm fight so I didn't see his sign. Damn, did I just fuck up his questline by not summoning him? Shit, gotta do it on NG+.

 

[Surf Solar]

BTW some people report that guys who pirated the game can now play online as well just as if they had a legit copy.

 

[Silva]

I gave WAB a thumbs down.

Why? He is obviously exaggerating but he has a point. The basic game is no fun. Now, this is somewhat remedied by the online component (summons and shit) ... but the game is boring.

I'm not saying this because I want to be edgy ... I'm saying it because I'm myself surprised by the realization that the game is "brutally" boring. And most of my disappointment comes from the combat.

Below is a list of the big offenders (imho):

1) The character feels floaty. It no longer has weight. FromSW have done a spectacular job in hiding this but it's real. The character doesn't feel grounded and it hurts immersion.

2) The mobs have like infinite stamina. This was abused before in the series (some bosses) but not to such a degree (basically all mobs and bosses).

Most mobs have this pattern: they do a combo of an unrealistic number of moves and then they have a short pause after which they start combo-ing again with full stamina.

The problem is that the pause in DaS3 is too short to be credible (it's a simple pause instead of a proper stamina recovery simulation).

I mean even the most pathetic mob from DaS2 had a time of stamina recovery. Once he combo-ed then you could count on the fact that he will not hit for the next couple of seconds. It was fair. It was consistent (with a few exceptions).

This doesn't apply anymore. There is one boss which is doing 6 or 7 swipes in a row and. There is no way to avoid being hit if you don't have stamina for so many rolls. Guess what!? Your actual skill is meaningless, you have to level up.

3) All mobs can stunlock you on hit. And yes, I mean all (I could be wrong but I'm using my own experience). But many enemies cannot be stunlocked even when you hit them for 50% of their health.

The situation is so absurd that is funny: while wearing medium armor even the smallest rat in DaS3 can stunlock you. I'm the Champion, destroyed of several bosses and the even one rat can put me in difficulty.

* Also how the fuck all rats know how to stop right at the edge of my sword!?

4) The mobs are doing an unreasonable amount of damage. It's basically off the chart. Also they move unreasonably fast.

The bosses in DaS3 are shit compared to the regular mobs. Two small thiefs can basically rape you in seconds. And there are countless other examples of unreasonable opponents.

5) Thanks to all the things above the player agency in DaS3 is reduced to a minimum. You can forget tactics and you can forget your skills: you will be rolling for the 90% percent of the fight. If you are lucky then you'll be able to hit your opponent while he is in his lunch break. If not then "get gud".

Each fight in DaS is a different shade of an clusterfuck. The main problem is that that the player and the mobs are playing by different rules.

Now, this bullshit is continuous and relentless. In each fight you will be reminded that the game is not fair with you. That the rules are retarded and that they were made by an edgy game designer. Again and again. Ad nauseam.

And that's why the game is boring.

This corroborates my small experience so far. The series had Bushido Blade combat before. Now it has Bayonetta combat without the tits. I've played a couple hours the day before yesterday and I didn't feel any interest to go back yet.

Pfff. And I considered missing a couple days of job for this.

 

[Raghar]

Is there a non spoily list of summonable NPCs so I will not miss another one? I found the katana guy after I won the fight with that four legged guy.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Boss soul weapons seem really cool this time around, with interesting movesets instead of the garbage from DaS2 where it was a bunch of shitty split damage weapons with an innate buff or something.

How does split damage work? Of all the boss/miniboss weapons I like the Gargoyle Flame Hammer the most but it's half physical, half fire and people say that's bad? I just wanna consider this carefully before I blow all my scales on upgrading these things.

Basically, there are two types of defense in the game, flat reduction and %based reduction. When you have an attack dealing two damage types, it has to overcome the flat reduction of both types, so effectively enemies have twice as much armour. So split damage tends to work best against enemies with low defense, or on weapons with high attack to begin with. But if you have a split damage dagger or something, you'll be dealing fuck all damage.

 

[toro]

Boss soul weapons seem really cool this time around, with interesting movesets instead of the garbage from DaS2 where it was a bunch of shitty split damage weapons with an innate buff or something.

How does split damage work? Of all the boss/miniboss weapons I like the Gargoyle Flame Hammer the most but it's half physical, half fire and people say that's bad? I just wanna consider this carefully before I blow all my scales on upgrading these things.

Basically, there are two types of defense in the game, flat reduction and %based reduction. When you have an attack dealing two damage types, it has to overcome the flat reduction of both types, so effectively enemies have twice as much armour. So split damage tends to work best against enemies with low defense, or on weapons with high attack to begin with. But if you have a split damage dagger or something, you'll be dealing fuck all damage.

Yep. I just wanted to post that the game became easy mode after I switched from Dark Axe something to a katana with only physical damage.

The difference is significant. Katana's fast attack seems to be the perfect fit for the combat cause if you hit first then you can land a couple of more hits. Even Darkwraiths get stunned.

 

[Grimlorn]

So, I passed up a fight (I think).

Walking down a corridor covered with purple flowers. To the left was a big room with some un-dead worshiping a big tree thing.

I went right instead and thought I'd explore a little...a few hours later, I want to go fight the tree..but fuck, can't remember where that area is.

Help me bros! Where is it? What bonfire? etc...

Zep--

Spoiler

It's the bonfire after the sewers. You get back through them and continue straight ahead where the giant arrows fly from the sky. You get to the shack, up the stairs and to the right you get to the tree boss building. If you opened the right door which was locked you can take the 1st Undead Settlement bonfire, I think it's easier to run past the enemies without the arrows from the sky.

Oh, I opened the shortcut with the rats. So I think from that bonfire, I take the shortcut, then go left?

Zep--

I just got done fighting the tree boss. It should be the 4th or 5th bonfire in the 3rd area. The bonfire right after the one before the giant arrows and spears are fired at you. Although you may have missed it. This bonfire is somewhat hidden and you have to drop down to get to it. If you got it you just have to backtrack a bit, there will be a Jester and 2 mobs, 2 dogs, when you go backward toward the boss. That should tell you if you're near it. Otherwise go to the bonfire before the spears and run through it quickly and you'll hit the tree boss eventually. Shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes.

 

[Mozg]

Boss soul weapons seem really cool this time around, with interesting movesets instead of the garbage from DaS2 where it was a bunch of shitty split damage weapons with an innate buff or something.

How does split damage work? Of all the boss/miniboss weapons I like the Gargoyle Flame Hammer the most but it's half physical, half fire and people say that's bad? I just wanna consider this carefully before I blow all my scales on upgrading these things.

Basically, there are two types of defense in the game, flat reduction and %based reduction. When you have an attack dealing two damage types, it has to overcome the flat reduction of both types, so effectively enemies have twice as much armour. So split damage tends to work best against enemies with low defense, or on weapons with high attack to begin with. But if you have a split damage dagger or something, you'll be dealing fuck all damage.

Split damage actually got fixed in DS2, at least in PvE - all elemental damage defense was % based rather than thresholding, so as a percentage you didn't lose any greater proportion of the elemental DPS on a lightning dagger compared to a lightning claymore (I say PvE because players could use gear and buffs to make at least one type of elemental damage at a time nearly useless, although you could just chalk that up to "meta"). You could even do stuff like put a dark buff on a flame weapon to get minor extra bit of dark damage effectively. I thnk they've actually re-broken it back to the DS1 way with elemental damage thresholding for DS3.

 

[Zep Zepo]

So, I passed up a fight (I think).

Walking down a corridor covered with purple flowers. To the left was a big room with some un-dead worshiping a big tree thing.

I went right instead and thought I'd explore a little...a few hours later, I want to go fight the tree..but fuck, can't remember where that area is.

Help me bros! Where is it? What bonfire? etc...

Zep--

Spoiler

It's the bonfire after the sewers. You get back through them and continue straight ahead where the giant arrows fly from the sky. You get to the shack, up the stairs and to the right you get to the tree boss building. If you opened the right door which was locked you can take the 1st Undead Settlement bonfire, I think it's easier to run past the enemies without the arrows from the sky.

He's down!

Spoiler

Had to summon some Sun Bros to help....

Zep--

 

[Talby]

Ok, I'm pissed. I was exploring around outside Firelink Shrine and dropped down into the are where there's normally a dog. Except, Hawkwood the Crestfallen Warrior wannabe was sitting there and I hit him with a plunging attack, then he fell off a cliff.

 

[Wolfe]

Dancer of the Boreal Valley has an amazing boss design, the atmosphere is 10/10.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Ok, I'm pissed. I was exploring around outside Firelink Shrine and dropped down into the are where there's normally a dog. Except, Hawkwood the Crestfallen Warrior wannabe was sitting there and I hit him with a plunging attack, then he fell off a cliff.

This made me LOL.

I remember several times (PS3) standing by an NPC and setting the controller down, and fucking R2 would go off. RAGE!

It doesn't seem so bad with the PS4 controller, but it STILL does trigger sometimes.

Zep--

 

[Immortal]

This game is amazing.. Call me a fanboy but when I venture into familiar areas from DS1 and see how all those enemies at the time have been completely fucked up by the chaos black mcguffin - I think it's just amazing.

Spoiler

Perfect example is Dark Basin.. where you see an island with a bunch of dead mushrooms.. there is even a baby mushroom that got killed. I almost felt sad for them..
Also the PVP Area with the hunters / cat is now a swamp but still has the pvp invasion stuff tied to it. The Stray Demon fight in the ruins of where you fought him in DS1.. Seeing some old wolf that looks like SIF. Ect ect.

Hits me right in the feels. DS1 still has better level design IMO but I appreciate the nod.

I'm getting to the point where I need to make difficult decisions. Questions for people who have gotten farther than me:

1. STR or DEX, which is better and why?
2. Can you respec, or are you stuck with your decision once you've made it?
3. Which weapons are worth upgrading?

1. There is no better. It depends on your build / weapon preference.

2. You can respec but only down to your base class. (AFAIK) so pick a base class you like or go depraved.

3. Any weapons you enjoy using. There is no cap on resources especially with NG+ so upgrade the weapons you want.. one thing different about DS3 compared to DS2 is that infusions will reduce your overall weapon damage 99% of the time.. unless you can find a enemy who is weak to the new damage type.

So don't infuse weapons unless you are focusing on a specific build or stat build that lets you double dip on that infusion.

AKA if you infuse a weapon that does 240 physical with a fire gem.. it will now do 120 / 120 split.. but because of how defense works in the game those two damage pools of 120 / 120 will overall inflict lower damage than a straight 240 physical. With some exceptions as I mentioned.

Invasions are also based around weapon upgrades. You can only invade someone who has upgraded at least one weapon to your highest level. As a result many griefers are rerolling characters right now and never upgrading their weapons so they can just troll new players.

 

[DoomIhlVaria]

Picked up a GTX 980. The game now runs at a solid 60 FPS. Though there is sometimes a little jerkiness when the game saves. Started a Deprived, bought some chainmail, grabbed the Deep Battle Axe, and pumped my vigor to 25. I've only gotten as far as fourth boss but the "fast" feeling has kind of worn off as I have become used to it and the game is feeling more like a real Dark Souls game. I think having gobs of hitpoints has really helped as it makes all those previously high damage quick hits from enemies feel as light weight as they look. My estus flasks feel pretty pitiful though.

 

[Ivan]

favorite combat encounter in the game: in the Grand Archives there's a trio of hostile NPCs high above the locale. so much fun

 

[Villagkouras]

Wow...

Spoiler

Old Demon King

Maybe the most difficult boss fight in any souls game. I don't remember not hitting a boss even once during a fight in 3 consecutive tries.

 

[Perkel]

Someone who said game has normal mobs tough as bosses is on fucking point. I finally had more time to play and i reached valley of sacrifice (after that tree) and before that bonfire there is this frozen dude.

God damn that fight was hard. Way harder than last two bosses but in a good way (fast, status effect and reaaly weird moveset)

 

[Immortal]

Someone who said game has normal mobs tough as bosses is on fucking point. I finally had more time to play and i reached valley of sacrifice (after that tree) and before that bonfire there is this frozen dude.

God damn that fight was hard. Way harder than last two bosses but in a good way (fast, status effect and reaaly weird moveset)

Wait til you run into Farrons Keep.

 

[Alienman]

Ok, I'm pissed. I was exploring around outside Firelink Shrine and dropped down into the are where there's normally a dog. Except, Hawkwood the Crestfallen Warrior wannabe was sitting there and I hit him with a plunging attack, then he fell off a cliff.

Is there something under Firelink Shrine? How do you get down there?

 

[Wolfe]

Wow...

Spoiler

Old Demon King

Maybe the most difficult boss fight in any souls game. I don't remember not hitting a boss even once during a fight in 3 consecutive tries.

Took me only three tries, I expected him to be much harder.

 

[Villagkouras]

What's your build? I'm full melee and I cannot approach him at all.

 

[Wolfe]

Well, I'm currently SL 80, but I beat him about 25 levels ago, I'd say. Was using Curved Old Wolf Sword+2, probably somewhere around 30 Dex, 20 Str, 25 Vig/End.

 

[Villagkouras]

I see. I have some trouble leveling, I am there only at SL 39 which is way lower than any other souls game by that time.

 

[Wolfe]

Yeah, that's probably the reason you're finding it so hard, you're a bit underleveled.

 

[Alienman]

Curved... swords?