Haveing a hardtime not sucking in darksouls

[kyogen]

I don't know about you, OP, but I usually have a few false starts on games like Dark Souls (and bosses like the Taurus Demon). It just takes me awhile to wrap my head around the controls and the pacing of the combat. Don't let it get to you too much; you'll get it. Give yourself a break now and then, too, since the enemies are just waiting for you to get impatient and lose focus.

Pyro is great for players who like magic/melee mix, but I can't stand it. Thief-types are better for players like me. You won't get destroyed in a fight if you play to the character's strengths, but do whatever works best for you. Again, a false start is not a bad thing if you learn from it.

 

[The_Waspman]

This game kicked my ass so much when i first started. And yes, I started as a thief, to get the master key. I still play as a thief, and can pretty much 1hk anything with a bow.

As for taurus demon... Well, he was like any other boss in this game. I took the pansy way out and exploited that bastard. More time consuming, but fairly risk free. Just have tons of firebombs. When he spawns, hightail it to the tower, climb up, firebomb him twice in the face, then back off before he jumps up. Climb halfway down the ladder, wait til he jumps down, rinse, repeat. Hell of a lot safer than doing an aerial assault.

Stick with it though. This game got me very frustrated and depressed until I killed that guy. Now I've made it to Anor Londo and I'm loving it. Beating the Sen's Fortress Boss FIRST TIME without using an exploit or glitch was very satisfying.

 

[scorptatious]

Well first and foremost, before you start the fight, climb the ladder to the right of where you enter the area and take out the archers. After that, initiate the fight and immediately climb back up said ladder. Then you can do a downward strike on his head that takes off a tons of his health.

He's also weak against fire. So if you have pyromancy spells and/or firebombs, use those as well.

 

[Skin]

Upgrading shields is very much worth it. It usually increases their stability, and that means less stamina lost when blocking.
Oh, and the regular upgrade path is better if you have the stats to scale with the weapon (since it's better to go through one type of defense than two). Plus, you can't buff elemental weapons!

I don't know, your probably right. I have used Grass Crest Shield for as long as I can remember, and shields are pretty useless in high tier PvP and 2H style is superior when you know the game... So maybe.

As for regular upgrades - elemental weapons are still stronger. Unless you get >70 in whatever stat, your not going to be hitting harder than elemental weapons. And in 1H style, elemental weapons cause damage even when blocked.

Regular upgrade path is endgame, when you have huge stats. But considering the poor scaling of most weapons (B is still pretty bad) and the low damage you do anyway, your better off with a elemental, or a special weapon.

 

[Samechiel]

As for regular upgrades - elemental weapons are still stronger.

Patently false. A buffed +15 weapon with even moderate scaling will almost always outdamage a same-class elemental weapon for the duration of the buff. It's why people carry two primary weapons; one +15 for buffing, and one with your element of choice to switch to when the buff runs out. It's because, like someone above said, elemental weapons have to cut through TWO resistances to do their damage.

And in 1H style, elemental weapons cause damage even when blocked.

Hrrrrrrggghhh...! Grrrraaaaaaarrrgggggghhh! Fffffffff....!

 

[daveman247]

I feel the same way, but MUCH later in the game. DAMN those two bosses in anor londo (The dragon guy and the fatman).

 

[TrevHead]

Every boss has a certain trick to killing it (in fact all monsters do). keeping a large supply of fire spells and firebombs is very usefull. Because the enemy AI is slower than you, you can climb steps fire off a spell and jump down Rinse and repeat.

Also dont every let your stamina run out in a fight, (lower your shield to recharge) also having a shiled that blocks 100% of the damage is handy. So is keeping your weight under 50% so you can roll properlly.

Also carry a bow and use it to aggro single enemies

Oh and ALWAYS keep atleast 1-2 cure curse in your inventory.

 

[deathninja]

I tried to dive off the bridge to avoid the fight (somewhat inspired by the CM comic) but didn't realise there was nothing below.

Two seconds later the demon leapt after me and killed himself. It was an accident, but I feel so cheap.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

I feel the same way, but MUCH later in the game. DAMN those two bosses in anor londo (The dragon guy and the fatman).

Be human and summon two other people to help you. That's what i did and that's what everyone i've talked to have done as well. Just makes it so much easier when they can't really both go after you at once and one character might be left open to strike them down

 

[daveman247]

I feel the same way, but MUCH later in the game. DAMN those two bosses in anor londo (The dragon guy and the fatman).

Be human and summon two other people to help you. That's what i did and that's what everyone i've talked to have done as well. Just makes it so much easier when they can't really both go after you at once and one character might be left open to strike them down

I WOULD do that but have no humanity at the moment...

I usually summon other people whenever i can, just depends if i have some humanity at the time


Oh well, maybe i'll come across some at some point...

 

[loa]

Taurus is easy.
Get rid of the archers on the tower before the fight, run back to the tower once he appears and climb up, throw as many firebombs in its face as you think you're comfortable throwing (I think it's 3 maximum before it jumps) and climb the ladder midway down once he jumps up so you dont get hit by the jump, he'll jump back down, rinse, repeat, bam, dead.

That's the safe way to do it.
Real men fight that thing on equal ground though. it only ever does 1 attack which is blockable and then is open to be mauled.

 

[dragsaw]

Ok so the Pyro has free firebombs more or less, When the Theif gets two gifts, how good are the over gifts?

 

[loa]

Ok so the Pyro has free firebombs more or less, When the Theif gets two gifts, how good are the over gifts?

Gifts are totally broken like many things in this game.
You'll just have to find out which things to exploit. Dont worry, the game deserves it.

You'll always want to pick the masterkey, everything else you can get early on.
You can buy or find firebombs easy anyway.
Right at the start you'll find 5 black ones which might even be enough to to take care of that boss since they hit like a truck early on but become useless later.
With the masterkey you can skip the capra demon and go straight to blighttown to the second bell if you know where to look.

Oh and the pyro only gets recommended so much for that semi-terrible (as opposed to most other, entirely terrible starter weapons) axe and pyromancy which you'll otherwise only get kinda late and kinda hidden in the game and because it starts on level 1 so levelups cost a bit less than for something that starts on a higher level.
You basically just pick one weapon and a stat that you build your character around cause the more levelups you do, the more meaningless starter classes become anyway.

For example, I made a faith build based on the claymore so I raised my strength and dexterity just enough so I can one-hand it, dump points into faith until it reaches ~30 so I can use the greater lightning spear which you can get relatively early if you know where and then forge the claymore into a divine/occult version which does magic damage that scales off of faith.
From there, points just go in faith if needed for some spell (wrath of god) and in health/stamina otherwise.
Solid build.

And don't think that you can make a "weaponless pure sorcerer" or something without a shield (unless you're a beast at parrying but if you were, you probably wouldn't make this thread).
You won't get far alone with that.

 

[Shumiry]

Hmm, I'm surprised nobody suggested this yet.

Personally, I prefer the sorceror over all the other classes. The spells have awesome range and tons of casts. (30 per instance of soul arrow vs 8 per instance of firebomb or 16 per instance of combustion) You can blast your way through the asylum with little trouble from the boss.

Pick the master key. Go down the elevator to the New Londo Ruins, open the locked door and head towards blighttown. Lure the infected barbarian(s) to the entrance to the cave, they won't charge out into the valley, but they won't back off. Farm them until you can purchase the copy of soul arrow from the blacksmith in the ruins, and go attune it. (Shouldn't take too long, they're worth 500 each.) That sets you up with 60 casts of a spell that should usually hit for about 80.

When I first encountered the tauros demon I had 60 casts of soul arrow and 12 heavy soul arrow, and I completely annihilated him. Didn't even use heavy soul arrow.

Also, the gifts aren't super important. All of them can be obtained in one way or another. (Except maybe the pendant?)

 

[loa]

Hmm, I'm surprised nobody suggested this yet.

Personally, I prefer the sorceror over all the other classes. The spells have awesome range and tons of casts. (30 per instance of soul arrow vs 8 per instance of firebomb or 16 per instance of combustion) You can blast your way through the asylum with little trouble from the boss.

Yeh but pyromancy doesn't need a stat, it scales off how much you upgrade the glove while you need to blow levels on intelligence to make sorcery more effective.
Everyone can instantly use any pyromancy. The only trouble is finding them which, I think, is impossible for some spells without a guide because this game loves hiding vital npcs from you (Seriously, I didn't even know quelana exists before reading about her and even after knowing the exact spot she sits at, it still took me hours before she actually appeared. Randomly. Yeah...)

I'd only suggest picking the sorcerer if you really want to commit to sorcery which isn't bad at all, it only sucks up a ton of levelup points (need 50 int for the strongest spell. Ouch.).

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

I feel the same way, but MUCH later in the game. DAMN those two bosses in anor londo (The dragon guy and the fatman).

Be human and summon two other people to help you. That's what i did and that's what everyone i've talked to have done as well. Just makes it so much easier when they can't really both go after you at once and one character might be left open to strike them down

I WOULD do that but have no humanity at the moment...

I usually summon other people whenever i can, just depends if i have some humanity at the time


Oh well, maybe i'll come across some at some point...

So long as you have the Whistesign Soapstone you could always just let yourself be summond into another world, beat the boss with someone else for 1 humanity and a bunch of souls then go level up and restore humanity before trying the boss again yourself. After actually taking time to bother with the multiplayer mechanics i found out they aren't as useless as i thought they were