Dark Souls 3

Oh man, I just rush those guys and kill them before they can transform. I accidentally did it to the one on top of the high wall, and now every time I have to go past the one on the roof I’m sprinting over and mashing L1.

Everything feels kind of slow and sticky after Bloodborne. Maybe I’ll give OoK another try or two today…

Wow, I must have glossed over the tutorial message about this. Can’t wait to try it.

Me too. I don’t think there was a tutorial message about it.

Thanks @Scott_Dobros. Looking it up online, my starting axe for the pyromancer has the special ability of “Warcry”, that should be an interesting one.

That’s where I stopped last night as well. Finding that elevator and shortcut back to the original bonfire. It’s funny that after hanging onto all the souls early on before the firelink shrine, ever since then I haven’t been able to bank hardly any souls at all. I always get greedy and never go back, and end up losing them all. But I know from previous Souls games that this should be fine. I’m sure I’ll catch up on Souls later.

I did manage to get just enough that I can use the longbow now. So my last act last night before logging off was to use the longbow on the dragon and collect the loot in the area he was guarding.

It’s too bad I have nowhere near the stats to use any of the weapons I found there.

I think I bought 99 wood arrows when I first got to the fire shrine and couldn’t spend all my souls after leveling up and going to the vendor, I think the dragon took almost all 99 arrows before he got irritated enough.

Yeah it takes a bunch of god damn arrows.

Good job Krok just running in there! I was too much of a coward.

Edit: how you guys liking the opening area? Def has an Undead Burg vibe, ya?

It’s extremely Undead Burg, which I know very well because I’ve played DS1 like 4 times and never got past Blighttown (although I did somehow get to and past the Butterfly once).

I still feel like the Undead Burg is probably the best opening level of any game ever. I like how the Wall of Lothric messes with the formulae a bit, by branching off in different directions almost immediately, and forcing you down more narrow/perilous paths.

It feels like you are thrown into the hot water a lot quicker.

It does. But it’s so much more lush. There’s so much more detail on everything. Like in the Undead burg, they had a couple of rooms with chairs and tables, and a couple of areas with barrels. In this one, there’s a whole lot more barrels, and tables and chairs and shelves and lamps and odds and ends that make it feel more recent victim of an apocalyptic event compared to DS1, where the event felt like it might have taken place centuries ago. The castle walls and roof tiles, and architecture in general looks much more interesting. That fat knight that circles the fire, he’s surrounded by fresh dead bodies that look recently dead.

The colors palette is similar to DS1, but also much more vivid somehow. And I do love how all these towers and rooms all interconnect, and you unlock shortcuts. They also use height really well. When you get on the roof where you see that one guy who turns into a late version of Iudex, it feels like this is a dead end side area, but it turns out to be the main way to go, down the side of a building, climbing down long ladders and feeling vertigo when fighting near dangerous ledges.

You summed it up perfectly.

The grand Lothric Stairs, where you fight all the skeleton knights leading to Vordt, is my favorite part of that level. It highlights how they’re able to really expand the scale of the environment.

I was a bit letdown by the area that follows, but the grandeur of the High Wall has me excited for what’s to come.

Oh boy, especially if you take a right and it’s like, here is your first group of enemies: two dogs, a halberdier and an axe guy, and oh by the way you remembered to watch out for that crossbowman, right?

The Bloodborne influence is very heavily felt. Enemies are fast. I really miss rally.

…you can run past them, I think. There are only two directly in the path you need to go down. You’re super close to that banner!

Yeah, I’m also used to rally (the mechanic where you attack someone who hit you, and regain some lost health) so I keep trying to immediately attack back, which gets me into hot water. I’ve had more deaths in this one because I keep doing that than anything else. When I remember there’s no rally, I do well. But it’s become instinctive to try to attack immediately after getting hurt.

Dude. Yes.

There is a ring I got that says it restores HP on successive hits…but I’ve yet to see it do much.

For me it’s more a matter of those simultaneous hits not being rewarded, and it sucks.

Compounded with the fact I’m wearing only pants to stay under 30% burden for maxx roll.

Only pants?

Did you start as the Knight? Edit: No wait, you started as the dual-wield guy. I remember.

That’s one nice part about starting as the Pyro. All his starting equipment is really light. Staying under 30% is not a problem, plus his clothing gives me protections against other things, even if my physical protection sucks.

Ok, so I’m sure you all know this, but the rolling thing in DS3 is tweaked a bit. Same formulae for fat roll, mid roll, fast roll, however, both mid and fast give you the same IFrames (13), fast just moves you further.

I’m fast roll for life, but in this game I’ve been using the mid so I can actually wear armor for once, and it works just fine.

edit for wiki inclusion:

Weight Ratio %

Effect

29.9% or less Fastest state: very fast rolls that go the farthest, with 13 iframes. Fast backsteps.

30.0% – 69.9% Regular state: medium rolls with 13 iframes. Fast backsteps.

70.0% – 99.9% Slow state (“fat rolling”): slow and short rolls with 12 iframes. Slow backsteps. Stamina regenerates about 20% slower.*

100.0% or higher Overburdened: cannot roll, backstep or run. The walking animation changes.

Here is a chart Tim James linked in the DS2 thread—

What’s that last entry, “quickstep”, with all those green i-frames?

Edit: Oh nice, it’s a skill:

For weapons such as daggers. I guess it gives a nice extra incentive to go with the Thief lifestyle.

I saw it in KayPlays first DS3 video. You sort of dodge around an attack and end up behind the enemy. Looks pretty cool, but not really the type of character I’m going for.

I did not know this.