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[Spoilers] Dark Souls 2 part Deux


aceluby

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No. I should never have to respec because a build that works before and after a zone becomes temporarily nonviable. What a horrible idea.

Maybe, but you can't deny the fact that an item you get multiple times per playthrough exists to tackle this 'problem'. Is it the best solution? No. Is it a viable solution to the problem that exists utilizing items and strategies that are presented in-game? Absolutely. FROM has a tendency to do things like this to force players to think outside the box.

To me it's not all that different than destroying levels w/ a certain build/weapon, but keep getting owned by the boss. Do you keep doing the same thing over and over hoping for different results, or do you try a new strategy, possibly requiring you upgrade a different weapon to continue. It's just a different approach to it, especially given that not a whole lot of people are going to use the respec functionality as it is geared towards trying PvP builds w/out having to replay the entire game like DS1.

Like I said before, looking back I can definitely see the genius behind it, especially given that many users will have the 'I should never be forced to respec' attitude. It's Dark Souls... there are dozens of things 'I should never be forced' to do, but they do them anyway.

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All I can say is that I think that opinion is wrong and bad. The game should never force you into spending stat points towards a specific weapon type and I am glad you are not designing this game.


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ADP does a few things. It makes you faster in general... running, rolling, swinging... It also increases your i-frames for rolling. I've also seen in videos to have a bigger parry window, but this isn't 100% confirmed. .

Well, the guidebook says that ADP does not affect parries. That may be proven wrong, but I'll believe them for now. ADP does affect Estus drinking time though. May be only by half a second, but sometimes that's the difference between a last moment roll and a sword to the face.

And I agree with Inigma; you shouldn't have to respec just to get through one level. Soul Vessels are there for PVP. As a caster, can you hit the Amana mages at the same range that they can hit you? You certainly can't lock on at that distance. You could aim manually, but don't your spell dissipate before going that far? I don't use magic so I can't say for sure. If they're hitting you at a range where you can't retaliate unless you're spec'd for a bow, then that's a problem.

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You are correct, they can hit you from much farther away than you can hit them. The solution I used was to plink from behind cover with binoculars. It is annoying and slow and difficult to do well. It also does not work on the last, hardest set of enemies, because there is no cover within range.


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Well, the guidebook says that ADP does not affect parries. That may be proven wrong, but I'll believe them for now. ADP does affect Estus drinking time though. May be only by half a second, but sometimes that's the difference between a last moment roll and a sword to the face.

And I agree with Inigma; you shouldn't have to respec just to get through one level. Soul Vessels are there for PVP. As a caster, can you hit the Amana mages at the same range that they can hit you? You certainly can't lock on at that distance. You could aim manually, but don't your spell dissipate before going that far? I don't use magic so I can't say for sure. If they're hitting you at a range where you can't retaliate unless you're spec'd for a bow, then that's a problem.

Not saying Inigma doesn't have a VERY valid point. It was the most difficult part for me too, just giving a devil's advocate argument since there is a solution and the souls series does force you to rethink strategy if it continues to not work. And though it's not 'normal' for games to force anything, the souls series typically turns things on its head on purpose, which I happened to pass my first time w/ help. So really there are a few solutions; summon help, re-roll, or try to pick off the players until they stop spawning... IMO not a whole lot different than some bosses that only have 1-2 strategies to defeat. I didn't like it the first time, but now I can definitely appreciate it if that's what they were going for.

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Benhart is an ass. I summoned him and another player for Looking Glass Knight. He did practically nothing to help and died seconds before we finished the boss. So now I'm going to have to do his next 2 summon battles offline, so I can quit out if he dies again. Hopefully Drummond and Vengarl are more useful. Should have worn the aggro ring.



OTOH, Agdayne is a champ. He had only a sliver of health left, but he made it through. I don't know if he needed to survive to get his gear, but I'm assuming he does. And his robe looks great. Made me finally take off Lucatiel's armor. Although that will have better defense fully upgraded. Whatever. Fashion Souls.


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I got pretty lucky w/ the LGK and Benhart, we beat him so quickly that he didn't get a chance to even do his phantom thing. But even with that he was under 25% health at the end. Just got lucky.



Right now I'm doing the Belfry Hidden Weapon challenge, and I have to say that I really missed out on not getting this in NG when I was being summoned constantly. Now I have to rely on Belfry Sol's respawning red phantom and the occasional (once every 15 min) summoning to get my 20 kills. Have about 15 now, but man is it slow going in NG+. Can't wait until this part is done.



After I'm done w/ that I'm heading to Orro and then the Giant King to see if he'll survive that fight. Really worried about the bombs, but worst case scenario is that I just use an Ascetic and take on the congregation again. That 'boss' is laughable.



Now you've made me want to go back and hit up Agadyne... gotta get that sword :) Only have the spell trophies after this which will require NG++ and getting to Drangleic again to buy them, then it's another souls platinum and I start a new Dex build.


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The new lineup NPC summons have been really disappointing. In DS1 every summon was helpful. Sure, we've got Jester Thomas ans Masterless Glencour. But the rest of them are pretty useless. Agdayne isn't even that good by DS1 standards. But he's hits pretty hard and has a lot of health which makes him better than most of the others.



I'm convinced that Benhart (and possibly Lucatiel too) is a troll summon. It seems like his AI was programmed specifically to stand in my way. He rarely attacks, and even then he usually misses. We need him to survive but have to babysit him to make it happen.


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Lucatiel is so incredibly worthless, mostly just a distraction and not much of a help. My guess is that these were set up this way just to make the trophies more difficult. The other summons seem much more useful.


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YES! Finally got the MGS. This thing hits like a truck and im assuming it would only get better with infusions...... what would be the best infusion for this weapon?

It's all magic damage, so adding magic would be the best. I might use a bonfire Ascetic just so I can get it... though they nerfed it as of this morning, so I'd be interested in what damage changes happened.

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Looks like one of the changes is that you can no longer buff or enchant the MLGS while also slowing down its animation. So it looks like you won't be able to make it magic after all. ETA: Have conflicting reports on this, looks like you may still be able to make it magic, you just can't use ooze or add magic sword spell to it.



http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/21257/article/dark-souls-2-patch-1-03-comes-with-nerfs-galore/



Still think they should have left it alone. I've seen so many different builds in PvP that doing so for that purpose seems stupid, and don't think these are necessary for PvE at all except maybe the Shrine changes.


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Still think they should have left it alone. I've seen so many different builds in PvP that doing so for that purpose seems stupid, and don't think these are necessary for PvE at all except maybe the Shrine changes.

I didn't see too many MLGS users in PVP. I mainly saw MegaMuled mages. Hey, maybe they did have MLGS's, and I was just too busy dying from spell spam to notice. But from discussions elsewhere, it seems like these were pretty common too.

The biggest complaint about the MLGS was that buffing with Crystal Magic Weapon turned it from a great weapon for magic builds into the best weapon in the game period. I think they should have kept DS1's rules: buffs only on unaltered weapons, and spell buffs scaling from magic/faith stats. AFAIK, you can still infuse the MLGS.

I do think that they needed to tone down Amana, but it sounds like they did it the wrong way. They should have decreased the aggro range, but instead decided to mess with the spell tracking.

Other than that, the only PVE change that they really needed to make was the Last Giant. Yeah, he's easy, but the first boss of the game being able to 1-shot new players is still bad design. Sinner was hard but not unfair. The Royal Rat Authority and Freja nerfs weren't necessary at all.

Edit - from what I'm seeing on Reddit, it looks like the Amana mages tracking was only removed on 360. On PS3 they just reduced their damage a bit.

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I heard they are warning and if nothing is done, banning MegaMuled characters. I only have a single high level character, so they don't impact me at all, I'm just worried about it for my new player in NG. At that point all it takes is heading to Iron Keep and lowering the requirements for all the powerful spells and then updating your stats to minimally level up for your weapon of choice and then it's super grief time.



Really wish they would have locked down the saves like they did in DS1. If you're too lazy to play the game, which is the only excuse to do this if not to grief, then this game just isn't for you.



I've been killed a few times by the MLGS, but never thought it was OP since I was mostly killed by the special attack. Even w/ these changes I think I'm going to use the bonfire ascetic to get another swipe at Freja so I can get it before NG++. Still have to finish the stupid hidden weapon farming though... really hating getting this spell...


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Wellager doesn't sell Hidden Weapon? That's disappointing. How many kills do you need?

I only came accross one MLGS/CMW user. I had already transitioned to just letting myself get killed, so I didn't really care. But still, one hit.

Nope, this is the ONE spell he doesn't sell, and I'm not exactly sure how many kills you need. For sure 10 to get to Lvl 1, unsure about lvl 2 since it seems to be different depending on if you farm the red phantom in Belfry Sol or if you invade other players. Not sure if it's a combo thing or what, but I've been wearing my ring while farming the red phantom for two days now and haven't gottne to level 2 yet. It's boring, but at least I can get all of these and won't be forced to get all of the sorceries in another character.

I too have gotten in the mode of expecting to get killed when I get invaded. Just run back as far as I can and wait for the invader to pass, maybe getting in a good shot as a surprise. I'm cheap as hell when it comes to invaders, especially since I get one in EVERY ZONE.

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I took a week or so off from playing this and now I can't remember where to go next. :(



I'll figure it out eventually. One question, am I not supposed to level up past 125? I seem to remember something about that.


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I'll figure it out eventually. One question, am I not supposed to level up past 125? I seem to remember something about that.

That's just people trying to decide on a "community" level for PVP. Except that level has nothing to do with matchmaking, it's all Soul Memory, As such the entire excercise is pointless. I think they settled on a completely uninforceable 150.

Make sure your gear is all upgraded, and you're stocked on Lifegems and Arrowsn. After that, level up as high as you want. Nothing else to do with the souls. Just bear in mind that after 50 you don't get much from additional levels, so after your main stats hit 50 you can start spreading the points around more.

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