help a dark souls 2 noob.

[sataricon]

Yah found that when i tried to use a long bow i found

BTW does the armorsmith's bolts for the crossbow get replenished?

I'm running low of iron bolts and seeing as how they are useful for pulling mob and scoring some nice hits i was wondering if his collection of iron bolts will ever get to replenish.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Yah found that when i tried to use a long bow i found

BTW does the armorsmith's bolts for the crossbow get replenished?

I'm running low of iron bolts and seeing as how they are useful for pulling mob and scoring some nice hits i was wondering if his collection of iron bolts will ever get to replenish.

That blacksmith's iron bolts will never be replenished. There's 5 different merchants all over drangleic, and each one has a different type of bolt and arrow that they provide infinitely. Lenigrast only provides infinite wood bolts, McDuff provides infinite iron bolts, and there are other characters who you have yet to meet who will provide poison, magic, lightning, and fire bolts.

edit: It's a good idea to keep some iron bolts for breaking things in the environment. Iron bolts can break things like jars whereas wood bolts cannot, so in areas that are blocked by jars full of poison or acid, or curse jars it's good to have some iron bolts or arrows so you can destroy them from a distance and don't risk getting poisoned or cursed, or having all your equipment broken.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Snip

'The more you know~' Thanks for informing me about the references behind the Bone Fist dude

Yeah, any weapon revolving around faith now sucks. Miracles hardly do much except if you want additional heals- but PvP wise or boss fight wise? Sucks pretty badly... I cannot see why From Software hates faith so much to nerf it this badly. They don't plan on changing it soon anyhow. Heck even the miracles in the DLCs suck which average PvP players can easily avoid >_>

There's an OP weapon in the Iron Keep DLC though that requires 20 faith + 20 intelligence to wield right. The Majestic Sword (you'll know where it came from by how it looks and the info behind it) is perhaps the funnest weapon to wield apart from the Bone Fist plus it's on the list of most dangerous weapons in PvP. A single R2 in the left hand can kill someone if caught in it's spin.

Still, nothing beats pancaking someone with the Great Club. It's not the best weapon in the game, but certainly is a beast of a weapon if you're caught in it's slam attack. Heck, you can surprise people with it... simply by not locking on your foe, pressing R2 to bring your club up for a slam, then tap the bottom stick opposite of your character to have him/her turn around instantly and hit your opponent who was going for that back stab. It works more often than you'd think because it's just so sudden lol.

I had a build centered around the Majestic Greatsword. And if you think it's one handed and two handed R2s are great, you should see that thing dual wielded with the sun sword on a 38/38 build. Hit someone with both of the swords and follow up with the powerstanced Artorias shut up and slam L2 attack and that's 1,500+ pure physical damage... which makes me question sometimes what the 20/20 requirement in faith and int is even for >_____>

And don't you DARE underrate the Great Club, people have eaten the game alive with that thing in both PVE and PVP in all sorts of manner. Blunt damage is simply king and that weapon is it's mistress.

 

[micheilsgrey]

tgis is one hell of hardcore game

 

[JagermanXcell]

Oh, believe it when I say~ I know that the Great Club is perhaps the #1 choice of a weapon for PvE and PvP in strength builds.
It even helped me kill the Darklurker boss in NG+ ... which is saying something because that boss fight as a melee build is pretty rough.

Although, i've been experimenting with builds to see what works in PvP mostly. The best build I have ever made for PvP (70 wins, 14 loses) .. is in fact being a sorcerer who uses the Drakekeeper Sword. Have 50 intelligence, at least 5-6 spells meant for fast casting PvP spells (Soul Spear, Crystal Magic Weapon, Magic Greatsword comes to mind) along with whatever else.

Infuse your weapon with the Faintstone, then buff it with crystal ... while wearing the Stone Ring- holy crap it just wrecks people and punishes them for rolling. The swings are so wide, despite just being a longsword.... it catches people in trying to step away from you. Because of the buff(s), it hurts like a truck. I've even killed people in Havel's armor using Blacksteel Katanas or other builds of multiple ranges. If they run away, using a Soul Spear will quickly put an end to the fight.

I felt bad invading people with this build because I have in fact, killed phantoms and hosts successfully due to how little stamina is consumed with every swing. Don't get me wrong, I usually die in ganks because I cannot handle more than 2-3 powerful people... but if I am patient, my spells + Drakekeeper Sword will do the job nicely.

Oooo yes, I know of the power of straight sword wonky hitboxes, and your build is actually quite similar to my current. I'm basically your build, just with 40int, fainstone infused ice rapier, left handing a raw blue flame, and rocking the new Rampart Golem set for pure fashion reasons.

I have defense, I have aggression, I have a slow cast speed that catches people who are used to fast casts off guard at the end of their rolls (Homing Soul Arrows are evil like that), I have leo ring counters stacking with my rapier's already inflicted counter STACKING with CMW (Fromsoft in charge of balancing, 2014), I have the new anti-backstab spell Soul Flash, I just have it ALL. So yeah, I know what having that k/d ratio is like.

And this is actually my first int build. Good god Fromsoft, what did faith ever do to you?! lol

 

[Mimic]

Regarding adaptability - am I right in thinking the adaptability stat also decreases the time it takes to raise your shield? Also I think I read somewhere that 20 points is a good place to aim for as the benefits tend to tail off after that.

Good god Fromsoft, what did faith ever do to you?! lol

Yeah they nerfed that pretty bad, althought it was so strong before. Just as long as they don't touch my poison.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Regarding adaptability - am I right in thinking the adaptability stat also decreases the time it takes to raise your shield? Also I think I read somewhere that 20 points is a good place to aim for as the benefits tend to tail off after that.

Yes, adaptability's agility stat also decreases the amount of time it takes to raise your shield and makes drinking estus faster, but I wouldn't say that it helps by a huge amount. The i-frames it gives you are much more important than the other fringe benefits because those have a much greater effect on combat and play-style.

 

[Axzarious]

Souls veteran here. I suppose i'll share some wisdom that will probably help newbies.

A good reason not to start with a caster build is that for some odd reason in Dark Souls 2, they decided to have spell damage stop scaling in regards to points in intelligence between 20-30. It's very jarring, and depend on where you are and how well you can manage, you might have some problems. Otherwise, caster builds have been rather nice in the past for the most part, even if you still have to branch into melee.

Don't underestimate adaptability - it just doesn't increase the invulnerable frames when rolling, it also boosts your ability to use items. More agility = the sooner you can gain the boon from said item. It can mean the difference between survival and death. As mentioned earlier, 20 adaptability is pretty good, though depending on your style you might want more.

Your stamina recovers more slowly when you have your shield up. Learn to not have it up all the time, and only raise it to block attacks when you see them coming or you are at full. That was the primary issue I've seen in the PvP video with all those people getting their guards broken. Having more adaptability - and thus agility, also enable you to raise your shield faster to guard (Even after a swing) - and - if memory serves, also lower your shield faster to counterattack.

If you deplete your stamina while running, you will be unable to run until your stamina fully regenerates. Try not to ever let your bar hit zero when running away or chasing.

Don't spread your points too thin. Avoid very scattered builds. You will only end up being sub-par or bad in everything. Stats tend to soft cap at 40, so don't plan on going over that unless you REALLY want to qualify for something specific.

Always keep a spare weapon that you can fall back on in case your main one breaks - in fact, having a spare weapon or two is often pretty good.

Depending on your patience, equipping the regeneration ring between fights or when low on health can really help you survive or last longer without using items or estus to heal. Just be sure to remove it when you're ready to march on as the thing breaks easily.

To powerstance two weapons, you need about 1.5x the requirements for each weapon in your stats. Something requires 10 strength? You will need 15 to powerstance a pair. (I think this is the right ratio. Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Upgrading your equipment has a huge impact on it's performance. More than leveling your stats will. You know that fire longsword you can find? That thing is borderline broken if you upgrade it as much as you can straight away - hell, I might even say that the longsword is one of the best overall early weapons in the game barring the mace. Never underestimate what upgraded gear can do.

Spears and Halberds and a few other weapons have some 'sweet spots' - and by sweet spots I mean if you don't hit enemies with the right part of the weapon, you're not going to be doing much. It's an interesting change from the previous titles and does take some getting used to.

The most 'newbie friendly' builds for PvE tend to include some faith investment for healing. You don't need much attunement or faith for some of the early healing spells, so those can be a huge boon if you don't have to invest too much in faith.

Afraid of advancing or don't know what lies ahead? White soapstone. That can help you familiarize yourself with the area ahead, help you prepare for a boss by learning it's patterns, or perhaps even show you something you never knew about. AS an added bonus, successfully completing a white soapstone task is the equivalent of both a human effigy and resting at a bonfire AND you get an added item depending on the stone. If you fail, your resources used while helping are still spent.

Weapons have a lot of variety in their movesets. You can link attacks out of a run, a roll, and a backstep. Most people don't even seem to know of these moves, and they can be incredibly useful.

There are also many differences between Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 1. I am guessing it might be a little jarring going from one to the other, but so far my preference is Dark Souls 1 - if only because I liked the overall lore and world more than Dark Souls 2. Probably. It's something difficult to put into words. It had a different director, and though the game is similar, the difference can be felt.

 

[sataricon]

So yah i reached a boss...3 of them actually like 3 giants with halberds and although the first one is very easy to deal with but when the he dies and these 2 clowns come at the same time it get's really frustrating.

And i'm only asking here guys how did you beat the 3 bosses at the bastiel?

First stage i kill the first one.
Then both of them jump to me and i drop down the main room but the problem here is that i can't see what both of them are trying to do due to the FOV being locked at 43 which mean that if keep on on my sight i may eat either a jump attack or the spinning attack from behind as these guys like to stay away from each other.

Should i try the summon?

 

[Axzarious]

Ah, the Ruin Sentinals. Those guys are a little difficult, and probably out of your league unless you really know what you're doing. If you find the boss or the enemies giving you too much trouble, you're probably not where you should be at the moment. You know how you can warp from bonfire to bonfire? You're meant to kind of push outward from Majula. Try warping back there and taking the other path to Heide's tower of flame. There are two bosses there that you should be able to take on now, followed by another area. Know that pit in the middle of the town? Well, with a certain ring sold by a nearby cat you can get down their early. (I also think fall damage isn't calculated by % health in DaSII. I've done naked falls only to die - and then survive after I've put a few ranks into Vit. It's perplexing.)

Don't think like most games - Dark Souls and Demon's souls are not very linear games. You are meant to explore. Sure you can do the linear exploration, but unless you're really skilled or have gone through the game a few times, you're not going to be able to take those guys on. (Eventually you should be able to do a Level 1 run - though that's significantly more difficult in Dark Souls 2 than it was in 1 for a few reasons if I remember right).

I also forgot to mention covenants. That guy at the tower? He will let you join the way of blue, which will let you get a ring that you can equip. If a hostile player invades you, it might summon a blue phantom to assist you.

Do not join the Covenent of the Champions. It will prevent you from summoning anybody.

 

[sataricon]

after dying like 10 times to the Sentinels i had to cheese them.
I used a summon and started blocking and blocking and blocking.

He killed 2 and i killed the last one.

I fell very very dirty i wish that i didn't do the fight this way.
Dirty dirty experience and loot

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

after dying like 10 times to the Sentinels i had to cheese them.
I used a summon and started blocking and blocking and blocking.

He killed 2 and i killed the last one.

I fell very very dirty i wish that i didn't do the fight this way.
Dirty dirty experience and loot

The Lost Bastille has a lot of hidden walls, breakable walls, etc. Go through the areas slowly and attack anything that looks like it even might be breakable, and press the interact button on all the walls.

Just as an example, go back into the ruin sentinels boss room and go along the walls tapping the interact button the entire time, you might find a surprise (or 6).

 

[Denamic]

For bosses, my go-to strategy is to die as slowly as I can. Just go into the boss room and don't die for as long as you can. If you go in on the offensive, chances are that you're just going to be demolished. If your aim is to simply survive, you have time to analyse the enemy. Once you get their attacks down, you'll be able to evade and block much more easily, giving you time to counterattack. Have patience and form a strategy.

Another tip: If you have a chance to attack and have time to get in three strikes on the boss, strike twice and get the fuck away.

 

[kommando367]

1. keep stamina bar above 25% when attacking to allow for rolls

2. Most sorcery and pyromancy spells are overpowered, most dexterity weapons are quick

3 check the dark souls 2 fextralife wiki for tips, item stats, and item locations

4. if an attack knocks you down and or drains a lot of stamina, dodge instead of blocking. If an attack is fast, but weak, then block instead of dodging

5. if a particular boss fight is giving you a ton of trouble, counter their strengths and exploit their weaknesses. You may need to look those up on the wiki or youtube.

6. use human effigies sparingly

7. try to avoid fighting close to ledges

 

[sataricon]

By the power of the dark gods....Thread necro.
Ok not much of a necro.

So good dude of the internet i did beat the game.
The game have a decent amount of problem if you believe me but aside from that the game is fucking amazing.
The worst boss i've faced was surprise,the "iron king" after the smelter demon "who was a push over"

And why?....because i was fighting the camera along with the boss.
You want to lock on the boss...good luck scoring hits on his hands.
You don't want to lock on him then good luck with seeing what the bastard is doing.
And the worst part is that this boss is actually very easy as in attacks very very slow and should be easy to beat but alas the game is amazing with that said.

ohh and these damn gargoyles and the giant dog.
The dog was interesting because he wasn't that hard yet the damn poison rats where the hard part to the point that i feel the melee is gimped in this game because if my ranged options were more developed i could have done better.


Also didn't like some of the things where some enemies will lock their attacks on you even if you are behind them which felt a little cheap.

I will start another playthrough and this time with a caster type "mage" with a little melee in the mix.
Don't know which kind so why don't you give me the most OP thing.
Is it normal magic or pyromancy?

Could have never done it without the support as i was ready to give up.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

By the power of the dark gods....Thread necro.
Ok not much of a necro.

So good dude of the internet i did beat the game.
The game have a decent amount of problem if you believe me but aside from that the game is fucking amazing.
The worst boss i've faced was surprise,the "iron king" after the smelter demon "who was a push over"

And why?....because i was fighting the camera along with the boss.
You want to lock on the boss...good luck scoring hits on his hands.
You don't want to lock on him then good luck with seeing what the bastard is doing.
And the worst part is that this boss is actually very easy as in attacks very very slow and should be easy to beat but alas the game is amazing with that said.

ohh and these damn gargoyles and the giant dog.
The dog was interesting because he wasn't that hard yet the damn poison rats where the hard part to the point that i feel the melee is gimped in this game because if my ranged options were more developed i could have done better.


Also didn't like some of the things where some enemies will lock their attacks on you even if you are behind them which felt a little cheap.

I will start another playthrough and this time with a caster type "mage" with a little melee in the mix.
Don't know which kind so why don't you give me the most OP thing.
Is it normal magic or pyromancy?

Could have never done it without the support as i was ready to give up.

1. That's not a dog, it's a giant rat.

2. Yes, the camera is a constant problem with the souls games, and something which from software is either unable, or unwilling to fix. Whenever you're up against huge enemies that are 10x your size it always acts up. This is actually a much bigger problem in Dark Souls 1 than 2 because most of the bosses in Dark Souls 2 are humanoid and aren't gigantic (for many people this is a negative, personally I enjoy fighting humanoid bosses).

3. Of the three magic types, miracles have gotten a huge nerf and I haven't played with them much since the patch. Before the nerf I'd say they were the most versatile and interesting spells, now most people will probably tell you to avoid them because you just don't get enough casts or damage out of them anymore. That leaves you with 3 types of spells, magic, pyromancy, and hexes. Of those magic and hexes are similar, but hexes require a greater stat investment because they need both faith and intelligence to use, whereas magic only needs intelligence. Pyromancy has no int or faith requirements and has some incredibly powerful spells, but most of the spells don't have very good range.

Of the magics I would say that hexing is the most powerful, but has a huge stat investment, and big powerful hexes use your souls as fuel. Personally I don't particularly like hexes. Pyromancy would be the second most powerful, but the spells don't have a lot of range or a lot of casts. Magic would be the weakest in terms of damage output per spell, but you get a lot of casts, and a lot of range.

It's easy enough to incorporate both magic and pyromancy into a build together that you don't really need to choose between them (this requires a high investment in attunement though, so that you have enough spell slots).

4. Are you planning on starting a new character or are you planning on moving on to new game plus and just using a soul vessel to respec your character and change up your playstyle?

 

[sataricon]

Don't lough at this....but i conjure a story about each character i play with in RPGs if the story is vague "like in DS2" or not that good "elder scrolls 4 and 5"
So i will start a new character.

So i take it that magic with some melee is viable endgame.

Though some bosses would be interesting with that kind of setup.
Have to go to the wiki to know how magic works in this game as in my entire playthrough i never used magic.
Only melee and some ranged to pull some mobs away from each other.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Don't lough at this....but i conjure a story about each character i play with in RPGs if the story is vague "like in DS2" or not that good "elder scrolls 4 and 5"
So i will start a new character.

So i take it that magic with some melee is viable endgame.

Though some bosses would be interesting with that kind of setup.
Have to go to the wiki to know how magic works in this game as in my entire playthrough i never used magic.
Only melee and some ranged to pull some mobs away from each other.

In order to use a spell you have to own the spell scroll, then you have to "attune" the spell at a bonfire (memorize the spell by putting it into a spell slot) and then to cast that spell you need the correct tool (a staff if it's magic, a pyromancy flame if it's fire, and a chime if it's a miracle). You can equip multiple spells, but the number of spells you can equip is dependent on the number of attunement slots you have, which is dependent on your attunement skill level (and you can get rings that increase the number of slots you get). To change spells (provided you have more than one attuned) you hit up on the D pad.

 

[sataricon]

So just a quick question:
I'm using now the sorcerer staff that i started with and when i picked up the bone staff i found that it has a D scaling in magic and C i think in dark which means that for someone who in the early levels have no use for me.

Should i just be upgrading sorcerer staff to maybe +5 or +6 "when i get the shards" and then wait for something else or just this is the only staff for sorcery?