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Souls Series and Bloodborne

I finally got the shadow set, it wasnt as bad to get as I thought it would be..I only had to farm for about an hour or so.

DARK SOULS!!!
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So I finally took down those Fire Lizards and it made me realize how viable ranged fighting is. I thought like most games the bow and arrow would just be a weak little baby weapon useful only for getting an enemy's attention.

Hunter's Blackbow+10, S Rank Dexterity Scaling with 40 Dexterity, Magic Arrows for those tough skinned enemies.
I could probably do better but so far this bow has been doing me wonders.
 
Woot! Beat the looking glass knight today, and I found a new area to hate! Shrine of Amana anyone?
 
ruins72 said:
Woot! Beat the looking glass knight today, and I found a new area to hate! Shrine of Amana anyone?
Pack plenty of torches or get the INT for cast light, it helps with navigation.
 
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ruins72 said:
Woot! Beat the looking glass knight today, and I found a new area to hate! Shrine of Amana anyone?
It's actually easier now since the patch. so Imagine how BS it was before.
 
PaperBag_Sniper said:
Pack plenty of torches or get the INT for cast light, it helps with navigation.
This is how you know that Dark Souls is pure evil. Yes it is true that navigating the area becomes much easier while carrying a torch, but it also makes all of the Lizard Men near you go aggro on you. My advice is to kill everything you can see from a distance, then once the area is clear light a torch and progress slowly.
 
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ruins72 said:
Shrine of Amana anyone?
Surprisingly, I only died once during my first venture through that area (and pre-patch at that!). I think all the comments about how hard it was made me approach it with extreme caution. Basically, all you need besides the already mentioned torch is a bow to aggro enemies individually. I don't think the area is hard but I do think it's pretty obnoxious to navigate. Welcome to Lost Izalith 2.0!
But the worst part about it is that you WILL come back to it. Why? Enemies can drop effigies, twinkling titanite and smooth stones - ya know, really scarce stuff you can't have enough of.


Anyway, before going into Journey 2, I've been using ascetic in some areas, namely the Old Ones. And dear Gwyn, Lost Sinner got beat to a inch of her life with a +10 nerf pipe. Still using my NG end game build (SL70 melee), it only took me three tries...to get to her. Beat her at first try together with Lucatiel, who managed to survive with about half of her HP. Basically, besides doing less damage, she is considerably less aggressive and jumpy and will prioritize allies over players. Basically, crocodile man and undead terrorists is the new area boss.
With The Rotten and Old Iron King still being a joke and now Lost Sinner joining those ranks, Freja takes the throne as hardest of the Old Ones, mostly because her leg stabs are one hit kills and whatever doesn't get a OHKO, the spider gankers will finish the job. Freja's still easy by DS standards though.
 
Balder said:
Basically, all you need besides the already mentioned torch is a bow to aggro enemies individually. I don't think the area is hard but I do think it's pretty obnoxious to navigate. Welcome to Lost Izalith 2.0!
But the worst part about it is that you WILL come back to it. Why? Enemies can drop effigies, twinkling titanite and smooth stones - ya know, really scarce stuff you can't have enough of.

I have no idea why I waited so long to consider a ranged weapon, but I'm gonna try that now. And wow, they drop twinkling titanite? I may stick around here a little longer.
 
Make sure you get the gold covetous serpent ring, the jesters cap, and some rusted coins if you want twinkling tiatanite with out having to use bonfire ascetics as it's quite a rare drop.
 
Yusuke Urameshi said:
Make sure you get the gold covetous serpent ring, the jesters cap, and some rusted coins if you want twinkling tiatanite with out having to use bonfire ascetics as it's quite a rare drop.
Do the Gold Serpent Ring, Jester's Hat, and Rusted Coins effects stack?
(Side Note: A cheaper alternative to the Jester's Hat is the Traveling Merchant's Hat.)

Also just to be clear it's the Archdrakes that drop Twinkling Titanite and the Lizard Men that drop Effigy's.
 
I actually found the Dargon Aerie to be better for stone farming stones and titanite with bonfire aesthetics - about a dozen crystal lizards are in the area!!
 
How come this hasn't been posted yet?
 
Denizen said:
Do the Gold Serpent Ring, Jester's Hat, and Rusted Coins effects stack?
(Side Note: A cheaper alternative to the Jester's Hat is the Traveling Merchant's Hat.)

Also just to be clear it's the Archdrakes that drop Twinkling Titanite and the Lizard Men that drop Effigy's.
They do stack. And the shrine priestesses drop Twinkling Tiatanite too.
 
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I'm still waiting for OnlyAfro to post more DS2 content. At least this will keep me going until then...
On my end, I'm in NG+ on my way to Brightstone Cove. Kinda caught me off guard that the npc Gravelords started sticking around rather than being alive only once like they were at the beginning of the game.
 
Can someone tell me what Gravelords are?
 
Denizen said:
Can someone tell me what Gravelords are?
In DS1, there was a covenant known as the Gravelords. They had the ability to send red phantom versions of enemies that were extraordinarily tougher than their normal counterparts into other people's worlds. If the phantoms kill the host, the Gravelord gets a covenant upgrade item. If the host finds their sign that appears in their world, they can invade and get payback on the Gravelord.

I'm not sure if DS2 has any sort of Gravelord esque covenant (as I'm not big on covenants), but in New Game+ there are red phantoms of both enemies and npcs walking around. Most people seem to just refer to them as npc Gravelords.
 
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There really arent any covenants like that in DS 2. The closest would be The Brotherhood of blood since its focus is killing other players.

Oh yeah. I finally finished my first playthrough of DS 2
 
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Yusuke Urameshi said:
There really arent any covenants like that in DS 2. The closest would be The Brotherhood of blood since its focus is killing other players.

Oh yeah. I finally finished my first playthrough of DS 2

The reason is probably because the Gravelord's covenant was pretty broken, and not in the good way. It was only useful for NG+ players and by that point most people can handle black phantom enemies with moderate ease. Unless you have a really good hiding spot for your marker you could expect someone to find it. Not to mention that your mark is visible in more than one world so it increases the likeleyhood that someone will sniff you out and put and end to your shenanigans. It's also the only covenant that requires you to kill your covenant leader so if you don't level it up early you're stuck for the rest of the game. I feel like this could have been mitigated by making Pinwheel your covenant leader and just having the player get the rite of kindling from Gwynevere but it is what it is. The only real benefit to joining the gravelord covenant was the covenant weapon and miracle which were pretty good for PvP.

I was pretty excited the first time I joined the GLC but I'm glad they didn't try to bring it back this time around. DS2 already has a problem of relying on black phantom summons to add extra difficulty and gravelording would have artificially inflated that even more. Plus with bonfire ascetics being a pretty easy item to stockpile it would make raising enemy difficulty a moot point because some people have pockets of their game that are NG+++.
 
Agent York said:
I'm not sure if DS2 has any sort of Gravelord esque covenant (as I'm not big on covenants)
Ratbros.
Ratbros are Gravelords on steroids.

EDIT:
@DukeMagus
Like DS1, it's presented minimalistically. It's good but personally, I'm not finding the world of Drangleic to be as gripping as Lordran. Partly because the NPCs don't seem as interesting (and there's inevitable comparisons of how many feel like expies of DS1's NPCs) and some bosses are kinda generic and pop up with little to no build up.
I'm finding the connections to the plot of DS1 pretty fascinating though.
 
See, I like what they did with the rat covenant but it just doesn't feel like gravelording to me ... in that it's actually more fun. No waiting around hoping that some hopeless player get's killed off by a black phantom mushroom or anything. Just pull some poor shmuck into your world and either let the game do it's job or you could "help" your new guest along by ambushing them. It feels like the rat covenant is bizarro gravelording and I love it all the same.

Remember your first time being summoned as a gray phantom?
 
I'm with you Balder, the world of Drangleic is lacking in comparison to Lordran, on top of a fair number of the bosses being unchallenging or boring from a design standpoint. The game is still great, and pve is better than the original for the most part, but it's just missing a lot of charm. It's my assumption that this is the result of Namco/Bandai preventing Hidetaka Miyazaki from directing this one, on the basis that they wanted new people to take the reigns of the series. I personally hope that if there ever is another Souls game that Miyazaki will be back in the director seat, cause he seemed to have been a huge part in the meticulous world detail, unique art designs, and characters of the previous Souls games.
 
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I have yet to get DS2, but please tell me theres SOME kind of Solaire equivalent in this game! I need a bro to partake in Jolly Cooperation!
 
Sanoblaze said:
I have yet to get DS2, but please tell me theres SOME kind of Solaire equivalent in this game! I need a bro to partake in Jolly Cooperation!
Nope. There is a sun covenant still so you can still be a sunbro.
 
yeah, but the main reason to be a sunbro isnt around....
 
Made it to the undead crypt, I'm fighting Velstadt now. I want his weapon :O
 
A friend just told me that you need to reach rank two in the Bell Keeper covenant to get all of the spells in the game.... crap, now I have to learn how to fight other players....
 
Jutsei said:
THE RIDE NEVER ENDS
You mean I have to learn something besides Great Resonant Soul??
 
I wish there were more Soul Greatswords in the game, it's my favorite spell and I could really use more than 3 uses.
 
Denizen said:
I wish there were more Soul Greatswords in the game, it's my favorite spell and I could really use more than 3 uses.
I know what you mean! Gotta start running through New Game +, I guess....
 
Agent York said:
I'm with you Balder, the world of Drangleic is lacking in comparison to Lordran, on top of a fair number of the bosses being unchallenging or boring from a design standpoint. The game is still great, and pve is better than the original for the most part, but it's just missing a lot of charm.
I feel the inevitable comparisons with DS1 is one of the reasons. You see a character and think "oh this is this game's X", like Creighton feeling like a Lautrec expy. There's also some missed opportunities with great characters that have very little dialogue; Licia of Lindelt is the best example - she's basically Rhea+Petrus+Lautrec but she only has two moments and while you can quickly tell she's up to no good, nothing about her makes her out to be anything besides a charlatan.
I think Drangleic is missing people that are as relatable/likable as those in Lordran (folks like Gough, Siegmeyer and Laurentius), as most here come off as being crazy, asshole or a crazy asshole. Nonetheless, there's still a lot of characters I like, my favorites being:
Benhart of Jugo - he's the bro character, how can you not like him? Also love his voice.
Straid of Olaphis - DAT GLORIOUS HAM! Feeble cursed one! Do you really think you can manage the glories that are my spells?
Head of Vengarl - the conversation with him was the first moment DS2 truly hit me in the feels. Why must life be so confounding?
Shalquoir - that cheeky pussy! nyan nyan :3
Ornifex - for a Painted World crow, very cool gal. I love how she says "Haters gonna hate." in the most poetic fashion.
Mild-mannered Pate - for a Patches expy, he's a surprisingly trustworthy guy. Amazing VA, but this could be said of everyone, really.
Dyna & Tillo - Yah yah. So nice, so smooth. Yah yah! Silky smooth! (I love these two. Their voices genuinely make me laugh. Fuck the haters.)
Special mention to Lonesome Gavlan but he's not a character so much as he's a meme.

As for bosses and enemies, I wish bosses had more build-up and/or were more creative. Also way too many ganker bosses.
A big disappointment is Mytha as there seems to be a lot of lore about her but the area has nothing to do with her and when you do face her, it's Medusa and no explanation why her head is off the shoulders. Area needed statues, broken mirrors and things that say "this is the dwelling of a vain woman who lost her shit".
Other bosses like Smelt It Demon, Iron King and Skeleton Lords just come off as Diablo rejects.
I think Freja and The Rotten are good examples of the areas creating a very good build up towards the boss fight.

And as for enemies, I think there's too many infantry and knights. The bestiary ends up feeling a little limited.

Sanoblaze said:
I have yet to get DS2, but please tell me theres SOME kind of Solaire equivalent in this game! I need a bro to partake in Jolly Cooperation!
Benhart of Jugo is Solaire's spiritual successor. He's a warrior who made his way to Drangleic in order to hone his skills, is very friendly to the player, can be summoned for 4 boss fights (including the end boss!) and you can make a bro pun with his name - BROHART!:PUN:

Smilax said:
A friend just told me that you need to reach rank two in the Bell Keeper covenant to get all of the spells in the game.... crap, now I have to learn how to fight other players....
There are three scrolls that require Covenant rank:
[Miracle] Sunlight Spear - Rank 3 Sunbro
[Spell] Hidden Weapon - Rank 2 Bellbro
[Hex] Climax - Rank 3 Pilgrims of Dark
All other covenant spells can be bought from Chancellor Wellager. All in all, these 3 aren't the worst. Pilgrims is PvE, Sunbros is jolly cooperation and with Bellbros you can gank and have lag on your side.

Denizen said:
I wish there were more Soul Greatswords in the game, it's my favorite spell and I could really use more than 3 uses.
Buy Amber Herbs from Ornifex. She sells a unlimited supply after beating the end boss.
 
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Smilax said:
A friend just told me that you need to reach rank two in the Bell Keeper covenant to get all of the spells in the game.... crap, now I have to learn how to fight other players....
If you want a win button just wear Havels set and spam Forbidden sun and Flame Swathe. It's a insta win combination
 
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Balder said:
NPCs are cool.
Yes! I really like the NPCs in this game as well as the other games. I would really like to see some characters from Demon's Souls referenced at some point.... maybe in the upcoming crossover GOTY: Fighter Souls! Sage Freke vs Big Hat Logan, Benhart vs Solaire, Yuria the witch vs Ornifex!
 
Balder said:
There's also some missed opportunities with great characters that have very little dialogue; Licia of Lindelt is the best example - she's basically Rhea+Petrus+Lautrec but she only has two moments and while you can quickly tell she's up to no good, nothing about her makes her out to be anything besides a charlatan.
Agree with everything you said in the rest of your quote... and about Licia...
You know the Nameless Usurper who invades you several times late game? That might be her.
 
What if some npcs got extra background in the dlcs? We could ask for it on Twitter
 
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