Dark Souls 2: Shade Forest and Lion Warriors

[Realitycrash]

I'm having trouble fighting these with my my Sorcerer. They are immune to all my magic, and I don't have very strong physical stats. I keep reading that they are weak to backstabs, but when I backstab with a theif-dagger it does around 25-40 damage. That's less than a spell! How am I suppose to beat these guys?

 

[BigOrteil]

You'll have to change your weapon for a better one at back stabbing or take your time and kill them all with your spells and some spell recovery items. I have a pure sorcery character too and I passed the zone by backstabbing them with a rapier.

After you explore the zone completely, you can just outrun them to the fog gate, they're slow and won't follow you to the fog gate.

 

[Realitycrash]

You'll have to change your weapon for a better one at back stabbing or take your time and kill them all with your spells and some spell recovery items. I have a pure sorcery character too and I passed the zone by backstabbing them with a rapier.

After you explore the zone completely, you can just outrun them to the fog gate, they're slow and won't follow you to the fog gate.

I have Str15 and Dex9, are you telling me I must dump some ten or more levels in Dex in order to be able to use a rapier and get past this level?
Also I thought Daggers were best at backstabing. They are supposed to deal Backstab damage in the hundreds, but they deal nothing here.
Also, kill them with all my spells? I need 30 Soul Arrows or ten GreatHeavy Soul Arrows to down ONE of them. Am I supposed to grind them nonstop until they disappear? Because my supply of spells wont last me through the level.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Do what I did and run past those fuckers. It's a brilliant and effective strategy that you'll need later on in a certain shrine.

 

[Sabitsuki]

I just did this section with my magey character. You don't need to put any stats into melee, just grab your normal Dagger (not Thief), and whatever the best shield you can manage. The first two always come in a pair from what I can tell, just run back to the bonfire and wait for them to start heading back to take them one on one. Block and strafe around them until they open themselves up for a backstab. With about 7 str and 7 dex and 0 upgrades for my dagger, the backstab should still do around somewhere around 450-600 damage, shouldn't take more than two to kill each one.

 

[Realitycrash]

I just did this section with my magey character. You don't need to put any stats into melee, just grab your normal Dagger (not Thief), and whatever the best shield you can manage. The first two always come in a pair from what I can tell, just run back to the bonfire and wait for them to start heading back to take them one on one. Block and strafe around them until they open themselves up for a backstab. With about 7 str and 7 dex and 0 upgrades for my dagger, the backstab should still do around somewhere around 450-600 damage, shouldn't take more than two to kill each one.

I can't find any normal dagger, though.I sold the one I started with and the one found in Things Betwixt. So, now what do I do? And why would a normal dagger do 450dmg but a thief-dagger do 25? I mean sure it is a worse dagger, but almost twenty times as less?

 

[BigOrteil]

I have Str15 and Dex9, are you telling me I must dump some ten or more levels in Dex in order to be able to use a rapier and get past this level?
Also I thought Daggers were best at backstabing. They are supposed to deal Backstab damage in the hundreds, but they deal nothing here.
Also, kill them with all my spells? I need 30 Soul Arrows or ten GreatHeavy Soul Arrows to down ONE of them. Am I supposed to grind them nonstop until they disappear? Because my supply of spells wont last me through the level.

I don't know why you're doing such crappy damage with a backstab. That's why I suggested a better weapon. I was doing around 200-300 dmg with a simple rapier with the minimum required stats.


I wasn't suggesting to grind them all 10 times and be done with it. I was saying you could kill them all one time, explore the zone and loot everything. After that you can just skip them cause they're slow as hell and won't follow you very far.

If you can't kill them with a melee weapon and you can't manage your spells through them, I guess you should just go elsewhere and level up a bit before re-attempting the zone.

 

[Sabitsuki]

I just did this section with my magey character. You don't need to put any stats into melee, just grab your normal Dagger (not Thief), and whatever the best shield you can manage. The first two always come in a pair from what I can tell, just run back to the bonfire and wait for them to start heading back to take them one on one. Block and strafe around them until they open themselves up for a backstab. With about 7 str and 7 dex and 0 upgrades for my dagger, the backstab should still do around somewhere around 450-600 damage, shouldn't take more than two to kill each one.

I can't find any normal dagger, though.I sold the one I started with and the one found in Things Betwixt. So, now what do I do? And why would a normal dagger do 450dmg but a thief-dagger do 25? I mean sure it is a worse dagger, but almost twenty times as less?

The Dagger has an exceptionally high counter rating is why. High counter rates make a weapon's backstabs and counter attack exponentially higher. The thief dagger's is rather unimpressive at 110, while the Dagger's is on the very high end with 150. It's a weird value to deal with because a difference of only 40 points has an immense effect on the damage.
If you don't have a Dagger though, you may want to see if you have or can obtain any other weapons you are capable of wielding with higher counter rates and see how they perform.
Otherwise you may want to summon a phantom for help, or try dashing through to the fog gate.

 

[hazabaza1]

Running past and getting to the boss fight works well. Takes maybe 30 seconds too.
If you really want to explore though I'd recommend going to McDuff's and making an enchanted weapon. It reduces the STR/DEX scaling of a weapon, adds fairly high INT scaling but only deals physical damage.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Running past and getting to the boss fight works well. Takes maybe 30 seconds too.
If you really want to explore though I'd recommend going to McDuff's and making an enchanted weapon. It reduces the STR/DEX scaling of a weapon, adds fairly high INT scaling but only deals physical damage.

This is very true if you're having an overly high amount of difficulty. There are two of them that you'll want to pay attention to regardless, and both are petrified when you initially find them. One that you technically don't have to kill after awakening it blocks a chest that contains extremely good caster gear (as well as a Branch so you can basically get to it at no cost). The other that you do have to kill holds the a key you'll want in a little while.

 

[hazabaza1]

Running past and getting to the boss fight works well. Takes maybe 30 seconds too.
If you really want to explore though I'd recommend going to McDuff's and making an enchanted weapon. It reduces the STR/DEX scaling of a weapon, adds fairly high INT scaling but only deals physical damage.

This is very true if you're having an overly high amount of difficulty. There are two of them that you'll want to pay attention to regardless, and both are petrified when you initially find them. One that you technically don't have to kill after awakening it blocks a chest that contains extremely good caster gear (as well as a Branch so you can basically get to it at no cost). The other that you do have to kill holds the a key you'll want in a little while.

I think you got a bit of a wrong quote there, sorry to say. But this is good advice OP, listen to this.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Running past and getting to the boss fight works well. Takes maybe 30 seconds too.

This is very true if you're having an overly high amount of difficulty. There are two of them that you'll want to pay attention to regardless, and both are petrified when you initially find them. One that you technically don't have to kill after awakening it blocks a chest that contains extremely good caster gear (as well as a Branch so you can basically get to it at no cost). The other that you do have to kill holds the a key you'll want in a little while.

I think you got a bit of a wrong quote there, sorry to say. But this is good advice OP, listen to this.

I was just referencing the advice on running past the lion warriors. There really isn't any reason to fight most of them as, as you said, that area is an easy dash to the boss.

I mean, I guess they drop fall damage reduction gear that you can use instead of buying the cat ring from Shalquoir if you want that but that's about it.

 

[Coldie]

I have Str15 and Dex9, are you telling me I must dump some ten or more levels in Dex in order to be able to use a rapier and get past this level?
Also I thought Daggers were best at backstabing. They are supposed to deal Backstab damage in the hundreds, but they deal nothing here.
Also, kill them with all my spells? I need 30 Soul Arrows or ten GreatHeavy Soul Arrows to down ONE of them. Am I supposed to grind them nonstop until they disappear? Because my supply of spells wont last me through the level.

Go back to Majula and buy a plain Mace. You have the stats for it and it's effective against any and all enemies, unlike piercing and slashing weapons. With upgrades and an enhancement suitable for your stats (Enchanted or Raw for a caster, maybe) it'll easily last you the entire game.

 

[hazabaza1]

Running past and getting to the boss fight works well. Takes maybe 30 seconds too.

This is very true if you're having an overly high amount of difficulty. There are two of them that you'll want to pay attention to regardless, and both are petrified when you initially find them. One that you technically don't have to kill after awakening it blocks a chest that contains extremely good caster gear (as well as a Branch so you can basically get to it at no cost). The other that you do have to kill holds the a key you'll want in a little while.

I think you got a bit of a wrong quote there, sorry to say. But this is good advice OP, listen to this.

I was just referencing the advice on running past the lion warriors. There really isn't any reason to fight most of them as, as you said, that area is an easy dash to the boss.

I mean, I guess they drop fall damage reduction gear that you can use instead of buying the cat ring from Shalquoir if you want that but that's about it.

Ah right.
Does their gear reduce fall damage? Neat, didn't know that. Though dumping some points into int can do the same what with fall control, or the ring that you mentioned but hey, learn something new every day.

 

[garjian]

I'm having trouble fighting these with my my Sorcerer. They are immune to all my magic, and I don't have very strong physical stats. I keep reading that they are weak to backstabs, but when I backstab with a theif-dagger it does around 25-40 damage. That's less than a spell! How am I suppose to beat these guys?

You're not, to be blunt.
They're magic resistant and that's that. Great design eh?

This is by far the easiest area in the game to just run past everything though so, do that.

Also, just a side note, backstabbing is not the best way to kill them anyway. Let them attack, and simply walk backwards slightly... they'll miss and you can get attacks in. If you have a decent weapon set you can usually kill them from avoiding just one attack, but if you can't, don't get greedy.

 

[lapan]

I'm having trouble fighting these with my my Sorcerer. They are immune to all my magic, and I don't have very strong physical stats. I keep reading that they are weak to backstabs, but when I backstab with a theif-dagger it does around 25-40 damage. That's less than a spell! How am I suppose to beat these guys?

You're not, to be blunt.
They're magic resistant and that's that. Great design eh?

Dark Souls 2 is generally less forgiving to people who want to stick to one playing style than DeS or DaS.
Pure melee will have troubles with Shrine of Amana while ranged just cruises through it. Some enemies have very high magic resist.

Mixed builds have the easiest time.

 

[garjian]

Dark Souls 2 is generally less forgiving to people who want to stick to one playing style than DeS or DaS.
Pure melee will have troubles with Shrine of Amana while ranged just cruises through it. Some enemies have very high magic resist.

Mixed builds have the easiest time.

And then they patched it so you can just take a leisurely stroll through it. Just like Shaded Woods I suppose.

I had a lot of fun in Amana with all of my builds before then though, though I suppose it was easier on the characters that I allowed bows. It used to be a great area... :/

 

[lapan]

It used to be a great area... :/

It used to be the most tedious area out of any souls game for me, until i finally gave in and used a bow. Especially the area in front of the fogdoor with 3 mages, some lizards and 2 knights is hell

 

[PrimitiveJudge]

Pure sorcerer here, I used the magic mace you get in the skeleton cave in Huntman's Copse. Just level it up a few times and it should be good enough, however it does jack on NG+ grr.

 

[Bombiz]

Pure sorcerer here, I used the magic mace you get in the skeleton cave in Huntman's Copse. Just level it up a few times and it should be good enough, however it does jack on NG+ grr.

What do you use for NG+ then? Cause the only thing I can see viable is the moonlight greatsword.