Dark Souls III: The Ringed City DLC - We just can't stop talking about DS2

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Dark Souls III: The Ringed City DLC - We just can't stop talking about DS2

«‹›1768 »

Memnaelar: Feb 21, 2013; WHO is the goodest girl?

Doing my first replay of the game since I beat the base two years ago (no DLC played as yet) and going full STR bro, rather than my normal first-time play INT build. A few observations -

1) People aren't wrong that I probably do it backwards in Souls games. I've been a full-INT Souls guy since Demon's because I loves me the magic, but man, you really don't learn how to deal with a boss properly with INT. You generally either need to summon or exploit their mechanic from a distance or just be more got gud than I've ever been. I do really feel like I appreciate the game more learning when to 2H and when to 1H, when to shield and when to roll. You pick that up with INT but nowhere near to the same degree.

2) DS3's questlines breaking so easily still really annoys me. Totally forgot about that dumb NPC with a cage on his back and ended up dropping a tree on Hodrick, just like playthrough #1. Some day I'll actually try being a purple phantom. Maybe.

3) Strength really is enjoyable to solo. I only pull in the NPC phantoms for quests and otherwise just run on my own and it's largely really manageable so far. Aldrich is the only boss who gave me sustained trouble. I feel like you really end up praying to RNG Jesus that he doesn't just spam his dark-laser or his arrow-hail at you. It took some time to learn his patterns and beating him in Gwyndolin's armor felt awfully appropriate.

Game is still gud, even with its many warts.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 21:10

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 5, 2024 19:50

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

skasion posted:

Dark infusion is mostly a PvP thing because it�s harder for players to stack defense against than other damage types.

also it chips through shields and gives access to good spells(black flame, fire surge, lightning arrow all accessible)

# ? Mar 15, 2018 21:13

Dr. Clockwork: Sep 9, 2011; I'LL PUT MY SCIENCE IN ALL OF YOU!

Memnaelar posted:

Doing my first replay of the game since I beat the base two years ago (no DLC played as yet) and going full STR bro, rather than my normal first-time play INT build. A few observations -

1) People aren't wrong that I probably do it backwards in Souls games. I've been a full-INT Souls guy since Demon's because I loves me the magic, but man, you really don't learn how to deal with a boss properly with INT. You generally either need to summon or exploit their mechanic from a distance or just be more got gud than I've ever been. I do really feel like I appreciate the game more learning when to 2H and when to 1H, when to shield and when to roll. You pick that up with INT but nowhere near to the same degree.

2) DS3's questlines breaking so easily still really annoys me. Totally forgot about that dumb NPC with a cage on his back and ended up dropping a tree on Hodrick, just like playthrough #1. Some day I'll actually try being a purple phantom. Maybe.

3) Strength really is enjoyable to solo. I only pull in the NPC phantoms for quests and otherwise just run on my own and it's largely really manageable so far. Aldrich is the only boss who gave me sustained trouble. I feel like you really end up praying to RNG Jesus that he doesn't just spam his dark-laser or his arrow-hail at you. It took some time to learn his patterns and beating him in Gwyndolin's armor felt awfully appropriate.

Game is still gud, even with its many warts.

You know until this post i never put it together that the Greatwood butt slamming through the floor is what kills Hodrick.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 21:14

Memnaelar: Feb 21, 2013; WHO is the goodest girl?

Dr. Clockwork posted:

You know until this post i never put it together that the Greatwood butt slamming through the floor is what kills Hodrick.

I've yet to meet the man non-phantom like.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 21:19

Amppelix: Aug 6, 2010

Memnaelar posted:

Doing my first replay of the game since I beat the base two years ago (no DLC played as yet) and going full STR bro, rather than my normal first-time play INT build. A few observations -

1) People aren't wrong that I probably do it backwards in Souls games. I've been a full-INT Souls guy since Demon's because I loves me the magic, but man, you really don't learn how to deal with a boss properly with INT. You generally either need to summon or exploit their mechanic from a distance or just be more got gud than I've ever been. I do really feel like I appreciate the game more learning when to 2H and when to 1H, when to shield and when to roll. You pick that up with INT but nowhere near to the same degree.

Do people just not wield normal melee weapons when playing with spells or what? That's clearly what the game pushes you towards and gives several ways of doing so with good or even great damage. You don't need to summon for bosses to keep them out of your hair while you spam soul arrow, just go in there and whack em like any other character. And there's no reason to not wear good armor or have lots of health as a sorcerer either, so what gives?

# ? Mar 15, 2018 22:07

Shear Modulus: Jun 9, 2010

Dr. Clockwork posted:

You know until this post i never put it together that the Greatwood butt slamming through the floor is what kills Hodrick.

the crazy part is when sirris summons you later to help her kill him but he's still alive

# ? Mar 15, 2018 22:12

feelix: Nov 27, 2016; THE ONLY EXERCISE I AM UNFAMILIAR WITH IS EXERCISING MY ABILITY TO MAKE A POST PEOPLE WANT TO READ

Shear Modulus posted:

the crazy part is when sirris summons you later to help her kill him but he's still alive

In her world tho

# ? Mar 15, 2018 22:14

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

Amppelix posted:

Do people just not wield normal melee weapons when playing with spells or what? That's clearly what the game pushes you towards and gives several ways of doing so with good or even great damage. You don't need to summon for bosses to keep them out of your hair while you spam soul arrow, just go in there and whack em like any other character. And there's no reason to not wear good armor or have lots of health as a sorcerer either, so what gives?

Yeah, but it's easier to just backpedal and roll sometimes and then cast spells when the boss is open/not doing anything. Being able to kill stuff more safely in this way is kind of the draw of being a sorcerer.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 22:41

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

So, Great Chaos Orbs or Vestiges? I'm leaning to the former.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 22:46

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

Vestiges is faster and has the wide "clip" hitbox, but chaos orb has more damage potential from the lava so it's a bit better for PvE.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 22:52

juggalo baby coffin: Dec 2, 2007; How would the dog wear goggles and even more than that, who makes the goggles?

what's a good bleed build? i've not played ds3 for a looong time and I wanna try something that isn't just me using assorted giant clubs and greatswords. i've been running around with the bandit dagger but I have no long term direction with my build. I see a lot of stuff about hollow infusion for some reason having better bleed than bleed infusion?

# ? Mar 15, 2018 22:55

Iretep: Nov 10, 2009

Great chaos orb has more pvp utility since the left over flame can get players caught sometimes. Vestiges is pure damage spam.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 22:57

Cuchulain: May 15, 2007; My tiny godly CoX shall burn forever!

I missed Lava chat but tyhe actual secret to getting them beside stacking Flash Sweat and Red Bug Pellets is Blocking(?)

Don't ask WHY you can block lava, but you can. As long as you're facing the right way.(???) Just grab a shield with a high physical and fire resist, as lava obviously deals mixed damage(!?!?) Dragon Crest is great and has a low stat req.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 23:02

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

juggalo baby coffin posted:

what's a good bleed build? i've not played ds3 for a looong time and I wanna try something that isn't just me using assorted giant clubs and greatswords. i've been running around with the bandit dagger but I have no long term direction with my build. I see a lot of stuff about hollow infusion for some reason having better bleed than bleed infusion?

Hollow infusion does not have better bleed than bleed infusion. It does have a bit better bleed than no infusion or other infusions, though, and the actual damage is better than bleed.

# ? Mar 15, 2018 23:20

Cuchulain: May 15, 2007; My tiny godly CoX shall burn forever!

Well it's a better "bleed build" in that it's a better build for using Bleed. The Blood Loss damage is lower(by 100 at max) yeah, but that seems overly pedantic.

Here's some ~mechanics.~ Bleed damage is 15% of the target's Max HP, plus 50 to 250 based on a shitload of complicated stuff I'm not going to go into in detail. Bleed infusion only effects the second part of that calculation, netting you anywhere from 50 to 100 of the 250 possible flat damage bonus. This has no effect on the 15% Max HP, which is where most of Bleed's usefulness comes from. Bleed Buildup is triggered faster the higher your Luck stat is, so Luck is the best stat to focus on as a Bleed build. No other stats increase the speed you trigger Blood Loss. However Luck doesn't effect most weapons, so you're relying entirely on your Blood Loss damage to kill stuff.

There's a metric fuckton of stuff that's immune to Blood Loss though, so Hollow Infusion on any weapon with innate Bleed wins out over any weapon with a Bleed Infusion in every aspect, even going for max Blood Loss damage by Bleed Infusing a weapon with innate Bleed.

Hollow Weapons scale off Luck, so you can pump your Luck up to 40 to 45* and get your weapon of choice doing respectable physical damage AND proccing Blood Loss super fast.

*50 is the softcap for Luck's Bleed Buildup scaling, after which point it falls off a cliff. Hollow weapons grant you +Luck based on your character's current Hollowing, up to +5 for each hand so the best bleed builds are always in beef jerky mode. Hollow shields lose a substantial amount of stability, but if you're only using it for parrying you wont really notice. Or you can stick something like a Hollow Rotten Ghru Spear in your offhand for poison shenanigans.

Additionally, Bleed weapons can't be buffed, but Hollow weapons totally can, and can then double dip with Carthus Rogue. So find an innate Bleed weapon you like the moveset of, make it Hollow, and go to town. My favorite is the Barbed Straight Sword, but the Spiked Mace is great if you like smashy weapons. And there's always the Notched Whip if you're feeling sassy.

Cuchulain fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Mar 15, 2018

# ? Mar 15, 2018 23:41

mynameisbatman: Oct 3, 2008

Anyone up for drunk shenanigans get on discord and let's make people salty and point down at them

# ? Mar 16, 2018 00:06

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

if you want to do a pvp build don't make it a bleed build because other players can roll through the hit that would proc bleed, taking no damage from the bleed effect because they're in iframes-but the blood splatter effect still happens and the bleed bar still goes down to 0. immensely frustrating and also bad. you're actually better off with poison as a result, ideally from a resin.

bleed is great against almost all bosses though.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 00:22

Memnaelar: Feb 21, 2013; WHO is the goodest girl?

IronicDongz posted:

Yeah, but it's easier to just backpedal and roll sometimes and then cast spells when the boss is open/not doing anything. Being able to kill stuff more safely in this way is kind of the draw of being a sorcerer.

Bingo. I think I had a very nice Crystal Uchigatana or something of the like that I'd use when I'd close, but pulling back and dropping Soul Arrows at a distance was often the safest bet. Aldrich is a lot easier when you're half the arena away and able to have way more time to adjust for his arrow spam.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 01:29

HaB: Jan 5, 2001; What are the odds?

So is there an optimal SL/weapon level for Darkmooning?

I am finishing up my Sorcery achievement tonight and will be starting a new build for miracles. Just wanna know what to shoot for so I�m not stuck farming silver knights on the stairs until I die.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 02:17

Stokes: Jun 13, 2003; Maybe Kris can come in, and we can throw M-80s at his asshole.

Laminator posted:

How the hell do I get stuff in lava?

Get a shield with really high fire resist like the Black Iron Shield and hold it up while walking toward the item. The good news is you'll barely take any damage as long as you keep walking forward. The bad news is you will die on the return trip.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 02:58

Soul Reaver: Mar 8, 2009; in retrospect the old redtext was a little over the top, I think I was in a bad mood that day. it appears you've learned your lesson about slagging our gods and masters at beamdog but I'm still going to leave this av up because i think its funny

god bless

KaiserSchnitzel posted:

In the case of DS3, it means that you can only do any multiplayer (co-op AND pvp) with people who have been similarly flagged...basically there is a sort of "cheater's server." If you just play solo, it's no big deal; but at this point I've beat the game a billion times and multiplayer is the only replay value for me.

Some have said that this sort of softban is forever; others have said that there are two types of sanctions and that by deleting all save data and playing with a new character the sanctions disappear in several weeks. Apparently you can also "family share" the game on Steam, but I'm not messing around with that. In any event I just played a bit with a new character online and had no summon activity; I guess I'll just sit on this state of affairs and try again in a month - and at the same time go back to DS2 and 1.

I seem to recall some sort of sanction on my DS2 account from long ago, but on that account I actually had spawned in some items. Those sanctions went away. This time, I have no idea. I never pick up anything that anybody drops in my game at all; I think trading items is the source of 20x more problems than it's worth.

I got permanently softbanned from DS2: SotFS for starting my first playthrough using DS2Fix - note this was after finishing DS1 with DSFix (which was pretty much mandatory) and after reading a long readme from DS2Fix's author where he guaranteed that it couldn't possibly be DS2Fix cuasing the softbans.

I later got confirmation from Bandai Namco that it was indeed DS2Fix (and a whole slew of other mundane things) that can get you softbanned. I've had the game for ages. The softban has never gone away.

Family sharing was my only option, I can confirm it works. Finished the game and got all the achievements on some other account that I never use for anything else.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 03:20

asio: Nov 29, 2008; "Also Sprach Arnold Jacobs: A Developmental Guide for Brass Wind Musicians" refers to the mullet as an important tool for professional cornet playing and box smashing black and blood

Cuchulain posted:

Well it's a better "bleed build" in that it's a better build for using Bleed. The Blood Loss damage is lower(by 100 at max) yeah, but that seems overly pedantic.

Here's some ~mechanics.~ Bleed damage is 15% of the target's Max HP, plus 50 to 250 based on a shitload of complicated stuff I'm not going to go into in detail. Bleed infusion only effects the second part of that calculation, netting you anywhere from 50 to 100 of the 250 possible flat damage bonus. This has no effect on the 15% Max HP, which is where most of Bleed's usefulness comes from. Bleed Buildup is triggered faster the higher your Luck stat is, so Luck is the best stat to focus on as a Bleed build. No other stats increase the speed you trigger Blood Loss. However Luck doesn't effect most weapons, so you're relying entirely on your Blood Loss damage to kill stuff.

There's a metric fuckton of stuff that's immune to Blood Loss though, so Hollow Infusion on any weapon with innate Bleed wins out over any weapon with a Bleed Infusion in every aspect, even going for max Blood Loss damage by Bleed Infusing a weapon with innate Bleed.

Hollow Weapons scale off Luck, so you can pump your Luck up to 40 to 45* and get your weapon of choice doing respectable physical damage AND proccing Blood Loss super fast.

*50 is the softcap for Luck's Bleed Buildup scaling, after which point it falls off a cliff. Hollow weapons grant you +Luck based on your character's current Hollowing, up to +5 for each hand so the best bleed builds are always in beef jerky mode. Hollow shields lose a substantial amount of stability, but if you're only using it for parrying you wont really notice. Or you can stick something like a Hollow Rotten Ghru Spear in your offhand for poison shenanigans.

Additionally, Bleed weapons can't be buffed, but Hollow weapons totally can, and can then double dip with Carthus Rogue. So find an innate Bleed weapon you like the moveset of, make it Hollow, and go to town. My favorite is the Barbed Straight Sword, but the Spiked Mace is great if you like smashy weapons. And there's always the Notched Whip if you're feeling sassy.

IronicDongz posted:

if you want to do a pvp build don't make it a bleed build because other players can roll through the hit that would proc bleed, taking no damage from the bleed effect because they're in iframes-but the blood splatter effect still happens and the bleed bar still goes down to 0. immensely frustrating and also bad. you're actually better off with poison as a result, ideally from a resin.

bleed is great against almost all bosses though.

These are good build posts. Anris straight sword and man-grub staff also scale off luck.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 03:30

Laminator: Jan 18, 2004; You up for some serious plastic surgery?

OK, I'm really confused about casting a spell. I want to use the Sweating spell, have the INT and adequate FP to cast it, have a chime and staff that I have adequate stats for but I can't use the spell. It's just always grayed out on the D pad. Am I missing something?

# ? Mar 16, 2018 03:59

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

flash sweat is a pyromancy

# ? Mar 16, 2018 04:10

Dr. Clockwork: Sep 9, 2011; I'LL PUT MY SCIENCE IN ALL OF YOU!

Two things I learned tonight: Aldrich�s arrows still keep going after he�s dead and it really sucks to lose 530,000 souls to the silver knights bullshit lightning spree charge from ten miles away.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 06:16

Professor Beetus: Apr 12, 2007; They can fight us
But they'll never Beetus

Dr. Clockwork posted:

Two things I learned tonight: Aldrich�s arrows still keep going after he�s dead and it really sucks to lose 530,000 souls to the silver knights bullshit lightning spree charge from ten miles away.

Good god.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 06:17

MohShuvuu: Aug 26, 2010; I eat ass.

KaiserSchnitzel posted:

In the case of DS3, it means that you can only do any multiplayer (co-op AND pvp) with people who have been similarly flagged...basically there is a sort of "cheater's server." If you just play solo, it's no big deal; but at this point I've beat the game a billion times and multiplayer is the only replay value for me.

Some have said that this sort of softban is forever; others have said that there are two types of sanctions and that by deleting all save data and playing with a new character the sanctions disappear in several weeks. Apparently you can also "family share" the game on Steam, but I'm not messing around with that. In any event I just played a bit with a new character online and had no summon activity; I guess I'll just sit on this state of affairs and try again in a month - and at the same time go back to DS2 and 1.

I seem to recall some sort of sanction on my DS2 account from long ago, but on that account I actually had spawned in some items. Those sanctions went away. This time, I have no idea. I never pick up anything that anybody drops in my game at all; I think trading items is the source of 20x more problems than it's worth.

Softbans get lifted in DS3. I was softbanned for using input mapper and it was lifted after some time. DS2 still has me banned, though.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 06:26

Tallgeese: May 11, 2008; MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR

Soul Reaver posted:

I later got confirmation from Bandai Namco that it was indeed DS2Fix (and a whole slew of other mundane things) that can get you softbanned. I've had the game for ages. The softban has never gone away.

Bandai Namco staff give a boilerplate answer when you ask that question, sorry to tell you. It's their version of "have you restarted the computer?". The fact they gave you a list of other things should have been a hint.

They honestly do not know anything; it's handled by From, not them. Good luck asking From.

...and even if you could, you have a reasonable shot of the person answering not actually knowing. From has been known to give verifiably wrong answers about Dark Souls online mode.

Tallgeese fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Mar 16, 2018

# ? Mar 16, 2018 06:29

Memnaelar: Feb 21, 2013; WHO is the goodest girl?

Dr. Clockwork posted:

Two things I learned tonight: Aldrich�s arrows still keep going after he�s dead and it really sucks to lose 530,000 souls to the silver knights bullshit lightning spree charge from ten miles away.

Not to kick a man while he's down, but why would you walk around with 530,000 unspent souls?

# ? Mar 16, 2018 07:23

KaiserSchnitzel: Feb 23, 2003; Hey baby I think we Havel lot in common

Multiplayer on the cheater server plan day 2 report: I did get invaded by a single Watchdog equipped with Solaire gear minus the shield and using a battle axe, so that seemed pretty legit...but that was it. Bummer.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 07:44

mynameisbatman: Oct 3, 2008

Memnaelar posted:

Not to kick a man while he's down, but why would you walk around with 530,000 unspent souls?

I'm assuming soul level costs rise exponentially.

Also last night I became a loving parry king. It was incredible. Atleast I think I did, I can't remember much, the dude I was with will post if I'm wrong. Please tell me it's true tho.

mynameisbatman fucked around with this message at 10:22 on Mar 16, 2018

# ? Mar 16, 2018 09:20

Mahlertov Cocktail: Mar 1, 2010; I ate your Mahler avatar! Hahahaha!

Yeah but at that point why do you care about losing souls, even half a mil? You'll get em back like right away if you're on NG+ or beyond.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 10:22

mynameisbatman: Oct 3, 2008

Just posting this for salty dude (who I can tell will end up being one of my best friends) because my last point down wasn't good enough.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 10:40

Andrigaar: Dec 12, 2003; Saint of Killers

The Humble Monthly reminded me I still hadn't played either DLC episode. So I fired it up on my new motherboard/CPU to find that the game deleted all of my saves. The saves were there a few days before on the old hardware, but on launch it decided to wipe them and overwrite the file immediately. Thanks, bro.
No, I didn't format the drive, I swapped the guts, plugged everything back in and Win10 was all sunshine and rainbows (which terrified me in its own way).

SO! Now I'm starting all over with an AGI character instead of my usual STR+greatsword. Having not played in 1-2 years I'm atrocious with memories of being able to time a parry... it's quite frustrating. Also I don't like the playstyle of AGI builds very much I'm realizing.

But I'm up to Santa's Village and will eventually get to the Pontiff. On that note, I am so not looking forward to relearning the timing on that parry. gently caress :smithicide:

# ? Mar 16, 2018 10:52

Mahlertov Cocktail: Mar 1, 2010; I ate your Mahler avatar! Hahahaha!

What the heck is an AGI build?

# ? Mar 16, 2018 11:21

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

mynameisbatman posted:

Also last night I became a loving parry king. It was incredible. Atleast I think I did, I can't remember much, the dude I was with will post if I'm wrong. Please tell me it's true tho.

I didn't wanna burst your bubble because you were preeetty drunk lol but you did not parry him, he was 2-handing a greathammer which is not parryable.

good time tho

# ? Mar 16, 2018 11:22

Andrigaar: Dec 12, 2003; Saint of Killers

Mahlertov Cocktail posted:

What the heck is an AGI build?

Oops, meant DEX.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 11:26

mynameisbatman: Oct 3, 2008

IronicDongz posted:

I didn't wanna burst your bubble because you were preeetty drunk lol but you did not parry him, he was 2-handing a greathammer which is not parryable.

good time tho

Well I did something right?

# ? Mar 16, 2018 11:33

kilinrax: Oct 27, 2014; Those eyes ... they disappeared.

Andrigaar posted:

The Humble Monthly reminded me I still hadn't played either DLC episode. So I fired it up on my new motherboard/CPU to find that the game deleted all of my saves. The saves were there a few days before on the old hardware, but on launch it decided to wipe them and overwrite the file immediately. Thanks, bro.
No, I didn't format the drive, I swapped the guts, plugged everything back in and Win10 was all sunshine and rainbows (which terrified me in its own way).

SO! Now I'm starting all over with an AGI character instead of my usual STR+greatsword. Having not played in 1-2 years I'm atrocious with memories of being able to time a parry... it's quite frustrating. Also I don't like the playstyle of AGI builds very much I'm realizing.

But I'm up to Santa's Village and will eventually get to the Pontiff. On that note, I am so not looking forward to relearning the timing on that parry. gently caress

The first one is easy, start your parry when his sword is at clockface noon.

The standout fun weapons for Dex builds are the Warden Twinblades early game and the Gotthards late game. So I'd kind of suggest farming the Wardens if you have a decent set of discovery gear and aren't enjoying your setup.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 13:09

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 5, 2024 19:50

HaB: Jan 5, 2001; What are the odds?

mynameisbatman posted:

Just posting this for salty dude (who I can tell will end up being one of my best friends) because my last point down wasn't good enough.

You guys are PC weirdos, tho. I can't play with you. No Drunk Souls for me.

# ? Mar 16, 2018 13:59

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Dark Souls III: The Ringed City DLC - We just can't stop talking about DS2

«‹›1768 »