Dark Souls- PS3, Xbox 360, PC

[Immryr]

it's worth finding out how all of the different upgrade paths effect weapons damage and scaling before going into them. if you're levelling strength or dex 9 times out of 10 the regular upgrade path is going to give you the most damage. especially when you factor in that you can still use resins on weapons upgraded down the normal path.

lightning for instance is only really useful if you're keeping your str/dex at the base level to wield a certain weapon, as it removes all stat scaling bonuses. chaos is similar except it scales off the amount of soft humanity you have, up to 10.

[CMoon]

When you get to Sen's Fortress right off the bat you will find a weapon that will do more damage than the drake sword (while still being sort of a shitty weapon.) You're still early game, and that's part of the reason that the Drake Sword seems so powerful.

Most weapons, as you bring them up to +10 will outclass the drakesword--so it is all about finding a weapon you really like, not necessarily the one that does the most damage. The elemental weapons will not, in general, outclass +15 weapons, but the point of them is to offer an option for players with either lower levels or who do not want to pump str or dex.

A few other tid-bits:

1) There's nothing wrong with the long sword if you like it. At +15 it is a fine weapon with a great move set and doesn't weigh very much. Sure, it lacks the reach of the claymore or a halberd, but you can buff it and get in a lot of hits before your stamina runs out. Maybe a little underwhelming, but a solid weapon anyway.

2) Are you also upgrading your armor and shield? Just like the weapons, there is really no bad armor. It is finding a weight ratio you are comfortable with, and also decide if poise is important to you. It's easy to bring at least one set up to +3, and if you really like it, go to town. Shields are about weight again, and stability. Upgrading improves stability so that you can actually block some boss hits. There are also small, medium and large shields which really encourage different play styles.

3) Later on, you will probably want to farm for upgrade material but I won't spoil where (you haven't reached the best spots yet). But do you know how to affect your discovery rate? I'm not sure I'd do any serious farming until then.

4) There is a character named Frampt that you will meet soon. Worth noting that he (it?) can convert useless upgrade material into titanite you need. For instance, 1 green shard is converted into something like 5 titanite shards. If you don't need green shards this is an easy way to upgrade all your armor to +3 or a weapon to +5.

Anyway, sounds like you are having fun. I think we're all envious because none of us can go back and play it again for the first time.

Edit: If I understand correctly, you haven't beat the boss of blighttown yet, which is often one of the trying points for a lot of players. There are a lot of things you can do to prepare for that boss, so don't get too frustrated. The game will be handing out some important lessons

[guigui]

yay ! First run joy here

Protip 1 : read CMoon
Protip 2 : two handed lightning Zweihander (or fire great club !) is the brutal way to go.

[Immryr]

On my current play through I'm keeping my character at SL30, which I know is not that low, but it's a pretty good level for helping people with boss fights. Been helping people with o&s and quelaag today. It's surprisingly active still on 360. I'm mostly using a +15 flamberge and pyro hand.

[Necronopticous]

Couldn't sleep last night so I rolled a new character. I recently purchased the DLC, so I'm looking forward to trying that out on this playthrough. I started as a Pyromancer again, but decided to level to 8 to get 14 str/dex so I can one-hand the Great Scythe. I rang both of the bells just before work. I love this damn weapon!

[shmuppyLove]

So I joined the Forest Hunters covenant, and did some reading on covenants and PvP stuffs.

How important is PvP really? Is it mainly just used for farming certain items and souls?

Edit: Oh I should have asked as well, should I leave Forest Hunters? Seems like that area is pretty good for farming souls ...

[Bananamatic]

So I joined the Forest Hunters covenant, and did some reading on covenants and PvP stuffs.

How important is PvP really? Is it mainly just used for farming certain items and souls?

Edit: Oh I should have asked as well, should I leave Forest Hunters? Seems like that area is pretty good for farming souls ...

farming souls is never worth it
pvp is for fun, not for the rewards

[CMoon]

With that in mind, co-op is a little bit different, especially for one of the covenants that requires it. Co-op also gives you some experience against bosses without the penalty, while also putting a few more souls in your pocket. Really breaks the tedium of farming (at least in one particular spot.)

[Blinge]

Finally doing some decent damage on my Fists only run.

SL 75, fully upgraded Dragon Bone Fist.

Tomb of Giants boss was a cakewalk.. Skeleton Beasts not so much.

[Necronopticous]

I just recently made it to the DLC on my new SL8 pyromancer. Artorias was a motherfucker, but actually super fun. Took me about 20 tries to down him. I'm getting my ass kicked in the township now. One cool thing was there was a SL1 player that had their summon sign down near the township bonfire, so I summoned them a couple times and went through a bit of it with them. Super fun and unexpected since I'm not used to seeing summon signs at my low level.

[Kaiser]

http://www.pcgamer.com/bandai-namco-fil ... souls-fix/

Good fucking game bamco, good fucking game.
Basically, lawsuit threat against durante's dark souls DSfix. Why? BECAUSE FUCK YOU WE DON'T LIKE OUR PORTS TO BE REPAIRED.

The amount of idiocy contained within this action is worth F-bombs.

[iconoclast]

^ Namco mistakenly filed a claim against DSFix, it's going to be reuploaded: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... tcount=740

[Necronopticous]

Well, I killed Manus yesterday. Enjoyed the DLC overall, but there really wasn't a whole lot to it. The Artorias & Manus fights were great--super difficult at a low level, so very satisfying to overcome. I heard Sif was in the DLC so I was excited for that, but I thought his involvement was pretty pathetic, although I did really like that they made the effort to change up his fight's introduction scene if you've saved him in the DLC beforehand.

I'm going to continue on with this character and max out a few more weapons. If anyone needs help with any sections/bosses on a SL1/low-level game, let me know! My character will be pretty beefy soon, and should have everything unlocked.

[CMoon]

Well the DLC was meant to be in the original game, but was cut out due to time/budget constraints. It is really good lore wise and has some great weapons and spells in it. Yeah, it isn't massive, but on the other hand it is about the size of two or three areas in Dark Souls. It isn't my favorite area of the game, but is better than most of the post-O&S stuff.

[Bananamatic]

Well, I killed Manus yesterday. Enjoyed the DLC overall, but there really wasn't a whole lot to it. The Artorias & Manus fights were great--super difficult at a low level, so very satisfying to overcome. I heard Sif was in the DLC so I was excited for that, but I thought his involvement was pretty pathetic, although I did really like that they made the effort to change up his fight's introduction scene if you've saved him in the DLC beforehand.

I'm going to continue on with this character and max out a few more weapons. If anyone needs help with any sections/bosses on a SL1/low-level game, let me know! My character will be pretty beefy soon, and should have everything unlocked.

did you fight Kalameet too?

[Necronopticous]

Uh oh. Kalawho?

[Bananamatic]

there is another (hidden) boss in the DLC you didn't fight yet

[CMoon]

Uh oh. Kalawho?

hahahaha I missed that. Good luck with that tail cut.

[Necronopticous]

Well, I know what I'm doing after work.

[Capintec]

you will enjoy it.

[Blinge]

I sure as hell didn't

Not looking forward to taking him on with my fists either..

[shmuppyLove]

Took down Sif, man that was haaaaaaard

But at least I have about 100k souls now. Thinking I need to pick an armor set and upgrade the hell out of it.

Should I stick with the chain link stuff?

[Bananamatic]

upgrading armor isnt really worth it tbh, definitely not this early

[jepjepjep]

Spend that 100k on your pyromancy flame!

[CMoon]

Upgrading weapons (including your pyro flame) is the fastest way you can make yourself more powerful. In making the choice between leveling your character or making a weapon more powerful, you should always favor upgrading your weapon.

Armor IMO is what you do when you've already got everything else set, or just have some extra souls and ore that you don't know what to do with. I'm sure I already mentioned that almost all the armor can be taken to +3 cheaply and only uses small shards, however if you don't have a glut of shards yet, then you may not even want to bother. Keep in mind that unlike other RPGs, DS is not a damage race. Being able to mitigate some damage will help make your mistakes less punishing, but good armor shouldn't be the difference between beating a boss or not. There are a few exceptions of course--some armor grants resistances to poison, curse, etc. and there are situations this is nice to have, especially while you are learning boss patterns. Also, there are a couple bosses that are most easily beat by wearing heavy armor and just tanking hits. This isn't the only way to fight these bosses, but it is viable.

Regarding chain mail, there's nothing wrong with that set. It is all what you want out of your armor and how you want to play the game. The armor choices you make should reflect the kind of playstyle you prefer. Make sure and look at the resistances and poise.

[Ed Oscuro]

I like armor for resistances mainly. Armor that lets you take hits will add rapidly to encumbrance - I don't believe my 80+ soul level is yet enough to let me wear anything much heavier than the lighest class of armor while staying under 25% of the weight limit. That said, there are some interesting armor sets that resist or protect against various things (especially status effects like poison) and the "best armor" lists are all generally made for people working on their PvP and endgame - but obviously the "lesser" armors are still best.

There are some pretty good bits of armor. According to some stuff I read a while back, the Wanderer's Manchette is the best hand armor in the game, period, unless you want to put together a set of all-like pieces. But it's not heavy at all, so it's worth putting on in most cases. However, I think there are other pieces that might suit you better in an immediate situation, like one having a high poison resistance.

[Immryr]

i have two factors i take into consideration for armour. can i fast roll in it? and does it look good? that's all.

[shmuppyLove]

Took down Quelaag on my first try, super easy fight.

Ceaseless Discharge had me for a bit until I learned about the stupid cheesy way to knock him off the cliff. Seriously what was the point of that fight?

Now working through Sen's Fortress. Drake Sword is still my weapon of choice, upgraded it to +3 so it's doing something like 260 damage. I have one or two other weapons that have higher base damage (I can one-hand the Zweihander lol), but it's hard to beat the speed and versatility of the longsword move set. Also the weight allows me to wear some good medium-weight armor and stay under 25% load.

[Blinge]

Did you play through the rest of Demon Ruins? As far as you can get for now anyway..

I've done it guize.. I've fisted (no shield either) my way to the end of Dark Souls, and beaten the DLC.
Manus gave me the most trouble, seriously fuck that guy.

I found Kalameet a lot less of a challenge this time round, possibly because of my light armour and ninja flipping, whereas before i'd always had a mid-roll.

[CMoon]

Took down Quelaag on my first try, super easy fight.

You were probably overleveled for it. Quelaag really only has a couple nasty attacks--the explosion and jumping at your face while shooting lava at the same time. Instead the match becomes about dealing with all those lava pools. Dragon crest shield and flash sweat can help trivialize this fight even at low levels.

Ceaseless Discharge had me for a bit until I learned about the stupid cheesy way to knock him off the cliff. Seriously what was the point of that fight?

Lore, free souls, and the best un-upgradable light armor in the game.

Now working through Sen's Fortress. Drake Sword is still my weapon of choice, upgraded it to +3 so it's doing something like 260 damage. I have one or two other weapons that have higher base damage (I can one-hand the Zweihander lol), but it's hard to beat the speed and versatility of the longsword move set. Also the weight allows me to wear some good medium-weight armor and stay under 25% load.

+10 weapons should be outclassing the drake sword by now, but enjoy it while you can since this is probably the last area it has any viability. The drake sword does NOT have the longsword moveset...maybe I'm just misreading what you typed. The claymore does though, which is why people love it. Also, you should be finding a weapon in Sen's that does nearly as much or more than the drake sword does. Nothing fantastic, but more to mess with your head.

Incidentally, you might want to really make sure you have a +10 weapon before you go to the next area after Sen's Fortress. Alternatively take a +5 weapon down the fire route.