[Spoilers] Official Dark Souls 2 Thread - Prepare to Die... again.

[Mexal]

Yeah, there is an alternate route to the 2nd Gutter bonfire. Most of us probably came around by where the giant ant is and had to break a wall to find the bonfire (I didn't find it). The other way is to drop down somewhere or other, and it ends with a jump into a line of statues. Yup, you can destroy them. I lobbed a few firebombs over to take them out before jumping.

Smart. That's the way I know. I didn't go the other way.

[AndrewJ]

I'm even further behind. My time has been pretty limited over the past week and I haven't played much. The Sinner went down about a week ago and I just took out the Skeleton Lords last night. Then I got pretty lost in the next area (Harvest something or other?) and haven't quite worked out where I need to go to progress.

My wife is away for 2 weeks from tomorrow morning, though. So most of my time I'm not working is going to be spent playing Dark Souls 2. :)

Oh... and I did join sunbros last night - so I might be spending a bit of time in co-op soon.

[Muttering Bill]

58 hours in and I finally got my first non-Bell Keeper invasion. Was in the Lost Bastille, stocking up on arrows with McDuff. Apparently beating the area boss doesn't make it a safe zone anymore.

And just when I thought this game was getting easy... I am dying a ton in Undead Crypt. :bowdown: :owned:

[aceluby]

I am having a HELL of a time in the Shrine of Armana. Seriously... I have no idea how one could approach this level solo. After the second bonfire I can figure out my way until just before the fog gate to the 3rd bonfire, but every time I get there I get absolutely owned. Either I get swarmed by melee guys while going after the homing soul arrow guys, or I get picked off by the homing soul arrows as I deal w/ the melee guys. There's like 6-8 guys all in a small area and it's drving me CRAZY!

I know I'm not the only one too, because at that second bonfire there are about a dozen 'Help me' messages and as soon as I drop my sign I get summoned immediately. If I try to summon help I get the 'this summon sign has been used by someone else' message.

[Muttering Bill]

I went in with a Golden Crest Shield +6, and the magic defense ring (don't remember it's name). Great Magic Barrier on hand just in case, but I didn't need it. And a Short Bow.

Got about 85% magic defence on the shield, add in the ring and the Soul Arrows do almost no damage blocked. Used the Bow to draw aggro from non-mage enemies at range. A bit of running and hiding too, those mages pick you up from a long way off. Once those were cleared I had no trouble just walking up to the mages.

And a suggestion, if you go wandering off the path to look for goodies, light a torch.

[aceluby]

I went in with a Golden Crest Shield +6, and the magic defense ring (don't remember it's name). Great Magic Barrier on hand just in case, but I didn't need it. And a Short Bow.

Got about 85% magic defence on the shield, add in the ring and the Soul Arrows do almost no damage blocked. Used the Bow to draw aggro from non-mage enemies at range. A bit of running and hiding too, those mages pick you up from a long way off. Once those were cleared I had no trouble just walking up to the mages.

And a suggestion, if you go wandering off the path to look for goodies, light a torch.

Yeah... no part of that strategy will work with my build except maybe relying on great magic barrier. Don't have the stats to wield a short bow effectively or use that shield without doing a re-roll. I did eventually get past that part, but had to summon 2 helpers and the NPC white phantom (one died in the early section). This entire level has given my RAGE meter a test of endurance, that's for sure. Brings me back to world 3-3 in Demon's souls. Not the best level design IMO if you force the player to rely on a single strategy (bow & arrow). Even in co-op the most successful teams had at least one archer. Dark Souls 1 didn't have any levels quite like this. I can't wait to see a SL1 run through this section.

[Muttering Bill]

I always make room for a bow in any build. But I also don't typically play squishy mages.

OTOH, you'll have probably have an easier time in Undead Crypt than I have. Faith doesn't have an abundance of offensive spells, so I end up with more of Dex build than can throw the occasional Lightning Spear.

[Fiddler]

I am having a HELL of a time in the Shrine of Armana. Seriously... I have no idea how one could approach this level solo. After the second bonfire I can figure out my way until just before the fog gate to the 3rd bonfire, but every time I get there I get absolutely owned. Either I get swarmed by melee guys while going after the homing soul arrow guys, or I get picked off by the homing soul arrows as I deal w/ the melee guys. There's like 6-8 guys all in a small area and it's drving me CRAZY!

I know I'm not the only one too, because at that second bonfire there are about a dozen 'Help me' messages and as soon as I drop my sign I get summoned immediately. If I try to summon help I get the 'this summon sign has been used by someone else' message.

I think over 60% of my deaths with my cleric are from that area. F those homing soul arrows.

I just tried to make my close enough to each guy and hurl a lightning bolt at them. Still died way to much.

[Inigima]

I might seriously quit this game, for good, over the Shrine of Amana. Nothing works. The game stacks so many disadvantages on you that it doesn't feel fair anymore, which is kind of the credo of the series. This is horseshit.

[AndrewJ]

Somebody asked earlier what the difference is between the small soapstone and the regular one and I don't think I saw a reply. Anyway - I worked it out last night.

If the person who summons you doesn't fight a boss, you stay in their world for a reasonable length of time - maybe about 10-15 minutes and you're awarded a sunlight medal (as a sunbro) at the end. If you use the small soapstone, you stay a much shorter period of time and are awarded s smooth silky stone.

Not sure if you'd get the stone or sunlight medal for defeating a boss when summoned with the small soapstone

[Inigima]

DID IT. EAT SHIT, DARK SOULS.

[Muttering Bill]

If you guys thought Shrine of Amana was hard, just wait until you get to Aldia Keep.

:owned:

And if unless you want permanent rage

DON'T PULL THE LEVER!!!!!

You'll know which one when you get there.

Somebody asked earlier what the difference is between the small soapstone and the regular one and I don't think I saw a reply. Anyway - I worked it out last night.

I've heard that the Small Soapstone also ignore Soul Memory. You'd probably use it for just boss fights.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

If you guys thought Shrine of Amana was hard, just wait until you get to Aldia Keep.

:owned:

And if unless you want permanent rage

I've heard that the Small Soapstone also ignore Soul Memory. You'd probably use it for just boss fights.

I did the spoiler and didn't realize that was the reason From was trolling me...I thought they figured I was just too good or something. And there seems to be no reward for the trolling, just barely surviving and getting a few souls.

Shrine of Amana sucked too--I did it with arrows, and I killed that dumb frog with arrows too. I am actually at the last boss right now and can't beat it, not even with summoned help.

I've kind of got the pattern down but Boss breaks pattern from time to time and fucks you up, and where all other bosses give you like a 2 second window for slow reaction time, I'd say this one gives you about a .5 second buffer before your inevitable slip up gets you ganked.

[Inigima]

Undead Crypt is no Shrine of Amana but man it is pretty punishing. Enough Dark Souls for tonight.

[Muttering Bill]

Game over. The last boss was really easy.

Great Magic Barrier and a handful of Great Lightning Spears.

*yawn*

[Bib Fortuna]

Yeah, Shrine of Amana is causing me ulcers too. I've tried enough times that all but three of those casters are permanently dead, but daaaamn it is hard as hell to get to those other three without dying.

[Inigima]

I couldn't equip one, but I'm told a bow makes that trivial, if tedious. You can also summon an NPC bro to help you there, I'm just playing a pure no-summon game.

[Muttering Bill]

I guess I'm the only one who liked Shrine of Amana. I also regularly use a bow. But mostly just because

it's Blighttown!

I like to think it's just FROM giving you casters a little special attention to make up for magic otherwise being so OP. (Says the guy shredding bosses with Great Lightning Spears. ^_^)

Anyway, got a couple of things still to wrap up. And it seems like the optional stuff if the hardest.

Darklurker, Ancient Dragon, and Vendrick.

Then I'll be joining the Sunbro's and heading off to NG+.

[Inigima]

I actually think magic is quite well balanced in DkS2. Have you actually tried it? I kill most things with melee, including bosses, and with neither the stats for it nor with help of any kind. So suggesting I ain't no Dark Souls bad motherfucker just because I carry a staff is a bit much.

Regarding your first spoiler tag: How so?

I loved Shrine of Amana til the first fog door. And the entire zone is drop-dead gorgeous. I love the Milfanito's singing as well.

[aceluby]

Yeah, LOTS of DS over the week/weekend. Shrine of Armana can lick balls, spent some time going through the first section to farm twinkling titanite, then moved to the mushroom bonfire to go through the tough part backwards to keep farming. Got lots of stuff levelled up.

From there I moved to the undead crypt and basically took it on solo. I would recommend listening to the dude who tells you to shut the light off.

Dude absolutely OWNED me when I went back w/ a torch after being told not to light anything. Luckily I had already found the bonfire past him.

Raged quite a few times toward the end of that level, but the boss was stupid easy. I made the REALLY dumb mistake of attacking Vendrick before picking up the King's Ring, so I had to do that section about 5 more times before I successfully took out everyone in the hall and then also successfully dodged Vendrick enough to grab the ring before dying.

From there I took on Aldia's Keep, which is probably one of my favorite levels in the game, then went on to the Dragon Aerie (which I need to go back and kill some dragaons, they have a TON of loot, but most will one shot me), then went to the dragon shrine and talked to the Ancient Dragon.

After that I went and did all of the Giant Memories and now have 4 Giant Souls

These take down the defenses of Vendrick

Then I went ahead and did all of the 'Dark' missions, but keep getting owned by Darklurker since she can pretty much one hit me

And has a spell that casts from behind you and is pretty much impossible to dodge out of the way

Then I went and co-op'd the Ancient Dragon and after 4-5 hours never once defeater her. I read up on it and apparently she's easier if you go solo, so I'm in the process of upping my SL and HP (current SL is 103, but all points have gone into INT and FTH).

So basically now I'm at the point where I'm going to farm the guys up until the Ancient dragon until they are gone, then get a bunch of powerful spells to taker her down. Use those levels to get more HP so I can tank a hit or two from Darklurker, check to see what trophies I can get on a first playthrough, then move on and take out the last boss.

Roughly 80 hours in, but at least 30-40 of those hours were doing online stuff (co-op/PvP). Will take this character to NG+, get the last of the trophies, and then start anew with a melee character. Always a fun switch to go from a ranged glass cannon to a melee tank. Definitely will be putting in a few hundred more hours in :)