Dark Souls 3

I'm about a third through NG+ now. I have gone through the first areas very quickly.

I am loving some of the gear from The Ringed City. I'm wearing the Ringed Knight set, which looks awesome. The ringed knight straight sword is a very good weapon as well... I think you could easily go all through a few things playthroughs with it. The weapon art is quality. Atm I'm switching between the Ringed Knight Straight Sword and Gael's greatsword, which I also really like. The weapon art is a lot of fun... And great in pvp when people aren't expecting it!

Also doing a bit more online, mainly Watchdogs of Farron. Great fun.
 
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Astora straight sword is good. Normal longsword is hard to beat!

I like a lot of the great swords as a lot of them are really quick. Hollowslayer greatsword that you get from a boss soul is very powerful up til late game. For me, The Black Knight sword is the best outside of the dlc... Then it is The Ringed Knight's Sword, which is the best 1h sword in the game imo.

Depends what part of the game you are at tbh... Dark sword is excellent, but hard to get as a drop. Lothric knight sword is supposedly good too, but you won't get it til late.
 
I've got up to about 2/3's of the game, maybe half? But I stopped for a while so will be starting again. I'm tempted to just leave the utchi alone otherwise I'll be tempted to just stick with it.
 
I'm still going through ng+. Finding it pretty much a complete cakewalk tbh... I normally find aldrich and the Dancer quite difficult when I play through the game, but on ng+ earlier I best aldrich then got teleported to The Dancer and beat it with 8 estus remaining!
On the other hand I have never died to Champion Gundyr, but found him a real struggle taking about 5 attempts for some reason!

I think it is just that I have been playing it for a decent period this time tbh... I finishee the game at level 100 and atm am only 120, so not that much difference really(most or those extra points went on stamina and equip load anyway).

I am using a combination of Gael's greatsword which is awesome(especially when paired with a shield that let's you do the weapon art as for pvp you can do it out of nowhere and take people by surprise) and Onikiri and Ubadachi which tbh, isn't the heaviest hitter, but is great fun. I do have lots of weapons fully maxed but these are my favourites atm.
 
So just about 3.5 hours into this. Loving the feel of being back in a Souls game, but is it just me, or is this one actually harder than the previous two?

I don't mean in terms of bosses. I've only faced the tutorial boss and whilst this is traditionally unexpectedly hard in Souls games, he gave me nowehere near as much trouble as the Asylum Demon from DS1. But the general enemies... halberd and shield guys backed up by crossbow mobs so you have to get around guard as well as worrying about ranged damage, and those Lothric Knights! I don't recall any general, non-boss enemies from the other two games giving me as much grief as these guys. Okay, so yeah maybe the Anor Londo silver knights, but they were much later in the game. Oh, and of course the skellies in DS1 if you went the wrong way (but then you weren't meant to). And I'm just getting to the point where there seem to be loads of these buggers! The game also feels a bit speeded-up from previous ones. No more methodical waiting for attacks and learning patterns patiently, it seems - too many enemies hit hard and very, very fast.

Maybe it's just learning to get back into Souls again after a long break, but it feels to me that the general world is a lot more threatening a lot earlier this time around.

Or maybe I actually just suck! :)
 
strumpusplunket said:
So just about 3.5 hours into this. Loving the feel of being back in a Souls game, but is it just me, or is this one actually harder than the previous two?

I don't mean in terms of bosses. I've only faced the tutorial boss and whilst this is traditionally unexpectedly hard in Souls games, he gave me nowehere near as much trouble as the Asylum Demon from DS1. But the general enemies... halberd and shield guys backed up by crossbow mobs so you have to get around guard as well as worrying about ranged damage, and those Lothric Knights! I don't recall any general, non-boss enemies from the other two games giving me as much grief as these guys. Okay, so yeah maybe the Anor Londo silver knights, but they were much later in the game. Oh, and of course the skellies in DS1 if you went the wrong way (but then you weren't meant to). And I'm just getting to the point where there seem to be loads of these buggers! The game also feels a bit speeded-up from previous ones. No more methodical waiting for attacks and learning patterns patiently, it seems - too many enemies hit hard and very, very fast.

Maybe it's just learning to get back into Souls again after a long break, but it feels to me that the general world is a lot more threatening a lot earlier this time around.

Or maybe I actually just suck! :)
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I didnt find it harder but felt there were more cheesy traps laid out to get you overwhelmed by mobs. Then again once you do DS everything after it seems easy now :)
 
Grandmaster Fap! said:
I didnt find it harder but felt there were more cheesy traps laid out to get you overwhelmed by mobs. Then again once you do DS everything after it seems easy now :)
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Yeah, I think I'm maybe out of practice, but I died three times to the first Lothric Knight, and had to restock estus a couple of times just fighting the shield/halberd guys.

Don't remember Undead Burg being this hard with general enemies (though those Black Knights were a bit fierce I suppose...).
 
strumpusplunket said:
Yeah, I think I'm maybe out of practice, but I died three times to the first Lothric Knight, and had to restock estus a couple of times just fighting the shield/halberd guys.

Don't remember Undead Burg being this hard with general enemies (though those Black Knights were a bit fierce I suppose...).
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Just get that practice in and you'll be fine, these games have always been about learning the weakness of the enemies, once you get into that rhythm you'll be thinking 'why is this so easy!?' :D
 
Grandmaster Fap! said:
Just get that practice in and you'll be fine, these games have always been about learning the weakness of the enemies, once you get into that rhythm you'll be thinking 'why is this so easy!?' :D
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Yeah, I think maybe it's just the speed of a lot of enemies throwing me off this time. I'm finding myself feeling flustered and doing a lot more button-mashing than the more careful, methodical movements that saw me through in the previous games. Probably just need to keep calm and try not to get unsettled by the speed of attacks.
 
strumpusplunket said:
Yeah, I think maybe it's just the speed of a lot of enemies throwing me off this time. I'm finding myself feeling flustered and doing a lot more button-mashing than the more careful, methodical movements that saw me through in the previous games. Probably just need to keep calm and try not to get unsettled by the speed of attacks.
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I will say there are a lot of 'gotcha' moments with mobs in DS3, a lot of their attacks have a crazy amount of wind up variation time so you can get caught out. I find it easier to try an bait their attacks and punish them rather than anticipate their attacks like you could in DS1.
 
Grandmaster Fap! said:
I will say there are a lot of 'gotcha' moments with mobs in DS3, a lot of their attacks have a crazy amount of wind up variation time so you can get caught out. I find it easier to try an bait their attacks and punish them rather than anticipate their attacks like you could in DS1.
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Ah yes, maybe that's it, and I'm just being thrown by not being able to predict and avoid attacks, which was was DS1 & 2 were all about.

I swear the Lothric Knights are faster than pretty much any generic enemy from DS1 or 2, though. They feel even more rapid than Manus, Astorias or The Pursuer. Well, maybe not quite, but for non-boss enemies, they're damn swift! Just can't predict their attacks. Perhaps I need another strategy, as you say.
 
strumpusplunket said:
Ah yes, maybe that's it, and I'm just being thrown by not being able to predict and avoid attacks, which was was DS1 & 2 were all about.

I swear the Lothric Knights are faster than pretty much any generic enemy from DS1 or 2, though. They feel even more rapid than Manus, Astorias or The Pursuer. Well, maybe not quite, but for non-boss enemies, they're damn swift! Just can't predict their attacks. Perhaps I need another strategy, as you say.
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They can be pains, especially the one with red eyes, i'll avoid him if i dont have a target/buckler to pary, and even then they can punish you pretty fast. I usually go with dex builds and get the mercenary? with the twin sell swords, they can usually take out the knights quite fast. Sometimes though it pays to just avoid them till you are a bit leveled up or are ace at parrying!
 
Grandmaster Fap! said:
They can be pains, especially the one with red eyes, i'll avoid him if i dont have a target/buckler to pary, and even then they can punish you pretty fast. I usually go with dex builds and get the mercenary? with the twin sell swords, they can usually take out the knights quite fast. Sometimes though it pays to just avoid them till you are a bit leveled up or are ace at parrying!
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Tbh, I never really got parrying down in the previous games. I tried to learn it for Gwyn and then in DS2 for The Pursuer, but I could usually only string together two or three parries per battle, so not enough to beat either of them that way (I resorted to cheesing Gwyn with a Benny Hill style chase around that big stalagmite in his cave :) and The Pursuer I just kept rolling around after learning the telegraphs for his attacks).

However... I just noticed some text on my longsword tooltip display - something about stance and breaking guard with special attacks. Looking this up, it seems there is a whole new system of "weapon arts" for this game, that I had no idea was there! Will have to try it when I next get a bit of gaming time, but the ability to break guard sounds like it would be very useful for those shield-using knights!
 
strumpusplunket said:
I swear the Lothric Knights are faster than pretty much any generic enemy from DS1 or 2, though. They feel even more rapid than Manus, Astorias or The Pursuer. Well, maybe not quite, but for non-boss enemies, they're damn swift! Just can't predict their attacks. Perhaps I need another strategy, as you say.
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Thing is, you know you'll be laughing at them in 50 hours time!
 
Kind of getting into the swing of this now.

I seem to have been in the High Wall of Lothric area for ages, though. I was thinking about this and reflecting back on DkS1 and2, and I think actually perhaps DkS2 ruined me with its despawning enemies. This made making progress through areas trivial after a while. By now for instance, the hollows in the tower by the second bonfire, on the prison roof, and probably a few other places would be close to despawning. This time, I need to be careful every run, and one mistake can still see me need to waste my estus before I've even really got anywhere. It's more like DkS1 in that respect, but I played that so long ago now I think I've forgotten how you need to so super-careful with every single enemy. In DkS2 if I screwed up I'd just think, "oh, well, I'll rest and the ones I've killed will be one kill closer to despawning".

This is how Dark Souls should be, I guess, though it is much more punishing. Just about to take on the fat stomping knight with the tiny wings. He looks pretty imposing...
 
Rolling is your best friend in DS3, hiding behind shields doesnt work so well now as mobs either smash through your stamina/poise quite easily or have attacks that just get around you too well. Keep your weight bellow 60% and time your rolls, you'll do well ashen one :D
 
Yeah, I'm used to rolling rather than turtling in Souls. I ran a few different builds in earler Souls games - sorceror, pyro, estoc/rapier, two-handed greatsword - and rarely ran with a shield except for certain bosses. Think it's just I've been messing up my rolls (and stamina management) more this time around.

I've been anaylsing what might be throwing me. I've thought maybe the lock-on system is different this time? I also wonder if something's different with enemies' tracking as well this time, but a lot seem to do that Havel trick of winding up a big heavy swing and then turning on a sixpence to track you when you roll. Not quite sure I like that i) because it's been catching me too often, but also ii) because it just looks wrong. no one should be able to heave into a big heavy forward swing with a large weapon and then pivot 180 degrees (without moving their feet, mind!) in mid-delivery! As I recall it, DkS1 didn't really have these issues with super-accurate late tracking (well, Havel excepted!), DkS2 did to an extent, but it seems worse here (better from the point of view of the enemies, I guess :))

Or maybe it was always like this and I've just forgotten. I dunno, but I've been a bit surprised how slow it feels my progress has been in my first few hours here (messing up so many fights with normal mobs), since I think of myself as relatively experienced in Souls (for PvE, anyway - around 250 hours over DkS1 & 2).

Oh, and those transforming pus-man things! Screw those guys!

My roll timing is improving, though, now that I've noticed the mechanics a bit more closely, and I'm feeling the game opening up now.
 
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