Yeah, guys who can parry like that are pretty amazing. That timing window is tiny, but wow is it a powerful technique.
That is awesome. I loved the notion of the chameleon spell, but it just seemed so useless in practice. I’m tickled that you actually managed to pull off that perfect a use of it.
Meanwhile, in lowbie territory, I just beat the Capra Demon this afternoon. Even at level 31, it must have taken me at least half a dozen tries – the first few times I was a bit too literal about following the advice to beeline for the stairs, with the result that I kept dying when the freaking dogs blocked my path long enough for Capra to hit me from behind. Still, all’s well that ends well!
I want to pick up another level or two (so I have enough Faith to use that heal miracle I bought…) and buy enough titanite to upgrade my elite knight armour, but unfortunately it looks like I’m now too high-level to farm the gargoyles in co-op. Maybe I’ll try hanging out with my summon sign in the Depths…
The chameleon spell is pretty priceless when pulled off in LK’s manner. The DS equivalent of a cardboard box.
Players tend to use it it in similar locations (like in front of the Darkroot Gate you turn into a black tree, in Anor Londo on the bridge - pottery) so when you see someone who is clearly cloaked, there is a subtle joy to walking up to that extra tree, taking out your talisman, coating your blade in black lasers, and then going Paul Bunyan on it.
As an invader, it’s gratifying when you think of the poor player thats been sitting motionless for 10 minutes, disguised as a tree, seeing his antagonist stalking back and forth, knowing that if he just remains hidden for a few more minutes… then Darkmoon Uchi up butt.
This video isn’t the chameleon spell, but the guy wears Black Knight Armour and stands motionless in the spot where a BK would usually be. The invaders who show up are very confused :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX01KWwcMYw
metta
1805
Over the break I went back to Demon’s Souls and played through it again. This time with a high faith/stam build mostly using a Blessed Mirdan Hammer +5. No offensive spells, really (I might have cast God’s Wrath in the gecko pit in 2-2), mostly just me and my big hammer :)
So, I’m wondering what people recommend for a solid 2-hander in Dark Souls. Is there anything that staggers the way the Mirdan does? I guess I’d build a Divine weapon to tie in to Faith, yeah?
Until that high faith build I’d always played these games as a glass tiger/assassin-type but I enjoyed the heavy armour and big weapon so much I thought I’d take another run at Dark Souls in a similar manner :)
Capra demon is the biggest pain in the ass so far for me (I am in Blighttown). The small area combined with the two dogs got me so friggan angry. Eventually I did it as a summon to get some experience (and souls) and then summoned someone to help me with it.
You’re right :) It’s also a lot smaller.
SlyFrog
1808
I didn’t have nearly as much of a problem with him as most. Certainly not because I’m a great player, because lord knows I had my share of problems with other bosses.
I found it pretty easy, I think, because I used the game’s pathing difficulties against it. For me at least, running up the stairs, etc. let me split off the hounds and kill things one by one. After you got that done, the actually fight with the Capra Demon himself just turned out to be standard shield block/kill.
This had me laughing. Particularly the first invader and then the one at the 11:45 mark.
I thought when you invaded someone they glowed a bit?
Ha ha, that is awesome. After being repeatedly one-shotted in the Depths tonight (once as a human, twice as a co-oping phantom) by BP griefers with flaming weapons, I heartily approve of anyone who so creatively gives black phantoms the fate they deserve. :)
Don’t forget the blooper reel at the end! The funniest part was seeing an invader use the exact same trick, the Force Push spell, to knock her off the bridge.
metta, how much of a difference did heavy armour make in the first game? My lightly armoured royal in DeS dies very, very quickly to anything tougher than the basic dregling, whereas my knight in DkS can take a fair bit more punishment, so I’m wondering how much of that is due to armour and how much of that is due to rebalancing.
I believe they’re invading him, which sort of makes it more awesome.
There is a significant difference between heavy armour in Demon’s Souls and heavy armour in Dark Souls. In Demon’s Souls heavy armour was almost pointless and often a detriment as the heavier stuff slows your stamina regeneration. Also the difference between no armour and the heaviest often was less than one hit. Meaning that if you gained just a single successful roll/evasion with no armour over the heavy you would be ahead in the damage sustained game.
My recollection is that <50% encumbrance was a lot less of a standard option and I spent a lot of time whittling things down to <25%, which meant that light armor was about the whole thing. The absence of poise meant it was just about damage resistance, which is less useful than being able to GTFO the way.
Luckily, a lot of the lighter armors still looked awesome enough to pass muster. Thanks Executioner Mirelda!
LK, you just said a few posts up you were playing with your wife. How did you facilitate this? Did they make summoning friends easier?
Well, persistence, mainly. I think there’s some truth to the ritual derived from the P2P nature of the servers, in that if you stay within ten levels or 10% of each other (roughly, we’ve had bigger gaps come through as we get higher level) and you just keep laying down the sign every 30-45 seconds until the person sees it, after which you keep hitting A on it until they pop up. You’ll probably get invaded a few times, which is fine for me, sometimes requires a “fuck you shutdown” when it’s a griefer you’ve dealt with before (mostly happens at lower levels in my experience, at higher levels there’s really not much they can pull out that you can’t legitimately have a plan for or just accept an ass kicking when you had it coming).
The good part is, once you get summoned it seems there are no obstacles for the remainder of that session to re-summon and counter-summon as you keep moving forward so you can swap back and forth, and the advantage of coordinating work by talking through a doorway means you can surgically disassemble tactical scenarios. Those long sessions once we get over that initial hump are really great stuff.
metta
1817
Prior to trying a faith/high stam build I always played with the Dirty Rat’s Ring/Morion’s Blade, which meant I spent all my time at 30% health and if an enemy sneezed on me I was dead, so it’s been a nice change to be able to take a hit or two.
I agree with the above posters that heavy armour is much more viable in Dark Souls, and that the key to Demon’s Souls is don’t get hit, but I really dug playing a plate wearer because it’s something I never do :)
Mostly this run through was just a new experience for me. I entered Demon’s Souls NG+ with this build at around the same slevel as my other two characters (high-70s) but in just over half the time. The Mirdan Hammer staggered enemies and let me tear through the game.
Am I missing something or do stat based weapons still suck after the patch?
My fire weapon does 520 damage while my divine +10 weapon still does only around 400 damage with 35 strength and 35 faith at level 100.
Looks like they really adjusted the drop rate for certain items. I was farming the harpies while invading other peoples’ games and found 4 souvenirs in 1 hour with 410 item find while I didn’t find any at all in hours of farming prior to the patch. Perhaps I will do the platinum trophy after all…
I haven’t encountered the input lag/response bug as well, it seems at least improved.
Has anyone else noticed that there seems to be a (separate from poison) resistance stat for toxic attacks which isn’t displayed in the character stats screen? When I equip my gargoyle axe, the changed stats are briefly displayed and there is one bar with a purple drop (poison) and one with a black drop (toxic). Moreover, the dudes in the painted world always give me the toxic ailment without the axe but never -with- it equipped.
Stat based weapons still do less damage after the patch. The benefit comes from the extra damage that can be added in numerous ways and to great effect. Spells (Magic Weapon, Crystal Magic Weapon) Miracles (Darkmoon Blade, Sunlight Blade) and the Resins (Charcoal, Pine, and Rotten) will only work on weapons that have been upgraded on the “Normal” path. In my Faith/Dex build a +15 Uchi at 37 Dex is good for roughly 450 DMG, but when I toss on Darkmoon Blade (scales with Faith @50) it jumps to over 750 dmg.
A nice piece on DS difficulty. Necessarily, it includes spoilers. I would suggest you have beat the game at least once before reading it. (sorry Josh)
