ShivaX
1701
The hardest part of Nameless King is judging distance, imo.
With no floor or reference point it’s easy to think you’re in range when you aren’t and out his attack range when you’re still in it.
Very souls. One man’s mountain is another man’s bump in the road. I went in blind having no idea what to expect, and it was quite the experience.
Besides the DLC, who was the toughest boss for you?
My Herald is humming along nicely. I cleared the high wall up to the chest with the Astora Straight Sword (which I’ve never had the faith to use in any of the games), infused it with fire (chose the fire gem as my starter) and went back to fight the crystal lizard.
The elite knights, while still tricky, went down easier this go around, as did the winged bastard in the courtyard (who I completely avoided on my first play through).
Vordt was less intimidating this time. I guess the fire sword did extra damage, because his health bar seemed to drain very quickly.
Enjoying the Herald quite a bit. It’s nice to have an extra heal. Can’t wait to track down more miracles.
I fiiiinally managed to get past the Central Irithyl area. I had another three attempts, each time getting cut down by an error while fighting one of those damned knights. Then I realised I just wasn’t approaching it the right way - every time I’ve reached a roadblock in Dark Souls I’ve gone back and changed tactics. So I finally got enough souls to level up Dex to 18, and then I could use the Astora Greatsword or the Hollowslayer Greatsword. The moveset is similar to the Longsword, except somewhat slower but with greater reach. Several Titanite Slabs later, and I’m rocking a +6 Astora, and what a difference! Straight through the shields of those fucking knights, die you bastards! HAHA!
I cut a path through them all to the Cathedral, and only then did I notice the bonfire off to the left which would have been a lifesaver before. Insert facepalm emoji.
Anyway, I met up with Horace’s partner so her story and mine are still going well. I also forgot to mention that I found Sirris’ sign on the bridge much earlier too, and we had a great fight against an NPC phantom. I was still in longsword mode then, could get him down to about 15% health and then each time he’d estus back up to nearly full. Took a couple of attempts but we got him, and I got some nice rewards for it (Silvercat Ring at last, so I can try and grab that item back in the Firelink Tower that I couldn’t get to before).
Upgrade those weapons man! There are an abundance of upgrade mats out there. I think I ended up with five fully upgraded weapons, with another half dozen close to maxxed out. Makes all the difference when the game’s difficulty starts to spike, and it’s fun as hell. There are so many great weapons this go round.
Just in case anyone was wondering (I know I was) there is a limit to how many weapons you can max out per play through, gated by how many titanite slabs there are in the world. From the wiki: 8 can be found in the base game; 3 can be found in Ashes of Ariandel; and 4 can be found in The Ringed City for a maximum of 15.
If I knew this earlier I would have been less stingy with my upgrades.
I died the most on Aldrich. Not the toughest fight per se, but it is not a conventional Dark Souls fight. The Nameless King is a conventional Dark Souls fight, barring the first phase camera battle. Dodge, Dodge, Dodge, Attack, Dodge…repeat to Victory. Just execute well and you will win. With Aldritch you have to first learn how all his bullshit magic crap works, and when all his magic crap is one-shotting you out of the blue…it takes a little more time.
Ya, Aldrich was tough going, probably the first real difficulty bump-up, but as soon as I figured out how to reliably dodge/avoid the arrows from heaven, I managed to do pretty well.
Nameless I had much more trouble with. For phase one, it wasn’t the camera, or the weird hit box, it was that damn downburst of fire. I did alright dodging most of the other attacks, but that fire would mess me up every time. Once I figured out how to deal with it, then yeah, you land three hard hits, stagger it, do the visceral, and it’s all she wrote.
Phase two was just an unforgiving dodge/block fest. You make one mistake, and you’re toast.
Also, and I can’t understate this, it’s one of those super intimidating fights. I got psyched out easily, and since there were so many different attacks between phases, it took some time before I saw everything clearly.
Irithyl is certainly a lot easier now with this Astora Greatsword. Just need to get used to its timing. The Longsword is almost like a dagger in comparison.
I just had to mention that those… things… in the moat surrounding the bridge, are possibly the most disgusting Dark Souls critter yet. Holy crap. Fortunately they look worse than they are a threat, otherwise I’d be noping right out of there.
Just found Siegward again snoring by a fireplace. Seems like a good place to stop for the night.
Scuzz
1709
Those freaking arrows. Without them he is nothing.
Scuzz
1710
I have found Nameless to be one of the toughest bosses in the series outside the DLC.
Kolbex
1711
Here’s the real question: which DLC has harder bosses, DS3 or BB? Because oh my god did I slam my head into both Laurence and Orphan of Kos.
Scuzz
1712
I haven’t played BB yet although that is in my future since my daughter bought a PS4.
The DLC has at least 2 great boss fights though. I was never able to do either solo though I came real close with one of them. I no longer bang my head against a boss for hours trying to beat them solo. Especially in NG. Even with a summons they are not easy. There are three other bosses and a mini boss or two. One of the bosses is a waste of my time. Two I have beat solo. One is beatable but a real bastard solo.
Depends if normal vs NG+
If NG+, 100% DS3 due to the ludicrous amount of health increase.
Specifically referring to Darkeater Midir
It is the only boss in the entire series I went out of my way to craft/upgrade a new weapon for the sole purpose of killing it.
Kolbex
1715
Back to the catacombs, almost to where I was the first time around, and then once I get to Yorshka (or whatever) Chapel, I’ll be on uncharted ground.
This time around the Abyss Watchers were absolutely trivial. I seriously think the fight must have taken 60 seconds total if that. Was it my Vordt’s Great Hammer +2? My sunbro pal I summoned for the fight? Probably both.
Oh, and I hate, hate Farron Keep. They don’t just poison you, they also make you walk reeeeaaaal sloooooow. Eat me, From.
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’…
I couldn’t get that stupid song out of my head while trying to navigate parts of those swamps, and now it’s in your head. You’re welcome. :)
I’m impressed how quickly you’re motoring through it though! I guess when you’re not exploring and just know where to go, it’s pretty easy. I mean, that Central Irithyl run took two days of my time to try and get through, yet once I had it cracked, it took maybe 8 minutes from one bonfire to the next.
My playthrough time for Dark Souls was 105 hours, DS2 was about 125 hours, so far I’m less than 50 hours on DS3 but I expect to be in the same ballpark at least. It’s quite a time sink, but a good one.
Last night I forgot to say “fuck those invisible floating eye hollows in a pitch dark room”. I mean seriously, From?
Oh yes, and I sent Greirat off on his second mission to Irithyl. It was the way he hinted that it would definitely be worth my while that made me pull the trigger, so I hope he comes back after killing the next boss. This is assuming I kill the next boss.
it took me 103 hours for DS3 and Ariandel DLC (but mostly coop).
Thraeg
1718
Finished exploring Irithyll Dungeon and Profaned Capital tonight. Enjoyed both immensely and found them to be great exemplars of Souls level design – they just do scale and verticality better than anyone else.
Reached Yhorm just before getting too tired to continue. He seems to have a ridiculous amount of health, so I figured there was a gimmick to the fight and spent some time baiting him into destroying all the pillars in the hopes of collapsing the roof on his head. No luck with that, or with getting him to destroy the throne. Will try more tomorrow.
That’s so funny, because I had the exact same thought. I was so convinced this was the method, I had him destroy all the pillars twice, lol.
That’s a very cool fight once you crack the code.
I tried a bunch of things I thought may work, until I finally figured it out. Perfect example of how rewarding it is to go into these games/fights blind. I’m sure if I knew in advance how to defeat him, the experience wouldn’t have felt so great.
Love the Profaned Capital.
Kolbex
1720
I thought it’d go quicker! Certainly I went as far in the first hour as my first character went in four, but it’s been about ten hours so far and I thought I’d be caught up by now…
