Dark Souls II: Are you ready to be hollow again?

[W8taminute]

So I'm currently level 41 with my warrior and at level 38 an idea popped into my head that made me rethink my warrior strategy.  Originally what I was going for was a medium tank build in which I could achieve a balance or armor protection but still have somewhat reasonable speed.  Now however I'm kitting and shaping my warrior out to be some kind of Dynasty Warriors meets Dark Souls character.  Some kind of fast moving hitting machine designed purely for hack and slash fun.

He's going to be built for speed and agility and carry either a spear or a halberd and that's it.  My goal is to make him as light as possible in the equipment load which will enable him to run, roll, dodge, and jump faster than the average loadout.  But that spear or halberd he carries will pack a powerful punch.  I need to upgrade these weapons however at the blacksmith and I'm currently farming souls to pay for all of this.  For those times when the enemy gets close in thereby negating the long reach of the polearms I plan on switching to either bare fists or maybe a small knife. 

This plan hinges on both dexterity and the new stat called adaptability.  These two stats provide you with faster reaction times as well as some protection against poisoning and bleed weapons.  I've also researched online that having a high adaptability gives one more i-frames thus extending your invincibility window during rolls.  Can't wait to try this out in PvP but I've got a lot of self training to do first in order to perfect my martial arts.   8) 

[Grimnirsson]

Level 41...so you already killed a few bosses? :)

[Yskonyn]

41 eh? That's pretty far ahead of me. I am still at level 18, but I do not feel the need to level very much at this point.
I have raised a stat to be able to wield the firesword, but the rest of my Souls have been spent on items and gear. I bought Parros' Lockstone from the old hag Merchant because she is mentioning that she should pick up and leave. Better take that item now then.

I do like the Merchant's Armor as well. It does make me a bit heavier, but as long as you stay below 60% encumbrance your speed is not affected AFAIK.
I am at 56 now.

As for forcing your way through Doors by force; I am not strong enough to wield a big axe or such so I doubt just kicking a door in will work.
Perhaps with bombs, but I have never seen a door break by one before...

I am not sure I want to summon other people or get summoned. The Heide Knight was slaughtered in my world by the last summon while I didn't want to kill him out of fear of consequences.
The means to communicate with others is so limited. They can wreak havoc in your world pretty badly if they want, right?

I think I should revisit the cat in Majula. ;)

[W8taminute]

Level 41...so you already killed a few bosses? :)

Actually I've only killed one boss and that silent knight in the Forest of the Giants. 

Dark Souls 2 is very different when it comes to soul income compared to Dark Souls.  I've made several successful co-op missions with fellow online players netting me a nice sum of souls each time.  Because of the fact that enemies in your world do not spawn forever the player is compelled to enter co-op missions with the community as a means of farming additional souls that are no longer available in your own world.  So for example at the beginning of the game when your level is low the first part of the Forest of the Giants has some fairly easy to kill zombies that provide you with a nice soul income.  Until they stop spawning that is.  So what I did once that happened was put down my white summons sign near the first bonfire and waited.  Once I got summoned into someone else's world I noticed that the enemies that stopped spawning in my world were still available in theirs. 

Although I have not explored the world much I've made a lot of souls through careful farming in each area!  Last night I made over 10000 souls farming the Huntsman Copse alone.  I would have made more but I lost about 6500 souls because I became greedy and arrogant and got killed 4 times in a row for it as I roamed the land killing enemies for souls.  Once I calmed down and played carefully again I was ok.   :)

I am not sure I want to summon other people or get summoned. The Heide Knight was slaughtered in my world by the last summon while I didn't want to kill him out of fear of consequences.
The means to communicate with others is so limited. They can wreak havoc in your world pretty badly if they want, right?

After Grimnirsson mentioned he kept the Heide Knight alive I realized I might have made a mistake in killing him just to raise a few thousand extra souls.  Oh well maybe my next run I'll keep him alive.  And you're right about people coming in wreaking havoc.  They most likely killed that Knight when they saw him still alive in your world because it's an easy 2000 souls at least.  Never summon white phantoms into your world.  Always go to their world and enjoy helping them out respectfully while earning extra soul income.   ;)

[Yskonyn]

The first part of the Forrest of Giants are now desolate in my world as well. No respawns anymore.
I am rather scared of those Fire Lizard things in the cave with the Fire Sword and the old gate of the fortress.
Arrows dont hurt it and once it spots you it starts belching great balls of Fire at you at high speed.
Especially the cave makes a dodging approach to the beast quite hard.
The map is getting more restrictive now; I really need to find some new passages.

[Grimnirsson]

I only sumon other players in the near of a boss gate and so have them only in a boß fight around not in other parts of my world - so usually no chance for them to cause chaos :)

[Hiimori]

As for forcing your way through Doors by force; I am not strong enough to wield a big axe or such so I doubt just kicking a door in will work.
Perhaps with bombs, but I have never seen a door break by one before...

I'm a Explorer with about 8 strength (I'm going for DEX, speed, resistance and agility), so I can assure you that you don't need much strength to smash doors. I smashed at least one door which was locked by taking my weapon (short sword +2) into both hands and repeatedly attacking the door with it.

It doesn't work with all locked doors, though, so perhaps some doors require more strength or stronger weapons than others. Or a key ;)

[Grimnirsson]

So...the first Boss is slaughtered, the Last Giant, was a pretty easy fight. I suppose for warm up ;) The Pursuer though is another caliber...anyone here who killed him?

[W8taminute]

Hi Grim,

I fought the pursuer once in my world and failed miserably.  But when I was summoned to another players world I helped him and one other summons defeat the pursuer.  It was quite easy when it was 3 against 1 but I'm still too afraid to tackle him alone in my world.   ;)


Hi Yskonyn,

Are you sure that arrows don't hurt the fire lizard?  I was able to shoot him a few times by standing on the bridge overlooking him after you climb down the ladder of the second bonfire in the Forest of the Giants area.  I didn't have enough arrows to kill him tough but I was causing 30HP of damage with each shot.  He tried belching fire at me but because I was on that bridge the flames didn't reach me for some reason. 

[Yskonyn]

Ah I didn't try 2-handing the doors yet. Thanks for the tip.

As for the lizards, my arrows do about 27 dmg, but the health bar of the lizard down below -where you descent the ladder at the bonfire in the tower- doesn't budge.
I haven't tried to dodge the attacks of the one in the small cave where you can find the firesword yet. I have no clue what to expect as far as room space goes. :D

Does anyone know how elemental dmg works? Say your sword does 10 pysical dmg and 10 fire dmg. Does it then do 20 dmg to a foe who is weak to fire (10 normal, plus 10 fire) and just 10 dmg to one who is resistant to it?

[Grimnirsson]

but as long as you stay below 60% encumbrance your speed is not affected AFAIK.

In order to maintain a fast roll, your current equipment load must be 70% or less of your Equipment Load.

Does anyone know how elemental dmg works? Say your sword does 10 pysical dmg and 10 fire dmg. Does it then do 20 dmg to a foe who is weak to fire (10 normal, plus 10 fire) and just 10 dmg to one who is resistant to it?

Found this answer, hope that helps :)

"IF your overall damage with the weapon goes up when you infuse it with an element(base damage + bonus damage gives a higher total), then you'll likely do more damage as elemental resistances tend to be lower than physical resistances. This also means that you'll do less damage to enemies particularly resistant to the infused element."

Here's my Hugues de Payens Cleric :)

[W8taminute]

Nice looking cleric Grim!  I'll try to capture an image of my guy and post him here too.   ;)


Last night I beat the 'Last Giant' boss.  He wasn't as tough as I thought he would be.  I only died once in the attempt to kill him.  He drops a soldiers key which really opens up the map to the 'Fallen Giants Forest' area. 

[Grimnirsson]

I'm level 39 now, and there's nothing to do for me anymore in the Forest except to kill the Pursuer. I suppose this will allow further progress then. I killed one salamander (the one guarding the fire sword) but these creatures spawn again when using the bonefire (the second one is pointless to kill because I die when I jump down anyway - the cats ring might help here but it costs 13400 souls). So it's now beating the Pursuer, farming for the ring of the cat or being stuck. DS2 feels a bit more linear, in DS1 there were more optional ways to go or so I think. Maybe it's just the first area and it will open up after that, we'll see.

[W8taminute]

DS2 feels a bit more linear, in DS1 there were more optional ways to go or so I think. Maybe it's just the first area and it will open up after that, we'll see.

For a while until I beat the Last Giant I was beginning to think that DS2 was much more linear than DS was.  Now I'm not so sure.  In DS every area that you explored was big.  Nice and big.  So far here in DS2 the biggest area seems to be The Forest of the Giants.  Huntsman Copse and Heide's area do not seem as big as Undead Burg was in DS.  I could be wrong though.  Maybe those areas open up later it all depends on beating the mini boss or the boss.  It's still too early to judge for sure.

Or maybe it all has to do with the enemies not spawning after a certain while.  When the land is empty it feels like you've got nothing to do and now you're stuck until something happens. 

[Grimnirsson]

Well, it seems there's something broken in the DS2 design. Today I fought the Ruin Sentinels, area bosses in the Lost Bastille and if you defeat them you get 9000 souls. You go to the fog wall, write down your summon sign and you'll get summoned pretty soon. The host usually brings the NPC guy as well so three fighters go in and the fight is incredibly easy. If you win (9 out of 10 fights) you get the 9000 souls and all your estus flasks (and if you use them) all healing miracles are full again. So, you write down your sign, go in, the fight is 5 minutes at the longest, you win, 9000 souls, all healing stuff is full again, you write down your sign etc.. You can do this forever. In a few hours I farmed over 100.000 souls from the Sentinels...do this for as long as you want get your character up to level 150 and what then? I doubt the game would be fun after that. I call that broken but I don't find anything about a Sentinels glitch or something. No review talked about that. So what's wrong here?  :o