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Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

pmchem posted:

What do you guys think the best starting class is for a keyboard+mouse player who will be annoyed when he gets invaded?

Probably Cleric or Sorcerer. Magic tends to make things trivial in these games. Haven't played DaS2 though!

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Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

I don't think I like the soul memory system. I don't think the total souls you've had is a good metric of how powerful your character is. I've been playing this game like I did in DS1, where souls aren't all that important. I'm pretty sure I've tossed like 200k souls in the wind simply by being reckless. I'm at around 800k soul memory and at like level 83. And since leveling up costs less now, I feel like I'm digging myself deeper and deeper into a hole when it comes to PvP.

It sucks. I loved to just run around die a lot in DS1. I'm way more stressed than I feel I should be. Or maybe I've just been playing too much.

PvP feels weird now. Maybe I'm not used to the lag, or the fact that rolling sucks if your agility is low, or that blocking sucks. It's really frustrating when some guy tags you with a sword even though you've already rolled away and you're like half a mile away. I'm still winning fights just about as much as I lose but I feel like everything feels kinda bullshit either way.

At one point I was super mad at the game and I got invaded by 2 dudes in the Bells area. I pretty sure won that fight by channeling my anger and frustration. Like, I didn't care about winning, I was just pissed that I rolled around randomly and ran around like crazy while attacking, and somehow they both ended up dead.

Minorkos fucked around with this message at 04:06 on Apr 26, 2014

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

quaunaut posted:

Steps to making this game 10x easier:

  1. Don't join Champions Covenant.
  2. Stop being afraid you're gonna outlevel summons. You probably won't.
  3. Use your soapstone constantly. Seriously, if you're stuck even for a bit, just use the stupid thing.

Luckily there are loads of people playing right now, so you should always find someone to summon. Even though I'm fairly sure my soul memory is much higher than it should be, I'm still getting summoned pretty much instantly. It's great.

Also, I think I might be coming around to the soul memory system. I think it might increase the replayability of the game quite a bit. Like, how much can you level and gear up with a soul memory of 100k? How far can you get? Your reward is being stronger than anyone else in PvP and co-op. It almost makes the game like a roguelike. Sometimes you have a good run with a character, sometimes you don't. Maybe that's what they wanted to accomplish with the system. It also helps that the game isn't linear and character builds are more diverse, so your playthroughs are going to be more different in general than they were in DkS1.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

I don't really get creeped out by video games but a certain area (Brightstone Cove) kind of made me want to walk away from the computer

I can't imagine what it would be like to go through that area as an actual arachnophobe

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

I can't help but feel that making two slashing swords my main form of damage was a bad call. Almost every enemy is armored and I feel like my damage is like 1/3 of what it should be against them. It's a little disheartening to see that a +6 Ricard's Rapier does more damage than a +10 Blacksteel katana in almost every case.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Sober posted:

All enemies being armoured and the new durability system really work against slash weapons.

Also, using the heavy attack with Ricard's Rapier uses up like 20% of the durability bar :gonk:

I have 3 weapons and they all keep breaking in the middle of runs between bonfires.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Party Plane Jones posted:

Apparently I managed to kill some level 800+ invader scrub (fairly easily I might add) since when he died I got something on the order of 415k souls out of it.

Tallgeese posted:

He intentionally let you kill him.

By doing that, he screwed up your Soul Memory and you can now be invaded by higher level dudes. You can also summon higher level dudes, but, uh, not sure how many of those there are that are co-opping.

Honestly twinking was never that much of an issue that it required a system like Soul Memory. I'm at 1.2 million and I'm having trouble finding people to invade in the bellzone. Also, at some point everyone is going to be like level 200 and they're going to have like 40 in every stat that matters so endgame PvP kinda sucks. Oh and people can still twink if they just rush to get the dull ember without engaging enemies. I'd rather just have the old level system back.

The only real advantage I can think of is that it's pretty fun if you enjoy making new characters constantly, and you like comparing your character's strength with your Soul Memory.

edit: i should mention that i am still getting invaded, i just seemingly can't invade. don't know why that is. i was doing the invading business at very odds hours though so that might be it

people who invade me seem a little underleveled. sometimes i swing my power stanced katanas around twice and they're instantly dead

Minorkos fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Apr 27, 2014

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Ignimbrite posted:

Wow, the misty area of the shaded woods is some other level of asshattery

Talking head owns though :3:

I loved the misty woods. It's great because you'll get paranoid and start seeing enemies where there aren't any. And sometimes the enemies disengage you for a while and you just swing around randomly in hopes of hitting them. It's so fun :allears:

I think the one thing Dark Souls 2 did well as a as a sequel was creating new, fun areas. Then again there are also some real lovely ones as well. There's a certain, really iron-y area that I really disliked for the most part, but that's probably just because I lost about 200k souls in that area put together.

Some of the bosses are just super fun designs, too. Skeleton Lords, Executioner horsey, Royal Rat Vanguard were all really fun boss designs, even though they weren't all that hard. The first one especially was super fun to do in co-op. Just you and 2 other dudes hacking away at lots of skeletons.

Minorkos fucked around with this message at 13:57 on Apr 27, 2014

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Red Crown posted:

How do you make blacksmith MacDuff talk to you? I lit his torch and all that, but he just keeps muttering about getting him an ember.

Also, I feel like this game is a lot more non-linear than the first one. I've beaten Last Giant, Dragonrider and Flexile Sentry, I see people talking about Purser and I feel like I missed something big.

Maybe you should get McDuff his ember then. I wouldn't blame you for looking it up where it is since it's in kind of an obscure location. Luckily you shouldn't need it unless you want to infuse poo poo.

Also, you'll find the Pursuer after you open the door to a new area with the key Last Giant gave you, unless you already killed him the first time you saw him. If you don't know where the door is, search the area before the Last Giant a little more.

The game is indeed more non-linear. I think the reason they made it like this is so that you'll always find someone to summon and invade, in theory at least. You're just as likely to find a level 40 dude in an area as you are to find a level 80 one. You can also put off an area until you become stronger. I like it.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

MadJackMcJack posted:

man.

And then along comes The Bell Keepers Jesus Christ I had to take the ring off as I was getting summoned every 10 seconds (that's not hyperbole, I would literally get back to my world and be summoned straight away). And setting foot into the area? How am I supposed to progress when I'm invaded every minute? Is that area even required to progress, or can I ignore it?

It's optional, though you'll probably want to go through it anyway. Also I'm fairly sure there is like a 5 minute cooldown to being invaded after you get invaded twice in the area.

BreakAtmo posted:

For gently caress's sake. Is it common to have lag issues? I've lost all my Effigies because I just keep getting invaded over and over again, and they keep winning due to lag. I want to practice, but you can't GIT GUD against players who hit you outside of their weapon's actual range and backstab you from the front. I really like the invasion idea in theory, but in practice it's a load of cheap poo poo. Is there anything to be done about this, in terms of fiddling with connections or anything?

You'll kind of have to abuse lag yourself to win. Roll before they've even done anything. Usually if you bait them to attack without getting hit, you can scare them into rolling away from you. Then you can chase them until they run out stamina, which is when you can actually land a hit or two. If you aren't using a huge loving greatsword or something and they are, you're kind of at a disadvantage though.

One time I came across a dude that was literally warping around because he was lagging so badly. That poo poo made me want to unplug my internet for a few seconds.

Minorkos fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Apr 27, 2014

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

NamePolice posted:

Is there a chart anywhere that shows recommended SM for each area?

There kind of isn't one. People are doing areas at just about any SM, since the order in which you do the areas comes down to personal choice. I'd imagine at around 1 mil SM you'll find less people to co-op with in general if you aren't doing the late-game areas.

edit: vvvv you should get a controller

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

PirateBob posted:

he;pl what do I put points in.. do I need magic or not.. pls decide for me :downs:



You should get both your Vigor and Endurance up to 20. After that the diminishing returns start to kick in.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

I know DEX scaling is apparently bad, but is that also the case for power stanced weapons? Obviously, you'll get twice as much scaling and damage in general, but it costs twice the stamina. However, I don't think that's that much of an issue since most bosses and enemies only give you time to attack once or twice between their attacks, so it's great that you can dump almost your entire stamina pool in an instant.

I'm probably going to make a STR character next and see how it holds up in comparison.

A part of me wishes that there wasn't a respec system. I kind of feel like I could save myself time and reroll my current character to a STR one and play in NG+1, but that's kind of lame. Besides my current dude is named Jetstream Sam so it just doesn't feel right playing him as a STR guy.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

neetengie posted:

Probably take ADP to 25

This is really important. It should be in the thread title. I didn't think it mattered due to some people saying it's useless, but it's loving vital you want to rely on rolling at all. I went from getting tagged by every attack to dodging them with like a 90% success rate.

By the way, I keep hearing stuff about this thing called "voice chat". How do I use it?

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

nftyw posted:

I wish Luna Belfry did not have all these dumb two on one situations. Bellbros can basically play wahh wahh little baby whenever and wherever and they get bailed out for free by whoever comes in after them. And even if you do take out the phantoms, you get jack poo poo for it.

Still, it was very nice sunbro-ing it up with the few higher level people who wished to go in there to take out the gargoyles. Made better by the couple times where we not only beat them, but shoved a club up a few phantoms' asses who were likely all too used to "heh I don't need any skill I just need to surviv- oh shi- LIGHTNING SPEAR'D"

Also one tremendous coward who disconnected the moment he saw that it was one against two instead of his usual comfy two against one :frogout:

If I'm a second invader in the Belfries, I always let the other phantom fight the host 1v1. Then the host can heal if he wins and then the real fight begins.

I just had a fight with a host who had managed to beat the other phantom. Both of us had dual wielded swords, and we kept just barely landing hits on each other over the course of like 2 minutes. We both had a sliver of health. We traded hits, and we both died. I think I died a microsecond before he did since I didn't get a reward.

Minorkos fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Apr 28, 2014

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

How does the Demon Great Hammer scale with STR? Is it worth going above 25, seeing as it hits the soft cap two-handed? I don't plan on one-handing at all.

Also, the early game is fairly easy with one of those things. I was able to take over a half of a ruin sentinel's HP with a combo of 2 heavy attacks.

I don't think twinking is really fixed. If you just stop losing your souls or buying dumb poo poo with them, you can easily hit level 85 or something with only like 270k soul memory. I'm guessing that by the time I'll reach the real Bellfry PvP range, which will be at about 500k, I'll already be like level 125 with a +5 Pursuer Greatsword or some poo poo.

I'm fairly sure the real reason why you can't twink effectively is because you can't invade really non-sinners outside Bell and Rat invasions. I think? Confirm or deny, please.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Artificer posted:

The cutoff point for adaptability is 37 right? That's the number to go for?

Adaptability isn't really the thing that scales, agility is. You'll want around 95-99 agility to dodge stuff reliably.

I guess you can also dump adaptability altogether, and just not roll, but there are some enemies and bosses in the late game that will murder you pretty bad if you don't know how to roll.

If you didn't know already, remember that it's better to roll through an attack, not away from it.

Jack Trades posted:

How do you riposte enemies after guard breaking them? I'm trying to walk up to them and to a light attack before they recover but it comes out like a normal attack.

You have to wait like half a second. It's really weird since all you want to do is KILL KILL KILL but you really have to wait a bit before you can do it. The guard break state lasts quite a while, don't worry.

Remember that you can only guard break enemies holding their shields up. There aren't that many enemies that are guard breakable, only humanoids with shields.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Artificer posted:

Ah. Is there a cutoff point for agility then?

It's kind of a mystery. Going from 85 to 99-ish is huge and you will definitely notice it. Going from 99 and up, apparently not so much. Remember that you don't even need any extra frames once you can reliably roll through attacks. Raise it to like 90 at first, then see how much more you need by just playing the game.

White Phosphorus posted:

So instead of gitting gud there is a stat that makes rolling easier? Casual souls indeed.

The roll is really bad until you get enough agility. Like, not really even worth using as a defensive option except as a last resort since it's so unreliable.

Minorkos fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Apr 29, 2014

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Darox posted:

poo poo, nobody told me Dex weapons were useless. Guess this Blacksteel Katana with pure dex scaling that has an amazing moveset for PvP and fantastic damage is garbage. Seriously, I just use it 2h (with a pyromancy hand in the offhand to buff it) and it wrecks everything. Most enemies I can kill in a single combo, the damage is great.

Blood Brotherhood duels finally seem to be possible, though I don't know if that's my SL reaching a certain point or more people finally reaching this area.

E: Also my favourite thing about PvP is when some dork tries to use a shield. It's so satisfying just hitting him until he staggers and getting a free critical hit.

Two-handing a Blacksteel katana is essentially pointless. You aren't adding any damage to it since the only thing 2-handing does is double your strength, and the weapon does not scale from strength.

Take one in each hand, friend. Learn to dodge through attacks. Learn to love the fact that you have to hold the button down for like half a second to activate the power stance mid-combat.

Studio posted:

YO I'M STARTING A NEW CHARACTER.

WHAT WEAPON SHOULD I USE (Nothing that involves me going to Drangleic or beyond. That poo poo is too far)

The Old Whip and lots of repair powder, then make a beeline for the Huntsman's Copse and get a whip that doesn't fall apart after 2 attacks. Maybe dual wield that poo poo? I don't know.

Minorkos fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Apr 29, 2014

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Studio posted:

I actually want to do Demon's Great Hammer, but I don't want to spam new characters to farm it.

Hahaha, I had this same idea yesterday.

"I'll make a bunch of lovely characters real quick and try to get that hammer. I'm guessing it'll take me like 10 tries"

Then it drops on my first try. Now I have a dumb looking character with a big rear end hammer.

Anyway, you should let fate decide. See what weapon drops first and go with that!

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Slackmaw posted:

The weirdest thing just happened! I got invaded in Belfry Sol, died and dropped around 10k souls, when I went back and retrieved them I suddenly had over 100k souls. Does anyone know what might have happened? It kinda ruined my soul memory. :( E: This happened on NG, if that matters.

Eh, your soul memory isn't ruined. Go buy some vigor or something.

There is really no way to "ruin" your soul memory unless you lose like 12 million souls, then kill all the NPCs in the game, and THEN head into NG+ with a gimped character, making you eligible for all sorts of high-level invasions. But even then you can just buy that chameleon spell and play the game as like a stealth game with all the invasions? That might make for a fun playthrough, actually.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

THE PWNER posted:

Was the lost sinner nerfed for PC? My friend was telling me how hard she is etc but I did her without doing the gargoyles first and it was just "roll, attack twice, repeat" and I killed her on the first try.

Then I found out that I didn't summon Lucatiel when I should have. I wish she was hard so I'd have died :(

I never played on the consoles but yes, she apparently was stronger before.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Illegal Username posted:

loving gently caress these ruin sentinels are insane and i've already wasted all my consumables and effigies and what do you mean Lost Bastille is not the correct place to go straight after forest of lost giants


this loving game

Do you have a white soapstone? If so, use it near the door before the boss. You'll get summoned and then you can kill the boss enough times that you learn how to kill it. Or you can just farm it for souls.

Also, use a blunt weapon if you have one.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Tracula posted:

Rolling with whips is actually staggeringly fun even if they're aren't that great. A bit sad that I can just switch to a basic club and mash things into paste while it takes a good number of hits with a rather upgraded whip just to do the same damage.

Doesn't the Old Whip do kind of absurd damage? Maybe get that whip, then skip DEX just and put an enchantment on it. I like the idea of a lightning or fire whip.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Tracula posted:

The old whip does absolutely insane damage but it breaks so fast that you need to use repair powers every 10 attacks or so.

:shrug:

I guess you could always use some other whips power stanced, I'd imagine that's pretty good for PvE. Then use the Old Whip if you're at a boss or a tuff enemy. I don't know.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Haha, using Sunlight Blade on the Demon Great Hammer is kind of a funny combination. I just got it on my new STR/FTH dude who has 900k soul memory. Every Belfry invader I get loses like 80% of their HP to a single light attack swing. It's hilarious.

I used the Iron Keep guy to get the cost of that Sunlight Blade lower, so I only need 30 faith to cast it. And I only have 4 attunement so I'm using that attunement slot ring for the spell. Feeling pretty minmaxed.

I'd feel bad about using this combo but all Bellfry invaders are jerks so it's fine.

Not sure what to do with the rest of my souls from now on. I guess I'll pump it into vigor.

FrancoFish posted:

Iron Keep can suck my dick. These loving samurai assholes go right through my shield. Are their attacks SUPPOSED to be unblockable?

Remember that there are like 2 attacks total that can't be rolled through in this game. When they take a swing at you, roll right into them just as the blade passes through you and you won't take damage. I can't recall if those guys have unblockable attacks, or if they're just costly to block, but rolling through poo poo gets easy the more you do it as long as your agility isn't under 90 or something.

Minorkos fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Apr 30, 2014

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Ignimbrite posted:

Out of interest, what are they?

The number I named was more of a joke. As far as I know, you can't be hurt during invulnerability frames at all, except if you get petrified by a basilisk cloud or something. Other than that, I can't really name any attacks that could hurt you in those roll invulnerability frames. But if you come out of those invulnerability frames into an attack hitbox, you get hit, which is why a lot of lingering AoE stuff is really hard to dodge.

I kind of wish they'd communicate the rolling stuff better. It's not really intuitive if you think about it. I wouldn't really want to roll into a gigantic rat that is trying to body slam me in a real fight scenario. I got through DS1 twice without ever really properly abusing the invulnerability frames like I'm doing now in DS2.

edit: ^^^^ visions of horse... but hole

Minorkos fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Apr 30, 2014

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Robot Randy posted:

Shrine of Amana is loving terrible

You can roll through those magic missiles. Just when they're about to hit you with one, roll forward and it'll harmlessly pass through you! Might want to grab a bow for those crossfire situations, though.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

I really wish there was a Ring of Fog in this game. You can't do a proper Predator set-up without one! There's everything else you need, too. Handclaws, the mask, plasma cannons, combisticks. Damnit.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Just came back to my dual wielding DEX dude after playing my STR guy, and I got so upset with my damage output that I respecced to being DEX/FTH to play some PvP. I feel like I'm doing twice as much damage as I did before, except with half the stamina costs. So yep, any quality/physical scaling build got shafted pretty hard.

I feel like DEX weapons are better for PvP though. It's hard to say. I've been using katanas, greathammers and ultra greatswords but I feel like the 2h katana is the most reliable as a weapon. Really, the best strategy I was able to come up with the Demon Great Hammer was to roll to the left side of the enemy and following up with a 2h R1. That attack comes pretty much instantly, and I'm pretty sure it's "dead angling" my enemies a lot of time (hitting them behind their shields by catching them with my backswing without lock-on, though I'm not sure if this technique is still in the game).

Other than that, using the hammer in any other way was kind of suicide unless they were also using a slow rear end weapon. I guess you can sometimes bait them to attack you by intentionally whiffing an attack and then attacking them, but obviously that comes with huge risk. The hammer was pretty good against turtlers since it drained their stamina AND did a ton of lightning damage through that shield. It is fun when you land a hit with the hammer since it tends to take like half of an enemy's life bar away, sometimes most of it. I've won like 70% of my duels with that hammer.

That being said, I still think I prefer DEX weapons for PvP, namely a Lightning Chaos Blade with Sunlight Blade. There's just a lot more you can do and it's a lot more responsive. One thing I really like doing is stuttering my attacks. I act like I'm out of stamina after attacking, and then as soon as they close in, I take another strike. Oh, and I also like backstepping whenever they charge at me to dodge their attack, and immediately following up with a stab and a flurry of attacks.

Man, the PvP is so much more functional than in Dark Souls 1. The only thing I really dislike is the fact that all builds tend to get homogenized as soul memories grow higher. Eventually everyone seems to be running around with 50 vigor, 25 adaptability, 20+ endurance, 40 INT or FTH and so on.

Oh well, at least you can still make a new character and get him to PvP in like an hour.

edit: the highlight of my PvP run today was taking out 3 soapstone dark spirits in a row. I mean they each waited for their turn to fight me patiently, which really was nice of them, but still. Killed the last one without my sunlight blade, too!!

Minorkos fucked around with this message at 19:32 on May 1, 2014

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Akett posted:

Man, I feel like helping people fight the Covetous Demon is the most subtly insulting thing you can do. It's like you're saying "Ha! You need help with this guy!"

And yet it's the best option I have for getting my humanity back because my soul memory is so high that the only people who can summon me in Heide's are in NG+ and pretty much everything else is a tad crazy.

Assuming you've gotten there, Shrine of Amana is a pretty good place to farm human effigies. The lizard folk drop them.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

voltron lion force posted:

You can cancel out of emotes now so its really a non issue.

I can't imagine if it or owns.

On one hand, emotes are no longer the ultimate "whatever bitch I can make myself a huge target by taunting you and still win" they were in PvP.

On the other hand, you can now do the welcome animation in front of someone and smash them into the ground as they charge at you in an attempt to score a cheap shot.

Verdict: it owns, but only until every jerk in PvP realizes it can be canceled

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Kawabata posted:

Is the "stopping at SL 150" thing still a thing? Because everyone doing that would be steamrolled by any player not agreeing with the way "organized PvP" works. You'd duel with lvl 250 guys having the same SM you have.

150 is also very, very low, you can easily get to it in the first playthrough by doing some pvp and white phantom work. Am I the only one having fun leveling up in NG+ and above?

Sadly there's no reason to stop leveling in terms of PvP, which means eventually everyone who truly wants to win ends up rolling with a full set of fully upgraded havels and 50 in every stat that even remotely matters to them. The fact that most stats hit their softcaps earlier now (allowing for more different kinds of builds) would make this game really good for level-based PvP, but sadly the soul memory system kind of shits on that.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Asehujiko posted:

Bellbros who just stand there while I fight the host

They're the ones who aren't jerks :colbert:

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Cart Mountain posted:

That guy is cool

I was helping someone out with the Pursuer some time ago. I was wrecking him with the Demon's Great Hammer, while the host went for the ballista. I think the Pursuer had like 30% HP left after I had been fighting it for like half a minute, and the host lands a shot on me. My dude slumps over with a gigantic piece of wood sticking out of my head. Then the Pursuer destroys the ballista the host was using.

I laughed my rear end off so hard.

"DON'T WORRY BRO I GOT IT"

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Umberger posted:

Supposedly those became the Manikins. If true, this is the mask they went with.

I've seen people complaining about the manikin masks looking lovely compared to the trailers, but I think that was the point. Those masks looked hella anime in that trailer, and would've been really out of place in this game.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

The thing that makes katanas really good in PvP is their huge counter damage. For example, both Uchigatana and Chaos Blade have 150% counter damage, which means you'll be dealing 1.5x more damage whenever your enemy is attacking. Trading attacks is a huge part of PvP. And as soon as you win one trade and you have a HP lead, you can use that HP lead to stay aggressive and force your opponent to either trade more attacks or waste stamina into rolls and stuff. Also, the counter damage bonus also works on the bonus damage given by weapon buffs, so it's doubly good.

Here's some math

+10 Lightning Chaos Blade is 190 physical and 190 lightning damage.

Add some scaling you'll get with 25 dex and 42 faith and it's more like 210/220 damage. (just a random estimation)

Now add the buff and you'll have 210/351.

Now multiply that with the counter bonus and you'll have 315/567 damage.

If you've ever been 2-shot with a buffed katana in PvP, that's the reason.

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

It's great that Great Resonant Soul burns like 2/3rds of your stamina in addition to dealing gently caress-off huge damage when you get hit by one :shepface:

(at least I think it does)

It's really easy to dodge in PvP but occasionally someone casts it while I'm buffing my weapon and it's game loving over for me

Minorkos fucked around with this message at 15:43 on May 7, 2014

Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Chomp8645 posted:

But still soul memory is way, WAY better for NG then soul level was. Just because it's not a perfect system doesn't mean it's not a massive improvement.

Not really. Even now you can still avoid 90% of the enemies in this game and do bosses with 2 phantoms for minimal soul memory gain while gathering all the weapons spells you need to be an overpowered jerk in PvP. I'm fairly sure I could create a character with like 100k-200k soul memory but still a +10 weapon and a weapon buff of some kind. I don't know if I could actually invade anyone outside Belfry Luna with that kind of set-up though, seeing as low-level red invasions are weird somehow.

And honestly the easiest way to "twink" in this game is to make a new character and fight new players. Put a guy with a +10 weapon and 5 hours of total playtime up against someone with a base weapon and 100 hours and the guy with 100 hours will probably win just about every time. Low level invasions are only ever fair if both players have both the same level of gear and experience, and that almost never happens.

It feels like they did a decent job at stopping twinking by just making invasions harder to do before lategame and ng+, but then they added a bunch of other completely redundant things as well, like the soul memory system. I'd much prefer to stay at a set level to retain some sort of cohesive specialized build, rather than constantly level up towards some kind of "be good at everything" build.

Minorkos fucked around with this message at 22:14 on May 7, 2014

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Minorkos
Feb 20, 2010

Cardiovorax posted:

Trading is still possible, right? So there's really nothing stopping you from loading up on stuff on one character and muling the poo poo onto a twink with the help of a buddy or something.

It might be difficult to mule, seeing as the game won't let players with too different soul memories connect.

I guess you could create a ladder of mules at different soul memories but at that point you're doing a whole lot of work to slightly inconvenience someone in a video game

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