From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[Lyric Suite]

Good grief, the Shrine of Amara. I think i must have lost 40000 souls, the worst so far. My poor, poor SM.

And i did what any reasonable human being would do, i put on my item discovery gear and just farmed everything to extinction. Got some decent Twinkling Titanite and a bunch of effigies too. This place was the fucking worse.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Good grief, the Shrine of Amara. I think i must have lost 40000 souls, the worst so far. My poor, poor SM.

And i did what any reasonable human being would do, i put on my item discovery gear and just farmed everything to extinction. Got some decent Twinkling Titanite and a bunch of effigies too. This place was the fucking worse.

Yep. There's only one area I would really say is worse than amana and that's an optional dlc area. Even then it's kind of debatable which is worse. The other one is just more boring to me and doesn't even give good items.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I'm parked at the boss and i can't get summoned. Two more medals to get sunlight spear but i've been alt tabbed for 1h and nothing, but before that i got three summons within the span of 10m what the shit. Bleh, i'm going to bed.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I really liked the Shrine of Amana. The boss is lame, but the area was neat.

 

[Multidirectional]

That's why I told you to get some poison arrows for Shrine of Amana.

I really liked the Shrine of Amana.

I like it now too, after figuring out the most efficient way to go through it. But I sure hated it on my first run.

 

[RoSoDude]

I loved Shrine of Amana from the getgo, save for the fact that the hammer guys can't be parried (and Ruin Sentinels can? huh?). Very clever mix of ranged and melee enemies with a unique environmental hazard. I hear the enemy projectile speed and tracking was a lot more brutal on initial DS2 release and was toned down later, so I can imagine why everyone has PTSD from the level, but in its current state I think it's great stuff. Wonderful atmosphere and theming too.

 

[Silverfish]

Wonderful atmosphere and theming too.

This always gets lost in the conversation in favor of navigating the snipers, but Shrine of Amana is easily DS2's coolest area in terms of design.

 

[Lyre Mors]

This always gets lost in the conversation in favor of navigating the snipers, but Shrine of Amana is easily DS2's coolest area in terms of design.

Love the actual visual design, and even the layout of Amana's Shrine. It's just kind of ruined for me by having to wade through water and getting blasted from three different directions by homing magic, then getting charged by a couple priests. Also, the bullshit equipment melting mushroom blocking your way to the large area right before the boss. Also the invasion in that area. Rivals only Iron Keep and Undead Crypt in annoyance for me.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Hahaha, i'm rank 3 in the dark covenant. I mean sure, i'm 30 effigies lighter and i lost another 30000 souls but hey hehehe.





































Fuck.

 

[Multidirectional]

Could never be arsed grinding covenants in any DS game. If I happen to get some rank, fine, but I never go out of my way to do it. Are rewards really that good?

 

[Lyric Suite]

Yes and no. Yes in the sense i got the best chime for miracles in the game. No in that i could have gotten the chime just by killing the quest giver, but hey, it's a PvE covenant, and it's basically just extra content.

Also, as far as i know those areas are the only places where you can get bonefire ascetics. I think i got like 20 of them, but it takes an effigy for every run you make and you have to kill phantoms and the boss at the end is a bitch. Also, players could potentially invade but that never happened to me.

On the upside it takes like 10m to get to rank 3 unless you start dying a lot. I did the areas with the phantoms pretty quickly (first one was the hardest one, last was the easiest one as it seems the phantoms there can be stun locked very easily), but the boss is where i got stuck.

 

[Multidirectional]

But.. I have a whole bunch of bonfire ascetics just from regular exploration, way more than I would ever use. But if you want to abuse the shit out of those it makes sense I guess. I'd sooner play through NG+ if I wanted to get all the +2 rings and whatnot.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I forgot you also get two hexes for ranking up and the NPC sells more hexes and some sorceries i think, and also has 3 effigies and 10 ascetics in his store, so technically you could join, buy what you need, and maybe do the firs two ranks for the spells, then kill him for the chime.

The last rank is basically Shrie of Amara in boss form. It's this angel thing that just flings various spells at you (so no blocking, just dodging) but then at some point there's two of them and it's a real bitch to avoid their combined attacks, and i almost got one shot every time i got hit and i have 31 vigor. So basically i didn't even bother going melee i just shot the damn things with lighting bolts, and i have a feel it was designed for that given that the rewards are spell oriented.

 

[Average Manatee]

\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.

Iron Keep is nowhere near the top of soul farming locations. You'll get exponentially more later

Also, as far as i know those areas are the only places where you can get bonefire ascetics. I think i got like 20 of them, but it takes an effigy for every run you make and you have to kill phantoms and the boss at the end is a bitch. Also, players could potentially invade but that never happened to me.

The best soul farming spot also respawns a bonfire ascetic every time you finish it

Spoiler

Giant lord. Very clearly designed to be farmed since he's so close to the bonfire that you use to respawn him and gives like 1/2 a million souls per run that takes only a few minutes.

The last rank is basically Shrie of Amara in boss form. It's this angel thing that just flings various spells at you (so no blocking, just dodging) but then at some point there's two of them and it's a real bitch to avoid their combined attacks, and i almost got one shot every time i got hit and i have 31 vigor. So basically i didn't even bother going melee i just shot the damn things with lighting bolts, and i have a feel it was designed for that given that the rewards are spell oriented.

If you have the high DPS weapons you pretty much just take one down before the other can really appear and do much.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Fuuuuuuu, i didn't get the insolent set. Got the helm, gloves, pants but not the chest piece. Last spirit dropped a second pair of pants. No Deus Vult for me.

 

[Wunderbar]

As a melee fighter, I really like Darklurker. Easily the best designed bossfight in vanilla DaS2.

DPSing him with magic is a waste.

 

[Vorark]

This always gets lost in the conversation in favor of navigating the snipers, but Shrine of Amana is easily DS2's coolest area in terms of design.

Love the actual visual design, and even the layout of Amana's Shrine. It's just kind of ruined for me by having to wade through water and getting blasted from three different directions by homing magic, then getting charged by a couple priests. Also, the bullshit equipment melting mushroom blocking your way to the large area right before the boss. Also the invasion in that area. Rivals only Iron Keep and Undead Crypt in annoyance for me.

Amana is one of those places in which a bow/crossbow shines, it's a highly effective way to dispatch the nasties lurking in the water and the maidens.

 

[Silverfish]

Also, the bullshit equipment melting mushroom blocking your way to the large area right before the boss.

This is lame, but I've always gotten past that guy by removing all my stuff and punching him. I've never been dedicated enough to get the vanquisher's seal so it only takes 47 years.

 

[Curratum]

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.

I've been grinding multiple areas to despawn and beyond with the champion covenant to collect armor sets, done a lot of PVP with people dropping 5-10k souls when I win, and I'm at SL 170 / SM 4.6 mil, and still finding PVP relatively easily. Don't worry, just play the game and have fun.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ok bois, i'm up to the last level.

Should i do the DLCs now, or should i beat the base game first?

Seems like the DLCs are tied to the main story so if i do them now i may get a bit more lore (and more memories too). However, if i do them now i may make the last bosses a joke (then again they may already be a joke i'm like SL 170 lmao. Fuck).

BTW, i'm now using the Archdrake hammer with the Archdrake shield and set since the game doesn't want me to give me muh Deus Vult set (i farmed all the Heide Knights and didn't get the helm. Like, fuck you game), and i just noticed it has the same move set as the halberd. Now that i leveled dex to 16 i tried using a bunch of weapons, including swords, and, why do most of them have the same move set? I didn't try all the weapons from DS1 but i don't remember them being so samey.

 

[Black Angel]

Should i do the DLCs now, or should i beat the base game first?

Seems like the DLCs are tied to the main story so if i do them now i may get a bit more lore (and more memories too). However, if i do them now i may make the last bosses a joke (then again they may already be a joke i'm like SL 170 lmao. Fuck).

If you're on Scholar of the First Sin, if you've talked to a blob at bonfires and answered his question (I forgot if you should say yes to all of them), he would appear as the True Final Boss™, which might be challenging having to deal with two bossfights in a row.

If you ask me, though, fuck wanting to get a challenging final bossfight, you're doing yourself a disservice by not experiencing the DLCs, the only real reason to buy Dark Souls 2 (if you're not a PvP/co-op guy).

 

[Lyric Suite]

Nobody said anything about not doing the DLCs. As i understand it, you don't get hurdled to NG+ after beating the game, so my question was about doing the DLCs before or after the final area of the main game.

 

[Silverfish]

Should i do the DLCs now, or should i beat the base game first?

Beat the base game first. Since you can jump into NG+ at your leisure, there's no reason not to finish off the main game now, rather than turn the already easy final bosses into more of a joke with the extra level gains and equipment from the DLCs.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Now that i leveled dex to 16 i tried using a bunch of weapons, including swords, and, why do most of them have the same move set? I didn't try all the weapons from DS1 but i don't remember them being so samey.

In DS1 all weapons of the same type also use the same moveset, save for special weapons that had a couple of unique attacks. It's the same deal for DS2, except in DS2 you have something called "Powerstance" that wildly changes the weapons movesets.

 

[praetor]

Now that i leveled dex to 16 i tried using a bunch of weapons, including swords, and, why do most of them have the same move set? I didn't try all the weapons from DS1 but i don't remember them being so samey.

In DS1 all weapons of the same type also use the same moveset, save for special weapons that had a couple of unique attacks. It's the same deal for DS2, except in DS2 you have something called "Powerstance" that wildly changes the weapons movesets.

not only that, but there's also weapons with "swapped movesets" (i.e. swords with axe moveset etc), and weapons with "combo movesets" (like my favourites... santier's spear and the whip sword), and there's a bit more variety in "special" moves. yet another one of those "but DS1 had more" fantasies...