Dark Souls III: Witty Title Pending

[Rodin]

Has anyone found the point of shotguns? I've tried using the Blunderbuss on a non-Bloodtinge character and it just seems poor. It fires slower than the pistol making it harder to get Riposte timings, and the damage is just pathetic. The Rifle Spear's shotgun is similarly poor, and while I haven't tried it from what I hear Ludwig's Rifle makes the Blunderbuss look good in comparison.

[Zevox]

For whatever interest it may be to anyone, I started up a second run of Dark Souls 2. Kinda like my Dante run in the first game, I'd had the idea of doing one based on Bayonetta earlier while I was playing the game, but I wound up changing that to Trish (from Devil May Cry) instead. I'm going with her wielding greatswords, since Sparda is a pretty big sword and I've never done anything like that in these games, and just like with Dante will be tailoring my armor choices to match what the character is supposed to look like, not what's optimal for the build. Speaking of, it'll be mostly physical, but with a little faith for some miracles, since Trish wields lightning magic her games.

So far? Rocky at the start due to the crap opening equipment (seriously, the starting weapon for a warrior is a broken sword? What the hell?), but after that, not nearly as much harder than the mage run as I was expecting. In fact, most of the bosses so far have given me less trouble than they did my mage - though I guess me simply being in practice with the game at this point could be the reason why. I've just cleared No-Man's Wharf and am on the Lost Bastille next.

[TechnOkami]

An update on my Bloodborne shenanigans.

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I got stuck in Old Yarnham for a little bit not realizing a path was behind the church full of beasts. I also defeated the hunter with the mini gun, at first with a very fast paced toe to toe fight where I ended up pushing him off a ledge. I had to re-load the area so I could get the item on him, and apparently you can befriend him, which I sadly learned AFTER killing him. Anyways, I defeated the Bloodstarved Beast, and then got kidnapped to the Unseen Village. The kidnappers with the bags are TERRIFYING. I eventually found a lantern and made like a bat out of hell. I then proceeded to roam around, somehow getting myself behind the circular courtyard with the two giant axe wielding gents, defeated those two really speedy hunters on the path to a door I can't open yet (although I'm aware of the Eldritch monster perched above it that I can't see yet), and I was going to take on Vicar Amelia, but I had like 20,000 Blood Echoes to spend on leveling my skill so I could wield Ludwig's Holy Blade, and I left myself at an impasse.

I only have a finite resource of things to Fortify with, and I don't know wether I want to further upgrade the Kirkhammer over Ludwig's Holy Blade or vice versa. I decided I was going to take the BFS on a test drive and see how it compared. And that's where I stopped.

[Spacewolf]

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So just finished my third run through and ignoring all the side bosses and chalices it took me 3-4 hours to cut my way through, this is why I always think it's funny when people complain about RPGs being short when they just speed through the Campaign and miss everything else. (Note my first play through would have been at least 24 hours spread out over however many days).

I do have to say once you can do the Cursed Defiled Chalice you pretty much know the game well enough you can cake walk the rest. I think the only thing remaining for me is Ebiritas at the bottom of the Izi chalice, which I really cba doing on my own.

[TechnOkami]

So, I'm stuck.

Spoiler: Help pls

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I don't know where to go in the game.

I have cleared out all of the first area of the Hidden Village Yarguhl, and there is the big door at the end which I can't open. The moon is still white, and I have a feeling I might need more than 12 insight to open it (based on the fact that there are three guys who give insight in front of it), but I honestly don't know. I already took down the lighting wolf-skeleton Darkbeast.

I know there's a door which requires a password, which I am guessing was told to us in that cutscene after we defeat Vicar Amelia. However, I completely forgot where it is. I'm fairly sure it's in Yarnham somewhere, but I can't remember where to save my life. I KNOW I found it once because I got the dialogue thing for it, but I don't remember where it is anymore. It's the only lead I have as to keep progressing throughout the game, but I don't know where to go.

I went through the Charnel Village place, beat the Witch, got the Rune-thing, but I don't know where to go from there, if there's anywhere to go from there.

In general I'm just stuck at the moment.

[Spacewolf]

Spoiler: Directions

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Go to the Grand Cathedral Lantern go down the main steps and into the large circular graveyard area then there is a door behind the giant to your right that path leads to the door you want.

[TechnOkami]

Spoiler: Directions

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Go to the Grand Cathedral Lantern go down the main steps and into the large circular graveyard area then there is a door behind the giant to your right that path leads to the door you want.

Many, many thanks.

[Rodin]

It's been a funny day today.

Spoiler: Fourth boss amusements

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Taking on Vicar Amelia, I went in with another player and we cornered her against the altar at the back of the cathedral. At this point, I managed to nail her with a Visceral attack, which of course punts the enemy across the room. But, she was up against the altar, so she couldn't. Instead, the V. Attack somehow squeezed her through the gap between the altar and the wall, leaving her trapped in the little space behind the wall.

Me and my ally looked at each other, shrugged, and proceeded to shoot her to death.

Spoiler: Old Yarnham strangeness

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After whooping up on the boss above, I went around and got myself in through Old Yarnham's back gate in order to talk to Hunter Djura. This went smoothly and I promised him I wouldn't attack any of the Beasts in the town. I did want to test whether this made them non-aggressive, and a quick run up the ramp showed me that they were still after my blood. To avoid breaking my promise, I ran back to the shortcut ladder that goes down past the church. As I'm descending the ladder, one of the Beasts decides to leap at me, and goes hurtling past me down the ladder to its death.

And Hunter Djura blamed ME for that, giving this big long speech about how he won't hold back against me. I'm innocent, I swear!

And finally, I found an easy way to beat the 5th boss.

Spoiler: 5th boss strat

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The Witch of Hemwick is always a pain in the ass because of the second one which comes out and resurrects the first, leaving you with two of the damn witches to deal with (and volleys of that stupid paralysis spell).

Today when I was fighting them, I didn't kill the spectres the first one summons and instead just ran around looking for her. Every time I found her, I would start attacking but noticed that her HP wasn't going down. After a bit, I finally realized what was happening:

Both witches are there from the start.

What this means is that you can chase around the main witch and beat her up, but make sure you don't kill her. Then go find the second witch and maul her too. She won't fight back, because this is still the first stage of the fight. She will, however, teleport away. Once both witches are really low on HP (you'll have to guess for the second one, since you can't see her HP bar), you kill the first witch and then immediately search out the second and kill her too.

Boom, both witches down, no resurrections, and no second stage of the fight with additional spells.

[Rosstin]

Has anyone found the point of shotguns? I've tried using the Blunderbuss on a non-Bloodtinge character and it just seems poor. It fires slower than the pistol making it harder to get Riposte timings, and the damage is just pathetic. The Rifle Spear's shotgun is similarly poor, and while I haven't tried it from what I hear Ludwig's Rifle makes the Blunderbuss look good in comparison.

Shotguns are only for stunning and visceral attacking enemies as far as I can tell.

[TechnOkami]

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How do you be friends with Durja without pissing him off?

Also, when I was fighting the witches, there was this one time where I was behind one of them and just chained her with backstabs and visceral's, which was pretty funny to me at the time.

Also holy hell the Mark III Ptheru-whatever Chalice Dungeon is tough as nails!

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First off, giant fiery wolf puppy was an easy/fun boss. I got instagibbed on the very first boss because he jumped at me and dropped my health low and I wasn't expecting it, but eh.

I don't remember what the first boss was, but I don't remember it being too difficult. Boss #2 though, the witch? Holy hell she was hard. But she was also the reason I was doing the chalice dungeons in the first place (I really wanted her set), so after a few failed attempts, I rammed my Armor as high as it could go, and poison knifed her to death.

Boss #3 though... Oof. I had to stop at him. I could get him to half health easily enough, but once he split his sword in two I just couldn't do anything. He always hit first, so I couldn't hit back in time. He hit like a truck, and one if his dual wielding combos was an instant-kill onto me... I just decided to keep progressing through the main story at that point.

Where I'm currently at.

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I made my way through a forest of beasts, and now I'm up against these three snake serpent black robed fire katana douchebags. I almost beat the boss on the first try, but the katana guy who I left for last pulled these two snakes out of the ground who dropped me to zero. Little annoyed at that. I called it a night there.

Also, I'm going like super ham glass cannon. I'm not only wielding the cannon, my STR is at 30, my Skill at like 27?, and I need to invest points into health to deal with the harder chalice bosses. I am starting to need more stamina too though, but I've been managing it pretty well.

[Rodin]

Shotguns are only for stunning and visceral attacking enemies as far as I can tell.

Right, but why use a shotgun instead of a higher damage pistol? At point blank range they're both as accurate (because, y'know, point blank) and the pistol has a faster draw which makes visceral attacking easier.

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How do you be friends with Durja without pissing him off?

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There's a back gate that you can get through via Yahar'gul. If you go in that way he doesn't recognize you from earlier and is willing to talk to you. If you agree not to harm the Beasts in Old Yarnham, he gives you his Badge.

[Spacewolf]

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How do you be friends with Durja without pissing him off?

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Get Grabbed by the Snatchers kill DarkBeast Paarl, then head up the ladder behind him, doesn't matter if you've been shot at by him before hand, also think you might need to be wearing one of the church sets.

Also holy hell the Mark III Ptheru-whatever Chalice Dungeon is tough as nails!

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First off, giant fiery wolf puppy was an easy/fun boss. I got instagibbed on the very first boss because he jumped at me and dropped my health low and I wasn't expecting it, but eh.

I don't remember what the first boss was, but I don't remember it being too difficult. Boss #2 though, the witch? Holy hell she was hard. But she was also the reason I was doing the chalice dungeons in the first place (I really wanted her set), so after a few failed attempts, I rammed my Armor as high as it could go, and poison knifed her to death.

Boss #3 though... Oof. I had to stop at him. I could get him to half health easily enough, but once he split his sword in two I just couldn't do anything. He always hit first, so I couldn't hit back in time. He hit like a truck, and one if his dual wielding combos was an instant-kill onto me... I just decided to keep progressing through the main story at that point.

Spoiler: Boss 3 tips

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Boss 3 Just keep backing up he's extremely susceptible to getting riposted especially when he draws his double blades, dodge the first attack in his combo then blast him as he winds up for his second

Where I'm currently at.

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I made my way through a forest of beasts, and now I'm up against these three snake serpent black robed fire katana douchebags. I almost beat the boss on the first try, but the katana guy who I left for last pulled these two snakes out of the ground who dropped me to zero. Little annoyed at that. I called it a night there.

Also, I'm going like super ham glass cannon. I'm not only wielding the cannon, my STR is at 30, my Skill at like 27?, and I need to invest points into health to deal with the harder chalice bosses. I am starting to need more stamina too though, but I've been managing it pretty well.

Spoiler: Shadows tips if interested.

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Kill the two melee guys first you can stunlock the mage easy as anything in the last phase as he has the least health you just have to keep the obelisk between you and him before that. A weapon with a decent AOE is useful aswell to help you chip away at the two melee guys at the same time, aim for the one with the candles and start stabbing the other one will then usually then run straight into your attacks. (Doesn't work as well during phase two where they grow snake heads though at that point just kill them as fast as possible.)

Edit:

Right, but why use a shotgun instead of a higher damage pistol? At point blank range they're both as accurate (because, y'know, point blank) and the pistol has a faster draw which makes visceral attacking easier.

Huh apparently I've been using exclusively bad weapons :P. But yea the reason I use it is because at close range it can stagger some enemies even if you don't time the riposte right, not enough to let you do much but it can stop an attack that has you backed into a corner or allow you an opening on an enemy who isn't using the moves to let you riposte. (I also like the noise it makes admittedly.)

[TechnOkami]

I should also mention that I'm really bad at shooting an an enemy to make them vulnerable to a visceral, mostly because I don't know when the window to hitting them occurs and my timing being off, let alone running up to them and pressing R1.

[Rosstin]

Shotgun has spread so it is easier to hit the correct part of the enemy.

[Rodin]

Shotgun has spread so it is easier to hit the correct part of the enemy.

Huh, there's a correct part? I always just assumed that you shot them during the animation and that was it.

[riccaru]

Has anyone found the point of shotguns? I've tried using the Blunderbuss on a non-Bloodtinge character and it just seems poor. It fires slower than the pistol making it harder to get Riposte timings, and the damage is just pathetic. The Rifle Spear's shotgun is similarly poor, and while I haven't tried it from what I hear Ludwig's Rifle makes the Blunderbuss look good in comparison.

Shotguns can give you breathing room as a horde of enemies come towards you. Also there have been a few times that the enemy was close and sidestepped the pistol shot and from that got a free hit on me.

edit: I still prefer the pistol, but the off hand weapons are less for damage and more for making space or visceral attacking (discounting the weapons which are in fact used for damage)

[TechnOkami]

I beat the

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three Ninja Shadow Fire Katana Douchebags. Had to stop though because me mum claimed the TV.

[Snowbluff]

I finally got to playing BB again and I finally got matchmaking to work and so I was finally able to kill the Bloodstarved beast.

[TechnOkami]

Yeah, the Bloodstarved Beast was pretty annoying, until I realized

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that the best way to counteract the fact that you're being poisoned so often in the last stage of the fight is by repeatedly attacking him while dodging his attacks. That way you keep getting heal back from the yellow bar-thing.

[Rodin]

I beat the

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three Ninja Shadow Fire Katana Douchebags. Had to stop though because me mum claimed the TV.

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I finally managed to get a 3-man group together to fight them one-on-one. I wound up with KatanaBro, and the fight was hilariously curbstompy once you break up their teamwork. I managed to take my dude down fastest, too, which was rather pleasing.

I did a lot of co-op against them tonight (they're actually one of my favorite bosses in the game), and it's rather interesting to see how many people beeline for the caster. Yeah, he's easiest to get out of the way, but he's also the least dangerous, guys...

[TechnOkami]

I would totally be down for multiplayer. But my lack of Playstation+ makes me sad.

In other news, I'm at Byrgenworth. I'm farming some levels before I attempt the boss again.

[Rodin]

Mucked about with shotguns today.

The big difference that I did notice is that Shotguns actually interrupt attacks. For instance, with the trolls if you miss the Riposte with a pistol, you're getting a slab of concrete in the face. With a shotgun, the troll will recoil, allowing you to reload and try again.

On the flip side, the damage is piss-poor (although higher than what is stated on the gun itself, for some reason) and what's worse is that there seems to be a "recoil" to the Shotguns that isn't nearly as strong with the pistols. I've had time when an opponent is staggered just a few steps from me but I couldn't close the distance to Visceral them.

Think I'm going to stick to pistols.

Went through the game PvPing as well. My success rate in the early zones with no Bell-ringing Women was slim to none. It requires either somebody using a Sinister Bell or someone using a Summoning Bell. While there are a fair few people in the second category, level differences and a tendency to summon right outside the boss door made PvP almost impossible. What was interesting is that the few times I got somebody was always a solo character - most likely somebody else using a Sinister. I suspect the match-making prioritizes 1v1 matches, although my overall success rate was too low to give any useful data. Once I got into areas where the Bell-ringing women naturally reside there was PvP galore.

Oh, and because I dislike being invaded in general I followed a code: I would attempt to bow to my opponent. If they didn't respect that, all bets were off and I would fight them all out, using potions and exploiting the presence of the AI. If they bowed back, I would attempt to lead them to a safe place to PVP and would not use potions during the fight. If they then used a potion, I would feel free to use them too.

A surprising number of people fought with honor and went fully potion-free. I guess the folks that have PS Plus are mostly hardcore Dark Souls players who know the score. There was one guy though who I met close to the boss room. We stopped, faced each other, and bowed. Then he turned and sprinted for the boss door. I probably could have caught him, but didn't have the heart.

Spoiler: Best PvP weapons

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The most effective PvP weapons seem to be the Chikage and the Blade of Mercy. The Chikage excels because it requires a high Bloodtinged stat, and a high damage pistol is utterly brutal in PvP. One of my two losses today was from a Chikage user that absolutely destroyed me with quick-draw attacks and pistol shots. The Blade of Mercy is the one I was using, and you simply run rings around anyone who is using anything else. Because you have a fast recovery, you can take a hit and then dive in and rally your blood back. The weakness is to the Chikage, which can outdamage you and can swap over to a pistol to harass when you back off.

I met somebody using just about every weapon in the game, and those two impressed me the most. Ludwig's Blade was actually very predictable, at least in the hands of the players I met. The only weapons I didn't see were a Logarius Wheel, a Reiterspallach, and the Beast Claw.

[Calemyr]

The only PVP I've gotten involved with is due to the bloody Nightmare levels. First time I was caught off guard and butchered because I was just expecting an endless torrent of glowing red monsters (like in chalice dungeons), but my brother's solution was elegant. The second he got the message an aggressor had appeared, he took that blue elixir to go invisible, then waited to ambush the interloper with an charge attack from a heavily upgraded Holy Blade before switching to single-hand mode and finishing him off before he could get his bearings (and bring his cannon to bear). Winning against a PK is really satisfying, since they intentionally set out to ruin someone's day.

[Rodin]

The only PVP I've gotten involved with is due to the bloody Nightmare levels. First time I was caught off guard and butchered because I was just expecting an endless torrent of glowing red monsters (like in chalice dungeons), but my brother's solution was elegant. The second he got the message an aggressor had appeared, he took that blue elixir to go invisible, then waited to ambush the interloper with an charge attack from a heavily upgraded Holy Blade before switching to single-hand mode and finishing him off before he could get his bearings (and bring his cannon to bear). Winning against a PK is really satisfying, since they intentionally set out to ruin someone's day.

Hah! That's pretty awesome.

Do keep in mind though that unlike Dark Souls 2, there aren't really any "designated" PvP zones. It made PvPing very much a crapshoot in terms of getting someone who actually wanted to PvP. There are plenty of people who are doing it intentionally (including one dude who ran away to hide behind enemies when he realized he couldn't beat me alone), but they're all kind of mixed in with the people who are just looking for a willing opponent.

One nice thing is that 90% of the game is PvP-free unless you actively choose it, although as I mentioned above that mostly makes those zones outright unavailable. The other nice thing is that once you learn the locations of the Bell-ringing women you can knock them out and they don't come back unless you either summon someone or ring a Sinister bell yourself. It prevents the "death zone" situation that Anor Londo got in Dark Souls.

[Rosstin]

PVP is really weak in this game. So far Dark Souls I has my favorite PVP. Although I hear that it's even better in Dark Souls II.

Dark Souls I has my favorite PVP because it meshes the best with PVE. You just play in human form and you get to fight someone every few hours which I personally find really fun and breaks up the PVE experience.

I remember the couple times I fought someone in Dark Souls II, the experience was extremely smooth, though. When you PVP in Dark Souls I (and probably in Demon Souls) you're playing this wacky game where you're protecting your invisible tail and attacking the place where your opponent will be in a few seconds. When I played PVP in Dark Souls II it felt better than that.

[Rodin]

I'm feeling ranty today, so I'm just going to go ahead and get my frustrations about the game out. Do note that I write this having greatly enjoyed the game and having probably put a couple hundred hours into it by now.

Spoiler: Wot I didn't like

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First and foremost, the damn camera. I've probably had more camera related deaths than in any Souls game to date other than Demon's Souls, which I actually quit playing after the camera screwed me one too many times. The camera is extremely poor at locking onto large boss enemies, and the larger it gets the worse it is. The Cleric Beast and the Unborn One are two of the worst for this - it is absolutely impossible to see what is going on against them when you are close enough to hit their legs. When bosses leap, the camera doesn't disengage the lock-on smoothly but instead yaws crazily, making dodging the landing a luck-based game at best.

Against multiple opponents, the lock-on feature has taken the "randomly pick who to lock onto" feature I hated in DSII and turned it up to the max. I've run directly at an enemy and had an enemy close by me on my left on the edge of the screen. When I try to lock on, the camera doesn't lock on to the enemy in front of me, it instead locks onto the enemy off to the side. Okay, so it was closest and that's what it locked onto, right? Wrong - later that same day, an enemy closed in on my left side while I was facing an enemy a medium distance away from me. I try to lock on, and it locks onto the enemy too far away to strike with my sword instead of the one close by me. Again: Random. The absolute worst was a time when I was surrounded by enemies and I killed an enemy. The auto-switch didn't lock onto the enemy next to him which I could easily hit. Oh no. It instead locked onto the enemy OFF CAMERA BEHIND ME. You know, the one that I couldn't hit without spinning about first.

The dodge mechanics are similarly funky, because they're tied to where the enemy is rather than a directional roll like the other Souls games. When it works, it works really well. Often however, I will attempt to dodge sideways but instead the dodge circles around the enemy instead - right into its attack. Grr. There's also a very annoying tendency to get stuck on terrain. Large enemies in particular have an amazing penchant for locking you against a wall so you cannot dodge either left or right, and you cannot move forward because they're stood there. While this happened occasionally in previous games, I don't ever remember it happening to this extent. The camera in this case doesn't help, as it cannot sit over your shoulder like before (there's a wall there, y'know) so it zooms super close up to you...while still trying to stay locked to the monster that is now towering above your head. The result just about gives me motion sickness.

While the Trick weapons are all well-realized and fun weapons (apart from the Saw Spear, which is the only weapon I actively dislike), I'm not a fan of how they're paced through the game. In previous Souls titles, it was pretty easy to get an example of almost every weapon. There would be a Greatsword, a Mace, a Katana, etc., and it would be somewhere within the first half of the game. The actual weapon you wanted might be further in, but there would be a weapon of that class available. This...isn't really the case in Bloodborne. There's exactly one Katana in the game, and it's 5 bosses deep behind an optional, powerful boss. The Blade of Mercy is only available early if you kill a friendly NPC, otherwise it only becomes available a few bosses from the end of the game and at the end of a difficult questline. The Beast Claw is only available in a late-game Chalice dungeon.

The game seems to really push you into doing New Game+, but then doesn't provide any changes to New Game+ to encourage doing it.

I didn't like the upgrade system either. The game inundates you with Blood Shards and Twin Blood shards, making getting a weapon to +6 trivial. Chunks are then quite rare, making it difficult to push more than one weapon and one gun to +9. Finally, there is exactly ONE Blood Rock in the entire freaking game. One. This guarantees that only your primary weapon will be +10 - your Guns and backup weapon will be stuck at +9. Additionally, the lack of different types of Blood Shard/Titanite makes the whole thing very boring - there are no choices about what direction you take your weapon, you just upgrade it.

In theory, the customization was supposed to be taken over by Blood Gems. However, I don't think they really work. % damage Gems just outshine everything. Very occasionally you'll get a Blunt or Thrust one that is worthwhile, but most of the time the plain damage is just plain better. Skill scaling is useless. Poison is pretty useless as well, although this one is a long Souls tradition so I can't blame Bloodborne specifically for it. Seriously though guys, balance Poison right so that some weapons properly benefit from a full Poison build. The real kicker though is when you get to Arcane builds.

Arcane gets seriously shafted on Blood Gems, because Radial Arcane/Fire/Bolt gems are exceedingly rare. As in "do not appear naturally, only as random drops from Chalice dungeon" rare. This utterly shafts a standard Arcane build, because they have to drop 20-50% in damage because they can't get any damage from two of their slots. To add insult to injury, Arcane weapons cannot be boosted with Fire Paper. As an experiment, I tried making a pure Arcane build and socketing in the best Arcane gem I could get in the mid-game - a +10.5% damage. I had no scaling from other stats, just 40 Arcane on a Threaded Cane. I was dealing ~120 damage per hit on your standard Yarnham peasants. I took the Arcane gem off and put on regular gems - this amounted to about +20% damage, but which showed up on my skill sheet as about 30-40 damage lower due to the lack of any kind of scaling. Fair enough, I went out and started whacking stuff and I was dealing ~100 damage per hit. Then I used a Fire Paper. My damage sky-rocketed up to 160-170 damage per hit. Using Arcane gems was just pointless - I could simply carry around a stack of Fire Paper and do far more damage. Heck, I could even swap damage types on the fly by using Bolt Paper or the Hollow Empty Shell. It just wasn't available to a weapon that dealt Arcane damage. The randomness of what can and cannot be enchanted gets me big time. The Mercy Blade cannot be enchanted, because it automatically does a portion of Arcane. That's weird, but okay. The Rifle Spear cannot be enhanced with Fire Paper because it does Bloodtinge damage through the gun. Actually, no, that's not true, because the Reiterspallach CAN be set alight, and even does additional bullet damage. You can't enhance the Rifle Spear because...it's two-handed? Sorry, no, Ludwig's Blade can be enhanced. The Rifle Spear can't be enchanced because screw you Rifle Spear.

Non-physical stuff in general feels kinda gimped. You can make a decent Arcane build, but it's bloody hard work and nowhere near as viable as spellcasters in previous games. You're limited to a handful of spells, there are no Miracles at all, and there is no leveled spellcasting tool so you're entirely dependent on natural scaling. The non-gun off-hand weapons mostly feel useless. The Hunter's Torch is useful in Old Yarnham and that's about it, and the Flamethrower has serious downsides (although you can get decent damage off it, at least). They also have no Blood Gem slots, because reasons.

The guns themselves have their own problems. They're largely gimmicky Riposte tools rather than something you can actually get a hybrid fighting style off of, and even high Bloodtinge builds rely almost exlusively on their Trick Weapon. They also only get one Gem slot which is restricted to a single type, which makes customizing them almost impossible.

Basically, there isn't any kind of alternate way to play the game. You pick a main stat based on your weapon, and only if you feel like getting gimmicky with Arcane does it get any more complicated than that.

Armor also feels useless. I've never noticed what I'm wearing affecting the damage I take in any major way, even when I specifically put on a set of resistance gear. This is largely due to it not being upgradeable and all of it has pretty much the same stats anyway. I do more mix-and-matching based on Fashionborne than any desire for actual protection. I miss that decision of whether to go in as an armored tank or a light dodger. I miss the decision of whether to use a shield or not, and if so what kind. I miss the ability to play as a Ranged character. I miss both Sorcery and Faith builds.

And finally, potions/bullets. I think they really screwed the pooch on this one. The way we had it with a set amount given at each bonfire was fine. Making them not replenish doesn't make the game harder, it just makes the game grindier. Play until you run out of potions, then go grind for 10-15 minutes to get a full set and spend the additional souls you get on stocking the cupboard. When I lose to a boss, I don't want to have to spend 50 seconds teleporting back to the Hunter's Dream, 50 seconds teleporting to wherever I'm farming, 10 minutes farming that area, then aonther double-teleport back. Only to repeat it all again when the boss curbstomps me. It's seriously, seriously dumb and I'm astounded that they changed it. It also really discourages certain playstyles due to inequality of drops. A lot of areas don't HAVE riflemen to drop bullets. This means that you will run out of bullets with no way to replace them. It's just plain bad design.

And to end on a happy note, the thing I love most about the game: World design. I am still finding places where I can look over a balcony and spot an area you can go visit. Or the area that I just was 10 minutes ago. Even areas that are totally unconnected to where I am now, but which naturally are visible thanks to how the world is laid out. It's a beautiful thing to be able to look up at a bridge and say "Hey, I know where that goes..."

To end on an even happier note: My most embarassing death.

Going through a Chalice dungeon, I'm running through some of those pendulum blades. Easy enough. Except, when I get to the last one, a zombie throws a Poison Dagger at me. Poisoned, I stagger back into the path of a pendulum blade. KA-THUNK. Off the ledge I go, into the muck below. Still, I survive pretty handily and get back to my feet. As I try to use an Antidote, a zombie lands on my head, staggering me again. Damnit. Then, a second zombie lands on my head. DAMNIT. I shank the zombies and rush to use my Antidote. I succeed with absolutely no HP remaining.

THUNK. Third zombie lands on my head. I take 6 damage and die, as a band spontaneously bursts into Yakety Sax.

[Crazysaneman]

Xbox360: Crazysaneman

[TechnOkami]

So, an update for my Bloodborne play through.

Spoiler

Show

After getting Shrek'd several times by those three assassin characters at the broken lamp in the Hypogean Gaol, I decided to figure out how to get up to Forsaken Cainhurst Castle. I've been trying to take down Martyr Logarius with little avail, but I noticed that farming the immediate area for blood offered a high yield, so I'm doing some long overdue things. I'm buffing my Arcane to at least 15 so I can have bolt paper on almost demand, and the Arcane supposedly scales with Ludwig's Holy Greatsword, which is nice.

Other than that, I'm going to get my Stamina to 30 and then either buff an offensive stat or just increase my health. But I'll say this. I know that my play through of the game is different from a lot of people's because I don't have Playstation+ and thus no online capabilities, but I feel like health doesn't do all that much as a stat. I feel more effective increasing my offensive capabilities and then ensuring I just don't get one shot or something silly like that. I dunno, that's just my experience if things so far. Also, aside from building against a particular damage type, armor just seems to be pure fashion. I'm not entirely sure if that statement is true or not, but that's how I feel about it.

[Rodin]

So, an update for my Bloodborne play through.

Spoiler

Show

After getting Shrek'd several times by those three assassin characters at the broken lamp in the Hypogean Gaol, I decided to figure out how to get up to Forsaken Cainhurst Castle. I've been trying to take down Martyr Logarius with little avail, but I noticed that farming the immediate area for blood offered a high yield, so I'm doing some long overdue things. I'm buffing my Arcane to at least 15 so I can have bolt paper on almost demand, and the Arcane supposedly scales with Ludwig's Holy Greatsword, which is nice.

Other than that, I'm going to get my Stamina to 30 and then either buff an offensive stat or just increase my health. But I'll say this. I know that my play through of the game is different from a lot of people's because I don't have Playstation+ and thus no online capabilities, but I feel like health doesn't do all that much as a stat. I feel more effective increasing my offensive capabilities and then ensuring I just don't get one shot or something silly like that. I dunno, that's just my experience if things so far. Also, aside from building against a particular damage type, armor just seems to be pure fashion. I'm not entirely sure if that statement is true or not, but that's how I feel about it.

Arcane only scales on weapons with Arcane damage, and the same goes for Bloodtinged. If you enchant a weapon to do Fire/Bolt/Arcane damage, then it will take that scaling into account.

I've found that health is very useful as an early game stat, as it prevents you from getting one-shotted and Blood Vials are also percentage-based. I typically go 20 Vitality fairly early and then increase it to 25 (the soft cap) for the late game. Once you get into New Game+ and the later Chalice dungeons Vitality becomes far more important as it's one of the only stats that really scales well past 40.

And yes, armor is pure fashion. Even the ones that are defensive against a particular damage type don't do much, in my experience. I've had one of my ladies running around in a dress with no helmet, and the difficulty difference wasn't noticeable.

[Rosstin]

Cannon nerf makes me sad. Down from 4 shots to 2. :-<

I wish it was easier to make non-strength characters. I've spent like 10 hours building a bloodtinge character and it still isn't done.

Has anyone made an arcane character? Was it good?