Dark Souls is on Steam

I can finally use the Greatsword of Artorias (I've had it at +5 for a while)...and it definitely doesn't scale well with STR at 60, Dex at 28 and the others at 20. It's quick and can do several attacks in a row without burning a ton of endurance, but damage is only about 1/2 what my bigger weapons do. I might eventually level my other stats up in NG++ during the summer, but I think I'm just going to make a push for the end at this point.
 
Domingo said:
I can finally use the Greatsword of Artorias (I've had it at +5 for a while)...and it definitely doesn't scale well with STR at 60, Dex at 28 and the others at 20. It's quick and can do several attacks in a row without burning a ton of endurance, but damage is only about 1/2 what my bigger weapons do. I might eventually level my other stats up in NG++ during the summer, but I think I'm just going to make a push for the end at this point.
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You need a lot of stats bumped up to make that sword do good damage.
 
Domingo said:
I can finally use the Greatsword of Artorias (I've had it at +5 for a while)...and it definitely doesn't scale well with STR at 60, Dex at 28 and the others at 20. It's quick and can do several attacks in a row without burning a ton of endurance, but damage is only about 1/2 what my bigger weapons do. I might eventually level my other stats up in NG++ during the summer, but I think I'm just going to make a push for the end at this point.
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Yeah, its really just not worth it until you get at least two of the stats to 40 as past 40 stat scaling is crap.
 
finished the game with my sl10 character, ending was easy with full pyro and solaire. damn awesome game, love everything about it.
 
I have a Y on my keboard but no triangle. Are you sure those are the right commands ?

Cali3350 said:
The taurus demon? Rollback when he attacks, Press Y (or Triangle) to two hand your weapon, hard hit (L2) twice, press Y again to get shield out, block and roll back, repeat.

It gets much harder later.
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Actually I found that guy; but I couldn't kill him; he kills me in one hit so I just assumed I would come back to him. There is also a second guy that I can't kill (there is a ring behind him) but i figure he too was optional. However, taurus demon wasn't optional for me to move on and since I couldn't kill him after 30 or 40 tries I gave up :(

Domingo said:
What's funny is that on the way to the Taurus demon, you (usually) have the option of going down the tower and encountering an enemy that is far more difficult.
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you2 said:
I have a Y on my keboard but no triangle. Are you sure those are the right commands ?
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Sorry those were console controls, i play with a gamepad. Not sure the PC commands. Its the button to wield sword with two hands.
 
you2 said:
Actually I found that guy; but I couldn't kill him; he kills me in one hit so I just assumed I would come back to him. There is also a second guy that I can't kill (there is a ring behind him) but i figure he too was optional. However, taurus demon wasn't optional for me to move on and since I couldn't kill him after 30 or 40 tries I gave up :(
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That guy at the bottom of the stairs (Havel himself?) is a total bastard until you get pretty proficient with the game or you level up enough to kill him in a few hits. While counter-intuitive, the key is getting close, circling, and looking for a backstab. That way your slower weapons don't get you killed, but still do maximum damage. No matter what you do, always try and fight him in one of those open around areas. That way you have some room to move.
He ends up dropping one of the most important items if you're interested in using heavy equipment, so don't forget to come back to him.
 
Havel as definitely one of my harder fights. I know you can parry him but I'm not quite that good lol. So it was get close roll to side take a swipe with the Gravelord sword. Took many many attempts. He's an ass hole lol
 
Well finally beat the game and I can say it was pretty impressive. The end Boss wasn't that bad just took 3 counters and a slash and he was done for, I think my problem is that I was like level 124 or so when I did the end game so it was extremely easy, except for the bed of chaos, it doesn't really matter what level you are when you fight that if you don't know that trick to kill it.

Now I'm on my second playthrough and I'm cutting through enemies like butter and I believe they drop like 4x the souls they did the first time so it makes leveling up when your high level at lot easier.

As for havel the easiest way to beat him early game is to buy a Reinforced Club and circle around him and backstab him a few times, the bleeding damage will take at least 400-500 health away from him when it builds up and you can do this pretty quickly if your careful, the trick of course is to not get hit cause he 1 shot kills you pretty easy which I find easiest to avoid his attacks in no armor at all.
 
I never messed with parrying him just because of the risk/reward. I've beaten him 3 times and I used more or less the same method each time. I'd run up the stairs to the 2nd floor of the tower and let him follow me up. As soon as he's on the same floor - lock on and run right at him. He tends to go for one of those big swings when you run at him, so start strafing when you get close. He'll miss and will have enough recovery so you can backstab him.
Once you land a backstab - back off as far as you can. From there, I move toward then back to bait him into another forward swing. From there, you can use the toward+strong attack to counter his misses from long range or try to get close and backstab again.
The issue I always had was his wide swing. It'll hit you when it looks like it shouldn't and the timing needed to roll dodge it was always tricky. My strategy always involved doing things that kept him from doing it!
 
Easiest way ever is to summon anyone, level doesn't matter.

Almost always (but not every time) Havel will only engage who last attacked him. He ignores the other person until attacked. So if there are two of you, one backstabs... then backs off, then the summon backstabs, then you... rinse/repeat. It's intuitive with two people.

Now... can anyone offer a good weapon for a cleric? I'm using that sword found by the undead dragon, occult club, and lightning spear... not really happy with any of them.
 
toddw said:
Easiest way ever is to summon anyone, level doesn't matter.

Almost always (but not every time) Havel will only engage who last attacked him. He ignores the other person until attacked. So if there are two of you, one backstabs... then backs off, then the summon backstabs, then you... rinse/repeat. It's intuitive with two people.

Now... can anyone offer a good weapon for a cleric? I'm using that sword found by the undead dragon, occult club, and lightning spear... not really happy with any of them.
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That really depends where your DEX and STR are at. Faith builds can go either way. Your damage will scale with Divine and Occult weapons, but this generally isn't good for PVP (most PVP builds have high magic defense and less lightning). Astora's Straight Sword (the one you found by the undead dragon) is pretty decent early on, but the fact that it takes twinkling will pretty much condemn it as you quickly upgrade your other weapons. If you like shield poking with your spear, but want a more versatile move set, try the partizan; it has a wide horizontal sweeping R2, which is decent for PVP.

Personally, my favorite overall move sets for PVE and PVP are found in the iato and uchigatana; they hit hard, bleed turtlers, and stun-lock light PVPers. I'm also practicing "dead angles" with the Claymore and Great Scythe.
 
Is there anyone that's SL75 thru 125 that wants to trade some large titanite for twinkling, chunks, humanity, etc.? I'm on NG+ and haven't gotten to Sen's Fortress to buy them myself; and I would buy them myself except I only progress through the game when I'm cooping with my budday.

Also down for organized PVP if anyone wants to practice with me (SL100). I still have the Burg, Parish, and Depths open for invasions if you want to put down a red soapstone sign. Message me here or in game (GFWL: SPARTAN VI).
 
Right now im to orstein and smough In ng+ and they are kicking my butt, I think im going to try the fight with the giant shield since the glass crest shield doesnt block enough lightning damage and orstien keeps kicking my butt in round 2 with his lighting strikes.
 
Havel was a bitch,then I got naked,stabbed him from behind and made him my bitch!

But really,take off all your armor and stand right in front of him,then when he starts his swing circle around and back stab him.He will almost always one shot you,armor or not,all your armor does is slow you down.
 
Look folks I'm not going to waste time with Havel until I first learn how to kill Taurus demon. I haven't tried since someone said that holding shield up all the time was a bad thing; so that might do the trick not sure. For some reason I think he still hits me through the shield. Is there actually a blacksmith before you reach Havel? I know there is a shop (vendor) but i don't remember him selling very much that was useful. I think I will start over. i was a pyro around level 5 or 10 or something but I think i was too slow and i never did find a good use for pyro fireballs. They just didn't seem to do a whole lot.
 
Well you don't exactly want to hold the shield up ALL the time.

Inside combat you should have it up if you anticipate an attack and you'll get better at that the more you play (you won't get anywhere in this game if you don't learn the way enemies move and attack). If you hold it up all the time your stamina will regenerate slowly after a successful block or attack so in between enemy attacks you lower it so the stamina regens faster. It's a balance. Some enemies attacks can go through shields as you have to have enough stamina to "buffer" the blow. If the attack is too strong it drains all your stamina and you take damage and puts you into that "I'm about to get fucked in the ass [H]ardcore" stun.

Outside combat I always kept it up when exploring new territory just in case of a surprise attack.

Don't worry about Havel at your level. If you hadn't picked the Master Key as your gift you wouldn't even be able to get to him yet anyway. With the Taurus demon I've only played the game as a Knight but basically after the his introduction I ran up the tower to do a drop attack, ran/rolled through his legs (yeah I know it's easier said than done) and went about halfway down the pathway and waited for him to catch up to me. Ran/rolled through his legs again then booked it to the tower to climb up and drop attack him. Rinse and repeat. Sometimes I'd take an extra swing at him after he would attack. There's also a chance he can fall/jump off the edge where the sides have crumbled away. Just stick to it and learn his moves.
 
sculelos said:
Right now im to orstein and smough In ng+ and they are kicking my butt, I think im going to try the fight with the giant shield since the glass crest shield doesnt block enough lightning damage and orstien keeps kicking my butt in round 2 with his lighting strikes.
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IMO, it's much easier to focus on killing Ornstein first and worry about Smough in round 2. I ended up fighting super Ornstein in my first pass and he was a total bastard even with a summoned player and NPC.

In my NG+ encounter I would make a break to the right as soon as the fight started and the NPC knight tended to go straight for Smough...while Ornstein would tend to be confused and attack whomever was closer. I was using the Man-Serpent sword and could kill him in roughly 6-7 hits while Smough was still messing with the knight. Ornsteain can be flanked and his attacks can be blocked and easily roll-dodged.

In dealing with super Smough, I just had to make sure I was at full health all time. His flying butt drop move would leave me with a sliver if I was at max health, so I drank a lot of potions and used a couple humanities, too. I tended to stay away from him and make a big circle when possible. His club smash move is the safest thing to counter, so I'd wait for that and then jump in with a single power attack from the side before retreating. His bulldozer thing is tough to dodge when you're close and it insta-killed me, so keeping distance was key to avoiding that.

It still took me 4-5 tries to do it, but after super Ornstein in my first pass, I think he was easier.
 
Oddball and quirks...

1) Anyone else collect souls (something died or fell) when you are coming from the swamp, on your way to the bonefire at the top of the tree leading to ash lake? It happens after the 2nd hidden wall, after the ladder. Every time for me. Weird. Like 400 souls.
2) Big lava area after you kill the centipede with the orange ring. Straight ahead on the other side of the lava, there appears to be a door which is split in the middle. Anything?
3) Took me awhile to figure it out... when going down the tree, use the ring of fog to ensure you get all the little critters. Can't tell you how many hours until I put two and two together here.
4) What is the deal between that magic chick and manos? She's crying in the pit after you kill him? Any history on how/why manos' humanity went crazy?
5) Whenver I've gotten the message about the gravelord disasters, I've never noticed any extra enemies or anything different. Ever. In like 10 play-throughs.

Thoughts or facts?
 
toddw said:
1) Anyone else collect souls (something died or fell) when you are coming from the swamp, on your way to the bonefire at the top of the tree leading to ash lake? It happens after the 2nd hidden wall, after the ladder. Every time for me. Weird. Like 400 souls.
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That's from the frogs leaping off the ledges and committing suicide further on down the tree.

toddw said:
2) Big lava area after you kill the centipede with the orange ring. Straight ahead on the other side of the lava, there appears to be a door which is split in the middle. Anything?
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Far as I know, nothing.
 
There's a video going over the details of it, but if you see those crystal lizards but don't kill them - you can actually exit your game and when you come back in they'll be at their spawning points. Those guys carry rare stuff (even occasionally titanite slabs) so they're worth killing whenever you can.
 
Domingo said:
IMO, it's much easier to focus on killing Ornstein first and worry about Smough in round 2. I ended up fighting super Ornstein in my first pass and he was a total bastard even with a summoned player and NPC.

In my NG+ encounter I would make a break to the right as soon as the fight started and the NPC knight tended to go straight for Smough...while Ornstein would tend to be confused and attack whomever was closer. I was using the Man-Serpent sword and could kill him in roughly 6-7 hits while Smough was still messing with the knight. Ornsteain can be flanked and his attacks can be blocked and easily roll-dodged.

In dealing with super Smough, I just had to make sure I was at full health all time. His flying butt drop move would leave me with a sliver if I was at max health, so I drank a lot of potions and used a couple humanities, too. I tended to stay away from him and make a big circle when possible. His club smash move is the safest thing to counter, so I'd wait for that and then jump in with a single power attack from the side before retreating. His bulldozer thing is tough to dodge when you're close and it insta-killed me, so keeping distance was key to avoiding that.

It still took me 4-5 tries to do it, but after super Ornstein in my first pass, I think he was easier.
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Problem is that I want Ornsteins soul since I have Smoughs already and I want the ring and spear, ill try a few more times but might just do smough second if I cant get ornstien.

Edit: After I switched my equipment loadout it only took me 3 tries to kill Ornstien so the giant shield turned a very hard fight into a more managable one simply cause I could block most of his spear thrust without taking too much damage.

Edit #2: I just got enough to use the Cursed Greatsword of Artorias and I have mixed feelings about it, it has a long reach for a fast weapon and has very powerful strong attacks but my regular Broad Sword is much faster and lighter, overall I'm going to play around with it a bit more as I do around 540ish damage with it which isn't bad and the average power attack on enemies can exceed 700 damage but I think the real strength lies with the fact that it has very powerful long reaching hits and has good stagger as well. Best for fighting large groups of enemies at least is my initial impression... oh well at least with 18 faith and 18 intellegence I can look at using a few basic spells and miricules after I get my attunement up a little, don't plan to use pyromancy damage spells at all but Iron Flesh, Power within and magic weapon seem like they will all be useful later in the game.
 
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While I only have 3 spell slots, I keep the pyromancies Great Fireball and Great Chaos Fireball loaded all of the time and I got my glove up to Ascended +5. They're really strong against normal enemies and can take down a pack of charging foes pretty quickly, too. Against bosses I'd say they're pretty so-so, though. In my first pass they were pretty strong, but not so much in NG+. I kinda wonder if that was a balancing element because they work just as well on normal enemies.
 
don't believe the crystal lizards drop any slabs. they do drop chunks but for slabs there are only very few in the game. Also ring of fog will help a lot in getting them. There are a bunch in the great hollow.
 
Beat the game this week finally, found this pretty entertaining http://www.destructoid.com/five-dark-souls-bosses-that-made-me-want-to-punch-a-baby-242376.phtml

Definitely a memorable game Though I'm not sure I can say I had fun playing it (most of the time I just wanted to get out of the deadly, oppressing areas I was in), I always wanted to come back to it.

For me death count looked like this:
1. Capra Demon... ugh... At some point the dogs OUTSIDE of boss killed me, I was about to destroy my monitor with the keyboard and quit the game.
2. Chaos Witch Quelaag - that was probably my favorite fight. Took me forever to figure out that the strategy I used to *almost* kill it was not very good. Adjust and triumph.
3. Ornstein and Smough - that one was the only fight I chickened out and summoned npc (after my first few attempts I did almost no damage to anyone and ran out of flasks every time). Even with npc super Smough was kind of a bastard, and all the invading pvp people kept killing me before the bosses half the time leading to unfun.
4. First black knight (the one with Havel's ring). I kept coming back to this guy throughout the game and getting one shot over and over and over and over and.....
5. The archers in Anor Londo ledges. Aaaaaaaaaarrgghhhh.... After them, if I didn't kill O&S before my humanity ran out I would probably quit the game.

Was playing melee dex build, and shortly after Anor Londo difficulty broke down for me. Once I upgraded my uchigatana to +15 and started dumping some points into endurance all the boss fights became very easy with me just running/rolling around two handing and pwning bosses in the face.
 
I felt Manus was the toughest boss in the entire game for me and my bud. He has an uncanny ability to stun lock me in a 2HKO combo; it's usually the wide horizontal sweep followed up by the overhead slam. Then if I managed to survive that, the fucking silver pendant craps out and fails to protect me from the dark beads. I must have died at the hands of Manus more than every other boss combined.
 
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uriz3n said:
4. First black knight (the one with Havel's ring). I kept coming back to this guy throughout the game and getting one shot over and over and over and over and.....
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to be accurate, havel has his ring, the black knight has a +defense@low health
 
jiminator said:
don't believe the crystal lizards drop any slabs. they do drop chunks but for slabs there are only very few in the game. Also ring of fog will help a lot in getting them. There are a bunch in the great hollow.
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They can drop slabs but only in the great hollow. Im probably going to go through it again in ng+ with ring of fog and see if that helps me find em. Dark wraiths can drop slabs as well but its random. For me hardest boss fight was the bed of chaos.
 
I’m now nearing the end of NG+ and have completed everything except killing the Bed of Chaos and the final boss, so I decided to make a run at the DLC area. It’s definitely pretty tough. Even the boss preventing you from accessing the area was pretty rugged. Those guardians are annoying just because of their weird delays between starting to swing and their actual hitbox starting. Haven’t gotten too far, but have found all the pieces of their armor. Considering how heavy that armor is, you’d think it would be better.

Those Crystal Lizards definitely drop titanite slabs, but it seems to be a 1 in 10 kind of thing, even with the covetous ring and multiple humanities. I’ve gotten a couple from them in my two passes. I think I might end up maxing out the Elite Knight stuff just so I’m not stuck always wearing Havel’s Ring, but I’ll probably worry about that whenever I pick this game back up in the summer.
 
the guardian armor is just the same as stone armor but with magic/fire resistance swapped

edit: I see some of the big pieces are weaker
 
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It's actually surprising how short this game is when you get good at it, I started a new character and about 12 hours later I've done everything except for the final boss fight and the dlc... also got to like level 87 in that much time.
 
Man do I hate the Bed of Chaos. Maybe there's some trick I missed, but that thing keeps either insta-killing me or knocking me into pits. I think it took more tries on NG+ than on my first pass. At least in my first pass he didn't kill me instantly with his swipes. In NG+ I'm loading with +Giant Armor and the ring that lessens physical damage and he still kills in 1 swipe. You don't actually die from 1, but you can't move/dodge/etc. after it hits you so the second hit is unavoidable. Worst enemy in the whole game for me.

Bed of Chaos on those random ass prowling demons. Sometimes you can block them...other times it doesn't seem to matter at all.
 
ditch the armor and make a +14 shield. The first swing will knock you back but not otherwise hurt you. You should probably be able to run forward and jump after that. The jump is easy, it is just a little bit right of center and you should land on the path. Then you have to chop or roll through the branches, he can still fire your ass. and what do you mean prowling demons? that blow fire? you can run through all of them....
 
Domingo said:
Man do I hate the Bed of Chaos. Maybe there's some trick I missed, but that thing keeps either insta-killing me or knocking me into pits. I think it took more tries on NG+ than on my first pass. At least in my first pass he didn't kill me instantly with his swipes. In NG+ I'm loading with +Giant Armor and the ring that lessens physical damage and he still kills in 1 swipe. You don't actually die from 1, but you can't move/dodge/etc. after it hits you so the second hit is unavoidable. Worst enemy in the whole game for me.

Bed of Chaos on those random ass prowling demons. Sometimes you can block them...other times it doesn't seem to matter at all.
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I haven't have trouble getting past it since I learned how to run back fast, but this is likely my most hated boss in the whole game as well. I always get hit by the damn swipes :mad: Between this and the Archers, I can't bring myself to try for a zero death run through the game.

And its like they knew Bed of Chaos was a totally bitch because those side "orb" things don't even respawn when you die!
 
ocellaris said:
I haven't have trouble getting past it since I learned how to run back fast, but this is likely my most hated boss in the whole game as well. I always get hit by the damn swipes :mad: Between this and the Archers, I can't bring myself to try for a zero death run through the game.

And its like they knew Bed of Chaos was a totally bitch because those side "orb" things don't even respawn when you die!
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Yep bed of Chaos is my most hated boss but large shields help! If you can't use greatshields normally find the eagle shield in the swamp area and upgrade it then hold it up when your trying to run past the bed of chaos and it will help you.
 
Finally killed it on like the 20th try. I never really have any issues with the orb on the right, but the left one and the middle tend to get me. The greatshield does seem to be the trick to it. With a smaller shield it knocks you too far or just kills you outright.
Worth noting, but probably something obvious - that seems to be one of those jumps where 60FPS makes it either really hard, or maybe impossible.
Now all I have left is the DLC. I figure I might build some more souls weapons, too. The end is near for me. It's been a fun (and often frustrating) ride, but I think I've had enough.
 
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