Dark Souls 2 is sadistic.

[Kopikatsu]

So I'm now in Huntsman's Whateveritwas but I don't know where to go for the Branches of Yore.

Copse. Kill the Skeleton Lords to get into Harvest Valley. There are like three Branches of Yore just scattered around the area.

Well now I've seen the fog door behind the waterfall that I suspect houses the Skeleton Lords but have no Humanities (what it's called now is too hard to type) and dangerously low vitality due to hollowing. Any ideas where to get some?

Did you get the Human Effigy on the second story of the Fire Keepers' hut? I didn't find it until I went back to look into using a Soul Vessel, heh.

Alternatively, outside of the Cathedral of Blue is the Ring of Binding, which limits your max health loss from hollowing (super useful if you're a Pyromancer, since it lets you mitigate the drawbacks of using the Dark Pyromancy Flame). If you don't know where that is, it's in the Tower of Flame. From the big room with the three Old Knights, hang left. Kill the Old Knight overlooking the rest of the level at the end of the path to reveal a lever. Pull the lever and the drawbridge'll come down, leading you to the Cathedral and the chest containing the ring.

Yes to both, any other ideas?

You could kill the Fire Keepers for 12 Human Effigies, I suppose. Tho' that means you won't be able to respec until NG+. Although, throwing a Bonfire Ascetic into the bonfire might respawn them.

If you equip the travelling merchant hat (I think thats it, the one Explorer comes with), and kill dogs, they seem to drop Effigy's fairly regularly.

Fan-fucking-tastic, I don't have that hat so murder seems to be the only option.

You can buy the hat from the merchant in Cardinal Tower for like 1800 souls.

 

[cojo965]

So I'm now in Huntsman's Whateveritwas but I don't know where to go for the Branches of Yore.

Copse. Kill the Skeleton Lords to get into Harvest Valley. There are like three Branches of Yore just scattered around the area.

Well now I've seen the fog door behind the waterfall that I suspect houses the Skeleton Lords but have no Humanities (what it's called now is too hard to type) and dangerously low vitality due to hollowing. Any ideas where to get some?

Did you get the Human Effigy on the second story of the Fire Keepers' hut? I didn't find it until I went back to look into using a Soul Vessel, heh.

Alternatively, outside of the Cathedral of Blue is the Ring of Binding, which limits your max health loss from hollowing (super useful if you're a Pyromancer, since it lets you mitigate the drawbacks of using the Dark Pyromancy Flame). If you don't know where that is, it's in the Tower of Flame. From the big room with the three Old Knights, hang left. Kill the Old Knight overlooking the rest of the level at the end of the path to reveal a lever. Pull the lever and the drawbridge'll come down, leading you to the Cathedral and the chest containing the ring.

Yes to both, any other ideas?

You could kill the Fire Keepers for 12 Human Effigies, I suppose. Tho' that means you won't be able to respec until NG+. Although, throwing a Bonfire Ascetic into the bonfire might respawn them.

If you equip the travelling merchant hat (I think thats it, the one Explorer comes with), and kill dogs, they seem to drop Effigy's fairly regularly.

Fan-fucking-tastic, I don't have that hat so murder seems to be the only option.

You can buy the hat from the merchant in Cardinal Tower for like 1800 souls.

Too late, they're dead.

Edit: please don't low content ban me mods.

 

[Kopikatsu]

So I'm now in Huntsman's Whateveritwas but I don't know where to go for the Branches of Yore.

Copse. Kill the Skeleton Lords to get into Harvest Valley. There are like three Branches of Yore just scattered around the area.

Well now I've seen the fog door behind the waterfall that I suspect houses the Skeleton Lords but have no Humanities (what it's called now is too hard to type) and dangerously low vitality due to hollowing. Any ideas where to get some?

Did you get the Human Effigy on the second story of the Fire Keepers' hut? I didn't find it until I went back to look into using a Soul Vessel, heh.

Alternatively, outside of the Cathedral of Blue is the Ring of Binding, which limits your max health loss from hollowing (super useful if you're a Pyromancer, since it lets you mitigate the drawbacks of using the Dark Pyromancy Flame). If you don't know where that is, it's in the Tower of Flame. From the big room with the three Old Knights, hang left. Kill the Old Knight overlooking the rest of the level at the end of the path to reveal a lever. Pull the lever and the drawbridge'll come down, leading you to the Cathedral and the chest containing the ring.

Yes to both, any other ideas?

You could kill the Fire Keepers for 12 Human Effigies, I suppose. Tho' that means you won't be able to respec until NG+. Although, throwing a Bonfire Ascetic into the bonfire might respawn them.

If you equip the travelling merchant hat (I think thats it, the one Explorer comes with), and kill dogs, they seem to drop Effigy's fairly regularly.

Fan-fucking-tastic, I don't have that hat so murder seems to be the only option.

You can buy the hat from the merchant in Cardinal Tower for like 1800 souls.

Too late, they're dead.

Whoopsie. Bright side, I do think using a Bonfire Ascetic will bring them back.

 

[cojo965]

So I'm now in Huntsman's Whateveritwas but I don't know where to go for the Branches of Yore.

Copse. Kill the Skeleton Lords to get into Harvest Valley. There are like three Branches of Yore just scattered around the area.

Well now I've seen the fog door behind the waterfall that I suspect houses the Skeleton Lords but have no Humanities (what it's called now is too hard to type) and dangerously low vitality due to hollowing. Any ideas where to get some?

Did you get the Human Effigy on the second story of the Fire Keepers' hut? I didn't find it until I went back to look into using a Soul Vessel, heh.

Alternatively, outside of the Cathedral of Blue is the Ring of Binding, which limits your max health loss from hollowing (super useful if you're a Pyromancer, since it lets you mitigate the drawbacks of using the Dark Pyromancy Flame). If you don't know where that is, it's in the Tower of Flame. From the big room with the three Old Knights, hang left. Kill the Old Knight overlooking the rest of the level at the end of the path to reveal a lever. Pull the lever and the drawbridge'll come down, leading you to the Cathedral and the chest containing the ring.

Yes to both, any other ideas?

You could kill the Fire Keepers for 12 Human Effigies, I suppose. Tho' that means you won't be able to respec until NG+. Although, throwing a Bonfire Ascetic into the bonfire might respawn them.

If you equip the travelling merchant hat (I think thats it, the one Explorer comes with), and kill dogs, they seem to drop Effigy's fairly regularly.

Fan-fucking-tastic, I don't have that hat so murder seems to be the only option.

You can buy the hat from the merchant in Cardinal Tower for like 1800 souls.

Too late, they're dead.

Whoopsie. Bright side, I do think using a Bonfire Ascetic will bring them back.

And what are those if you don't mind.

 

[Kopikatsu]

So I'm now in Huntsman's Whateveritwas but I don't know where to go for the Branches of Yore.

Copse. Kill the Skeleton Lords to get into Harvest Valley. There are like three Branches of Yore just scattered around the area.

Well now I've seen the fog door behind the waterfall that I suspect houses the Skeleton Lords but have no Humanities (what it's called now is too hard to type) and dangerously low vitality due to hollowing. Any ideas where to get some?

Did you get the Human Effigy on the second story of the Fire Keepers' hut? I didn't find it until I went back to look into using a Soul Vessel, heh.

Alternatively, outside of the Cathedral of Blue is the Ring of Binding, which limits your max health loss from hollowing (super useful if you're a Pyromancer, since it lets you mitigate the drawbacks of using the Dark Pyromancy Flame). If you don't know where that is, it's in the Tower of Flame. From the big room with the three Old Knights, hang left. Kill the Old Knight overlooking the rest of the level at the end of the path to reveal a lever. Pull the lever and the drawbridge'll come down, leading you to the Cathedral and the chest containing the ring.

Yes to both, any other ideas?

You could kill the Fire Keepers for 12 Human Effigies, I suppose. Tho' that means you won't be able to respec until NG+. Although, throwing a Bonfire Ascetic into the bonfire might respawn them.

If you equip the travelling merchant hat (I think thats it, the one Explorer comes with), and kill dogs, they seem to drop Effigy's fairly regularly.

Fan-fucking-tastic, I don't have that hat so murder seems to be the only option.

You can buy the hat from the merchant in Cardinal Tower for like 1800 souls.

Too late, they're dead.

Whoopsie. Bright side, I do think using a Bonfire Ascetic will bring them back.

And what are those if you don't mind.

Rare items (I had 10 of them at the end of the game, although I'd never bought one from a merchant. Had I bought them all, I probably would have ended up with like 27) that raise the difficulty of an area +1. So if you use it at NG, it'll go up to NG+ difficulty. This also respawns all treasure, items, enemies, etc. You can cheese your way to NG+ and higher gear on your first playthrough by doing this.

 

[jollyroger777]

You can survive the fall you just have to have enough health

 

[cojo965]

So I'm now in Huntsman's Whateveritwas but I don't know where to go for the Branches of Yore.

Copse. Kill the Skeleton Lords to get into Harvest Valley. There are like three Branches of Yore just scattered around the area.

Well now I've seen the fog door behind the waterfall that I suspect houses the Skeleton Lords but have no Humanities (what it's called now is too hard to type) and dangerously low vitality due to hollowing. Any ideas where to get some?

Did you get the Human Effigy on the second story of the Fire Keepers' hut? I didn't find it until I went back to look into using a Soul Vessel, heh.

Alternatively, outside of the Cathedral of Blue is the Ring of Binding, which limits your max health loss from hollowing (super useful if you're a Pyromancer, since it lets you mitigate the drawbacks of using the Dark Pyromancy Flame). If you don't know where that is, it's in the Tower of Flame. From the big room with the three Old Knights, hang left. Kill the Old Knight overlooking the rest of the level at the end of the path to reveal a lever. Pull the lever and the drawbridge'll come down, leading you to the Cathedral and the chest containing the ring.

Yes to both, any other ideas?

You could kill the Fire Keepers for 12 Human Effigies, I suppose. Tho' that means you won't be able to respec until NG+. Although, throwing a Bonfire Ascetic into the bonfire might respawn them.

If you equip the travelling merchant hat (I think thats it, the one Explorer comes with), and kill dogs, they seem to drop Effigy's fairly regularly.

Fan-fucking-tastic, I don't have that hat so murder seems to be the only option.

You can buy the hat from the merchant in Cardinal Tower for like 1800 souls.

Too late, they're dead.

Whoopsie. Bright side, I do think using a Bonfire Ascetic will bring them back.

And what are those if you don't mind.

Rare items (I had 10 of them at the end of the game, although I'd never bought one from a merchant. Had I bought them all, I probably would have ended up with like 27) that raise the difficulty of an area +1. So if you use it at NG, it'll go up to NG+ difficulty. This also respawns all treasure, items, enemies, etc. You can cheese your way to NG+ and higher gear on your first playthrough by doing this.

Okay then, where are the ultra greatswords? I have two so far but want the others.

 

[Kopikatsu]

So I'm now in Huntsman's Whateveritwas but I don't know where to go for the Branches of Yore.

Copse. Kill the Skeleton Lords to get into Harvest Valley. There are like three Branches of Yore just scattered around the area.

Well now I've seen the fog door behind the waterfall that I suspect houses the Skeleton Lords but have no Humanities (what it's called now is too hard to type) and dangerously low vitality due to hollowing. Any ideas where to get some?

Did you get the Human Effigy on the second story of the Fire Keepers' hut? I didn't find it until I went back to look into using a Soul Vessel, heh.

Alternatively, outside of the Cathedral of Blue is the Ring of Binding, which limits your max health loss from hollowing (super useful if you're a Pyromancer, since it lets you mitigate the drawbacks of using the Dark Pyromancy Flame). If you don't know where that is, it's in the Tower of Flame. From the big room with the three Old Knights, hang left. Kill the Old Knight overlooking the rest of the level at the end of the path to reveal a lever. Pull the lever and the drawbridge'll come down, leading you to the Cathedral and the chest containing the ring.

Yes to both, any other ideas?

You could kill the Fire Keepers for 12 Human Effigies, I suppose. Tho' that means you won't be able to respec until NG+. Although, throwing a Bonfire Ascetic into the bonfire might respawn them.

If you equip the travelling merchant hat (I think thats it, the one Explorer comes with), and kill dogs, they seem to drop Effigy's fairly regularly.

Fan-fucking-tastic, I don't have that hat so murder seems to be the only option.

You can buy the hat from the merchant in Cardinal Tower for like 1800 souls.

Too late, they're dead.

Whoopsie. Bright side, I do think using a Bonfire Ascetic will bring them back.

And what are those if you don't mind.

Rare items (I had 10 of them at the end of the game, although I'd never bought one from a merchant. Had I bought them all, I probably would have ended up with like 27) that raise the difficulty of an area +1. So if you use it at NG, it'll go up to NG+ difficulty. This also respawns all treasure, items, enemies, etc. You can cheese your way to NG+ and higher gear on your first playthrough by doing this.

Okay then, where are the ultra greatswords? I have two so far but want the others.

Uhhh, I don't really know off the top of my head. Aside from boss weapons, there's a Black Knight Greatsword in Iron Keep...

 

[cojo965]

So I'm now in Huntsman's Whateveritwas but I don't know where to go for the Branches of Yore.

Copse. Kill the Skeleton Lords to get into Harvest Valley. There are like three Branches of Yore just scattered around the area.

Well now I've seen the fog door behind the waterfall that I suspect houses the Skeleton Lords but have no Humanities (what it's called now is too hard to type) and dangerously low vitality due to hollowing. Any ideas where to get some?

Did you get the Human Effigy on the second story of the Fire Keepers' hut? I didn't find it until I went back to look into using a Soul Vessel, heh.

Alternatively, outside of the Cathedral of Blue is the Ring of Binding, which limits your max health loss from hollowing (super useful if you're a Pyromancer, since it lets you mitigate the drawbacks of using the Dark Pyromancy Flame). If you don't know where that is, it's in the Tower of Flame. From the big room with the three Old Knights, hang left. Kill the Old Knight overlooking the rest of the level at the end of the path to reveal a lever. Pull the lever and the drawbridge'll come down, leading you to the Cathedral and the chest containing the ring.

Yes to both, any other ideas?

You could kill the Fire Keepers for 12 Human Effigies, I suppose. Tho' that means you won't be able to respec until NG+. Although, throwing a Bonfire Ascetic into the bonfire might respawn them.

If you equip the travelling merchant hat (I think thats it, the one Explorer comes with), and kill dogs, they seem to drop Effigy's fairly regularly.

Fan-fucking-tastic, I don't have that hat so murder seems to be the only option.

You can buy the hat from the merchant in Cardinal Tower for like 1800 souls.

Too late, they're dead.

Whoopsie. Bright side, I do think using a Bonfire Ascetic will bring them back.

And what are those if you don't mind.

Rare items (I had 10 of them at the end of the game, although I'd never bought one from a merchant. Had I bought them all, I probably would have ended up with like 27) that raise the difficulty of an area +1. So if you use it at NG, it'll go up to NG+ difficulty. This also respawns all treasure, items, enemies, etc. You can cheese your way to NG+ and higher gear on your first playthrough by doing this.

Okay then, where are the ultra greatswords? I have two so far but want the others.

Uhhh, I don't really know off the top of my head. Aside from boss weapons, there's a Black Knight Greatsword in Iron Keep...

Is it pretty much the same as DS1? What stats do I need to use it?

 

[loa]

Is it just me or are bows hilariously underpowered this time?
My faith char murders everything with lightning spears which also do slight aoe damage while my dex char has to plink away 15 shots at an enemy that is a 2-shot with lightning spears.
Each shot also consumes 50% of my stamina which won't regenerate as long as I hold the shot.

Is there any bow worth using for anything other than pulling enemies later on somewhere?
I can't even infuse the damn things with poison.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Is it just me or are bows hilariously underpowered this time?
My faith char murders everything with lightning spears which also do slight aoe damage while my dex char has to plink away 15 shots at an enemy that is a 2-shot with lightning spears.
Each shot also consumes 50% of my stamina.

Is there any bow worth using for anything other than pulling enemies later on somewhere?

Poison Arrows are really good. I had a Phantom that went and rolled everything in Shrine of Amana with them where I was struggling to get through the area (The entire area makes you move slowly while legions of mages spam homing soul arrow at you from halfway across the map. Said arrows can take out 1/5-1/3rd of your health bar. It is super bullshit.

Anyway, magic stats in general seem overpowered because most weapons have decent int/faith scaling or better. On my new character, I was struggling (I thought Deprived wouldn't be so bad but holy jeez it totally is). But then I remembered the flame sword. By pumping up Int, my new Deprived character is doing half as much damage as my original character. That doesn't sound bad until you realize the Deprived character is literally brand new with a basic weapon (I have about 20 minutes on the save) and the other one is end-game with a fully upgraded weapon.

So many weapons have amazing int/faith scaling...and half the NPCs don't even talk to you if you aren't a mage, even if they can be helpful to non-Mages.

 

[Diablo2000]

So I'm now in Huntsman's Whateveritwas but I don't know where to go for the Branches of Yore.

Copse. Kill the Skeleton Lords to get into Harvest Valley. There are like three Branches of Yore just scattered around the area.

Well now I've seen the fog door behind the waterfall that I suspect houses the Skeleton Lords but have no Humanities (what it's called now is too hard to type) and dangerously low vitality due to hollowing. Any ideas where to get some?

Did you get the Human Effigy on the second story of the Fire Keepers' hut? I didn't find it until I went back to look into using a Soul Vessel, heh.

Alternatively, outside of the Cathedral of Blue is the Ring of Binding, which limits your max health loss from hollowing (super useful if you're a Pyromancer, since it lets you mitigate the drawbacks of using the Dark Pyromancy Flame). If you don't know where that is, it's in the Tower of Flame. From the big room with the three Old Knights, hang left. Kill the Old Knight overlooking the rest of the level at the end of the path to reveal a lever. Pull the lever and the drawbridge'll come down, leading you to the Cathedral and the chest containing the ring.

Yes to both, any other ideas?

You could kill the Fire Keepers for 12 Human Effigies, I suppose. Tho' that means you won't be able to respec until NG+. Although, throwing a Bonfire Ascetic into the bonfire might respawn them.

If you equip the travelling merchant hat (I think thats it, the one Explorer comes with), and kill dogs, they seem to drop Effigy's fairly regularly.

Fan-fucking-tastic, I don't have that hat so murder seems to be the only option.

You can buy the hat from the merchant in Cardinal Tower for like 1800 souls.

Too late, they're dead.

Whoopsie. Bright side, I do think using a Bonfire Ascetic will bring them back.

And what are those if you don't mind.

Rare items (I had 10 of them at the end of the game, although I'd never bought one from a merchant. Had I bought them all, I probably would have ended up with like 27) that raise the difficulty of an area +1. So if you use it at NG, it'll go up to NG+ difficulty. This also respawns all treasure, items, enemies, etc. You can cheese your way to NG+ and higher gear on your first playthrough by doing this.

Okay then, where are the ultra greatswords? I have two so far but want the others.

Uhhh, I don't really know off the top of my head. Aside from boss weapons, there's a Black Knight Greatsword in Iron Keep...

No, the Black Knight Greatsword is in Brightstone, the next room after the bridge with the spikes on it, there's a locked door there. You need the Brightstone key which I don't recall where I got it, the Black Knight Greatsword is in there...
I think it requires a ton of strength to wield it. I wouldn't know, I can even begin to dream in using Strenght weapon playing as a mage.

 

[sXeth]

I'm pondering restting into a mage at the Firekeeper's hut. Magic (and related) damage seems to fare ridiciously better against most of the bosses, to say nothing of the ranged options, and the minor addons to element resists.

 

[Kopikatsu]

So I'm now in Huntsman's Whateveritwas but I don't know where to go for the Branches of Yore.

Copse. Kill the Skeleton Lords to get into Harvest Valley. There are like three Branches of Yore just scattered around the area.

Well now I've seen the fog door behind the waterfall that I suspect houses the Skeleton Lords but have no Humanities (what it's called now is too hard to type) and dangerously low vitality due to hollowing. Any ideas where to get some?

Did you get the Human Effigy on the second story of the Fire Keepers' hut? I didn't find it until I went back to look into using a Soul Vessel, heh.

Alternatively, outside of the Cathedral of Blue is the Ring of Binding, which limits your max health loss from hollowing (super useful if you're a Pyromancer, since it lets you mitigate the drawbacks of using the Dark Pyromancy Flame). If you don't know where that is, it's in the Tower of Flame. From the big room with the three Old Knights, hang left. Kill the Old Knight overlooking the rest of the level at the end of the path to reveal a lever. Pull the lever and the drawbridge'll come down, leading you to the Cathedral and the chest containing the ring.

Yes to both, any other ideas?

You could kill the Fire Keepers for 12 Human Effigies, I suppose. Tho' that means you won't be able to respec until NG+. Although, throwing a Bonfire Ascetic into the bonfire might respawn them.

If you equip the travelling merchant hat (I think thats it, the one Explorer comes with), and kill dogs, they seem to drop Effigy's fairly regularly.

Fan-fucking-tastic, I don't have that hat so murder seems to be the only option.

You can buy the hat from the merchant in Cardinal Tower for like 1800 souls.

Too late, they're dead.

Whoopsie. Bright side, I do think using a Bonfire Ascetic will bring them back.

And what are those if you don't mind.

Rare items (I had 10 of them at the end of the game, although I'd never bought one from a merchant. Had I bought them all, I probably would have ended up with like 27) that raise the difficulty of an area +1. So if you use it at NG, it'll go up to NG+ difficulty. This also respawns all treasure, items, enemies, etc. You can cheese your way to NG+ and higher gear on your first playthrough by doing this.

Okay then, where are the ultra greatswords? I have two so far but want the others.

Uhhh, I don't really know off the top of my head. Aside from boss weapons, there's a Black Knight Greatsword in Iron Keep...

No, the Black Knight Greatsword is in Brightstone, the next room after the bridge with the spikes on it, there's a locked door there. You need the Brightstone key which I don't recall where I got it, the Black Knight Greatsword is in there...
I think it requires a ton of strength to wield it. I wouldn't know, I can even begin to dream in using Strenght weapon playing as a mage.

Yeah, that sounds about right. You get it from either killing Duke's Dear Freya or the Duke himself if I remember correctly.

I guess that means the Black Knight weapon you get in Iron Keep is the Halberd? Bleh, I don't remember.

I'm pondering restting into a mage at the Firekeeper's hut. Magic (and related) damage seems to fare ridiciously better against most of the bosses, to say nothing of the ranged options, and the minor addons to element resists.

That's what I noticed. After fighting against and alongside so many Mages...Magic just plain seems like a better option. Spellblades tend to be as effective (or even moreso) than pure melee too because of all their buffs and utility. I mean, you can straight up give a small shield like 100% resist against everything with Greater Magic Shield.

It's why I started a new character! Making a Pyromancer.

 

[loa]

Poison Arrows are really good. I had a Phantom that went and rolled everything in Shrine of Amana with them where I was struggling to get through the area (The entire area makes you move slowly while legions of mages spam homing soul arrow at you from halfway across the map. Said arrows can take out 1/5-1/3rd of your health bar. It is super bullshit.

Anyway, magic stats in general seem overpowered because most weapons have decent int/faith scaling or better. On my new character, I was struggling (I thought Deprived wouldn't be so bad but holy jeez it totally is). But then I remembered the flame sword. By pumping up Int, my new Deprived character is doing half as much damage as my original character. That doesn't sound bad until you realize the Deprived character is literally brand new with a basic weapon (I have about 20 minutes on the save) and the other one is end-game with a fully upgraded weapon.

So many weapons have amazing int/faith scaling...and half the NPCs don't even talk to you if you aren't a mage, even if they can be helpful to non-Mages.

Well I'm doing a crapton more melee damage with richards rapier at over 30 dexterity to anything that isn't ridiculously resistant to poke damage (stupid skeletons) than my mage even if he enchants his firesword and all my cleric can attack with is lightning spear, everything else is healing and basically useless in most boss battles.

It just seems weird that bows are so anemic in comparison even if you go completely axe-crazy on the dexterity.
My bow was 100% useless in every single boss battle so far.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Poison Arrows are really good. I had a Phantom that went and rolled everything in Shrine of Amana with them where I was struggling to get through the area (The entire area makes you move slowly while legions of mages spam homing soul arrow at you from halfway across the map. Said arrows can take out 1/5-1/3rd of your health bar. It is super bullshit.

Anyway, magic stats in general seem overpowered because most weapons have decent int/faith scaling or better. On my new character, I was struggling (I thought Deprived wouldn't be so bad but holy jeez it totally is). But then I remembered the flame sword. By pumping up Int, my new Deprived character is doing half as much damage as my original character. That doesn't sound bad until you realize the Deprived character is literally brand new with a basic weapon (I have about 20 minutes on the save) and the other one is end-game with a fully upgraded weapon.

So many weapons have amazing int/faith scaling...and half the NPCs don't even talk to you if you aren't a mage, even if they can be helpful to non-Mages.

Well I'm doing a crapton more melee damage with richards rapier at over 30 dexterity to anything that isn't ridiculously resistant to poke damage (stupid skeletons) than my mage even if he enchants his firesword and all my cleric can attack with is lightning spear, everything else is healing and basically useless in most boss battles.

It just seems weird that bows are so anemic in comparison even if you go completely axe-crazy on the dexterity.
My bow was 100% useless in every single boss battle so far.

Well, Rapiers are meant to do crazy damage to stuff that doesn't block. How much do you do per hit? With my str/dex build, I hit around 430~ damage with my Drangleic Sword. I've used that sword throughout the entire game, despite my (many) attempts to replace it with something else. It just always had the highest DPS, swung just fast enough to keep from being prohibitive but slow enough that I had time to correct a mistake/plan the next move if something unexpected happened, has a great dashing attack, good moveset, etc...

I've tried almost every weapon I qualified for, but Drangleic Sword was always the best. So sad. Even my +10 Poison Washing Pole can't begin to compare...

 

[loa]

Well, Rapiers are meant to do crazy damage to stuff that doesn't block. How much do you do per hit? With my str/dex build, I hit around 430~ damage with my Drangleic Sword. I've used that sword throughout the entire game, despite my (many) attempts to replace it with something else. It just always had the highest DPS, swung just fast enough to keep from being prohibitive but slow enough that I had time to correct a mistake/plan the next move if something unexpected happened, has a great dashing attack, good moveset, etc...

I've tried almost every weapon I qualified for, but Drangleic Sword was always the best. So sad. Even my +10 Poison Washing Pole can't begin to compare...

The damage fluctuates pretty extremely, I hit skeletons for about 80 while the covetus demon boss ate over 300 per hit and that thing attacks super fast.
Certain attack types are good against certain enemies, for instance the knights in the heide tower and skeletons get completely roflstomped by an unupgraded club while a rapier does almost nothing and the vikings in no mans wharf implode if you point a rapier at them.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Well, Rapiers are meant to do crazy damage to stuff that doesn't block. How much do you do per hit? With my str/dex build, I hit around 430~ damage with my Drangleic Sword. I've used that sword throughout the entire game, despite my (many) attempts to replace it with something else. It just always had the highest DPS, swung just fast enough to keep from being prohibitive but slow enough that I had time to correct a mistake/plan the next move if something unexpected happened, has a great dashing attack, good moveset, etc...

I've tried almost every weapon I qualified for, but Drangleic Sword was always the best. So sad. Even my +10 Poison Washing Pole can't begin to compare...

The damage fluctuates pretty extremely, I hit skeletons for about 80 while the covetus demon boss ate over 300 per hit and that thing attacks super fast.
Certain attack types are good against certain enemies, for instance the knights in the heide tower and skeletons get completely roflstomped by an unupgraded club while a rapier does almost nothing and the vikings in no mans wharf implode if you point a rapier at them.

Well, if you use a rapier, you might want to look into the Moon Butterfly set. It has two special abilities. The first is that it poisons anything near you (Not useful for a rapier that specializes in burst damage), and the second is that your roll turns into a glide/hover.

Not particularly useful or anything, but very graceful.

 

[sXeth]

It's why I started a new character! Making a Pyromancer.

I may have gone in weird order, but I'd be put off making a Pyro by the fact it was the last of the three I found the shop/trainer guy for. That and I have no real grasp on which stats its using to what degree in this one.

 

[Kopikatsu]

It's why I started a new character! Making a Pyromancer.

I may have gone in weird order, but I'd be put off making a Pyro by the fact it was the last of the three I found the shop/trainer guy for. That and I have no real grasp on which stats its using to what degree in this one.

Naw, you didn't do it strangely. The earliest you can get a Pyro catalyst is in No Man's Wharf. Which, of course, requires you to kill Dragonrider and Flexible Sentry first. That's why I started Deprived on this on, so that I could respec as needed.

That's really what kept me from just continuing on the first character; Knight having some of the worst starting stats for any kind of magic use. That, and I used my souls/items SUPER inefficiently. But now that I know where everything is and how everything works, this character will be considerably stronger than the last one.