Dark Souls 2: SotFS (or therefore, "Baa-baa Black Sheep" and other musings thread)

[Sniper Team 4]

Thanks for the tips. Knowing going in this time that I should be directing my leveling towards a specific ?build,? (i.e.: not thinking I can max everything or thinking that I benefit from spreading the wealth across all stats as my experience in mostly traditional Western RPGs,) I guess I?m going for a Strength build, but I?ve not made it to the point where I can level anything yet. I?ve literally been wandering Things Betwixt, Majula and the stairs leading TO Heide?s Tower for almost two hours, most of that with a broken straight sword because I hadn?t found the mace yet.) Just found Forest of the Fallen Giants and left off at an enemy sitting in front of a tree who won?t agro unless I attack him (I?m assuming) who?s sitting in front of a fog door; classic Dark Souls ?pick your poison? moment, so I cut it off. Really thinking about just starting over; I?ve wasted a bunch of consumables and I can be back to where I am now in 15-20 minutes.

Ah yes, the pigs. Everyone--and I mean everyone gets stomped by those pigs the first time they come across them. It's not you. It's them--more specifically, it's their size, They are so small, and they hide in the grass so well, that they are almost impossible to hit with most starting weapons. Especially since you swing swords down and to the left/right, instead of straight down. So don't feel too bad about getting beaten by them.

It sounds like you are playing the original Dark Souls II version, or at least the PS3 version. Is that correct? I say this because you have a Heide Knight hanging out by that tree, which they got rid of in the PS4 version. If that's the case, I can understand how you missed The Forest of the Fallen Giants. They addressed that in the PS4 version by having the torch leading to that pathway already lit, so players will notice it better. You're actually going to come across quite a few things that are going to be just a little different in areas.

And yes, I would suggest starting over. Everything you've used can easily be replaced, but I think you'll have a much better time with the game if you go in fresh and follow the "correct" path because you'll be more balanced with your enemies that way, and not feel completely outclassed.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

^Damn...at least Kalameet and Sinh gave you breathing room to get in melee position. Sinh was more lenient with this in my experience. But this guy...he just seems to say GTFO!!!

The worst part? The worst part was that I did end up summoning someone who knew how to fight him. The guy was dodging all the attacks, playing like a true master, and I just stayed way out of the way. I was fed up with Medir at that point. The guy got Medir down to maybe a tenth of his health--four or five more attacks, and it was finally going to be over.

And then Medir unleashed a new attack pattern, one that he apparently saves until he's near death, and since I had never seen it before, I had no idea what to do or where to dodge. Died, and that was when I said, "Screw you, you dumb dragon" and never went back. Speeding up your attacks, both in number and in actual speed, okay. But busting out a brand new one near the end? Not cool, Dark Souls III. Not. Cool.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Thanks for the tips. Knowing going in this time that I should be directing my leveling towards a specific ?build,? (i.e.: not thinking I can max everything or thinking that I benefit from spreading the wealth across all stats as my experience in mostly traditional Western RPGs,) I guess I?m going for a Strength build, but I?ve not made it to the point where I can level anything yet. I?ve literally been wandering Things Betwixt, Majula and the stairs leading TO Heide?s Tower for almost two hours, most of that with a broken straight sword because I hadn?t found the mace yet.) Just found Forest of the Fallen Giants and left off at an enemy sitting in front of a tree who won?t agro unless I attack him (I?m assuming) who?s sitting in front of a fog door; classic Dark Souls ?pick your poison? moment, so I cut it off. Really thinking about just starting over; I?ve wasted a bunch of consumables and I can be back to where I am now in 15-20 minutes.

Ah yes, the pigs. Everyone--and I mean everyone gets stomped by those pigs the first time they come across them. It's not you. It's them--more specifically, it's their size, They are so small, and they hide in the grass so well, that they are almost impossible to hit with most starting weapons. Especially since you swing swords down and to the left/right, instead of straight down. So don't feel too bad about getting beaten by them.

It sounds like you are playing the original Dark Souls II version, or at least the PS3 version. Is that correct? I say this because you have a Heide Knight hanging out by that tree, which they got rid of in the PS4 version. If that's the case, I can understand how you missed The Forest of the Fallen Giants. They addressed that in the PS4 version by having the torch leading to that pathway already lit, so players will notice it better. You're actually going to come across quite a few things that are going to be just a little different in areas.

And yes, I would suggest starting over. Everything you've used can easily be replaced, but I think you'll have a much better time with the game if you go in fresh and follow the "correct" path because you'll be more balanced with your enemies that way, and not feel completely outclassed.

It's not that big of a deal losing consumables since almost everything can be reacquired somehow, somewhere, someway. The most important thing to remember is, if going for story/quest stuff, to not kill any NPCs that have the Talk prompt; even the later oddball ones who don't say anything, as there is a secret to them which I think Sniper Team 4 himself pointed out a few pages back.

Other than that it's best to not make a habit of restarting, as the game will never truly give you more than you can handle, regardless of consumables stash. The best surprises can often be stumbled upon when all seems lost; a feeling of sweet salvation that few games can offer.

"Don't give up, skeleton!"

 

[Dalisclock]

Thanks for the tips. Knowing going in this time that I should be directing my leveling towards a specific ?build,? (i.e.: not thinking I can max everything or thinking that I benefit from spreading the wealth across all stats as my experience in mostly traditional Western RPGs,) I guess I?m going for a Strength build, but I?ve not made it to the point where I can level anything yet. I?ve literally been wandering Things Betwixt, Majula and the stairs leading TO Heide?s Tower for almost two hours, most of that with a broken straight sword because I hadn?t found the mace yet.) Just found Forest of the Fallen Giants and left off at an enemy sitting in front of a tree who won?t agro unless I attack him (I?m assuming) who?s sitting in front of a fog door; classic Dark Souls ?pick your poison? moment, so I cut it off. Really thinking about just starting over; I?ve wasted a bunch of consumables and I can be back to where I am now in 15-20 minutes.

I played Dark Souls 2 SOFTS for the first(and likely only) time earlier this year and I know how you feel. The early game has a difficulty curve like a cliff. A cliff with land mines and barbed wire on it. I had to struggle a lot to finish the Forest of Fallen Giants and The Tower of Flame, but once I got through those I was doing pretty good.

Don't worry about starting over. Buy a new sword or shield if you have to(if you started out missing one of them, which you likely did) but just remember it does get easier. You can respec later down the line if you really feel you need to.

Also, look for the ring of binding. It'll cap your health loss to 75% instead of 50%. It helps a lot.

And don't be afraid to wear down the enemy using the "stop respawning after 10-15 deaths" mechanic. I abused the shit out of that for certain areas because of how painful they were(Iron Keep can suck it).

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I finally got a run at Darklurker. After a good amount of consternation just finding him (I didn't realize until quite a few effigies later you have to visit three different locations...must not have been paying attention to what he said or it was very vague directions) I soon discovered this SoB was going to pull a 4 Kings card on me. Was not prepared. I suppose I'll have to swap my gear out for high magic/fire/dark defense stuff, but before that I need to restock effigies.

My biggest complaint besides needing them to drop in every time is that you also need to keep killing those shiny phantoms before you're afforded the privilege to be ravaged by dicklicker once again. I suppose it's not as bad as the knights before Ivory King, but still.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Ah yes, the pigs. Everyone--and I mean everyone gets stomped by those pigs the first time they come across them. It's not you. It's them--more specifically, it's their size, They are so small, and they hide in the grass so well, that they are almost impossible to hit with most starting weapons. Especially since you swing swords down and to the left/right, instead of straight down. So don't feel too bad about getting beaten by them.

It sounds like you are playing the original Dark Souls II version, or at least the PS3 version. Is that correct? I say this because you have a Heide Knight hanging out by that tree, which they got rid of in the PS4 version. If that's the case, I can understand how you missed The Forest of the Fallen Giants. They addressed that in the PS4 version by having the torch leading to that pathway already lit, so players will notice it better. You're actually going to come across quite a few things that are going to be just a little different in areas.

And yes, I would suggest starting over. Everything you've used can easily be replaced, but I think you'll have a much better time with the game if you go in fresh and follow the "correct" path because you'll be more balanced with your enemies that way, and not feel completely outclassed.

I?m on the Xbox 360 version of SofFS; not sure exactly how that differs from the vanilla version or the same version on current gen consoles, but I think the torch leading to the Forest actually WAS lit; I just didn?t see it. Topographically, in my mind, it feels like The Forest of the Fallen Giants is in the same direction as Things Betwixt (backwards) and basically hidden as opposed all the more obvious potential ?forwards? (i.e.: locked doors, the tunnels under the castle, etc.) But I did find it odd with the knight under the tree? It?s the first time in Dark Souls that an enemy (I could lock onto him) simply wouldn?t aggro, no matter how close I got. I kept waiting for a ?talk? prompt, but got nothing. What?s the point?

It's not that big of a deal losing consumables since almost everything can be reacquired somehow, somewhere, someway. The most important thing to remember is, if going for story/quest stuff, to not kill any NPCs that have the Talk prompt; even the later oddball ones who don't say anything, as there is a secret to them which I think Sniper Team 4 himself pointed out a few pages back.

Other than that it's best to not make a habit of restarting, as the game will never truly give you more than you can handle, regardless of consumables stash. The best surprises can often be stumbled upon when all seems lost; a feeling of sweet salvation that few games can offer.

"Don't give up, skeleton!"

Oh, I?m not a killer of NPCs in any game, especially during a first playthrough and super especially in Dark Souls where the slightest detail could mean nothing or everything.

I played Dark Souls 2 SOFTS for the first(and likely only) time earlier this year and I know how you feel. The early game has a difficulty curve like a cliff. A cliff with land mines and barbed wire on it. I had to struggle a lot to finish the Forest of Fallen Giants and The Tower of Flame, but once I got through those I was doing pretty good.

Don't worry about starting over. Buy a new sword or shield if you have to(if you started out missing one of them, which you likely did) but just remember it does get easier. You can respec later down the line if you really feel you need to.

Also, look for the ring of binding. It'll cap your health loss to 75% instead of 50%. It helps a lot.

And don't be afraid to wear down the enemy using the "stop respawning after 10-15 deaths" mechanic. I abused the shit out of that for certain areas because of how painful they were(Iron Keep can suck it).

Glad to know my early DS2 experience isn?t uncommon. Was feeling pretty shitty; given my now near encyclopedic knowledge of DS1, I figured I could at least walk competently into DS2, but it?s felt like one rookie mistake after another: I fell down the well in Majula THREE times. Killed by the three little pigs TWICE. Tried to be slick and sneak up on the ogre on the beach with his back to the stairs; check that six homeboy, classic Dark Souls setup; he wasn?t alone. And I guess tapping B to slide down ladders as in DS1 now causes you to drop off the ladder entirely? Yeah, died FEW times learning that lesson? I will start over; not making a habit it of it, just I?ve made no progress and burnt up a lot of stuff doing so; feels like I filled up my car at the gas station then did donuts in the parking lot for 2 hours.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I finally got a run at Darklurker. After a good amount of consternation just finding him (I didn't realize until quite a few effigies later you have to visit three different locations...must not have been paying attention to what he said or it was very vague directions) I soon discovered this SoB was going to pull a 4 Kings card on me. Was not prepared. I suppose I'll have to swap my gear out for high magic/fire/dark defense stuff, but before that I need to restock effigies.

My biggest complaint besides needing them to drop in every time is that you also need to keep killing those shiny phantoms before you're afforded the privilege to be ravaged by dicklicker once again. I suppose it's not as bad as the knights before Ivory King, but still.

Hee hee. Meet what most people consider to be the best boss in Dark Souls II. There's a trick to him. The first part of the fight is supposed to be spent learning all of his tells. He telegraphs his attacks pretty easily, so once you learn all of the tells, you can dodge them all. The trick comes when--surprise!--you now have to deal with double that amount. Finding the right time to counter is key.

Or go in and beat the crap out of it with Chaos Storm, because that thing does not like fire. Like, at all.
(Also, I think the same "kill them enough times and they stop respawning" rule applies to the phantoms, so you could just keep wiping them out, but that will cost you effigies, so it's your call..

I?m on the Xbox 360 version of SofFS; not sure exactly how that differs from the vanilla version or the same version on current gen consoles, but I think the torch leading to the Forest actually WAS lit; I just didn?t see it. Topographically, in my mind, it feels like The Forest of the Fallen Giants is in the same direction as Things Betwixt (backwards) and basically hidden as opposed all the more obvious potential ?forwards? (i.e.: locked doors, the tunnels under the castle, etc.) But I did find it odd with the knight under the tree? It?s the first time in Dark Souls that an enemy (I could lock onto him) simply wouldn?t aggro, no matter how close I got. I kept waiting for a ?talk? prompt, but got nothing. What?s the point?

There's no real difference--I don't think--between the original Dark Souls II and Scholar on the last generation consoles. The only things that will change in those versions are item descriptions, and the fact that a key character will finally appear. Otherwise, that's it. Then current generation versions have different enemy placements and different paths because there are more stone statues in the way. This was all done to make the story make more sense.
A prime example is actually the Hiede knight that you're talking about. In your version, those Heide knights are going to be scattered all over the place save for the one place you'd THINK they should be--Heide's Tower of Flame. It didn't make much sense really.
They are completely harmless in your game unless you attack them. Doing so can reward you with their armor and weapons. They're kind of like mini-bosses, I suppose, but that's probably making them out to be tougher than they are.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Spoiler

I finally got a run at Darklurker. After a good amount of consternation just finding him (I didn't realize until quite a few effigies later you have to visit three different locations...must not have been paying attention to what he said or it was very vague directions) I soon discovered this SoB was going to pull a 4 Kings card on me. Was not prepared. I suppose I'll have to swap my gear out for high magic/fire/dark defense stuff, but before that I need to restock effigies.

My biggest complaint besides needing them to drop in every time is that you also need to keep killing those shiny phantoms before you're afforded the privilege to be ravaged by dicklicker once again. I suppose it's not as bad as the knights before Ivory King, but still.

Hee hee. Meet what most people consider to be the best boss in Dark Souls II. There's a trick to him. The first part of the fight is supposed to be spent learning all of his tells. He telegraphs his attacks pretty easily, so once you learn all of the tells, you can dodge them all. The trick comes when--surprise!--you now have to deal with double that amount. Finding the right time to counter is key.

Or go in and beat the crap out of it with Chaos Storm, because that thing does not like fire. Like, at all.
(Also, I think the same "kill them enough times and they stop respawning" rule applies to the phantoms, so you could just keep wiping them out, but that will cost you effigies, so it's your call..

I?m on the Xbox 360 version of SofFS; not sure exactly how that differs from the vanilla version or the same version on current gen consoles, but I think the torch leading to the Forest actually WAS lit; I just didn?t see it. Topographically, in my mind, it feels like The Forest of the Fallen Giants is in the same direction as Things Betwixt (backwards) and basically hidden as opposed all the more obvious potential ?forwards? (i.e.: locked doors, the tunnels under the castle, etc.) But I did find it odd with the knight under the tree? It?s the first time in Dark Souls that an enemy (I could lock onto him) simply wouldn?t aggro, no matter how close I got. I kept waiting for a ?talk? prompt, but got nothing. What?s the point?

There's no real difference--I don't think--between the original Dark Souls II and Scholar on the last generation consoles. The only things that will change in those versions are item descriptions, and the fact that a key character will finally appear. Otherwise, that's it. Then current generation versions have different enemy placements and different paths because there are more stone statues in the way. This was all done to make the story make more sense.
A prime example is actually the Hiede knight that you're talking about. In your version, those Heide knights are going to be scattered all over the place save for the one place you'd THINK they should be--Heide's Tower of Flame. It didn't make much sense really.
They are completely harmless in your game unless you attack them. Doing so can reward you with their armor and weapons. They're kind of like mini-bosses, I suppose, but that's probably making them out to be tougher than they are.

Weak against fire...hmm, perhaps pyromancies hit harder. I buffed with some charcoal pine resin once but don't think it did half the damage of my gold pine resin. I'll still try the chaos storm though since I want to beat him as my current build. Thought about Great Lightning Spear but must...resist...respec'ing.

 

[Comic Sans]

Spoiler

I finally got a run at Darklurker. After a good amount of consternation just finding him (I didn't realize until quite a few effigies later you have to visit three different locations...must not have been paying attention to what he said or it was very vague directions) I soon discovered this SoB was going to pull a 4 Kings card on me. Was not prepared. I suppose I'll have to swap my gear out for high magic/fire/dark defense stuff, but before that I need to restock effigies.

My biggest complaint besides needing them to drop in every time is that you also need to keep killing those shiny phantoms before you're afforded the privilege to be ravaged by dicklicker once again. I suppose it's not as bad as the knights before Ivory King, but still.

Hee hee. Meet what most people consider to be the best boss in Dark Souls II. There's a trick to him. The first part of the fight is supposed to be spent learning all of his tells. He telegraphs his attacks pretty easily, so once you learn all of the tells, you can dodge them all. The trick comes when--surprise!--you now have to deal with double that amount. Finding the right time to counter is key.

Or go in and beat the crap out of it with Chaos Storm, because that thing does not like fire. Like, at all.
(Also, I think the same "kill them enough times and they stop respawning" rule applies to the phantoms, so you could just keep wiping them out, but that will cost you effigies, so it's your call..

I?m on the Xbox 360 version of SofFS; not sure exactly how that differs from the vanilla version or the same version on current gen consoles, but I think the torch leading to the Forest actually WAS lit; I just didn?t see it. Topographically, in my mind, it feels like The Forest of the Fallen Giants is in the same direction as Things Betwixt (backwards) and basically hidden as opposed all the more obvious potential ?forwards? (i.e.: locked doors, the tunnels under the castle, etc.) But I did find it odd with the knight under the tree? It?s the first time in Dark Souls that an enemy (I could lock onto him) simply wouldn?t aggro, no matter how close I got. I kept waiting for a ?talk? prompt, but got nothing. What?s the point?

There's no real difference--I don't think--between the original Dark Souls II and Scholar on the last generation consoles. The only things that will change in those versions are item descriptions, and the fact that a key character will finally appear. Otherwise, that's it. Then current generation versions have different enemy placements and different paths because there are more stone statues in the way. This was all done to make the story make more sense.
A prime example is actually the Hiede knight that you're talking about. In your version, those Heide knights are going to be scattered all over the place save for the one place you'd THINK they should be--Heide's Tower of Flame. It didn't make much sense really.
They are completely harmless in your game unless you attack them. Doing so can reward you with their armor and weapons. They're kind of like mini-bosses, I suppose, but that's probably making them out to be tougher than they are.

Weak against fire...hmm, perhaps pyromancies hit harder. I buffed with some charcoal pine resin once but don't think it did half the damage of my gold pine resin. I'll still try the chaos storm though since I want to beat him as my current build. Thought about Great Lightning Spear but must...resist...respec'ing.

Why not respec? I had a ton of Soul Vessels by the time I beat the game. Go nuts with whatever sounds fun. I started the game as a dex user, spent most of the game punching stuff to death, then became a faith strength build. Kept it fresh.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Spoiler

I finally got a run at Darklurker. After a good amount of consternation just finding him (I didn't realize until quite a few effigies later you have to visit three different locations...must not have been paying attention to what he said or it was very vague directions) I soon discovered this SoB was going to pull a 4 Kings card on me. Was not prepared. I suppose I'll have to swap my gear out for high magic/fire/dark defense stuff, but before that I need to restock effigies.

My biggest complaint besides needing them to drop in every time is that you also need to keep killing those shiny phantoms before you're afforded the privilege to be ravaged by dicklicker once again. I suppose it's not as bad as the knights before Ivory King, but still.

Hee hee. Meet what most people consider to be the best boss in Dark Souls II. There's a trick to him. The first part of the fight is supposed to be spent learning all of his tells. He telegraphs his attacks pretty easily, so once you learn all of the tells, you can dodge them all. The trick comes when--surprise!--you now have to deal with double that amount. Finding the right time to counter is key.

Or go in and beat the crap out of it with Chaos Storm, because that thing does not like fire. Like, at all.
(Also, I think the same "kill them enough times and they stop respawning" rule applies to the phantoms, so you could just keep wiping them out, but that will cost you effigies, so it's your call..

I?m on the Xbox 360 version of SofFS; not sure exactly how that differs from the vanilla version or the same version on current gen consoles, but I think the torch leading to the Forest actually WAS lit; I just didn?t see it. Topographically, in my mind, it feels like The Forest of the Fallen Giants is in the same direction as Things Betwixt (backwards) and basically hidden as opposed all the more obvious potential ?forwards? (i.e.: locked doors, the tunnels under the castle, etc.) But I did find it odd with the knight under the tree? It?s the first time in Dark Souls that an enemy (I could lock onto him) simply wouldn?t aggro, no matter how close I got. I kept waiting for a ?talk? prompt, but got nothing. What?s the point?

There's no real difference--I don't think--between the original Dark Souls II and Scholar on the last generation consoles. The only things that will change in those versions are item descriptions, and the fact that a key character will finally appear. Otherwise, that's it. Then current generation versions have different enemy placements and different paths because there are more stone statues in the way. This was all done to make the story make more sense.
A prime example is actually the Hiede knight that you're talking about. In your version, those Heide knights are going to be scattered all over the place save for the one place you'd THINK they should be--Heide's Tower of Flame. It didn't make much sense really.
They are completely harmless in your game unless you attack them. Doing so can reward you with their armor and weapons. They're kind of like mini-bosses, I suppose, but that's probably making them out to be tougher than they are.

Weak against fire...hmm, perhaps pyromancies hit harder. I buffed with some charcoal pine resin once but don't think it did half the damage of my gold pine resin. I'll still try the chaos storm though since I want to beat him as my current build. Thought about Great Lightning Spear but must...resist...respec'ing.

Why not respec? I had a ton of Soul Vessels by the time I beat the game. Go nuts with whatever sounds fun. I started the game as a dex user, spent most of the game punching stuff to death, then became a faith strength build. Kept it fresh.

Yeah I have a bunch of vessels but I want to play through it all as a strength/dex build first. Then I might go in another direction for NG+ whenever I get around to it. Maybe a magic/faith/hex powerhouse.


*edit* Darklurker is no more. I went in with Red Iron Twinblade, Rebel's Greatshield, some Gold Pine Resin and Chaos Storm. Also had Ring of Blades and the one that boosts several defenses. Getting to his 2nd phase was easy, but I still had to be careful. Two casts still didn't kill him and they were pretty spot-on. I had to coup de grace with a couple more swipes of my trusty blade. The Selfless Giver trophy also popped as a cherry-on-top kinda bonus.

I also realized I have 21 Loyce souls. Might go back to the Old Chaos for some more next.

 

[Kerg3927]

But I did find it odd with the knight under the tree? It?s the first time in Dark Souls that an enemy (I could lock onto him) simply wouldn?t aggro, no matter how close I got. I kept waiting for a ?talk? prompt, but got nothing. What?s the point?

That is the point. To make you wonder is he friend or foe or is he is going to sneak up behind me and stab me in the back? I mean, he can't possibly be harmless, right? Why is he not trying to kill me? And then you finally walk past him, but with a wary eye looking back over your shoulder. It's kinda creepy and unnerving.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I'm trying to find the one in the Gutter that I left alone at first. I can't remember which bonfire was closer; it was late and I was pretty much sleep walking around all those platforms.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I'm trying to find the one in the Gutter that I left alone at first. I can't remember which bonfire was closer; it was late and I was pretty much sleep walking around all those platforms.

He's kind of tricky to find. Cross the first long rope bridge so that you're on the other side of those rickety wooden towers. You should see a Hollow with a torch to the left, and a mutant dog coming from the right. You want to head to the left, and look for a place where you can drop down into a new platform area. Once you get there, it's basically a straight walk to your knight.
Note: If you cross the first rope bridge and run into any poison statues, you've gone too far I believe. Go back, but don't cross back over the rope bridge.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I'm trying to find the one in the Gutter that I left alone at first. I can't remember which bonfire was closer; it was late and I was pretty much sleep walking around all those platforms.

He's kind of tricky to find. Cross the first long rope bridge so that you're on the other side of those rickety wooden towers. You should see a Hollow with a torch to the left, and a mutant dog coming from the right. You want to head to the left, and look for a place where you can drop down into a new platform area. Once you get there, it's basically a straight walk to your knight.
Note: If you cross the first rope bridge and run into any poison statues, you've gone too far I believe. Go back, but don't cross back over the rope bridge.

Got him, thanks. The poison statues helped redirect me. I also ended up finding the fan-designed Wicked Eye shield on my way back. Might actually try it out for the HP leech perk.

Also made a third run on The Rotten for the Old Dead One soul to get the Crypt Blacksword. Then did a second on the Lost Sinner for the pyromancer spell. Apparently in the lore the Old Witch Soul is tied to the witches from DS1. There's honestly quite a few random things I'd like to do yet before even heading to the end boss. Loyce souls probably top the list. I think I have 30 now. Almost doubled my count from just a couple hours farming the knights solo. I've been putting summon signs down but only got summoned once, with one drop.

 

[Kerg3927]

Then did a second on the Lost Sinner for the pyromancer spell. Apparently in the lore the Old Witch Soul is tied to the witches from DS1.

They are the souls of the original Lords that started this whole mess in DS1...

Old Witch Soul = The Witch of Izalith
Old King Soul = Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight
Old Dead One Soul = Nito, First of the Dead
Old Paledrake Soul = Seath the Scaleless

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Then did a second on the Lost Sinner for the pyromancer spell. Apparently in the lore the Old Witch Soul is tied to the witches from DS1.

They are the souls of the original Lords that started this whole mess in DS1...

Old Witch Soul = The Witch of Izalith
Old King Soul = Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight
Old Dead One Soul = Nito, First of the Dead
Old Paledrake Soul = Seath the Scaleless

Sssh. Don't spoil it. I don't think he's gotten the other ones yet... ;-)

The bigger question is, has he figured out the deal with all the kingdoms and their kings?


Also, can we all just take a moment to appreciate this thread? We've gotten this thing up to seven, probably going to get to eight, pages. All about a game that came out several years ago and, at the time, not too many people were raving about. All this on top of the fact that, sadly, at this time on this website threads are lucky if they get past three pages. So I think we've all done really well here, and I've had fun with this whole thing.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Then did a second on the Lost Sinner for the pyromancer spell. Apparently in the lore the Old Witch Soul is tied to the witches from DS1.

They are the souls of the original Lords that started this whole mess in DS1...

Old Witch Soul = The Witch of Izalith
Old King Soul = Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight
Old Dead One Soul = Nito, First of the Dead
Old Paledrake Soul = Seath the Scaleless

Then did a second on the Lost Sinner for the pyromancer spell. Apparently in the lore the Old Witch Soul is tied to the witches from DS1.

They are the souls of the original Lords that started this whole mess in DS1...

Old Witch Soul = The Witch of Izalith
Old King Soul = Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight
Old Dead One Soul = Nito, First of the Dead
Old Paledrake Soul = Seath the Scaleless

Sssh. Don't spoil it. I don't think he's gotten the other ones yet... ;-)

The bigger question is, has he figured out the deal with all the kingdoms and their kings?


Also, can we all just take a moment to appreciate this thread? We've gotten this thing up to seven, probably going to get to eight, pages. All about a game that came out several years ago and, at the time, not too many people were raving about. All this on top of the fact that, sadly, at this time on this website threads are lucky if they get past three pages. So I think we've all done really well here, and I've had fun with this whole thing.

I'm getting the impression that the Souls series is kinda like that old movie Groundhog Day (or more recently The Edge of Tomorrow), but slightly augmented to dark fantasy and instead of repeating one day, they repeat a whole chain of events involving kingdoms spread across eons of time.

I've gotten two of the above four, and might as well get the other two now that you mention it!

Yeah, quite a surprise how well this thread has done. But then again, this is the Souls series we're talking about. Perhaps it's partly due to the possibility that DS2 in retrospect might have gained a new level of appreciation now that the series is...let's just say on indefinite hiatus.

A big thanks to all who have contributed. These things clearly tend to take on a life of their own, which is a testament to the quality of the games themselves and the fans that love them.

 

[gsilver]

I'm getting the impression that the Souls series is kinda like that old movie Groundhog Day (or more recently The Edge of Tomorrow), but slightly augmented to dark fantasy and instead of repeating one day, they repeat a whole chain of events involving kingdoms spread across eons of time.

Given that all endings more or less perpetuate the cycle in some way...
Even if some take longer to get back to where they were than others.

 

[Xprimentyl]

We?ve all heard the old adage: ?Give a man a fish and he?ll eat for a day; teach a man to fish, and he?ll eat for the rest of his life.? I?ll offer there?s a third option: ?Let a man wade into the water with the fish, and SURPRSIE the fish is TWO sharks and, ZOMG isn?t that awesome?? This is really HARD, huh, bro?? You ready to ?GIT GUD? cuz awesome?!??

IMHO, Dark Souls 2 is missing that ?something? that made DS1 so special; I want to say it?s subtlety and/or nuance. I don?t feel that same sense of progression DS1 offers; I feel severely underpowered and all DS2 wants to do is hand me fragile weapons, limited resources and put me through one gank fest after another. It feels like DS2 is just hard for the sake of being hard. DS1 taught you the lessons to overcome, DS2 just wants to punish and beat you down because of reasons. The combat lacks the timing, the dance, and the weight that was DS1, especially when a lot of encounters are 2-3 guys at a time; the buttons feel unresponsive and the constant stun-locking tries even the most patient and calculated of attacks; the diminishing health was just a dick move as was breaking out equip load out from stamina as a separate stat (yeah, just noticed that little nugget last night.)

I?m sticking with it for now because it sounds like it improves eventually, but did anyone else get at least some of these same impressions within their first few hours with DS2? That it was somehow an exercise in misguided fan service?

 

[Kerg3927]

I'm getting the impression that the Souls series is kinda like that old movie Groundhog Day (or more recently The Edge of Tomorrow), but slightly augmented to dark fantasy and instead of repeating one day, they repeat a whole chain of events involving kingdoms spread across eons of time.