Dark Souls 3

[Immryr]

-Estus recovery coming into effect immediately instead of over time makes it MUCH easier for people to heal in pvp and get away with it. This can really drag out invasions.

Invasions can be infuriating at times. They have pissed me off more than the game has at times. Still I've figured out ways to troll them back and that is very satisfying....

what do you find infuriating about them? if you don't want to be invaded just don't go into ember form, the worst that will happen is you get killed once and lose your ember.

[Strider77]

It's only when trying to play co-op of course... I was helping my friend Shayla through a few parts. There are a few areas where they continuously pop up in spades.

One is Anor Londo... it was surprising to me how the invasion was like clockwork and immediate. It just drags on sometimes... whittling them down then they run and heal (alot) or go run and stand in a group of enemies hoping that you get tired of waiting on them so you'll engage them in an aggroed group of enemies. It can be really drawn out and tedious at times, especially when you just want to get a particular task done with a friend. The waiting game, hide & seek and playing footsies for 30+ min can really be a test of patience when that wasn't on your agenda.

[Immryr]

personally I think the trade off of having to risk being invaded if you want to summon help is absolute genius, that was one of the changes in dark souls 2 that I really didn't like. but yeah, the instant effect of estusing does make things drag out.

[Immryr]

just finished my second play through of the game and I was surprised at how easy I found all of the bosses compared to my first run through the game. in my first play through I levelled a lot of unnecessary stuff. I originally had the idea of doing some kind of spellsword build, but I missed the NPC trainer for sorcery somehow so my 22 points in INT were basically useless and I also put quite a few points into equip load to try to fast roll in some specific armour before giving up and just accepting the mid roll. so on the whole my damage wasn't great and I didn't have that much hp or endurance until right at the end of the game.

second play through I only levelled strength, endurance and hp and used a heavy dark sword. I killed almost every boss first try, the only exceptions were nameless king who took 3 tries, soul of cinder who took 2 and the twin princes who I had the most trouble with for some reason and took 9 or 10. I think when I got to them I was just really cocky as I hadn't died to a boss yet. it seems to me that if you level up sensibly so you do good damage the bosses just get crushed. I stopped levelling at 80 because I just felt way too strong already. i went to NG+ to see if that would be any more difficult at level 80. i killed vordt then went straight to the dancer to test out the late game areas. both dancer and dragon slayer armour went down first try again which was a little disappointing.

my general thoughts on the game are that it's a lot like dinosaur jr's 3rd album. in many ways this is the most perfect souls game, no real weak areas, best weapon upgrade system, good covenants etc but it feels a little too much like they've "figured out" how to make a souls game.... or something.


*edit* that all sounds very negative so i should probably clarify that i still absolutely loved playing through it both times and I'm looking forward to playing it more.


*double edit* i did my first play through without updating that game as my internet wasn't connected in my new place, and I'm sure that when i got to the grand archives i had to fight a dude with twin swords to get the key to the archives, but second time the key and the twin sword weapon is just on a corpse. can anyone confirm if this has been changed or if i just imagined it?

[Necronopticous]

I finally got the platinum yesterday, and I went ahead and procured all items/equipment in the game on a master character while I was at it. What this means to you: If you are on PS4 and are interested in doing a playthrough with a build that requires late-game or difficult-to-obtain equipment/items, let me know and I can set you up as early as the High Wall. I just got a friend started with a NG build revolving around the Twin Princes Greatsword, which normally requires at least two full playthroughs to obtain. Let me know if you are interested! I can also provide you high-value consumable souls so you don't have to spend tons of time farming/leveling up on subsequent builds.

[Obscura]

Since I finally upgraded my PC over the weekend, I've bought and have been playing this.

So far, I'm loving it. I do miss having options on what area to do next (I've only seen one actual branch in the path so far), but the areas themselves are the most intricate yet in the Souls series, and some of the minor improvements such as enemy patrols that add unpredictability and the more strongly pronounced gimmicks in a lot of the stage design (such as when Hawkeye Gough showers you with arrows whenever you get too close to certain trees) are definitely appreciated. The bosses I've seen have been a bit underwhelming, admittedly (although that's just the tutorial-area boss, Ice-Sif, the stupid tree thing where you break the eggs, and Big Hat Pinwheel).

Currently at the Cathedral, where those humanoid things made of masses of leeches made my life horrible when exploring the lower areas. Just found one of the shortcuts to the bonfire from one of the upper areas.

(I'm not really reading much of this thread, because I'm trying to stay as blind as possible for a first playthrough.)

[Marc]

I'm stuck. Just. Done the giant thingy, but no further pathways have opened up. Guessing I need to go back to the snowy level, as I just realised that I didn't fight a boss there - explored the pathway under the arches and through the castle but it just seemed to link back to the beginning of the level. Sword I grabbed after (well, before) the giant fight seems pretty cool. Tentacle face at Firelink has died and I have no idea why. Or why the Shrine lady is now offering to hear my dark sigil. These games are much more fun blind.

[Obscura]

@Marc:

Spoiler

Indeed, there's a boss in the snow area that you missed. Go back to the bonfire that leads to the water/moat bit of the snow area. When in the water, instead of turning left into the sewers, go straight into the elevated area ahead.

[Immryr]

obscura, first, he just said he likes playing blind so saying he is stuck is not exactly asking for help. secondly, unless I've misunderstood it, your tip isn't right.

[Obscura]

It's in a spoiler, so it's not like he's going to see something he doesn't want to. If he wants to remain blind, he easily can.

About the tip itself:

Spoiler

He's referring to Irthyll. I just played Irthyll/Dungeon/Capital last night, so it's still fresh in my memory. Once you leave the Cathedral bonfire, the only major path forward is down into the moat. From the moat, you can swing left into the sewers -- that leads into the dungeon. Or, you can go across to the otherside of the "uphill main street" from the bonfire, which ultimately leads to the Pontiff, as well as opens up a couple of shortcuts.

[Immryr]

nope. I've played through the game twice in the past two days, so it's pretty fresh in my mind.

Spoiler

once you're in the water you go straight forward for the dungeon or you go left through the vagina monster room, through the room with the two silver knights and up the stairs towards pontiff.

[Marc]

Found the bugger! But, h did force me to break my no co-op rule sadly. Spent an hour and a half banging my head against him. Reminded me of the Abyss Watcher, but everyone he caught me he seemed to stagger me, then splat me before I could recover. Got the first phase down, but the second kicked my ass.

[Obscura]

One thing that helps in the second phase is that you can damage the shadow while he summons it. Position yourself so your strikes hit both him and the shadow, and you leave it with very little life left (or, sometimes, even kill it) before it gets started. Then just get one good attack in on the shadow, and it's gone. Sure, he'll summon again, but that gives you another chance to wail on the boss in peace.

[Immryr]

yeah I found in my second play through I could just r1 spam his shadow down while he spawned it. in my first my damage wasn't high enough though and I definitely found him to be pretty tough.

[Marc]

As if the Irithyll Valley wasn't one of the best Souls levels ever... I've just ended up where it leads to. It's doing everything right so far for me. And I'll say again, although it's not a tightly packed space like 1, the overall level design for the most part is immense. It's far more intricate than Bloodborne, which basically made you slog through half a level, then threw you a shortcut back to the start. I'm a bit dense when it comes to these games, and even I could spot a shortcut a mile away in that one.

[Immryr]

i didn't like that personally, I thought the fan service in the game in general was just too much. although I was surprised at just how much of it was demon's souls fan service. I thought we'd get that in bloodborne, if anything.

agreed that the level design is much more intricate than bloodborne though. it seems to me that at some point in the development of this game they have decided that to keep the quality of the levels very high they would need to sacrifice the interconnectedness of different areas and just focus on making the levels wrap around themselves. the little short area after each major area, for instance the bit with the dogs and archers right before you get to the cleansing chapel bonfire, make it a dead give away that the levels have been made in complete isolation from each other and then just linked with these short segues.

and it's hard to argue with what they achieved, it's definitely the least patchy souls game.

[Marc]

I don't spend to much time looking into the lore and stuff, I've heard comments that it panders to fans a bit too much, but to me it's just neat how they've got the same vague threads running through all three games. I wouldn't spot any Demon's stuff, my PS3 blew up around a quarter of the way into that game and I played it after Souls 1 & 2so was a bit fatigued at the time and never went back. Firelink just seems like the Nexus from what I remember though. Now I know From have said there's no possibility of going back, but surely Demon's is a Sony franchise and could be farmed out for a HD update...?

[Obscura]

Spoiler

From Software bonfire placer
wat r u doin
From Software bonfire placer
STAHP!!!

EDIT: Personally, my favorite area so far has been the Irthyll Dungeon. The place just feels so wrong. Whenever I was in there, I had that sense, that "this is a horrible place, and horrible things happen here". And it's nicely supplemented with one of the most intimidating enemies in the game. Gah, those jailers.

[Obscura]

Just finished the game last night. I got the

Spoiler

Usurpation of fire

ending.

It's definitely the best game in the series. I didn't mind the linearity on a first playthrough, but I could see it being a buzzkill having to do everything in the one "correct" order on subsequent playthroughs. I will echo the criticisms of the boss fights -- the later ones were good, but the first 3/4ths or so of the game had way too many Zelda-like puzzle bosses, as well as some quadrupedal things (which never work well, since they always devolve into "get under them, and stay there"), and the most spectacularly useless crowd boss ever.

Spoiler

Yhorm

, in particular, was just stupid. Hurr durr, figure out the controls on this one weapon that works like nothing else in the series! Terrible. Even the good boss fights were generally a lot easier than the ones in previous Souls games (and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't a case of me being overlevelled, since I finished the game at level 89); the only tough ones were

Spoiler

Abyss Watchers

, the last two story bosses, and

Spoiler

Champion Gundyr

(although, looking at the wiki after I finished the game, I found that I missed a couple of areas, one of which has a boss everyone seems to think is really tough. Then again, most people also claim that

Spoiler

Aldrich and Dancer

are really tough, which couldn't be further from the truth IMO.).

That art direction though.... Wow. Just wow. The lighting design, in particular, is incredible; that's practically a master-class in how to use brightness and color contrasts. They've come a long way from the days of Dark Souls 1's lighting, that's for sure.

[Marc]

I thought Aldrich was an utter fucker. First half is easy enough, but I had so many goes where during the second phase, he'd spam that fucking bow attack, then finish me of with soul spears once I'd worn End down running from them. And closing distance didn't help either, that attack in particular seems totally random.

Dancer is fucking me over at the moment as well, though as it took me a solid two hours to do Aldrich last night I only had a few quick goes.

[Obscura]

The trick to Aldrich is to run away from his arrows in either a spiral or a slalom pattern, instead of running straight away, and to just go all-out on offense and attack his tail when he's not using his arrows. His melee attacks just don't do enough damage to worry about, so it's more important to really lay into him when you get the chance.

I don't understand the trouble people have with Dancer at all. First phase, just get under/behind her. Second phase, just roll straight backwards repeatedly when she does her spin.

[Marc]

Yeah but the arrow hail on the second phase was so large that if he followed up with a few soul spears, I usually didn't have the endurance left to avoid them. Gonna try the dancer again now.

Second phase. Ouch.

[MX7]

Died to Aldritch about 8 times. Pain in the neck but once I figured out you just need to run in a big lazy circle when he arrows you it's fine. He reminded me of gaping dragon, another boss I died loads on before discovering the 'trick'.

Dancer I beat second time, not really sure how I died the first. Pontiff first time... The assorted knights in this game are probably harder than the bosses.

Currently in the library, where I've been for a couple of weeks because I've been watching films and reading books instead. Need to get back in to it. Was ahead of my friends (and students) but they've all beaten me now...

[Marc]

A dozen tries at the dancer have ended in various salvages of failure. And, seriously, fuck the camera on this one.

[Obscura]

Just walk between her legs. When she pulls out the second sword, just repeatedly roll back when she does her spin.

Seriously, it's not a hard boss at all. The common enemies in the next area are far more dangerous.

[Necronopticous]

The assorted knights in this game are probably harder than the bosses.

The knights get much easier/nearly trivial once you learn how to properly parry them, especially if you're working with a 100% phys block shield. The key is to block the first hit of their combo attacks and parry the second hit--this will work great on both the straight sword & spear type knights. The greatsword type can be a little trickier, but they don't have a shield so you don't really even have to rely as much on critical attacks for them since they can't defend your pokes.

[Marc]

Just hit Lothric Castle. Seems like some difficulty spike. No idea how far through I am but a bit bummed that even with all the points I've ploughed into STR I still can't use a greatsheild.

[Immryr]

twin dragon great shield requires 16 strength, cathedral knight great shield requires 32, wolf knights great shield requires 30......

no wonder you are finding the bosses so hard if you've put so few points into your main damage stat......

[CMoon]

I thought Aldrich was an utter fucker. First half is easy enough, but I had so many goes where during the second phase, he'd spam that fucking bow attack, then finish me of with soul spears once I'd worn End down running from them. And closing distance didn't help either, that attack in particular seems totally random.

Like the Crystal Sage earlier, I think this boss is super RNG. As you point out, it really turns into an Endurance battle. I'm definitely overleveled on my first playthrough so I can't give you any solid strategy other than pumping magic resistance. Obscura is right though that you should be able to kite the arrows, but ONCE AGAIN. Aldrich can just use some really nasty combos of spells, and if that happens I feel like your best just waiting him out from a distance until you have a better opportunity.

Dancer is fucking me over at the moment as well, though as it took me a solid two hours to do Aldrich last night I only had a few quick goes.

What made this fight easier for me (and Aldrich too) was giving up on the shield. Blocking feels really useless on both these fights. Is Dancer even significantly different than the frost knights beyond the massive health bar?

The knights get much easier/nearly trivial once you learn how to properly parry them, especially if you're working with a 100% phys block shield. The key is to block the first hit of their combo attacks and parry the second hit

I really need to work on my parries in the game. The timing is once again 'different' (at least with medium shields), and so I found myself just going for stability and screwing off parries, which is too bad. It does seem like parries are significantly easier with small shields and even easier with the caestus, so I need to get around to messing with those.

[Immryr]

You can manipulate the ai of Aldrich very easily. He generally spawns in the opposite corner to where you are, and if you're near to him when he spawns he will usually go for a melee attack. So just get the timing down for getting him to spawn in a certain corner then sprinting towards him.