From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Hobo Elf]

So I tried joining the Blue Man Group covenant to invade sinners. Try is as far as I got.

 

[Mortmal]

Int builds are so fucking broken in this game, those that use the Moonlight Greatsword, at least.

I have 40 Str and 40 Dex. With these stats, a claymore has 290 + 155 damage. 445 damage in total. Edit: I'm actually using the Ring of Blades +2, so the actual scaling is 290 + 105 = 395 damage.

Moonlight Greatsword has 380 (!!!) base damage, all magic. Aromatic ooze is 50 magic damage +30% magic damage. Since the weapon deals only magic damage, all damage gets multiplied by that %. We end up with 559 damage. This is without taking any scaling into account.

With only the minimum stats to use it, the Moonlight Greatsword outdamages my 40/40 claymore. Now imagine if the MLGS is used by a mage with (say) 40 intelligence and remember the MLGS has excellent magic scaling.

Mages become the best at both ranged and melee. Completely idiotic.

P.S.: Turns out a weapon with an A scaling in STR such as the Mastodon Greatsword receives more damage from 40 STR than a C/C weapon gets from 40 STR and 40 Dexterity. It seems like quality builds are absolute garbage now, and a waste of points.

Thats what i noticed too, its completely unfair and misleading, could have expected that C/C in str/dex would do better than that.Went for 40 st 40 dex and 40 faith with heide sword wich is supposed to be scaling good with faith, even infuse it lightning but its nowhere near what a heavy str 2H can do .

 

[deuxhero]

Just shot and killed a low health invader (encountered him before during the level, but he fled after killing a phantom) while he was riding a long elevator up to me. Hehehe

 

[Invictus]

Still loving the game and hating the lack of playingtime.
But today I got a small procedure done on my ankle so I am chilling in pain medication and some jolly cooperation :D

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Soon I'll have Havel set and Faraam set, and then Fashion Souls 2 can truly begin.

 

[Mortmal]

Just shot and killed a low health invader (encountered him before during the level, but he fled after killing a phantom) while he was riding a long elevator up to me. Hehehe

Was invaded in black gulch once, was hidden in the secret shrine while i heard him triggering every venom traps above while looking for me , he ends upfinding me with a sliver of health left and was instant stabbed. Best pvp day ever.

 

[Kanedias]

I love when I get invaded in Black Gulch. I have had two invaders die to the poison. To be honest, I'm guilty of this myself, when I saw the area for the first time, I assumed invaders would be immune to the poison, and I used an orb. Hahaha.

On another note, I switched to the Manslayer, and wow the katanas are good. I still like my Drakekeeper's Sword but the katanas are really fun to use, they have good combos, probably the best run attack of any weapon, and they feel like they do more damage than my Drakekeeper's Sword (even if the AR is similar and in fact a bit lower). On top of the good damage, Manslayer builds up poison, so then I switch to my Spotted Whip and finish the job. Incredibly fun.

Also, I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but yesterday (or the day before, I don't recall) I was invaded by someone using the Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring and I saw the invasion message. So it either doesn't work for hiding this message, or it bugs sometimes, idk.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Well I just fought the first boss in Iron Keep. Got him below half then my two phantoms died and I wasn't good enough at dodging to beat him. Also on a side note wow Lucatiel is weak at this point. She was hitting for pathetic amounts of damage and since she never used her freaking shield or dodges the only way she can survive is if you kill a boss fast enough and make sure she never gets targeted. Was it like this later in DkS with npcs there?

 

[Kanedias]

NPCs in Dark Souls always sucked, with some exceptions (Tarkus).

I still remember the one time I summoned Lautrec and he kept trying to parry the Gaping Dragon.

In this game, most of them suck. I recommend Red Eye Ring in order to keep the boss away from the NPCs, if you want them to survive.

The one I know doesn't suck is Jester Thomas Tarkus, a summon for Earthen Peak, he has ridiculous pyromancy abilities. I saw him in a livestream and he completely destroyed the boss.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Yep just used him and it was absurd. Granted he missed the first few hits but after that the boss just fell within a minute.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Jester Thomas is the Iron Tarkus of this game. He can solo Mytha even in NG+, possibly NG++.

 

[praetor]

I love when I get invaded in Black Gulch. I have had two invaders die to the poison. To be honest, I'm guilty of this myself, when I saw the area for the first time, I assumed invaders would be immune to the poison, and I used an orb. Hahaha.

On another note, I switched to the Manslayer, and wow the katanas are good. I still like my Drakekeeper's Sword but the katanas are really fun to use, they have good combos, probably the best run attack of any weapon, and they feel like they do more damage than my Drakekeeper's Sword (even if the AR is similar and in fact a bit lower). On top of the good damage, Manslayer builds up poison, so then I switch to my Spotted Whip and finish the job. Incredibly fun.

dex weapons are decent to good in PvP (str is still better), but absolute garbage (compared to Str) in PvE. little in terms of versatility other than poison and bleed (and the first you can have in good and effective forms even without Dex in various forms, from resins to throwing knives to pyros and hexes), but bleed sucks in PvE. plus, the "natural" bleed on weapons is completely random (why does falchion have it, but scimitar not? etc..), the range is mostly garbage (again, compared to Str), the durability is so shit it boggles the mind (plus repair powders are rather rare and expensive for more than the first half of the game. and it's not only that they have lower durability, they also degrade faster!), low poise, almost everything is highly armoured (i.e. has high slash resistance) and the speed is not that much better than Str to compensate for the rather low damage output. i think the only advantage Dex has over Str is the slightly lower stamina consumption and lower average weight. yeah. i still like them, but they made them even worse than Str was in DaS1. and yeah, quality is ubershit. From sucks at balancing, news at 11

The one I know doesn't suck is Jester Thomas Tarkus, a summon for Earthen Peak, he has ridiculous pyromancy abilities. I saw him in a livestream and he completely destroyed the boss.

haha yeah. i co-oped there quite a bit a couple of days ago, and he even shrugs the poison off like it's nothing (but seriously, whoever at From thought it was a good idea to make the poison go away by burning a random wheel should be fired on the spot. retarded design, way worse than BoC). even with 2 phantoms and the HP bonus the boss gets, he can pretty much solo her. the Freja NPC is also pretty solid (dear god i hate that well, boss [the small spiders that 2 shot me with ease, not the actual boss]), taking care of most of the small spiders and doing chip damage to the boss

 

[Invictus]

I hate the AI of the summons too, Jester Thomas is bad ass and it sucks you only get him for that fight.
Lucatiel is a pain too she doesn't tank anything and even with me wailing on the bosses when she is summoned while she get their attention she still suck and makes a relatively easy fight a nightmare for trying to keep her alive.
I am thinking of using Soul Vesel for switching around my str build to get int and faith to use the black knigh greatsword one handed but I am not that big a fan of greatswords, the moveset is good but I wonder how the actual sword will work.
Seems it has a low fire damage bonus, can that be further scaled like the Heide weapons? Getting lightning on that would be very interesting...

 

[DragoFireheart]

PSA

http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/21kuq4/new_update_103_announced/

New update information has been announced today in Japanese Dark souls site. Release date is yet to be confirmed. info.darksouls.jp/other/pc/information_detail/2014-03-28-01.html

Patch notes.....

• Successful Online coop with white / small sigh stone will now revive you back to human
  
  
• Bug where entrance door to Drangleic Castle did not open has been fixed
  
  
• failing to create multiplayer session no longer disables use of online items such as white soap stone
  
  
• starting boss fight with Mirror Knight while summoning coop player no longer fails / cancel summoning process
  
  
• death match error at the undead purgatory has been fixed
  
  
• you will no longer be able to take off Covenant related rings while being summoned
  
  
• bug which dropped items were not be able to picked up again due to the 'inventory is full ' message has been fixed
  
  
• dialog will now pop up when you enter the coffin at the Things Betwixt
  
  
• fixed bug where at certain areas blood stains, illusions and messages were not displayed
  
  
• bug which location of object and item were reset has been fixed
  
  
• display response time at character making has been improved
  
  
• bug where angle of the tattoo chosen at the character making screen did not display correctly has been fixed
  
  
• response time of start menu / bonfire menu has been improved
  
  
• certain items not being available at the shops in NG+ and later has been fixed
  
  
• summoned players no longer fall under the ground at Earthen Peak
  
  
• bug which caused souls to be lost while equipping life protection ring has been fixed
  
  
• bug which caused face icon displayed at the summon sign to be of different player has been fixed
  
  
• Trophy icon for the Guardian of Fort(?) fixed
  
  
• Controller now vibrate when guarding
  
  
• equip menu info on dark magic has been fixed
  
  
• bug which caused player to fall through elevator while using binoculars and casting spell has been fixed
  

I did my best at translating but for some part I have no idea how things are called in English version, so there could be mistakes.

Anyway, enjoy playing and praise the sun!

Also, super secret tech:

Spoiler

Dual wield Clubs. That is all.

 

[Morgoth]

Can I also arm my Knight with dual-wield dildos?

 

[Tribal Sarah]

I had that under the ground thing happen at earthen peak. it was pretty funny. had to send the guy back though which was a shame. also, the iron king is a dick

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I have succeeded at Fashion Souls 2.0. One looks mucho stylish wearing Alva chest piece, Elite Knight helmet, and Havel arms/legs. And it's also very effective! Now just gotta find an excellent but stylish shield, Drakerider's is a little too big...

EDIT: I found Iron King to be considerably easier than Smelter Demon.

PS: Fuck Shrine of Animu, even though it's easy to get a bow that can take care of those goddamn spell-chucking bitches and the enemies there drop delicious Twinkling Titanite.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Rat Covenant invades Sweden.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Btw, Royal Rat Vanguard was a p. cool bossfight.

 

[Kanedias]

I love when I get invaded in Black Gulch. I have had two invaders die to the poison. To be honest, I'm guilty of this myself, when I saw the area for the first time, I assumed invaders would be immune to the poison, and I used an orb. Hahaha.

On another note, I switched to the Manslayer, and wow the katanas are good. I still like my Drakekeeper's Sword but the katanas are really fun to use, they have good combos, probably the best run attack of any weapon, and they feel like they do more damage than my Drakekeeper's Sword (even if the AR is similar and in fact a bit lower). On top of the good damage, Manslayer builds up poison, so then I switch to my Spotted Whip and finish the job. Incredibly fun.

dex weapons are decent to good in PvP (str is still better), but absolute garbage (compared to Str) in PvE. little in terms of versatility other than poison and bleed (and the first you can have in good and effective forms even without Dex in various forms, from resins to throwing knives to pyros and hexes), but bleed sucks in PvE. plus, the "natural" bleed on weapons is completely random (why does falchion have it, but scimitar not? etc..), the range is mostly garbage (again, compared to Str), the durability is so shit it boggles the mind (plus repair powders are rather rare and expensive for more than the first half of the game. and it's not only that they have lower durability, they also degrade faster!), low poise, almost everything is highly armoured (i.e. has high slash resistance) and the speed is not that much better than Str to compensate for the rather low damage output. i think the only advantage Dex has over Str is the slightly lower stamina consumption and lower average weight. yeah. i still like them, but they made them even worse than Str was in DaS1. and yeah, quality is ubershit. From sucks at balancing, news at 11

The one I know doesn't suck is Jester Thomas Tarkus, a summon for Earthen Peak, he has ridiculous pyromancy abilities. I saw him in a livestream and he completely destroyed the boss.

haha yeah. i co-oped there quite a bit a couple of days ago, and he even shrugs the poison off like it's nothing (but seriously, whoever at From thought it was a good idea to make the poison go away by burning a random wheel should be fired on the spot. retarded design, way worse than BoC). even with 2 phantoms and the HP bonus the boss gets, he can pretty much solo her. the Freja NPC is also pretty solid (dear god i hate that well, boss [the small spiders that 2 shot me with ease, not the actual boss]), taking care of most of the small spiders and doing chip damage to the boss

Honestly, I find Dex weapons to be better than strength in PvP, and that's because of how poise works now. Not many Str weapons can fight a katana effectively. Also, most Str weapons are still really easy to backstab, and the ones that are slow have trouble fighting against a fast Dex weapon because they get easily interrupted. I believe the Mastodon Greatsword is one of the best Str weapons, but apart from that, they don't have much.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Hahaa! Fashion Souls is victorious once again! Defender's Shield is stylish, but with better stats than Drangleic shield!

 

[Canus]

Joining the rat covenant has really made me consider rats bros.
Also traps. Traps and rats are both bros.

 

[deuxhero]

I have succeeded at Fashion Souls 2.0. One looks mucho stylish wearing Alva chest piece, Elite Knight helmet, and Havel arms/legs. And it's also very effective! Now just gotta find an excellent but stylish shield, Drakerider's is a little too big...

And I have failed utterly. I'm wearing the Baclk Hood, Lion Mage "skirt"/arms and katana knight's armor (because it has the highest defenses of all the armor I have that stays under 50% load)

 

[80Maxwell08]

Well I decided screw the smelter demon and went right to the other boss of Iron Keep. Also holy hell magic is strong. This is the second time I've summoned a magic user (who wasn't an NPC) and they totally wrecked the boss there. I might as well have only been there so he could get souls. Seriously thinking of making a magic character and seeing the difference of how they perform.

 

[deuxhero]

Nah, magic is the worst off here of all 3 games. Spells either have crap uses or crap power, and there's nothing to boost them directly (lot of fast cast gear and a single item that buffs pyromancy. That's it). Lots of enemies have huge magic resist for no reason (in Demon's Souls it was pretty much just the Mind Flayers and in Dark Souls you were screwed in the Duke's Archives, but barely noticed elsewhere. In DS2 they are EVERYWHERE). Early game is hell because you can't get a magic weapon till 30+% in.