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Zedsdeadbaby posted:Does it still involve upgrading the pyromancy flame? Yes, but you can upgrade any catalyst so it's not that different. Plus it just uses titanite this time. That said, upgrading it only increases the scaling, it seems, so it's more important the more Int/Faith you have.
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Apr 11, 2016 12:30
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SoggyGravy posted:Question: if I want to do some magic plus melee and am just casual enough of a player to not want to do more than one character what stats/build options could I focus on that will allow me to enjoy early and late game? This is going to depend on what you want out of magic. Dark Souls 3 kinda wants you to really commit to magic if you want to use offensive spells. Sorcery and miracles both soft-cap at 60, instead of 40 (which is where weapon scaling soft caps for all stats); pyromancy soft-caps whenever the sum of your Intelligence + Faith is 60 (so 30/30, 40/20, whatever). If you just want to use some buff spells and utility spells, you can pretty safely get maybe 15/15 to meet requirements and enjoy having a variety of useful spells, including the pretty good pyromancy weapon buff. If you want to do full-on offensive casting, though, that's pretty much what you're going to have to build around, and use infused weapons for melee. I wouldn't try to split the difference, at least not the way it's balanced right now. You're kind of going to have to pick between "primarily a physical build with some utility/buff spells" or "full-on wizard."
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Apr 11, 2016 13:59
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Tiger Millionaire posted:I think I'm going to go a quality / int build. And end up using the mlgs or whatever scaling int gear Yes, though unless you go significantly above 40 Int you're not going to have very strong Soul Spears to back up your infused melee. My recommendations would be to either:
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Apr 11, 2016 14:06
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RBA Starblade posted:Last question I have otherwise I'm going in blind; after getting an ending, can you reload and try for the others (that are available to you) or do you need to beat the game multiple times to see it all? In Dark Souls 2 you could just keep going afterward for more stuff. You do not go straight to NG+ after the credits unless you choose to, but you can't fight the final boss again for a different ending. You should be able to "save scum" for them all, though, by copying your save pre-final boss. That said (very minor spoiler) one of the endings requires that you meet certain requirements earlier in the game.
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Apr 11, 2016 15:06
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DrBouvenstein posted:Is it lame to take a sick day for video games? I dunno, maybe, but their my sick days, I rarely use them, and as far as I'm concerned it'll be a "mental health day." I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow to play all day, so it's probably no more lame than that. (Incidentally I'm also legitimately sick today but I couldn't force myself to take two days off in a row when one of them is for a relatively frivolous reason, so here I am at work coughing my lungs out onto my keyboard.)
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Apr 11, 2016 15:29
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Fuzz posted:I love that when it came to choosing video games vs spreading your pestilence to everyone you work with, you chose video games. At least I have an office and no meetings today, so my plague spreading will be limited. I don't make great decisions.
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Apr 11, 2016 15:33
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Fhqwhgads posted:I went PC for this since I actually have the kind of hardware that should run this maxed at 60fps for a change. Now I'm torn between Knight and Pyro for my first playthrough. So many upgrade paths I want to try, so many weapons... Pyromancy is good. Actually all the magic is good, it just requires a ton of investment and 30 Intelligence/30 Faith is just a little more accessible than 60 in either Intelligence or Faith. Chaos-infused weapons are extremely strong (apparently Chaos Estoc is one of the PvP god-weapons right now) so going full pyro is a good choice. Just keep a Deep or Dark weapon around for whenever you run into something that resists fire.
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Apr 11, 2016 15:36
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Wildtortilla posted:Yep. Gotta be the tough guy who brings down the entire office. It's the American way 
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Apr 11, 2016 15:40
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RBA Starblade posted:That's good to know too! I was reading gripes about it, even after the fix. Maybe I'll go Herald and work up. So, the thing about Faith is that the Lightning Spear-type miracles don't work the way everyone thought they did. If you use them at range, like you would in the past two Souls games, they're insultingly weak for their FP cost. Just so bad. But their damage scales based on your proximity to the target, and if you're point-blank, they're very strong. They also have hyperarmor on their casting animation (and you can get more with the talisman weapon art) and cast much more quickly than DS1/2. Basically, miracles are now fully melee-magic. Lightning Spears have range and you can use them for pulling or punishing Estus chugging in PvP, but the real damage comes in when you slam a Sunlight Spear directly into someone's face. People didn't get that at first (and also didn't know that magic soft-caps at 60 instead of 40 this time), which is why there was a lot of "magic is broken and scaling does nothing" a couple of weeks ago. (Also, much like DS1, catalysts/talismans have varying ratios of base magic adjust to scaling that can mean that the best talisman for you to use at 35 Faith probably isn't the same as the best one for you to use at 55 Faith.)
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Apr 11, 2016 15:48
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Helter Skelter posted:You can try it out yourself if you have a laptop with HDMI out laying around. Does the Steam Link not have any special features that regular in-home streaming doesn't, then? Fhqwhgads posted:Definitely making me lean Pyro now. I didn't know about the Chaos Estoc (which sounds great actually). I figured with the Raw Astora's, I'd be able to infuse it with whatever I needed at the time through a mix of Sorc/Pyro/Faith buffs or whatever the resin equivalent is. Hearing the Chaos Estoc is PvP viable (at least right now) is great too since apparently the Raw Astora's really isn't. Basically anything with a Chaos infusion is real strong. The Estoc is just a good candidate because it has an incredible move set and great range, with very low requirements (a normal Estoc is the starting weapon for the Assassin class). There's also (weapon spoiler) a really cool Int/Faith-scaling whip with a fiery weapon art that has ridiculous range and is very, very cool if you like that kind of weapon. I'd say that, this time around, weapon buffs are probably better for you if you're not a "pure" caster, something like having enough Int/Faith for the buff you want but then having enough physical stats to scale your weapon, too. Like, you could do a 40 Dex/50 Faith build (at NG+ or PvP meta levels) and use Sunlight Blade with a fast Dex weapon for crazy good damage, or 40 Dex and 30/30 Int/Faith and do the same with Carthus Flame Arc (Flame Weapon), though I don't know if it's as strong as the top-tier miracle weapon buffs. You'd be giving up a lot of Vigor and Endurance on both of those builds, though, assuming you want to stay within a specific SL range. My first build is going to be Dex/Faith--there are some very cool Faith-scaling weapons that look like they're right up my alley--but pure pyro is second on the list for sure. Harrow fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Apr 11, 2016 |
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Apr 11, 2016 15:57
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Suaimhneas posted:But that doesn't look as cool as firing it from range. Interestingly, one of the lightning miracles even makes reference to the throwing lightning spears in the DS1 opening cinematic, probably to head off the "uh but that's not how lightning spears worked for Gwyn, using them in melee goes against the lore" objection that I've already seen all over the place. Quote from an item description in the spoiler: "This tale describes the lost practices of ancient dragonslayers, who found that in order to pierce dragonscale, lightning should not be hurled as a bolt, but rather be thrust as a stake directly into the dragon's hide, to be truly effective." So apparently the knights in that cinematic were doing it wrong, according to this here retcon 
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Apr 11, 2016 16:04
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queeb posted:so the partizan move set looks retarded good. Would a dex/pyro build work? shield and spear and bust out some fire spells on people. Probably dex. int/faith to 15 just to unlock the pyro spells, and vit/end/whatever to taste. does this make sense? never really made a build for a dark souls game. I'm not super sure how strong pyromancy would be at 15/15, and you'd be missing the requirements for a few really good pyromancies. I think it's more important that you use the three pyromancy-enhancing rings than having the best possible scaling stats, so your low-requirement pyromancies should be able to hit pretty hard, but you're still missing out on things like this game's version of Forbidden Sun. It's worth noting that you can infuse the Partizan, so you could go pure pyromancer (30/30 is the soft-cap) and just meet the minimum requirements for the Partizan and infuse it with Chaos so it scales with your pyro stats. If you'd prefer to buff, you could do like 25/25 and 30+ Dex, then buff it with fire and stab away.
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Apr 11, 2016 16:11
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Wildtortilla posted:What does chaos add to a weapon and what does it scale with in DS3? I'm probably going pyro in t minus SEVEN HOURS. Chaos lowers physical damage and adds fire damage that scales with Intelligence and Faith equally. I think it's B/B, which is pretty drat strong for scaling with two stats. I don't know how far into the game you have to go to get the necessary crystal to infuse a weapon with the Chaos path. In the early game, you can get a Fire weapon that doesn't scale at all, and that can get you through until you get Chaos. (A Fire Gem is one of the starting gift choices, so you can get a Fire weapon extremely early.)
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Apr 11, 2016 16:13
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Putting this on the next page since it got cut off.
Harrow fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Apr 11, 2016 |
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Apr 11, 2016 16:28
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Since there's a lot of weapon upgrade talk, I'll just go ahead and list all the upgrade paths. I'll put 'em in spoilers in case anyone wants to discover these for themselves. Physical-Scaling Upgrade Paths. Note that all of these can be buffed with resins or weapon buff spells.
Magic-Scaling Upgrade Paths. Note that these cannot be buffed with resins or weapon buff spells. All of these lower base damage and Strength/Dexterity scaling, so I don't have to repeat that every time.
Non-Scaling Upgrade Paths. All of these remove all of the scaling from a weapon.
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Apr 11, 2016 16:31
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queeb posted:thanks a ton for this, I guess I'm going pure pyro! how hard is it to meet the stat requirements for armor? something about a heavy armor pyro sounds great, but I'm afraid of not having enough points to dump into vit/end/whatever There aren't any requirements to wear armor beyond equip weight, so Vitality is your only concern here. For reference, the Knight class starts with a full set of Knight armor and doesn't fat-roll with their base 15 Vitality. That said, there are some extremely heavy armor sets and weapons. There's also a ring that gives you a flat +5 to Vigor (HP), Vitality, and Endurance. It's really hard to say how much Vitality you need until you know what weapons and armor you're going to use. If you're going pure pyro, though, you should have plenty of points left over to get however much Vitality you need. The magic numbers for equip weight, last I heard, are 30% (fastest roll) and 70% (when you start fat-rolling). I think there's a steady decrease in your roll distance up to 70%, like in DS2, but no change in i-frames. It seems like people are pretty content to stay at like 69% equip weight, and it looks like the roll distance at that weight is better than it would be in DS2. So equip weight is simultaneously more forgiving (its effects are less pronounced) and less forgiving (armor and weapons are generally heavier than DS2). Worth noting that all this stat-talk assumes a couple things: first, that you're talking about NG+/PvP level stuff, because you'll probably finish your first playthrough around SL 70ish, like usual; and second, that you're limiting yourself to a certain SL range for matchmaking purposes. Harrow fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Apr 11, 2016 |
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Apr 11, 2016 16:35
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voltcatfish posted:I was like 105 when I killed Allant in Demon's Souls DS1 was my first Souls game and I think I was like 95 when I beat Gwyn so I know the feeling. I'd say it's because I did all the DLC stuff, too, but it's probably just because I overleveled because I decided I wanted to use the MLGS on what had up to that point been a pretty pure Dex build. No idea what level I was when I beat Allant in Demon's Souls, but I'm pretty sure my first Demon's Souls character never got over SL 85 or so, even though I went a decent ways into NG+. Also I miss Demon's Souls a lot and I wish I still had a PS3
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Apr 11, 2016 16:42
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voltcatfish posted:Tell me about Dex/Luck, Harrow. Genocyber is correct. There's not really much reason to level both, with the Hollow infusion around and resins to add Bleed on top of already Bleed-stacking weapons.
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Apr 11, 2016 16:44
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Kiggles posted:You can't use resins on infused weapons tho, right? Hollow weapons can be buffed, just like Sharp, Heavy, Refined, and Raw. No other infusion can be buffed.
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Apr 11, 2016 16:47
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The rule for "can this weapon be buffed?" is basically:
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Apr 11, 2016 16:51
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I played Dark Souls 1/2 all weekend with a Steam controller and the bumpers are kind of a dealbreaker for me. I actually like the trackpad well enough, but the bumpers are just too stiff for a game that uses them a lot. (I tried to remap the controls to use the triggers as R1/L1 and the back paddles as R2/L2, but my reflexes from playing a lot of years of Souls were too much to overcome. If you're not in that position, that might work really well for you!) I did, however, get past all of Anor Londo (including the archers) first try on two separate characters with it, and beat O&S on both with it, so it clearly wasn't hindering me.
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Apr 11, 2016 16:55
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sector_corrector posted:In general terms, are there fun utility pyromancies? DS2 had a few (warmth, flash sweat, fire weapon), but utility stuff has always mainly been Sorc. and Miracles. I've been hoping that they gave pyromancy some stuff to do that's not just damage. Yes, though Warmth is crappy now and has a high Faith requirement. There are multiple "Sweat"-type pyromancies for boosting resistances and more than one damage-boosting personal buff. I think 12/12 or 15/15 gets you access to all the utilities and buffs.
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Apr 11, 2016 17:13
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RBA Starblade posted:Ohh, I see. So magic is the longer range stuff (Soul Greatsword aside), pyro is a grab-bag, and miracles are close-range? That's pretty cool actually. I'm definitely going to try battlemage again then. Thanks for the info! Yup! Sorcery is long-range and mostly single-target (with a few, flashy exceptions), with a couple of close-range panic buttons. Pyromancy brings AoEs and slightly shorter range (again, with a few, flashy exceptions), along with the Combustion melee-range spell and one more extremely cool melee spell. Faith is purely melee-range, with the option to go long-range if you absolutely have to, but that isn't its ideal range.
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Apr 11, 2016 17:24
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1-800-DOCTORB posted:So how does upgrading work now? Does each upgrade path have it's own titanite type or is it mostly regular titanite with the occasional twinkling like in DSII? And are there embers you must find before you can start infusions? All the same titanite for normal/infused weapons. Titanite Scales are the new Dragon Scales and Twinkling Titanite is back, though all weapons require a Titanite Slab for the final upgrade, regardless of what they took before. There are embers again, too, though they're called Coals now. Each one unlocks a few upgrade paths.
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Apr 11, 2016 17:27
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voltcatfish posted:I don't think you have to upgrade armor any more!!!! Correct, armor upgrading is gone, which I'm very happy about. Calaveron posted:Does estus work like in ds1 or 2 or does healing suck balls like in bloodborne Estus Flask is back, refills at bonfires, you chug it quick like in DS1.
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Apr 11, 2016 17:29
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TaurusOxford posted:So is it like Bloodborne where armors are more or less the same in terms of stats so there's no excuse for not being fashionable, or are there still significant defence tiers like the other games? I'm told defense is pretty noticeable, but armor with high defense tends to be really heavy, too. Damage absorption seems to be percentage-based, so armor that's good at the start will still be good at the end.
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Apr 11, 2016 17:35
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4000 Dollar Suit posted:So is the 3 weapon slot, 4 ring slot thing from DS2 back? Yes. There's also an extra fifth ring slot just for covenant rings. You can switch covenants just by switching rings, any time you want, no NPC visits or sin absolution required.
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Apr 11, 2016 17:42
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:There doesn't seem to be much point in going dex/pyro at all I'm gonna do it at some point. Something like 40 Dex/25 Int/25 Faith, use a Carthus Curved Greatsword buffed with Carthus Flame Arc. I just want to go full Carthus, really. Going actual dex/pyro is basically for buffing and occasionally throwing fire spells around. It also helps because it gets you really fast casting speed without having to use a ring slot on the faster casting ring. But you can also be really strong by infusing a weapon with Chaos and going full pyro.
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Apr 11, 2016 17:46
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Oh well, full pyro chaos weapon playthrough next time then.
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Genocyber posted:Seems like casting speed from dex is kind of worthless since the speed boosting ring puts cast speed near the cap, equivalent to ~40 points of dex. I heard that you need 25 Dex + the ring to get max casting speed. Whether that's noticeable compared to like... 18 Dex + the ring is another question entirely. Either way, when I do make a Dex/Pyro hybrid, it'll mostly be for buffing a curved sword that'll be, on its own, stronger than a raw weapon. Chaos is probably more efficient, but a Carthus Pyromancer build would be as much for cool points as for power. And 25/25 with the three pyro rings should be plenty strong anyway. Probably have to sacrifice a bit on Vigor (30 + Prisoner's Chain) to get there, but that's okay--the difference between 35 Vigor and 40 Vigor is like 50 HP, I'll deal.
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Apr 11, 2016 17:50
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scary ghost dog posted:each level is the size of undead burg + lower undead burg + undead parish, complete with shortcuts, but they seldom connect to each other. Given this description, I'd say it's like Bloodborne. Not all that many inter-area connections, but many paths through each area with shortcuts.
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Apr 11, 2016 17:55
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Captain Oblivious posted:Harrow while we're on STAT CHAT have you come across any info on soft caps/diminishing returns breakpoints for Vigor and Endurance and the like? The offensive stats have been well covered at this point, but the others less so. Yep! https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls3JPN/comments/4buqwd/some_numbers_for_stat_caps_small_spoilers/ Its scaling number breakdown is kind of flawed--the person didn't take into account the damage jump from meeting minimum requirements, and really no one weapon tells the whole story with scaling--but these are the HP, FP, Stamina, and equip load numbers for various stat increments. HP growth seems to slow down at 40 Vigor, like you'd expect. (I was wrong, though--the difference between 35 and 40 Vigor is actually 72 HP, not 50.) Given the HP buff from using an Ember and the presence of a ring that gives +5 Vigor, I could see arguments for stopping at anywhere from 30 to 45 Vigor, depending on your build and how much PvP you want to do and whether you think 100 HP is a big deal or not. Harrow fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Apr 11, 2016 |
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Apr 11, 2016 18:09
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voltcatfish posted:I wish I could play Bloodborne Bloodborne is the reason I'm glad I have a PS4. I know it's not for everyone, but it's far and away my favorite game in this series for a whole lot of reasons. I've said before that if I love DS3 even half as much as I love Bloodborne, it'll be one of my favorite games of all time.
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Apr 11, 2016 18:30
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bef posted:uhh whats bloodborne like Mostly linear progression between areas, multiple paths through each area with plentiful shortcuts inside each area.
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Apr 11, 2016 18:52
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bef posted:that sounds good but no loop around/full circle stuff like ds1? i take it Yeah. Think Demon's Souls/DS1-like level design (complex areas) but without looping around to other areas and a lot of inter-area connections. Apparently DS3's areas are notably larger than Bloodborne's, too, and it has a few more side-areas.
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Apr 11, 2016 18:55
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Captain Oblivious posted:DS2 basically, but for some reason he's averse to saying it. Eh, I wouldn't say Bloodborne's world design is the same as DS2. On a macro level, yes, there aren't really any complex interconnections between areas, though to be fair to DS2, Bloodborne is more linear than DS2. Within each area, though, Bloodborne tends to have more complex layouts, because it prefers to loop back on itself and have the player hunt for shortcuts. DS2, by comparison, tends to be more about continuing forward and finding new bonfies. There are a couple of areas where that isn't the case, like No Man's Wharf or some of the DLC areas, but for the most part the areas tend towards "find another bonfire" rather than "find a shortcut." That's the difference I'm talking about. (Incidentally, I'm not really sure why people treat DS1's interconnected first half like it's some sort of sacred cow. It's very cool in DS1 and the part of the game before you can warp is really compelling to me, but it's also the only game in the whole series that's had that. Demon's Souls sure as poo poo didn't and I like it more than DS1 as a whole, Bloodborne too.)
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Apr 11, 2016 19:13
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Vikar Jerome posted:Wait, whats that in the op, pyro needs int and faith now? The gently caress? How long have we known about this? Game is out on 3 hours and my planned build just went up in low int/faith flame. It's been known for quite a while now. Pyromancy scales equally with Intelligence and Faith, and most (but not all) spells have an Intelligence and/or Faith requirement. (Notably, some very powerful spells have no requirement at all, and most of them have very low requirements.) It soft-caps at 30/30 (or whenever the sum of your Intelligence and Faith is 60, if you want to go for a different balance).
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Apr 11, 2016 19:21
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Vermain posted:Your best bet for an Arcane Knight sort of character is likely going with INT and using sorceries. There are several sorceries that are intended for close-range combat, as well as several weapons that serve as both a regular weapon and a staff (allowing you to cast spells with them). Worth noting, though, that Faith is almost entirely about melee-range combat and spells, both for buffs and Lightning Spears (which do considerably more damage point-blank). It's not very "Arcane" though. Melee-range sorceries seem kind of lackluster to me, as cool as they are.
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Apr 11, 2016 19:24
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m.hache posted:Hm. If you just want to buff yourself, you don't need much Int/Faith at all. 15 Int/15 Faith gets you all of the pyromancy buffs and some great utilities from both sorcery and miracles. If you want to actually cast spells and deal damage, please note that, while weapon scaling soft-caps at 40, spell scaling doesn't soft-cap until 60 (60 Int for sorceries, 60 Faith for miracles, 30/30 or some combination adding up to 60 for pyromancy). Being an actual caster requires serious investment in your magic stats this time around. I'm also not convinced the melee-range sorceries are all that great, though they can be cool for mixing stuff up and punishing people who roll close to you in PvP. If you want to be mostly in melee, I'd go Faith or even pyromancy before I'd go sorcery, even though there are weapons that double as sorcery catalysts.
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Apr 11, 2016 19:30
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m.hache posted:Ok that sounds more in line. Depends on what kind of buff you're talking. I'd keep the casting catalyst/talisman/pyromancy flame in your left hand and your main weapon in your right. If you want to buff your weapon (like adding magic, fire, or lightning to it), switch your left hand to your catalyst and cast the buff to apply it to your right-hand weapon. For self-buffs--both miracles and pyromancy have some good ones--you just switch out to the catalyst, cast it, then switch to whatever else you want to use while you fight. Your other option is to go pure caster and use weapons infused with elemental damage. As you go through, you can upgrade most (but not all) weapons to have innate elemental damage that scales with your Int and/or Faith. Some of those upgrade paths are really good. For example, if you go pure pyromancer, the Chaos upgrade path is very strong when you get it--it adds fire damage that scales with Int and Faith equally and does great damage to anything that doesn't resist fire. But since it sounds like you want to go mostly melee, I'd do what you said, probably: start Knight, level Int/Faith until you can cast the buffs that you want, and then just focus on your weapons and physical stats.
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Apr 11, 2016 19:35
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Wildtortilla posted:It sounds like it's going to be tricky to use big weapons and give int/faith the respect they deserve to throw worthwhile fire spells. If it helps, Great Chaos Fire Orb and Chaos Fire Storm have no requirements at all. You can cast them with base Int/Faith no matter who you are and they hit real hard, too. On top of that, pyromancy's scaling is probably less drastic than both sorcery and miracle scaling, and it's probably more important that you wear pyromancy-boosting rings to boost your damage.
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Apr 11, 2016 19:40
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