The Real Dark Souls *spoiler* thread starts here

I killed Eingyi and Laurentius but I can’t find Quelana of Izalith. Where is she supposed to be? I looked in Blighttown all around where the entrance to Quelaag is. If I can’t find her, I guess I’m done reinforcing my pyromancy flame this playthrough.

Also, is there a faster way to get to the Four Kings than running from Firelink through Drakes through the entirety of lower New Londo?

She disappears if you have gotten to lost izalith, and you can find her and kill her there. She is tricky to find before that but if you’re coming out of Quelaag’s area, she is on the ground facing you next to one of the two big pillars closest to that area. I strongly recommend the fog ring to de-mosquito the search.

Also, the Pyro flame modification is really odd in that you modify a +15 Flame into what seems to be an ordinary Flame, but better than your +15, and then you can get it up to 5 again. I really need to figure out which spells work on who because apart from Flash Sweat and combustion for the lolz against easy bosses I’m not getting much out of the pile of souls I dumped in that.

Once you’ve opened the gates and dumped the water, you can come in from the regular ruins entrance and instead of going up the stairs (after the first two ghosts) just slide/fall off the edge all the way to the right (as you’re coming in) and a little bit back. You’ll see a broken wall you can drop onto first or just go directly. That will get you to the watery area with the grave people, although be aware that the cathedral with the slime in it and the two gravelords also has two ghosts up above that can zoom down on you (although fortunately their hug attack doesn’t work well with vertical differences). Alternatively you can do the level traditionally once and activate that stupid elevator which only requires you to get through the 3rd big blob of ghosts to get down to the ground floor. But I find this other way much faster.

I can really chop off the Everlasting Dragon’s Tail without pissing him off?

Also, it’s a little weird they’d hide two whole areas behind a double illusion wall.

So, I totally cheesed the Iron Golem with the help of the AI phantom and heavy soul arrow. I feel a little bad about it, but there’s definitely a point in this game where you understand what you’re supposed to do to solo a boss, and the execution is just frustrating.

Plus, after Maneater I no longer have any qualms about cheesing a boss that can knock me off ledges.

I’ve played a pyro from the start and combustion is my goto damage for bosses now. I don’t know why you are saying it’s for easy bosses only as it has great benefits over a traditional weapon attack. It…

  1. Does a crap ton of damage. Combustion does 300+ and Great combustion does around 400 for me. Granted it’s not as much as say a 2-handed upgraded axe chop but you can probably get in 2 combustions for 1 swing of the heavier weapons.
  2. Requires no stamina to use.
  3. is real quick to cast.

Fireball is pretty useful against things like the black knights or anything you can kite backwards. Iron Flesh is great for some bosses (like the 4-kings).

Really, Iron Tarkus can and will solo the Iron Golem all on his lonesome. He’s hilariously overpowered for that fight.

Is that with a maxed out glove? I got mine to like +9 but the damage was still underwhelming.

Keep in mind I have a number of +15 and +5 twinkling weapons at this point and lots of fire/electricity to staple on to the former if things get really crazy, so I’m comparing the +20 pyro damage to that. I’m not saying my experience would be true for anyone with pyro, I’m just trying to find a use for it since I upgraded it along the way and have my measly 2 attunement slots to play with. Perhaps some dramatic boss vulnerabilities or something along those lines.

Iron flesh on the 4 kings was unnecessary as a result of the amount of armor I can wear without getting over 50% and the poise ring. OTOH, in new game + flash sweat has been really valuable for fire bosses, so I was looking for bits like that.

What does your attunement loadout look like, typically?

Also if anyone has a way to kill that damned kite dragon after the patch I’m in the market for a solution to that pain in the ass.

Yes maxed out glove for me. For comparison, I roll with a +4 lightning Battle Axe. If I 2-hand that, I can do ~700 damage (haven’t decided if I want to put a slab into it). I killed most of the early bosses with the battle axe.

Pyromancy was actually better pre-patch. The damage was greater, especially for the lower level spells. I still think it’s very useful because there is no stamina burn to deal damage.

I have 6 attunement slots. Usually I have Iron Flesh, 2 Combustion, 1 Greater Combustion and either Great Chaos Fireball or Flash sweat depending on where I’m going. Great Chaos Fireball does a lot of damage, but it’s a long cast and it’s pretty easy to dodge. I think GCF might use 2 slots, I forget. I wish I could pick up a second Great combustion since with 1 I only get 8 casts. The lesser one gets me 32 casts with 2 slots. I guess I should be able to pick it up in NG+ but I imagine fire will start getting worse as I progress in the harder replays since it doesn’t scale with stats.

Thanks, that puts a clearer picture of it. I think I may be past the point of diminishing returns for it (half way through ng+, SL126). The no stamina thing is the key feature, I think, along with the no stat requirements. I almost feel like going all in on a single type of combust and just letting it rip (or doing the same with the fire whips if I could figure out how they work) would be the way to overpower major enemies. It was certainly a nice fallback when that sonofabitch gaping dragon broke my weapon in NG+.

My impression is that pyromancy really wants a modest investment in attunement; a lot of those spells use two slots.

He is killable in melee. I did it finally so I could say I killed every boss solo and with (minimal) cheese. Get on your best fire resist gear, I’ve heard you say you wear black iron armour so that is pretty good.
Flame stoneplate ring.
Dragon Crest Shield or Black Knight Shield
Flash sweat.
A big fucking lightning weapon, or a big fucking weapon with pine resin.

If you go up the stairs to the bridge, let Big Red toast the hollows up there. As he winds up for round two of burn, run over to the alcove opposite the stairs. Cast your flash sweat and stare him down. In about 15 or 20 secs, he will fly down and start to walk past you. Hit his feet as he goes by (he is the hugest boss his feet alone are twice your size!) This will either make him jump backwards and walk towards you again (allowing another hit or two) or he will switch sides on the bridge and unleash a ridiculous straight down fire attack. Block it, and you will still take enormous fire damage. Estus up, keep your flash sweat on, and take him out. I think he has close to 5000 HP in NG+ so good luck.

Edit: Also, don’t leave the alcove! It will block the horizontal fire breath attacks completely. The hover in one spot fire breath will still hit you though, and it is a nasty one shot without the ring, and decent fire blocking gear.

And done, with somewhere around 75 hours on the clock. Woo-hoo!

Gwyn was a total pushover. I summoned in Solaire (after going through the trouble to keep the sunny fellow alive and well, I wasn’t going to leave him on the sidelines at the finale), who tanked him while I burned him down with homing crystal soulmasses.

Best. Game. Ever.

Thanks DeForrest, I’ll give it a whirl. It’s not like it’s going to get easier with more +s after NG.

Congrats! Gwyn kicked my ass until I realized I could use the landscape to my advantage. Even then he was tough solo. I failed poor Solaire so he went hollow before I met Gywn. I hope to rescue him on my ng+ run, though (now that I know better).

Best. Game. Ever.

Indeed. Anyone have news about From’s plans for a sequel?

The only statement so far from the lead guy is that they won’t find a sequel unless they can find some new way to innovate and push the envelope. They won’t do it if it’s simply more of the same.

Finally made some significant progress in Anor Londo after getting past those two Silver Knight archers on the buttresses (hidden body + slumbering dragoncrest).

I also cleared the painted world, and picked up about 10 levels in the process.
Admittedly, a couple of levels were courtesy MP and helping somebody kill a black phantom invader, but do people farm the painted world? You can get 7000 souls from phalanx with literally 0 risk by running in, casting poison mist, then running up the stairs and waiting for them to die, and pick off the one or two left. It seems a lot safer than Darkroot Forest, even if you’re suckering them off the cliff.

I also really enjoyed giving the bonewheel skeletons a hearty fuck you with high stability Shield + Cloroanthy ring, and just eating their entire rolling attack with stamina to spare. This game is just so good at satisfying combat moments where you feel either clever or powerful or both.

That makes me both happy and sad at the same time.

I might buy a Vita for a portable D-Souls game though, and that would give them some more tools for innovation if they wanted them.

For the record, those silver knight archers… just sprint up the bulwark. Their arrows miss you and if you can sprint to the guy on the right, you can beat him down and get around the corner before the guy from the left tags you again. IIRC, you can also get some of the building between you so that the arrows don’t hit you.

The archers are very sensitive to your movement rate, and oftentimes you need to really commit by being in light <25% if you’re sprinting or high poise/situational awareness about pillars in the way if you’re not. Certainly by NG+ it becomes increasingly unlikely that you’ll kill the right archer in time to avoid the second one entirely, so stealth or MP become increasingly attractive. Frankly, I can never tell what was the crucial variable between an assault in SP or MP that worked on that position and the occasional one that fails utterly, other than there’s a window for when they fire those crucial shots at you on the ledge itself that changes their effectiveness radically depending on what rate you moved at.