Dark Souls II Gameplay Tips and Spoiler Thread

Davey_Pitch · 17 Mar 2014 at 19:11

Moothead2 said:
Those exploding hollows are ****ing ********. They've really made parts of this game cheap in an attempt to one up themselves on the difficulty.

I'm not finding them a problem, just be aggressive and don't give them a chance to throw themselves at you. Two hits and they're down

Pighardia · 17 Mar 2014 at 19:13

I'm clearly taking it far too slowly!...I am 9 hours in and level 24. Only beat Persuer and Last Giant.

Not had a chance to play today

Moothead2 · 17 Mar 2014 at 20:07

Davey_Pitch said:
I'm not finding them a problem, just be aggressive and don't give them a chance to throw themselves at you. Two hits and they're down

My main weapon was the Halberd which just wasn't quick enough or dealt enough damage due to the direct hit system so I switched to the Drangleic Sword instead which worked much better for that. I still think it's cheap though, if an enemy like that is going to take off around half my health, especially with so many of them, they should at least kill themselves when they explode. It was so easy to be chained by them.

I also lost 35k souls which might have played apart in the wording of that comment

.

Davey_Pitch · 17 Mar 2014 at 20:24

I like them as enemies to be honest. Far too many humanoid enemies simply come and swing something at you, which is generally easy to defend against, unless you come up against a big mob. It's refreshing to be attacked in a different way and have to come up with different tactics for defeating them.

Jic89 · 17 Mar 2014 at 20:33

WHat sort of builds are people using? Any magic users?

kinger8938 · 17 Mar 2014 at 21:51

Got an awesome ring that causes an explosion when you take too much damage

only harms your enemies, not you

Moothead2 · 17 Mar 2014 at 22:00

Sinner's Rise spoiler:

The Lost Sinner could have been a fantastic boss but is marred by terrible lock on problems. Seriously, about 80% of the hits she got on me was because the lock on turned off when she jumped back.

kinger8938 · 17 Mar 2014 at 22:24

Moothead2 said:
Sinner's Rise spoiler:

The Lost Sinner could have been a fantastic boss but is marred by terrible lock on problems. Seriously, about 80% of the hits she got on me was because the lock on turned off when she jumped back.

Apparently this can be helped by

before you enter the boss door, there are 2 doors, 1 on either side up some stairs.if you have the key you can use a torch to light the arena and i think this makes the lock on normal. God knows where you get the key though, i did it in the dark

Pighardia · 17 Mar 2014 at 23:28

NEVER play Dark Souls when you are drunk!

[ui]ICEMAN · 17 Mar 2014 at 23:55

Moothead2 said:
Sinner's Rise spoiler:

The Lost Sinner could have been a fantastic boss but is marred by terrible lock on problems. Seriously, about 80% of the hits she got on me was because the lock on turned off when she jumped back.

That's actually the point unless you light the torches. She reminded me a lot of Artorias from the DS1 DLC.

On another note, anyone managed to get through Smelter Demon yet? Definitely reminds me a bit of Flamelurker.

Moothead2 · 18 Mar 2014 at 01:17

[ui]ICEMAN;26020823 said:
That's actually the point unless you light the torches. She reminded me a lot of Artorias from the DS1 DLC.

On another note, anyone managed to get through Smelter Demon yet? Definitely reminds me a bit of Flamelurker.

Great, hinder control unless you use a feature that they've made completely redundant. Not to mention the boss you have to kill is about 50 times harder (and honestly ********) to be able to do that in the first place.

[ui]ICEMAN · 18 Mar 2014 at 01:49

It's not the only time they've done it either. There are 3 fights where you need to modify the environment before the bosses if you want an easier time.

Moothead2 · 18 Mar 2014 at 17:24

[ui]ICEMAN;26020931 said:
It's not the only time they've done it either. There are 3 fights where you need to modify the environment before the bosses if you want an easier time.

As long as you don't need to fight something like the Gargoyles in order to do so I'm alright

.

Quite enjoying the gimmick fights in this, the Chariot was cool although the second phase was kinda bland and the Skeleton Lords fight was really good in my opinion and definitely made you think about what you were doing.

Pighardia · 18 Mar 2014 at 17:48

I like No Man's Wharf. Really good area!

Just did the boss on the ship and headed back to Lost Bastille. I did just manage it first time, but took a while to notice the water was rising! Annoyingly, I summoned that NPC for it, but she didn't follow me through the fog door at all, so I was solo!... Still it was a pretty good fight, but quite easy with a decent shield.

Thinking about respeccing tbh.

Pighardia · 18 Mar 2014 at 18:46

I think I just beat Ornstein!... He's nothing when he's not with his mate

Davey_Pitch · 19 Mar 2014 at 11:27

Jic89 said:
WHat sort of builds are people using? Any magic users?

I'm currently leaning towards a quality/faith build which is proving quite fun. Lightning Spear is still an awesome Miracle to use, and Emit Force is pretty useful too. Currently got Faith at 23 and Intelligence at 10, and I'm tempted to level Intelligence up to match it as I've found a really powerful looking Hex that requires about 20 in each. From my time so far, I think overall that magic has been toned down a bit from Dark Souls. It was OP at times during Dark Souls, but now it seems just about right - not more powerful than anything else, just a different, viable way to play.

Don't know if anyone else has spotted this, but you now upgrade your Talismans and Staffs. Makes your magic even more powerful.

kinger8938 · 19 Mar 2014 at 12:04

So far im going strength and equipment load/stamina atm. Sword and great shield and a two hander

Not found many 1 banded high scaling strength weapons yet, all C scale and B for two handers

Pighardia · 19 Mar 2014 at 12:27

I am just Strength/stamina atm. I started with a high dex, and occasionally put the odd point in that as well. Not totally sure what adaptability is, but it seems to affect poise, which you can never have enough of so I have started putting a few in that as well. I am using the ******* Sword+5, with the Drangleic chest armour, wanderer everything else.

Made a lot of progress last night. Some of it very satisfying, some of it incredibly frustrating!...I went through the Cathedral of the Blue and killed both bosses quite easily, same with No Man's Wharf, two good areas! Then I went back to Lost Bastille and took out the Ruin Sentinels and Gargoyles. I then messed about a bit with summoning/invasions for a while(beat the Gargoyles about 4-5 times with different people.

Then comes the most frustrating boss so far for me by a mile...Lost Sinner. First time, I very nearly did it solo, got it down to about 2 hits, but then was killed. The subsequent time I tried it, with an NPC summon, I was killed very easily. Must have tried it about 6-7 times!...in the end at about 3am, I gave it one last go and managed to do it. The NPC summon for that fight is worse than useless! most times she barely made it to the fog door.

kinger8938 · 19 Mar 2014 at 14:11

Brief spoiler about another way of accessing the big hole in Majula

originally i fell down using a fall damage ring, now i have an npc at the hole who offers to put a ladder down there at a price, i dunno where he came from maybe just appears after a certain point

Fenris · 19 Mar 2014 at 16:16

Moothead2 said:
Sinner's Rise spoiler:

The Lost Sinner could have been a fantastic boss but is marred by terrible lock on problems. Seriously, about 80% of the hits she got on me was because the lock on turned off when she jumped back.

That is the entire point of the bossfight if you don't light the oil.

kinger8938 said:
Brief spoiler about another way of accessing the big hole in Majula

originally i fell down using a fall damage ring, now i have an npc at the hole who offers to put a ladder down there at a price, i dunno where he came from maybe just appears after a certain point

Laddersmith Gilligan is unlocked after completed Earthen Peak, he lets you access a Lockstone there by putting down a ladder, he then moved to Majula.

For those wondering,

Adaptability - does a few things, it raises Agility (up to 38 points in ADP) and also raises your natural poise up to the level of your Endurance (they must be equal to get the most out of it).

Agility - raises the invincibility frames on your rolls as well as speeding up your roll.

[ui]ICEMAN;26020823 said:
That's actually the point unless you light the torches. She reminded me a lot of Artorias from the DS1 DLC.

On another note, anyone managed to get through Smelter Demon yet? Definitely reminds me a bit of Flamelurker.

Easy enough boss, certainly compared to a few, all of his attacks can be dodged or blocked (there is a 100% phys/fire greatshield for this).

A quick note on Bonfire Ascetics - They raise the difficulty of the area OF THE BONFIRE THEY ARE BURNED AT to NG+ (So from bonfire to boss door basically) and not the entire zone, this increase also carries over to NG+, so if you use one in NG, in NG+ that area will be NG++ and so on.

Also can people stop using spoiler tags? This is a spoiler thread, they aren't necessary.