Yeah, my toughness is shit. I’ve got pretty low Stamina and have been using the Onmyu set to keep an A dodge, and extra Onmyo… Genbu is what I was going to switch to Phantom for so I can get the Stalwart and Magic bonus. I’ve relied on Dodge quite a bit, only to realize late game that you really need to do both dodge and block when called for.
This is me currently:
For me personally, I found having more Toughness for block was better than A agility, going the same kind of archetype you’re going for here (I was splitstaff/onmyo focused as well). Hold onto your gear but try swapping some heavier pieces in to try to get Toughness up at least to B and see how it feels for you.
I found it counter-intuitive, but for me I learned that the focus on the first playthrough is just to survive and learn the bosses. That meant I ditched my Onmyo Hunting gear for heavier pieces to bring my Toughness up, even if it didn’t make sense for my build (as in, it didn’t give me any Onmyo power). Focusing on builds is something that you’re able to do more effectively in NG+ and beyond, in my opinion, because you just get so much more to work with in each successive playthrough.
EDIT: And just to be super clear, everything I say here is just my personal experience and YMMV. @TimJames told me earlier on in my playthrough to not focus so much on builds in the first playthrough and I think it helped me. I was making sacrifices to try to keep those +Onmyo Power pieces that wasn’t worth the tradeoff at the time, even if it ran counter to my usual thinking in RPGish games.
A agility is hard mode, that’s probably your issue. Wear medium armor and make sure you ki pulse to offset the slightly slower regen rate.
Will do! I will give that a shot. Thanks guys!
Oh yeah, I can already tell a difference with the added toughness as well as much more Defense. It used to be one mistake and done, now I can usually do two whole mistakes before I am squished lol. So much better!
Sounds about right. There are some clans that help mitigate damage, and if you get hooked later and start doing special builds, you can Google for survival builds and turn it into 3 or 4 mistakes. You’ll never shrug off damage in this game, but increased player skill combined with a good build will greatly reduce your chances of dying.
I’m 9 days into a 14 day vacation, just waiting to get back home to Mezuki and Gozuki. They haunt my dreams.
OK @TimJames and @KevinC Thanks again for the advice. This game went from frustrating as hell to coasting for the remainder of the OC. So much easier with some toughness and defense! I now have some green gear, a penance stone and am working through the DLC before I flip to the NG+. Also no long feel like I need blue guys to survive anymore. Much better!
Good to hear. The DLC can get pretty challenging.
I’m home from vacation and trying to get my Nioh 2 thumbs back in shape.
The thing about fighting Mezuki and Gozuki in a small, rectangular room is I KEEP GETTING CORNERED!
Seems like this is mega-tough not just because it’s two huge bosses in a tiny room but also because my build and style of play isn’t a good fit for these a-holes.
I thought other boss fights were aggravating but this is a whole new level. How the ever-living F*CK am I supposed to dodge this onslaught of attacks??
They do so many burst attacks you can just hang back and wait for one of them to do it.
Yeah, that’s a good thought… I do land plenty of burst counters. But that “just hang back” isn’t easy for me. No place is safe. They just clobber the crap outta me.
I’ll give it a try! (Meaning four dozen tries.)
(Er, make that two tries.)
GOZUKI AND MEZUKI HAVE BEEN SLAUGHTERED!!
That was excellent advice, Tim! Just what I needed to hear in order to stop fighting so aggressively. I tried backing off and finding the easier openings and it worked brilliantly on the second try. Thanks!
I ran out of elixirs pretty early on and almost gave up. But I had taken a decent chunk out of Gozuki’s health bar with my patient burst counters so I jumped into yokai shift. I beat Gozuki into submission then finished him off in human form with a ranged hatchet attack. Suddenly I was only fighting one huge beast and it was child’s play. I needed just one herbal remedy to finish off the fight.
What a rush! I love this infuriating game.
YES! I beat Nioh 2!
Well, at least, I think I beat it. I’m in some kind of epilogue called Afterglow.
This is reminding me of Red Dead Redemption 2 where I make the long journey all the way to the finish line and the damn game is so desperate to keep me playing that it won’t even give me the courtesy of a YOU WIN or a GAME OVER and roll credits.
Congrats!! There’s a whole lot left to discover if you’re still feeling like beating up more demons! Sets, graces, ethereal graces, demon scrolls, oh my!
Now you’re at the fun part! Give it a try, I think you’ll get plenty of closure.
Ah, so you finished the tutorial! ;)
Don’t discourage him. He needs to finish that last chapter!
You didn’t mention the DLC either. It’s good but like all DLC it’s skippable. If you decide to play more, definitely get the DLC rather than moving too far into NG+.
I’ll definitely finish the epilogue in hopes of a proper Game Over experience. It’s fun to see William in the sequel and I like how I had to fight him to get my eyes back to normal.
I’m still loving the game but I’ve put in 110 hours at this point. I want to get to Assassins Creed Valhalla or Sekiro or Outriders or Cyberpunk or any of a dozen other games that need my attention. I got a new gaming PC with a 3080 recently and I feel dumb for almost exclusively playing a PS4 game with it this whole time. Love those load times though.
I’ve been committed to this game exclusively because I don’t want to lose whatever precious little muscle memory I have in my thumbs by getting into a different action game. (I wonder what percentage of gamers in their 50s and up have completed Nioh 2. Steam should have an achievement for that.)
I mean, this game is kind of an embarrassment of riches, right? It was around the time I saw the tea sets that it officially became ludicrous. And now y’all are telling me there’s more more more?? That’s bananapants.
Yeah, this would have been a truly amazing game for me to get into when I was like 12 and got one game a year or so.
