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Dark Souls II |OT++| Bearer of...Seek...Seek...Lest

So I finally beat the game, level 160. Is there any good places to do sunbro bosses at this level? Or should I bite the bullet and do NG+?

Matchmaking is based on your Soul Memory. It's likely you are in the range to assist players fighting the bosses in the Throne of Want, that's what I did.
 

Wolff

Member
The only reason to dual anything in PvP is only if the power stancing moveset adds something substantial for usage. For example a 1H R1 that produces vertical moveset while the power stance L1 gives a horizontal. The strength of the katana lies in their long range from their running attack, so most people stay away from power stance.

Thanks for the info. I think the attacks from power stancing the blacksteel katanas are good, at least it seems like it.

Any tips on what i could use with a dex/faith character? I'm really new to pvp on the series and a bit unsure what to do.
 

Mentok

Banned
I pumped my agility to 110 to see what happens. Holy crap, I am untouchable now.
Also that estus chugging speed. I wonder if I can go back to 85 agility now that I got used to this.
Yeah Agility really starts to play a difference once you break 90. There were rolls where I would still get hit when I was at 89, that at 95 (where I am now) I take no damage.
 

2AdEPT

Member
Thanks for the info. I think the attacks from power stancing the blacksteel katanas are good, at least it seems like it.

Any tips on what i could use with a dex/faith character? I'm really new to pvp on the series and a bit unsure what to do.

Sun Sword with lightning infusion on a faith build, yay or nay? How is it compared to Heide's?

The defender and thorned greatswords get extra lightning buff and the largest bonus off faith stats....I THINK (somebody was spouting about the awesomeness that is them).... but not verified and not sure as I have not got my faith/hex guy that far yet, but these have wrecked my dex character in PVP a lot. Any sword buffed with the dark hex buff seems OP as well, Chaos blade for example...especially when it is killing me, so you can stick with Dex if you wish.

MT IIRC you like lighter weapons so that would be fine...I havent tried the sunlight sword though as I have not even had a chance to join the sunbro's yet! :(
 

2AdEPT

Member
Defender Greatsword moveset is nice but the damage is kinda crap even after being fully upgraded. :(

like I said I havent tried it out yet, but in the vid I saw the guy was gushing about the lightning bonus...base stat damage may be misleading as most things are not resistant to lightning? One of the two swords I mentioned, cant recall which, comes with a built in buff...just press R2 or something.....seemed kinda cool, but would explain why base damage would be less as they usually dont give you your cake and allow you to eat also.
 
So I ran dual claymores on a build for NG, any suggestions as to a "natural progression" step-up from that setup for NG+? Dual Zweihander, maybe? Dual Murakumos? Thoughts?
 
Wow I got the trophy from the dude that wants to have other npc's killed just by talking to him straight for like 5 minutes. Apparently I already have all that he wanted when I was talking the 2nd time I went back to his jail.

Fucking love how I have 6 slabs in my inventory. One of the many things from did right in this game.
 

maomaoIYP

Member
Thanks for the info. I think the attacks from power stancing the blacksteel katanas are good, at least it seems like it.

Any tips on what i could use with a dex/faith character? I'm really new to pvp on the series and a bit unsure what to do.

There's 2 possible routes you could possibly take.
1) 40 or 50 (lol) DEX, power stance two blacksteel +10, enough FAI to cast whatever miracles you like for long range annoyance. Or:
2) Use spices to lower the requirements for sunlight blade as low as you can, get at least one lightning blacksteel +10 and use sunlight blade to buff that. Take note that you can't buff both blacksteels at the same time. Only have enough FAI to cast your lowered sunlight buff. Then you can plug whatever stats you like elsewhere.

In general, for melee builds that make use of speed over power, I would say go for 50 VGR if you can afford it, and stay under 50% encumbrance. With 50 VGR and the third dragon ring you should have just over 2000 HP, and that will let you tank most hits easily.
I still advice against using lightning spears for miracle based PvP players, unless of course you're good at manual aiming.
PvP is mostly trying to bait the other player into a whiffed attack, poking with long range stabs/ spells, guard crush and backstab criticals. Since the blacksteel has a mix of vertical and horizontal slashes with different timings, make use of that and keep the opponent guessing. Also remember to abuse your running attack (or just backstep + R1).
 

Jaeger

Member
Guys, dumb question for someone relatively new to series. What's the purpose of New Game? After 65 grueling hrs to get through first play through, I'm kinda breezing through the NG and nothing seems different aside from loot with higher levels.

New Game +, you mean? Greater difficulty, new enemies, and a few new items spread throughout the game. NG+ is the real experience.
 

Septimius

Junior Member
Dark Souls 2 Tips
  • Infusing elements into a weapon reduces their scaling. So, low scaling weapons can be very good candidates for infusing with a various element

This is not the case. Infusing an element reduces the scaling, but introduces a new stat that scales. That means if you're a 40 dex and int character, you'll end up getting more damage scaling than going pure dex. This is also down to the fact that dex gives relatively poor damage scaling, as 30 dex gives the same "DEX BNS" stat as 18 int. The letter in stat scaling indicates how much of your "<stat> BNS" skill you'll receive as bonus damage to your weapon.
 

Septimius

Junior Member
There's 2 possible routes you could possibly take.
1) 40 or 50 (lol) DEX, power stance two blacksteel +10, enough FAI to cast whatever miracles you like for long range annoyance. Or:
2) Use spices to lower the requirements for sunlight blade as low as you can, get at least one lightning blacksteel +10 and use sunlight blade to buff that. Take note that you can't buff both blacksteels at the same time. Only have enough FAI to cast your lowered sunlight buff. Then you can plug whatever stats you like elsewhere.

DEX isn't really a good scaling stat. 30 dex gives 98 DEX BNS. 18 int gives the same.

Further, Blacksteel +10 is rather good, but Lightning Blacksteel +10 isn't necessarily that good. Normally, Lightning splits the damage down the half, wheres with this, it's not an even split. That's OK, but AR isn't raised from infusing it

At 40 Dex and when upgraded to +10, this weapon has an attack rating of 365(190+175).
When infused with Lightning at 40 Dexterity, and Faith this weapon has an Attack Rating 363=(Physical 172+69)+(Magic 93+29).

Normally, you'd get a much higher AR with an infused weapon, which is needed because it'll be going through two defenses. Two damage types but the same AR will always mean less damage. Always. Lest the enemy has 0 defense. Players don't have 0 defense even nude. Since it is my understanding that Lightning Weapon adds a percentage of your lightning damage to your weapon (in addition to a static 50 damage), you'll get less from the spell when you have less lightning damage to begin with.

So it is my feeling that pure dex build isn't that viable in this game, unless you can use the bleed proc to up your damage output. The scaling bonus is lower with DEX than with other stats.

EDIT: Also note that the Blacksteel katana says S on DEX scaling even when infused. That's not true. It is closer to C.
 

Septimius

Junior Member
"new stat that scales" doesn't necessarily mean more damage though, just higher AR. Split damage types and all that.

Exactly. It is completely independent from the initial scaling, though. A low scaling weapon will be even lower. You won't gain any more AR from infusing a low scaling weapon, and you won't lose any AR with infusing a high scaling weapon. You'll get 140% AR but with two damage types when you infuse, assuming you have the same bonus in both stats, regardless of the scaling.

So it is not right to say infusing makes better for low scaling weapons.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Exactly. It is completely independent from the initial scaling, though. A low scaling weapon will be even lower. You won't gain any more AR from infusing a low scaling weapon,
You will if you infuse with Raw... ;) I agree with the rest though. But for non-scaling (and maybe even low scaling) Raw is the best. It's actually useful in some cases now, unlike in Dark Souls!
 

maomaoIYP

Member
So it is my feeling that pure dex build isn't that viable in this game, unless you can use the bleed proc to up your damage output. The scaling bonus is lower with DEX than with other stats.

Well if he's keen on DEX/ FAI with a blacksteel he doesn't really have that many options. Miracles itself is a poor choice for PvP compared to the other 3 schools of magic. Unless of course he respecs. But then if he really likes the katanas just try something that fits. In my experience the extra 30% damage boost from sunlight/flame blade makes a world of difference on my strength builds, I don't worry about scaling at all.
edit: Also while it's true that after damage splits into two types you need to go two 2 level of defenses, players in general tend to have higher physical defense out of all types. Since the other types require specific investment into another stat for it to give some sort of defense it's worthwhile to go for the infusion.
 

Septimius

Junior Member
You will if you infuse with Raw... ;) I agree with the rest though. But for non-scaling (and maybe even low scaling) Raw is the best. It's actually useful in some cases now, unlike in Dark Souls!

This was in regards to elemental infusion.

Well if he's keen on DEX/ FAI with a blacksteel he doesn't really have that many options. Miracles itself is a poor choice for PvP compared to the other 3 schools of magic. Unless of course he respecs. But then if he really likes the katanas just try something that fits. In my experience the extra 30% damage boost from sunlight/flame blade makes a world of difference on my strength builds, I don't worry about scaling at all.

Uchigatana is probably better at Lightning +10 than the Blacksteel is, is what I was getting at. It might just be that ~20 DEX / 40 FAI might yield better damage than the other way around. Still fiddling around with these things in this game.
 

maomaoIYP

Member
Uchigatana is probably better at Lightning +10 than the Blacksteel is, is what I was getting at. It might just be that ~20 DEX / 40 FAI might yield better damage than the other way around. Still fiddling around with these things in this game.

This is definitely true. And in fact unless the new stat scales at A or above I don't feel it's even worth it. Just take the min stats for everything, place your levels into other stuff.
I have a lightning greatsword +10. Lightning scales at B, and with 50 FAI that's only +46.
So unless I really have nothing else to spend my levels on I'm better off putting my levels into stuff like VGR or END.
 

LOZLINK

Member
Finally beat it. Ran through the memories, GL was a joke. Then the Throne of want segment was hilariously easy. NS was very underwhelming. Still think the hardest boss fight for a pure melee build was probably Smelter demon.
 

Septimius

Junior Member
So... some people really hate Ratbros.

I think it's pretty silly. On one hand, I stand to lose nothing from dying. On the other, you just pulled me into your world, where you abuse it to try and kill me? It's pretty cheap. I've killed all that pulled me in, though. But I refused to face them besides in a situation other than 1-on-1. I just stood by the entrance. And I'm patient.
 

Soulhouf

Member
Oh snap. lol Yea, don't consume those. I mean, He's still easy, it will just take much longer.

This is your third Souls game, you really should know better than to consume special souls... :p

But, they didn't seem to be special. The description said that they can be consumed and none of the blacksmiths offered to exchange them. So I assumed they didn't serve any purpose.
I was wrong. This is Dark Souls and it likes to troll me lol

Anyway, I beat him with 2 Souls of Giants. The combat took forever but since his attacks were so easy to dodge, it was an endurance battle more than anything else.
 

Septimius

Junior Member
But, they didn't seem to be special. The description said that they can be consumed and none of the blacksmiths offered to exchange them. So I assumed they didn't serve any purpose.
I was wrong. This is Dark Souls and it likes to troll me lol

Anyway, I beat him with 2 Souls of Giants. The combat took forever but since his attacks were so easy to dodge, it was an endurance battle more than anything else.

Doesn't it literally say "or perhaps.." at the end of the descriptions?

Don't feel bad, though. These games always end up trolling us somehow. Also, I didn't really find any worthwhile boss soul weapons. But I'm dex, so.
 

Soulhouf

Member
Doesn't it literally say "or perhaps.." at the end of the descriptions?

Don't feel bad, though. These games always end up trolling us somehow. Also, I didn't really find any worthwhile boss soul weapons. But I'm dex, so.

Yeah, that's why I consumed only 3 of them just in case.
When I started getting many of them (by "many" I mean 4), they seemed to be like the random regular souls you collect, just bigger.
Now I know that I should keep them in NG+. That fight must be a pushover once you have 4 or 5 of them lol
 
So is Craftsman's Hammer at all viable? I am capable of slashing and vigorous thrusting with my large sword, but want to get in on some smashing action as well. And I rather like the moveset.
 

Jaeger

Member
I burned at least 4 Ascetic at the Giant Lord bonfire. He's such a pushover. First time in any souls game where I carry over 1 Million Souls at once. Feels great.
 

Mistel

Banned
So is Craftsman's Hammer at all viable? I am capable of slashing and vigorous thrusting with my large sword, but want to get in on some smashing action as well. And I rather like the moveset.
If you don't mind the fact it uses twinkling titanite to upgrade then it's more than viable against armored opponents.
 

Jaeger

Member
Early morning PVP w/ Blood Brothers. I keep fighting the same guy. He's trying to figure out how to beat me, while I use no weapons at all. lol
 

Frodo

Member
I guess I'll stick with my mundane build throughout NG+. It will be easier to level up and get even better bonuses. Also, I love using ultra great swords in PvE. Too bad they mostly suck in PvP, if you like me, don't have much patience.
 

Gurrry

Member
So after doing a bunch of no death runs and looking for Large Titanite as early as possible.. I was wondering if GAF knew of any other places.

My basic route is as follows:

- Get mace to +3

- After Pursuer, fly to Bastille and get the 2 Large Shards there.

- Blow up the wall to get to the Large Shards from the chest in McDuff's room.

Then after that, its kind of a crap shoot. Where do you guys get your Large Shards from?





NOTE: I avoid getting the dull ember on a no death run for obvious reasons, so buying it from McDuff is not a solution.
 
Ok maybe I'm not understanding something but I keep summoning dudes who just stay in the background without doing anything. They don't pull aggro, they barely do some ranged attacks. Are they relying on me to beat the boss so they get their Sunlight Medal or whatever?

Summoning guys is the most fun when everyone goes melee imo. Waiting for the opening and then having three dudes just pound away at the boss is great.
 

Frodo

Member
My Sentinels do not re-spawn any more at Drangleic Castle. And I've probably farmed enough Titanite Slabs to upgrade half of my items to +10 while waiting to be summoned for co-op.

Though more often than not someone will summon you to defeat the Sentinels, and they aggro all of them at the same time, for some reason.

They are perfectly manageable if you fight one at a time.

Ok maybe I'm not understanding something but I keep summoning dudes who just stay in the background without doing anything. They don't pull aggro, they barely do some ranged attacks. Are they relying on me to beat the boss so they get their Sunlight Medal or whatever?

Summoning guys is the most fun when everyone goes melee imo. Waiting for the opening and then having three dudes just pound away at the boss is great.

This has happened to me. But the inverse happened as well, the host far away not doing anything while the two phantoms fight the boss. But it is not usual. Maybe you are just being unlucky?
 

JerryEveryday

Neo Member
Finally got the Dark Soul achievement this morning. Should have done the Lucatiel and Benhart missions on NG+ but I totally forgot about them. Made a new toon couple of days ago and been steamrolling thru bosses with my faith based (Zeus) lightning bolts throwing build.

Now, time for PvP.
 

Mistel

Banned
So after doing a bunch of no death runs and looking for Large Titanite as early as possible.. I was wondering if GAF knew of any other places.
Ironclads and old ironclads are good sources for large titanite. The old ones are right near the beginning in forest of the fallen giants.
 

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
I've been playing a dedicated melee build, started as a knight and still have 3 INT and 0 attunement slots. Is it worth it to pursue a little pyromancy (iron flesh was handy in DS1) or do you need INT for it to be worthwhile?
 
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