Dark Souls- PS3, Xbox 360, PC

[evil_ash_xero]

Ha ha, Stray Demon.

You know, I think this guy's destructive might is a bit over-rated. He is a bitch, and at that point in the game, he is a bit of an asshole, and can take some figuring out. It's all about the dogs. Once you know you got to kill the dogs first (and separating him from the dogs is key), it's not that bad. It's not easy. You will die. But it's not the end of the world.

People act like he's Fatboy and Slim. Those two (pre-patch) made me actually wonder if I could get past it or not. After I figured out how to hide behind the pillars, that was all I needed. But they are a pain.

I still think the hardest boss in the game is Kalameet. He's optional, thank goodness. People talk about Artorias...and he is probably the hardest boss, that is non-optional (well, for the DLC). But Kalameet is just......ARGH! But I cut his tail off, and kicked his ass...but it was a very trying experience.
For me, it was all about having a long weapon, and having stamina regaining gear.

[Immryr]

Capra demon is the one with the dogs. Iirc the stray demon is an asylum demon clone.

For me personally manus was the hardest boss, I didn't have much trouble with kalameet for what ever reason, but manus took me days of solid trying. Just couldn't get his patterns down, or always got greedy at the wrong time.

[Ed Oscuro]

I had a running story in my head about what I had done up to the point I hung up the game months back - at O&S (of course). It was getting to be a pain to go human, only to have my extremely high level (like 80-something, at least) bite me hard as somebody dueled me into the ground with their multiple-playthrough weapons. I thought about getting my polearm up higher, but at the moment I'm stuck having to kill a character to do that, and I don't want to. So I'll have to stick with avoiding people or even going offline so I can call Solaire.

I was doing pretty well with invaders for a while - I've lost twice now. Not entirely bad actually. So far I've only run into one person who seemed to have something thought out - threw some seekers at me but they were easy to dodge. Jumping polearm smash into his noggin did nothing, though, and I got offed soon after by the power of high leveled arms. :/

Oh, in fun news, I went and rung the lower bell first this time! I had some random person actually help with the gargoyle fight later, which was impressive...guy basically took them out before I could even get across the roof. Fun times.

Oh, and I went to the lowest place also, and saw a dragon. Not the human dragon - I took care of her, too, though (dat achievement, argh). Get your bleed on with the dagger! Then I came back.

But yeah, O&S. Run around a column, get speared or shocked, run around some more trying to avoid being smashed, get speared or shocked again.

[Immryr]

Why not just do the fight without summoning? That's a sure fire way to not lose humanity, just grind the fight hollow till you're good at it.

[CMoon]

Why not just do the fight without summoning? That's a sure fire way to not lose humanity, just grind the fight hollow till you're good at it.

I would add that learning how to take out O&S without help is when the game really shines. I was afraid to try this for a long time, but once you get the basic gist of it, the fight is actually one of the best things in the game.

[evil_ash_xero]

Capra demon is the one with the dogs. Iirc the stray demon is an asylum demon clone.

For me personally manus was the hardest boss, I didn't have much trouble with kalameet for what ever reason, but manus took me days of solid trying. Just couldn't get his patterns down, or always got greedy at the wrong time.

It's been a while since I've played, obviously.

So, that fat bastard underneath the area with that other fat bastard? Yeah, he is a bit of a pain.
I always take my time getting to him. I always make sure I'm pretty well leveled.

[Bananamatic]

I beat O&S on my 5th try or so solo with the unupgraded crystal halberd on my 1st run ever, dunno why people find them so hard

Kalameet is a joke if you realize 3 things:
1) Always backdodge his bite attacks as rolling through the head can easily end up in hitreg bs and punish him if he goes for a breath attack (then get out, don't even try to dodge his melee at close range)
2) He smashes the tail down when you are behind him, just wait for him to do the aerial charge attack and then stand under his tail, chasing after his tail is nothing but a waste of time
3) His elemental and magic resist is ridiculous, a lightning zweihander does about as much damage as Drake Sword +5

[Ed Oscuro]

Why not just do the fight without summoning? That's a sure fire way to not lose humanity, just grind the fight hollow till you're good at it.

Indeed, tried that a bit, but the run to get to them is pretty long, so I put it aside for a while.

crystal halberd

eh, not gonna do that, ever. bad / no scaling on attributes and a stunted growth path. But yeah, halberd +10 or something is what I've got now.

[Immryr]

it takes around 40-60 seconds to run back to the boss room, depending on if you do the stairs shortcut or not (I don't). I don't think that's very long personally.

[shmuppyLove]

Having much more fun playing this now then when I tried it the first time a while ago.

I first chose Thief class, but then started over as Warrior with Black Firebomb so I could take out the Asylum Demon, though the weapon you get seems pretty useless until you level up? I'm not even sure what the requirements are, does it tell you in the inventory display somewhere?

Cheesed the Drake Sword, it's pretty powerful and basically free, so why not.

Accidentally found the gargoyles too early and died. Been invaded twice and died twice, so fucking annoying, so I stopped bothering with Humanity except for kindling.

[Ed Oscuro]

Thief is great because skeleton key means you can get a free gift anyway, and stabby stab for massive bleeds.

Pyromancer might be interesting for invading players fresh off the bird at level 1.

[guigui]

though the weapon you get seems pretty useless until you level up? I'm not even sure what the requirements are, does it tell you in the inventory display somewhere?

Weapons are meant to be upgraded through the game to become way more powerful, you'll find upgrade material/ember here and there.
Any class in the game can use any weapon in the game.
Requirements to handle a weapon correctly are shown in the inventory, press square (PS3) to switch display if needed : you see the icons for the four stats Strenght Dexterity Intelligence Faith and, next to it, the number required in that stat.

Note that, if you two-hand a weapon, your strength is multiplied by 1.5. So you can two-hand a 30 strenght weapon with only 20 strength.

[shmuppyLove]

Definitely been improving my play style, successfully took down a Prowling Demon and also Moonlight Butterfly.

Now trying to take out Havel the Rock, he's giving me some trouble but a couple more tries and I should be able to beat him. I've been luring him upstairs to the entrance to the tower so when I die, recovery is super easy. Should be able to take him down with 4-ish backstabs, but my rolling definitely needs work and I get clipped too much and end up without enough stamina to roll again.

Great fun this game though.

Edit: Just took out Havel, I think I was being too 'precise' with the backstabs, seems the game is fairly forgiving with the positioning.

The Demon's Great Hammer has a strength req. of 46, I'm only at 20 right now so not even close lol

[Bananamatic]

demon's great hammer is pretty crap either way
also it's arguably better to pump vitality than offensive stats on your first run

[guigui]

I second what Bananamatic said.
First pump vitality and stamina to about 30 each. Then, when you find a weapon style you like, invest points in Strenght/Dex to handle it. Also keep in mind that balanced characters are shitty characters. Better focus on two stats, e.g. Strenght/Faith, and start another run if you want to focus on something else. Those 20 Strenght you have is already a lot if you are not planning to focus on that stat.

Backstabs are indeed easy to pull off, just remember your shield has to be down. Parry is another thing.

Have fun, the first run is the best.

[shmuppyLove]

Took down the Gargoyles and Hydra fairly easily.

Stray Demon is kicking my ass though. I need to grind and up my Vitality and Endurance, I seem to have so little stamina ...

[Bananamatic]

stray demon shouldn't hit you at all once you figure it out, doesn't even require much skill or timing

[CMoon]

The Demon's Great Hammer has a strength req. of 46, I'm only at 20 right now so not even close lol

Oh man, you already overleveled STR for your GiantDad build.

[Immryr]

lets just hope he didn't level his dex.

[Ed Oscuro]

stray demon shouldn't hit you at all once you figure it out, doesn't even require much skill or timing

It's true. It took me a bunch of tries, but I believe I didn't take any hits at all when I killed him.

lets just hope he didn't level his dex.

Get an assassin's knife and go to town!

Also good for scaling with the other long-term good weapons. That's a ways down the road though.

[Immryr]

i guess you haven't heard about the legend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyA8odjCzZ4

[CMoon]

Yeah, more seriously though, recommendations for a vit/end build for your first run are good advice. The reason I thought of GiantDad was because at 20 STR you can 1h a claymore or 2h a zweihander (just 4 more points to 2 hand.) Take them up the lightning or chaos route (or both if you like having back-ups) and then you can pretty much ignore all the other stats except vit and end. With a build like this I might consider a few points in attunement just to get Power Within (and yeah, black flame for your giantdad build hehe.) It is worth noting that if you wanted to push up your dex to 20, this could be a good DragonSlayer Greatbow build, and you'd pick up the quality scaling on your Claymore/Zwei if you just upgraded them on the normal path. This is getting away from that End/Vit build idea though, so maybe not worth it on your first run.

Do NOT forget the crystal halberd if you are going to stick with this build. Could be a great backup weapon to your primary weapon and upgrading it will reset its durability, so hopefully it will last you through the end of the game.

[shmuppyLove]

lol I probably did everything wrong



Not sure why I was levelling STR so much, that was definitely a huge waste since the Drake Sword doesn't scale at all.

With the DEX points I can at least one-hit low level mobs with a Short Bow, but ranged seems pretty useless in this game in general except for some occasional luring tactics.

[Bananamatic]

drake sword is a pretty legit weapon at +5, 300 non split damage is pretty much the best you can have at the stats required
ended up fastrolling in elite knight armor really early too

[guigui]

Yep, those high strength and dex are maybe a bit too much. Dont be too scared though, DS players quickly speak as experts optimizing each run. With those stats you can still clear the game and ahve lot of fun.
What I often advise is to spend your souls in upgrading your pyro flame. No stats required, offers good spells.

[Ed Oscuro]

lol I probably did everything wrong



Not sure why I was levelling STR so much, that was definitely a huge waste since the Drake Sword doesn't scale at all.

git halberd
pump upgrades

pyro flame and crystal stuff sound interesting, but pyro flame effectiveness eventually ends (not sure how many playthroughs through, though) and crystal...bleh.

[CMoon]

With the DEX points I can at least one-hit low level mobs with a Short Bow, but ranged seems pretty useless in this game in general except for some occasional luring tactics.

Much of the point of using a bow is pulling enemies one by one, not killing outright.

pyro flame and crystal stuff sound interesting, but pyro flame effectiveness eventually ends (not sure how many playthroughs through, though) and crystal...bleh.

Power within does not become less effective since it is a percentage increase in damage. Reason I mentioned the crystal halberd is because it is his first run and we were encouraging a vit/end build for survivability. I wasn't assuming he'd use the crystal as a primary, but maybe a boss killing weapon.

drake sword is a pretty legit weapon at +5, 300 non split damage is pretty much the best you can have at the stats required
ended up fastrolling in elite knight armor really early too

Legit, but crap move set and will be outclassed by so many weapons just taken up the elemental routes, nevermind if he decides later on (NG+) to start pumping his other stats and go for scaling weapons.

My real suggestions here are to go for a quality weapon (since you made a quality build), bring it up to +5 for fire/chaos or +10 for lightning. Ultimately you should pick whatever weapon has the moveset you like the most, but here are a few that I think fit your build and will give you the most damage for the build you have:

Zweihander
Claymore
Washing Pole
Murakumo
A number of Halberds and Scythes. The Gargoyle Halberd in particular NEEDS to be taken up the elemental path.

All of these will outclass the drake sword, but until you get them pumped up you might want to stick with the Drake sword and or Lightning spear.

[Immryr]

your stats are fine shmupy. just keep playing the game however you feel. try things out, see what you like. you can always worry about doing actual "builds" in subsequent play throughs. fwiw my advice is to just find a weapon you like and upgrade it down the normal path, put as many stats as you feel yu need into health/end and put the rest into whatever your weapon scales from.

[Bananamatic]

My real suggestions here are to go for a quality weapon (since you made a quality build), bring it up to +5 for fire/chaos or +10 for lightning.

Elemental weapons are horrible in the DLC(and some enemies have random resistance to fire/lightning too), my drake sword did as much damage as a lightning zweihander on the bosses

don't even remind me of the first time I did the dlc with a dragonslayer spear

[CMoon]

Elemental weapons are horrible in the DLC(and some enemies have random resistance to fire/lightning too), my drake sword did as much damage as a lightning zweihander on the bosses

don't even remind me of the first time I did the dlc with a dragonslayer spear

True, I was thinking of the main game per se. For instance, lightning spear outclasses drakesword in the main game. Just based on numbers, all those weapons I mentioned will outclass the drakesword, but you're right about the DLC (which seems to have massive resistance to all magic.) Well, good example of why you should keep multiple weapons around if your aren't going to make a proper build around scaling normal weapons.

That said, I'd take a +5 lightning / +5 chaos gargoyle halberd over the drake sword any day--and would be really curious to see how it performed in the DLC. I say this because that weapon has one of the best reaches in the game and is surprisingly fast for the size. At only a 16 str requirement you could 1 hand it and block pretty much everything with your 50/40 vit/end build in full havel

And here is what's stupid about Dark Souls...I've only made 50 builds or so and now I want to go mess with it again.