Dark Souls 3

ghostwich said:
And somehow people are supposed to find this stuff out without walkthroughs? By dumb luck and endless backtracking? :)
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only thing I don't like is that From Software made it impossible to do everything in 1 playthrough...for the other Souls games you could do everything without replays...I also hate that you cannot buy or obtain all spells, pyromancy, miracles without joining and leveling up in certain covenants...makes it more of a grind to get everything...I'm on my 3rd playthrough and am still discovering new things
 
ghostwich said:
And somehow people are supposed to find this stuff out without walkthroughs? By dumb luck and endless backtracking? :)
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It's just bad game design in my opinion. I used a walkthrough for my NG+ and still missed a few things because I misread a sentence or two on the wiki, thus screwing up my quest play through with help. For me, Zelda is a great example of good backtracking. You see a wall with cracks, but you don't know how to break it. Later on, you get bombs, and, hey, maybe I should go back to that spot I saw earlier. The one spot I backtracked in Dark Souls 3 was the Demon Ruins for the lava portions, which I just didn't have enough health to get through my first run through. But stuff that I didn't care for was something like Rosaria's Fingers, which joining fails another person's quest (without really fair warning first round), or that thief in town who goes out to plunder a town and dies, because I bought Seigward's armor from Patches, and Seigward had died earlier.
 
The process of covenants in weird this time because it seems like joining (or asking to join) vs. actively being in a covenant (via the little pin) = different.
Then you have the whole thing with the Braille books. I mean...how many blind Miracle salesmen do you think there are?
I don't really care if I can't do everything in one playthrough. I don't think you could get all the boss weapons in the first two game either.
For me it's the process of making NPC's show up in random places at random times with no warning and they do affect the game in major ways. That's just kind of lame.
There are too many things that no amount of item descriptions, messages, and shadows/splatters can explain.
 
Comixbooks said:
I can't get invasions worth a damn for the Dark Moon covenant Sun Bro tokens are easy
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I ended up completing those by Anor Londo my first round by just being a Blue Sentinel. Every time I started sniping a difficult enemy, I got the summoning message, which meant the enemy went back to full health again.
 
People are asking about Blue Eye invasion orbs so you can invade reds but they are in Dark Souls II.
 
ghostwich said:
And somehow people are supposed to find this stuff out without walkthroughs? By dumb luck and endless backtracking? :)
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1st playthrough is still best experienced blind...any other playthroughs you can use a guide or walkthrough :)
 
Comixbooks said:
I can't get invasions worth a damn for the Dark Moon covenant Sun Bro tokens are easy
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Farming Proof of Concord Kept is also one of the hardest things to farm in the game. They drop from Silver Knights almost as rare as Sun Bro Medallions from Lothric Knights. Even with a 449 item discovery, I'm getting like one to drop every 30 or so Silver Knights.

Far less maddening to allow yourself to be summoned during a first playthrough.
 
Yeah I am farming the silver knights in Anor Londor to get the Proof. I want the ring only so I don't mind. I leveled insanely high now at level 98 from all the kills, and I have exactly 5 with a pretty low item discovery. I read it's 1 in 30 drops it but that seems generously high IMHO. I'd say one every about 30-45 minutes of farming lol.
 
The silver knights are fuckers with their shields up, making them hard to farm and their drop rate seems more abysmal than others.
 
I think farming the Lothric Knights for Medals would be hardest, but thankfully Sunlight Medals are the easiest covenant items to amass through normal online play.
 
For me, it's the Vertebra Shackle shackles. I've finished up the other Covenants, and only have 3. I'm a PvE build though, so winning PvP battles isn't the easiest for me.
 
Silver Knights are easy if you aren't worried about burning through your FP, you only need the pyromancy of flame + Great Chaos fire orb and just keep your distance. I am a mage though so it'll be easier with my FP points and Int, but add to that the ring that greatly enhances pyromancy, they are a 2-3 cast kill per knight. My Pyromancy of flame is at +6 which yours will be also from farming these knights and their common drop :). If you are a pure melee type, you will have less casts and damage so you will probably have to melee them for one or two hits at the end. Just allocate 3 estus blue flasks one for each of the 3 knights. Their shields reduce the damage a whole lot so you have to time when to cast the orb properly. The orb interrupts their move set on a direct hit then the lava pool adds extra damage on top.
 
Nytegard said:
For me, it's the Vertebra Shackle shackles. I've finished up the other Covenants, and only have 3. I'm a PvE build though, so winning PvP battles isn't the easiest for me.
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I'd rank Vertebra Shackles as third amongst covenant item drop rarity. They aren't nearly as painful to farm as Sun Bro Medallions or Proof of Concords. I'd say shackles drop twice as frequent as those two, but that might be due to the Catacomb skeletons being an easy run. Shackles drop from multiple skeleton types, not just the Carthus curved sword weilding ones. I've had shackles drop from the fire arrow skeleton and the goofy skeleton mage. I pretty much ran a loop from the Catacombs bonfire and I'd get on average one shackle every three to five bonfire resets. In my loop, there are about 7 skeletons that shackles can drop from. I always used 449 item discovery.

Of course, doing PvP as a purple is more fruitful if a bit eclectic.
 
the Dark Sword hype is real!...it's an amazing weapon for both pve and pvp...I literally (no exaggeration) beat the first phase of Abyss Watchers in what seemed like under 10 seconds...I'm shocked that From hasn't nerfed it yet
 
all the catacombs skeletons are easy with executioners greatsword. it does strike damage and every hit knocks them down each time
 
polonyc2 said:
the Dark Sword hype is real!...it's an amazing weapon for both pve and pvp...I literally (no exaggeration) beat the first phase of Abyss Watchers in what seemed like under 10 seconds...I'm shocked that From hasn't nerfed it yet
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How leveled up is yours? I'm assuming this is NG+ or you're helping others. At the time you originally face them, the highest you can have it is +4 and while good...it's probably not that good.
While I like that sword, it seems like some enemies can march right through those shots while larger weapons stop them dead in their tracks. It's the main reason I haven't swapped over to that sword. I do keep it as a back up, though.

Actually - speaking of back-up, do weapons break in this game? In Dark Souls 2 the various clubs break constantly. It's impossible to make it through some areas without going through 2-3 of them. In Dark Souls 3 I've totally cleared multiple zones of enemies and haven't even seen my weapon break meter hit the halfway point. Any of them. Is that stat like poise or are some weapons actually fragile?
 
Domingo said:
How leveled up is yours? I'm assuming this is NG+ or you're helping others. At the time you originally face them, the highest you can have it is +4 and while good...it's probably not that good.
While I like that sword, it seems like some enemies can march right through those shots while larger weapons stop them dead in their tracks. It's the main reason I haven't swapped over to that sword. I do keep it as a back up, though.

Actually - speaking of back-up, do weapons break in this game? In Dark Souls 2 the various clubs break constantly. It's impossible to make it through some areas without going through 2-3 of them. In Dark Souls 3 I've totally cleared multiple zones of enemies and haven't even seen my weapon break meter hit the halfway point. Any of them. Is that stat like poise or are some weapons actually fragile?
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it was regular NG and I wasn't summoning...I think my STR/END/VIG were all at Level 28 or 29 with a few rings such as Cloranthy and the Fire resistance one...I beat the 1st phase of Abyss Watchers super fast (the 2nd phase took longer)...at the time my Dark Sword was +4 with the Heavy Gem which increases your STR scaling to an A...you're right that larger weapons can stun or push enemies away but they can't match the overall damage from multiple fast swings of the Dark Sword...trust me once you use the Dark Sword you'll see just how op it is...for a STR weapon it has really fast swings which you need for certain bosses...I also have the Zweihander +5 and it's a decent pve weapon but it's so damn slow

weapons break but it takes a long time...my Uchigatana actually broke once but that's because it has low overall durability
 
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polonyc2 said:
it was regular NG and I wasn't summoning...I think my STR/END/VIG were all at Level 28 or 29 with a few rings such as Cloranthy and the Fire resistance one...I beat the 1st phase of Abyss Watchers super fast (the 2nd phase took longer)...at the time my Dark Sword was +4 with the Heavy Gem which increases your STR scaling to an A...you're right that larger weapons can stun or push enemies away but they can't match the overall damage from multiple fast swings of the Dark Sword...trust me once you use the Dark Sword you'll see just how op it is...for a STR weapon it has really fast swings which you need for certain bosses...I also have the Zweihander +5 and it's a decent pve weapon but it's so damn slow
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I've got a +5 one with a Heavy Gem (I'm @40 STR but my Dex is only 20) and it always feels like 1/2 the enemies just ignore it and blow right through it. It's great after a dodge, but I kinda like knocking enemies down or away with a club. It's handy vs. bosses that don't get staggered/stunned, but I kinda struggle with it during normal gameplay.
That said, it seems good vs. other people. My club shots always seem to leave people on death's door, but rarely finish anyone in 1 sequence...and it's slow enough where they can heal before I can swing again. My plan is to boost my endurance so I can get 1-2 more good swings. That'll make it an instakill.
 
Domingo said:
I've got a +5 one with a Heavy Gem (I'm @40 STR but my Dex is only 20) and it always feels like 1/2 the enemies just ignore it and blow right through it. It's great after a dodge, but I kinda like knocking enemies down or away with a club. It's handy vs. bosses that don't get staggered/stunned, but I kinda struggle with it during normal gameplay.
That said, it seems good vs. other people. My club shots always seem to leave people on death's door, but rarely finish anyone in 1 sequence...and it's slow enough where they can heal before I can swing again. My plan is to boost my endurance so I can get 1-2 more good swings. That'll make it an instakill.
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maybe it has to do with play-styles...I love backstabs and hitting enemies on the side and back versus going at them head on...but I can see why someone would prefer the Clubs or Ultra Greatswords...the knock down is pretty handy...the Zweihander has a cool R2 move where it pushes enemies away...the Greatsword was my STR weapon of choice in DS2 and am usually a UG type of player but something about the Dark Sword has made it my preferred STR weapon for DS3...the Greatsword isn't as powerful this time around and I don't like the moveset as much...Fume GS is great from a damage standpoint but I'm also not a fan of the moveset
 
I just got the game. Throughout the game, the game will randomly dip several frames, causing the game to stutter for me. Is anyone else experiencing this? It's super annoying.
 
Try updating your Video drivers I'm pretty sure I had none of that but during Boss fights I get tossed around like a cookie.
 
Are the dips occurring during saves? That happens to me, and unfortunately, this game saves an awful lot. Strange that the PS4 version doesn't suffer from this.
 
I prefer not to mess with my overclock, as I'm happy with where that's at right now. How do I know when it's saving? And the random dips in frame rate happen pretty frequently. Yeah, the ps4 version doesn't suffer from this but it does suffer from low frame rates and frame pacing issues.
 
Ok, well, it's definitely not a save thing. It drops in just random places, even during the first boss. I've seen it just randomly drop from 60 all the way down to 53 for no apparent reason.
 
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Nytegard said:
It's just bad game design in my opinion. I used a walkthrough for my NG+ and still missed a few things because I misread a sentence or two on the wiki, thus screwing up my quest play through with help. For me, Zelda is a great example of good backtracking. You see a wall with cracks, but you don't know how to break it. Later on, you get bombs, and, hey, maybe I should go back to that spot I saw earlier. The one spot I backtracked in Dark Souls 3 was the Demon Ruins for the lava portions, which I just didn't have enough health to get through my first run through. But stuff that I didn't care for was something like Rosaria's Fingers, which joining fails another person's quest (without really fair warning first round), or that thief in town who goes out to plunder a town and dies, because I bought Seigward's armor from Patches, and Seigward had died earlier.
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I think some are missing the design. The game wasn't meant to get "all of the quest lines" In a single play through. Guides/walk through spoiled that for you.

There are enough quest lines that In a blind play through you are suppose to get a few. Maybe more if you can catch on to the story arc.

Then you are suppose to get more or different ones in subsiquent ng+ play through a
 
I have no problem with it taking multiple play throughs.

But take Siegward's quest line for example. If you enter Irithyll Dungeon before the kitchen, well, you can't complete his quest. There isn't any warning of this, and you have a nice bonfire right at the entrance of the dungeon which will is a much easier trek to the kitchen, but will screw you over, and it doesn't matter if it's NG or NG+8. With Greirat, you need either Patches, with Siegward's armor still in tact, or Siegward still alive in order to save him after a failed expedition. Once again, no hints at all that you can save him. Bloodbourne had that girl who you couldn't save, so it wasn't surprising to me that he died the first time. You have Sirris, who part of the quest is backtracking to a bridge between two ridiculously close bonfires, but you can't exactly see that there is a summon sign on the bridge after you reach the necessary bonfire. And it's not like the bridge serves any other purpose, unless you happened to be invaded, and decided that was the best place to fight, rather than the bonfire in an open area that you're currently at. These are only a few instances of quests that make no sense, and you'll only find them through pure luck or a walkthrough, or a meticulous check under every rock at every bonfire mentality, which is beyond tedious. This isn't just a problem about learning the lore. It's a problem that's inherent in the series including Demons Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodbourne.

Take Hodrick or Havel's Armor. You have Hodrick who appears at Smouldering Lake after a certain part of his quest, but like several drops as Havel's armor at Archdragon Peak, could be there when you have no reason to backtrack. Zelda gives you a reason to backtrack. You see something curious which you can't get, and later on you acquire the ability needed, and backtrack from memory. To have to backtrack for no reason other than seeing if the game places a drop at an unknown location and at an unknown time isn't good game design.
 
I agree that completing a lot of the side quests/NPC's is really hard to figure out but I love that the game is so obtuse...it's part of the appeal of the Souls series...I mean it's fairly easy to trigger the start of most of the quests or get a bit into it but completing it all the way is tricky...Siegward in the well was really hard to find as he's hidden away in a corner of the map with no verbal indication that he's in there...Anri's final location is in a previously cleared area in a really strange spot...Nytegard is right in that there's really no hints or clues as to what you need to do or find to complete some of these quests...even after reading a walkthrough and completing everything I still needed to go back and re-read some of the steps during my 3rd playthrough to make sure I was doing it right
 
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The Seigward quest is worse than that. If you go into the rafters of the cathedral before seeing patches then he can't be saved. or at least I was not able to on the first PT. but anyway this is nitpicky. I like the game enough to play it again since it does have NG+. In dragon age origins you had stuff just as/more convoluted but you have to redo the entire game from scratch to get different endings. so this is nothing special. What do you lose? Ok, a slab, maybe armor/weapons for the other quests. But it takes at least 2.5 runs to get everything anyway (DS1 & 2 were the same)
 
...and no sooner than I make it to Irithyll, my clubs have been rendered useless while the Dark sword is godlike :p
Those Pontiff Knights walk right through the heaviest club shots but the Dark Sword stun-locks them.
Oh Dark Souls.
 
Nytegard said:
If you enter Irithyll Dungeon before the kitchen, well, you can't complete his quest. There isn't any warning of this, and you have a nice bonfire right at the entrance of the dungeon which will is a much easier trek to the kitchen, but will screw you over, and it doesn't matter if it's NG or NG+8.
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FYI, you can light the first bonfire before the entrance of Irithyll Dungeon (the one closest to the kitchen) and still continue Siegward's quest. I can confirm this. Just don't go down the steps from there. Remember, there are two bonfires before Irithyll Dungeon. The second one (i.e. point of no return) is a little further down across the stone bridge where you get invaded by Creighton the Wanderer.
 
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So Bandai Namco has issued a statement saying poise in Dark Souls 3 is working as intended...

Official statement about the Poise stat :: DARK SOULS III General Discussions
Dark Souls 3 poise bug is a feature, Bandai Namco claims | PC Gamer
Bandai Namco says, Poise is Working as Intended And It Is Not Off • /r/darksouls3

They say it works differently, but of course they won't tell us exactly what it does. This stinks of the weapon durability fiasco with Dark Souls 2. They'll probably silently patch it several months from now. Although there was a minor 41 MB patch this morning, but I haven't checked to see what it was for.

EDIT: The patch this morning was to fix some of the current hacking exploits according to looking at the binary data. Unfortunately this patch has made the framerate problem even worse.
addictedto60fps said:
I just got the game. Throughout the game, the game will randomly dip several frames, causing the game to stutter for me. Is anyone else experiencing this? It's super annoying.
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Yes, this is a common problem with the game no matter which operating system you are running it on. It most commonly occurs when picking up items or when the game saves, but the last two patches have caused it to happen more during the course of normal gameplay.
 
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I haven't really encountered any stuttering or performance issues, but I do have a pretty potent system and a SSD.

With the weapon durability thing - did they ever actually fix that? In my recent playthrough of DS2 (Scholar of the Last Sin version), I didn't notice a difference. I still needed 2 clubs (sometimes a 3rd weapon, too) to clear any large area. However in Dark Souls 3 I still haven't seen a weapon get past 1/2 durability even in massive areas. It's something I just completely ignore.
 
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