Help a noob.

[twisty]

Yes indeed, on my first playthough I recall the feeling of having arrived at the second bonfire by the skin of my teeth with only a handful of poison moss left, and with no idea where I had to go next, not knowing if I would be able to make it there in one piece.

Getting a little OT now but as a footnote for a discussion to be had elsewhere, there were also greater consequences for dying in DS1 & DS2, particularly for DS1 where you could also get cursed. All you lose are souls in DS3.

[faetal]

Don't get me wrong, Blight Town is great. But the sense of dread for me was far more acute than Crystal Cave, which just required a bit of patience. In BT, you've got assholes running at you swinging dead bodies around while you're trying to negotiate rickety catwalks.

[thrawn_121]

Don't wanna go down to Blight Town.

[Renzatic]

Don't get me wrong, Blight Town is great. But the sense of dread for me was far more acute than Crystal Cave, which just required a bit of patience. In BT, you've got assholes running at you swinging dead bodies around while you're trying to negotiate rickety catwalks.

It also doesn't help that I'm a little anxious of heights. Blighttown didn't bother me too much in that regard. The Crystal Caves? Nuh uh. NUH UH!

Also, a quick shout out to thrawn for getting that song stuck in my head.

[Judith]

Speaking of fan songs:



I'm kind of pleasantly surprised, since this guy tends to do some pretty poor stuff. To be fair though, he has to come up with a new song every week, so it's probably easy for me to say. And, while this one is pretty much a cliche, as the whole genre goes, it's a very pleasantly-sounding, professionally produced cliche

[Twist]

Though one of the things that I realized made BT such a threatening place wasn't the location itself. It's the fact that when you were there, you were there for the long haul. No easy way in. No easy way out. The only safety you had was a single bonfire to retreat to. This is probably one of the reasons why the original DS is still the most well regarded among the three, even if the others have been improved in every other conceivable aspect. Being able to warp between the bonfires starting out takes away some of that sense of danger and isolation that DS heaped upon you in overly generous amounts.

Exactly. I said this last week in the Dark Souls 3 thread:

Maybe a year or more from now nostalgia for this game will allow for a more fair comparison to the first DS, but I still much prefer the world and atmosphere of the first game.

Being able to teleport between bonfires right from the beginning sure changes things, and I was hoping DS3 would go back to how DS1 worked. Delving down passed the Depths and through to the bottom of Blighttown just wouldn't have been the same if I could have teleported right outta there as soon as I found a bonfire.

Amazing how one seemingly simple and abstract game mechanic can change your perception and experience of an environment.

I loved Blighttown as I went through it, but I have to admit it's one of the few areas that made me feel a kind of pre-emptive tedium and exhaustion before going back down at a later point.

[Renzatic]

Amazing how one seemingly simple and abstract game mechanic can change your perception and experience of an environment.

Yup. While being able to warp about did nix a couple of the more annoying aspects of the game, it did also blunt the sharp edge of its atmosphere somewhat. It's one of those things that shows how developers sometimes have to weigh player convenience against experience.

'm kind of pleasantly surprised, since this guy tends to do some pretty poor stuff.

I haven't listened to Miracle of Sound all that much, but what I've heard I wouldn't call bad exactly, just kinda corny.

[van HellSing]

I really liked his Dark Souls 2 song.

[Gryzemuis]

Had some time today to play. Kalameet down. Took me less than 10 tries. The last 5 were really serious. The first ones were just try-outs. I used one of my 3 unused Titanite Slabs to bring my Great Scythe+14 to +15. I prefer my Halberd for most fights, and certainly trash. But when fighting big bosses, the poking of the Halberd is often uncontrolled. The huge vertical slash of the Great Scythe makes hitting bosses a lot easier.

I had also hoped that the vertical slash would allow me to cut Kalameet's tail for the Obsidian Greatsword.
I wonder if I should try again. (I got a copied savefile of the moment just before entering the fight. So I can try again as often as I want). I am a bit of a completionist. On the other hand, I missed other boss-drops before. Leo's ring would have been good with the Halberd and Scythe. Also I think it will be highly unlikely I would use a greatsword. I love the leather + poke-stick.

The weird thing about the Kalameet fight was at during the first tries I was certain that this fight was gonna be a lot harder than Artorias. Artorias took me maybe 20 tries (2, maybe 3 hours). But with Artorias I always felt in control. I just had to do an attempt with no fatal errors. With Kalameet, I never felt in control, but I got him down much quicker (within half an hour maybe).



Oh, and this fight is certainly a fight where the DS controls make the fight harder than it should be. A problem I had was this:
I was at mid-range from the dragon.
I knew he was gonna either 1) slam his head at me, 2) jump/run/dash at me, or 3) do one of his frontal fire breaths.
So I wanted to do one of two things:
a) either slowly back off, walking backwards, or
b) put up my shield, and strafe to the left, ready to dodge as soon as he attacks.

You can't walk backwards without lock-on. You can't strafe without lock-on.
The problem is, the dragon is huge. And what seems mid-range distance in this fight is actually pretty far away. So once in a while, I am not in range for lock-on. Result: as soon as I press lock-on, my character turns around. For no reason. But that happened every time. No lock-on, but my character turns her back to the dragon.
Of course, within a second the dragon jumps at me, hitting me in the back.
This killed me maybe 3 or 4 times out of those 10 attempts.

I could go on about how simple movement (like an FPS, or WoW) would make this fight a lot easier. But it would have been enough if the lock-on button would just do nothing, if there is no enemy to lock-on to. But no. For some reason, From decided I need to do a 180 and turn my back to the direction I was trying to lockon to.

[Gryzemuis]

... Artorius .... very easily countered by lots of rolling to the side.
Manus, on the other hand...

Weird.
Manus just rolled over for me.

I hadn't played two days. I start the game this afternoon. Didn't want to go against Manus yet. Faetal's remark made me a little scared. And I watched 2-3 YouTube movies. So I decided to go try cut off Kalameet's tail. Impossible. I get stomped by Kalameet half a dozen times. I'm not even sure I could kill Kalameet a second time if I wanted/had to. Even without trying to cut his tail. Maybe I'm out of form. Now I'm extra scared of Manus ....

So I do some other stuff in game. I went and farmed some Twinkling Titanite, in case I want to do a NG+ game. I made the Lifehunt Scythe. As I had read on the net, it doesn't seem impressive. I nocticed Artorias's set is for sale at a vendor now ! Cool. I read on the web that his set is very unimpressive. Too heavy for quick rolls. But not as much defense as heavier sets. I want it anyway. I farm some more Twinkling Titanite. Plus souls. I buy the set. Looks cool. I realize I can also make Artorias's Greatshield. So I make that. Need 34 strength, and I only got 32. So I farm some more Twinkling Titanite. Plus souls. (The oysters are easy. Real easy. They die in 2 hits. (I learned to use Fire Within this week. Without Fire Within they take 3 hits)). So I make the shield. I then decide to explore the caves in front of Manus. Using Artorias's set and shield. I get to the white fog of Manus. So I checked him out. I did 2 attempts. Manus looks dangerous. However, I CAN BLOCK EVERY HIT BY MANUS, with my new Greatshield. And hardly losing any stamina. This looks easy ! Gonna try tonight. First some groceries, eating, watch two NBA games.

So I return to Manus.
Artorias's helmet and chestpiece. Havel's gauntlets and boots. Wolf ring and Havel's ring. 59.7/121.5 kg or so. Halberd+15 and Artorias's Greatshield. I had the Silver Pendant. Made a keybind on my joystick for 1-button Pendant. (Key-sequence FEF, with only Flask and Pendant equiped). Human mode so I can summon Sif, but 0 soft humanity.

I start the fight. I block every hit. When his hand slams down, I hit it once or twice. Then back off, let stamina regen, and be ready for the next block. Got him down to 60% health without needing to sip on my flask. He starts doing his black magic 5 times in a row or so. Pendant seems to work. I decide to move closer. Stay near his left knee. He does a lot less black magic now. I keep blocking. Do a hit once in a while. I forget about Sif. Never in real trouble, never under half health. Bam, Manus died. Anti-climax. I entered the fight with 19 sips in my flask, left with 14.

Easy peasy. I don't know what people complain about ?
Of course I am severly over-leveled. I'm level 110.
But I think Artorias's Greatshield made this fight really simple.
If I had played my usual style, black leather set, grass crest shield, staying under 25%, no blocking, only dodging, this might have been a heck of a fight. So I believe that preparation, gear and fighting style (dodging melee, tank, ranged, magic) makes a huge difference at every fight. More than people realize. Picking the right strategy for a fight might be half the fight.
And I suspect that going for heavy armor plus a huge shield is the right strategy in almost every fight .....
Still, I prefer leather. If for no good reason, just for the looks.

Of course, some people do all fights as level-1. (Although to be honest, the guy in that YT-movie claims this was his 3000th try. ).

Still an awesome game.
Only Gwyn left. I'm gonna parry his arse back to the Abyss (or wherever he belongs).

I now know what I want for Christmas.
And MMO as big and popular as World of Warcraft. With the attitude of the first 5 years of WoW. But with Dark Souls lore, graphics, art-style and combat. With non-trivial leveling. And end-game focused on hard 5-man dungeons. Where better gear won't trivializes everything into ridicule. That would be nice. I can dream, can't I ?

Edit:
Gwyn is dead.
Two tries in leather. Parrying isn't as easy as I had hoped. I need to learn all the moves.As soon as I make two small mistakes, I'm dead.
So for the third attempt, I use Artorias's Greatshield (with Artorias's helm and chest, Havel's gauntlets and legs). Gwyn dies, without any troubles.
Greatshields are overpowered.
Still an awesome game.

[Gryzemuis]

For my own record (I hope TTLG stays alive until I am 100 years old):
Started playing April 19th, finished May 1. Took me 6 weeks.
Steam says I played 152 hours.
The game says I played 124 hours.
Soul-level 111.
Vitality 38, Attunement 10, Endurance 41, Strength 35, Dexterity 40, Resistance 11, Faith 9, Intelligence 9.

Mods installed to make the game playable:
DSfix to fix the renderer.
DSMfix to fix the mouse.
Morten242's UI for DSfix.
Dark Souls High-Res UI and subtitles.
Large Adress Awareness.
ReShade+SweetFX to fix gamma. (And make the game a little more colorful and sharper).
WideScreenFixer r737.
Plugin.DarkSoulsPreparetoDieEdition.rar for WideScreenFixer.

Textures to change the looks:
High-Res-Texture 1-1-5-194
Dark Souls HD Texture pack -446-3-0Lite
Dark Souls Flora Overhaul v05-56
Target Lock Replacement Pack - FlyMaker-1050-1-0
Anor Londo Better Distance Textures-132-1-0

Reskinned:
Halberd
Balder Side Sword
Grass Crest Shield
Bloodshield
No auras for Wolfring and Blue Tearstone ring.

[Renzatic]

And you've still got Dark Souls 2 and 3 to go through.

[Gryzemuis]

Yep. And I'm looking forward to that.

I started a new job last December (after a veeery long sabbatical). I should spend a bit more time working. (Thinking about work related stuff outside office hours). And less time about Dark Souls. In the first weeks when playing DS1, it gave me a little bit the same feeling I had when I played World of Warcraft during the first year. You just want to keep on playing. That feeling is a little less now. Especially now that I've seen the game, seen the locations, know a bit more about the lore. So I'll just play a bit of NG+ over the next weeks.

I'll probably play DS2 before DS3. But maybe in the Fall or in the Winter. I am never in a hurry when playing games. Proof: it seems average first play-through in DS1 is 60-80 hours. I took my sweet time with 125+ hours for DS1. Although some time was being alt-tabbed while reading a wiki-page. And probably 20 hours before I got out of Undead Burg. (I spend a lot of time tweaking my keybinds, UI, graphics, textures, and joystick. And then practicing killing a simple skeleton. ) I also plan on buying a new videocard, as soon as the new nVidia 16nm cards are out (5-6 more weeks, yay!). I think my gtx680 is powerful enough for DS2. But for DS3 I want to have my new card.

[Gryzemuis]

NG+ is a little disappointing.

Trash still dies in one hit. I guess not everyone upgrades their gear to the max during the first NG-playthrough. I did. I'm probably ready for NG+3 or more now. In a few hours I did what took me 60 hours in my first play-through. I'm at 6 hours in NG+ now. Both bells rung. O&S dead, got Leo-ring. Sif dead. Got Lordvessel. Capra, Havel, Discharge all one-shotted.

Artorias's Greatshield is game-changing. Or maybe game-breaking. I killed Capra demon without taking *any* damage. O&S with Ornstein last took me 2 attempts (with NPC help). For example, at Sif I just stood there, blocking everything. Sif jumped around like a mad dog. Only when I was absolutely sure Sif wasn't doing a combo, and he was nearby, I would take a swing at him. First try I got cocky at the end, and a double 360 swing got me (2nd one hit me while I was standing up, but couldn't dodge or block yet). Second attempt I stayed cool and boring, and got him.

I'm playing in human-form now. I had been in human form a few times during NG. To summon NPCs. But most of the time I was undead with 0 humanity. While fighting the armored boar in Undead Parish in NG+, I got invaded. Nice timing. However, I ran up the stairs, the invader followed me. And I hit him three times and he died. He couldn't even take a swing at me. I wonder if he was in NG+ too, or just a new player. I was SL110 or so. If he was in NG, he must have been SL10-30 maybe ? Does the game really pair such different soul-levels ? In any case, not fun. Ten minutes later I got invaded in Undead Parish again. I logged out. When I returned to the game the next day, I was at a bonfire and lost my human-form. Still had my soft-humanity at 10, still had my souls. But lost my human-form. Fuck that. My plan is now to level up to 140 or so asap. When I am at 140, it will be less likely to be invaded by PvPers, as most of them are SL120-125, right ? Or will they invade me anyway ?

Fashion-Souls requires me to play in human form.
Maybe I should start wearing Artorias's helmet/set more often, then I can't see my own face. And it will matter less if I'm human or undead.

It's getting a little boring. I will finish NG+. But I think after that I'll try DS2 or DS3. Those DS3 screenshots just look too good.

Edit: Four Kings on NG+ seems to be a different matter.

Edit 2: And this is another place where Dark Souls shows it is sometimes very inconsistent or unpredictable. 4Kings seemed impossible at first two tries. So I went and got Witch Beatrices help. And I made myself a Lighting Halberd+5. It turns out Beatrice is completely useless, does no damage, and draws no aggro. But as a side-effect of summoning an NPC, the bosses get more health. That is fatal in a boss-fight where time is of the essence. I would not have figured it out if I had not read a bit about the fight on the web. And the Lightning Halberd+5 ? Waste of a good Titanite Slab. My regular Halberd+15 seems to do more damage, even when the wiki-pages say 4Kings are vulnerable to Lightning.
The trick was: no summoning, use 4xHavel's + Havel's ring + Grass Crest Shield, two-hand my Halberd, no blocking only dodging. And probably most important: use Fire Within at the start of the fight. Ten shitty tries with Beatrice, and on the 2nd try without her I beat them.

Edit 4: Catacombs and Tomb of Giants are just no fun. Not the first time and not in NG+.

[Gryzemuis]

I did it.

Achievements
Most Recent
The Dark Soul
You have unlocked 41/41 (100%)

Who would have thought.

[Mr.Duck]

[twisty]

Great effort. Despite not putting any concerted effort into DS achievements, I've only reached 44% through ~170 hours of gameplay (albeit this doesn't include the pre-Steam Live era).