random games

[Random]

Ummm probably just y'know


strength


historically I don't really do builds so much as "what will allow me to beat this game"

like right now I'm going around two-handing my mace and bashing everything with it, and it works so far

[ganonfloyd]

That works obv

[Random]

Didn't play long tonight, but I spent most of my time over at Heide's. Those Heide knights are kinda bullshit? Their fighting style is like drunking boxing or something. Really hard to get hits in on them without trading for some reason.

I almost wonder if it was even worth killing the Dragonrider. He was piss easy, and I guess I unlocked the miracle vendor, but now those dudes are up and wandering around. Not Ornstein can wait a bit longer.

Also I found the Ring of Binding while I was there, so now I'm rocking that with the Chloranthy Ring, the Ring of Blades, and the Restoration Ring (just because I only have four rings right now). I do kinda wonder if this is a bit like Demon's Souls where it's sort of worth dipping into each area a bit, just to see if there's useful stuff like that not too far in.

Oh and I was invaded for the first time tonight. Dude was using magic and I had some of those mossy knights agro'd, so I didn't stand a chance.

[Maniac]

out of every map changed by scholar, i'd say heide got it the worst. went from a place I immediately 100%'d to a map I delay finishing until about half-way through my runs. none of those knights used to be there, and neither was the dragon. and yeah, the sword-wielding heide knights are assholes and their attack where they swing wildly three times is probably the most bullshit attack any generic mob gets in this game

did the invader look like they were using anything fancy or were they just using soul arrow? low soul memory invaders are really rare, and most of the ones I've encountered were cheaters of some kind.

[ganonfloyd]

dragonrider isn't worth fighting because he's the worst boss fight in the series i hate him

[Random]

did the invader look like they were using anything fancy or were they just using soul arrow? low soul memory invaders are really rare, and most of the ones I've encountered were cheaters of some kind.

He had soul arrow, that one where he summons those proximity orbs, and I think soul sword or whatever it is.

dragonrider isn't worth fighting because he's the worst boss fight in the series i hate him

is there a story here or are you just mad that they put such a lackluster enemy in an arena with boss music playing?


also I realized through some investigation last night that there's actually a door leading out of that spiral staircase room after Dragonrider and I'm just dumb for missing it even though dark areas in this game are actually rather dark

[Maniac]

ehh, okay, that's not too fancy

dragonrider is just really lame

[ganonfloyd]

dragonrider isn't worth fighting because he's the worst boss fight in the series i hate him

is there a story here or are you just mad that they put such a lackluster enemy in an arena with boss music playing?

nothing fancy, just like maniac said he's really lame

one of the big (and mostly right) criticisms of the game is it hits up the "dude in armor" well for bosses way too much and dragonrider is pretty much the perfect example, he's barely above a normal enemy and his name indicates that he should be much cooler than he is and that bugs me way more than anything else boss wise even something like bed of chaos at least looks cool

[Random]

yeah

well this afternoon I've done some cleanup

There were places in the Forest of Fallen Giants that I hadn't explored, mostly around the third bonfire in that area. Found the map guy who gave me the key to the mansion, so I finally have more than three estus, which is rad. I still can't figure out how to get down to where the Salamanders are? Like either I'm completely missing something or there's a makeable jump somewhere that I think is unmakeable.

After that I went back to the Dragonrider bonfire and went down into the tunnel. Killed some dudes, made it to No Man's Wharf. Was making pretty steady progress through that place. The archers are annoying but I can deal with them. I can one or two shot most of the basic enemies there, too, so they weren't much trouble on their own. I talked to Lucatiel and she eventually disappeared, I guess to go be a summon somewhere. And then once I got up to the lever that calls the ship, I was feeling pretty good but then I found out my Mace was at risk. For some reason, instead of using repair powder (probably because I've never needed to use it in a Souls game before), I switch to my unupgraded bastard sword, which does significantly less damage. And I got ganked by two of the long-armed monsters. Was too hasty trying to get back up there. Lost 20k souls.

Once I'd cooled off, I successfully got back up there, opened the shortcut, and sold all my garbage to Gavlan, which at least put be back in range of the souls I needed to go buy a Fragrant Branch of Yore from Pile of Garbage. I then took that back to Things Betwixt in order to tie up that loose end.

I don't really know how common Fragrant Branches are? I know these petrified dudes show up all over the game, but I don't know if there are more of them than there are branches and how choosy I should be. Like there was another one in the tunnel between Heide's and the Wharf, but I couldn't do anything about him.

Also I'm level 45 or 46 at this point, which seems high having only killed three bosses, but maybe I'm just not familiar with the level scaling in this game.

So now I can either finally go back to the Lost Bastille, or I can finish up No Man's Wharf, which is what I'm leaning toward doing since it was a pretty easy area when my weapon is unbroken.

[Maniac]

i think i hate dragonslayer armor from DS3 more than dragonrider and probably another two bosses in DS2 more than them. one of them was made way more tolerable in scholar tho (the only boss to be directly modified by scholar, so that's how you know how awful it was) so you prolly won't hate it as much.

i was around level 140 when I beat it the first time. there's more stats in dark souls 2 than any other game and they all start lower than they do in the other games, so DS2 just throws more EXP at you

[Random]

Ok that makes sense.

[ganonfloyd]

i think i hate dragonslayer armor from DS3 more than dragonrider and probably another two bosses in DS2 more than them. one of them was made way more tolerable in scholar tho (the only boss to be directly modified by scholar, so that's how you know how awful it was) so you prolly won't hate it as much.

ancient dragon? not sure of the other one but def curious

random don't read this its spoilers

[Random]

Ok, so I finished No Man's Wharf with the help of Lucatiel and Brave Sir Robin (or something like that). I summoned them less for help and more for assurance that I could just be done with that area. Plus I think you have to fight beside Lucatiel to advance her quest, so I did that.

So on we go to the Lost Bastille, for real this time. The first courtyard with all the dogs is kinda the most annoying part? Not to mention the Pursuer shows up, so it's just crowded. Luckily I got the dude to blow up the wall by the blacksmith on the second try, so that helped. I find the royal swordsman to be wonderfully ineffective enemies, especially when they all come pouring out that one door in a single file line. I should say that at this point I've added the Bastard Sword (currently +5) to my arsenal, which is much better at crowd control than the mace.

(I'm almost curious to try turning this into an ultra greatsword build, but I'd need to strip down my armor a lot to use the one I found back in the wharf. (Which is hilarious that it's called Greatsword and yet classified as an ultra.))

The mace is still useful against the Ruin Sentries (who I beat second try, with the help of the two NPCs I ran into along the way (Pilgrim Whoever was a good help)).

It was also useful for killing the Pursuer a third, fourth, and fifth time.

The Bastille itself is pretty claustrophobic, and the dark rooms stoke my anxiety whenever I don't have my torch lit, but I think I made it through without much incident. I want to say I explored most of the place, although I still haven't worked out how The Tower Apart bonfire connects back to the rest, nor did I bother going over there yet. I'm wondering if it has something to do with all the gargoyles I saw from Sinner's Rise.

EDIT: 'k, I went to the Tower Apart, it was actually super obvious and I'm dumb.

I guess it's kind of nice that they put that Flexile Sentry in such a cheesable spot? He still came pretty close to killing me. That corridor with the explodey guys in chest deep water is also cruel, but at least the lone Heide Knight in that cell couldn't be bothered to get up.

Bringing Lucatiel into the fight with the Sinner has the unfortunate consequence of making me feel like I did not learn that fight. She tanked so much damage that I was actually worried about her survival, but he's dead and I got a great soul, so that feels fine.

Not totally sure where to go next. I guess to the windmill place? But I actually don't know how to get there, unless it's the other branch on the mechanism leading to Heide's.

[ganonfloyd]

summoning lucatiel for those fights is good because it advances her quest and she has imo one of the best npc quest chain in the entire series

[Random]

Ok, so I went and did the Luna Belfry. Those tiny dudes pack a punch, but luckily I was able to dodge the covenant invader by just dashing into the fog door. Nice of them to at least abbreviate the gargoyle moveset after they felt the need to make it 1v3 fight (sure there's 6, but there's not enough room to have more moving around). I had some close calls, but I managed.

I also picked up the Dragon's Tooth past that bonfire, so that's cool I guess. Don't know if I'm ever gonna end up with 50 STR, but it's good to have I guess.

So then I checked that forked mechanism and sure enough, the Jehovah's Witness lady (or whatever she is) was there. Onward to the Huntsman's Copse.

This place has a neat vibe, honestly. The dark trees. The poison butterflys. I don't know why every area has to be a prison of some kind? But whatever. I'm also cutting through the enemies here. Level 70-something now, so again, don't know if I'm overleveled. Not really all that worried about it.

Got invaded by Forlorn and Merciless Roenna. The latter, I knocked off a cliff, so haha. The necromancers are also a bit more of a threat this time? At least I died once, between the first one's magic attacks and the rapier skeletons.

I took Creighton into the Skeleton Lords fight, which I completely forgot how it worked and just owned all of the lords immediately. So then I spent like five minutes being chased around the cave by an army of god damn skeletons, but having the NPC helped take a lot of the heat off.

After that I went to the first bonfire in Harvest Valley (uuuugh), but I backtracked to the other place. The one with the chariot. Or I wanted to, but there's that valley before the bridge with a billion of those executioner dudes? And then after that, over the bridge, before the fog door, there's a black phantom with a great sword who just wrecked me? So I think I'll do that later. Or something. I may literally just farm those dudes until they stop respawning just so that runback isn't so terrible.