4292

I think 40/40 should be viable. I’ve been on the same path as you. I wanted to give sorcery a try, but the melee feels more rewarding to play. With a magic-scaling Ash of War or with the Moonveil katana, you can benefit from both Dex and Int stats. Given the soft caps, where after about 55 Dex and 40 Int, the bonuses to weapon damage decrease per additional point, those numbers you gave will be good targets.

Edit: I’m too used to Discord’s || spoiler tagging.

1 Like
4293

I have played this a ton - won with my first character and am level 70 - something with my second. I think I may feel the same way. It’s not that I don’t want to do the fights and such, it’s just that the world is so big and I don’t recall where everything is so I still spend a lot of time exploring. The first play through of this game was awesome.

I am tempted to start a game of the original Dark Souls and go back to melee instead of magic.

2 Likes
4294

See my character discussion in the spoiler thread. You don’t need to raise attributes to get frost to scale, only weapon level.

1 Like
4295

I’m avoiding that thread in general, but i scrolled to the end and I see why you put it there (not that I was terribly concerned about that particular fight or anything).

So when you say weapon level, do you mean like the +1, +5, etc or something else? My uchi is like +12, which might explain why i find it so much better with frost, then when i had it magic’d…

Despite fumbling around with it, i still find this whole enchantment thing to be absurdly obtuse…

4296

So I abandoned my repeated (many dozens of) attempts to vanquish the Valiant Gargoyle. I decided to respec for bleed and speed (arcane+stamina), tossed aside my great curved swords and spent some time trying to find some katanas. Along the way, I happened to pick up Eleanora’s Poleblade, took it for (ahem) a spin and am really liking the new playstyle. Having banged my head against the gargoyle wall long enough, I headed into Leyndell and am also really liking working my way through the city. I’ll go back to the gargoyle at some point, hopefully when I’m massively overlevelled and can one-shot it.

4297

I was stuck at a number of bosses as a battlemage then I respec’ed to pure Dex/Arcane bleed. The difference was incredible. I can say my DPS probably doubled, at least.

4298

In general, everything levels with a stat increase. For example, bleed buildup increases with arcane, but frost buildup increases with weapon level +12 etc. Frost is the only thing in the game, that I’ve found so far, that does this, and it’s pretty massive, as it means you don’t have to put points into dex/int etc, and you can spend those points on vigor and endurance. I’m currently playing a character that has zero points into any damage attribute, using 2 katanas with frost, and it just destroys stuff.

The other thing to know, is that both frost and bleed, do damage in a percentage based on the monsters hit points, which is why they are so good late game…it takes you the same time to kill something with a million hit points, as it does something with 10k.

4299

I did not know this, but this sounds like bad design. It seems to me that if that is true then all-strength builds may be very disadvantaged.

4300

Frost ash of war on an inherent bleed weapon vastly outdoes anything else you can do, especially late game, because it does a percentage of monster it points. Both frost and bleed do percentage damage, as does rot, but no great way to apply rot, and there is no burst to it. The real kicker to all of this, is that you don’t have to invest any points into a damage stat, so you can pump your health and endurance sky high.

1 Like
4301

Question about invasion summoning / being summoned. For White Mask Varre I need to ‘invade’ other player’s games (3x?). What’s the best way to do this? I have the right ‘finger’ for it but when I try and use it the screen will occasionally make me think it’s about to kick off but so far it never has. I’m sure I’ve waited 10-15 long minutes at one time or another. Is there somewhere that I need to be at for this to work properly?

Similarly, if I want to be summoned by someone to help a boss fight, do I need to be at the entrance to said boss fight or where the summon ‘stake’ is (the one you have to enable I think; at the start of most dungeons and by boss fights too?). So I’d only be summoned by someone needing help at that specific boss?

Tons of info just talking about what finger to use and what they’re for; precious little on the specifics. I’m sure it’s quite obvious but someone please enlighten me. Thx

4302

I have seen someone else say the same thing regards the percentage damage on YouTube.

4303

weird could be an internet connection issue, try using it in different zones. I would say that if you are under level 50 try in Limgrave, over 50 try in Liurnia.

1 Like
4304

For PvP:

  • If you use the Duelist’s Finger it will draw your red sign on the ground in other players’ worlds and they have to deliberately summon you for PvP. Not sure where you would do this. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another player’s red sign.
  • If you use the small red effigy, it will send out your red sign to all nearby summoning posts and other players can summon you for duels. The effigy is a whole area effect, while the finger puts your sign in a specific location.
  • The Festering Bloody Finger will try to send you to invade other players’ worlds without their invitation. When I was level 50-ish, I had good luck doing invasions in Caelid. Note there are two other items that do invasions as well: the Bloody Finger and the Recusant Finger. Festering fingers are consumable, the other two are not. Otherwise I don’t think there’s much difference.
  • You can only be invaded if you’re doing co-op. If you’re soloing you are safe from PvP invasion. (You can still be invaded by NPC red phantoms.)
  • The Taunter’s Tongue allows you to be invaded even when you’re not doing co-op.
  • The White Cipher Ring tries to summon a co-op friend if you’re invaded.
  • The Blue Cipher Ring lets you be summoned by the White Cipher Ring.

For co-op:

  • The Tarnished’s Furled Finger draws your gold sign on the ground in other players’ worlds and allows them to summon you for co-op.
  • The Small Golden Effigy sends your gold sign out to all nearby summoning posts. As with PvP, the effigy is a whole area effect and the finger puts your sign in a specific location.
  • The Finger Severer banishes your co-op friend. (You have to do this if you want to teleport, use a point of grace, ride horses, or cross an area boundary.)

For both co-op and PvP:

  • Furlcalling Finger Remedies allow you to see red and gold summoning signs on the ground. These are consumable but easily crafted. You can’t see summoning signs without a FFR active. Once you activate one, you won’t be able to summon Ashes nor ride your horse. You can de-activate it by using it again from the multiplayer menu and it will give the one you tried to use back to you. They’re only consumed if you actually summon someone.

Note: If you see a red summon sign on the ground without a FFR active, that’s an NPC summon. It tends to be a good idea to do those fights.

2 Likes
4305

It’s my understanding that frost does like 2.5x base weapon damage when it triggers, i.e. it doesn’t scale with enemy HP, but does scale with weapon level. Frost seems OP. There are plenty of enemies immune to bleed, I don’t know of any that are immune to frost.

4306

Frost and Bleed are all well and good for endgame and bosses with mass hitpoints, but I would not discount damage stats for much of the game. I enjoy pillaging trash mobs more than boss fights and high strength can spell the difference between a two hit slaughter and three or four. These fights don’t last long enough to proc bleed.

It seems the respec option really comes in at the right time. Perhaps they are encouraging folks to use more than one type of build in a playthrough.

4307

I’ve respec’d like 4 times. Pretty fun to try out different combat styles.

4308

Go to Gatefront. It’s one of the most popular places for this. If the “attempting to invade another world” message goes on for more than a minute or two, just use the finger again to cancel it and start over. It can take a few tries.

1 Like
4309
4310

That was good for a few chuckles. Thanks :)

4311

At least 4 for me. I’m not actually sure. I don’t think I’ll run out of tears but…it might be close. I am currently back on my HUGE WEAPON bullshit and enjoying it, but I guess we’ll see. I found another couple of weapons I wouldn’t mind playing with.