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[Morrigan Stark]

A cut scene would have been nice, but man, people are really complaining about that? The Artorias DLC didn't have a cut scene, and the DS2 DLCs only had one if you went to see the King's memory. The Bloodborne one was super short and might as well have been non-existent.

Can't imagine being upset over something so trivial.

Nope, once he burns out in the cutscene that unlocks the kiln area, you're fucked.

Thanks From.

Ah, oh well. You had an entire game to give him the kiln really.

 

[Sande]

A cut scene would have been nice, but man, people are really complaining about that? The Artorias DLC didn't have a cut scene, and the DS2 DLCs only had one if you went to see the King's memory. The Bloodborne one was super short and might as well have been non-existent.

Can't imagine being upset over something so trivial.

It's obviously not a huge issue, but it would be nice to get something, anything, to at least confirm that the DLC is over. Hell, maybe even give some kind of a payoff in the end.

I keep seeing people use the "X does Y too..." argument (especially when it comes to Souls games) and all it does is impede progress.

 

[Gin-Shiio]

Was just fighting the

Spoiler

demon pair

for the first time when "You lack the license to play this DLC" -> return to title screen

 

[NEO0MJ]

Was just fighting the

Spoiler

demon pair

for the first time when "You lack the license to play this DLC" -> return to title screen

How far were you into the fight?
My friend once was somehow able to go into the DLC area in Bloodborne even though he didn't buy it. However after turning off the game and coming back to it the next day the game figured out something was wrong and wouldn't let him play with that file at all until he purchased it.

 

[Kallor]

Help!

Ok I'm getting beat on pretty good in the pvp after being out if the game for almost a year. What are some great builds right now? Good weapons, armor? Is VIT still garbage? Faith/Int 40/40? Strength/Dex 40/40?

SL120

 

[Kieli]

"Watch an expert beat Midir to show you how easy it is."

Midir is actually very fair, once you die to him 10+ times. I thought he was super bull-shit too, but he has distinctive tells and very few switch-ups (e.g. attacks that can branch, or weird delays). There's only 2 attacks I find BS: (1) the insta-kill laser in his second phase that he spams everywhere, and (2) his lunge that travels way too quickly with no distinct "tell".

Otherwise, the important thing is to STAY in front of him. Force him to swipe, and dodge through those. When he completes a double-swipe and stands on his hinds, run behind to get a couple hits on his tail and avoid the fire (which travels too quickly for you to dodge).

 

[MCD]

My problem with Midir (and to extent the nameless king's dragon) is the fire breath. No matter how far or how many rolls I do, the fire always burns my ass and deal a massive damage.

Still after figuring out the Mercury trick, I can't hate him anymore.

 

[RiggyRob]

My problem with Midir (and to extent the nameless king's dragon) is the fire breath. No matter how far or how many rolls I do, the fire always burns my ass and deal a massive damage.

Still after figuring out the Mercury trick, I can't hate him anymore.

Well, there's your problem - when they breathe fire, you have to be sprinting in the right direction, rolling isn't enough.

You still need a decent starting position or the fire'll catch up anyway.

 

[MCD]

Well, there's your problem - when they breathe fire, you have to be sprinting in the right direction, rolling isn't enough.

You still need a decent starting position or the fire'll catch up anyway.

I swear I sprint like a chicken in heat but they always destroy me.

 

[Kieli]

My problem with Midir (and to extent the nameless king's dragon) is the fire breath. No matter how far or how many rolls I do, the fire always burns my ass and deal a massive damage.

Still after figuring out the Mercury trick, I can't hate him anymore.

He has 5 fire breaths, as far as I can remember.

1. He stands his hind legs, and breathes a circular plume of fire. This is followed up with 2 lasers (one straight across, and one in a semi-arc). For this one, you can safely run between his arm and head. Then he is always available to be punished with 1 or 2 head shots.

2. His flying breath that spans the entire arena. This one is harder to dodge without a shield. I find you let him approach you, run leftward and roll left. Works 75% of the time. Otherwise just use a shield.

3. He breaths forward, and then breaths in an arc. This attack is only triggered if you stand in front of him at mid-distance too long. I'm usually in his face, so I don't see this one. I don't know if it's easy to dodge or not.

4. He swipes twice, then stands on hind legs and breaths a circular plume of fire. This one is kinda like #1, but kinda BS because the flame travels faster than you can sprint. So what I do is immediately run towards the end of his tail as I see him rear up. I can usually get 2 hits on his tail in when he does this.

5. He breaths fire, then goes on a rampage. Just continually dodge right into him, and then straight through him. He'll whiff everything, and colliding with his legs doesn't do damage (only the claws, as far as I can tell). He'll unpredictably perform this attack in second phase, but I haven't been hit too often by it.

Don't lock on, and continue to bait his swipes by standing in front of him.

tl;drBy the way, I don't disagree that his fire attacks dodgeable (but they are avoidable). Use a shield for the fire attacks that you don't think you can safely outrun, and dodge his swipes.

By the way, I don't disagree that his fire attacks are hard to dodge. Which is why I use th

 

[NEO0MJ]

The flying fire breath is the worst for me, since it seems impossible to run away from and I'm using the grass crest shield. Sometimes when I get greedy I'm caught by the after swipe standing fire breath.

The lunge has a tell, but it's so brief and​ getting it wrong will make you hit his legs and lose health.

 

[Sande]

The flying fire breath is the worst for me, since it seems impossible to run away from and I'm using the grass crest shield. Sometimes when I get greedy I'm caught by the after swipe standing fire breath.

The lunge has a tell, but it's so brief and​ getting it wrong will make you hit his legs and lose health.

The best way to avoid the flying breath attack is to run towards him and slightly to the left, and dodge in the end. Hasn't hit me once since I figured that out.

You can actually tell a full second or two in advance when the lunge is coming.

 

[Steel]

The flying fire breath is the worst for me, since it seems impossible to run away from and I'm using the grass crest shield. Sometimes when I get greedy I'm caught by the after swipe standing fire breath.

The lunge has a tell, but it's so brief and​ getting it wrong will make you hit his legs and lose health.

Huh? The flying fire breath is the easiest to dodge. Just go left. Don't even need to run. All the fire breath goes right of the middle. If you get summoned, though, it'll hit you every time you're to the right of the host.

 

[MilkBeard]

Just reached the wide open area with all the turtle guys and the darkwraithe-like bastards. It was pretty exhilarating, because I usually kill all enemies (or most) when I go through each area, but at this point, it was getting tedious to have to rekill everything if I happened to die to a fiery sword swipe or a fatty butt-grind. So I started running, and then past the fatties, and I was running around, accidentally bumped into a fucking

Spoiler

Dragonslayer

just chillin.

I escaped everything and found a little path and made it safely to a bonfire, as well as the humanity puzzle. Whew. That reminded me of when I was first playing Dark Souls. That close scrape. Good stuff. I keep thinking how I'm going to miss this kind of exploration after I'm finished with the DLC, now that From is moving on.

I'm level 120, NG+. This DLC does seem pretty well balanced for my place. Also, thanks to the helpful soul that pointed the way to the bonfire in a message, lol. I was heading there anyway, but there were two paths, and I ultimately chose the right choice.

 

[Dahaka]

hosts that summon phantoms from the Ringed Inner Wall Bonfire for Midir are just the worst. And they all summon 3 players.

Had two Midir fights yesterday where 2 phantoms died right away at the start and me and the host had to fight this insane hp pool. We made it at least but it took so much longer.

Last time this happened a host PMs me and says I earned a free blowjob.

 

[Breads]

Finally beat the DLC. Feels like a pretty good package overall now that it isn't just Ariendel anymore. It would have been nice if the first DLC had as much care and content put into it but eh, we got what we got and it isn't worth complaining about now that it's over with.

Gotta say though...

Spoiler

Midir

was a motherfucker. I'm no DS pro so this fight rocked my SL 100 Str build. I came close many times and indeed if I were more familiar with where the head would land I could have definitely beaten it many times over but it being so big, making moves harder to read/ memorize at times and the short run to the actual fight made it take longer than the usually banging my head against a wall till I won. Although I did use summons a few times I had better luck without them because the attacks became much more predictable and easier to read.

The flying fire breath is the worst for me, since it seems impossible to run away from and I'm using the grass crest shield. Sometimes when I get greedy I'm caught by the after swipe standing fire breath.

I don't think I ever got hit by it. I tend to run toward the initial direction angling slightly away and roll. The one where it shoots straight down though... fuck. I have not had good luck with that one at all. Granted I kept trying to feel it out in order to use this as an opportunity to attack but it wasted estus more often than not.

 

[NEO0MJ]

You can actually tell a full second or two in advance when the lunge is coming.

I did mention that but sometimes I still get caught. I guess it's because I think he might breathe fire instead.

Huh? The flying fire breath is the easiest to dodge. Just go left. Don't even need to run. All the fire breath goes right of the middle. If you get summoned, though, it'll hit you every time you're to the right of the host.

I don't think I ever got hit by it. I tend to run toward the initial direction angling slightly away and roll.

When he starts flying I usually freeze in place wondering where he'll go. I'll try this next time.

Last time this happened a host PMs me and says I earned a free blowjob.

...Did you take them on their offer 👀

 

[Dahaka]

Finished the Ringed City with my 3rd character and managed to get Gael's sword. The moveset of the WA is very strong. I'm not a PvPer but I sense this thing to be kinda overpowered. The jumping around and spinslashing, jumping away and then lunging forward is a lot of fun.

Gotta use the Farron Ring though and regen FP with the Caestus.

...Did you take them on their offer 👀

No, it was a dude.

 

[Ratrat]

I accidentally forgot to cancel my Fire Fades preorder so I might as well play it...

How do you access the two dlcs? Anything I should know before starting(like fuck magic in DS2 dlc)?
How long are they? Does it use the same save file as the stand alone game?

 

[MilkBeard]

I accidentally forgot to cancel my Fire Fades preorder so I might as well play it...

How do you access the two dlcs? Anything I should know before starting(like fuck magic in DS2 dlc)?
How long are they? Does it use the same save file as the stand alone game?

Ashes of Ariandel is somewhat short, but I found it satisfying. They use the same save. I don't know about magic, but my Hollow build is working pretty well in the DLC. Once you finish Ariandel, you can warp straight to the Ringed City, so you don't have to worry about going to the end of the game (if you are in NG + like me).

The content is in-game, just go find directions in the wiki for Ashes of Ariandel, and then the rest is history. It's very easy to get to as long as you are a few areas into the game.

Just be prepared though, because the bosses will be harder than anything in the main game (most of them so far, anyway). They will push you to the limits, unless you are extremely overleveled.

 

[Ratrat]

Ashes of Ariandel is somewhat short, but I found it satisfying. They use the same save. I don't know about magic, but my Hollow build is working pretty well in the DLC. Once you finish Ariandel, you can warp straight to the Ringed City, so you don't have to worry about going to the end of the game (if you are in NG + like me).

The content is in-game, just go find directions in the wiki for Ashes of Ariandel, and then the rest is history. It's very easy to get to as long as you are a few areas into the game.

Just be prepared though, because the bosses will be harder than anything in the main game (most of them so far, anyway). They will push you to the limits, unless you are extremely overleveled.

Fuck. I actually found DS3 to be the hardest in the series....
Anyway, thanks. I'll probably do ng+ and hope for the best.

 

[MilkBeard]

Fuck. I actually found DS3 to be the hardest in the series....
Anyway, thanks. I'll probably do ng+ and hope for the best.

If in NG+, you should probably get to level 120 (that is, if you want to stay at the community PVP level. If not, you can go even higher) and Ringed City especially will still be quite a challenge.

 

[NEO0MJ]

You guys were right about

Spoiler

Midir

. Once you get it all down he's not that difficult. Mistakes are still costly but you won't get caught much.

 

[TitusTroy]

how come when I invade people there are sometimes 2 hosts?...I thought 1 player was the host and he can summon 2-3 phantoms...where does the extra host come from?

 

[MilkBeard]

how come when I invade people there are sometimes 2 hosts?...I thought 1 player was the host and he can summon 2-3 phantoms...where does the extra host come from?

They probably just have a ring that makes them look like a host.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

They probably just have a ring that makes them look like a host.

No "probably", that's exactly it. The host is the one whose name you see when you enter their world, e.g. "Invaded the world of host of embers XYZ". Any other "host of ember" character is a phantom (or maybe another invader, if their name is in red).

 

[MilkBeard]

^I remember watching some fun trolling videos people put up with that whole fake phantom thing, lol.

 

[TitusTroy]

They probably just have a ring that makes them look like a host.

No "probably", that's exactly it. The host is the one whose name you see when you enter their world, e.g. "Invaded the world of host of embers XYZ". Any other "host of ember" character is a phantom (or maybe another invader, if their name is in red).

why would they wear that ring for?...to fool invaders or just because they are friends playing together and one doesn't want to look like a ghost/phantom?...just seems like that ring slot would be better served by something else

 

[Magnet]

Was just fighting the

Spoiler

demon pair

for the first time when "You lack the license to play this DLC" -> return to title screen

That's a really annoying (and sort of insulting to see) bug. I got it in non-DLC areas in the main game multiple times while owning all the DLC. I was lucky that it rarely booted me at a bad time, but respawning all the enemies around me wasn't cool.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

why would they wear that ring for?...to fool invaders or just because they are friends playing together and one doesn't want to look like a ghost/phantom?...just seems like that ring slot would be better served by something else

Fashion Souls, of course.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Ah, oh well. You had an entire game to give him the kiln really.

Oh sure, but I finished the game like 13 times or more, at some point I take some shortcuts on NG++ runs lol.

 

[Steel]

Fashion Souls, of course.

Well, it does fool people occasionally too. Actually, I almost never read the name of the person I'm invading and it's fooled me a few times against ganksquads with the new covenant.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Oh sure, but I finished the game like 13 times or more, at some point I take some shortcuts on NG++ runs lol.

y tho

 

[zma1013]

So at the beginning of the very last area I accidentally

Spoiler

killed the guy crawling on the ground.

Am I gonna miss anything or did i screw anything up?

 

[Ferr986]

So at the beginning of the very last area I accidentally

Spoiler

killed the guy crawling on the ground.

Am I gonna miss anything or did i screw anything up?

Nothing about him

Spoiler

he just dies on his own after a while.

 

[TitusTroy]

So at the beginning of the very last area I accidentally

Spoiler

killed the guy crawling on the ground.

Am I gonna miss anything or did i screw anything up?

how do you 'accidentally' kill him?...you mean you purposely killed him

 

[Breads]

No "probably", that's exactly it. The host is the one whose name you see when you enter their world, e.g. "Invaded the world of host of embers XYZ". Any other "host of ember" character is a phantom (or maybe another invader, if their name is in red).

I literally summoned someone and had the game register them as the host of embers though. Does the ring put that text on them too?

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I literally summoned someone and had the game register them as the host of embers though. Does the ring put that text on them too?

Yes, it does. But when you invade, it will say in the middle of your screen, "invaded the world of ___", and that's the real host.

 

[zma1013]

how do you 'accidentally' kill him?...you mean you purposely killed him

Pushed the wrong button.

 

[Dervius]

Cannot for the life of me get a grip on this Midir fight.

The ineffectiveness of lock on, and having to constantly adjust the camera to even be able to see where I'm getting screwed from is infuriating.

I feel as though I'm fighting the camera more than him, let alone trying to get close enough to him to land a hit.

 

[Tingle]

Cannot for the life of me get a grip on this Midir fight.

The ineffectiveness of lock on, and having to constantly adjust the camera to even be able to see where I'm getting screwed from is infuriating.

I feel as though I'm fighting the camera more than him, let alone trying to get close enough to him to land a hit.

I was able to beat him using lock-on. Just try to keep your distance from him, stay by his head, and be willing to break it if he starts doing a weird movement (ie raises his head to breath fire, starts flying).

The biggest part of the fight is to not get greedy. Run in for a hit or two only after he attacks, and then back off again towards his head once you get your hits. The fight gets a lot easier once you get a good grasp on his moves.

 

[Breads]

I was able to beat him using lock-on. Just try to keep your distance from him, stay by his head, and be willing to break it if he starts doing a weird movement (ie raises his head to breath fire, starts flying).

The biggest part of the fight is to not get greedy. Run in for a hit or two only after he attacks, and then back off again towards his head once you get your hits. The fight gets a lot easier once you get a good grasp on his moves.

Pretty much this. As long as the boss doesn't one shot you you have ample opportunity to hit his head between attacks. The fight basically boils down to knowing where and when the best opportunities are to attack the head and avoiding the rest.

 

[Gin-Shiio]

Up to

Spoiler

Slaveknight Gael

now, and I think The Ringed City is great! Huge step up from Ashes of Ariandel too, but that's not much of an achievement.
I love the art direction of the place, I think the level design is top-notch and interesting especially once you enter the namesake of the DLC, and I even enjoyed the

Spoiler

angels

, which I have heard so many complaints about. They are easy to circumvent, and force me to a strategic kind of thinking I haven't done often in this series. The

Spoiler

archers

are similar, and bypassing them was a lot of fun.

I regrettably never played Dark Souls 2's DLC out of principle, but so far I would comfortably rank this above Atorias of the Abyss. Comfortably.

 

[NEO0MJ]

I regrettably never played Dark Souls 2's DLC out of principle, but so far I would comfortably rank this above Atorias of the Abyss. Comfortably.

Why? I honestly think they're the best DLC ever done by From.

 

[jviggy43]

So at the beginning of the very last area I accidentally

Spoiler

killed the guy crawling on the ground.

Am I gonna miss anything or did i screw anything up?

Fuck dude that sucks, he has a pretty important item. Might wanna start over with a new character

Spoiler

Don't listen to me youre totally fine

 

[BY2K]

Some guy trying to get through the Church boss in Ringed City must hate me because he got me twice in a row and I killed him even faster the second time.

Go Lapp's armor and Ringed Twin Greatswords!

 

[jviggy43]

Up to

Spoiler

Slaveknight Gael

now, and I think The Ringed City is great! Huge step up from Ashes of Ariandel too, but that's not much of an achievement.
I love the art direction of the place, I think the level design is top-notch and interesting especially once you enter the namesake of the DLC, and I even enjoyed the

Spoiler

angels

, which I have heard so many complaints about. They are easy to circumvent, and force me to a strategic kind of thinking I haven't done often in this series. The

Spoiler

archers

are similar, and bypassing them was a lot of fun.

I regrettably never played Dark Souls 2's DLC out of principle, but so far I would comfortably rank this above Atorias of the Abyss. Comfortably.

Why? I honestly think they're the best DLC ever done by From.

Artorias is second best behind old hunters, if only for having the best bosses.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Artorias has the best bosses but the weakest level design. I think Old Hunters is overall far superior, and Shulva and Brume Tower are probably slightly better too.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Yeah, I meant level design. Bosses are hit and miss in DaS II, but I feel the actual areas were the most fun to explore among all DLC.

 

[jviggy43]

Yeah level design is rather meh in Artorias. I just feel like 3 out of the 4 bosses can all be held as some of the best in the series so that really puts it up the list for me. Hunters is probably the best overall since Kos, Ludwig, and Maria (even if she was super easy) are all amazing fights as well. Sunken king was great, good level and good bosses. However I can never look at that package and not think of those god damn ice fields. Scarred me for life.