From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[mediocrepoet]

I haven't played this one in ages. But some of my favourite pvp moments are from it.

I remember getting chain invaded by some dickhead in Shrine of Amana. He couldn't win except by using the environment and if I just went to fight him, he'd run. So after I got tired of it, I just started running through the area because I knew the game really well back then. He followed, and once he was in the middle of everything, I used a seed of the giant tree. Seconds later, I got his souls. Very few things in gaming have made me laugh that hard, except for...

I got invaded another time in the keep in the forest of fallen giants. I was bored and had time to kill, so I used chameleon up in the middle of a bunch of crates and just waited. Eventually the guy got a clue and started rolling through the crates towards my "crate". So after he was committed, I cast chaos storm and he finished his roll in the middle of it.

Good times.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Finally done watching that video. First of all, he pads the shit out of it by lingering on the same point for way too long. No idea why he felt the need to do that as TL;DW is already a thing on youtube and most people actually try to shorten their videos with annoying quick cuts but this guy just loves to hammer on the same nail forever.

With that said, i encountered the majority of bugs he mentioned, so i guess as the years went by nothing was fixed. There's also a couple of things he mention which were clearly not bugs but he presents them as such, like the hollows hitting the trees, or that super fast zombie guy which i'm sure was designed like that.

All in all what the game reminds me of is Blood 2. I guess it's a similar situation with what happened with Monolith. From started making two games at once and as a result their resources got spread out beyond their means, just like with Monolith.

 

[Wunderbar]

why are you watching some random videos on a game you haven't finished yet?

 

[Lyric Suite]

He didn't spoil anything, just showed some bosses but who cares, this game hasn't impressed me with bosses so far, either their mechanics or presentation.

In fact, it seems i missed out on some portion of the game by doing them solo. There seems to be a ton of NPCs you can summon in this one, but i skipped all of them because i wanted to do the bosses myself, but it seems they actually give useful stuff. I tried the scorpion guy just to see what would happen and he gave me a branch afterwards. I'm kinda of annoyed by it seems the game rewards you by cheesing the bosses by summoning NPCs. The scorpion lady seemed like an interesting fight too for a change now it feels i missed out by not doing her solo.

I'm now rocking the visible Aurous set. I thought this was supposed to be super rare but i found it in a chest in the Gutter? Did they change something? I was looking up the Insolent Set but it seems you have to pray the RNG gods to get it i'm not sure i want to now but it's going to ruin my Deus Vult cosplay. You have to kill non-respawnable red phantoms and you have to burn a ton of ascetics if you are unlucky. Seems like bullshit to me just for fashion.

 

[Multidirectional]

I'm digging the way Faraam set looks combined Wanderer's leggings. I even went back to Longsword for now to compensate for weight increase.

Spoiler

 

[praetor]

Ok finally gave in and used a Bonfire Ascetic, to get Southern Ritual Band +2. 3 additional spell slots were just too tempting and I didn't wanna wait , since this is the first time I pumped INT all the way up to 50, leveling DEX and STR only for weapon requirements. 9 spell slots now, ain't too shabby.
Is it worth pumping INT to 64 for Soul Geyser?

no, uses spices to bring shit down to 50

 

[Curratum]

Is everyone mixing their build with spellcasting these days, is nobody doing pure weapon builds anymore?

I really like "raggedy swordsman" type of fashion so I spent half the game playing with the Sinner's straitjacket and the rogue leggings (short top shows the leggings brown cloth piece)

Spoiler

and the other half - with Cale's top and the Alva leggings.

Spoiler

 

[praetor]

I got invaded another time in the keep in the forest of fallen giants. I was bored and had time to kill, so I used chameleon up in the middle of a bunch of crates and just waited. Eventually the guy got a clue and started rolling through the crates towards my "crate". So after he was committed, I cast chaos storm and he finished his roll in the middle of it.

Good times.

did the same thing, though in the 3 DLC in the exact same spot where the NPC invader does it to you. got invaded just as i had to take a leak, so i chameleoned in that general area (though as a barrel iirc) and it took him forever to find me, but by then he was thoroughly frustrated and i was well rested and quite entertained, so a few pyros in that small space did quick work of him

Ds2 has by faaaaaar the best online experience, both in terms of performance (the least amount of lag, in my rather extensive experience) and actual experiences thanks to the balance, available tools and situations/environments

 

[Curratum]

More people are playing Scholar than they are DS1 Remastered as I'm typing this, around 50% more. So, yeah, DS2 will always be the go-to for Souls PVP on PC.

 

[Multidirectional]

Replaying this right after playing DS3 I can confirm that this is way less laggy overall. Most of the PvP I did in DS3 was an absolute shitshow with faggots teleporting behind me for backstabs all the damn time. And co-op with creepy hosts floating instead of walking.

 

[Curratum]

DS3 also suffers a bit from that Bloodborne engine issue where everything looks like it's a flat-color material with no actual bitmap texture material on it.

Have you noticed this about the world of DS3? The walls and floors and ground and rocks - everything looks like it's a single solid color, there is very little of what we generally call "textures" in games, it's like all the world geometry is covered in a very simple flat color material and detail comes from relief / bumpmapping and lighting, not from the actual pixels and bitmap texture.

Unless a surface in DS3 is being hit directly by light, it's a featureless dark coating.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

I fired this up briefly because I wanted to finish my Sunbro achievements and always want an excuse to play souls. I had forgotten why this is my least favorite Souls. I have completed Dark Souls maybe 13 times and I'd gladly play it again. I'd play DS3 again too, eventhough I've probably played that least (maybe 4-5 times?). I've completed Dark Souls 2 only 6, and the thought of ever playing the whole thing again just makes me nauseous. There are just so many areas that I'd rather gouge my eyes out than have to slog through again.

I mean, it's a good game. I've played it 6 times through and loved it for much of that time, so I'd never claim it's shit or anything. I personally think that its biggest problem is the non-respawning enemies, which seemed like an awkward "fix" that the designers slapped on after they realized that certain portions of the game were far too difficult and repetitive. DS1 is a joy to play because as you get good, you can breeze through areas that took hours the first time you played in minutes. However, there are certain boss runs in DS2 that I just have to fucking clear to the point of stopping the enemies from respawning everytime I play. It's so annoying. Also, I can easily solo every boss in DS1 and DS3 with no problems (barring a couple of the DS3 challenge bosses, which are still fun to play, even if difficult). However, there are many bosses in DS2 that I need to use NPC phantoms for to beat. DS2 just seems to have so many long, tedious, boss battles of attrition, along with bosses that have all sorts of resistances, annoying AOE's, and/or gank squads.

My least favorite boss fight from any Souls game is the Smelter Demon. Which is weird, because I never really hear him cited much as an especially difficult boss, but he's probably more tedious than difficult. Fucking hate him. There's a long, tedious, run to get to him, with knights guarding the NPC just outside his door, so I always end up having to clear the respawns before I take him on. He has AOE damage that's difficult to avoid. Then, even when you get the NPC, he easily dies on NG+, so the NPC is never much help past NG.

 

[Curratum]

DS2 just seems to have so many long, tedious, boss battles of attrition, along with bosses that have all sorts of resistances, annoying AOE's, and/or gank squads.

I'm sorry but that's just retarded, especially when you're comparing it against DS1 and 3.

 

[Multidirectional]

Imagine grinding areas so many times you actually think despawning enemies are the biggest problem. What the fuck..

And I had done every boss alone, it's very possible. You must be running some shit builds there boy. I even did two of the optional DLC challenge areas alone, which are certainly made for co-op. Except for the one in Iron King, because fuck that.

 

[praetor]

jesus fuck... all of DS2 bosses together don't have the healthpool of Midir alone. Wrong_carlo doing his usual thing...

 

[Silverfish]

Finally done watching that video. First of all, he pads the shit out of it by lingering on the same point for way too long. No idea why he felt the need to do that as TL;DW is already a thing on youtube and most people actually try to shorten their videos with annoying quick cuts but this guy just loves to hammer on the same nail forever.

It gets worse. That video was just the final entry in a series of vids (5 or 6 I think?) about DS2 and replying to another needlessly long review of it.

 

[Lyric Suite]

For fuck's sake i'm getting WAY too many souls.

Of course, being my first play i die a lot, and i'm also spending a lot of time checking out every nook and crevice for secrets which means i'm clearing parts of the maps multiple times. At this rate i'll finish the game at SL 200 fuck's sake.

 

[mediocrepoet]

For fuck's sake i'm getting WAY too many souls.

Of course, being my first play i die a lot, and i'm also spending a lot of time checking out every nook and crevice for secrets which means i'm clearing parts of the maps multiple times. At this rate i'll finish the game at SL 200 fuck's sake.

You're overthinking it. DS2 generally had a higher SL meta back when it was more active, I assume that hasn't changed for people who still care about it. Just play and try not to worry about this stuff. Even if you do get into a higher tier of SM, you just start matching with people in NG+, it's not that big of a deal and the game appears to still be surprisingly active.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, finally got my 105 agility, with 43 attunement and 19 adp. Truth is i got not much left to put points to. 12 str for mace, everything on faith for damage and then whatever goes. Easiest build evar.

 

[Multidirectional]

Going through entire game with just one weapon seems kinda boring to me. Going through it with just Mace which has a boring moveset and shit range even more so. But who am I to tell you how to play. Don't think going above 30 attunement was really needed though. And points in VIT (at least up to 29), VGR (up to 50) and END are always good.

 

[Lyric Suite]

The plan was to use blunt weapons only but they all have the same move set, so.

Besides, i like the mace. It has a nice combo on the strong attack and a good one as well for the weak attack in case you are in a tight place. I also like that it has a small reach because it's so different from the Claymore. It forces me to use novel tactics, especially against bosses as i can't poke/roll anymore.

 

[NJClaw]

The plan was to use blunt weapons only but they all have the same move set, so.

Besides, i like the mace. It has a nice combo on the strong attack and a good one as well for the weak attack in case you are in a tight place. I also like that it has a small reach because it's so different from the Claymore. It forces me to use novel tactics, especially against bosses as i can't poke/roll anymore.

If you want to stick to blunt weapons, the Craftman's Hammer isn't a bad choice (you can find it behind the blacksmith in the Lost Bastille). Since you are running a Faith build, I guess the best idea would be infusing it with lightning: in DS2 you can cast spells on infused weapons, so you can stack Sunlight Blade on it for an impressive amount of damage. If you don't want to invest in Strength (but it would be a strange choice, since you probably already maxed out everything else you need), the Blacksmith's Hammer has better base damage but lower Strength scaling (you just need to speak with the blacksmit in Majula).

 

[Black Angel]

The plan was to use blunt weapons only but they all have the same move set, so.

Besides, i like the mace. It has a nice combo on the strong attack and a good one as well for the weak attack in case you are in a tight place. I also like that it has a small reach because it's so different from the Claymore. It forces me to use novel tactics, especially against bosses as i can't poke/roll anymore.

Be sure to check out power stancing

I had real big blast power stancing Artorias sword. Shame they didn't put it in DS3, I think people would be slightly less upset if they can play around and have fun with it. The closest thing to do cool Artorias stuff in DS3 was with the Abyss Watcher sword, but it's just not the same.

Hopefully they'll bring power stancing back in Elden Ring, or at least something similar and not just plain dual-wielding weapons like in DS3.

 

[Average Manatee]

For fuck's sake i'm getting WAY too many souls.

Of course, being my first play i die a lot, and i'm also spending a lot of time checking out every nook and crevice for secrets which means i'm clearing parts of the maps multiple times. At this rate i'll finish the game at SL 200 fuck's sake.

That's fairly accurate. If you spend like an hour farming with Bonfire Ascetics you can get to SL 300 and beyond. Hence why I've said that builds in DS2 are kind of a joke, by the end of the game you can basically be at the soft cap for every stat.

 

[Lyric Suite]

\Well, if i ever do a second play through it would be less for sure.

I mean i cleared the Iron Keep like eight times to get all the secrets. Now that i know where they are and how to go through the fire i wouldn't need to.