[Spoilers] Dark Souls 2 part Deux

[RumHam]

Alright thanks.

[Muttering Bill]

Finally repaid my debt to society. Lots of traffic at No Man's Wharf. Didn't turn out too badly. I ended up getting a lot of good fights now that the Mule has been reigned in. Still lost most of them. But at least I lost because I suck and not because of cheap shit.

Now I can get back to working on my platinum trophy. Did some co-op on Old Dragonslayer, but that is so easy 3v1 that it's not even fun.

[aceluby]

I finally got Hidden Weapon yesterday, finished Benhart's storyline, and moved on to NG++. One thing I'm noticing is that they have really done a good job at making sure NG+ and onward is sufficiently difficult for high levelled characters. Mine is up to 210, planning on levelling up to 250 with the last of my levels to get ATT, VGR, and some of the ancillary stats. Since then I've finished the Iron King, the Chariot (which was WAY harder on NG++, those skellies pack a punch), and have the Gutter and Sinner to finish before heading to Drangleic to get my spells and finish my platinum.

After that I start a new Dex based character and beat the game utilizing melee. After that I'll try an offline solo run. 150 hours in so far, almost 600 deaths.

[Muttering Bill]

I also finished off NG with my Dex build. Finished off using the Curved Dragon Greatsword. That must be the Dex version of MLGS. Vendrick and Ancient Dragon went down so fast. Darklurker was the only boss that gave me trouble. Ended up having to equip the Northern Ritual Band so I could attune Chaos Storm and cheese the second half of that fight.

Finished that one in 32 hours with 80 deaths, so a lot better than the first playthrough.

Got through Benharts quest. But since he died against LGK, I had to summon him for both Watcher/Defender and Nashandra. So you have to clear 3 areas, not just 3 bosses.

Anyone visit Amana since the patch? I went in to grab the Kings stuff. The mages are very easy to dodge now, and I had no trouble getting through the small portion that I did.

Edit - watching some post patch videos, and Lucatiel can pretty much solo Smelter now. Not worried about her questline anymore.

[aceluby]

Yeah, summoned Lucatiel for Smelter yesterday and she just TANKED him. I sniped from far away and she easily survived.

[aceluby]

Speed run of just over an hour:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/someone-beat-dark-souls-2-in-one-hour

LOTS of crazy jumps and dodging to be able to do it.

[Muttering Bill]

That shortcut around the Shrine of Winter was patched out. Isn't there some rule that says these speedruns don't really count unless they are on the current version? It's still impressive though.

I'm still working through at my own slow pace. Doing a bit of co-op. Putting my sign down for Flex I haven't had to wait more than 30 seconds to be summoned. Getting ready to start farming for Hidden Weapon next. Not looking forward to that at all.

[aceluby]

That shortcut around the Shrine of Winter was patched out. Isn't there some rule that says these speedruns don't really count unless they are on the current version? It's still impressive though.

I'm still working through at my own slow pace. Doing a bit of co-op. Putting my sign down for Flex I haven't had to wait more than 30 seconds to be summoned. Getting ready to start farming for Hidden Weapon next. Not looking forward to that at all.

Doing the Belfry Sol runs with your ring on while farming the red guy took me 3 or 4 hours total. Being invaded is easily the most annoying part. Spread across a few days it wasn't too bad. I'm currently making my way to Freja, and then take on Lost Sinner for the 3rd time so I can open the way to Drangleic and buy the spells I'm missing. Probably about 3-4 hours from getting my platinum. Thinking of maybe going back to Demon's Souls and getting my platinum for that too, though I know it's a huge PITA.

I'm surprised they patched the Shrine of Winter glitch, they typically keep these types of things around since it's not really 'game breaking' and doesn't impact online play. They left the Undead Parish -> Lower Undead shortcut, the ability to cheese Maneaters in DeS, and the ability to cheese Magus (not right, but the DLC guy who's name I am forgetting). Kinda disappointed.

[Muttering Bill]

I've heard a good number of horror stories over that Pure Bladestone in Demon's Souls. I didn't have that much trouble with it. Got the platinum in just under 100 hours. Good luck if you try.

I really want to do a full series replay. But after I get this platinum I'm going back to finish South Park. And I've got 2 more games in the mail. So it'll have to wait.

Sunbro'ing at the Ruin Sentinels tonight. Very active again. And the Redeye Ring is amazing for co-op.

[aceluby]

Did looking glass knight again. I'm like 90% sure now that if you use the white ring that he can't summon someone from his mirror. I think the reason for this is that he's using the mirror to create a copy of the player (not actual copy, but you know...), but since you are wearing the ring and are a phantom that he doesn't have anyone to copy.

I also think that I'm the first person to figure this out because I haven't seen ANYONE do this despite helping people for hours and didn't see anything online.

If you do the LGK again could you do me a favor and put on the white ring before the fight and let me know if he summons a squire?

[Inigima]

Is that bought from the cat?

[Muttering Bill]

In NG or NG+? Is he copying your character in NG? I didn't have time to inspect them since they always got a Great Lightning Spear immediately upon spawning.

Or does it just stop him from summoning in NG+ when you have 2 other phantoms with you. The game thinks there are already 3 phantoms and so it can't pull in another?

Is that bought from the cat?

You get it on trade from the crows. You'll need one of the big Smooth and Silky's or a Petrified Something so your chances are limited.

[Muttering Bill]

Finished off NG+, except for a couple of optional things that I won't bother with (Darklurker, Ancient Dragon, the other two Giant Memories). A couple of notes...

I don't know how badly Sinner was hit by the patch, but I found her to be rather easy. I did have Lucatiel with me, and she did have Sinner's attention when the pyro's showed up. With them out of the was it just took a bit of Great Lightning Spear spam to finish it off (I had to, Luca wasn't going to make it if it stretched on any longer). I'm sure it would have been tougher had I gone in completely alone, but not by that much.

Double Pursuers was the hardest boss I had to fight. So, naturally, they were optional, because From lost their nerve for abusing the player. I only managed it by

getting hit by a curse stab, which caused one of them to despawn. Fighting them one on one is so much easier. But I did have to come back and fight the other one again to get the ring. That I'm not going to use because it kind of sucks.

I didn't get a human squire for the Looking Glass Knight. I must be in a lousy SM range, since summons too were scarce in most places. It's just as well though. I did manage to find one summon here. Which was lucky because I needed him to do most of the work since my weapons are all Lightning or Fire and did almost no damage to LGK. I'm definately making a couple of Dark weapons for the next cycle.

And finally the Shrine of Amana... I breezed through this place in NG with both of my characters. But it was an absolute nightmare in NG+. Toned down? Ha! And I liked it!

Onward to NG++, Chancellor Wellager, and my platinum trophy!

[aceluby]

Received my platinum over the weekend and rolled a new dual wielding Dex character. LOVE dual wielding and have already made it to Earthen Peak. Going from a mage glass cannon that couldn't take a hit from anything my first time around to a melee character makes the melee character seem like easy mode. I can take a TON of hits and wear some really badass armor, so I can make a few mistakes and not have it kill me right away. So far I haven't really run into any trouble.

[Muttering Bill]

Dual wielding is great. You've really got to manage your stamina though. With a shield if you run out of stamina, you can still block. You get guard broken but it's usually harmless. Dual wielding you just get hit.

On my Faith character I've been alternating between the Defender Greatsword/Shield and dual wielding Bastard Swords. I've got 4 at +10, 2 Fire, 2 Lightning. And I'm building 2 more for Dark. My Dex character is setup to dual wield Mirrah Greatswords. Once I go and kill Lucatiel again. For some reason I really want to try dual wielding Spears. Just because it's silly, and why not?

Anyway, I played through a few areas of NG++ and I've come to the conclusion that this game is much better done solo. In example, Old Dragonslayer. I did a few rounds of co-op on him in NG+ and it was really sad. Three people rushing in can cut him down in less than 30 seconds. There was never any risk of losing. It's was really boring and I moved rather quickly. Then I fought him again in NG++ and, while I still beat him on the first try, it was a damn good fight. Took several minutes to work him down and there was even a few close calls.

And I can say the same for several other bosses that I liked the first time through, but just became trivial in my co-op playthroughs. DS1 felt much better balanced for co-op. Meh, I got that one Miracle, so it's back to solo for me.

So is the PC version out today?

[aceluby]

I definitely agree that doing it solo is much more satisfying. During my current run I've limited myself to only summoning NPC characters before I do my all solo run

[Muttering Bill]

Wrath of the Gods is so pointless now. Sure it does a ton of damage, but it (like every Miracle) is very easily avoided. And all that work for... 1 casting!? :crying: Oh well. So it's now just another Miracle that's not Great Lightning Spear or Soul Appease, and therefore will never get attuned.

Got my platinum. Yay! Getting ready to take a break from this soon. Going to finish off this cycle and then move on to some other games for a bit. Then probably a series replay starting with Demon's Souls.

[aceluby]

Wrath of the Gods is so pointless now. Sure it does a ton of damage, but it (like every Miracle) is very easily avoided. And all that work for... 1 casting!? :crying: Oh well. So it's now just another Miracle that's not Great Lightning Spear or Soul Appease, and therefore will never get attuned.

Got my platinum. Yay! Getting ready to take a break from this soon. Going to finish off this cycle and then move on to some other games for a bit. Then probably a series replay starting with Demon's Souls.

I'm going to do the same. I'm working through a dex build now in DS2 and then I'm going to do a quality (Dex/Str) build on all three games. Should only take about 300 hours, lol. Can't wait!

[Muttering Bill]

I'm going to do the same. I'm working through a dex build now in DS2 and then I'm going to do a quality (Dex/Str) build on all three games. Should only take about 300 hours, lol. Can't wait!

That's what I was going to do too. Was debating between quality and magic. But I've tried doing magic before but I'd just end up using melee most of the time anyway.

My original Demon's Souls character started out Dex, but ended up Quality by the time I finished Pure Bladestone farming. Didn't even use the Sharp Kilij +10 that I made with it; by then I'd moved on to the Northern Regalia. Best weapon in any Souls game.

[aceluby]

Been doing belfry farming today w/ my Dex build... Either I'm REALLY good, or these guys are just terribly bad. I've lost once in about 20 invasions and I'm not even doing anything sneaky, just power stancing a short and long sword. Sitting on 17 chunks at the moment, but nothing to use them on since I'm hurting for large titanite.

I also somehow got the Lost Sinner's soul and have no recollection of going that route at all with this character, much less taking on the boss. I want to head down there next and see if I actually did, which would be funny because I would have had to have done it when I was super drunk last weekend after drinking scotch after scotch at the bar.