Dark Souls 3

Man, I feel like I missed the party with this game! Really enjoying it still - Dark Souls is definitely one of my favourite, if not absolute favourite, game series - but everyone else seems to have finished it, so there's no one to talk to about it!

The game definitely "clicked" for me though, and once I settled on using a Black Knight Sword (now +5) I just started blasting through the content. The only thing that's given me trouble in the past week or two have been those damn Crows Quill-wielding Corvians! I hate those guys! Oh, Dragonslayer Armour took me five attempts, but that's because I fought him drunk (last three deaths were me rolling over the edge of the bridge...).

I thought the Dancer was going to be a sticking point after two disastrous attempts. But I put it down for a day and got her quite easily on my first attempt the next evening, only using one estus.

I've now got to decide which boss fog to go through - Grand Archives or Consumed Garden. Probably the latter.

I've been trying to decide what to do with my loadout, though. I've had the BKS in hand for so long I feel like I'm missing some other fun playstyles, and it is a little on the slow side for bosses (though definitely managable). I've been hearing bleed works well on bosses, so I was thinking of trying something like using Refined Warden Twinblades with Carthus Rouge, Pontiff's Right Eye, Old Wolf Sword, Carthus Beacon. Perhpa also trying to slip in an Oath of Sunlight, maybe Lloyd's Sword Ring. Anyone know if that sounds good? Can you get Carthus Beason/PRE Ring/OWS to proc on bosses, or are the openings for attack too small? Any other buffs or items that could improve this? (Quality build, btw)
 
Grandmaster Fap! said:
If you want to try bleed then farm a Carthus curved sword, last i used it it was OP and great fun to use, dont know if they have nerfed it in a patch since though.
Click to expand...

That weapon had completely passed me by! Didn't even know about it. Looking at it, it looks like one of the Warden Twinblades, but longer and with better base damage, so I think I'll try to farm one in the Catacombs next time I play. Cheers. Glad I didn't slab the Twinblades yet!
 
strumpusplunket said:
That weapon had completely passed me by! Didn't even know about it. Looking at it, it looks like one of the Warden Twinblades, but longer and with better base damage, so I think I'll try to farm one in the Catacombs next time I play. Cheers. Glad I didn't slab the Twinblades yet!
Click to expand...

Look for a guide on how to farm it, there are two mobs that have good chance to drop it when using gold coins that are pretty close to a bonfire. Sometimes you get lucky and have it in five minutes, i usually take 30 :D
 
Grandmaster Fap! said:
Look for a guide on how to farm it, there are two mobs that have good chance to drop it when using gold coins that are pretty close to a bonfire. Sometimes you get lucky and have it in five minutes, i usually take 30 :D
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yeah, pretty sure I know where that is. May the RNG gods smile upon me... :)

EDIT: Yep, they certainly did! Third run on those two skellies and it dropped. About 45 seconds, and one rusted coin. :D

Now to upgrade it to +9 and give it a trial run...
 
Last edited:
So, bit of a follow-up to the above.

I got my CCS, upgraded it to +9, then went to fight Champion Gundyr. I used Carthus Rouge, Oath of Sunlight, Pontiff's Right Eye, and... I got muderated! Three times! I just couldn't deal with this boss.

I swapped back to my Black Knight Sword +5 and immediately felt I had a much better handle on the fight. And then all of a sudden Gundyr was dead. So quickly it actually surprised me after my previous attempts.

I'm not sure if I've just got used to the pace of fighting with the BKS that my gameplay is just suited to using it now, or if it's just genuinely that much more powerful. I mean, it can't be buffed, it's too slow to take advantage of Pontiff's Right Eye, Carthus Beacon or Old Wolf Sword... it doesn't seem like it should be more powerful than an infused CCS that's buffed out the wazoo!

Am I doing something wrong? Has bleed just been nerfed so the CCS is no longer so viable? Any other options to change things up (40/40 Str/Dex build)?
 
Its swings and roundabouts with regards to what feels right, everyone bangs on about the Lothric Knight sword being epic, i cant stand it! Remember the CCS has crazy fast 2h swings and refined +10 does epic damage. If you want to get silly bleed the a Luck/Hollow build is what to do, it gets a bit ridiculous. Having said that maybe the latest patch nerfed it badly, i moved on to TSS before patch and havent gone back to it since.
 
Grandmaster Fap! said:
Its swings and roundabouts with regards to what feels right, everyone bangs on about the Lothric Knight sword being epic, i cant stand it! Remember the CCS has crazy fast 2h swings and refined +10 does epic damage. If you want to get silly bleed the a Luck/Hollow build is what to do, it gets a bit ridiculous. Having said that maybe the latest patch nerfed it badly, i moved on to TSS before patch and havent gone back to it since.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it might be my build's not well suited for bleed. I left luck at base, and didn't really notice bleed taking big chunks of Gundyr's health bar.

Still, almost done with NG I guess. Only Twin Princes, final boss and some of the DLC bosses to go, so maybe I'll respec on NG+...

Maybe I'll try a few different set-ups for Friede as next boss, though. I hear she's a very fast and relentless boss, but susceptible to interruptions from fast weapons?
 
strumpusplunket said:
Maybe I'll try a few different set-ups for Friede as next boss, though. I hear she's a very fast and relentless boss, but susceptible to interruptions from fast weapons?
Click to expand...

Ive watched people not have trouble with her, to me she was a MONUMENTAL pain, i think i died to her more times than Manus and Nameless King combined! Its a great fight though, only tip i'll give you is..
...in her second phase go after daddy and not her, you'll know what i mean :)
 
Grandmaster Fap! said:
Ive watched people not have trouble with her, to me she was a MONUMENTAL pain, i think i died to her more times than Manus and Nameless King combined! Its a great fight though, only tip i'll give you is..
...in her second phase go after daddy and not her, you'll know what i mean :)
Click to expand...

Always strange how some struggle with particular bosses and others don't. Nameless king to me was the hardest of bb, ds2 and ds3. Saying that, once it clicked it was quite easy.
 
Grandmaster Fap! said:
Ive watched people not have trouble with her, to me she was a MONUMENTAL pain, i think i died to her more times than Manus and Nameless King combined! Its a great fight though, only tip i'll give you is..
...in her second phase go after daddy and not her, you'll know what i mean :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, so none of my set-ups went very well with Friede. Had a go last night while my wife was out, and after 11 deaths I still haven't even seen her second phase!

It's the invisibility/teleport mechanic that gets me every time. After a few deaths, I went and watched some videos of people seemingly being able to read where she is or where she'll reappear, presumably by tracks in the snow? But for me every time she vanishes, I look around and... I see no visual clues to her location at all, until she appears behind me and does that throat-slashing rag-doll move that one-shots me or at best leaves me with the tiniest sliver of health. Every time. No matter how frantically I'm rolling or sprinting at the time she reappears.

I'm obviously missing something here. I think the rest of the fight shouldn't be too bad. There are some long wind-ups to some attacks, and the fact she staggers means I can get her health down quite rapidly when I get an opening, but I've never been able to wail on her enough before she just vanishes and scythes me to death from behind.

Already more than double the death count for any other boss in the game and I'm still on phase one of a three-phase fight! Yep, I think I'd have to say she's being a monumental pain for me too! :(

Maybe I'll come back after the princes...
 
strumpusplunket said:
It's the invisibility/teleport mechanic that gets me every time. After a few deaths, I went and watched some videos of people seemingly being able to read where she is or where she'll reappear, presumably by tracks in the snow? But for me every time she vanishes, I look around and... I see no visual clues to her location at all, until she appears behind me and does that throat-slashing rag-doll move that one-shots me or at best leaves me with the tiniest sliver of health. Every time. No matter how frantically I'm rolling or sprinting at the time she reappears.

Maybe I'll come back after the princes...
Click to expand...

When she does the vanishing act watch the snow swirl she leaves behind as she jumps, it will either go straight up(she's behind you) or to the left or right(she's on your left or right) Its not always 100% but pretty close. Run to her quickly and if you are quick can literally stand in her face while she's still winding up the attack :D
 
Grandmaster Fap! said:
When she does the vanishing act watch the snow swirl she leaves behind as she jumps, it will either go straight up(she's behind you) or to the left or right(she's on your left or right) Its not always 100% but pretty close. Run to her quickly and if you are quick can literally stand in her face while she's still winding up the attack :D
Click to expand...

Ahh... so I've been looking for the wrong kind of tell for this, it seems! Cheers! :D

I'll have another go in the next day or so. I think the first phase should be quite straightforward if I just get to grips with these vanish-->one-shot kill shenanigans!
 
So it turns out the princes took me a while longer than expected too!

Around 15 attempts before I got them. Was so agonsingly close on quite a few runs. But then again I was roflstomped without doing a sliver damage on a few runs too. :)

I think I just don't like teleporting bosses. Had so many tries where I was swiping at thin air as the ******** appeared behind me and slammed me to the ground....

Now I remember hearing there was a way into the ringed city DLC after beating the princes? Is that right? If I put all the embers on the thrones does that commit me to end-game, or can I still go and explore without going into NG+? Might leave Frider to last if I can go onto other areas prior.
 
I found the Princes very hard too. Great boss though!.

You can access the Ringed City just before the final boss, which will open up after adding all of the embers. I would do the final boss before TRC anyway tbh....And if you haven't done Freide yet, definitely kill her before going to TRC!
 
Pighardia said:
I found the Princes very hard too. Great boss though!.
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree! Actually, the three bosses I've found hardest in the Souls series are also the ones I consider the best: Fume Knight, Princes and Manus. Each was brutally tough, but felt fair and gave a great sense of achievement when defeated. I think Princes might be my favourite boss of the whole series, though. Just the way it's set up, the soft-spoken but menacing dialogue, the music, the way they end up working together. It was great (even when it was kicking my ****!).

Pighardia said:
You can access the Ringed City just before the final boss, which will open up after adding all of the embers. I would do the final boss before TRC anyway tbh....And if you haven't done Freide yet, definitely kill her before going to TRC!
Click to expand...

Really?! Is there a reason for that? I'm kind of putting her off until I've levelled even more as she's the hardest boss for me in the whole series (with the possible exception of Fume Knight).
 
Pighardia said:
Just because the story follows on directly from The Painted World. Best to get it tied up before going to TRC.

The Ringed City is awesome btw!
Click to expand...

Ah, cool. Thanks for the heads-up. I may give Friede another few goes then next time I fire up the game. (Though if I'm honest with myself, her ******* nails fight waiting for me has actually made me put off playing the game again.... <don't give up, skeleton>!)
 
digitalx said:
I really wanna get back into SOuls, missing loads of mods, fun etc. But I SUCK at dodging! Any tips apart from timing?
Click to expand...

Well, you can get through most of the content with a big shield. There are rings that increase the amount of time you're invincible whilst dodging. Some bosses you can face-tank with Iron Flesh (and/or Perserverance) But to be honest, you will need to get into the rhythm of attacking and dodging. The key is: don't let defeats get to you. Expect them. Embrace them. Learn from them. It will take hours. It's supposed to!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom