From Software The Dark Souls Discussion Thread

[Morenatsu.]

But I can't be an ugly lizard if I wear armour.

 

[Multidirectional]

Bed of Chaos isn't even a boss, it's just a silly set piece. Having to equip "lava run" ring after every failed attempt just for that short distance from bonfire to solid ground is the most triggering thing about it to me.

The best choice is to do medium armor. Decent protection and resistances with mid roll. Besides, Havel set isn't that great to begin with.

My most recent run was a nostalgia run. I never went with medium weight past first playthrough so I wanted to go back to that at least once more. First time I ever leveled END above 40, to have medium roll without Havel's ring in Black Iron armor with Zweihander. With Wolf Ring I ended up having only slightly lower poise than with full Havel while sporting overall superior defenses and much better look. Absolute ez mode, but entertaining in its own way. Man I wish DS III allowed for a style like this. Constant rollspam and stunlocks get so boring in it.

 

[Latelistener]

You don't need Wolf Ring though. It's much better having Chloranthy Ring and FAP. And "medium" armor can give enough poise as is (61 is perfect).

 

[Multidirectional]

And "medium" armor can give enough poise as is (61 is perfect).

Over 110 is even more perfect.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Imagine using poise

 

[Silverfish]

You don't need Wolf Ring though. It's much better having Chloranthy Ring and FAP. And "medium" armor can give enough poise as is (61 is perfect).

Chloranthy and Havel's rings are the gentleman's choice. Add in 3/4 Giant's armor, Mask of the Child, Grass Crest Shield and the heavy weapon of your choice.

 

[Fenix]

This is my first time playing the series. I beat Ornstein and Smough on my third attempt. Easier than the ledge knights. Maxed out raw claymore. I was psyching myself up for this to be a multi-day challenge because of all the people who quit because of these two.

The only hard partis to beat fatman first.

 

[Ataraxia]

You don't need Wolf Ring though. It's much better having Chloranthy Ring and FAP. And "medium" armor can give enough poise as is (61 is perfect).

Chloranthy and Havel's rings are the gentleman's choice. Add in 3/4 Giant's armor, Mask of the Child, Grass Crest Shield and the heavy weapon of your choice.

Use a chaos zweihander for the heavy weapon and you're set.

 

[Fenix]

That fucker took me two days.

That guy did Manus from first try on guitar...

 

[Morenatsu.]

Manus has camera-blocking trash and near-invisible boundaries in his arena, I hate that shit.

I had to dodge every attack and use that item to block the projectiles and if I didn't time it all perfectly I died. Meanwhile some randumb retards can go herp derp heavy armour superpoise and instant win the game. What's the point, you're not even actually playing.

 

[Lyric Suite]

It's an action game. You can consciously decide not to make things easier for yourself to enhance the challenge.

 

[Black Angel]

I don't enjoy the moveset of the Zweihander. I really enjoy the Claymore's sprinting wide swing, the backhop attack, and the wide arc of the heavy attack. I play a stagger and careful movement style of play with the Claymore. The light attack is barely fast enough to give me the time needed to stagger enemies just as they start their own attacks. I'll upgrade and use the Zweihander in my next session because of your recommendation.

Didn't like Zweihander at all. Too slow. I suggest Claymore +15. Among the best weapons in the game.

The thing I liked about Zwei is how it breaks the poise of the majority of enemies in the game. Especially when they hit hard but slow, like Taurus Demons and Crystal Golem. It always feels good when I see them actually staggering and flinching from a 2-H heavy attacks/R2.

Raw claymore? I would suggest going for the +15 Zweihander instead but that thing makes you feel like you're cheating, almost. But yeah, just wait until you get to Manus. That fucker took me two days.

You have to really suck to not find Zweihander easy to use. That weapon straight up trivializes the game. If you also combine it with heavy armor high poise build the game becomes an absolute cakewalk.

I don't understand the sentiment of "it's like cheating" or "straight up trivializes the game". What's wrong with using one of the biggest weapon you can find to pancake literally everything that stands in your way? Not to mention you'd need to put some effort into it, e.g running through all those skellies in the graveyard if you want to use the weapon from the get-go (upon arriving in Firelink Shrine for the first time), and then working out to upgrade it, and you have to find those Embers key items, 2 of them in fact (does these a thing in the sequels? I forgot) if you want to go past +5 and +10 respectively. And then the long ass grind of a Slab if you're impatient and want to pancake stuff as early as possible.

Manus has camera-blocking trash and near-invisible boundaries in his arena, I hate that shit.

I had to dodge every attack and use that item to block the projectiles and if I didn't time it all perfectly I died. Meanwhile some randumb retards can go herp derp heavy armour superpoise and instant win the game. What's the point, you're not even actually playing.

First time I beat him, I was using KB&M, with no mods. Just the plain KB&M placement by Fromsoft. I was lightly armored (for that sweet, sweet <25% equip load i-frames), an either Zweihander or Black Knight Greatsword, I forgot which, and a Leo Ring. Every time Manus does his smash attacks (not the one where his left hand is stretched) I just roll-back and do a rolling-R1 which is a thrusting attack, and because Manus's left hands being on the ground after the smash still counts as an attack, the Leo Ring bonus would proc.

Good times.

 

[Latelistener]

Over 110 is even more perfect.

You don't need that much. It's ineffective.

 

[Multidirectional]

You have to really suck to not find Zweihander easy to use. That weapon straight up trivializes the game. If you also combine it with heavy armor high poise build the game becomes an absolute cakewalk.

I don't understand the sentiment of "it's like cheating" or "straight up trivializes the game". What's wrong with using one of the biggest weapon you can find to pancake literally everything that stands in your way? Not to mention you'd need to put some effort into it, e.g running through all those skellies in the graveyard if you want to use the weapon from the get-go (upon arriving in Firelink Shrine for the first time), and then working out to upgrade it, and you have to find those Embers key items, 2 of them in fact (does these a thing in the sequels? I forgot) if you want to go past +5 and +10 respectively. And then the long ass grind of a Slab if you're impatient and want to pancake stuff as early as possible.

I didn't say it was cheating but it is an ez mode weapon. So what. I fucking used it just on my last playthrough couple weeks ago, it's fun. It made my first playthrough much easier as well once I switched to it. Don't get what you mean about grind for Slab, I always felt first Slab was available early enough without needing to farm for it. Not that there would be big difference between +14 and +15 anyway.

 

[Black Angel]

Don't get what you mean about grind for Slab, I always felt first Slab was available early enough without needing to farm for it. Not that there would be big difference between +14 and +15 anyway.

Very Large Ember is located in the deeper parts of New Londo, and that also means the opportunity to farm a slab from those Darkwraiths, all can simply be achieved by killing Ingward early for Key to the Seal.

+14 and +15 might not be that big of a difference, the base damage that is. The scaling tho, it might not go from C to B, but when I say "the biggest weapon to pancake literally everything" I really mean it, and that means pumping up STR all the way to the 40-50. After I pumped END to 40, of course.

 

[Caim]

The thing with the Zweihander is that despite having C/D scaling, its massive base damage means it still scales like a motherfucker. For example, at 40/10 and +15 the Zweihander has a damage output of 528, but at 24/40 (or 16/40 if you use it two-handed) it deals... 525 damage. That's right, a difference of only 3. Sure, it takes a few more levels but you can pull it off. And at 40/40 (or 27/40) you're dealing with 610 damage. So why go with Dex instead of taking the 5-6 points of damage increase you get from Strength? Well, casting speed. It's keyed off of Dex, but you need to level up a bit to get there. So if you want to sling fireballs in your off hand (and given that Pyromancer is one of the best classes for anything related to the Zweihander), then going with the Dexhander might not be that strange of a choice. When it comes to reinforcing the Zweihander the damage scales nicely (around the high teens per level if you're at 24/10) but consistently, so the difference between +13 and +14 is around the same as +14 and +15.

Speaking of, I've been looking into the armors that you upgrade with twinkling titanite that you can get relatively early on, because I don't want the hassle of grinding out three dozen Titanite Chunks for my armor followed by four Slabs that are an even bigger pain to get. Anyone got ideas about this?

 

[Latelistener]

Quelaag's Furysword does 459 damage with just 11/20 and 10 humanity and 505 with 11/40. It's twice or more faster than Zweihander and does 20 (1H) and 30 (2H) poise damage compared to Zweihander (50 (1h) and 75 (2H)). What I mean is, there are better cookie cutters for normal game than ZH.

The problem is, it has split damage so it doesn't work great everywhere. I also think that it's better in 2H mode, which means no shield (feels like there are less frames in the animation and longer reach).

 

[praetor]

pre-patch (when they nerfed lightning infusion), the drake sword + lightning spear (from the mimic at sen's) were the go to "easy mode" weapons for newbies

and the real "it makes the game so piss easy it might as well be cheating" weapon (beloved by speedrunners in the early days to the point of "farming" that one knight and restarting if he doesn't drop) is the Black Knight Halberd

 

[Silverfish]

Putting aside personal bias (standard club master race), one of the strongest weapon setups for new players or vets is Morning Star for the first half of the game, then the Gravelord Sword for the second. The MS is found in a chest in Firelink Shrine, staggers like nobody's business and has bleeding on top, allowing you to punch above your weight class early on. Upgrade it along the raw path (there's no reason wasting rare upgrade mats on it) and there's almost nothing pre - Anor Londo that'll seriously challenge you. The GS is another free weapon (though it takes a bit of patience going through the catacombs), has monster base damage and shit scaling, so only base stats are needed for a totally unearned damage output. It's also got toxin which, granted, is only useful about five times in the whole game, but has some utility for fighting invaders. Best of all, it upgrades via demon titanite, so the shards and large shards spent on the morning star weren't "wasted".

 

[Jigawatt]

Speaking of, I've been looking into the armors that you upgrade with twinkling titanite that you can get relatively early on, because I don't want the hassle of grinding out three dozen Titanite Chunks for my armor followed by four Slabs that are an even bigger pain to get. Anyone got ideas about this?

Crimson set is great for this, and available the moment you set foot in Firelink without needing to kill a single enemy - assuming you take the master key. It's good fashion souls too

 

[Morenatsu.]

I have no idea what any of these items are!

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I have no idea what any of these items are!

It's an armor set you find at the hub fireplace provided you picked the houdini key at char creation.

 

[Gerrard]

This is my first time playing the series. I beat Ornstein and Smough on my third attempt. Easier than the ledge knights. Maxed out raw claymore. I was psyching myself up for this to be a multi-day challenge because of all the people who quit because of these two.

Dark Souls became known for high difficulty because it just never treated players like they are morons, and never spoonfed information on how things work. It's not actually a hard game.

If by "never spoonfed information" you meant "never provided any comprehensive information" then yeah, sure.
Indeed it is not a hard game after you read how everything works from a fucking wiki.

 

[Lutte]

The problem is, it has split damage so it doesn't work great everywhere..

Understatement of the year.
There's also the fact that you can't buff those kind of weapons and weapon buff affect fast hitting dex weapon the most/best so this makes the furysword a real bummer for a dex build. Pop a resin or a buff spell on a falchion or a painting guardian sword and watch bosses melt like they're butter.

Dex builders should stick to the regular falchion (and painting guardian sword) and drop a few points just to get buff spells, and keep a katana like the uchigatana on the side for world exploration for its versatile moveset and range. Baldr side sword is also good but the grind to get it is beyond tedious.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Quelaag's Furysword is there to make your dex/pyro build look flashy and knewl. Who cares about split damage you gonna combust the shit out of everything anyway.