Dark Souls III: Witty Title Pending

[Dusk Eclipse]

I think they introduced the gems for two reasons, one to alleviate early game healing as you mentioned, (you started with 5-10 estus in DkS1) and to make it a tactical choice, Estus regens health immediately but you are stuck in place while the animation finishes which can lead to death while gems allow movement. To be perfectly honest I prefer gems over estus most of the time, I alway carry about 20-30 in my inventory at the very least since the times I've died because the enemy snuck an extra attack while I was drinking sunny-d outnumber the ones where the regen from gems. Specially against bosses.

[Surrealistik]

Meh.

You know what would be cool? If enemies had stamina bars. That way, even if it does little damage, it would force a boss to slow down or something.

Just have bleed slow down their attacks while it's in effect; actual stamina bars would make dark magic way too strong since they'd never have the stamina to attack, lol.

Versus bosses (or opponents with very high bleed resist if I don't feel like dealing with the extra hit or two it takes to inflict bleed, since bleed resist in practice comes at the expense of poison resist and vice versa), I just swap Crest of Blood > Crest of Rats, Shadow Gauntlets > Sanctum Gauntlets, Notched Whip > Poison Spotted Whip (or Raw Scorpion Stingers) and Bleed Bandit Knives > Mytha's Bent Blades.

In this way my bleed build can swap to a poison build in seconds. Mytha Blades poison in 3-4 hits (basically one power stance wombo combo); toxic takes roughly 5-8.

[Surrealistik]

Skeletor cosplay: http://imgur.com/a/k34V1

[Dusk Eclipse]

Dark Mask, Lion Warrior Cape, Grave Warden Bottom on what I assume a Hexer build right?

[Tengu_temp]

MYEH!

Also, apparently the release of Crown of the Ivory King got pushed forward, from September 24th to 30th. I'm not happy about that.

[Morty]

I've started the Crown of the Sunken King DLC. It seems to be Dark Souls at its finest, so far.

[chainer1216]

so, heres something funny. last night i went to fight the last giant in NG+, i had summoned a buddy and pate and the fight was going perfectly fine, then the giant used an attack i hadn't seen before, where it kinda just tried to fall on my buddy, after the attack it was laying down on the ground so i charged in, this happened to lead me inbetween its legs where i started to attack and make a joke about stabbing it in the butt when...a cloud of green gas shot out of its rear end.

i...i got farted on by an ancient being.

[TechnOkami]

Did it deal poison damage? Please tell me it dealt poison damage.

[chainer1216]

honestly i was too stunned to notice at the time.

[Morty]

Crown of the Sunken King is really kicking my ass. I reached all the way down to the flooded area of Dragon Sanctum, with the two-legged tough monsters, but no further. There don't seem to be any bonfires on the way there, either...

[Rodin]

Crown of the Sunken King is really kicking my ass. I reached all the way down to the flooded area of Dragon Sanctum, with the two-legged tough monsters, but no further. There don't seem to be any bonfires on the way there, either...

There's a hidden bonfire in the Dragon Sanctum. You were also really close to one in the flooded area.

[Tome]

Crown of the Sunken King is really kicking my ass. I reached all the way down to the flooded area of Dragon Sanctum, with the two-legged tough monsters, but no further. There don't seem to be any bonfires on the way there, either...

Almost all of the Sunken King Bonfires are hidden.

The next obvious one is actually in that flooded area. Pretty much just run straight forwards when you enter and you'll see it after dodging a few monsters.

As for the bonfires in between...

Spoiler

Show

The next bonfire you can run into is from that big long open area with all the archer just after the poison statue monster. There's a lot of those little switches hidden about that will raise a series of towers in the pit to your left. Get to the little building at the other end of the open area and you run along the top of those towers to reach the bonfire. You can drop down from it to the area with the long thin walkways.

Once you cross the narrow bridge with the lance soldiers where the dragon attacks you, you'll probably have noticed a locked door. The key is in the area with the spikes. There's another key, the Dragon Stone, which you'll need to progress through the DLC hidden in that area too.

Speaking of the spiked area, as soon as you go down the flight of stairs leading out, turn around at the bottom. at the top of the wall on the other side of the pit to the side of the stairs, right near the top of them, is a switch. Hit it with a bow and go back up to the walkways over the spike area. A bit of wall will have opened up, jump across from the walkway and you should find the bonfire.

There's one other hidden bonfire, but you haven't reached that area. When you get to the bit where you drop down repeatedly, look around all the corridors as you go down. One of the walls is an illusion hiding the bonfire. Pain in the rear to find, but worth it.

[Rodin]

Almost all of the Sunken King Bonfires are hidden.

The next obvious one is actually in that flooded area. Pretty much just run straight forwards when you enter and you'll see it after dodging a few monsters.

As for the bonfires in between...

Spoiler

Show

The next bonfire you can run into is from that big long open area with all the archer just after the poison statue monster. There's a lot of those little switches hidden about that will raise a series of towers in the pit to your left. Get to the little building at the other end of the open area and you run along the top of those towers to reach the bonfire. You can drop down from it to the area with the long thin walkways.

Once you cross the narrow bridge with the lance soldiers where the dragon attacks you, you'll probably have noticed a locked door. The key is in the area with the spikes. There's another key, the Dragon Stone, which you'll need to progress through the DLC hidden in that area too.

Speaking of the spiked area, as soon as you go down the flight of stairs leading out, turn around at the bottom. at the top of the wall on the other side of the pit to the side of the stairs, right near the top of them, is a switch. Hit it with a bow and go back up to the walkways over the spike area. A bit of wall will have opened up, jump across from the walkway and you should find the bonfire.

There's one other hidden bonfire, but you haven't reached that area. When you get to the bit where you drop down repeatedly, look around all the corridors as you go down. One of the walls is an illusion hiding the bonfire. Pain in the rear to find, but worth it.

Spoiler

Show

That last bonfire is the one time I've wanted to give someone multiple upvotes for their message. I never would have found it myself, but a generous soul put a bonfire message in front of the secret door.

Of course, I did just about break my "poke" weapon on all the stupid fake messages people put all over the place. Those people can die in a fire.

[Forbiddenwar]

Turning here for help with Dark souls 1 on PC.
I've installed DSfix as recommended by everything I see and had great fun with the game with no issues until I encountered Sif, the giant wolf with the sword. For some reason my computer then drops to 5 fps and I die instantly. Any idea what I need to change in my config to fix this? Or should I just skip Sif? Is he optional, because I might just do that.

System specs:
NVidia Geforce GTX 580 (Driver up to date)
Memory 8 gigs
Windows 7 (64)

[TechnOkami]

I can't give you any technical advice, but Sif is unfortunately not an optional boss. You need to bring down the Great Grey Wolf in order to get the item he's defending. ...Gods I miss the emotional roller coaster I had fighting him.

[Morty]

The Drakeblood Greatsword looks fine and swings fine... and seems altogether inferior to the Drangleic Sword. Bummer.

EDIT: Because I'm blind, or something, I missed its magic and lightning damage. With my current stats, it seems to make the damage roughly equal, especially since magic and lightning are harder to resist. And a fully-upgraded Drakeblood has S scaling in Dexterity... maybe at this point it actually gets something out of an investment.

[Rodin]

Third DLC hit today. So far, I think it's my favorite of the three. First boss is both awesome and hilarious.

Spoiler: First Boss

Show

Phantoming the boss and seeing unprepared characters get mauled by an invisible tiger never gets old.

[riccaru]

Is there a ring or something in the DLC that makes phantoms appear as hosts? I invaded a few days ago and found what I thought was the host and started fighting him when I saw another person who also looked like a host.

Edit: This was on xbox and not PC

[TechnOkami]

Question: so I know DLC #3 just released recently, so its standing in this question is unsteady at the moment, but basically do you think that buying the DLC's are worth it? This is kind of a "is the content fun/good enough and at reasonable prices" sort of thing.

[riccaru]

Question: so I know DLC #3 just released recently, so its standing in this question is unsteady at the moment, but basically do you think that buying the DLC's are worth it? This is kind of a "is the content fun/good enough and at reasonable prices" sort of thing.

I only have the first 2 DLC's so far but as far as good content, the bosses added have some pretty interesting new mechanics to them that I've seen. The items i each DLC are generally useful and each one adds about as much to the world as Artorias of the Abyss added to DS1. I plan on getting the third DLC tonight.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Is there a ring or something in the DLC that makes phantoms appear as hosts? I invaded a few days ago and found what I thought was the host and started fighting him when I saw another person who also looked like a host.

Edit: This was on xbox and not PC

Yup, it is called Ring of the Living IIRC

[Surrealistik]

Been having a lot of fun wombo comboing with the new Bone Fist weapon; overall probably my favourite new addition from the DLC. The powerstance move set isn't especially good, nor is the ki blast, but the one handed and two handed move sets when backed by the RoB/Flynn and Stone Rings (fists that do more poise damage than an ultra great sword) are quite nice and diverse. It takes practice to use properly, but when you do, these things are awesome. I back them with a dagger, shortbow and whip in order to deal with fast and reach weaponry.

Loyce Greatsword is a close second; exceedingly boring weapon but undeniably effective; I think it may even be too good.

Ice Rapier comes in at third; I love its potential with bleed builds, and it has excellent stunlock capabilities. Magic infusing it seems to enhance the damage its strong attack projectile does.

Ivory Ultra Greatsword gets honourable mention; it's a giant ass lightsabre.

Vessel Shield, while not very good as a shield itself, can spell parry and grants a massive stack of attribute bonuses while it's in an active slot; I've used this with my stat intensive 'monk' build.


Dishonourable mention goes to the Ivory Warrior Ring; its description of inflicting heavy stamina drain on hit initially hyped me up, especially when it comes to my bleed build, but the reality of it only enhancing the stamina drain vs blockers, and only by about 20% at that made for a profound disappointment, especially in light of the fact that it weighs 5 damn pounds.

[Tome]

Speaking of new DLC weapons... anyone figured out a way to make the Ivory Straight Sword work? I love the weapon, but with the complete lack of scaling, not great base damage and lacking any way to enchant or infuse it, I'm having problems coming up with a way to use it. You can't even use it to get good damage on a low stat build, because it requires 40 dex to wield it in the first place.

Is there some sort of secret hidden modifier here that'll give it damage to justify it's high stat minimum and durability issues?

[Surrealistik]

Speaking of new DLC weapons... anyone figured out a way to make the Ivory Straight Sword work? I love the weapon, but with the complete lack of scaling, not great base damage and lacking any way to enchant or infuse it, I'm having problems coming up with a way to use it. You can't even use it to get good damage on a low stat build, because it requires 40 dex to wield it in the first place.

Is there some sort of secret hidden modifier here that'll give it damage to justify it's high stat minimum and durability issues?

There is no redeeming this weapon; it is one of the very worst in the game. Only worth it if you're _really_ pressed for weight (although in that case you may as well rock a Spider Silk).

[Rodin]

Yeah, I tried it as a cool backup weapon so I could have something always equipped when my main weapon broke and keep my weight down at the same time. I gave it up pretty fast because even as a backup weapon it just didn't cut the mustard. Why the hell would you have a 40 Dex weapon with no scaling?

On the other hand, the new Curved Greatsword they put in is pretty neat. Has a great sweep and is closer to a regular curved sword. My problem with the other Curved Greatswords was that they basically acted like clubs - this one is much better for clearing groups. My Dex build is now swapping between it and Pate's Spear - Spear for heavily armored foes and the Greatsword for mobs, agile enemies, and piercing-resistant foes.

The new archery hat makes me want to try a full bow build finally. I keep starting to go into it and chickening out.
-------

Now that all 3 DLCs are out, it's possible to rate them. This third one blows the other two away, and the original game as well. I had to clear some of the areas 3 or 4 times to make sure I found everything, because there were so many different ways to go. And hey, an actual person to talk to who explains the lore of the area! That alone would make it my favorite.

The other two are roughly tied. I enjoyed the gameplay in the first one more, but it's also a fair bit smaller and more linear than the second. I also didn't get a feel for the lore in the first like I did in the second. But, the bosses in the first one were better than in the second. Very hard to separate them.

To anyone wanting a recommendation, I'd say: If you have enough to get all 3, get all 3. They're worth it. If you can only get 1 of them, get the Ivory King. It's how Dark Souls 2 should have been designed in the first place.

[TechnOkami]

Back in DS 1 I played Archery Souls, and it was a lot of fun. It had respectable damage and was essentially running around and lobbing arrows at everything.

I feel that in DS 2 though Sorcery will trump Archery, because Sorceries are so spamable now. I like the idea if it though.

[Surrealistik]

Archery trumps sorcery in my experience.

Shortbow is an awesome counter to casters trying to keep their distance if I don't feel like breathing down their neck. Comes out faster than their spells, and interrupts them, especially with Stone Ring. That you can delay loosing an arrow until your opponent comes out of his roll just makes things all the better, and with good prediction can make arrows almost foolproof sources of chip damage.

[Morty]

I finished the Crown of the Sunken King. It was quite good. It returns some of the spirit of Dark Souls 1 that was partly lost in the basic game. The bosses were fun to fight as well, which is another thing lacking in the basic Dark Souls 2. The Drakeblood Greatsword is serviceable and looks good, so that's a plus. Although it's still ridiculous how useless Dex scaling is, even on an S level.

I really like what it does to the lore, too. The content in the sunken city itself doesn't seem to relate to the main plot much, but the conversations with Vendrick, especially after obtaining the Crown of the Sunken King and Vendrick's crown are interesting.

Spoiler

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I wonder if the 'true form of men' he mentions refers to Hollows or the Abyssal monstrosities we saw in Oolacile. We do seem to keep running into pieces of Manus - Nashandra, and now Elana.

[Rodin]

Archery trumps sorcery in my experience.

Shortbow is an awesome counter to casters trying to keep their distance if I don't feel like breathing down their neck. Comes out faster than their spells, and interrupts them, especially with Stone Ring. That you can delay loosing an arrow until your opponent comes out of his roll just makes things all the better, and with good prediction can make arrows almost foolproof sources of chip damage.

I can see the Shortbow for PvP, obviously, and it does seem to have a fast attack rate for melee in PvE. But does the damage hold up compared to stronger bows like the Dragonrider Bow? Looking for a bow that'll carry me through until I can get the lategame bows like Bow of Want.

Plan is to play only with Bows and a rapier (eventually ending up with the Ice Rapier) with no shield, relying primarily on the Bow.

[Surrealistik]

I can see the Shortbow for PvP, obviously, and it does seem to have a fast attack rate for melee in PvE. But does the damage hold up compared to stronger bows like the Dragonrider Bow? Looking for a bow that'll carry me through until I can get the lategame bows like Bow of Want.

Plan is to play only with Bows and a rapier (eventually ending up with the Ice Rapier) with no shield, relying primarily on the Bow.

I'd go for the Hunter Blackbow for PvE; more damage than the Shortbow, almost as fast and stamina efficient with more range. Remember to use Stone Ring vs staggerable enemies.